design – The RallyByrd Baseball Board Game

Baseball Season 2023

The RallyBird Baseball Board Game is coming back in April 2023 with new board art and more, but it’s the same game.

Baseball Season has returned! I’m ready for it to be GREAT.

If we’re talking about Major League Baseball, I am rooting for the new pitch (and batter) clock that keeps the game pace moving. Total game lengths seem to be returning to ~two hours after an epoch of some time bloat.

If we’re talking about the Rallybird Baseball Board Game by Sir Deer & Owls Company, I think the new edition, due out in late April 2023, will also be GREAT.

This edition is mostly the same, but here are the changes:

New Original Art for Board and Tiles

The new board with players in action replacing the Gloves

Smaller Box–It’s a new, slim design of box that opens with a hinge. It has tabs that lock on the other side. Aside from the art, the components haven’t changed. The board and cards are the same size. The rules booklet are the same size. Still, the new box is slimmer and a little smaller in length and depth.

Other than some of the art, and the box, it’s the same game.

RallyBird Baseball has been out in the world since 2018 and has proven itself to accomplish what it aims to do–provide a ~1-hour playable baseball board game for two people, with easy rules, meaningful decisions, real baseball spirit, and appeal for fans, casual or serious.

–Peter Gelman RallyBirdBaseball (at) gmail (dot) com

New Edition of RallyBird Baseball Coming Fall 2022

Hello! The RallyBird Baseball board game sold out. (I recently sold the cache I reserved for conventions. As I write this, I think there is 1 copy left, lost in amazon’s warehouse, for sale when they locate it.)

I updated the graphics of the game’s board and Glove tiles and will soon be manufacturing this new edition. I’ll offer it for sale on amazon and on another site.

The new graphics show a silhouette of a fielder in action, where before there was a big glove.

In addition I updated the shape of the infield, to mimic the actual outward curve of the clay area, the arches around the bases.

I updated the rulebook to reflect the new artwork. There are no rules changes.

Pictures coming soon!

The Dark Oval of Fate, a decorative evolution to the #RallyBird #Baseball #BoardGame, Symbolizing the Role of #Decisions pressing against the Roll of #Dice (plus #Heidegger’s Influence)

When Martin Heidegger raised the issue of Being, and Being-There (“Dasein”), I suspect he suffered a small chill, knowing the influence he would have on baseball board game design. I think he was trying to get us to be aware that we poor souls find ourselves thrust in a world as it is. What follows (briefly) is our Concern. Without our sense of time, we could have no concern. Here I am pressed for time, and therefore I am Concerned about the graphic look of this baseball board game I’m trying to lift up into its own Being-in-the-World.

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As you can see, I’ve added the Dark Oval of Fate to the box cover. There’s a shadow under every pair of dice. How satisfying it is to know this, face this and make a decision! The thrust pierces through the veil, or, perhaps, we bend our épée on a fence post, not our opponent, while a beautiful woman in a ruffled outfit watches. I have ordered a prototype. Only you, dear reader, know what this graphical change symbolizes. May it lighten your Concern!

Please note, as a favor to you I did not use any semicolons in this post. O, how I wanted to!

New Box Art is Happening In #RallyBird #Baseball Land (plus Dramatic Myth of Sisyphus Reference)

In moments of pause, saith Camus, after Sisyphus has pushed his rock to the top of the hill, and it tumbles down again, he trudges down after it; and in that moment, before pushing it back up again, Sisyphus has his moment of triumph.

Things are happening in R-B-B-B-Land! Stay (trudge) tuned (trudge)!

I, and my massive shoulders, do thank you.

PS. I offer my apologies for using a semicolon.

#MLB Team Name Tiles for the #RallyBird #Baseball #BoardGame–Update (#Mets)

This graphic design is a work in progress–and I think this current design is better. I’m trying to convey the feeling of a ballpark’s electronic billboard. I haven’t finished this yet for the 30 teams (x2 for Away and Home, Red and Blue versions), nor have I yet ordered physical prototypes. Since the RallyBird Baseball Board Game is generalist (no lineup, no rotation) in order to make it a quick, easy, tactical and thoughtful 1-hour board game that 2 people will actually play in real life, I think the hex tiles with colorful team names would help the theme. (I have provisional rules for adapting the RallyBird Baseball Board Game to historical MLB performance. I’m testing them out based on the 2017-2018 season.) The players would place these at the top of the board to the left (visitor) and right (home team) of the Innings scoreboard.

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