PLAAY CONNECT 04.24.25
(photo credit to Mitchell Luo, unsplash.com) Kind of seems redundant to have a PLAAY CONNECT when we just did a "News Show" on our YouTube channel. So, let’s START with that…
PLAAY Games NEWS
We have quite a bit happening at PLAAY HQ! If you missed the news show you can watch the archived stream footage here (or click the link below), but to whet your appetite, here's a hand-dandy list of bullet points on what we covered...
Card Sets
• Kurt Bergland's 50 Years for History Maker Baseball: We’ve teamed up with Kurt to offer this amazing collection of baseball cards based on the last fifty years of baseball. Each team’s represented with Kurt’s choice of its best 24 players from the years 1975-2025!
• 2026 XHL for Hockey Blast: Our fictional hockey universe returns with some familiar names, a brand new look and some new (optional) rules!
• 2024-25 Pro Season for Highlight Maker Hoops: As the pro league playoffs unfold, we’re putting together cards that represent it, available before the end of the season.
• 1985 USFL for Second Season Pro Football: We’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of the last alternate football league to pose a threat to the established pro dynamo!
Game News
• Reel-Time Pro Fishin' Game: Our holiday PDF game returns in printed form, this summer!
• Mystery Rummy SIX: We’re collaborating again with veteran game designer Mike Fitzgerald to publish Mike’s sixth installment in his classic “Mystery Rummy” series. Especially designed for solitaire play!
• Truckin' '76: Loosely inspired by/based on the 1970s movie classic “Smokey and the Bandit,” your challenge is to get your big rig from San Bernadino CA to Newark, NJ in under 72 hours. Plenty of shenanigans along the way!
• Mass Production initiative on hold: Unfortunately, the current whirlwind of imposed tariffs has put our mass production plans on hold until everything settles down.
Live Events News
• Digital to Dice CON: We’ll be there, hanging out and playing games! (We also sent along some raffle prizes!)
• PLAAY Dot CON 2025: Plans are coming together for what will be the biggest and best PLAAY DOt CON ever!
• "Hey Ohio?": We’re kicking around the idea of making a late summer or early fall visit to the Buckeye State.
• BGG Con: The biggest board game website in the world hosts its annual convention in Dallas in November. We’re planning to be there.
Interested? Here’s the link to the full news show video!….
VIDEO TONIGHT: Mystery Rummy SIX
We're excited to announce our latest partnership with veteran game designer Mike Fitzgerald, an all-new entry in his well-known "Mystery Rummy" card game series! Mystery Rummy SIX has a Sherlock Holmes theme, and can be played solo or cooperatively with other gamers. We'll show you how it works TONIGHT! 6pm MT (8pm ET) on the PLAAY Games YouTube channel!
PLAAY Dot CON Attendee Update
We just sent out our "60-days-out" e-mail update to everyone who's signed up for PLAAY-Dot-CON 2025. If you didn't get it, check your spam folder--if it's not there, reach out to us and we'll re-send.
The e-mail contains some important information from us, AND some info we need from YOU!
PLAAY Games in Connecticut at Digital 2 Dice CON ‘25!
We're excited to be making the trip back east for Dave Gardner's Digital 2 Dice Con, 05.16.25 and 05.17.25 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Preston CT. We'll mix it up with old friends and make some new ones, too. There's still room for you to join the fun, here's the link for more information.
Once again, I'll be donning my magenta #74 Dave Roller Southern California Sun jersey to knock out a couple more games of my 1974 World Football League season project, taking on all comers as guest coach. Let me know if you'd like to PLAAY!
FREE STUFF!
• "Hartford" 2005-2006 Pro Season Champions for Hockey Blast: I promised this in a community post when we released the 2005-06 Pro Season cards, after some fellow Connecticut-sites lamented that the Whalers abandoned Hartford and its long-suffering fan base just before winning the Stanley Cup as the Carolina Hurricanes! Here's that champion club re-cast in their former colors, along with the team they defeated (Edmonton) in an exciting seven-game series.
• Harlem Road-Trippers Add-On for Highlight Maker Hoops: I created a blog post for this last week but if you missed it, here's the link. So far, the "Trippers" are undefeated (although they came close to losing to the All-Time Great Lakers on MY tabletop before pulling out a 141-137 win!)
• Dan Garlick's National Championship Hoops Final Four for Highlight Maker Hoops: Dan created these teams just after the real-life tournament wrapped up. Just in case you didn't get enough "College Hoops Craziness," here you go!
• Dodgeball World Tour Corporate Expansion: We've had a run on this game lately--someone must be streaming it on their YouTube channel or something--here's a cool add-on, a sponsor-based dodgeball league that you can create for yourself using companies from our PLAAY universe of sponsors!
Now Available: 2024 Pro Season for History Maker Baseball
Once again, you have TWO options for this year's Pro Season: the "Classic" Edition includes individual cards for over 1200 real-life big-league baseball players based on the 2024 pro season, presented in classic black and white; the XL Color "Express" Edition includes 720 individual color-print cards (24 per team), presented in standard baseball trading card size (each card 2.5" x 3.5") in team colors. BOTH sets also include nearly 90 umpire cards, instant results matrix and suggested batting orders. Read more here…
Photo Finish
Inspired by our "Triple Ball" YouTube stream a few months ago, Brian Hoxsey has been working on a faux sports game called "Cage Ball." Here a great photo Brian found from a 1921 boys high school basketball game between local rivals Ottawa and La Salle-Peru at the Ottawa Armory. Yep, they used to play basketball in a "cage" (of sorts). Brian says that the two programs played for the 250th time last season. (I probably should mention that Brian’s Cage Ball idea is not exactly like basketball, haha!…)
That's what we have for now, hope to see you tonight for our Mystery Rummy SIX solo demo! Thanks for reading/watching/PLAAYing along--we appreciate you!