Who, What, Why is launching a new type of episode that will be released once a month: panel discussions featuring multiple designers, artists, and publishers ... and Alex and I. The first topic is women in board gaming, and we are joined by three published designers Nicole Kline, Suzanne Kabert-Zinsli, and Bonnie Neubauer.

Hope you enjoy the show.

Who, What, Why presents our twenty-first episode of Designing Games with Game Designers featuring designer Emerson Matsuuchi. He is the designers of Spector Ops, Volt, and the upcoming Caravan. In this episode we changed it up a bit since we've had Emerson record a segment like this in the past. We asked Emerson about a video game he would turn into a board and how he would do it. All video game fans will love his choice and how he would implement that game.

Alex and I participate in the discussion, so it is a collaborative venture. Enjoy.

Common Man Games, founded by Karl Fenner, is a publisher most noticeable for the co-op hit Police Precinct. What is remarkable about this publisher is that Karl has chosen to only publish games about police. It's interesting to meet a publisher who has chosen to specialize in such a niche theme (in the board gaming world). While Common Man has published K2 and Broad Peak, those games were part of distribution deals rather than created from the ground up from Common Man.

My discussion with Karl focused on CMG's decision to focus on the police genre. I learned something cool about the intersection of board games and real life. And we discussed the new Police Precinct app that will allow gamers to play this excellent co-op any time and any where.

If you wish to be part of the app Kickstarter campaign, it is running right now, so head over to Kickstarter or click this link.

Eduardo Baraf of Pencil First Games and Jon Gilmour have collaborated on a trick taking card game that uses an interesting box design as a major component in the game. In most trick taking games players know all of the information played out on the table, but in this one the box obscures the previously played cards adding in a deduction element that gives this one a unique twist.

Our discussion focused on the box and the intricacies to designing and prototyping this component. I learned that Jon Gilmour came into this project because he always wanted to design a trick taking game. And finally, Edo and I found ourselves on a tangent about understanding how to decide the number of copies one should print.

Heroes and Tricks is currently on Kickstarter, so if this game sounds right for you or you like unique trick taking games, check this one out. It's only 20 bucks.

Who, What, Why presents our twentieth episode of Designing Games with Game Designers featuring designer Brandon Patton. He is one of the designers of the Super PACs Card Game. In this episode we use the themes, components, and mechanics found on the cards in Unpub, the card game from Doug Levandowski and J.R. Honeycutt. The three themes and mechanics were Cold War, kaiju, pirates, acting, traitor, and player elimination.

Alex and I participate in the discussion, so it is a collaborative venture. Enjoy.

Stronghold Games burst onto the scene in 2009 with reprints of Code 777 and Survive: Escape from Atlantis. Now 7 years later Stronghold Games has so many titles under its belt, even a game with of its own namesake (Stronghold from Ignacy Trzewicek). One of the initiatives Stronghold Games has embarked on over the last few years has been creating partnerships with foreign publishers like Artipia and Eggertspiel to bring over games that North American gamers had to previously acquire from Essen or Amazon.de. We had a chat with Stephen about how he considers games for his company and why he builds so many partnerships with foreign publishers. I reveal a story about the first time Stephen asked to be on my podcast (Ninja vs. Pirates). Oh, how young and stubborn I was.

If you would like to learn more about Stronghold Games, visit StrongholdGames.com.

Who, What, Why presents our nineteenth episode of Designing Games with Game Designers featuring Peter Newland, designer of Wizard Dodgeball and Flapjack Flipout. In this episode we use the themes, components, and mechanics found on the cards in Unpub, the card game from Doug Levandowski and J.R. Honeycutt. The three themes and mechanics were sacrifice, Napolean, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, acting, pattern building, deduction.

Alex and I participate in the discussion, so it is a collaborative venture. Enjoy.

Volt, designed by Emerson Matsuuchi, is like robo-gladiators fighting in an arena to see who can be the first to score 5 points. The game is simple. There are 3 dice: red, white, and blue. Players use these dice to assign actions to their robot (shoot and move). The dice are resolved from lowest to highest in red, white, and blue order, which adds an excellent level of unpredictability to the game. While players might be able to plan their moves, they cannot know how their opponents will mess up their plans. Volt is being reprinted by a German company with new artwork, new layout, and some new features.

Our discussion focused on how and why Emerson designed Volt. We also discussed what it was like having a game reprinted into a 2nd edition, which will likely be very different from the first. If the game does well, does Emerson create an expansion for the 2nd but the leave the 1st in the lurch? Questions, questions, question.

If you would like to learn more about Volt, ask your local retailer or listen to this wonderful podcast. Emerson can be found on Twitter @nazcagames.

Castle Dice is a castle-building, dice-drafting game where

Our conversation focused on how Luke's company Fun to 11

If you would like to learn more about Fun to 11 Games, please

Who, What, Why presents our eighteenth episode of Designing Games with Game Designers featuring Scott King, writer and photographer. He is the creator of the board game calendars. In this episode we use the themes, components, and mechanics found on the cards in Unpub, the card game from Doug Levandowski and J.R. Honeycutt. The three themes and mechanics were Cthulhu, magic, space, roshambo, card throwing, dice rolling.

Alex and I participate in the discussion, so it is a collaborative venture. Enjoy.