7th Inning Stretch
7th Inning Stretch Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 46 Player/Team Cards: 18 Tier 1 cards, 14 Tier 2 cards, 14 Tier 3 cards
- 12 six-sided dice and 1 ten-sided Lineup die
- 3 Game Boards: 1 Score Board, 1 Season Board, 1 Field Board
- 62 Cardboard Tokens: 4 Reroll Tokens, 4 +/- Tokens, 12 Exhaustion Tokens, 23 Score Tokens (values 1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
- 17 Wooden Markers: 4 Baserunner Pawns, 9 Progress Cubes, 2 Batter Discs, 2 "Out" Discs
- 3 Reference Cards
- 6 Playoff Cards: 3 Semi-finals Cards, 3 Finals Cards
Overview
Build a contender and pull all the right strings to lead your team to baseball glory. You get to be the whole organization - GM, manager, and players - as you build your team, set your lineups, and then play out the final innings of a few key games each season. If you do well enough in these regular season games, you can qualify for the playoffs and earn a chance to bring home the ultimate prize!
Game Objective
The goal of 7th Inning Stretch is to win the Playoffs. In order to do this, you will first have to win enough games in the First Half and Second Half of the Season. A full game of 7th Inning Stretch represents one Season of baseball, consisting of several phases and several individual games of baseball. Each game your team wins will earn you Season Points (star), which you must use to qualify for the Playoffs and better your odds of winning them. Make it there and win the 2 playoff series, and victory is yours!
What's Baseball???
Just in case you've never heard of it - baseball is a major league sport in which one player, the Pitcher, throws a ball at immense speeds, trying to get it to their Catcher. Between them stands a Batter from the other team, who's goal is to hit the ball with a bat out into the field. If they do, they and other runners on the field can then attempt to run from base to base. Ultimately, their goal is to reach the base they started on, completing a lap around the field, and scoring their team a Run. There's a lot more to it, as you'll see, but that's the basic idea.
Setup
- Separate the Player/Team Cards by Tier: 1, 2, and 3. Randomly choose one of the two Tier 1 Pitchers and 9 of the 16 Tier 1 Batters. Place these 10 cards player-side-up in the bottom left of your play area to form your initial Roster. All remaining Tier 1 cards can be returned to the box.
- Shuffle the Tier 2 Player/Team Cards and place them in a pile team-side-up (only the top card should be visible). Then repeat this step with the Tier 3 cards. These form the Tier 2 Card Supply and Tier 3 Card Supply.
- Set the 3 game boards out. Place the Baserunner Pawns and Out Discs near the Field Board, the Progress Cubes near the Season Board, and the Score Tokens near the Score Board.
- Place all dice within reach to form the Dice Supply.
- Place all Resource Tokens (Reroll, Exhaustion, and +/-) near the Tier 2/3 Card Supply to form the Resource Token Supply.
- Leave space for your Lineup, which will later consist of 9 Batter Cards, and place a Batter Disc next to this space (only one is used for solo play).
- Also leave a space for your Schedule cards, Current Pitcher card, Resource Pool/die rolling area, and Dugout, as shown below. These spaces remain empty for now, but they'll be used shortly.
- Set the Playoff Cards aside for now - they will be used near the end of the game.
- Keep the Reference Cards nearby.
Note: There are also ways to alter the game's difficulty, which you can find special instructions for on page 24.
How to Play
Each game of 7th Inning Stretch is a full baseball Season consisting of the following 5 phases:
- Spring Training
- First Half (3 Games of Baseball)
- Trade Deadline
- Second Half (3 Games of Baseball)
- Playoffs (up to 6 Games of Baseball)
1. Spring Training
To start the Season off, you need to prepare for its First Half, during which you will play out the end of 3 games of baseball, representing those crucial moments where the games are won or lost.
To prepare for this, complete the following 3-step process 3 times:
- Draw the top two cards from the Tier 2 Card Supply, and inspect both sides of them.
- Choose one card to add to your Roster, player-side-up.
- Add the other to your Schedule, team-side-up.
When you're done, you should have three new Tier 2 Players in your Roster, and three Opposing Teams in your Schedule to face during the First Half of the season.
You may look through your Roster and Schedule at any time. Let's learn about the features of each of the cards found in these piles:
Player Cards - Batters
- Resources: A Batter will gain you these resources once it's their turn to bat.
- Tier Level: 1, 2, or 3. Tier 2 and 3 cards also show an abbreviation indicating what team is on the back of the card.
- Player's Name
- Conditions and Outcomes: Tell you what you need to roll in order to get hits when At-Bat.
Player Cards - Pitchers
- Stamina: How much Exhaustion the Pitcher may take before he becomes Exhausted. Note that Pitchers have Stamina and Batters do not.
- Tier Level: Same as on Batter cards.
- Player's Name
- Ability: What the Pitcher does each time you add an Exhaustion Token to him.
Team Cards
- Tier Level: Same as on Player side.
- Player on Back: Their name and player type - B is for Batter, P is for Pitcher.
- Team & Logo
- Scoring Ability: How the team scores Runs during their Inning Halves.
2. First Half
During this phase, you will play a series of 3 individual games of baseball, but will only play the final Innings of each game, starting with the bottom of the 7th.
For those not familiar with baseball, Innings are game rounds in which each team gets a turn to send players to bat and try to score Runs (points), while the other team pitches and plays defense. One team bats in the "top" or first half of an Inning, and the other team bats in the "bottom" or second half.
In 7th Inning Stretch, we imagine that each game's score remains 0-0 all the way until the bottom of the 7th Inning, which you'll see is the first space available for Score Tokens on the Score Board:
Use a Progress Cube to track Innings. You will place a numbered Score Token on each of these Score Board spaces - one for each Inning half.
Each individual game of baseball (for the First Half, Second Half, and Playoffs) follows the same basic flow, beginning with Player Selection, followed by a series of Offensive and Defensive Halves.
In Games 1 and 3 of the First Half of the Season, you will play as the Home Team, meaning that you will play an Offensive Half in the bottom of the 7th. In Game 2, you are the Away Team, meaning the bottom of the 7th will be a Defensive Half for you.
Before selecting players for each game, you may choose which Team from your Schedule you would like to face. These 3 Teams can be played against in any order, but must all be played against once before proceeding to the Trade Deadline Phase.
Player Selection
To setup each individual game:
- Choose 9 Batters from your Roster to place in any order in a row on the table to form your Lineup (positions 1 to 9, left to right).
- Roll the 10-sided Lineup Die and, based on the result, place your Batter Disc above the card in the corresponding position (ie. the leftmost card if you rolled a 1, the one next to it if you rolled a 2, etc.). If you roll a 10, you may place the disc above any Player in your Lineup. This is your Current Batter.
- Choose 1 Pitcher from your Roster, and place that card near your Lineup, in the space for your Current Pitcher (Pitchers have the Exhaustion icon in their top left corner).
- All remaining cards in your Roster can be set aside. These become your Bench for the game.
Offensive Halves
During each of your Offensive Halves (as in the bottom of the 7th Inning in Game 1), repeat the following steps in order until you either get 3 Outs or win the game, either of which ends the Half.
Each full cycle of these 4 steps is a Batter's Turn:
- Player Substitution (Optional)
- Gather Resources
- Baserunning: Steal Bases (Optional)
- Resolve Batter At-Bat
1. Batter Substitution (Optional)
If desired, you may substitute your Current Batter for one from your Bench. The Batter you remove from your Lineup goes to your Dugout area, and the Batter that joins the game from your Bench must go in the vacated space. You can never change the order of Batters in your Lineup.
Players sent to your Dugout become unavailable for the remainder of the individual game, but they will go back into your Roster at the end of it, and can be used again in future games.
2. Gather Resources
Take the resources shown in the top left of your Current Batter's card, and add them to your Resource Pool. The possible Resource gains are:
- Dice icon: Gain a number of 6-sided dice from the Dice Supply equal to the number shown on this icon (* icons have special dice gaining rules).
- Reroll icon: Gain a Reroll Token. These can be used to reroll any number of in-use dice one time when rolling during your Offensive Halves.
- +/-1 icon: Gain a +/-1 Token. These can be used to increase or decrease a single die by 1 when rolling during your Offensive Halves (a 1 cannot be changed to a 6 or vise-versa).
You begin each Offensive Half with no dice or other resources in your pool, but will generally gain some from each Batter, and can use these in various ways throughout the Half. Resources gained from a Batter may be saved to use on other Batters during the current Half, but none may be kept at the end of a Offensive Half.
3. Baserunning: Steal Bases (Optional)
Next, if you have Baserunners in the right positions, you may roll any number of dice in your Resource Pool one time to try and Steal 2nd or 3rd base. This is considered a Baserunning Action.
As with any die roll during your Offensive Halves, you may use Reroll or +/-1 Tokens to alter your roll results when Stealing Bases. Note that you cannot steal Home Plate during this step.
Stealing 2nd (roll a 5 or 6)
If you have a Baserunner on 1st Base, and 2nd Base is open, then you may roll to attempt to Steal 2nd. After rolling and using any Resource Tokens, if at least one die shows 5 or 6, the attempt is successful, and the Baserunner on 1st Base advances to 2nd Base (no other Baserunners move). Otherwise, the attempt fails - remove the Baserunner from 1st Base and record an Out using an Out Disc.
Example of Stealing 2nd: 1st and 3rd Base are occupied. 2nd is not. You decide to make the attempt, and roll a 5. The Baserunner on 1st successfully Steals 2nd, advancing 1 base. The runner on 3rd stays where they are.
Stealing 3rd (roll a 6)
If you have a Baserunner on 2nd Base, and 3rd Base is open, then you may roll to attempt to Steal 3rd. After rolling and using any Resource Tokens, if at least one die shows a 6, the attempt is successful, and all current Baserunners advance one base. Otherwise, the attempt fails - remove any one Baserunner from the Field and record an Out using an Out Disc.
Example of Stealing 3rd: 1st and 2nd Bases are occupied, but 3rd is open. You roll for the attempt and succeed! The runner on 2nd advances one base, and because there's a runner on 1st in this case, they do so as well.
Note: Once dice are rolled, you must fully resolve a Baserunning Action; either one or more Baserunners will advance or an Out will be recorded. Once resolved, all dice and tokens used for the Baserunning Action are removed from your Resource Pool and returned to the supply.
4. Resolve Batter At-Bat
To represent your Current Batter "stepping to plate," place a Baserunner Pawn on Home Plate just before resolving their batting attempt.
Your Current Batter now gets their moment in the spotlight! You may choose any number of dice currently in your Resource Pool (including none) and roll them to try and satisfy one of the Conditions on your Current Batter's Player card, in order to gain its Outcome. (On a card, a Condition is shown at left, e.g. "2 not-equal", and its Outcome at right, e.g. a Double.)
There are several types of Conditions, each of which specifies a dice rolling result you need to get. For example, the Condition "2 not-equal" wants you to get 2 dice of inequal value. You can find a summary of these on the Conditions reference card.
When satisfying a Condition, the corresponding Outcome will allow you to advance your Baserunner Pawns, potentially scoring Runs:
- Single: Current Batter safely reaches 1st Base. All other Baserunners advance 1 base.
- Double: Current Batter safely reaches 2nd Base. All other Baserunners advance 2 bases.
- Triple: Current Batter safely reaches 3rd Base. All other Baserunners advance 3 bases.
- Home Run (HR): Current Batter and all other Baserunners on the Field immediately score a Run.
*These first 4 Outcomes are considered Hits.
- Walk (BB): Current Batter safely reaches 1st. All other Baserunners only advance if forced.
- Sacrifice (SAC): Current Batter is Out (if this is your 3rd Out, the Half ends immediately), and then all other Baserunners advance 1 base.
*These last 2 Outcomes are NOT considered Hits.
When resolving any Outcome, advance your Current Batter's Baserunner Pawn from Home Plate to its new base if applicable, and also advance other Baserunners if applicable. If you did not manage to gain any of the Outcomes from your Current Batter, either because you chose to roll no dice, or because you didn't roll what you needed, the Batter is Out. Remove his pawn from the Field Board, add an Out Disc to the Field, and move on to the next Batter.
Baserunning: Running Extra Bases after a Hit
If your Batter's Outcome is a Hit, you may roll additional dice once to try advancing preexisting Baserunners further, and may even steal Home Base! This counts as a Baserunning Action and works similar to Stealing Bases. You may use any remaining dice in your pool and spend Reroll or +/-1 Tokens to alter your roll results.
If you have 0 or 1 Outs: A roll of 6 advances all preexisting Baserunners one extra base (the Current Batter stays). A highest roll of 5 or less fails: remove any one Baserunner and record an Out.
If you have 2 Outs: A roll of 5 or 6 advances all preexisting Baserunners one extra base (the Current Batter stays). A highest roll of 4 or less fails, ending your Offensive Half due to getting a third Out.
Note: Your Current Batter can never advance beyond the original Outcome of their At-Bat.
After you've finished resolving a Batter, all dice rolled and tokens used for them are removed from your pool and returned to the Supply.
Scoring Runs
Any Baserunner that reaches Home Plate, completing a full cycle of all bases, scores a Run.
Keep track of the Runs you've scored during an Offensive Half using the Runs track at the bottom of the Field Board. A Progress Cube can be placed here as soon as you've scored your first Run. Any Baserunner Pawn that scores a Run is then removed from the Field.
At the end of an Offensive Half, The Progress Cube is removed from the Runs track and a Score Token is placed on the current Half's space of the Score Board, based on how many Runs you made.
Batter At-Bat Example
Your Current Batter's Conditions take into account your max-value die result: a 6 gives a Triple, a 5 a Double, a 4 a Single, and a 3 a Sacrifice (each of these conditions is "that number or higher as the max die").
With a +/-1 Token and a Reroll Token on hand, you're feeling confident, and choose to roll only 1 die from your pool. You roll a 4. Not bad, but you choose to use a +/-1 Token to turn it into a 5.
Your Outcome from this is a Double, and you therefore advance your Current Batter and all other Baserunners 2 bases. You already had a runner on 1st and 2nd, so the runner on 2nd would score a Run, the runner on 1st would advance to 3rd, and your Current Batter would advance to 2nd.
You now have a runner on 2nd and 3rd. Since your Batter's Outcome was a Hit, you can now choose to try and Run Extra Bases (but only with preexisting runners). You decide to commit 1 more die to this, and lucky you, you roll a 6! This scores you 1 more Run, which you wouldn't have gotten on a roll of 5 or less (because you do not yet have 2 Outs).
You then return the dice and the token you used to their respective supply areas. Remember that if your initial dice roll had been a failure, you would still remove all used resources (dice and tokens) from your Resource Pool.
After resolving your Current Batter's turn, move the Batter Disc to the next Batter in your Lineup, going from left to right (if you just resolved the Batter in the rightmost position, loop around to the leftmost Batter).
Then start another Turn from Step 1: Substitution. Continue doing this until either:
- You get your 3rd Out
- You win the game
Both immediately end the current Offensive Half. You can then add the Runs you scored during the Half to the Score Board, using one of the Score Tokens to show your Team's Run total. Move the Batter Disc to show that the next Batter in Lineup order will be first to bat during your next Offensive Half.
Note: You can only immediately win a game during an Offensive Half if you are in the bottom of the 9th Inning or later. In that case, as soon as your total score for the current game exceeds the Opposing Team's score, you win, and no longer need to continue batting.
Defensive Halves
This half of the Inning, when the roles are reversed and the opposing team goes to bat, is played out a little differently and more quickly than your Offensive Halves. Thematically though, this team is doing the same thing as you - trying to score Runs!
Pitcher Substitution: At the start of each Defensive Half, you may first substitute your Current Pitcher with another one from your Bench. As with substituting Batters, this will send your Current Pitcher to your Dugout area, where it will not be usable for the remainder of the current baseball game. In this case though, the Pitcher may have Exhaustion Tokens on him, in which case the tokens remain on the Pitcher's card when they go to the Dugout. Then place your newly selected Pitcher in your Current Pitcher space.
Roll for Opposing Team: Next, refer to the Team card of your current Opposing Team, and resolve their attempt to score Runs. A Team card shows a Number of Dice (e.g. "ROLL 3:") and an Effect (e.g. "Score runs equal to the difference between the two lowest dice.").
Take the number of dice specified by the Team card from the dice supply and roll them. Then determine the Team card's Effect based on your roll result.
In this case you would roll 3 dice. Let's say the result is 4, 2 and 5. 2 and 4 are the lowest dice, and the difference between them is 2, so the opposing team is going for 2 Runs!
Use Pitcher Ability: You may then use your Pitcher's ability as many times as you wish, placing one Exhaustion Token on his Player Card for each activation.
If this were your Pitcher's ability ("Set one die to any value."), you could put 1 Exhaustion Token on him to, say, change the 4 you rolled into a 2. That would make the lowest two dice a 2 and a 2, meaning the team would now score 0 Runs! Nice!
Once Exhaustion Tokens are placed on a Pitcher, they can only be removed by effects that specifically remove Exhaustion. A pitcher that has reached their Exhaustion limit, determined by their Stamina, can no longer be used for their ability until Exhaustion Tokens are removed from his card.
You choose to use this Pitcher's ability, placing an Exhaustion Token on his card. Since he only has a Stamina of 2, you'll only be able to use the ability one more time for now.
Unlike with your Offensive Halves, this whole process only occurs once, rather than being repeated. It represents the entire Defensive Half.
Once complete, use a Score Token to record the Opposing Team's Run total after the Inning on the Score Board.
If there are still more Innings to go, another Offensive Half then begins.
Ending an Individual Game
As soon as you reach the Bottom of the 9th Inning, an individual game may end immediately if either:
- It's an Offensive Half, and you are ahead in Runs - You then win!
- It's a Defensive Half, and the Opposing Team is ahead in Runs - In that case, you lose...
Otherwise, complete the Bottom of the 9th Inning, and then compare scores. Whichever team has the highest score wins the individual game.
If there is a tie at this point, the game goes into Extra Innings. Continue to play Innings normally until either team is ahead at the end of a full Inning. That Team then wins the game.
Once a winner is determined, mark the game's result on the Season Board (place a Progress Cube in the Win or Loss row under the current game number).
Finally, remove the Team card for the current Opposing Team from play, and return all Player Cards to your Roster, including those in your Lineup, Current Pitcher space, and Dugout. Note that any Pitchers with Exhaustion keep their Exhaustion Tokens until the end of each half of the Season. Unless it is the end of game 3, return these Players to your Roster area with their tokens still on them.
You can then move on to the next individual game, starting with Player Selection.
Each win that you get in the 3 games of the First Half the Season will grant you 1 Season Point (star). Track these with another Progress Cube in the track at the bottom of the Season Board.
3. Trade Deadline
This is when teams make their final player trades before going into the second half of a season. During this phase, follow the same steps as in the Spring Training phase, but instead using Tier 3 cards.
4. Second Half
After the Trade Deadline phase, you should have 3 new Teams to play against, and 3 new players in your Roster. You then play another 3 individual games, following the same rules from the First Half of the Season. Notes:
- Remember to reset all your Pitchers' Staminas (remove all Exhaustion from them) both at the end of the First Half, and again at the end of the Second Half (but not between individual games).
- You are the Away Team in Games 4 and 6, and Home Team in Game 5 of the Season.
- Each win that you get in the Second Half of the Season earns you 2 Season Points (stars) instead of 1!
5. The Playoffs
You must have at least 3 Season Points (stars) at this point in the Season to qualify for the Playoffs. Otherwise, your Season ends immediately. Better luck next year!
If you do have 3 or more stars, reduce your star Progress track by 3 to pay for your entry, and then continue into the Playoffs, which consists of these 4 stages:
- Recover Injured Players
- Determine Opposing Teams
- Play Semi-finals
- Play Finals
Recovering Injured Players
Now that it's the end of the Season, some players that were injured during previous games have had time to heal, and can be recruited to your team for one last chance at becoming a champion.
To represent this, do the following:
- Draw the top 3 cards from the Tier 2 Card Supply, player-side-up.
- Choose 1 to add to your Roster for free.
- If you still have Season Points (stars) remaining, you may also add either of the other 2 Players to your Roster for 1 star each. Any Players not recruited are removed from play.
Determining Opposing Teams
Before the Playoffs commence, first place the top 3 cards from the Tier 3 Card Supply into a Semi-finals Schedule pile, team-side-up. Then do the same thing again to create a Finals Schedule pile. You may look at all cards in these piles, but do not change the order of them.
Then find the Level 3 Playoff Card for both the Semi-finals and Finals, and place them next to their corresponding Schedule pile, grey side up. (Playoff Cards show conditions such as "You may not use +/-1 tokens" or "You may not use any tokens.")
The Playoff Cards will make facing the Teams in your Playoffs Schedules more challenging, but if you still have any remaining stars, there are a few ways you can give yourself a leg up against them:
- For the Semi-finals Schedule pile only, you can spend 1 star to place a Tier 2 Team from the supply on top of it, or spend 3 stars to place two Tier 2 Teams on top of it. You will only face 3 Teams in the Semi-finals, so this essentially replaces the last one or two Teams in that Schedule.
- You may spend 2 stars to flip your Semi-finals Playoff Card to its green Home Field side, or spend 5 stars to flip both Playoff Cards to their green Home Field sides. A Playoff Card on its Home Field side indicates that you get home field advantage, and will be the Home Team in Games 1 and 3 of that part of the Playoffs. You will otherwise only be the Home Team in Game 2.
- You may reduce the Level of a Playoff Card to Level 2 or Level 1, spending 1 star per Level deducted from the Semi-finals Card and 2 stars per Level for the Finals Card. This will make the ongoing condition for each Semi-finals and/or Finals game less challenging. When replacing a Playoff Card with a lower level one, remember to keep it on the same side (green or grey) as the Card it is replacing.
Stars will not be used for anything else during the Season, so spend them now!
Play Semi-finals
Like the First and Second Half of the Season, the Semi-finals consists of up to 3 individual games. However, you only play until you have either 2 wins (you go to the Finals!) or 2 losses (your Season is over).
Before each Semi-final game, place the Semi-finals Playoff Card on your current Opposing Team's card, so that it covers the top half of it. If there is a condition on the card (eg: preventing the use of Reroll Tokens) that condition must be taken into account throughout each individual Semi-finals game.
Let's say you spend 1 star to reduce your Semi-finals Card to Level 2, and another 2 stars to flip it to its Home Field side. You now get to play as the Home Team in games 1 and 3 of the Semi-finals, and can now use +/-1 Tokens in all Semi-finals games, but instead can't use Reroll Tokens.
Then follow the same individual game rules you would for the First and Second Half of the Season, starting with Player Selection.
After each Semi-final game, remove the Team Card you just faced from play, and move on to the next one in your Semi-finals Schedule. Play until either:
- You lose 2 Semi-finals games, in which case your Season is over. You came far, but couldn't quite bring home the big win...
- You win 2 Semi-finals games, and can continue on to the Finals! Do not reset your Pitchers' Stamina at this time, as you would at the end of the First and Second Half of the Season.
Play Finals
If you've made it this far, you've done well! Time to see if your team has what it takes to be this Season's ultimate champions.
Follow the same process you did for the Semi-finals, using the Finals Playoff Card for each of the Finals games. Play until either:
- You lose 2 Finals games - You still didn't make it, but you were so close!
- You win 2 Finals games - Congratulations, you and your team of all-stars have succeeded in winning the 7th Inning Stretch baseball championship!
Extended/Hard Playoffs Variant
To play a longer and tougher Playoffs Phase:
- Skip the Recover Injured Players step.
- All 8 remaining Tier 2 cards become your Semi-finals Schedule, and all 8 remaining Tier 3 cards become your Finals Schedule when Determining Opposing Teams.
- You may not spend stars to add Players to your Roster or Teams to the Semi-final Schedule, but may still spend stars to manipulate Playoff Cards.
- The Semi-finals and Finals are both played as best-of-7 series, with whoever has Home Field advantage playing as Home in Games 1, 2, 6, and 7.
- Your Pitchers' Stamina refreshes between the Semi-finals and Finals.
Difficulty Settings
7th Inning Stretch can be made easier or harder using 4 independent difficulty settings. The standard rules are considered Hall-of-Famer difficulty.
- Rookie: At the beginning of each of your Offensive Halves, take 1 of each resource to your Resource Pool: 1 die, 1 +/-1 Token, and 1 Reroll Token.
- Veteran: At the beginning of the game, place one of the 6-sided dice on its 6 side near your Resource Pool. Throughout the Season, you can rotate this die down to gain a die to your Resource Pool at any time (max 6 times for the whole Season).
- Hall-of-Famer: No special rules.
- G.O.A.T.: Before each individual game, roll a die. On a 5 or 6, you start the 7th Inning down 2-0. On a 2, 3, or 4, you start down 1-0. On a 1, the game starts normally, at 0-0.
In any of these 4 difficulty settings, you may also choose to bring an Assistant Coach with you into the Season:
Hitting Coach: Take 1 die to your Resource Pool during setup. This die is always available to you, and is never sent back to the Dice Supply when used.
Pitching Coach: At the end of each individual game, you may remove 2 Exhaustion Tokens from one Pitcher, or 1 Exhaustion Token from two different Pitchers.
After trying the standard Hall-of-Famer mode, we encourage you to experiment with the different difficulty settings and Assistant Coaches to find your favorite way to play 7th Inning Stretch! If you like, you can even play this solo game with a friend by switching to 2 Player Duel Mode.
2 Player Duel Mode
Instead of playing through an entire Season on your own, you and a friend may play a full 9-Inning game against one another. In this mode each player is referred to as a Manager.
The following page contains all other rule changes.
Setup
- Each Manager takes one Tier 1 Pitcher (Weaver or Goodman), and a Current Batter Disc.
- Shuffle all Tier 1 Batters together, and deal 4 to each Manager.
- You both draft one Batter from your hand and pass the rest to your opponent. This step is repeated until both Managers have 4 Batters.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 one more time.
- Remove all Pitchers from the Tier 2 and Tier 3 decks. Then shuffle each of these decks separately, and deal three cards from each deck to each Manager.
- Again draft Players from these cards, one at a time, passing your hands back and forth until both Managers have six Tier 2/Tier 3 Players.
- All other components are shared by both Managers. Flip the Score Board to the 2-player side, where Score Tokens can be placed from the 1st Inning onwards.
- Upon mutual agreement, each Manager may bring a Hitting Coach with them as described on Page 25. This is recommended for new Managers, or to help balance a game between Managers of different levels.
2-Player Gameplay
A 2-player game works the same as an individual game in the solo mode, with the following exceptions:
- Play a full 9 Innings. In each Inning, each Manager will have 1 Offensive and 1 Defensive Half.
- After the Offensive Manager rolls for any action (Current Batter's At-Bat or a Baserunning Action) and uses any +/-1 / Reroll Tokens they wish to, but before determining the result of the action, the Defensive Manager may activate their Pitcher's ability (place an Exhaustion Token on them) to reroll a single die. These Tier 1 Pitcher abilities can normally be used only once on each of your Defensive Innings.
- Special Case: If you have Willie Morris on your team and use his ability to remove an Exhaustion Token from your Pitcher, place it on Morris. During your next Defensive Inning, you may move the Exhaustion Token from Morris to your Pitcher to activate their reroll ability a second time.
Summary of Basic Icons
Card Tiers
Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 (each shown by a distinct diamond icon).
Resources
Gain Dice equal to the number shown on the icon (*, 0, 1, 2, or 3) and add them to your Resource Pool. Cards with the * icon have a special rule for how many dice you gain.
Reroll Token: Once gained, can be discarded to reroll any number of currently in-use dice one time (Offensive Halves only).
+/-1 Token: Once gained, can be discarded to increase or decrease the value of a rolled die by 1 (Offensive Halves only).
Stamina/Exhaustion: Used to track how many times a Pitcher may use their ability. Once at their Stamina limit, a Pitcher's ability is not usable until Exhaustion is removed from them.
Season Points: These are gained throughout the Season by winning games, and are needed to both enter the Playoffs, and to improve your odds of winning the Playoffs in various ways.
Summary of an Individual Game
Player Selection
Choose 9 Batters for your Lineup and 1 Pitcher to be your Current Pitcher, then roll to determine your first Current Batter.
Each Offensive Half, repeat the following until you've gotten 3 Outs, or have won the game
- Batter Substitution (Optional): Exchange your Current Batter for one from your Bench.
- Gather Resources: Take the resources shown in the top left of your Current Batter's card.
- Steal Bases (Optional): Roll any number of dice from your Resource Pool to attempt to Steal Bases.
- Resolve Batter At-Bat: Roll any number of dice from your Resource Pool to try and satisfy one of the Conditions on your Current Batter's card, gaining its Outcome (if Outcome is a Hit you may optionally attempt to steal bases again). Then move onto the next Batter in your Lineup.
Each Defensive Half, do the following once
- Pitcher Substitution (Optional): Send your Current Pitcher to the Dugout and take a new one from your Bench.
- Roll for Opposing Team: Referring to Team card, roll the indicated number of dice, and determine how many Runs the team will score based on their rolling condition.
- Use Pitcher Ability (Optional): Use your Pitcher's ability, giving them 1 Exhaustion Token for each time it is used. This may alter the outcome of the opposing Team's attempt to score Runs.
A winner may be determined any time as of the bottom of the 9th inning (see pg. 19). Remember to track the game's result on the Season Board and return all players to your Roster before beginning the next game!