This week on the Tabletop SportCast, I sit down with Matt McKeever of D12 Gaming to talk about the design of their new golf game, Pocket Pro Tour.

Matt takes us behind the design process and explains how the philosophy behind Pocket Pennant Run — small footprint, quick resolution, and doing more with less — carried over to golf, while still requiring a very different game engine.

We talk about finding the right level of abstraction for a golf simulation, why Pocket Pro Tour focuses on drive, approach, scramble, and putting instead of individual clubs and distances, and how the golfer-versus-course interaction became the heart of the game.

We also get into:

• The challenge of designing a shot-by-shot golf game that still plays quickly
• Why seeing the golfers move around the course was essential to the design
• Strategy options for aggressive drives, attacking the pin, and putting
• How Confidence Boosts add risk, timing, and decision-making
• The game's A–D and minus-rating system
• The difficulty of creating historical golfer ratings when detailed statistics don't exist
• Quick-play rules that allow you to simulate full tournament rounds
• The growing Pocket Pro Tour software and plans for future updates
• What Matt learned from Pocket Pennant Run — and what simply wouldn't work the same way in golf
• Why simplicity and removing unnecessary components remain at the center of D12 Gaming's design philosophy

I also share some thoughts after my first full round with Pocket Pro Tour and why I think the game succeeds in capturing the feel of golf without requiring hours to play 18 holes.

You can learn more about Pocket Pro Tour, Pocket Pennant Run, and Small Ball at D12Gaming.com. Pocket Pro Tour is also available through The Game Crafter.

We'll bring Matt and Craig Harris back in the future for a deeper look at the software side of Pocket Pro Tour.

Next week: five project starters to help you kick off your next tabletop sports replay or project.

In this episode of the Tabletop Sportcast, James discusses the upcoming holiday sale and the changes happening within the PLAAY community. He reflects on the past year's events, including the departure of key personnel and the impact on business operations. James speculates on what the holiday sale might look like, emphasizing the importance of PDFs and new game releases while considering the challenges of printed products. He concludes with thoughts on the future direction of PLAAY and the potential for continued changes in the coming year.

Celebrating five years of the Tabletop Sportcast, this episode reflects on the show's evolution, personal hobby updates, and future plans. Host James shares insights on community-created content, hobby tools, and project management, emphasizing the importance of engagement and passion in the hobby.

What if the secret to finishing a massive tabletop project is deciding you don’t have to finish the whole thing? This week, James looks at using milestones to turn oversized projects into manageable chunks, using his 1973 Hall of Fame Starting Pitcher project as a real-world example. Plus, some thoughts on money, change, nostalgia, and why the sports we remember continue to shape what we play on the tabletop.

James sits down with designer Arthur Franz for an inside look at Breakaway Football Dynasty, an upcoming game that puts players in the role of a modern football general manager. They discuss the game’s original concept, resource-management approach, randomly generated coaches and players, two different game simulation engines, and the many ways gamers might build their own dynasty. Arthur also shares where the design currently stands, what emerged from the latest playtesting week, and the challenges ahead on the road to release.

What if you had to reduce your entire tabletop sports game collection to just ten titles?

In Episode 261, James takes on that challenge—but this is not simply a list of his ten favorite games. With only one game allowed per sport and one per designer or game company, he builds a collection designed to provide variety, replayability, historical projects, fictional worlds, solo play, multiplayer options, and a balance between full-play and express games.

From the four major sports, and a collection of others, James explains the difficult decisions behind every choice—and the beloved games that narrowly missed the cut.

Which ten games would survive your own tabletop sports purge?

In this episode of the Tabletop SportCast, James opens with a review of Sports Sim Magazine Issue #23, highlighting the articles, community voices, and free playable content that make the magazine such a valuable part of the hobby. Then, in the main topic, James looks back at ten moments that redefined his tabletop journey, from discovering Statis-Pro Baseball and MicroLeague Baseball to fantasy football, online communities, Plaay-Not-Con 2020, the gaming log, the launch of Tabletop SportCast, and the creative possibilities opened by ChatGPT. It’s a personal, chronological look at how games, stats, community, technology, and creativity shaped the way one tabletop sports gamer experiences the hobby.

Sport Sim Magazine - Issue #23 (E-book): https://www.lulu.com/shop/mwn-publications/sports-sim-magazine-issue-23-ebook-pdf/ebook/product-7kzemkd.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Summer has arrived on the tabletop, and episode 259 is all about turning the page from a busy spring into a fresh season of gaming. James recaps his Q2 gaming numbers, including 154 sessions, 37 different games, 23 projects, and a spring table led heavily by baseball. He also looks back at key projects like the 1973 Hall of Fame Starting Pitcher Project, the 1986 MLB Tournament, XSE’s road to Apex, Gridzone AGL Season 5, and several first-time plays. Around the Table includes updates from PLAAY Games, Sideline Strategy Games, Season Ticket Baseball, Powder Blue Sports, 3d6 Gaming, 49 Sports Games, and Sports Sim Magazine. Then James shifts into summer plans, featuring more History Maker Baseball, the 1978 horse racing season with PLAAY at the Races, a 1966 AFL/NFL Season Ticket Football tournament, Gridzone, 1992 NASCAR, Featured Table Fridays, Fury Hardball FLASH, Legends of Boxing, and more.

In this episode of the Tabletop SportCast, James sits down with Roy Paeth for a Father’s Day conversation about games, family, community, and finding time for ourselves. Roy shares his journey from Strat-O-Matic Football and Statis-Pro Baseball to rediscovering tabletop sports games during COVID, eventually finding his way to live gaming conventions and a welcoming community of fellow hobbyists. The conversation also explores fatherhood, gaming with adult children, unplugging from everyday distractions, and Roy’s daily walking and hiking routine as a way to clear his mind and stay active. It’s a reflective episode about the role games can play in our lives — not just as a solo escape, but as a way to connect, reset, and create lasting memories around the table.

This week on the Tabletop SportCast, James sits down with Ian Brooke, designer of On Deck Baseball, for a conversation about creating a baseball game that captures more than just stats on a card. Ian shares the game’s origins, the importance of fictional leagues, player artwork, fatigue, confrontation rolls, and the design choices that help each game tell its own story. Along the way, they discuss how On Deck Baseball balances flow, strategy, realism, and pace while giving players the feeling that baseball is unfolding one pitch, one roll, and one decision at a time.

On-Deck Baseball Website: https://www.on-deckbaseballgame.com/#/

On-Deck Baseball on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/On-Deck-Baseball-113393317125269

Email Ian Brooke: [email protected]