PLAAY Connect: 10.25.21
We're heading down the home stretch of 2021, and starting to put a plan together for 2022! Here's the latest from PLAAY HQ in this month’s edition of PLAAY Connect...
Tonight (10.25.21): HMB Express, Big League Fall Classic pre-PLAAY!
Probably the Game Lab 5 idea (10.18.22, read more about that below) that got the most buzz was our early, early version of an “express” game for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL. So, we thought we'd co-opt the PLAAY Space tonight for an extended HMB Express play-test/brainstorm session! The goal is simple: play the entire 2021 Big League Fall Classic in one hour. Be forewarned, the game is NOT finished, so there will be some hiccups and on-the-fly improv happening. Join us tonight on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel for Atlanta vs. Boston, Game One starts at 6pm MDT, 8pm EDT!
THURSDAY (10.28.21): 5th Annual All Hallow's Eve Spook-tacular with AFR’s Steve Tower!
One of PLAAY Games' closest pals is Steve Tower of After Further Review, and each year we team up at Halloween to do a multi-feature stream together! This year's event happens this Thursday evening, 6pm MDT, 8pm EDT. We'll start with our annual Commissioner's Surprise HOCKEY BLAST Tournament game, Arizona (Ah-woooooOOOO!) hosting New York (RGR), the winner punches its ticket to the Final Four. Then we'll pick up where we left off with last year's FACE TO THE MAT Throwdown and close out the show with a Fury Hardball head-to-head title-series featuring Fury versions of this year's big league championship teams. As usual, the chat room will be LIVE, all PLAAY Gamers welcome to join the fun on the PLAAY Games YouTube Channel!
Join PLAAY Games LIVE at the Game Train, 11.13.21
We're slowly getting back up to speed with live events, this one will be at Game Train USA in suburban Denver starting at noon, Saturday 11.13.21. We'll be play-testing an all-new PLAAY Now Game that we introduced at PLAAY-Dot-CON 2021, AND conducting the Final Four of the Commissioner's Surprise HOCKEY BLAST Tournament! Hop on the Game Train and join the fun! (NOTE that the Game Train charges a $5 per person facilities fee--well worth it for the comfort and accoutrements, including a "passenger car" game room that simulates an actual train ride!)
PLAAY Dot CON 2022
We're giving this the green light for our 2022 Live Events schedule, with tentative dates 07.28.22 through 07.30.22 (Thursday through Saturday). We're still working on arrangements and specifics, but wanted to get the word out as early as possible. We'll put tickets on-sale during our holiday sale (11.26.21 through 11.29.21) at a special discounted rate (TBD), with the regular price in effect after that until the convention sells out. Stay tuned for more details!
Vegas Baby! PLAAY Games at Dice Tower West '22
VERY exciting news, we've committed to be an exhibitor at the 2022 Dice Tower West convention in Las Vegas, 03.02.22 through 03.06.22 at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino! We're looking forward to introducing PLAAY Games to a whole NEW cross-section of the board game hobby! We'll be demoing and play-testing current and future PLAAY Classic and PLAAY NOW games, and holding some organized events as well. If you're planning to attend, be sure to look us up (we're exhibitor booth 37)!
Commissioner's Surprise HOCKEY BLAST Tournament Update
This year's tournament has certainly had its share of, well, surprises! Arizona is this year's Cinderella Story, knocking off Toronto in OT in round one, then going on the road to defeat Montreal to move into the Elite Eight. The feisty Ducks--who had to defeat Buffalo just to get INTO the tournament, upset Nashville in round one, and sent Edmonton into OT in round two before the clock struck midnight.
We update the tourney brackets as results come in, click here for the latest. Thanks to ALL in the community who have contributed games played for the tourney!
Bloggin’ It!
Be sure to check out the blog posts we’ve published since our last CONNECT, including Ryan Morrison’s idea for adding a "History Maker" element to RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN’, Dan Van Antwerp’s 1980 Full-Season, Full-Play project with SECOND SEASON, and James Casts’ “Football Season in a Month” community project with SECOND SEASON “Express!”
The PLAAY Space LIVE: PLAAY Games YouTube Channel
Our weekly PLAAY Space LIVE YouTube shows are ramping back up after a brief break...
‘80s vs ‘90s Golf Challenge: Our two new decade golf stars sets went head-to-head in this unique format. We took the top 18 golfers from each decade, shuffled them up, and squared them off star-vs.-star, hole-by-hole. Each star played one hole against a compatriot star from the other decade. The front nine was played on the ‘80s course, Assurant Lakes (based on Kemper Lakes GC) and the back nine was played on the ‘90s course, Chinook Haven CC (based on Sahalee CC).
Game Lab Lightning Round 5: We stuck to our tried-and-true "Game Lab" recipe, giving gamers a sneak peek at stuff we're working on behind the scenes. Each game/idea gets no more than 10 minutes of screen time, and the whole show is on the clock with a 60 minute countdown. Fun! Game Lab 5 features an express version of our baseball game, a basketball strategy game, plus non-sports (PLAAY NOW) themes like a pyramid building Pharaoh, and even a weight loss game!
Football America 2000 Championship Game: James Casts' "Football Season in a Month" community project concluded with the championship game streamed live, Philadelphia at Highlands Ranch, with SECOND SEASON Express.
Upcoming Video Event: 2023 Wrestling America Federation IMPACT Series
We update our fictional wrestling federation every other year, and it's TIME! This year, though, we thought we'd add some extra drama to the mix! Here's what we're going to do...
• Monday, 11.01.22 will be our 2023 Wrestling America Federation "Commissioner's Edict" show. We'll create a deck of 30 or 40 "edict" cards, featuring either commissioner Howard Schorr or his evil son Emerson making various statements and ultimatums. We'll draw an edict card and then draw a wrestler card to whom it's directed. Like, we draw Chopper A's card, paired with an edict card that says "You're on the bubble--you gotta put up or shut up!" Or, "We're happy with your performance, and would like to offer you a new multi-year contract." Or, "You're one of our biggest TV draws, so we'll need you to wrestle in the IMPACT show." What's the IMPACT show? Well...
• Thursday, 11.04.22 will be the 2023 WAF Impact Show, a "Win or Get Out" event where WAF wrestlers who haven't earned the commissioner's endorsement will be paired off against each other, with the winner getting a 2023 contract and the loser being kicked out of the federation! But wait--we'll allow viewers to "save" somebody once the results are in!
• Monday, 11.08.22 will be the final show of the series, the 2023 WAF Push Show. Here, wrestlers who have solidified their star status will be paired off against each other, with the winner getting a "push" in the 2023 card ratings!
After these three shows are concluded, we'll use the results in creating the new 2023 Stars Wrestling America Federation card set, which will be introduced in January. And YOU can say you watched the card set come together!
FREE STUFF!
• Travis Jansen's 2021 Baseball "Final Four" for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL: Thanks to Travis, PLAAY Gamers once again get the chance to pre-PLAAY the Big league Fall Classic with HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL. Based on actual playoff rosters, Travis has also included cards for key players who, for whatever reason, did not have significant game time in the real thing (marked with a special outlined diamond usage symbol).
• Joe Pritchard's 1986 Pro Season for COLD SNAP: Once again, Joe has applied his extensive Canadian football knowledge and passion to create a retro-season for COLD SNAP. The download includes all nine teams, an instant results sheet and twelve pages of notes and insights--you WILL be impressed!
• Don Weed/Tim Lowery's 1957 Convertible Series for RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN’: This would be SO incredibly unsafe in today's stock car racing, but back in the day racing in convertibles was a thing (for a brief time)! Over 100 drivers included! Don writes, "The (NP) drivers were not in contention for the points title and the 'X' designation were the drivers that did not have a predominant car number. The season was kind of a wind-down from 1956. Fewer races and entries per race. The series disappeared entirely part way through 1958. Only a few of the drivers appeared to be serious by attending a majority of the races. Bob Welborn took the title again even though Curtis Turner had more wins."
• Lenny LaFrance's Weekend Baseball League for HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL: This home-brewed league is all about small-town baseball, where weekend warriors (ages 18+, or 16 or 17-year-olds with parental permission) come together for a 76-game season to create small-town baseball glory! This AMAZING package includes cards for all 10 teams, a set of "fringe players" AND Lenny's personal statistical results for reference! Pretty cool.
Rob’s Tabletop World is BACK!
We’re thrilled to welcome Rob Oren back to board game action with his YouTube site Rob's Tabletop World! Rob’s featured a number of PLAAY games recently, including FACE TO THE MAT Pro Wrestling, BOWL-O-RAMA Championship Bowling Game, and “Let’s PLAAY Jai-Alai” from PLAAY NOW! Rob brings a LOT of enthusiasm to the screen, so brace yourself—it’s time to PLAAY, in Rob’s Tabletop World!!
Shout Out to Tom Manning, Baseball Board Games Elder Statesman!
87 year-old Tom Manning is new to HISTORY MAKER BASEBLL but has watching and following baseball since 1941! "The first game I went to at the Polo Grounds, Mel Ott was playing right field for the New York Giants." Say what? Tom continues, "I was privileged to see many great ball players in my time, but the icing in the cake was getting to meet the Babe and shake his ham-like hand when I was a kid."
Anybody ELSE in our hobby ever shake hands with Babe Ruth? Um, I didn't think so!
Tom says he's always had a love affair with the game of baseball, growing up with his pals on the streets of New York City in the 1940's. "When we weren’t actually involved in playing many street variations of the game," Tom remembers, "we were listening to a radio program called 'Today’s Baseball,' which was a recap of games played in New York, narrated by Marty Glickman." (If the name Marty Glickman only faintly rings a bell, you can refresh your memory here!)
"My first glove was bought for me from a pawn shop in New York City, a Steve Sundra model. Later, I foolishly saved my shoe-shining money to purchase a black lacquer bat, signed in golden script by the AL Champions, the Boston Red Sox in 1946! I say 'foolishly' because we used the bat to play ball with and did a great amount of damage to it before it finally gave up the ghost. Wish I still had that beauty..."
Tom has joined the PLAAY Games community after a lifetime of enjoying several other tabletop baseball games. "My first introduction to a board game was Lou Fonseca's All Star Baseball Game, which involved a spinning metal needle that was over a pie chart reflecting the inserted batter's statistics. The batters were all-stars and real-life teams were not available. As kids, we wore that game out! As life went on I saw my beloved Giants swing to the West coast, and I lost some interest in the game at that point." But Tom's passion for baseball was re-ignited in 1962 with the arrival of the NEW kid in town, the New York Mets! "At that point I got heavily back into the game, and I purchased APBA baseball which I played for many years. I then switched to Strat-O-Matic baseball which again filled a void. I even got into their football game since I had a neighbor who was in love with sports as deeply as myself."
That brings us to today, and the new board game on Tom's table. "Looking back, the one thing that I see was missing in my previously owned games was a narrative. I mean, there are so many intangibles in sports games that are never addressed, and yet play a great role in success or failure. When a friend told me about HMB, I was mildly interested. The more I researched, the more appealing the game became." Tom says he's still in "spring training” mode with HMB, "but I love what I see." (That’s not to say he’ll stop enjoying the other games, of course!)
The reason I wanted to feature Tom is not because he's found HMB (although I'm super excited that he has!). Rather it's because I see him living proof that "you're never too old" to enjoy our grand pastime of table-top sports simulation board games. Probably most of us, if we're honest, have had the thought run through our head that maybe we should—ahem—grow up and put our games away. Or, we have some health challenges that discourage us and we set the hobby aside. (Tom himself suffered a mild stroke which has made it more difficult for him to play, but play he does!). I see Tom as a real inspiration, and I'm appreciative of his persistence and enthusiasm. Once again, I co-opt Ron Arnst's slug line, in Tom's honor: "Keep 'em rolling!"
Fantastic RWBR Finish!
From Kevin Watson: “It was one of those 'you had to be there' moments on a just completed race. I am running a 2012 Scram WSCC off-season barnstorming tour of 18 races. Third stop was in Chengdu, China. This track has a REPAIR rating of [-3] and it had a major play on last turn! Kurt Bryson #57, who just earned a double-chip last pit bonus on pit 27 of 28 turns--which put him in 2nd place--was gunning for #9 Disco Stu Yurich (with no performance chips!). Now that you have that picture in your head, one guess what I rolled... triples!!! Bryson was bumped from the side by Jimmy Velasco, causing internal damage (54 problem finder) and must roll for repair! Yep, a B-grade of 4 on the final third of race with a repair change of -3 only means one thing: a 36th place finish instead of winning and a sure-fire feud with Mister #11 in next race--which happens to be on a short track in Russia!! I had to pause for a moment after that triple 1 roll, yelling OMG...then quickly tell myself 'man I love this game!'“
That’s all for THIS Month…
Just a heads-up that the November CONNECT will be the day before Thanksgiving, instead of the last Monday of the month. Quick turnaround! It’ll likely be a little less “newsy,” but we’ll plan on sharing final details about the Holiday Sale and posting the usual Thanksgiving “freebies.”
Also a quick health update: I completed my radiation course on October 12th and the brachytherapy procedure on October 14th. The radiologist was pleased with the results and the brachytherapy surgeon said the procedure went “perfectly.” From here, it’s basically a six-month wait to affirm the protocol’s success. I have a consult scheduled for April 14th, and then six-month check-ups for five years. Thanks SO much for all the prayers, encouragement and support (but especially the prayers, which I know have been instrumental in this outcome).
We’ll see you online for one or more of our streams, and in-person at Game Train USA on the 13th. In the meantime, enjoy our great hobby however it suits you best! We appreciate you being part of the PLAAY Games community!
Keith Avallone, PLAAY Games LLC
Photo Finish!
PLAAY Gamer Gary Blackmon provides this month’s photo finish—check out Gary’s BOWL-O-RAMA dice rolling tower (below). Wow! Talk about creative!
