Bought this to play with my 8 year old son. We have both had a ton of fun with it. You can tell the author has played this game with kids because his advice in the book is spot on. After many, many board games with my son, you just have to go with the flow and let the fun happen naturally. Thankfully, that's very easy with this game. Highly recommend. In fact, he's enjoyed it so much he's asking to play the Deadball.

I own the previous editions of the Deadball books and love each of them but this Second Edition is the best yet as it consolidates and streamlines both the Modern Era and Ancient Era along with other improvements and additions under one cover. A must buy if you're a baseball fan!

Sandy Koufax reaches back and heaves his magically "jumping" ball toward the plate frustrating Mookie Betts to win the second Dodgers time travel world series!

This game is absolutely fantastic, and I've played stats-based baseball from APBA, Avalon Hill's Statis Pro, and Strat-O-Matic. For me all of them shine when you can pull out two legendary teams from different eras and play a "what if?" game that feels satisfying and legitimate.

Here, decades later, Deadball not only makes the game feel as if you are watcing the game play out in your head (I'm not sure how W.M. Akers has managed that, but, well, HE HAS), but the game is quick, easy to learn, not overly stats heavy. At the same time you get the sense that the games make sense. OH THERE ARE those crazy blowouots, but that's baseball! Unless you are totally wedded to box scores over "the game," this is the one you want. I've been on board with this system for years, but if you are new to it, go with the Second Edition; it incorporates all of the key variants of the prior books.

Creator W.M. Akers sums it up perfectly: "Deadball: Worse than baseball. Better than everything else."

What makes this game great? 1) Its intuitiveness -- It's easy to see how a .320 hitter manifests in Deadball, and why he's better than a .260 hitter. It's obvious how a lights out closer, a control pitcher, a defensive whiz at shortstop, or a slugging first baseman enhance your team with their abilities and strengths. The translation of player types to game effects is obvious, and the pace of gameplay natural. (When does a slugger's power matter? When you expect. When do you roll for defense? At exactly the time it feels like you should.) This makes the game easy to learn, and better yet, easy to translate in the mind's eye into baseball action on the field. Deadball streamlines things enough to keep them simple, while maintaining enough complexity to capture the feel of real baseball.

2) Its versatility -- Want to re-play the 1960 World Series? It's easy to translate real-life teams into Deadball teams. Want to see how the 1935 Tigers fare against the 2012 Nationals? Deadball makes that translation just as quick. Looking to create a fictional league with players all your own? That's straightforward, too. Interested in just picking up and playing? Deadball comes prepped with its own fictional league with rosters already drawn up, ready for the action to begin.

Is this a solo game, or two player? Either. My impression is most people play solo, but my friends and I play head-to-head and it's a blast that way, too. If you've heard a baseball game on the radio, it's easy to fall into a cadence where you announce your rolls back and forth, adding color commentary that spells out just what's happening on the field.

Is this a game or a simulation? Somewhere in between. You have about as much control over the game outcome as an MLB manager does. But if you like watching baseball games--and especially if you enjoy listening to them on the radio--this game will seriously scratch that itch.

How does the Second Edition compare to past editions? It's a streamlined, clarified, tweaked ruleset that takes the best of Deadball Years 1-4 and spells them out more clearly than ever. The rules have never been more straightforward to translate from the page to the table, and some of the rules that didn't quite sing before have been modified or cast aside in favor of alternatives. It's also fully compatible with the previous editions--if there's a rule you miss or a deep dive in one of those rulesets that you want to incorporate, you're playing with the same chassis and the game is just as flexible and easy to house rule as ever. I would buy a previous edition if you'd like to add complexity in its area of focus (or if you want the history and past seasons of the Southern Circuit), but Deadball, Second Edition has everything you need and is absolutely the place to start.

Deadball is amazingly versatile to play different levels and eras of baseball. Such a fun game that remains in-depth enough to hold my attention, but still simple enough to play without being overly complicated. It's even customizable enough for me to use for a Covid-era all-time great college softball tournament social media project for the NCAA Division II conference that I work for.

I enjoy Baseball and often catach a game or two. However, the length of each game sometimes is too much for me. Deadball came along and it is amazing. The game can go with me and I can continue the game anywhere (the need for space was something I thought would be a restriction but hey, PDF rosters and dice apps means the game is handheld and portable). Not difficult to learn, inclusion of some modifers that takes pure luck off the table, I have had many seasons of fun. With the supplements that have been published, this game is as fresh as the day I purchased it (I believe it was Kickstarter). One of my few games on the table on a regular basis.

I have loved the Deadball as well as the Strange Times shorts. Although I was already a fan, this book was a tremendous surprise. After recieving my digital copy from the Kickstarter campaign, I was initially resigned to waiting for the physical copies to get started. As I finished my current read, I began flipping through my digial shelf of shame and came across the file in my collection.

In what is perhaps the quickest read I have done, this book drew me in from the beginning and kept me engaged throughout. I am very glad I decided to jump on this title and will probably do another run through once I get the hard copy. If you are familiar with W.M. Akers, you will not be disappointed. If you are not familiar with Mr. Akers, then this would be a great place to start. In the realm of my short list of gaming related novels, this one stands at the top of the mountain.

Thank you sir and I look forward to any of your future works....

I've loved W.M. Akers's writing since his Deadball (game) books and his Westside series of novels. The writing style is vivid, laced with unexpected twists, and studded with humor. Critical Hit brings something new to the experience, it is inspired by the universe of Old School RPG's.

On my Kallax shelves, near my 1st Games Workshop edition of Talisman and the much-newer Gloomhaven I have a prized book on a display stand; it's my 1st Ed. AD&D Dungeon Master's Manual. I grew up playing early TSR Dungeons & Dragons and still occasionally find myself in a Pathfinder session with my daughter and her friends on Zoom. Video games? I have stacks of JRPGs. The dungeon crawl is a world I am familiar with. In Critiocal Hit Akers shows that it is his world as well. It's an adventurious "what if?" story of that world of graph paper and polyhedral dice and smudged character sheets coming real. Gamers, mystery buffs, fantasy/adventure fans have got themselves a real page turner here.

I bought this game a LONG time ago during the kickstarter phase. I've printed out a few copies, and today I finally got to sit down and actually play a game. I will say that the first game you play, you should really play along with the instructions. Just as you read the instructions, play through the rounds with them. By the 3rd leap, all I needed was the quick reference guide, but that first leap I had to read the instructions quite a few times.

This is a great game if you feel like sitting down and spending some time with a fictional crew. It would be a great way - I imagine - to draft a module for any space opera RPG you might be GMing. Lots of replayability. First game I made it home in 3 leaps. Would have liked to experience more of the anomalies and just the game overall, so I'll definately be drafting up another ship soon and playing another game.

Comrades is excellently written, and it is most probably the best RPG I've ever read. While the text is rather straight-to-the-point, it gives everything you need to play (from the tiny details of the game mechanics to broader aspects of role-playing). This was my entry point to the PbTa system, and I cannot feel more thankful to W.M. Akers for that. The game really "invites" you to embrace the philosophy of that system, and tells you why it is awesome to play.

A possible caveat is that, for some, the "wording" may be too narrow. I mean the fact that is written somehow based on historical (left-wing) revolutions. In my group, we have played in a "rebelion-revolution" context that did not have any left-wing implications, without altering the system at all. The game worked perfectly. I beleive one could have overcome that just by being more "general" in the text and the playbooks. But I believe it is a matter of taste. In any case, this should not be an excuse for not buying the game. Just do it, and play whatever you want to play. You will not regret.

Grew up playing strat (started playing in 1977) but have converted to Mr. Akers inspired game. More a baseball GAME than pure sim. You will cringe as a slick fielding shortstop robs your hitter of a game winning 2-run single. Cheer as your clutch hitter blisters a double in the gap. Deal with the frustration of your breaking-down stadium with its abnormally high mound. The game flows so easy and is easy to mod (i added a knuckleball trait and triple play chance). After a few tries the games will take 15-20min to play.

I had to chuckle at the last review because aside from Marshall Burke, a fellow I worked with while going to college, I have never heard anyone who had even heard of Syts-O-Matic Baseball (and they do still exist!). I sort of cut my teeth on Avalon Hill's Status Pro. I loved pitting ancient powerhouse teams against the teams I loved growing up.

This is a MUCH streamlined stats-based game (with plenty of interesting polyhedral die randomization which really feels like it reflects the swings of a team's season).

I'm new to Deadball, but I'm nearly through a fantastic set of series: '63 Dodgers V '81 Dodgers for the NL Time Travel Penant, '63 Yankees V '81 Yankees for AL Time Travel Pennant. Winners play in the Time Travel World Series. I absolutely love the tweaks you get from advanced rules, traits, etc., and it seems impossible that a dice chucker would make you feel and SEE the game unfolding in front of you, but that is exactly what happens.

This is not as math-heavy as many stats-based games, and that's good; it moves right along. At the same time it is grounded in the actual stats, so player strengths (and weaknesses) DO come to the surface.

I love Deadball. :)

The only probem with Quick Star is that you will want more. and More, and MORE! This is a fantastic game. :)

Really fun game. We played a future USA where Barron Trump was President at 31 and they didn't even bother changing the Constitution. COVID-22 survivors were just grateful for their Amazon-Tube jobs.

Introduction I am coming at this review from a slightly different space than some of you that are reading this. I have played tabletop baseball since the age of 11, when I picked up my first set of Strat-O-Matic Baseball. Along the way, I have played APBA, Sherco, PTP/Dynasty League Baseball, Throwback Baseball 1.0 and countless others. I know there are far more games out there and there are many who have played more than I have, but I feel confident in saying that to me, games were a solo pursuit, a hobby shared by me and me only.

Late last year, I bought the computer version of Strat's baseball game and immersed myself in it. While quite good, it also got me in front of a computer screen for even more time each day. As I got older, it's funny how tired my eyes get now. I also was in a couple leagues and while they are great for some people, they weren't great for me, for a variety of reasons. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I was at a place where I wanted to make some changes anyway, especially with my leisure time. I wanted a hobby, that well, was just a hobby again. It wasn't a side hustle, or ultra competitive, it was just fun.

Enter Deadball.

Playing The Game I first got Deadball a year or so ago, but didn't play due to other commitments. Since I was at a place where I was more open minded and willing to learn, I delved back into the basic rulebook. The game runs on a similar mechanic as other baseball games do - the interaction between pitcher and batter. The main difference to me is that the game does not have a 50-50 mechanic, where sometimes you roll on the pitcher's card and other times, the batters. Both pitcher and hitter are incorporated into each interaction, in a simple but sophisticated way.

Each batter's hit numbers are broken into the first two of his batting average. For example, a .300 hitter would be 30; Each pitcher has a die rating that is tied into their ERA rating. For a pitcher who's ERA is say 2.00-2.99, his die may be a D4. Yes, D4 - the game runs on standard RPG dice. So to resolve an at-bat, you would roll two 10-sided dice, and let's say you got 2-0, which is 20, and you would also roll the D4 for the pitcher. If you got a 2, that is a 22; the batter has a probable hit, so you would roll on the hit table. If you got over a 30, say a 44, that is an out. By taking the last number of the roll, 4, you would see that it is a groundout to the second baseman.

If you are familiar with scoring a baseball game, and the positions on the diamond (1-pitcher; 2-catcher, 3-First base), you can appreciate how genius that is. There are additional modifiers too, such as individual player traits - sluggers, slick fielders and pitchers, all have their place and will shine - strange events - I had a game recently that was impacted by vultures, which was a hoot; and the ability to rate any player and any team you want - ANY PLAYER. ANY TEAM - are strengths of this game that are too hard to ignore.

There are currently 4 books - the original, Deadball Year 2; Year 3 and a 1909 version, that all add to the baseball universe in their own way.

Conclusion For me, the biggest impact is how fun this game is. I find myself getting angry at the scorecard when my players don't do well, and I have never, ever, played a game that felt like baseball more than this one, and that is the biggest win. It is amazing solitaire fun. There always seems to be quite a debate from baseball gamers about which game is best. We are baseball fans after all. To me, they all have their place, and the most important thing is, if everyone is having fun, then the game is doing what it is supposed to do.

Overall, it's brilliance lies in its simplicity, much like the real game. You see the ball hit and caught, you will become emotionally invested and you will have fun. There is nothing dead about Deadball. It is amazingly vibrant in so many ways and well worth your time at the park in your mind, solo or with friends.