08.20.26 PLAAY CONNECT
Well, the summer is rapidly slipping away! We’ve got a lot to do before fall hits, so let’s get after it!…
TONIGHT: New Card Set Reveal!
We've been discreetly working on a new card set for one of our PLAAY Classic sports games and are about to go live with it TONIGHT! We thought it'd be fun to give this one the "reveal" treatment, so tune in tonight to the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel! "What will it BE!?" We'll reveal the set and get it on the game table--tonight! 6pm MT (8pm ET) on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel!
1996 Baseball Returns
We released this as part of last year's holiday sale with the idea of bringing it back this summer for the 30th anniversary of this memorable year in baseball! Well--summer is almost over, so I'd better get ON it! Available as a printed card set or PDF.
In-Season Baseball Returns for 2026!
Our "PLAAY along with the pro season" card set is a bit behind schedule but still planned...watch for it next week. Remember, last year we debuted the set with an express game between Colorado and Arizona and said "If the Rockies win, it's FREE" (they did and it was!). Thinking of doing the same thing this year. We're waiting on the data set to be polished up (trades, etc.) to format the cards, but this should happen within the next week or so.
2026 Pro Football Fury is Happening NOW!
We just released our "fury" version of the upcoming 2026 pro football season, we're super excited about it. I played a triple-header of exhibition games at the recent World Boardgaming Championships, read about that here.
"How are these players rated? The real-life season hasn't been played yet!" Well, I started with Pro Football Focus' 2025 player grades for a general profile of effectiveness in various aspects of play (i.e., run blocking, pass coverage/rush, etc.). I included every player who performed "average" or better and ranked them relative to each other. Next, I sorted by team and selected each team's top eight players for both offense and defense. Then I went back and balanced by position--ensuring that each team had sufficient linemen and backs for both offense and defense, adding "below average" players as needed.
Beyond that, it's essentially my own personal "hot take" on the upcoming season. I adjusted cards to align with my (hopefully, informed) opinions. The players and teams that I feel will do well in 2026 got better ratings than those who I think won't do so well. I will be wrong on some of my insights--this is not an exercise in "accuracy" or "precision." It's intended to be an educated yet nonetheless subjective, but most-importantly a fun "look-ahead" to the upcoming pro football season. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did/do!
NEW and NOW! Watch our stream next week...
We have brand new add-ons for TWO of our PLAAY NOW line of games--again, we're going to give these the "reveal" treatment, NEXT week on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel. I'll talk about the items and demo them on the game table. Join us Thursday 08.27.26 for all the fun! NOTE: due to a long-planned time conflict, this might be a recorded stream, or possibly live at an earlier time. We’ll let you know…
Business Card Game Update
We've been talking all year about the business card games, and I apologize for the lack of follow-up! We did introduce one of the new games ("Aces and Eights") at the WBC a couple weeks ago, and have several more ready to release. I'm still planning on a dedicated stream and release this fall, so stay tuned...
FREE Stuff!
• Alasdair Campbell's 2025-26 Scottish Premiere League for SOCCER BLAST: Alasdair is an ardent follower of the SPL and put his enthusiasm and expertise to good use in crafting the ratings for this set. We then transferred his ratings work into our official soccer template. The result is a unique and very FUN soccer card set, especially appealing (and FREE!) for our European PLAAY Gamers. Enjoy!
• 2026 Pro Football Fury Extra Players: These are offered (for free) on the Pro Football Fury product page, but I wanted to post them here as well for those who are curious about the set. The extra players subset is made up of players who made the "average or above" threshold (detailed above) but not their team's "top eight" list. That's why some (better) teams have more extra players than the poorer teams do.
In-Season Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY site?
We like to celebrate the In-Season card set with a "fast-forward" of baseball's regular season and a "pre-PLAAY" of the playoffs and World Series. I usually take the show on the road for the "Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY," last year we did it in Davenport, IA in tandem with our "Truckin' '76" pre-launch event at the World's Largest Truck Stop in Walcott, IA. The year before that, we played it in Salt Lake City as part of our "Utah-ctober" event. As of right now, I don't have any plans in place for this, but am open to suggestions from potential hosts/cities. Let me know if you're interested! If not, no worries--we'll do it as an online event this year.
1966 Baseball Alternative Suggested Ball Park Assignments
These are mentioned in the set's liner notes, and I really thought I had posted them--somewhere! In any case, here they are (downloadable PDF).
MORE Games We Found at the Thrift Store!
Oh yeah. We've continued to make intermittent runs to our favorite area thrift stores and are beginning to amass another assortment of cool board games to talk about. This should happen sometime in the next 30 days (i.e., before next month's CONNECT).
Change Is In The Wind...
Usually, the August CONNECT is where I make the comment "hard to believe, but it's time to start thinking about the annual Holiday Sale!" However, with Sam in Pittsburgh and other things up in the air, some changes are on the horizon as we begin to close out another year. While it's been pretty much business-as-usual for 2026, behind the scenes I've been necessarily strategizing a path forward. I'll plan to provide more details sometime in September.
Photo Finish!
From Bret Ellsworth, "This is how I have set up the Soccer Blast game for my replay of the World Cup. I am loving this game and have added my own touches...
• Holders/top loaders for the player cards (easier to handle, don’t risk bending or damaging the cards).
• Easels for the pitch boards (easy to read, don’t have to pick them up).
• Dice tray, with 12-sided (1-6 twice) dice that roll easier.
• Team postcards of who is playing, etc.
That's it for this month, hope you can join us tonight in the PLAAY Space, we'll have the chat enabled and are ready for some community fun! As always, thanks for reading and for being part of the PLAAY Nation!
CONNECT photo credit to Stephan Widua @ unsplash.com
