Lords of Baseball, a Euro-style game of baseball franchise ownership and management, took father-and-son team Bob and Max Jamelli 12 years to refine and fund via Kickstarter. Max, a high school teacher and former football coach, walks us through the development of LoB, his thoughts on the future of gaming, and his work as national director of tabletop gaming for the Video Game Clubs of America (vgcusa.org).

The seed of the idea for Lords of Baseball came to Max’s father after a trip to the World Boardgaming Championships; inspired by the Cold War game Twilight Struggle, Bob Jamelli began sketching out ideas for LoB. Now, after 50 revisions, nearly 90 iterations of the rule book and more than 1,500 playthroughs, LoB is ready to hit the market. Offering a complete picture of baseball team ownership, from stocking talent to winning games — even building a stadium — Lords of Baseball is a Euro-style take on the game of pro baseball. Jamelli recalls how he came to know key collaborator Jeff Horger, who took on the role of streamlining LoB’s mechanics, vowing to “tear (the game) apart and build it back up.”

Max also discusses his take on tabletop football games Legends of Football, Pizza Box football and 1st and Goal from his perspective as a coach.

In the last part of the interview, Max discusses the mission and methods of the VGCUSA, how he came to be involved, and how the organization fosters social and emotional learning for students in more than 800 schools in the U.S., Canada, Brazil and Europe. Helping kids socially through gaming is “the best thing I’ll ever do in education,” he says.

Lords of Baseball is still available by Kickstarter late pledge at the time of posting this video; L4 Studios will be selling the game at conventions — and a retail option is likely.

How to play Lords of Baseball: 01:56

Seed of the idea from the WBC: 19:50

Mechanics used in Lords of Baseball: 32:05

Playing SOM and Baseball Stars on Nintendo with his dad: 45:40

Coaching football and playing football games (Legends of Football, Pizza Box): 46:37

Sports on the field vs. on tabletop: 52:38

Funding Lords of Baseball and potential expansions: 56:50

Future of board games and accessibility to audiences: 1:02:35

Video Game Clubs of America and its mission: 1:09:22

Joining VGCUSA and creating a school game club: 1:13:54

Lords of Baseball on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lordsofbaseball/lords-of-baseball?amp;mc_cid=5cccc19d8c&mc_eid=73f5a6be1a

Max’s BoardGameGeek profile: https://boardgamegeek.com/user/sigtaulefty

Video Game Clubs of America: https://www.vgcusa.org/

Max’s review of Legends of Football:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/369071/old-time-football-meets-fantasy-football

VIDEO VERSION: https://youtu.be/2D0Cb-9Mn8E