Unofficial #Solitaire #Rules for the #RallyBird #BaseBall #BoardGame

Here’s a way to play RallyBird Baseball solitaire. It’s unofficial. The introduction explains why. Here’s a screenshot of it, below. Or you can download the PDF and read it there.

I designed the game with the social electricity and ferment of two live players in mind. Again and again, I made design choices intended to help two people want to take the game off the shelf and, without rules barriers, sit down and compete socially. The excitement, aggravation, worry, and second-guessing of each other I think is essential. Mind-saber clashes against mind-saber to make sparks. One face shows triumph, the other playful horror. That’s a memorable experience, and my idea of fun.

The panorama of baseball provides the ballad for the clash of wit and chance.

In RallyBird (aka RallyByrd), all choices have a chance of success or failure. It’s a matter of degree. When play testing years ago, I tried a random method of choosing offense or defense, and making decisions by deliberate choice for the other. I wanted to test the game’s ability to sustain conscious purpose. I proved to myself that conscious decisions, over time, won over random.

We all might want or need to play solitaire sometimes. I’m sympathetic. Do these unofficial charts work? I don’t know. They required a sizable random spirit to forestall predictability. It needs play testing proof in all respects. It might remain unofficial forever.

These charts do provide randomness. There’s a tension within them of purpose versus random. In addition, I don’t know if the mechanic of the charts works for enjoyment. What do you think? Again, the introduction provides my further thoughts on this.

By the way, here are some non-Amazon places you can purchase the game, signed and numbered, as supplies last: here and here.

#LiveStream Recorded #RallyBird #StayHome #Baseball #BoardGame Session 9

Pete vs Suzie. May 12, 2020. Game number 9 in the #StayHome series. After Suzie told me about her familiarity with softball, we launched into an overview of the rules with a couple of practice At Bats. The game starts about the 12:00 mark and moves along quickly. There was some Internet fuzziness here and there but it’s not too bad–I’m grateful for the chance to play this way, and share it with anyone interested.

Suzie named her lineup of 4 (based on the number of team tokens): 1. Chauncy, 2. Chad, 3. Brad, 4. Sad.

She learned the rules quickly and was even able to correct me on the final play.

The game had a dramatic finish! Whether relatedly or not, Suzie is a fan of the Rally Bird. She called it the Equity Bird.

Spring is Coming! and #RallyBird Baseball Rules PDF Link

Spring is coming. Where I live there are no new leaves, but aye, buds on some of the trees. The quince bulbs are insistently pink even as it rains and glooms. Soon there will appear a little white orb in the sky, one scored by the looping helix of red stitching. Take a moment from your snow shoveling to think of the accidental genius of that stitching, providing just enough irritation against air travel for the gangly pitcher to impart sensible “english”…

I’ve started another phase of my enterprise, and another and another. Imagine a rolled-up sleeves guy with a magazine-proletarian wrench pulling all he can muster against the nut of a phantasmagorical wheel. Everything takes time, but the plan is to offer you a quicker, easier, and cheaper way to purchase RallyBird Baseball. What a mogul I am! I could grow a twirl-able mustache, but then I’d be just another posturing hipster instead of Truly Special (which is now plain).

Click here to download the current rules PDF –including the friendly setup guide.

While I wait I’m investigating the further steps for the RallyBird Baseball Board Game. Fear not! That horrible process lies safely below the horizon (flat or round?–Controversial). Spring is coming. I reloaded the bird feeder and immediately fat, round birds started whacking at it with their ax-beaks. Whack, whack!

Thanks for your patience.

Update: Click here to see the game for sale on Amazon.com (and eligible for free shipping for Amazon Prime members).

Play Example: Intentional Walk (Optional Rule in the #RallyBirdBaseball Board Game & Anywhere, #Controversial #Baseball)! My Opponent is #Schiller, Poet of Freedom. Runners in Scoring Position! Two Outs! #IBB #Controversy #Beethovens9th #RISP

Does it profit defense to give a free base to the opponent in order to face a weaker batter? The RallyBird Baseball Board Game tries to make this a difficult, meaningful decision by a simple mechanic. This is an optional rule you can find on the last page of the current rule booklet (Oct 2019) available here as a free pdf.