Extra Bases for Fictional Baseball: Ron Arnst’s Aleron Baseball Congress

Image courtesy of Winnipeg Free Press

Our guest blogger this week is Ron Arnst, Winnipeg MB. Ron is a long-time sports gamer and all-around baseball fan—he’s served as the PA voice of the Winnipeg Goldeyes—with a special interest in fictional sports seasons. His Aleron Baseball Congress updates have been a mainstay on the PLAAY Games Delphi Forum for many years. As the fictional aspect of our hobby continues to grow and flourish, My sense is that Ron's insights here will be of interest for many PLAAY Gamers...

The majority of my tabletop sports gaming involves fictional teams and players competing over several seasons in a unique universe. Through experience I have found that the greatest challenge to my continued interest is the boredom that creeps in as all the players, teams and games begin to look and feel the same. My solution has been to add "layers" to the fictional universes that host the various leagues that perform on my tabletop.

The Aleron Baseball Congress is the longest running and most detailed cards-and-dice project I have ever undertaken. And I have been playing tabletop sports games for 60 years.

The Congress is a twelve-team fictional baseball league based on PLAAY Games History Maker Baseball game and their Baseball America card sets that are updated annually. But it has grown into more than just a scores-and-stats project.

I began with a 66-game schedule, three-game home-and-home sets between the teams. The twelve teams were all in one league and the pennant winner was crowned Congress Champion. The designated hitter was not used until the current season, Year VI.

Playing out the league schedule means completing 396 games every season. Anyone who has started a season play project--fictional or major league replay--will testify that even the most entertaining season has spots where playing the games becomes more of a chore. The Aleron Baseball Congress is no different.

I am, by nature and by profession, a story-teller. And I do love a good story. That's the primary reason why most of my tabletop sports gaming involves fictional players, leagues and--ultimately--universes. The fictional setting allows maximum flexibility for story telling and removes any baked-in expectations for how players and teams are expected to perform. This flexibility, along with a healthy dose of imagination, has helped keep the Aleron Baseball Congress fresh and has ensured my engagement level has remained pretty constant.

The first year of the Congress was full of new adventures, from naming teams, assigning home stadiums and managers to telling the stories of the new baseball league. I rely on PLAAY Games' annual Baseball America update to provide the player updates and generate the off-season transactions as players are released, signed, promoted from the minors, retire or get traded.

After the first two seasons, I wanted to increase the depth of the project so I added General Managers, coaches and scouts to each team. This enabled the potential replacement of managers and the hiring of new managers--sometimes from within the Congress universe, sometimes a brand new face. The story telling opportunities increased.

For the first three seasons the Congress was operated by a committee of owners. I felt a more democratic and open decision making structure was needed so the owners handed over operating control to an elected Congress. Each Congress member city would elect one member. The party with the most members elected to Congress would control the agenda and elect the Commissioner from within their caucus.

The election of Congress members is replicated through a series of dice rolls on charts created for the purpose. At the annual Congressional session the parties bring forward proposals for debate and a vote. Voting is weighted to reflect the tendency of party members to support their own proposals. To ensure the dastardly dice do not saddle the Congress with unwieldy and unwanted outcomes, the Commissioner has a veto.

With the congressional layer added (as a nod to Coover's Universal Baseball Association), it was time to add the Hall of Fame and All Time statistical rankings. Hall of Fame eligibility requires a player to have not been active (that is not carded in a Baseball America set) for two consecutive seasons. Each player’s performance is awarded points at the end of each season and those points are totaled to determine Hall of Fame election. Just to make things interesting and more random, a dice roll (two six-sided dice) is added. Highest five totals are inducted.

As Year VI is ending, I am considering a few more changes--I prefer to call them advancements--for the annual session of Congress to consider. I think it is time for the Congress to have a playoff system for determining the Champion. That may mean going to a two division structure and extending the regular season. I believe teams in a division should play each other more often than they play the other division. And that means a longer regular season. If the Congress approves a playoff system but rejects the other proposals, I am thinking of using a six team structure.

Beginning in Year VII, I will also be bringing back the Congress' first fan Tom Clifton. I used Tom to explain the development of the ABC and to report on the inaugural season. Since then he has faded into the background as the baseball narrative took over. I have decided to bring him back as a way to tell more stories about the Congress and the players. Because, after all, it is about the story.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm particularly intrigued by Ron's Hall of Fame voting process for the Aleron Baseball Congress! Baseball America will celebrate its tenth season in 2022, and we've talked about establishing a Hall of Fame as part of the festivities. It's a tricky thing, though. One of the things we've discussed internally is the idea of creating a "retro" Baseball America season, say, something from the 1970s or '80s, with some of the current BA players represented by carding their "dads" for the set. However, that would presume that the league's been around longer than ten seasons. So, we'd have to retro-fit some sort of history first before we'd be able to create a Baseball America HOF. If we go the other route, that is, that the league began in 2013, then our options for a Hall of Fame are fairly restrictive. We'll keep thinking on this, and we welcome your thoughts!