PLAAY Connect: 08.30.21
Starting this month, we're switching to a new blog-based news update instead of a formatted e-mail newsletter. We're tentatively calling it "PLAAY Connect" and will continue to post it on the last Monday of every month.
PLAAY Connect will include the same kind of content as the e-mailed newsletter did: game news, video links, gamer contributions, event details, product release information and, of course, freebies. Each “Connection” will look back at the previous month's PLAAY Games activity and scan the horizon to let you know what's coming in the next month. Each edition will be introduced with a live video (archived for later viewing, see above) designed to summarize the content and provide highlights.
NEWS HUB
• FINAL DAY for OOPFS! (Out of Print Football Seasons) Kickback Week: Long-time PLAAY Gamers will remember the team sheet format for our football game. Individual player ratings were arrayed on a single-sided sheet of plain paper, in simple black-and-white print. We discontinued them a couple years ago, but we still get requests for them. So, as a new football season is about to get underway, we thought it would be fun to bring back these classic team sheet sets for a short time, bundled for special savings! Read the full OOPFS! Blog post...
• RECAP: PLAAY DOT CON '21: This was our third in-person convention gathering (08.05.21 thru 08.07.21), and the focus this time was less on packing in as many game activities as possible and more on just being together and enjoying each other's company. In that light, this year's gathering was perhaps the best-ever! Read the full PLAAY-Dot-CON Recap Blog post. There's also a recap of scores and highlights from our two "individual-performance" events, the PLAAY Gamer Open Golf tournament with HISTORY MAKER GOLF and the Rock N Bowl "participant mode" event with BOWL-O-RAMA. Read the full PDC '21 Stats and Scores blog post...
ViDEO-ACTiVE
It was another full month of video-activity on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel, here's what went down--all of it archived for on-demand viewing...
• PLAAY HQ Tour: Ever wondered what it looks like at the PLAAY Games headquarters? Don't let the stream's thumbnail image fool you (expansive desk with finely-appointed leather chair, etc.), the real thing is pretty humble, "underwhelming" as we like to say. See for yourself!
• PLAAY Q&A: This has become one of our annual "go-to" streams, where we collect questions from the community and answer them as best we can. This year's topics included questions about the upcoming basketball release, football team creation tips, words we considered using for qualities, but didn't, and much more!
• 1985 Viewer’s Choice Monday Night Baseball, Gooden vs Tudor: We inaugurated the ‘85 Pro Season for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL with an epic pitching match-up, New York’s Doc Gooden (24-4, 1.53 ERA) vs. St. Louis’ John Tudor (STL, 21-8, 1.93 ERA). (SPOILER ALERT: it did not disappoint!)
• 1960 Pro Football OOPFS Kickback Game: what better way to celebrate OOPFS week than by getting a couple vintage teams on the game table and letting 'em knock heads! This stream featured a classic "What If" match-up of pre-Super Bowl 1960 Pro Football league champions, Houston and Philadelphia. We kicked off in Second Season Express, with the option to switch to full-play in the fourth quarter if the game was close.
• Football America 2021 Season Kickoff: In another Second Season Express feature game, our fictional gridiron league kicked off its twelfth season of action with a battle of pre-season favorites, Golden Bay and Detroit!
COMING ViDEO ATTRACTiONS
Every Monday and Thursday evening, we stream live on the PLAAY Games YouTube channel, with fresh content from the PLAAY Space! Our September schedule includes a new three-part series, “Sports Game Antiquities,” where we’ll explain and play a selection of out-of-print but not forgotten sports board games. PLAAY Space streams begin at 6pm MDT (8pm EDT)…
• MON 08.30, FDF-SSX-SS Converter Demo: You’ll read about it later in this edition of PLAAY CONNECT, Cooper Gilbert has created an add-on that lets gamers switch seamlessly between Al Wilson’s Fast Drive Football, Second Season Football and Second Season Express! Cooper will join us live to explain how it works, then we’ll demonstrate it LIVE with a head-to-head mash-up up the 2009 Indianapolis/New Orleans championship match-up that will include all three games!
• THU 09.02 Sports Game Antiquities, APBA Saddle Racing: We mentioned this game in passing during our tour of PLAAY HQ and got lots of feedback from folks about it! It’s one of those games that fetches large sums on eBay and other auction/sales venues. We’ll open the lid and show you what’s inside, and run a quick demo of the game. This is the first installment of a new, three-part series on sports game “antiquities.”
• MON 08.06: (No Stream, happy Labor Day!)
• THU 09.09 Sports Game Antiquities, 3M Thinking Man's Golf: One of numerous sports games offered by the 3M company in the mid- to late-1960s, this game has a devoted following 50+ years later. We’ll show you how it works, and play a few holes on the all-star course that comes with the game.
• MON 09.13 Sports Game Antiquities, Avalon Hill’s Basketball Strategy: Avalon Hill was a major player in the sports board game hobby into the 1970s, and this was its non-sim strategy game. We’ll explain the game and play a sample quarter so you can see how it works.
• THU 09.16 History Maker Hoops Update: “Something old, something new…” On the heels of our antique basketball game stream, we’ll give you an update on the newest entry into the basketball board game mix, our own HMH! New game components, including game boards and cards, and more!
• MON 09.20 Interprovincial Football Conference Cartier Bowl: Our own Canadian football universe crowns its champion in the live webcast co-hosted by IPFC commissioner Lenny LaFrance! The league just finished a spirited 2021 campaign with full-time coaches for all eight teams! We’ll full-play the entire game with COLD SNAP, from kickoff to final gun!
• THU 09.23 Fury Hardball Managers and Mercenaries: We’ve got a new release for our bat-and-ball alt-sport entry, Fury Hardball! The “Managers and Mercenaries” expansion will include 48 manager cards, which you can distribute to the teams in your Hardball league, and 72 new “mercenary” cards, free agent players who can immediately boost a team’s expectations—at a price!
GAME HELPS and ADD-ONS
• Converting SS and/or SSX to FDF: Al Wilson's Fast Drive Football has been the story of the month in the tabletop sports game hobby, for good reason--it's awesome! PLAAY Gamer Cooper Gilbert has come up with a FDF add-on that integrates the game with Second Season and Second Season Express (or, is it a Second Season add-on that integrates with FDF?) Cooper's handiwork allows you to start a game in one, and switch gears to the other at any time! Download Cooper's FDF/SS/SSX Tabletop Football converter here, and don’t miss tonight’s (08.30.21) demo stream on the PLAAY Space LIVE...
• New "Official" Tourney Mode boards for BOWL-O-RAMA: The tournament mode we introduced during "Binge Week: Bowling" has caused a lot of gamers to get the bowling game on their tabletops! In our "Bowling Tournament Condensed" blog post, we encouraged people to try the new feature from our plain-vanilla downloadable text document, with the promise hat we'd create an official game board, also downloadable, once any bugs had been worked out. The new BOWL-O-RAMA Tournament Mode game board is now available, download it here!
COMMUNITY CONTENT
• Help "2" Golfers: Todd Barre passed along these thoughts about the modified HISTORY MAKER GOLF Tournament Mode idea we posted in the newsletter last year (which can be read here). "I used the suggested system for my 1994 replay, with one-third of the tournaments open to all golfers, and then "1" and "2" tournament-rated golfers reclassified as 6-D’s for qualifying. I found that the "2" golfers were really left out. The "1's" and "3's" did well under that system, but not the "2's." So for my 2021 Pro National Golf project that I just started, I made the cutoff at 4-D (since 6-C is the lowest rating for the set). I'm doing one-third of the tournaments where everybody plays, one-third where the "1's" are reclassified as 4-D, and one-third where the "1's" AND "2's" are classified as 4-D. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I run a 30-event schedule plus a match play knockout at the end based on season points."
• Confusion on the Base Paths: We also need to make a base running clarification for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL, after it was noted that the base running rules for a runner at third were different on the game board than in the base running "quick guide" printed in the rules booklet. The game board is correct. We made a couple small changes in 2016 which are reflected on the game board but I guess we must have never made changes to the rules booklet. Thinking back on what prompted the change, the consensus was that it was generally unrealistic for a ground out to result in a runner on third being thrown out at home (fielder's choice, which was the original result, in the rules booklet), and that any ball hit past the infield would send the runner home, leaving the only realistic play to get the batter at first base.
• Football Extra Detail: Tim Chase sent along some new wrinkles that he's created for his SECOND SEASON game play…
The first is for a receiver attempting to get out of bounds to stop the clock. Tim adds the "pass" ratings of the quarterback and receiver. If they add up to "4," the receiver automatically gets out of bounds if he makes the catch. If they add up to "3," roll a die, 1-4 the receiver gets out of bounds; 5-6 he's tackled in bounds. If they add up to "2," roll a die, 1-3 the receiver gets out of bounds; 4-6 he's tackled in bounds. If they add up to less than "2," roll a die, 1-2 the receiver gets out of bounds; 4-6 he's tackled in bounds. If they add up to 0, the receiver automatically gets tackled in bounds if he makes the catch.
The second wrinkle involves returning a punt fielded inside the 10 yard line on non ‘Coffin Corner’ punt attempts. If the punter has an "A" or "B" COF rating then the punt stays in play, using these guidelines...
• If the ball is fielded on the 8 or 9 yard line then roll a die. 1-3, the punt is returned; 4-6, the punt is fair caught by the returner.
• If the ball is fielded on the 6 or 7 yard line then roll a die. 1-2, the punt is returned; 3-6, the punt is fair caught by the returner.
• If the ball is fielded inside the 6 yard line then roll a die. 1, the punt is returned; 2-6, the punt is downed by the punting team.
NOTE that if the punter has a COF grade of C, D or F, the ball bounces into the end zone for a touchback.
FREE STUFF
• In honor of the release of our 1985 Pro Season cards for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL, we’ve created an ‘85 Big League All-Star Game collection! This mini-set is presented in a new card style, featuring team colors and a fun new font that says “these cards are special!” Check it out!
• Don Weed and Tim Lowery have put together the 2018 Xfinity and Truck Series cards for RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN'. As most know, the Xfinity and Truck Series races are held as preliminaries to the "big races" held each weekend, using the same track. SO you can plug these cards in with your existing 2018 RWBR Pro Season card set. Don notes, "there's a (NP) designation on some of the cards in the driver's name. This is to denote those drivers who did not participate in the points race (e.g. Kurt Busch who seems to win everything he enters at these levels) as they are from higher divisions or other disciplines. NP can stand for 'No Points' or 'Not Participating.' Some people see these drivers as interlopers so I identified them for easy sorting. It does interfere with the ratings of the drivers that are in the points race as there are fewer multiple winners or top tier slots available to them.
• Gideon Eames created this Tokyo Olympics golf set for HISTORY MAKER GOLF. It includes both men and women golfers plus course cards for the Kasumigaseki Country Club course, Saitama, Japan. "I used the stats from the Olympic tournaments to create the golfer cards, so whilst they should play accurately in this context, I wouldn't advise mixing the cards in with existing sets."
GAME NEWS
• LAST DAY for OOPFS team sheet bundles! The clock is ticking down on theses Out Of Print Football Seasons for SECOND SEASON Football, we'll end this special event first thing tomorrow morning (Tuesday, 08.31.21).
• The 1985 Pro Season for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL is now available, chock full of all the big name stars of the era! Read more about it here!
• Coming this fall: 2020-21 Pro Season cards for HOCKEY BLAST and HISTORY MAKER GOLF, plus two new decade golfer sets (1980s, 1990s).
• We're also starting to make plans for our annual Holiday Sale, which will run Friday 11.26.21 through Monday 11.29.21! More details in next month’s CONNECT!
• As we mentioned in last week's PLAAY Q&A, we're working steadily on HISTORY MAKER HOOPS Pro Basketball Game and are on-target for a January 2022 pre-order, with March delivery and a general release of the game in April. We're planning to come out of the gates with season card sets from several different eras of pro basketball, from the 1960s to the early 2000's, as well as a 2020-21 Pro Season card set, and a fictional Basketball America League card set. Watch for our HISTORY MAKER HOOPS Update on the September 16th PLAAY Space LIVE.
That’s All for This Month…
Thanks for connecting with us this month! Let us know what you think of this new format. Hope to see you online for one or more of our upcoming YouTube streams. As always, we want you to know that we appreciate that you’re part of our community.
Also, thanks so much for all the prayers, encouragement and good wishes I’ve received since my prostate cancer diagnosis. I've been overwhelmed with good will! Many people have asked for updates, and honestly, I have had trouble remembering who's gotten the latest info and who hasn't! So, here's the Reader's Digest version: I'll begin radiation therapy on September 15th, five days a week for four weeks, 20 treatments total. I have a final brachytherapy procedure scheduled for October 14th. After that, if all goes as designed, I should be in the clear. An August 9th MRI showed no evidence that cancer has spread to lymph nodes, bones, or anywhere else. The oncologist and radiologist have both expressed confidence that this will have a good outcome.
If you're inclined to pray--and I do believe in the power of prayer!--I would ask that you pray specifically for the doctors, radiologists and technicians who will be working on my behalf the next month or so. Pray that God would give them precision, skill, focus and attention to detail. I do believe God will see me through this. Psalm 27.13, "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!"
Have a great month of September! If there’s anything we can do for you, please let us know.
Keith Avallone, PLAAY Games LLC