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How do!

Fairly random thread, as whilst reading a Ciaphas Cain novel, the series once again mentions Scrumball being played at his Schola.

And that got me thinking about what other sports are mentioned in the background, and how well they’re described. Because for such a popular, unifying enjoyment in the real world, SciFi doesn’t always delve deeply into sports.

Any equivalent to what we might consider a sport or competitive endeavour would count. So another one from the Cain novels would be Regicide, which appears to be Chess, or Chesslike.

There are various forms of poker-like card games played with the suite of the Imperial Tarot. Casinos in general also exist and are mentioned in several novels.

One of the Eisenhorn short stories mentions some sort of Carnival where sporting contests were held, among them fencing, boxing and wrestling games or matches, as well as the typical carnie games like ring throwing and such.

Duelling, both with sharp weapons and with guns, is mentioned in a lot of material.

Hunting exists both as a profession and as recreation for the upper classes, as well as fishing.

Some Necromunda stuff mentions various forms of animal races or animal baiting.

Arena combat exists in many varieties, people vs. people, people vs. beasts, beasts vs. beast etc.

Racing and motorsports also exist in various states of legality and organization.

In the Cain stories you can also find mention of ice skating and (presumably ice-)hockey.

Do they play Blood Bowl?

Quidditch obviously.

Astartes also have martial sporting events, like the Feast of Blades.

Among the peasant population of Fenris, they have a series of sports competitions hosted by the Wolf Priests. I remember that they include wrestling matches and competitive alcohol consumption. I imagine they have some form of fencing and throwing heavy things competitions as well, but I don't remember for certain.

I also remember that the Wolf Priests face off against the champions (and always win) but then bring back the best youths to maybe become Space Wolves.

Boosykes wrote:
Quidditch obviously.

Followed by some festive bonfires I imagine.

 odinsgrandson wrote:
Do they play Blood Bowl?

to be honest, i suspect that 'Scrumball' is basically just scifi bloodbowl. though the Scholam level version Cain played in probably had more safety rules to limit injuries than the professional level stuff that gets alluded to.

Scrumball is an interesting one, as we only really hear of it from Cain.

He mentions playing it as his Schola - and the Schola he ends up teaching at in Cain’s Last Stand.

That leaves an open question as to whether it’s a widespread sport within The Imperium, or simply a game Cain’s Schola played, and so one he could have introduced elsewhere.

I think scrumball is supposed to be a slightly tougher version of rugby rather than the full on craziness that is blood bowl. Cain’s experience of attending and teaching at Schola institutions is very much set out as a classic English public school experience. I mean even the name is based on a key rugby term.

I also always imagined Scrumball as future-rugby, for extra britishness.

My mind immediately jumps to the old Speedball games on the Amiga etc back in the day...

Blood sports seem to be fairly common within the Imperium as are gymnastic sports.

Table tennis. Good for long warp voyages. That and the shuffleboard thing they have on cruise ships. Plus darts.