Retro Bowl Draft: Scouting, Three Rounds and Trading Picks

The shape of the draft

The rookie draft opens between seasons. The game's own help screen sets the rules: there are three draft rounds and you receive one pick per round. That is the default. You can hold more picks in a round if you have traded players away for them, and fewer if you spent a pick on a trade during the season. The Draft Picks panel in the front office shows how many picks you own in rounds one, two and three of the next draft.

When the last pick is made the game posts "The draft is over and the season can begin!" and week one of the 17-game schedule starts.

Stars show the player now, potential is hidden

A prospect's star rating tells you how good he is today. His potential, the ceiling he can grow towards, is hidden until you scout him. You scout from the player's profile page, and the number of players you can scout in one draft is limited, so the real decision of the draft is who to spend those scouts on.

Two things help here:

• The Scout coach trait. A coordinator with the Scout trait lets you scout three extra players during the draft. If you are choosing between two coordinators of similar level, this trait is worth weighing.
• Reading the position need first. You can only carry so many key players: up to 10 by default, or 12 if you turn on the larger roster option with a $200m salary cap. Some positions take a single player, and the game will tell you to cut or trade the current one before you can sign another. Scout the positions you can actually fill.

Once a player has grown as far as he can, the game says he "has reached his potential", and a level-up meeting with him no longer does anything.

If nobody is worth taking

You do not have to use every pick. If you skip, the game offers to sell your remaining picks in that round for coach credits. Credits pay for facility upgrades, new coordinators and contract extensions, so an empty round is not a wasted round.

Picks as currency during the season

Picks matter outside the draft too. The Trades list holds players under contract with other teams who want a move, and each one costs one of your future draft picks. Other teams also come to you: sometimes they offer a round one, two or three pick for one of your players, either in this season's draft or in the next one.

Some limits apply:

• You cannot trade after week 8. From then on you can only cut players until the next season, though the Free Agents list stays open.
• No team will take an injured player or one whose attitude is toxic.
• A player you have just signed may refuse a trade, and trading a recently signed player hurts team morale and your relationship with the fans.

Players the draft missed

Free agents are players who either did not make the draft or are out of contract. Undrafted rookies sometimes turn up there with a note that your coach thinks he is an interesting prospect. Signing a free agent costs coaching credits and salary cap space, and the game warns that the quality of free agents drops as the season goes on, so early in the year is the time to look.

After the pick

A drafted player improves by earning XP. Better training facilities help players gain XP faster, and the HARD training regime adds XP per game at the cost of energy, morale and injury risk. A coach with the matching trait can also give an instant potential increase to players at one position, which can lift a scouted rookie whose ceiling looked low.

All of the above comes from the in-game help and messages of the Retro Bowl build hosted on this site.