Not many board games are as mysterious as City of Six Moons. Is it a puzzle? A working board game? A grift? To answer those questions and many more, today we’re joined by Amabel Holland to discuss her oddest title yet, the joys and perils of translation, and her recent efforts to preserve board games that have fallen out of fashion.

Listen over here or download here. Timestamps can be found after the jump.

TIMESTAMPS

1:30 — introducing City of Six Moons
3:56 — City of Six Moons’ connection to ancient Mesopotamia
6:25 — creating a board game about translation
17:28 — aliens and the pleasure of the unsolved
20:05 — rules, variants, wikis and canon
32:28 — is this game making an argument?
37:22 — Dan’s struggle with City of Six Moons
53:58 — Amabel’s journey to preserve a board game (link to Amabel’s video!)
1:01:08 — why does preservation matter? (link to Amabel’s different video!)
1:10:22 — who is responsible for preserving these games?
1:20:04 — Amabel’s melancholy over the disappearance of these games
1:23:04 — ambush round! questions for Dan

(If what I’m doing at Space-Biff! is valuable to you in some way, please consider dropping by my Patreon campaign or Ko-fi. Right now, supporters can read my next essay, on the competing strands of history and criticism that are present in my work. That’s right, it’s the Death of the Author, bay-bee!)