After relistening to The Rookie (and needing to come up with an alternative to D&D as a regular roleplaying game in my local gaming club), I've more or less decided to write up a Savage Worlds adaptation of the GFL universe.

Judging from the response on the club's forums, I probably won't get the opportunity to use it for anything, but I figure writing it would be an interesting challenge.

Now, all I know about (american) Football I got from the Rookie ... and the occasional research trip to wikipedia trying to understand the Rookie ... so I'd LOVE some assistance from my more sports-interested and more Savage World savvy geeps.
With any luck I might even be able to present the product as tribute to the FDO, hoping to appease him once the purges begin. So... anyone want to get in on this?

Consider it a low-investment opportunity: I'll be taking on the bulk of the writing - all I need is useful reasoned advice and suggestions.
Anyone who helps will of course be credited in the final product. (thus possibly earning you some goodwill with the FDO)

COOL IDEA!
(I still personally think the Rookie is the best podiobook Sigler's best)

I would make professional Edges for each position that give some sort of bonus that is useful even off the field, i.e.:
Quarter back - bonus to throwing
D-Line - +d4 to unarmed damage/never counts as unarmed
WR - +2 Pace, +1 to Agility tricks
etc.

And different teams could get certain unique bonuses.

Another mechanic that would be fun to include would be some sort of "Momentum" effect.

I'll think a little more about this and come back...
Magnus

I heartily agree on you evaluation of The Rookie - it's clear from the writing and emotional content, that it's the one he's been the most passionate about. It speaks volumes to it's quality that it's gotten me to take even a passing interest in American Football, 'cause I loathe spectator sports and shun them at every turn.


As for the SW rules adaptations I've had in mind, I've mostly looked at the races:
Sklorno get a Pace of 8 and may re-roll the d6 you add to it, but take a -1d to Toughness, and have a special (minor?) Hindrance relating to their relationship with QBs and Coaches.
Both Quyth and Ki don't get the penalty for being unarmed - Quyth for their pedipalps, Ki for their enamel-flecked skin.
I'm also thinking Quyth will get some special abilities related to rolling - and of course they only have one eye.
Can you think of a good way to reflect that only humans have the manual dexterity to throw the ball?

The Edges you're suggesting would be Professional edges or..?
It's a good idea, but the specific effects you suggest I'd like to keep for special, more personal edges.


Can someone suggest a really Football-ish term for that special undefinable quality the great ballplayers have, which sets them apart from normal mortals but only on the field?
You know like "mojo" or "chutzpah"

Would you mind me posting your idea on the Pinnacle forums? I'm sure you could get a lot of good ideas from the Savages.

Go right ahead - I'd do it myself if I knew the SW rules well enough. Heck at this point if someone else had already made the GFL rpg I'd be using that! ^_^

Heart is a term oft used in sports to define a players ability, i.e. "He has alot of heart!"

Anyways, I would love to advise you as best as I can, please feel free to email me, if you send it to lordphoenx@gmail.com I will see it right away on my Droid...

Thanks a bunch!
I'll be writing you shortly (pardon the delay already: kind of a tough first week back from vacation...)

Right now I'm looking into a free wiki hosting service, to put the whole project on.

Have you checked out the comments on the Pinnacle forums?

http://www.peginc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=265520#265520

Sorry for taking so long to reply - I've been hideously busy lately...

I did look at the Pinnacle forum thread, but haven't had a real chance to digest it yet.
You seem to be focusing a great deal on the on-field stuff, which makes sense of course, but I've been thinking of something a bit less like a Bloodbowl game
Matches could definitely serve as an interesting alternative to traditional action sequences in roleplaying, so since the Football side of things is what distinguishes the The Rookie universe from other SciFi, that should definitely be developed in detail!

Lately I think I've gotten a much better grasp on the Savage Worlds rules, and I will be running a Savage Iron Kingdoms game every other week from now on, so I'll probably pick up a much firmer sense of how it runs.

Right off I'm a little uncertain about how many Wild Cards should be on the average team...
It seems to make sense that only extraordinary people (which is to say Wild Cards) have a chance on a Tier Two (much less Tier One) GFL team, on the other hand, matches would loose a lot of speed if every player in the lineup was a Wild Card rather than an Extra.
So maybe only the first string (and some second string) players are Wild Cards?

If you want to down-play the on-field action you could do something like Mass-Battle for the games.
That way the Wild Cards would still be important (grant bonuses) but you wouldn't have to have an entire team of wild cards.