Beyond Solitaire

This week on the pod, Deborah from Geek Gamers returns to talk about her new book, the Solo Game Master's Guide! Check out her channel, Geek Gamers, to see how to get a copy: https://www.youtube.com/c/GeekGamers01 Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Che...

This week on the pod, our special guest is Dan Bullock (@bublublock), designer of games about North Korea, Iran, weapons contracts in Afghanistan... and stalker violinists? We had a lot of fun recording this.  Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Check them o...

This week's special guest is Ada Sayin, a Turkish game designer who works for women's rights NGO Kiz Basina and created Hybrid Threat Rising as part of their mission! https://www.kizbasina.com/women-in-command-hybrid-threat-rising/ Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both play...

This week's special guest is Paul Wright, a professor at Cabrini University who is deeply involved with Reacting to the Past and who looks for novel ways to incorporate board games into his classes. Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Check them out her...

This week, the original board game YouTuber, Scott Nicholson (@snicholson), joins the podcast to talk about his work on using escape rooms in the classroom, even with very limited resources. You can check out his newest project, EscapeIf, here: https://sites.google.com/view/escapeif/home Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games a...

This week on the pod, Ray Kimball (@42edgames) joins us to talk about his experience teaching at West Point, his use of games in the classroom, and his new company, 42EdGames, which seeks to help teachers implement game-based learning. Check him out at https://42ed.games/.  Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations...

In this episode, Prof. Bret Devereaux (@bretdevereaux) talks about the ways in which historical video games can form players' thinking—for better and for worse. Find his blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, here: https://acoup.blog/ Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both p...

In this episode, Qamar discusses his upcoming game, After the Last Sky, which is about the First Intifada.  Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Check them out here: https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/class/Centers/CLGS/Pages/default.aspx BIG NEWS: CLGS is now do...

This week on the pod, Damon Stone and Ted Torgerson are here to discuss their upcoming game, Free At Last. This game focuses on the Civil Rights Movement and can be played cooperatively or semi-cooperatively. Most importantly, there is a ton of history packed into it!  Beyond Solitaire is proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, whe...

This week involves a discussion of amazing female pilots of WW2—and a major news announcement from David Thompson and me! Season 5 is starting off strong.  Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Check them out here: https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/class/Cent...

For the final episode of Season 4, Geoff Engelstein (@gengelstein) and David Thompson (@djackthompson) come on to talk about their upcoming game from GMT, which focuses on Zheng He, a Chinese explorer and courter, Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Chec...

Charles Cartier, professional wargamer, joins us on the pod to talk about his work—at least the parts that aren't classified.  Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Check them out here: https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/class/Centers/CLGS/Pages/default.a...

Professor Scout Blum (@scoutblum) joins the pod to talk about her upcoming game, Rising Waters, which focuses on the self-empowerment of African American laborers during one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in American history.  Get updates about Rising Waters: https://www.cmich.edu/academics/colleges/liberal-arts-social-sciences/central-michigan-university-press/games-for-learning/games...

Joe Schmidt (@josephnschmidt) and Taylor Shuss (@drawnonward) come on to discuss The Sacred Band, a game they are developing about a group of elite warriors from Thebes, made up of 150 pairs of male lovers.  Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Check them...

This week has both a special guest and a bonus appearance from a friend of the show! Jason Perez of Shelf Stories joins me in a conversation with Zoe Antoinette Eddy, an anthropologist who studies LARPing communities in the Northeast.  LARP Article: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/9/4/143/htm Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through...

This week's special guest is Eloy Lasanta (@eloythesaint), owner of Third Eye Games, designer and player of MANY tabletop RPGs, musician, and teacher of an upcoming game design class at Central Michigan University!  Eloy's Games: https://www.thirdeyegames.net/ Geek Therapeutics: https://www.geektherapeutics.com/ Eloy's Music: https://straysoftheworldmusic.com/ Beyond Solitaire is no...

This week on the pod, James Fielder, AKA Pigeon, talks about how he uses games to help students understand various theories of international relations. His work can be found at jdfielder.com. Find him on Twitter @j_d_fielder.  Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and com...

This week's guest is Tim Hutchings (@TimHutchingsFTW), designer of Thousand Year Old Vampire and professor of game design at Bradley University. In this episode he talks about his game design process, some upcoming projects, and how he teaches design to his students. You can check out his website here: https://thousandyearoldvampire.com/ Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Mi...

This week's special guest is Kathryn Hymes, who talks about her work for Thorny Games, a publisher dedicated to making games that explore language. Check out Thorny Games' work at https://thornygames.com/.  Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. C...

This week's guest is Ev Davis, aka Whistler, who is an artist, LARP expert, and author of a new tabletop RPG called Rapscallion. We had an awesome conversation about what RPGs can do, how to run them well, and more.  Rapscallion: https://magpiegames.com/products/rapscallion-ashcan-edition-print-pdf Ev's art site: https://evanleigh-davis.format.com/ Twitter: @artofwhistler Beyond Solitair...

This week's special guest is Professor Mary Flanagan (@criticalplay), who teaches at Dartmouth and runs ambitious gaming research and publication projects. She has a lot to say about how games are fun, but also a way to change the way we think. Her latest game, Retrograde, is a real-time roll and write that is currently on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maryflanagan/retrogr...

This week on the pod, Professor Emerita Mary Jane Treacy speaks about her work with Reacting to the Past games and the challenges of bringing history to life in the classroom.  Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, where learning can be both playful and compelling. Check them out here: https://www.cmich.ed...

This week on the pod, game designer and Ph. D. candidate Greg Loring-Albright talks about his academic work and his role as co-designer of the third edition of Bloc by Bloc. It hits Gamefound on Feb. 15: https://gamefound.com/projects/draft/zxc58ag7firw48g1aggj8ue80qo Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations,...

This week's guest is Ricky Royal, who kindly shared updates on his solo game designs and talked about his approach to design in general. If you haven't yet, check him out on the Box of Delights YouTube channel—his work is a must-watch for solo gamers. https://www.youtube.com/c/BoxofDelights Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learnin...

This week the pod has TWO special guests! Professors Paul Booth (@pbooth81) and Aaron Trammell (@aarontram) drop by to talk about a book series they are co-editing, which will focus on board games and be published by the University of Michigan's academic press.  Beyond Solitaire is now proudly sponsored by Central Michigan University's Center for Learning Through Games and Simulations, w...