Tabletop SportCast

With the World Cup kicking off in just a couple of weeks, I take a look at my two favorite soccer games: Dice United and Soccer Blast. The two games are very different, and we'll provide a brief overview of each and talk about which may be the right game for you.

In today's episode I do a retrospective of my tabletop activities for October. This month I had to face the dreaded Project Backlog! I'll discuss what went wrong over the past few months that led to me walking away from gaming for a short bit and how I regrouped to address that backlog and set a plan for moving forward. Some of which required me to revisit the core tenets of my hobby experience.

This past weekend I attended the Hoops in Hartford event hosted by Plaay Games. It was a great opportunity to play some History Maker Baseball Express, the full game of Highlight Maker Hoops (full game version), chat with some fellow Plaay gamers, hear directly from Keith and Sam, and also play some other titles. This episode is my recap of that event.

This week I take a look back at the 1975 World Series and provide some reasons for why the Reds and Red Sox were often included as freebies in baseball games (at least that's how I remember it!)

Today's episode is Part 2 of my interview with Gary Brown of Stone Mountain Press. In Part 1 (Episode 84) we discussed his newest release: Stone Cold Hockey as well as another game, Dice United. Today's segment covers his treatment of fictional leagues as well as further discussion around two additional titles from Stone Mountain Press: Gridzone and Legends of Boxing. You can check out all of thes...

This week features Part 1 of my interview with Gary Brown of Stone Mountain Press. Today we discuss his latest game, Stone Cold Hockey which has recently delivered on pre-orders and is getting ready for it's official release. We also talk about Dice United which uses a similar game engine as Stone Cold Hockey. Part 2 of the interview will post next week, and will feature Gridzone and Legends of Bo...

In today's episode I discuss one of the agile principles: #8 Maintaining A Sustainable Working Pace. Understanding your availability and the seasonal fluctuations will help you assess each project as you go through planning. I'll discuss how to implement this principle to effectively have constant delivery of your tabletop projects.

In today's episode I review the two most prevalent forms of randomizing results in simulation games: Fast Action Cards and Dice. I'll discuss different forms of dice, and how FAC decks can speed up games by consolidating information into a single place. I also recap some recent gaming action on my tabletop, including a brand new game for me ... Dice United!

In today's episode I will take An Inside Look at Baseball Highlights, The Dice Game designed by Mike Fitzgerald and Ian Bach. I will also recap the month of August and take a look ahead at what's coming up in the month of September and beyond.

Wow! It's been a whole year of recording episodes already and #80 will recap the first year by discussing the origins of the podcast, the evolution of the content, and a glimpse into the future. Appreciate all the support as I close in on my 10,000th download!

In today's episode I recap yesterday's Extra-Life Marathon event. What did I play? How did it go? What went well? What could have gone better? What will I do differently the next time out? All these questions are answered ... and more! Thanks again to all who donated! If you wish to donate you can do so here: https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=...

Going live today for my Extra-Life Marathon. Join me as I play some Plaay Games for charity. You can join the marathon on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/C4gzbcRtRSM You can also donate here: https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=486263

Today we take a look at the newest title from Plaay Games: History Maker Baseball Express! I'll discuss some of my experiences playing the game and how I see it fitting in with the rest of the Plaay Game catalog. Also - a special announcement regarding a fundraiser I will be running next week and highlighting a project completed by Cooper Gilbert!

Just returned from the annual Plaay convention and wanted to share my thoughts on the weekend in a nice Top 10 list.

In today's episode I take An Inside Look at Gridzone, the alternate sport game of football by Stone Mountain Press. I recently wrapped up my Season 1 project of Gridzone, including running the off-season component. I'll discuss how the game is played, give a quick recap of my project, and discuss how the off-season component works. You can read more about the game on the Stone Mountain Games websi...

With less than 2 weeks to go, I decided to dedicate today's episode to previewing Plaay-Dot-Con. We will run down the activity list and what to expect.

In today's episode I run down my Top 5 Wrestling Games for the tabletop.

In today's episode I sit down with ST Patrick, creator of Sports Sim Magazine and The Squared Circle - a wrestling game. We discuss both of those ventures as well as his upcoming appearance at Plaay-Dot-Con where he will be a featured presenter. This is the longest episode I've done to date, but a great conversation on several topics. You can check out his Lulu site where both Sport Sim Magazine a...

In today's episode I take a look back at what I've accomplished so far this year and then look ahead to the rest of 2022 to see if my goals can be achieved. I'll cover the wide variety of games that have been on the tabletop in 2022, the ones that haven't, and how the second-half of this year will set me up for success in 2023. What are some of the things that have helped me successful so far this...

As any good agile practitioner knows, you need to expect the unexpected. In today's episode we'll discuss several examples of how you can plan for the unknown in your monthly, quarterly and annual project planning. We will also explore a unique scheduling opportunity with pro wrestling, where planning for the unknown is paramount to a successful federation.

This week we focus on the return of a fan favorite Cooperative event hosted by Paul Salzgeber, the Plaay Tour, which is now in it's 3rd season. We'll examine what makes the Plaay Tour such a successful event and how we can use that formula with other games. I also discuss a new approach to wrestling federations with a project I kicked off this week.

Your projects won't always succeed, but do you ever think back on them to understand why they fail? Failure in inevitable, but learning from those failures is at the core of agile. Today I look back on two failed projects, and one failing project, to better understand the root cause of those failures. We also give a shout-out to Brett Sonnenschein for his Hockey Blast project!

Today I look back at the three games that were where my love for Tabletop Sports began: Statis-Pro Baseball, Football, and Basketball. I'll discuss what made them stand out from the others, why those traits are still important in my gaming choices, and why it also signaled it was time to move away from them.

I recently called a stop to the 1961 Continental League cooperative project. In today's episode I'll do a retrospective on that project to see what went well, what didn't go well, and what I would do differently the next time around.

Today I run down the Top 5 Basketball games in my collection. I'm not a major game collector. I do a lot of research before purchasing games, and because of that, not every game makes it into my collection. This list features those that made the cut.