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 Emma Larkins and Gil Hova (sometimes with Professor Scott Rogers) 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 slot machines.
On weeks where there is no flagship Ludology episode, we will alternate between two smaller mini-sodes.
GameTek is a long-running feature from the Dice Tower podcast by Ludology co-founder Geoff Engelstein that explores the math and science behind games. GameTek Classic episodes were once broadcast on The Dice Tower podcast, while other GameTek episodes were recorded specially for Ludology.
Biography of a Board Game is a series hosted by Scott Rogers that explores the history behind classic and modern board games. It was once on The Dice Tower, but has since moved full-time to Ludology.
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 joined the show in 2017 when Mike stepped aside, and Emma joined in 2019 when Geoff ended his tenure as host.
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 gil@ludology.net or emma@ludology.net.
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Ludology is part of The Dice Tower Network, the premier board game media network.
Jul 29, 2012
In place of the 'Classic GameTek' segment that we normally post in between full episodes of Ludology, we are posting some bonus content about the design process for Trading in the Mediterranean.
Make sure you let us know what you think about Ryan's "interesting" idea for voyages!
Duration: 38:00
Jul 22, 2012
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff discuss different approaches to starting a new game design. And then, they embark on a grand project of their own, designing a game of their own!
Duration: 1:04:30
Jul 15, 2012
In this classic GameTek segment Geoff talks about NP Complete problems in mathematics, and the ways that certain problems can be transformed into others.
Duration: 06:00
(Yes, I know there was no GameTek Classic 35. Real Life got in the way a few weeks ago, and I decided to keep the numbering in sync with the Ludology...
Jul 9, 2012
Ryan and Geoff take a close analytical look at Alan Moon's Ticket To Ride, and lift up the hood to figure out what makes it tick. What design decisions set it apart from similar games? How does it draw on Moon's earlier work? And what does it do better than other mainstream euro games like Settlers of Catan?
Duration:...