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Welcome!

Welcome to Ludology, an analytical discussion of the hows and whys of the world of board games. Rather than news and reviews, Ludology explores a variety of topics about games from a wider lens, as well as discuss game history, game design and game players.

We post a new Ludology episode every other week. In these episodes, hosts Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim deep-dive into a single topic within game design, often with a well-regarded guest from the game industry. We generally focus on tabletop game design (mainly board games and RPGs), but we often pull in experts from all forms of games, from video games to escape rooms to slot machines.

On weeks where there is no flagship Ludology episode, we will alternate between two smaller mini-sodes. Erica and Sen are currently in search of content creators for these 5-15 minute slots, so please reach out if you have ideas!

Our History

We aim for most Ludology episodes to be timeless, so you are welcome to explore our entire catalog. Most of it should age quite well. The podcast was started in 2011 by Geoff Engelstein and Ryan Sturm, with Mike Fitzgerald taking over for Ryan in 2015. Gil and Scott joined the show in 2017 when Mike stepped aside, and Emma joined in 2019 when Geoff ended his tenure as host. Emma left in 2021, and Erica and Sen joined us. Since then, Scott stepped down in 2022 and Gil will be hanging up his mic in 2023, leaving Erica and Sen to carry on this amazing legacy.

Contact Us 

Have your own thoughts about our topics? We encourage you to visit us at our guild on Boardgamegeek to get involved in a continuing discussion.

You can also email us at hello@ludology.net.

Ludology is part of The Dice Tower Network, the premier board game media network.

Support the Show

Ludology is made possible through the support and donations of listeners like you.

Become a Patron of Ludology:

Become a patron

Make a one-time or monthly donation here. The link will take you to Erica's account.

Nov 24, 2013

In this classic GameTek, the GameTek players present "Wild West Showdown". Who will win this three-sided gunfight... of doom?

Duration: 07:44


Nov 17, 2013

Hot on the heels of talking about Set Collection, Ryan and Geoff tackle its cousin, Area Majority, a mechanic which comes wearing many disguises.  How does it differ from Set Collection? What makes it work or not?

Duration: 01:11:12


Nov 10, 2013

In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff talks about gamification, specifically the way that it is used by fold.it to use game mechanics to solve real world problems.

Duration: 06:32


Nov 3, 2013

In this episode Ryan and Geoff discuss Set Collection as a tool for game designers. What attributes can set collection add to a game? What are some of the pitfalls? What games have used it well or badly?

Duration 1:04:32