FIB UPDATE - March 2, 2026

I am all systems "go" for the ideas I posted at the end of 2025 (see previous entry). Here is everything that is going on and what you can expect. 

New Approach to Game Books

I am moving forward with the decision to discontinue year-specific game books and center the game around the era chart books that capture the baseball feel and general statistical output of that time period. Not only does this simplify the product catalog, it clears the primary roadblock for a FAC Edition of the game that I am very excited about. So, if you currently own one of the chart books for 1908, 1954, 1961, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1998, 2023, 2024, or 2025 - you have yourself a collectors item. Or, you will once I take them down from the store. The good news is that the charts will forever work with the game, so they are certainly not obsolete.

Turning our attention to the existing game books, the good news is that for the most part, the guts of these books don't have to change. There will a couple tweaks here and there, and the version number will be updated to 1.1, but if you've already purchased then the update will be free. 

There will be no new mechanics or rules for this updated version of FIB. I really looked for opportunities here, but nothing passed muster. The biggest effort was put into trying to make the ERROR result more dynamic, giving teams a chance to score more than one run off of this result. I kept coming back to the fact that 1) there are already "Drama!" results that account for this possibility, and 2) any changes to this mechanic would throw off the statistical integrity of the simulation. 

The best I can do today is this suggestion for an UNOFFICIAL optional house rule -> When you get an ERROR result, roll a 1d6 along with the decider die. If you roll a bullet and a "6", then the ERROR has a chance to lead to more than 1 run in the inning - proceed to roll on the Runs Score! table. I like this approach as you may still only end up with one run, but there's a chance for more. And needing to roll a "6" along with the bullet means that it won't happen that often. No bullet is still no runs (no matter the 1d6 result), and a bullet and a result from 1-5 on the 1d6 is still 1 run. Even though it's UNOFFICIAL and optional, I will likely use it myself... :)

During testing, an astute tester called my attention to the fact that the Cross Era book and the 1973-1992 book were almost statistically identical, and questioned the need for both of them. They were correct, and this will drive another step in the overall product simplification where the 1973-1992 game book will double as the book to use for the normalized cross era sets that I publish. So along with the season specific books mentioned above, the Cross Era book will also become a collectors item - but of course you may continue to use it.

So to summarize:

1. Starting with Version 1.1 this month, FIB will no longer have year-specific game books, and will use only the era-specific game books. 

2. Version 1.1 is generally just a refresh of all the books, with no new rules, results or game mechanics.

3. The cross-era game book is going away, with the 1973-1992 game book serving double duty as the cross-era game book.

4. The era-specific game books will be "refreshed" and updated to v1.1 so everyone knows if they have the latest and greatest. If you have already purchased, the update is free.

5. There will be 10 separate books for: 1900-1919, 1920-1941, 1942-1946, 1947-1962, 1963-1972, 1973-1992, 1993-2009, 2010-2015,  2016-2019,  and 2020-today

6. Pricing will remain $3 for each book

Seasons

This is so exciting. We have already completed all seasons from 1950 through 2025.  And when I say we, I mean me and super-programmer (and FIB fan) Travis Jansen. This has been a fantastic partnership and I couldn't be more stoked about the impact Travis has had on the game. 

As part of the work to standardize the process of team creation, the ratings for some teams have changed for published seasons. Chalk it up to me doing the original seasons by hand. It would be too much work for me to create a change log, so instead I would suggest that when the new seasons go live and you receive the notification about it, you just download and replace the old teams. Again, this is a free update.

We are hoping to complete 1900 through 1949 by the end of the month if not sooner. The cost of each season will be reduced from $6 to $5.

Cross Era Collections

The cross era collections will also be updated in the coming weeks, but not until all of the seasons from 1900-2025 are completed. I will also consider adding additional collections if the demand is there. And a quick note about how these collections "work." The only difference between these teams, and teams from the season sets, is that the pitcher grades have been normalized to a 1973-1992 level.  Everything else about the teams is the same. So when you combine the normalized pitcher grades with the 1973-1992 offensive output and defensive performance, it puts all teams on a level playing field - or as close as we can come with this game engine. 

The FAC Edition

Yes, I'm really doing this. Development has already begun and I am on track to have something in production and ready to purchase by the second half of 2026. It will be very similar to Fast Drive Football where the main charts are replaced by a FAC deck, but dice will still be needed to roll for clutch hits, Run's Score! results, etc. 

There will be a primary FAC deck of 72 cards that represents 1973-1992 baseball. There will be additional cards that are era-specific, that you will swap in when you want to play baseball in a different era. There will be about 50 more cards in the box to account for the other eras. I will come up with a visual method to make this "swapping" process as easy and intuitive as possible. I wouldn't call this new version of FIB a deck-builder, but the idea that we can reconfigure the deck of 72 cards to represent any era of baseball is a super exciting idea and I can't wait to bring it to life.

Because of the size of FIB team cards, there are no plans to produce FIB Seasons or Team Collections at The Game Crafter. They will remain as PDF only.

Questions?

I think that covers most of the updates for now. I plan to start taking action on all of the Game Book updates immediately, and hope to have the first batch of seasons ready for sale this week. If you have any questions for me, please send me an email (alwilson3d6@gmail.com) or drop a comment on the FIB Facebook page.

Looking ahead to 2026

The success of the Fast Drive Football FAC Edition has generated quite a bit of discussion around a FAC Edition for FIB. At first I was resistant to the idea due to the fact that the beating heart of the FIB engine are the unique game charts for every individual season. These charts ensure that the Runs, HR's, and Errors are dialed in. For example, the charts for 2024 are just slightly different than the charts for 2023. This means that for every season, there would need to be a new FAC deck, which is unrealistic.

But the questions keep coming, so I've been giving it more thought. I have already done the work to generalize the "per game/per team" statistical output in the MLB from 1900 to 2024. Here is the summary:

• 1901-1920: 4.00 R, 0.19 HR, 1.6 E

• 1921-1941: 4.80 R, 0.55 HR, 1.18 E

• 1942-1946: 3.96 R, 0.48 HR, 1.03 E

• 1947-1962: 4.55 R, 0.75 HR, 0.97 E

• 1963-1972: 3.89 R, 0.73 HR, 0.8 E

• 1973-1992: 4.31 R, 0.78 HR, 0.8 E

• 1993-2009: 4.78 R, 1.12 HR, 0.7 E

• 2010-2015: 4.17 R, 0.96 HR, 0.57 E

• 2016-2019: 4.55 R, 1.2 HR, 0.57 E

• 2020-2024: 4.55 R, 1.2 HR, 0.57 E (new Extra Innings Chart)

• Cross Era: 4.5 R, 0.86 HR, 0.8 E

After a lot of though, I think that it's ok for a score generator like FIB to have results that feel realistic to the era, and are accurate for the era, but may be slightly off for the specific year.  So I'm considering a new approach and welcome any reactions. 

1. Stop producing custom charts for individual seasons that I release. Instead, each season will have a link to one of the 10 "Era" chart books that should be used with the set of teams.

2. Leverage this change to design a FAC Edition for FIB. There would be a "base" set of FAC's, and then a variable set that are added to the deck depending on the era you are playing in. This will take some creativity on my part, but I am excited to take on the challenge.

Let me know your thoughts on the copmmunity Facebook Page.