Troll Football (Sfera)

[pfwgames]

Hello

I hope you won't mind me writing in English (I'm afraid that I don't speak Polish). I'm an academic working in the UK and I am writing a book about the history of Games Workshop's game Blood Bowl. As part of my research I found Sfera's game Troll Football and I have just been given a copy by a Polish friend which I am in the process of translating.

I know that Sfera translated and published some of GW's games and am keen to explore the potential connections between the games.

I was wondering if anyone on this forum might be able to tell me anything about the history of the game, its designers, or its publishers? From what I can see it shares much with the first edition of Blood Bowl, but there are also a number of differences.


Here is how Google thinks this should read in Polish:

Cześć

Mam nadzieję, że nie macie nic przeciwko temu, że piszę po angielsku (obawiam się, że nie mówię po polsku). Jestem pracownikiem naukowym pracującym w Wielkiej Brytanii i piszę książkę o historii gry Games Workshop Blood Bowl. W ramach moich poszukiwań znalazłem grę Troll Football firmy Sfera i właśnie dostałem kopię od polskiego znajomego, którą jestem w trakcie tłumaczenia.

Wiem, że Sfera przetłumaczyła i opublikowała niektóre gry GW i bardzo chciałbym zbadać potencjalne powiązania między grami.

Zastanawiałem się, czy ktoś na tym forum mógłby mi powiedzieć coś o historii gry, jej twórcach i wydawcach? Z tego, co widzę, ma wiele wspólnego z pierwszą edycją Blood Bowl, ale jest też wiele różnic.

[Mały Nemo]

@Valdi
@Zaberish
i inni

[Valdi]

Something I can write in a few days. somewhere I also need to find material about the Sfera publishing. Give us a few days and remind us next week, I'm sure something will be found.

On a quick note, from what I remember it was 100% a similarly "adapted" game:
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1988) - Przekleństwo Mumii
The Fury of Dracula (1987) - Wampir

[pfwgames]

Thank you. So far (apart from the game itself) I have found this useful article online: https://www.gamesfanatic.pl/2022/05/27/ ... a-1993-94/

[Zaberish]

Thank you. So far (apart from the game itself) I have found this useful article online: https://www.gamesfanatic.pl/2022/05/27/ ... a-1993-94/

Hello!

First things first: sorry for my English - I'm doing my best, but it's still not my first language

The article you found is a part of a whole series written by Michał Stajszczak, and this series (along with the author himself) is a real treasure trove of information about board games published in Poland, their publishers and the market itself.

On to the topic, though
Out of my head I can't provide very accurate information, but here's at least some that I remember:

1. Troll Football was published in Poland in 1993, and it was NOT licensed. There are rumours that this was the main reason behind revoking by Games Workshop the license for Talisman, which significantly contributed to the future of SFERA. You have to know, though, that law regarding copyrights didn't exist in Poland in 1993 - Copyright Act was issued in Poland in 1994 (23.05.1994 to be exact), so "Troll Football" was published in the good, old gray zone. Legally in Poland at that time, not necessarily legally by other countries' standards. That's how it worked then, though.

2. Troll Football was illustrated by Piotr Łukaszewski, the illustrator responsible also for graphics in "Wampir" (Polish version of" The Fury of Dracula" - also published without the GW license).

3. When it comes to the Games Workshop games published by SFERA, there were two gropus of them: licensed and not licensed
LICENSED:
- Magia i Miecz (Talisman) and the add-ons (chronologically): Podziemia ("Dungeon" and "The Adventure" combined), W kosmicznej otchłani (Timescape), Miasto (City), Smoki (Dragons)
- Przekleństwo Mumii (Curse of the Mummy's Tomb)

NOT LICENSED:
- Troll Football
- Wampir (The Fury of Dracula)

As far as I remember, there were no more GW games published by SFERA.

[pfwgames]

Thank you, this is very helpful indeed.