Overview:

Two teams compete to gain the most sacrifices and/or converts.

The game is played in a rectangular 'box', comprised of a one-hundred yard field ala football, and a one-hundred foot high net forming the sides of the box. The top is left open.

Each end of the field serves as a goal, or Temple, 20 feet deep with a central Altar on which a large wooden spike is mounted.

The ball is made of wood and about the size of an adult head, covered in a foamlike material for easy gripping. In the game, the ball is refered to as the VICTIM.

Each team starts play facing the opposition, who is between them and their Temple.

Play:

Opposing teams flip a coin to see who will start as offense and who as defense. Each team fields 9 players, as follows:

3 Acolytes, 3 Wings, 3 Maces

Each position has certain abilities and restrictions:

ACOLYTES can run or fly, pass the Victim to eachother, and make Sacrifices or Conversions. No other position is allowed to handle the Victim.

WINGS are the equivalent of blocking tackles, but must remain airborne at all times (or cling to the netting). They can only block or tackle airborne opponents, and once any Wing touches the ground that player is benched for the remainder of the turn without replacement. (A TURN is the period where a team is on offense or defense, and ends when the team switches.)

MACES are ground-bound blocking tackles. The rules for them are the same as for the Wings, only reversed: they are disqualified for flying, and can only attack ground based opponents.

A ROUND is a period of 8 minutes during which the team on offense has a chance to make a Sacrifice or a Conversion with the victim, which they possess at the start of the round.

A SACRIFICE is scored if an Acolyte successfully impales the Victim on the Altar spike. A CONVERSION occurs if they get the Victim into the Temple and retain possession of it when the round ends.

The team on offense has 3 chances to score so long as they keep possession of the Victim, but if they fail to score within 3 rounds the Victim passes to the other team, who also takes on the offensive role.

If the defensive team has possession of the Victim at the end of the round, then they become the offensive team for the next round.

Only the offensive team can score, with this exception: if the defensive team captures the Victim and brings it to their Temple and keeps it there until the end of the round or Sacrifice it, the opposing team will lose 1 pt along with losing the offensive role.

A round ends when the time limit is reached, or when the Victim has not moved for 30 seconds.

A game lasts for 10 rounds, or until all team members are disabled.

Disabled players are replaced at the beginning of each round, until the team is out of players. Each team is allowed a pool of 30 players.

Scoring:

Sacrifice = 5 pts
Conversion = 2 pts
Defensive Conversion/Sacrifice = -1 pt for offensive team

Rules:

No weapons.

Magic is allowable only if the Mage is a player in the current round.

Passing can only be done from ground to air, or from air to ground.

Conversions only count when the Acolyte and Victim are on the ground within the Temple zone.

An Acolyte must be holding the Victim while impaling it to score a Sacrifice.

Each turn starts at the center of the field, with the offensive team holding the Victim. Each subsequent round starts where the Victim was last in play, unless a Sacrifice or Conversion occured in the previous round.

The winning team is the one that has scored the most points. They are allowed to demand tribute from the spectators, and win the lion's share of the gate receipts. If the losing team has a negative score, then the winning team gets to take any of the losers' cheerleaders. No team may have more cheerleaders than actual players though.

Killing opposing players results in forfeit of the game, unless the death occurs on one of the Altars (Ie, the player holding the Victim gets impaled, instead of the Victim. This still counts as a scoring Sacrifice for the team that was holding the Victim).