The Latest News from #RallyBirdBaseball Central

Hello RallyBirders!

I am recovering from an unwelcome bug. So I fight back with practical news mixed with an impractical mirthful spirit.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you’d like to contact me, please feel free to email me at: RBBB email.png

I’ve already received a few player emails and I welcome them!

RULES UPDATE (MINOR)

I paid a service to review my rules and received some suggestions about small clarifications. Therefore, voilà, here’s a link to the October 2019 version of the rules. Truth is beauty, beauty Truth.

BIG LEAGUE GRAPHICS

Here’s an update on the RallyBird Baseball Board Game Add-On Kit: Big League & Coach Card Easy Advanced Game. There is no change to the rules or to the Coach Cards portion of the kit.

I’m in the process of changing the graphics due to branding/copyright respect of the large and powerful legal entity known as . These changes include the 30 team tiles. They will show a graphic of a variety of rally birds instead of the team name.

I laboriously finished all the 60 graphics of the two-sided tiles and ordered a prototype to proof before releasing. I imagine this will happen in November, the same month that TS Eliot took British citizenship in 1927. Coincidence???

BIG LEAGUE… 2019 SEASON ?!

Much to my astonishment, I stare with eyes round like saucers at the fact that the 2019 regular big leaguebaseball season has concluded. Therefore its history of jostling team performance is now available to RallyBird Central’s mathematical wing. What can stop me? I can cogitate and digest the points of the 2019 season into the easy, quick turned, ready-to-play RallyBird rules. I’ve plunged once into the data, and came up for the air. When will my next plunge be? Soon, friends, soon.

When ready I’ll add the 2019 season to the Big League Add-On Kit. Whether it’s part of the printed part or not I have to consider. I suppose it should bump the 2018 season data off. If I include both seasons in print, it adds to the cost. I’ll consider all the options. Both seasons will be available as a free download for anyone who buys the Add-On Kit.

INSTAGRAM

Yes, I did it. The RallyBird Baseball Board Game is now on Instagram. You will never see a picture of me posing with duck lips, however. I’m still figuring out what it can do. I like the ability to send short video clips of the board game in action. I don’t want to shock you, but the address is: https://www.instagram.com/rallybirdbaseball . I’ll follow you back.

The RallyBirdBaseball YouTube Channel

There are 8 videos for you to watch about the RallyBird Baseball board game here. Please subscribe!

In a funny way, the videos reflect a history of my familiarity with making videos, the tools I use, and my ability to edit them. Who knew that board game creation required knowledge of video editing? Crazy world, yes, but it’s also an awesome world of opportunity I’m trying to embrace.

You can help others who might be interested in the board game by clicking the thumbs up button. Thanks!

Dreams & Ambitions

I’d like to make the RallyBird Baseball Board Game available on Amazon. There are a lot of little steps I need to take before I can do this. One I have done already–purchased UPC codes for the game. There are other steps I need to take, equal in charm.

In general I’d like to bring the cost down. Suddenly iron laws of economics stomp in the hallway. I’d like to explore other manufacturers. Suddenly CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key black) standards rear their proboscises. Professional printing standards shouldn’t be an intrusion!

Well, everything is a learning step and I like to learn. However my little computer is already wheezing with my current graphics program. In short, I probably need a new computer and a new professional graphics program in order to explore other manufacturers. Perhaps there is a work-around. That’s where my thought process slenders down under the Limbo stick and probes the far end of the asymptote.

OCTOBER BASEBALL

Have you been enjoying the October Baseball postseason drama? My little friend here was so nervous about the 9th Inning last night, she just went to bed with a plate of apple pie. I’m still trying to calm my hair down from it standing straight up for so long.

Why is that pain so delicious? Isn’t it odd how baseball adds meaning to my humble life? I made a conscious decision in my middle age to follow baseball again and I have no regrets! It’s so much fun. Too soon it will be over. Relish it, friends!

Thank you for reading.

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!

#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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Note: I ultimately rejected this design. You can see here the final design.

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!

#RallyBird #Baseball #BoardGame Playtest pics: 2018 #Dodgers v #Giants

I have been play testing my add-on rules for applying the 2018 MLB season to the RallyBird Baseball Board Game. This requires the larger array of Glove tiles than the standard board game includes. They also come in different colors.

Generally, both 2018 teams have decent hitting and pitching but slightly less than average defense. The rules I’m testing give a slight edge to the Dodgers.

Dodgers scored 1 run in the top of the 7th. Then the Giants came back and small-balled in a couple runs. (You can see the damage in RallyBird terms, shaking the pitcher and defense in general, with the two missing tiles that the board’s printed Glove values must fulfill. You can also see part of each teams sky blue stack of Run tiles beside each dugout.)

Then, with runners at the corners, the next Giants bat let out a tremendous, musical CRACK. Kayakers in McCovey Cove saw it coming, and started paddling!

It’s going… It’s going… (Here’s a picture of the first of the two required die rolls make a Home Run in the RallyBird Baseball Board Game.)

Second die roll attempt below…Caught at the wall!

The kayakers were disappointed but not mad because it is a lovely day to be in the Bay, lovely to be floating in the shadow of their city’s great stadium, and hear the sounds of the team, winning 2-1 as the eighth inning begins. Will the Dodgers answer?

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!

#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.

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!