Manny Trembly had never designed a board game when he made 🎲 DICE THRONE — he was a comic artist who'd just been laid off. Ten years, 40+ heroes and a Marvel licence later, he still draws it, designs it, and now runs his own studio inside Chip Theory building ⚔️ WROTH.
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🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:
💼 Laid off ten years ago this week — a prototype in Nate's kitchen two days later
✏️ Comic artist first — an Eisner nod for PX, 3D models for MYST
🎲 "Too asymmetrical, too many dice" — everyone told him it wouldn't work
⚔️ Gavin Brown, Roxley, and the absurd EXCALIBUR box
🌈 WROTH — built in 24 hours with his kids
🔮 NEXUS and DICE THRONE DIGITAL are coming
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🔗 LINKS
🎲 Dice Throne
▶ https://dicethrone.com/
⚔️ Wroth & Neon Knight Games
▶ https://chiptheorygames.com/
⚔️ Wreck
▶ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/chip-theory-games/wroth-reprint--wreck-expansion
❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard
▶ https://crdbrd.app/
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🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165
🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4
🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364
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⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 - Cold open
00:32 - Who is Manny Trembly?
01:27 - Fresh off Gen Con
10:20 - Why the small booths are where the magic is
11:53 - Winning a Dice Tower Award for Tanglewood
16:38 - A Jim Lee comic and the two-page spread that started it
21:32 - PX, the Eisner nomination, and dropping the E
23:00 - Myst, Cyan Worlds, and 'grandpa who fought in WWII'
26:05 - Meeting Nate — and getting laid off the same week
30:34 - 'What if we just translate this sucker into a board game?'
34:00 - Roxley, Gavin Brown, and the Excalibur box
40:25 - 'What you're doing is cool, but it's not going to work'
46:32 - The art: what Manny draws vs what Nick Malara draws
57:00 - Why dice make better stories
1:10:44 - Neon Reign — art that predates Dice Throne
1:15:40 - Joining Chip Theory and starting Neon Knight
1:28:13 - Wroth: fixing what keeps people off Root
1:47:20 - Wreck: boats, cannon dice, and the Exodus
2:04:30 - What WROTH actually stands for
2:26:11 - Manny's favourite hero of all time
2:30:40 - Nexus, Dice Throne Digital, and what's next
#cardboard #bgss #dicethrone #wroth
