ST. LOUIS — Daniel Drake goes by many titles, Game designer, fortune teller, artist.
"I'm like St. Louis' Willy Wonka," he says.
But, you most likely remember him as Dancakes. Dan got his start flipping flapjacks at Courtesy Diner on Kingshighway, but these Pancakes were more than just pancakes; they were works of art.
"I went viral for it and ended up on the Today Show in November of 2013. People around the world saw my pancake art," Drake says.
The next eight years were filled with celebrities, traveling and well, pancakes. Whenever he got a break from flipping breakfast art, Drake began working on something special.
"I started to make a card game, and this was the impulse was from like when I was a kid," he says.
Introducing Anthromancer.
"The idea is that there's a card game that you can play that feels like chess meets poker," Drake explains.
It's a layered board game with multiple functions. Every player gets a house that has five black cards and one blue card. You capture other players cards with the objective of capturing five cards before anyone else.
"The game is incredibly fun and accessible and enjoyable. It brings you and up to three other people around a table. It supposed to have enough depth to it that it is chess-like, but there's also enough randomness to it that there's a lot of come from behind wins," Drake explains.
Beyond the board game, there is an oracle system to the playing cards that works as a fortune telling tool, similar to tarot cards.
"There's a system of symbolism that allows you to use the cards as sort of like a storytelling vehicle, like, Oh, this card represents an authority figure, and this card represents sudden change. And and that's basically how tarot works is it's just a storytelling system," he says.
Whether its pancakes or board games, it seems like STL's Willy Wonka can't stop creating.
"There's tons of stuff I've tried...I would say 95 percent of the things I try fail. But I have this cool game out and I've got this cool pancake art story and all this kind of stuff. And all of that comes from the fact that like, I had an impulse and I said, let's try it. And sometimes it works out," Drake says.
Now Dan still makes pancake art, you can find out how to book him and follow along on social media or visit thejoyofpancakes.com.
And if you want to give Anthromancer a play, swing by the Crack Fox in downtown St. Louis tonight for the first Anthromancer NightFest! The Crack Fox is located at 1114 Olive St, St. Louis, MO 63101. The event starts at 6:00pm. Purchase tickets HERE.
For more information about Anthromancer, visit anthromancer.com.
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