Forgotten Freebies
We've been doing newsletters for over a decade now, and each one has included multiple free downloads--"freebies!" It's probably the most popular thing about the newsletters (and maybe the main reason people read them at all, haha!). Most of those newsletter freebies have made their way to the "free stuff" pages of our website. HINT: if you haven't visited the "free stuff" pages recently, or ever, you should take a look. The volume of content that's available for free download is, I think, pretty impressive.
We did a complete overhaul of our "free stuff" pages a few years ago for our "Free Free Twenty-Free" online event, and most of those files now reside on the "free stuff" page of the current site. A few were not carried over, though. Some because of the print quality, others because of limited appeal. Still others just "fell through the cracks" so to speak.
For our 11.06.25 PLAAY Space YouTube stream, we resurrected a half-dozen of these "forgotten freebies" for you. Each of these freebies are being brought back after several years (or more) of hibernation. On our stream, we showcased the content, provided credit to the creators and talked a little about each item. We combined ALL of the files into one free download, which you can access here.
Here's a thumbnail description of each of the six "forgotten freebies"...
• 1974-75 World Hockey Association for Hockey Blast: This card set was created (I think!) by Ed Meek in 2012, and hasn't been available for a decade. It was available as a free download but apparently didn't make the cut when we revised our site in 2015.
• 1960 Pittsburgh vs. Toronto for Second Season and Cold Snap: Believe it or not, back in the late '50s and early '60s, there were usually a couple exhibition games each year between NFL and CFL teams. Often, they'd play CFL rules one half, NFL rules the other half, but sometimes they'd play a full game with an agreed-upon amalgam of rules. Just for fun, I rated one such game, a 1960 exhibition between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Toronto Argonauts. I created this as a "freebie" in the September (?) 2012 newsletter. You can play the teams with either game, there are separate team sheets for both.
• 2015 Baseball "Trading Cards" Mini-Set for History Maker Baseball: I created this set in the afterglow of the Hall of Fame card set created for our decider die Kickstarter campaign. The idea was to capture the essence of playing HMB with baseball trading cards without having to do the math "on the fly." We've gone back to this concept a number of times over the years--baseball ratings plus biographical narrative and color features. Originally, just the "rookie cards" were offered as a free download. Here, we make the entire set available for you.
• 2017 Arena Football Variant for Second Season: Joe Pritchard came up with this idea in 2017 and we posted it as a newsletter feature on the website. It uses seven-man sides with the standard Second Season game book results with added breakaway plays. Four experimental teams and a starter rules set are included. There's also a reference to Fury Football, at that point still just an idea but which would become a PLAAY NOW game a couple years later.
• College Mash-Up for Red White & Blue Racin': This card set was created by Scot Long, with the idea being "what if stock car racing was an intercollegiate sport?" It's set in the year 1970, a 50 card set based on five college conferences, three major Independent teams from the 1970's and uses the 1970 football bowl schedule as the racing venues. It was included as a freebie in the June 2016 newsletter.
• 2019 Chicago "Hoop-LA!" Event Celebrity Referees for Highlight Maker Hoops: The 2019 Chicago "Hoop-La" event was organized for the purpose of exploring concepts I'd put together for a tabletop basketball game. Those of us who were there will never forget what a FUN weekend it was, hanging out and talking/playing hoops. Although the final presentation of our basketball game turned out VERY different than the one we played in Chicago, the celebrity referee cards created by Chad McEvoy are a warm reminder of what a wonderful weekend it was!