Cole Wehrle was in graduate school in Austin, Texas, when he chanced upon a board game about the Mexican Revolution. At the time, Wehrle was working toward his PhD on the British Empire in the 19th century—a dark and bloody period of history that was often shaped by mundane, personal motivations. Maybe, Wehrle thought, there could be a game in that too.

Ten years later, he is the designer behind popular games like Root, Oath and John Company, one of the tentpole projects of Wehrlegig Games, the company he now heads with his brother, Drew. He continues to design and publish historical tabletop games that, as Wehrle puts it, “help us understand our world.”¹

Elle Hunt: How did you come to be a board game designer?

Cole Wehrle: By accident. No one studies this—the industry is filled with people who have stumbled into it. When I found Pax Porfiriana, a board game about the Mexican Revolution and the geopolitical currents that shaped it, I wrote to its publisher telling them how much I liked it. Pretty soon, I found myself play-testing, teaching myself graphic design and learning some basic components of production. 

I then got a job at a small studio in Minnesota, where I learned about all the other parts of the board game industry, like how to work with larger factories and charter a shipping container. I was making these little history games, basically for fun. When they did well, my brother and I decided to start our own company. That was eight years ago, and our audience has been consistently growing.