Hoop Dynasty - Season Structure

1. Season as Roguelite Run

Each season is a self-contained story chapter. It has a beginning (roster assembly, coaching philosophy selection), a middle (the regular season), a climax (the playoffs), and an end (contracts expire, the season’s story closes). The coach persists; the roster is largely rebuilt.

What resets at season end:

• Most of the roster (contracts expire; players age, retire, or leave for better opportunities)
• The situation card hand (rebuilt each season through between-game decisions)
• The coach’s job (not guaranteed — performance determines which offers arrive)

What persists:

• The coaching identity and reputation (affects free agent attraction, trade leverage, job offers)
• Identity Cards (the coaching legacy toolkit — see 5-card-systems.md)
• The historical record (league lore, rivalries, narrative archive — see 3-storyline.md)
• Cross-run unlocked Identity Cards (available to future coaching runs as starting options)

2. Natural Roster Churn

Roster resets are not arbitrary permadeath. They emerge from realistic basketball conditions:

• A player at the end of their career retires
• An injury-prone player fades out of the league
• A player who didn’t receive playing time won’t re-sign
• A star player demands a trade or signs elsewhere for more money

The coach actively manages this: contract negotiation is a between-game action during the off-season phase. The player decides who to pursue, who to let go, and who to fight to keep. This creates natural continuity (a beloved player returning) and natural loss (a cornerstone leaving for a rival).

3. Coaching Free Agency

At season end, the coach enters their own free agency:

• 2–3 curated offers arrive, shaped by the coach’s reputation and philosophical profile (a defensive coach gets offered defense-minded teams)
• Returning to the prior team is one possible offer — not guaranteed if performance was poor
• Better teams become available as reputation grows
• A coach can see pending offers before the final games of the season, making the last week mechanically meaningful: a coach fighting for their job, or turning down a better offer out of loyalty, is a real scenario

The player can also start a new save as a different coaching identity — a fully fresh run with different starting philosophy and style.