He invented card crafting — and he may have just reinvented deck building. John D. Clair designed 🚀 SPACE BASE, 🏴‍☠️ DEAD RECKONING, 🎲 CUBITOS, 🐎 READY SET BET, and 🔮 MYSTIC VALE — and his new "momentum" system in ⚔️ UNSTOPPABLE is the engine behind the smash-hit 👑 DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL board game. In this one, I review Unstoppable to the designer's face for the very first time.

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🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE, WE GO DEEP:

🧒 Designing his first game at 9 (thanks, Mom)

💰 Quitting the day job — royalties, risk & the AEG deal

🃏 Dominion, Ascension & why deck building is a design "cheat code"

✂️ Card crafting — why it never spawned a genre

⚡ Momentum deck building & the 2009 prototype that waited a decade

🎲 Luck vs. agency — why new players blame the dice

🌶️ The BGG comments he SAVES & the review that stung

🗞️ BREAKING: Floors 5 & 6 in the works for Dungeon Crawler Carl

🔮 What's next — Stormlight Archive, Mystic Lands & Electrify

👉 If you want to get inside the mind of the most inventive card game designer working today, this one's a masterclass.

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🔗 LINKS

⚔️ Unstoppable — Renegade Game Studios

▶ https://renegadegamestudios.com/unstoppable/

👑 Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable + RPG

▶ https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/renegade-game-studios/dungeon-crawler-carl-rpg-unstoppable

❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard

▶ https://crdbrd.app/

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🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165

🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4

🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364

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⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro — who is John D. Clair

00:52 - Designing his first game at 9 (Monster Cards)

05:19 - Maze books & gamifying mazes as a kid

13:24 - Going full-time in 2018 & the AEG deal

16:52 - Why Unstoppable went to Renegade — the IP bet

18:52 - The games he loves (and the two kinds he doesn't)

22:59 - Inspiration & giving credit to other designers

27:12 - Playing Dominion for the first time

30:46 - Why deck building is so addicting

34:38 - Ascension's influence & Dead Reckoning's 2D market

38:52 - Card crafting — a lateral evolution, not a genre

42:16 - The deck building problem card crafting solves

46:05 - Deck-driven board games — Dune: Imperium & Arnak

47:35 - Unstoppable & momentum deck building

50:45 - The 2009 prototype behind Unstoppable

58:04 - The magic moment — two dead cards into a combo

1:00:27 - Difficulty & learning to pump the brakes

1:08:08 - Luck, agency & why new players blame the dice

1:17:48 - How many plays before Unstoppable clicks?

1:18:46 - What do reviewers owe designers?

1:22:03 - BGG comments, Space Base's two bad cards & the review that stung

1:31:36 - Fixing the card market — six levels, straight to hand

1:41:44 - Has momentum transcended deck building?

1:46:01 - The bosses & designing variety

1:52:26 - My gripes — sleeving and that theme

1:55:06 - The IP vision & the future of the Unstoppable line

1:56:36 - Patching a physical game & the new co-op rule

2:00:35 - Dungeon Crawler Carl's campaign mode

2:04:47 - BREAKING — Floors 5 & 6 expansion in the works

2:05:54 - What's new in DCC — looming bosses, races & mana

2:13:39 - The "Unbeatable" difficulty & how John playtests

2:15:17 - Stormlight Archive: War of Roshar (September)

2:17:14 - Mystic Lands & the art problem of card crafting

2:21:03 - Mistborn expansion, Electrify & a 2027 auto-battler

2:23:01 - Wrap-up

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#boardgames #boardgamedesign #unstoppable #dungeoncrawlercarl #deckbuilding #tabletop #renegadegamestudios #boardgamepodcast