League Rules

League File Setup

A folder named "NPL" should be created inside your FBPro98 folder. All league files will be placed in this folder. Create a folder named "PPP" and save your Coaching Profiles and Game Plans to this folder. A folder named "Play Database" should be created inside the "NPL folder". The league plays should be kept in this folder.

Play Design Notes

Sierra FBPro '98 attempts to mirror real football as closely as possible. However, there are deficiencies with the game's artificial intelligence (AI) that can be abused. NPL rules are designed with the dual goals of keeping these deficiencies from being exploited and allowing as much creativity as possible without resorting to AI busting. As such, changes are likely to be implemented from time to time, as necessary. All changes will be made between seasons, except in extreme cases.

The commissioner will review all new plays submitted for legality and may reject a play at any time for any reason. Players who repeatedly submit illegal plays may be disciplined by the League as seen fit.

Certain terms will be used repeatedly in the play design rules. Key among these is "The Box." Simply put, the box is the area inside the outer edges of the hashmarks on the offense's side of the line of scrimmage.

Additionally, reference is made to the hashmarks. At the start of a play during a game, the ball may be anywhere between the hashmarks. However, the hashmarks will be used as references within the play editor, where the default always has the play centered on the field.

FBPro '98 includes stock plays, which you are welcome to use. Some of these stock plays will not conform to NPL rules. These plays should not be included as part of a custom game plan. However, if you use a stock game plan, all stock plays regularly found in that game plan will be allowed.

The NPL will run a four-game preseason prior to the regular season, during both the preseason and regular season you may submit up to four new offensive and defensive plays per week. In addition to the four regular plays, one custom special teams play may be submitted per week. This is to mirror limitations that real-life coaching staffs deal with when working new plays into their schemes and will help keep the commissioner sane.

If you create and submit a new play, you will be required to use this play the week it's submitted. The first week you use these plays, they will not be in the possession of the full league, so you will have the element of surprise. After that, everyone else will have access to them. This is to keep the database from becoming filled with plays no one wants to run and to keep the commissioner from having to check out too many new plays too often.

Plays, especially on offense, will generally be expected to use the top players on the depth chart. The most-used players may not be "buried" down the chart. However, you may wish to use certain roster spots in certain ways (such as delegating LB3 as a blitzing LB or delegating HB3 as a receiving HB); this practice will be allowed.

Duplicate plays will not be allowed. A flipped play with no other modifications will be considered a duplicate play. You may use similar plays, including using the exact same primary pattern, but there should be substantial changes in the secondary patterns. See “nplpsl10" and “npl48sc” for an example of two similar (in this case, flipped) plays with substantial differences but identical main patterns.

Play Categorization (New 1/14/2003)

In general, plays submitted to the league may be categorized as the person submitting them sees fit. However, run offenses must be categorized as run plays, and pass offenses must be categorized as pass plays.

Play Naming Convention

Plays submitted by coaches should use the same naming convention as that typically used by the NPL plays, such as NPLrm01. This convention uses a three letter team name abbreviation (replacing “NPL”), followed by a two- or three-letter abbreviation of the category and ended by a number. Plays should be numbered 01, 02, 03, etc.

End of Season (Revised 1/14/2003)

Each team that is unowned when the end of season button is pushed will be allowed to unretire up to two players of the League's choice. Teams that have human owners but failed to make the playoffs and teams that have owners who assumed control of that team after its season was finished will be allowed to unretire up to one player of the owner's choice. Human owners will not be allowed to give up a team, wait until players have been unretired, then resume ownership of that team.

Training Camp (Revised 10/29/2004)

All skills must have a minimum time allocation of 5% from the 100% total. The maximum allocation for any single skill will be 25%. The maximum may be scaled down in the future depending on the overall talent level of the league. Training camp Values must be submitted using Camp Complete, using individual training camps. A Copy of this utility is available on the Files page if you require it.

Teams will be allowed to keep up to 63 players on their rosters through training camp. During pre-season coaches must cut one player per week until they have no more than 58 players(53 Active and 5 scout team players). This will help enrich the FA pool and allow teams to take chances on developing promising rookies who may or may not pan out.

Trading

Trades of players and/or picks are allowed. Picks may only be traded for the upcoming draft; however, after the end of the season and before the draft, picks from the upcoming draft and the one after may be traded. This is simply to make record-keeping simpler.

Any trade may be rejected by the league if it is deemed to be heavily in favor of one side or the other.

Trading with computer teams will not be allowed.

Trades between two teams with the same owner may be allowed, but the trade must be brokered by another owner and approved by the league.

Post Draft Free Agent Signing

Free agent signings conducted after the draft and before training camp will be allocated according to the following criteria:

a) If only one team requests a particular free agent, the player will automatically be allocated to that team.

b) If more than one team requests a player, that player will choose to sign with the team on which he has a better chance of playing.

c) If his opportunities on each team are equal according to the formula used by the league, the player will sign with the team with more victories the previous season.

d) If additional tiebreakers are required, the league will award the player to a playoff team over a non-playoff team. Next, it will consider divisional ranking (ie. the player would choose a second-place team over a third-place team). Finally, if all else fails, the player will be awarded to the team with the better offense-defense scoring ratio. In the very unlikely event that none of these tiebreakers resolves the issue, the league will resort to a coin toss.

In keeping with the spirit of the blind draft, the actual ratings of each rookie FA will be masked until that player has signed with a team or until after training camp for those players remaining unsigned.

Cuts must accompany invitations. Each team may invite as many players as they like per round but will only be allowed to sign a maximum of 5 players per round.

There will be three rounds of invitations, after which camp will take place, regardless of whether or not all teams have reached their roster limit of 63 players.

Free Agent Signing

Teams will be allowed to sign free agents between games. Signings will be allowed on the basis of draft order during the preseason. During the season, teams with fewer wins will be given first choice of free agents. If two or more teams have identical records, a tie-breaker will be used, similar to that used to determine playoff teams. Head-to-head results will be the first tie breaker.

At midseason, the order for picking up free agents will be changed, so that the teams with the worst records in the current season will pick first.

Participation (Revised 1/14/2003)

All coaches will be expected to maintain active participation in the league. This includes submission of Coaching Profiles for each game and creation of plays for the league. Since the league uses plays that are shared by all coaches, all coaches are expected to contribute.

Any plays submitted to the league may be kept as a permanent part of the play database if the league so desires. Team plays that are kept as league plays will be renamed before the start of the next preseason according to the standard naming convention.

Taking ownership of a team

When you take ownership of a previously unowned NPL team, you can specify team name, location, and colors. The league reserves veto rights in cases of offensive names, however nothing within reason is likely to be rejected.