Major League Baseball is experimenting with robot umpires to make games more interesting, but when it comes to sporty shenanigans, Internet League Blaseball has got you more than covered. After going on hiatus at the end of its public beta, the free, browser-based, absurdist baseball simulator is coming back. On November 1, the Hugo- and Nebula-nominated game will launch Short Circuits, a “short, low-stakes, mini-series of temporary universes” designed to onboard new fans into the delightfully messy realm of Blaseball.
Developed by The Game Band, Blaseball is just a fantasy fantasy sport at first glance — you pick your team and bet on games, but players are named Peanut Bong, PolkaDot Patterson and Jaylen Hotdogfingers instead of something like… David Ortiz? Derek Jeter? Alex Rodriguez? But with its broad world-building, rogue umpires and high-stakes boss fights against peanut monsters, Blaseball is just as appealing to “Dungeons & Dragons” roleplayers as it is to people who know what an RBI is. There’s a detailed p …
