BGB Podcast #191 – Take Off Every Zig

While one of the appeals of following a specific game designer is the comforting familiarity of what they do best, it’s also really fun to see them go off the garden path. We’re looking at games and mechanics where one of our beloved designers zigged, when they easily could’ve zagged. Before we go our own way, we talk about Biosphere, The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game, and Stephenson’s Rocket.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

01:46 – Biosphere
10:58 – The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game
19:10 – Stephenson’s Rocket
30:51 – Neilan’s at Gen Con!
31:42 – Designers “Zigging”
33:03 – Codenames
33:07 – Pictomania
35:25 – El Grande
35:36 – 6 nimmt!
37:25 – Blood of the Northmen
37:54 – Strasbourg
38:25 – FlowerFall
40:37 – Kitchen Rush
42:19 – Mercado de Lisboa
43:02 – Age of Steam Expansion: Portugal
46:51 – XCOM: The Board Game

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.