Jonny and Jeff joined me on the show to discuss less popular mechanics, at least, according to us. We went through three mechanics: area enclosure like in games Through the Desert, simultaneous action selection like in games Wallenstein, and threat tracks like in games the Battle at Kemble's Cascade. It was a fun discussion to explore mechanics we thought were less popular than the rest of the hobby thinks.

I received a very unique text one day from my father-in-law. One of his patients had designed a game, and he shared with her that his son-in-law (yours truly) was a game podcaster. So, we connected, and I invited her and her co-designer onto the show. Here is that show.

Anna Purves and David Schwittek joined me to discuss Dead Poets Rise, a unique game about writing poetry. I had the pleasure of watching some games take place at a library near me. Funny enough, David lives close to where I live, and Anna lives close to where I work. The game brings players into a world where they are trying to resurrect a dead poet from obscurity. The game uses a Chinese checkers style board with marbles and two decks--The creation and chaos decks-- to bring the players into a world of poetry writing.

The conversation was a really interesting one, especially talking with two designers who exist outside of the normal circles of designers who I tend to engage with. If you are interested in learning more about the game, please visit Dead Poets Rise.

Warning: I had a cough during the recording that I couldn't escape. It turned out I had strep throat, which took me out of commission later that week. I did my best to edit the coughing fits out.

Kelp me! Kelp me!

All joking aside... this is a serious podcast...

Carl Robinson, the designer of the 2-player game Kelp, joined me to talk more about his games and expand upon frustrating games in general. We discussed his game in detail, but we also branched off into games that use frustration in good and bad ways.

Check out Kelp, live on Kickstarter right now if this sounds like something you are interested in.