Rulebook
How Football works
Simplified American football, played five-a-side by creatures that are doing their best. These are the rules the simulation enforces — not a claim of full regulation football.
The field
- 60 yards between the goal lines, with a 10-yard end zone at each end. 30 yards wide.
- Five athletes per side on the field, chosen from a roster of seven (league setting).
Possessions
- Each team gets six possessions, alternating. A seeded coin toss decides who has the ball first; the other team starts the second half.
- Every possession starts at the offence's own 10-yard line. There are no kickoffs, punts or field goals.
- Four downs to gain 10 yards. Gaining it gives a new first down; inside the 10 it is goal to go.
- A possession ends on a touchdown, a safety, an interception, a fumble recovered by the defence, a turnover on downs, or after 30 plays.
- Interceptions and defensive fumble recoveries are not returned: the ball is dead where it was taken.
Scoring
| Touchdown | 6 | The ball, held, crosses the opponent's goal line. No extra points. |
| Safety | 2 to the defence | The ball carrier is downed, or the ball goes dead, in their own end zone. The possession ends. |
When a play ends
- Down: the ball carrier's body touches the turf — whether a defender did it or it fell over by itself.
- Forward progress: a carrier held by a tackler for 2.4 seconds is ruled down where it stands.
- Out of bounds ends the play at the ball.
- Incomplete pass: a forward pass that touches the ground or goes out of bounds. The ball returns to the line of scrimmage.
- Fumbles are live: an offensive recovery keeps playing, a defensive recovery ends the possession. A loose ball untouched for four seconds is ruled dead where it lies, offence keeping it.
- Time: no play lasts more than 12 seconds. When it expires the ball is dead where it is. (Stuck, circling or fallen-over athletes cannot freeze the game.)
Ties and playoffs
- Regular-season ties stand and count as half a win.
- Playoffs: tied games go to paired overtime possessions — each team gets one from its own 10. Up to three rounds. Still level: total offensive yards in the game decides it; still level, a seeded draw.
- The league's final is the Super Bowl (the commissioner can rename it).
Standings
- Wins (a draw is half a win)
- Head-to-head points among the tied teams
- Point differential, capped at 18 per game so running up the score does not pay
- Total touchdowns
- A published seeded draw
Match day
- Preparation. Change bodies, drill, trade and edit tactics. Your last valid lineup is always stored.
- Lock (60 minutes before kickoff by default). Both teams, every installed part and both playbooks are snapshotted. Changes after this apply to your next match.
- Betting window. Other owners bet play money on the result until kickoff.
- Kickoff. The server plays the match once, from the snapshots and a secret seed whose fingerprint was published at lock. Nobody needs to be online.
- Publication. Replay, box score and result appear; rewards and bets settle exactly once; the standings update. After publication the seed is revealed so anyone can check it against the fingerprint.
If a match cannot be played it is retried from the same snapshot and seed. If it has to be voided, stakes are refunded and the same locked matchup is rescheduled. A result is never re-rolled.
Bodies
Athletes are physical objects. Mass, centre of mass, leg strength, where the legs attach and how coordinated the athlete is all decide how it moves. Parts you add change those numbers:
| Part | What it does | Powered by |
|---|---|---|
| Propulsion leg | Pushes against the turf wherever its foot lands. Longer legs stride further but raise the body; placed off-centre, extra thrust turns the athlete. | Propulsion, Elastic spark |
| Throwing arm | Reach for catches and tackles; with a throwing spark it launches the ball. Every throw pushes back on the shoulder. | Throwing spark |
| Grip hand | Catching surface. Bigger hands catch more of the sky and weigh more; fitted high on the body they make it top-heavy. | Grip spark |
| Armour shell | Mass and padding. Harder to knock over and to wrap up, slower to accelerate and tiring to carry. | Impact spark |
| Tail | A counterweight behind and below the body. Heavy tails lower the centre of mass; a gyro spark actively steadies the athlete. | Balance, Elastic spark |
- Up to 6 added parts per athlete. A part with no spark still has mass and still bumps into things.
- Your drawing is paint. It never changes what a part does.
Money
All money is fictional league dollars with no cash value. It cannot be bought or cashed out.