Alternate History Sports / OOTP-esque simulator for NFL

**Posted by n00bthtpwnz** 3/26/2021 11:47 am

So I've been working on a fictional sport over the last few years and along with it, I've been re-simulating the histories of the Big 4 Leagues as part of the wider universe. I've found ways to re-simulate the MLB, NHL and NBA, but I haven't found a way to do it with the NFL. Does anybody know of a game or program like OOTP that could re-sim the NFL with real life players and teams? If there isn't anything like that, does anybody know how I could go about doing that?

I know that this is a bit of a vague topic and there probably won't be a ton of things out there for this, but I'll greatly appreciate any help.

**Posted by Steelman** 3/26/2021 12:20 pm

For football, I think most people around here do it the old school way; the Veras method or some similar approach. Offhand, I can't think of an OOTP-style simulator for football.

I use a little program called xkoranate, which has an absurd lack of documentation but it allows you to simulate teams and seasons based on overall rating. I use Google sheets to track players and team ratings which I input into xkoranate and simulate each season. There's more to it, and it's a lot of work, but it does well enough for my purposes.

The Veras method uses an excel-style spreadsheet to use a D20 to simulate games.

**Posted by n00bthtpwnz** 3/26/2021 12:37 pm

Steelman wrote:
I use a little program called xkoranate, which has an absurd lack of documentation but it allows you to simulate teams and seasons based on overall rating. I use Google sheets to track players and team ratings which I input into xkoranate and simulate each season. There's more to it, and it's a lot of work, but it does well enough for my purposes.

I actually use xkoranate for my fictional sport, but it has nowhere near the amount of teams/players as the NFL has, so I can use Google Sheets to keep track of everything for that. I just wasn't sure if anybody knew of a simulator or other program that could make the whole process a bit easier. If anything, I could use xkoranate as a last case scenario and figure out players/stats from there, but I'm hoping that someone might know of something that I haven't stumbled across myself.

**Posted by Steelman** 3/26/2021 1:11 pm

n00bthtpwnz wrote:
Steelman wrote:
I use a little program called xkoranate, which has an absurd lack of documentation but it allows you to simulate teams and seasons based on overall rating. I use Google sheets to track players and team ratings which I input into xkoranate and simulate each season. There's more to it, and it's a lot of work, but it does well enough for my purposes.
I actually use xkoranate for my fictional sport, but it has nowhere near the amount of teams/players as the NFL has, so I can use Google Sheets to keep track of everything for that. I just wasn't sure if anybody knew of a simulator or other program that could make the whole process a bit easier. If anything, I could use xkoranate as a last case scenario and figure out players/stats from there, but I'm hoping that someone might know of something that I haven't stumbled across myself.

Yeah, xkoranate is functional for everything but stats.

I seem to recall some user made programs floating around the web awhile back, but I'm on Mac and none of them worked for me. Maybe a deep dive search might turn up something that could work for you.

**Posted by Ulmicola** 3/26/2021 3:12 pm

Steelman wrote:
For football, I think most people around here do it the old school way; the Veras method or some similar approach. Offhand, I can't think of an OOTP-style simulator for football.

I use a little program called xkoranate, which has an absurd lack of documentation but it allows you to simulate teams and seasons based on overall rating. I use Google sheets to track players and team ratings which I input into xkoranate and simulate each season. There's more to it, and it's a lot of work, but it does well enough for my purposes.

The Veras method uses an excel-style spreadsheet to use a D20 to simulate games.

I know xkoranate, but it's just because of NationStates; the Veras method OTOH, what is it? From your description, it could totally fit a sports-based tabletop RPG.

**Posted by BDoof** 3/27/2021 12:22 pm

iirc, the OOTP devs have been working on a football game for a few years... but no announcement of whether or not it would actually come out. I know for my football league I haven't quite figured out how Im gonna simulate it, but was probably gonna do a mixture of dice, random.org, and OOTP for certain stats

**Posted by n00bthtpwnz** 3/27/2021 1:10 pm

master BDoof (CodeG) wrote:
iirc, the OOTP devs have been working on a football game for a few years... but no announcement of whether or not it would actually come out. I know for my football league I haven't quite figured out how Im gonna simulate it, but was probably gonna do a mixture of dice, random.org, and OOTP for certain stats

I just looked the OOTP thing up and it seems like they aren't gonna make the game, which I can see a couple of reasons as to why they would do that.

**Posted by Dan O'Mac** 3/27/2021 2:59 pm

I've heard of Front Office Football. I haven't played it however. And the most recent edition was released in 2018, but with how little would need to change graphics-wise, should still be a fine program for what would be needed.

**Posted by n00bthtpwnz** 3/27/2021 4:09 pm

Dan O'Mac wrote:
I've heard of Front Office Football. I haven't played it however. And the most recent edition was released in 2018, but with how little would need to change graphics-wise, should still be a fine program for what would be needed.

I was actually looking at it earlier today when finding the OOTP information. I might look into that and see how much I can/would have to change in order to re-simulate the history of the NFL as best as I can.

**Posted by BDoof** 3/29/2021 7:33 pm

n00bthtpwnz wrote:
master BDoof (CodeG) wrote:
iirc, the OOTP devs have been working on a football game for a few years... but no announcement of whether or not it would actually come out. I know for my football league I haven't quite figured out how Im gonna simulate it, but was probably gonna do a mixture of dice, random.org, and OOTP for certain stats

I just looked the OOTP thing up and it seems like they aren't gonna make the game, which I can see a couple of reasons as to why they would do that.

ah dang, I haven't followed it recently but was really hoping that it'd come out