Sports sim talk from the tabletop.
Digital to Dice follows the sports sim hobby from cards and dice to PC-style projects, with long-form conversations at its center. Recent episodes move through golf design, co-op projects, banana ball, hockey replays, basketball games, and MLB thought experiments.
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Digital to Dice is built for people who think a box score, a dice roll, and a season project can all carry a little drama. The show works best as a long, comfortable conversation among sports tabletop hobbyists, with enough structure to stay useful and enough looseness to let the good stories breathe. Recent episodes move through golf, hockey, basketball, banana ball, co-op projects, fictional football leagues, MLB rule debates, and the search for new games that fit a player's taste. Baseball is a natural anchor, but the show is broader than one sport. It cares about how games feel in the hands. A guest might explain why a quick-play hockey title makes a full season possible, or how a golf game turns age, skill growth, and shot quality into incremental progress. Another episode can jump from tabletop banana ball to extra innings, overtime games, and the kind of long replay moments that become personal lore. That is the show's strength. It treats mechanics as lived experience. Charts, ratings, stat utilities, schedules, fictional teams, and home-brewed projects are discussed through the choices players make while using them. The interview style is relaxed and plainspoken, with guests given time to wander through background, examples, and side memories before the point lands. Listener feedback episodes add a communal layer, pulling in memorable tabletop moments from Facebook, YouTube, and Discord. There is also a recurring curiosity about fit: what makes a game right for one player, why the idea of a perfect game keeps shifting, and how a hobbyist decides when to try something new. The result is not slick analysis from a distance. It is a club-room record of a niche hobby, attentive to rules but more interested in the people who keep rolling.
Made for: For sports tabletop and replay gamers who enjoy patient interviews, project stories, and practical talk about how games actually play. It especially suits listeners already comfortable with cards, dice, ratings, season replays, and hobby communities.
What sets it apart: Digital to Dice stands out by letting hobbyists explain their projects in detail instead of rushing toward quick recommendations. The show captures the trial-and-error texture of sports simulation gaming, from printed golf holes to co-op projects and full-season replay workflows.
A podcast geared for the sports sim community. We will talk about all kinds of games, from Digital (pc and video games) to Dice (cards and dice, and tabletop games), and everything in between. If you would like to contribute to the show and get more D2D we have a Patreon at www.patreon.com/digitaltodice www.facebook.com/groups/digitaltodice You can send us a text or leave a voicemail at 978-751-DICE (3423) email: [email protected]
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes sports simulation rules and replay projects clear through practical conversations about what keeps a game satisfying at the table.
Digital to Dice podcast gets inside sports simulation games by asking how their systems feel in actual play. Dave's interviews move from printed charts and dice to computer baseball without losing sight of the decisions underneath: how much realism a game needs, when complexity…
A golf shot can earn XP, and you know you've found your kind of rabbit hole.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A relaxed design conversation about a golf game built around incremental improvement.
Digital to Dice episode 308 stays with Ken Kennedy's Courses and Clubs, a golf game Dave frames as unlike any sports game he has played. The conversation moves from that unusual premise into experience points, quality ratings, under-par holes, and age-based development,…
A grounded co-op projects conversation hits its stride with a compact, satisfying hockey replay system.
Andy Sexton brings lived tabletop experience to a focused conversation about co-op projects, with Dave keeping attention on the habits and systems that make them work.
Banana ball hits the tabletop alongside Dave's latest run of stubborn overtime games.
Digital to Dice episode 306 centers on Derek Jones and his Banana Ball Tabletop Tour, a design rooted in banana ball baseball and the Banana Ball Championship League.
A thoughtful conversation about chasing new games, finding the right fit, and easing up on the perfect-game hunt.
Digital to Dice episode 301 treats the search for new games as a serious part of the hobby, asking what can pull a player away from familiar favorites and toward another title on the table.
Ron Juckett and Dave mark episode 300 with a relaxed look at how newcomers find tabletop sports games.
For its 300th episode, Digital Dice brings Ron Juckett back to talk with Dave about a familiar problem for sports gaming: how does someone new find a way in?
A designer-led sports-game discussion about realism, simplicity, and the design choices that give simulations their character.
Digital to Dice's 299th episode uses sports games as a way into the harder question of how simulations decide what to keep, what to simplify, and what to turn into feel.
Nebraska athletics, close up and week by week.
Cubs recaps with bleacher-level patience.
Dave previews his upcoming trip to play.con25, sharing his wish list and inviting listeners to meet him there.
On Digital to Dice episode 329, Dave and Al examine how player-stat goals change tabletop sports replays.
["Digital to Dice episode 308 centers on Ken Kennedy's Courses and Clubs, a golf game shaped by Barbarian Prince, Dungeons and Dragons, and percentile-based role-playing mechanics.", "Dave and Ken also cover Drifter, Star Drifter, and Adventurer, which Ken says were designed to keep setup short and story flow visible on the page.", "Ken says he used AI to generate golfer ratings after finishing the game, including Jack Nicholas and Freddie Couples, and he explains why he keeps wind, tee shots, and shot results in front of the player.", "The conversation turns to progression, where Dave challenges the slow experience-point grind and Ken outlines career-mode rules with age brackets, bonus XP, and health checks starting at 35."]
Andy Sexton says he runs co-op sports projects by making them simple, using whatever score sheet players already have, and keeping the commitment to “one game.” He describes a D20-based rotation with 30 games on a primary list and 29 more on a secondary list, which keeps him from freezing up over what to play.
["Digital to Dice episode 306 pairs Dave with Derek Jones for a conversation about Banana Ball Tabletop Tour, a game tied to the Banana Ball Championship League's six teams and its February 2026 season start.", "Derek spends much of the episode on tabletop sports gaming, from NHL Icebreaker and Season Ticket Baseball to Legends of Wrestling, Hockey Blast, Shot Rock Curling, and Apple Football.", "He says he ran the table in an eight-player Season Ticket Baseball bracket, reached the final in a Legends of Wrestling tournament with Kurt Angle, and played a four-overtime Hockey Blast playoff game against Mike Canistrari's Hartford team.", "The design discussion turns on Derek's claim that Banana Ball is selling out, streaming free on YouTube, backed by TV deals and merchandise, and distinct enough to justify a new game in a market with more than 100 baseball tabletop titles."]
Dave reads listener feedback about their favorite tabletop moments and shares updates on his schedule.
The host and Replay Gamer discuss what changes they would make as MLB commissioner in a point-counterpoint format.
Dave and Dave discuss playing lesser-known sports games, comparing notes on hockey and basketball projects since D2DCon.
Dave and Rod Hess discuss basketball tabletop games and reminisce about past episodes.
"Fall Classic" combines "the good parts" of "APBA, Strat, and Status Pro" in one baseball game.
Digital to Dice episode 300 with Ron Juckett focuses on where the hobby is going, especially hybrid gaming and new ways to sell tabletop sports products.
Game designer Clay Dreslough, creator of Season Ticket Baseball and Season Ticket Football (SeasonTicketGames.com), joins hosts Dave and Joe of Digital to Dice episode 299 to explain how he builds new tabletop sports seasons from public stats like Pro Football Reference.
Dave and Vinny Mancini discuss whether listeners enjoy playing longer board games, starting with small talk about weather.
A deep dive into game accuracy with hosts S.T.