PLAAY CONNECT 05.13.26
Here’s the latest from PLAAY HQ, we have a LOT going on right now!…
TOMORROW: PLAAY Baseball RETURNS!
PLAAY Game's fictional baseball franchise is BACK! In tomorrow night's YouTube stream we'll reveal the league's new moniker AND announce some exciting NEW developments. We're presenting this as a pre-recorded video stream, which will allow us to answer questions in real-time during the live chat. PLAAY baseball--game ON! Join us tomorrow night (05.14.26) at 6pm MT (8pm ET) on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel for the premiere of this important content!
THIS WEEKEND: PLAAY Games at Digital to Dice CON '26!
We're excited to be a small part of the fun and festivities of this annual sports board game centered LIVE event!
• The 2026 PLAAY Gamer Open Golf Tournament with History Maker Golf will happen at 11am Saturday (05.16.26). James Cast from the Tabletop Sport Cast Podcast will be the host and point-man for this tournament, two rounds on the Connecticut River course. We'll use our standard "DIY" card format--you'll get to craft your own golfing abilities, choosing a set number of full and semi-qualities (James will have the details, on-site). Good luck to all!
• We've also sent along copies of History Maker Golf and PLAAY at the Races as raffle prizes--be sure to write your name on your ticket before dropping it in the bin!
NEXT MONTH: See you in Eau Claire for PLAAY-Fest!
The guest list is growing for our grass-roots get-together in Eau Claire, WI next month (06.19.26 and 06.20.26). We'll have an old-time baseball symposium and play-test session on Friday at the library and a "lazy-susan" style PLAAY game gathering all day Saturday at The Bridge, with fishing, fury sports and, well--whatever you want to PLAAY! LIVE local semi-pro sports BOTH nights, with the Eau Claire Express (Northwoods League Baseball) and Eau Claire Axemen (Arena Football)! Let us know if you're thinking of coming! Read more about PLAAY-Fest here…
World Boardgames Championships Look-Ahead
Whoa, is it summer already? That means our trip to the World Boardgames Championships is NOT far away! For us, this is a long-awaited return to a very special event--we made the trip to Pennsylvania three years running (2012-2014) and made many enduring friendships. In those earlier years, I made the 22-hour drive to the event (at that time held in Lancaster, PA) as an exhibitor, loaded up with games and card sets--some great memories! This time around, I'll be hosting a demo table rather than an exhibitor booth which will allow me to fly rather than drive. We have some exciting activities planned...
• NEW (and already released) Business card games: This will be a key component of our presentation. Essentially, these are scaled-down, easy-to-play board games printed on business cards that serve as an introduction to what we do here at PLAAY. Each game includes a mechanic (or two) that we apply in one or more of our full board game offerings. It gives people a taste of how we approach game play. These are free, we'll have a wide assortment of them to offer including four NEW games. The small footprint means we can bring an ample supply of them to the WBC in a small space. Watch for a YouTube stream to highlight the return of the business card games, coming soon...
• PLAAY Classic and PLAAY NOW Game Demos: We'll have an assortment of our full-play printed games on-hand to "show-and-tell" as well, exact line-up TBD (we won't have all 25 games with us, probably...)
• 2026 Second Season College All-Star Football Game: I'm looking for volunteer(s) to coach against me in this head-to-head game, reprising the role played memorably by Chris Palermo in 2014 when he coached the All-Stars to an upset win over the pro champion Seahawks. Planning to host this Thursday evening, but there's flexibility...let us know if you’re interested!
• Fury Hardball Tournament Friday: Andy Lewis hosted this at last year's WBC and I'm excited to team up with him in-person to do it again this year!
The World Boardgames Championships will be held at the Seven Springs Resort outside Pittsburgh the last week of July, we'll be there Thursday 07.30.26 through Saturday 08.01.26. Here’s the link for more information. Hope to see you there!
Coming Soon: World Soccer Tournament Cup Projection Card Set!
Every four years, the world's most prestigious soccer event happens and everyone in the world becomes a football fan! This year's competition will be held at a multitude of locations scattered across the continent of North America with 48 (!) teams from all over the globe squaring off for the title of World Champion! Once again we're providing the cards in advance so you can conduct your OWN tournament, before the real thing happens! Read more HERE about the 2026 World Football Projection Set for SOCCER BLAST...
Coming Soon: 2025-26 Pro Hoops Season
With the pro hoops playoffs getting close to the "Final Four," we're excited to get this card set out there so you can play along on your game table! We're currently doing final proofing and tweaking, we'll make these cards available just as SOON as we can--watch the website for availability in the next week or so!
Also In The PLAAY Pipeline...
• Fury Sports Re-Release: Re-skinned versions of Fury Football and Fury Hardball, we're going for a more mainstream look and feel, see the website for sample images. The games themselves are unchanged from their previous releases.
• NEW Fury card Sets: In tandem with the new game releases, we'll have new card sets based on the ongoing/upcoming real-life pro baseball/football seasons. We also have "draft league" sets we're working on for both games, two to four players, a single-setting (estimated 60 minutes) game experience that allows you to quickly craft your own team and then compete against others. Estimated release: 06.23.26.
• 2025-26 English Pro Season for Soccer Blast: The real-life pro season is just now wrapping up and we're working with our UK soccer expert Neil Maitland to get the card set it'll be based on out post-haste. Again, we anticipate being on-schedule with this. Estimated release: 07.09.26.
• 2025 Pro Season for Second Season Football: We've made some good progress on this, and while there's still a good amount of work left to do I'm confident we'll have this set available on schedule. Estimated release: 07.23.26.
• Reel-Life Fishin' Lakes: Not a typo, we're creating game materials for a series of real-life lakes for use with our fishing' game! These lake expansions will be stocked with (and include) unique decks of fish cards reflecting the actual stock found in the lake on which the board is based. The idea is to re-create the experience of fishing at these real-life venues, conveniently, no travel time, and with far less expense! Estimated release: 08.14.26.
FREE Stuff!
• Dick Butler's Hill Country Baseball Cards for History Maker Baseball: Dick's written a book about 1930s baseball in the Texas German Belt, to be published this fall. We've created a card set for the 1930 season, based on Dick's knowledge and research, and a blog post which contains much of the background information.
• Lenny LaFrance's 2026 Interprovincial Pro Football Conference for Cold Snap Canadian Pro Football: Lenny's annual update to our long-running (since 2009!) fictional Canadian football league features a new twist this year: four of last year's IPFC clubs have splintered away, partnering with "big money" in the Detroit and Toronto areas to form an all-new, major-market northern-rules football league, the Continental North Football League (CNFL). The IPFC represents the "old school" traditional Canadian football thinkers. You get a summary of these off-season events plus team cards for the eight remaining IPFC clubs, look-ahead summaries, a schedule and more!
Photo Finish
Keith and Sam—in “The Burgh!” My wife and I traveled to Pittsburgh this past weekend to visit Sam at his new digs, he and his girlfriend Alex took us all around downtown, showing us the sights, sounds and tastes of The Burgh! Here we are standing in front of PNC Park on our way to “The Point” (where the three rivers meet), me holding a cup of house blend from local brew-space La Prima! Sam’s doing well, he's hard at work with their "game-adjacent" business, Golden Light Games. I say "game adjacent" because they offer lots of game accessories but no actual games--yet! (Sam's working on it!) Check it out!
That’s it for this month—it should be another HIGHLY active few weeks ahead of the next CONNECT! Thanks for sharing the journey with us!
