Game designer Eric Slauson's gotta be a huge party animal. We can't say from personal experience (we've only interacted with him through very festivity-less email and video conferencing). And with this current COVID business, we don't expect to find out for ourselves anytime soon, either. But he's designed some really interesting party games with just one thing on his mind: Everybody's got to have a heckuva good time.

We played his upcoming sure-to-be-a-hit MonsDRAWsity, which is bound to sell many a copy on its synopsis alone. (Listen to the episode to hear it!) And based how much fun we had with it, we have high expectations for his other two party games, too: Nerd Words: Science! and Tattoo Stories.

Naturally, since he's our guest for this episode, we tailored a lot of the discussion around his design interests. Our topics this week:

1. Christina (host): What type of game-induced social interactions do we enjoy the most? (3:56)
2. Eric Slauson (guest): What's our favorite game to play where points don't matter? (16:29)
3. Shoe (co-host): What are the most interesting games we've played that revolve around illustrations (but not necessarily drawing them)? (31:36)
4. Jess (contributor): What are our favorite board game universes? (41:35)

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Here's a full list of games discussed on the show:

Intro

• Tattoo Stories
• Nerd Words: Science!
• MonsDRAWsity
• Welcome To...
• Tumblin' Dice

Christina’s topic: Favorite type of social interactions

• Twilight Imperium
• Exit
• Unlock!
• Level 7: Omega Protocol
• Forgotten Waters
• Charterstone
• Arcadia Quest
• Dead of Winter
• Telestrations
• MonsDRAWsity
• The Crew
• Deckscape

Eric’s topic: Favorite games where the points don’t matter

• Medium
• Mobscenity
• Bye, Felicia!
• Just One
• Wavelength
• Telestrations
• Alcatraz: The Scapegoat
• Flip Ships
• FUSE
• Tokaido
• Namiji 

Shoe’s topic: Great games that revolve around illustrations (not drawing)

• MonsDRAWsity
• Dixit
• Muse
• Visitor in Blackwood Grove
• Pictures
• Imagine
• Drawful 
• Mangaka: The Fast & Furious Game of Drawing Comics
• Cartooner: The Fast & Furious Game of Drawing Comics
• Escape the Dark Castle

Jess’s topic: Favorite game universes

• Above and Below
• Near and Far
• Roam
• Sleeping Gods
• Roll Player
• Cartographers
• Lockup: A Roll Player Tale
• Kingdomino
• Queendomino
• Dragomino 
• Ex Libris 
• Star Trek Ascendancy
• Scythe
• Eclipse
• Cthulhu Wars

Final thoughts

• Stellar
• MonsDRAWsity
• Tattoo Stories
• Nerd Words: Science!

• Podcast