Root designer talks about his next big board game Oath | Cole Wehrle interview

[@zhivik]

Cole Wehrle is such an amazing person to talk to - you just need to give him a starting point and he will give you a whole essay on game design. It was a great interview and it is always a pleasure to hear from people who truly enjoy what they are doing for a living. Also, I don’t believe you need to be a fan of Cole to feel entranced by him, though I an aware that Matt is a very big Pax Pamir fan, so it must have been a real pleasure for him as well. I backed Oath last year, and the more I hear about the game, the more I am looking forward to it. It will be truly something unique, which I believe is how you can recognise stellar game design. Once again, thanks a lot for the interview, it was a joy to watch.

[@matslarsson6919]

Could listen to Cole all day.

[@Tanks.With.Teeth.Malloy]

I could list to him talk all day about games. My goodness he might be my new favorite designer.

[@Nattler]

It's nice to see how excited Matt is. You can tell he's a big fan!

[@xrispins]

I could listen to Cole talk about board games forever.

[@JohnGottschalk]

It's interesting, he pitches players considering "the way someone wins" by giving consequences, but the ones he imagines as the negative, "by doing something horrible and dismantling a state or something and throwing the world into anarchy", is actually what I tend to find to be the positive result in Root. When the 'Empire' wins in Oath, I'm often disappointed the next game will be similar to the last, so I often want it to be overthrown and lead to a radically different game state. I'd be interested if another game could work the same formula, but instead make me be invested in what we've established together, and seeing that progress further, rather than resent it, as I do in Oath. I think a big part of this situation in Oath, is that the winner starts with ownership over all this stuff, and it often comes with defenses that make the game less fun to play in the future (Road Taxes, Grasping Vines, Sprawling Ramparts, etc) because they lead to people being more static. Its a successful strategy for winning the game round after round to build an empire like this, but its not really fun to maintain it or to live with it as an opponent game after game.

[@Botanica_Gaming]

I'm ready for this game! I can't wait for people to learn about oath. It will quickly become a big game of 2021.

[@edmundengland]

Such fascinating and interesting person to listen to Cole.

[@Scarxful]

awesome interview, thanks! :)

[@toymachine2328]

"Oath is currently stuck in the Suez Canal."

[@christinaberkley]

I was wondering.

[@nickdejager8873]

Interesting insight into game design.

[@coryvogelgesang]

Very interesting watch! Can't wait to play this

[@baileystutzman6096]

He mentioned Netrunner!! :)

[@fireheartLuke24v32]

This was really interesting!

[@gordo6908]

38:41 Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah?

[@lukekennedy1001]

Nice catch

[@pedrofanti]

50minutes of the microphone catching Cole's breathing. I'm sure it's a great interview, but I have to stop.