Tag: design

#MLB Team Tokens for the #RallyBird #Baseball #BoardGame — Work in Progress — Potential Brainwave

Hello! While I’m testing out the rules for the MLB, I’m also trying out various graphical ideas for team name tokens. I imagine that it would help the thematic feel of historic teams.

I’m trying out  hexagonal laser cut tiles and illustrating them with a ballpark display in mind… colors and images against a field of black. (These are hexagonal to differentiate themselves from the square Glove tiles for easy sorting, and small to be inexpensive to the consumer.)

The players would take these team name tokens and place them at the top of the RallyBird Baseball Board Game to the left and right of the Inning spaces. Each token would have two sides, red and blue, visitor and home. This of course harmonizes with the standard RallyBird Baseball Board Game.

This is not final. I don’t know about the distribution of the spaces between words and images, for example… I won’t really know what I think of this concept or the graphics until I order a physical prototype and try it out. But right now I think I had a little “brainwave” when I thought of adding the token images like player profiles in the real ballpark experience. Baseball tells a story.

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Note: I rejected this design. Click here if you would like to see an unboxing of the Add-On Kit that includes the professional team tiles and rules.

Here’s a link to the RallyBird Board Game Rules PDF. 

The board game is currently for sale here.

Dynamic How to Play video below!

The RallyBird Baseball Board Game’s Rules = Basically 2 Pages

The RallyBird Baseball Board Game‘s rules are 8 pages total, but the rules take up only 2 of those pages (page 2 and 3, below).  My point is that the rules are easy and concise. This allows you to concentrate on your tactics, with quick turns and decisions for offense and defense each At Bat. The information on the cards is intuitive and matches the board’s logic is multiple ways. Easy!

These are low resolution screenshots–but you can download the full pdf…
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Okay, those are the main rules, pages 2 and 3. What about page 1? Page 1 is an overview of the game components…

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Page 4 is a diagram of the mechanics, plus some optional rules…

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Pages 5-6 of the rules are a Beginners Guide, and 7-8 are the Frequently Asked Questions. These pages support board gamers with less experience or those less confident about baseball. I designed the RallyBird Board Game to play!

Here’s a link to the RallyBird Board Game Rules PDF. 

The board game is currently for sale here.

Dynamic How to Play video below!

Testing MLB Team Rules for the RallyBird Baseball Board Game

I designed the RallyBird Baseball Board Game for a easy, 1-hour, thoughtful board game experience of the sport. This meant when I recently took on the task of adapting historic MLB team performance to Rally Bird, I did not try to drill down on the charismatic, individual statistical performance of players. Instead, these optional, add-on MLB rules I’m testing depend on team averages over the season. This is a necessary simplification to keep the RB board game quick and playable, yet with emphasis on decisions for offense and defense each At Bat.

Within these broad modifications, the decisions of the board game players and their dice determine the individuality of events. It’s fun for me to try to adapt MLB team performance to the characteristics of this board game. Does it succeed? I don’t know yet, but I’ve designed and ordered the components I need to test the playable asymmetry of the 2018 season. This includes a larger set of Glove defense tiles, and the print out of the adaption rules (1 page) and individual team ratings in RallyBird Board Game categories.

By the way, enjoy today! It’s opening day of the new MLB season! –PG

Prototype of the Mini RallyBird Board Game

Yesterday, the third prototype of the Mini RallyBird Board Game arrived…

I left the scissors in the photo to help you get a sense of the small, portable size.  The smaller size also means cost savings for the consumer, both for the game itself and cheaper postal fees. Gameplay is the same, but some of the components are a little different, and I’m adjusting the game board accordingly to help match, and for visibility.

I was able to make revisions and order a fourth prototype…. this is progress!

Here is a link to the rules PDF: RallyBird Rules, Guide, FAQ .

You can pick up your own copy of the regular sized RallyBird Board Game here.

 

 

Theory 3: Baseball Offers a Natural Dramatic Structure

In this video I describe baseball’s natural dramatic storytelling structure. Yes I use a graph. There are two kinds of baseball dramatic structure. You may recall from grammar school the classic literary story graph with rising action leading to the climactic confrontation. The overall drama is the fatigue of the starter pitcher, the rising tension when the coach needs to send in the first reliever, and what happens next. I also argue that the baseball game includes mini dramas each half inning with the struggle of batters and baserunners against the hard limit of only 3 outs.

(If you’re looking for Theory 2, Baseball has dynamic topography, I appended the link below. And here’s the link where you can purchase the game. Thanks!