Hoop-Ti-DOO! Basketball is ON!

As I'm sure you know, we started shipping out hoops games over the weekend. So it seems like a good time and place for some introductory comments, guidelines and general information.

First, let's talk about delivery. While some folks have already gotten their games, most have not. We're limited as to how many packages we can physically prepare, plus we have the ongoing details of running PLAAY to attend to. So, any extra patience you can muster will be greatly appreciated on this end! Generally, orders are shipped in the order in which they were received, but in some cases we had to leap frog orders in order to keep the assembly line moving. Rest assured, though, we will get ALL orders out as fast as we possibly can. It's going to take about a week to get all of the games shipped, by my estimate. You'll get a confirmation e-mail once your package ships. If you reach out to us via social media or e-mail this week, we’ll get back to you ASAP, but it may take longer than normal. We’re intentionally limited our e-mail screen time so as to focus on order-processing.

NOTE that if you made multiple orders during the hoops pre-order--like, for example, if you bought the game and a card set on Friday and then added a second card set or the "how-to" guide on Sunday--we will try our best to group your purchases and ship in one package. However, it's possible that your items will ship separately, possibly a few days apart. You'll get a confirmation e-mail once each order ships: if you get multiple e-mails at the same time (and the same tracking number), that means your items shipped together.

Once your package is delivered, please read the introductory letter we prepared for a couple of bits of last-minute information and corrections/clarifications. There's a URL for the free download of the 2020-21 Pro Season PDF. You'll get printed cards for the final four teams, those teams are also included in the PDF, along with liner notes that include traded players, referees, scoring grid usage and other information.

Referees? Yes. Although Highlight Maker Hoops doesn't use referees, each card set will include a set of referee cards. You won't use them now, but they'll be needed for this fall's HISTORY MAKER HOOPS release, so keep them handy. Each card set also includes liner notes, which will list duplicate players and suggested scoring grid usage. There will also be a PACE recommendation—again, that’s for the full-play game, so you can ignore that for now.

Speaking of the how-to guide, it occurred to me while packaging games that it’s labeled the HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS “How-To” guide, when in reality it will also create cards for the HISTORY MAKER full-play game. The same cards are used for both games. We tried to make the team/player creation process as simple and straightforward as possible. The section on underlined qualities proved especially challenging to write. There's some clarification included in your welcome letter, and I'm sure there'll be much discussion on social media about how people are making their teams.

Of particular note are the various home-brewed college teams that will start to (or have already started to) pop up. The college facet is still in development, and it's entirely community-driven. We're pretty busy just managing the pro version of the game! Just as is the case with college football, there are some nuances in college hoops that will have to be worked through. For now we're putting it in the hands of the community to play test and refine, and we encourage you to join the effort, if you have an interest in college basketball.

I’m sure there will be some gray areas and clarifications needed as the game gets spread out over multiple tabletops in the next few weeks. It’s been part of the process of any/every new sports game I’ve ever created and released. I'll try to be as available as I can be on social media to help with questions, and we have a good group of support folks who have play-tested the game and know how it works. The game has not changed much from what we played at last year's convention, so anyone who attended will be able to jump in and provide help.

I'm confident that the highlights hoops game will carve out its place in our hobby, even though it's very different from any basketball game that has come before it. Remember, it's a simulation of a basketball game TV recap, not a simulation of the game itself. One thing that may help in visualizing this is to get out your Dan Patrick sports announcer voice as you flip the fast-action cards. Every time you flip a FAC, imagine Dan or Scott Van Pelt or Ryan Smith, etc., saying "then, a few minutes later," or "on the very next possession," or any of a number of comments sports hosts use to bridge one highlight to the next.

Thanks for all the enthusiasm, encouragement and support directed our way over the past few years as we've pressed on with the promise of a PLAAY basketball game. We have greatly appreciated this community os sports board gamers. Now, it's time to PLAAY basketball!

PS--We'll post a PDF of the game's scoresheet ASAP on the PLAAY Classic free stuff page, but feel free to improvise your own score sheet if you like.