So, what is this?
Hudsonian Football (which I previously RP'ed the league for, but then backed out of in order to eventually retcon it) is the national sport of Hudson Islands. Like many other codes of football in English speaking countries, its origins go back roughly to rugby. The league, the Hudsonian Football Championship, is the biggest event in sport in Hudson Islands, and in some parts of the country is borderline religion. The game is colloquially referred to as "footy" (creative!) through much of the country, but it holds little to no appeal elsewhere. It has limited broadcast rights to other parts of Placid Ocean, but for the most part this is strictly for Hudsonian ex-pats. However, as Hudson Islands tries to get more involved in the multiverse-wide sporting community, the Hudsonian Football Federation, seeing the high-risk/high-reward potential to make big money, has proposed hosting an international series for the sport.
OK, so...how do you play Hudsonian Football?
Here's some bullet points.
- The game is played on a rectangular field 140 meters long and 65 meters wide, roughly the same width of a rugby league field but much longer. There are goals on each end that are identical to those used in rugby league. The game is played between two teams of 11 players, and is played in 4 twenty-minute quarters, using an oblate spheroid ball.
- The objective of the game can be nutshelled as "rugby league but the objective is to score goals rather than tries". The game begins with a coin toss, where the winner elects to kick or receive or choose an end to attack first. After that there is a kickoff and the receiving team begins to attempt to advance the ball forward. The ball can be advanced by running with the ball, or by kicking the ball forwards- the latter is a unique part of the game, and more on it shortly. The ball may also be passed backwards, as in codes of rugby.
- Scoring occurs by kicking the ball through the uprights and above the goal post. There are a few methods of kicking a goal- during open play it must be via a drop kick. As a result of a penalty or "downing" the ball (more on that later) it is kicked off of a tee in a place kick. All goals are worth one point. A player may punt the ball as a means of gaining field position, however if a punted ball goes through the goalposts, a goal is not awarded and the ball is declared dead. After a goal, the scoring team kicks off as in the beginning of the game. If the ball crosses the goal line but does not score a goal, the defending team receives the ball with 0 tackles at the spot of the kick.
- The defensive team attempts to stop the attacking team through tackling, as in rugby league. After a successful tackle play is halted and the attacking team is required to play the ball to restart the play. All players must get into an on-side position for the beginning of play- for attacking players this means being parallel to or behind the line wherein the ball is played. Occasionally a player may begin the process deep behind the line and start running forward in order to pass the line around the time the ball is played in order to gain ground for a forward kick. On defense, being on-side means being 10 meters in front of the line where the ball is being played, with the exception of one "marker", who may stand immediately in front of the ball being played.
- The attacking team has five tackles to advance the ball, so traditionally after the fourth tackle is made, an attacking team will kick the ball forward, either attempting to score a goal, attempting to kick the ball as far away as possible in order to give the receiving team poor field position, or as a last-ditch effort to move the ball forward. If a fifth tackle is made, the ball is turned over in the exact location of the tackle.
- One of the unique mechanisms of the game is the "downed ball" mechanism, wherein at any time an attacking team can declare a "downed ball" by touching the ball to the ground with both hands and declaring it dead. At this point play stops and all the players but one are cleared to the side, and the one remaining player gets to take a free kick on goal. Should the kick fail, the opposition team will begin play with 0 tackles having occurred at the spot of the kick.
- Another unique mechanism is that while the forward pass is illegal, the "knock-on" is not illegal in Hudsonian Football. If a player drops the ball forward it is considered a live ball and either the player who dropped the ball or any defending player may recover it. Should another player on the attacking team recover it, that is considered a forward pass, and thus is against the rules.
- As you may imagine, the area of play immediately in front of the goal seems difficult to score from, which is true- in the case that a player has broken away from the pack and is running freely towards the goal, they tend to either kick for goal or (more commonly) down the ball between 10-20 meters from the goal line.
- Substitutions can occur at any stoppage of play, as in basketball, and there is no limit to the amount of substitutions in a match. Alongside the 11 players on the field, there are 6 substitutes on the bench.
- Penalties are awarded for such fouls as being offsides, tackling above the shoulders, late tackles, most of the same situations as in codes of rugby. A team who was injured by the penalty receives either a free kick towards goal or may tap the ball forwards with all players on the defending team 10m away (no marker).
- As there are not really scrums in Hudsonian football, the positions are a little less defined. There are generally 6 "Forwards" who are bigger and do more blocking/tackling and 5 "Backs" who do more running/kicking. As this is an isolated sport in an isolated country, degrees of specialization haven't quite been reached, and multiple players are expected to be able to kick goals to some degree. However, with the sport being professional, there has been a bit of a movement towards teams alternating a few players who mostly play when attacking and a few players who mostly play when defending during any stoppage of play.
I've been working for a while on a spreadsheet "scorinator" for this game for a while, but it involves more specific player skills. Thus, after quite a lot of research into the "Scorinators" thread, and playing around with all the sports I know less about in xKoranate, I determined "Rugball" got roughly the scores I wanted. However, the "Style Modifier" will be required to be between 0 and 5, rather than the full range of -5 to +5.
Ok, I'll bite. We'll play, how do I sign up?
Just post in this thread! In order to keep this small, I'd like to limit this to about 8-10 countries, but given my stature in the community I'm not positive we'll even get that. We'll get to roster creation shortly, so hold tight.
(If you have any rules questions, feel free to post them!)
Signups
Patricana
Drawkland
Northwest Kalactin
Banija
South Covello
Ethane
Bjørnøya Republic
