Tabletop SportCast

In this episode, James takes a look back at Q3 and opens up his planning dashboard to share what’s coming to the table for the final quarter of 2026.
Projects on tap include an Early Integration History Maker Baseball tournament, a collection of dream college football rivalry matchups, a 1975-76 NHL tournament with 49 Highlight Hockey, and historical replays featuring the 1966 Masters playoff, the 1926 Belmont Stakes, and the 1896 Olympics.
James also checks in on several ongoing projects—including his 1992 NASCAR season, GridZone league, and 1973 Hall of Fame starting pitcher replay—while talking about his push to get more games to double-digit plays before the end of the year.
Plus, he reflects on an inconsistent stretch for the podcast, the connection between regular content and audience growth, and how his attention is already beginning to turn toward planning projects and content for 2027.
It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how James organizes his tabletop sports year, chooses which projects make the cut, and balances all the games he wants to play with the time available to play them.

What if you could change just one thing in sports history and play out everything that follows?
In this episode of the Tabletop Sportcast, James shares five project starter ideas that bridge historical and fictional gaming. We're talking NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, Expansion, Relocation, Mergers, and historical redos! These ideas offer new ways to make history your own.
Change one thing. Play everything else.

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.