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.
In Q4 2026 / Q1 2027 Sen and Camilla Zamboni are launching a new podcast, RPG Roots, that focuses on the intersection of role-playing games and culture. They have already interviewed over 40 academics and creatives in their pursuit of knowledge. The first arc of RPG Roots focuses on themes of Oppression and Resistance and looks at how games can inform how players think and act in the real world.
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.
Erica and Sen are working to bring new voices to Ludology and have some great things to announce as gaming expands to include even more people!
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.
If you have questions that you'd like answered on Ludology, let us know by filling out this Google Form; you can also leave an audio question that we can use on the show, if you wish!
Burning Questions for Ludology
Support the Show
Ludology is made possible through the support and donations of listeners like you.
You can also make a one-time or monthly donation here. The link will take you to Erica's account. People who donate in this way will not have access to the Patreon page - sorry!
Dec 15, 2025
Erica and Sen talk with Dr. Joe Macisco, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine. Joe has been working on designing serious games for use in the public health field. Joe discusses how and why games can...
Dec 8, 2025
Sen and Erica welcome Sarah Shipp, guest host of Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, to talk about some of the ways in which theme can be measured and how that affects game design.
Dec 1, 2025
Sen and special guest host Doug Levandowski (Kids on Bikes) talk with Noxweiler Ignatius Berf (or "Nox" for short) about his work on the storytelling game, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, based on the comic series of the same name. They discuss the game and it's mechanisms, how it stays true to the comic overall,...
Nov 16, 2025
Erica and Sen welcome Jordan Goddard of Indy Game Lab to talk about his company's newest product - family games that are packaged inside of Christmas ornaments. Currently on Kickstarter, Jordan discusses why he chose to create games that might only come out once a year.
Nov 2, 2025
This episode, Sen welcomes Pete, Felix, and Daniel from Zed9 Mystery Club (www.zed9jubensha.com) in Richmond, BC to talk all about Jubensha (a.k.a. Murder Script Games). Originally developed in Chinese-speaking countries, Jubensha have been making their way to wherever the Chinese diaspora has settled and now...