Ludology

Emma, Gil, and Scott go back to a topic that Ryan and Geoff discussed earlier in the show's history: Deckbuilding! With all that's changed (including Emma having designed a deckbuilder), what has changed, and what have we learned? 0m41s: The episode that Ryan and Geoff did was Ludology 119 - Deck the Halls. 0m46s: Dominion (which did come out in 2008) 2m39s: StarCraft: The Board Game, which is generally believed to be the first game with an in-game deckbuilding component (if we assume that Magic: The Gathering's deckbuilding component is technically not "in-game," but is part of the metagame). 5m12s: Trains, and A Few Acres of Snow 6m26s: Smash Up 14m45s: Concordia, Aquatica 17m13s: Ascension, Thunderstone, Nightfall 22m26s: Eschaton, Copycat 30m08s: Aeon's End, Thunderstone Quest, Big Book of Madness, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle 31m39s: Puzzle Strike 32m36s: The Quacks of Quedlinburg 33m19s: I think we have the name to Scott's next game... :) 34m03s: Black Friday 34m47s: Quarriors (and its themed re-implementation, Dice Masters) 36m58s: Rattlebones 37m40s: Dice Forge (which Gil mistakenly called Dice Vault) 38m25s: According to designer Stephen Glenn, Rattlebones had been in the works since 2009. 40m05s: Blank White Dice (which Emma called Blank Dice) 41m07s: Abandon All Artichokes, Xenon Profiteer, Fine Sand 44m18s: Mystic Vale, Edge of Darkness 46m21s: The game Scott was thinking of is Dead Reckoning 46m36s: Slay the Spire 48m09s: Gil is using the definition of "atom" from the book Characteristics of Games: "The smallest complete unit of play, in the sense that the players feel they've 'really played' some of the game." 49m51s: The bits in question 50m05s: VENOM Assault 51m27s: Monster Train 54m17s: Self-promotion time! Gil High Rise The Rival Networks (Gil was totally wrong, but the rulebook is with the graphic designer now, so it's close to done!) Gil's Twitch channel Gil's games at Gen Con Gil's remote playtest group Gil's upcoming storytelling game Weird Stories (watch a playthrough here) Check-In Cards Emma The Seattle Tabletop Game Designers group on Facebook Abandon All Artichokes The What's Eric Playing review Top 10 Games on our Radar The Abandon All Artichokes design diary Ludology Live at Gen Con Online Scott Comic Book Crisis Gamemaster film

Geoff uses an interesting bag-building example to discuss how a mechanism that is designed to be fair and equitable to all colors in the bag winds up favoring a single color over time. This example has incredible significance to our hobby, and our world. You can reach out to Geoff via Twitter or email ([email protected]).

Emma and Gil welcome Banana Chan: game writer, larp/RPG designer, board game publisher, horror movie buff, and pop-up museum aficionado. We talk about writing for all kinds of games, how game mechanisms support intense experiences in larp and RPG, the effects of emancipatory bleed, and the effect of moving roleplay online. Content warning: we discuss games with intense themes, like human sacrifice. 4m29s: The Spire RPG 5m59s: The Circle is a reality show in which contestants are isolated in their homes and can only communicate with others via a text-based app. They're free to adopt any persona they wish. You can watch the first episode of the American reboot here. 6m27s: Pork roll vs. Taylor ham (two names for the same kind of processed meat) is a long-running debate in the Garden State. 7m01s: Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, a legendary play with a classic twist. 9m03s: The RPGs This Discord Has Ghosts In It and Long Time Listener, Last Time Caller 10m06s: For those of you just joining Ludology, welcome, and we just covered safety tools in Ludology 227 - Respect the X. 11m27s: To make it clear, bleed is a general term to describe a phenomenon (occurring mainly in larp) where a character's emotions and identity start mixing into a player's emotions and identity, and vice versa. It can be extremely intense, and larps usually feature necessary wrap-up sessions where players can talk out feelings that the game brought up. Here is an article with a couple of excellent examples of bleed. Jonaya Kemper, who Banana mentions, has written about emancipatory bleed here. Read more about Kemper and her work here. 11m59s: Here's Albert Kong's tweet about emancipatory bleed. 12m21s: More info about the Baphomet larp. 17m29s: Diplomacy is a game that's long-established for challenging friendships. 18m41s: Banana's new RPG, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, co-designed with Sen-Foong Lim 22m44s: Warp's Edge 24m51s: Angelus Morningstar has a good write-up on cultural appropriation in board games here. (Also, when Gil says "I wish this is something more board games would do," he means "hire cultural sensitivity readers.") 29m07s: They're Onto Me. The Golden Cobra Challenge is a contest for freeform larp. 31m06s: Dads on Mowers, a module for the RPG Kids on Bikes. 31m57s: Cobwebs RPG. 32m19s: Alice is Missing RPG. 32m37s: Banana is talking about an episode of the TV series Masters of Horror. This particular episode (which Gil and Emma will never watch) is called "John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns." 33m53s: Betrayal at Mystery Mansion is a re-implementation of Betrayal at House on the Hill, but with a Scooby-Doo theme. 35m58s: As We Know It. 37m32s: Roll20 is a website that facilitates online RPG play. Discord is an online text/voice chat program for gamers. 38m48s: By "corpse," Gil is referring to the surrealist writing exercise Exquisite Corpse. 41m39s: Banana's dinner party films: The Invitation, Get Out, Coherence. She also mentions Midsommar. 42m28s: Here's the article Gil mentions that describes the benefits of experiencing a horror movie entirely from its Wikipedia page. 43m02s: Here's Avery Alder's body horror RPG, Abnormal. 44m08s: The Park Avenue Armory, one of Gil's favorite places in NYC. Banana discusses The Funhouse in Toronto, which is now closed. 46m05s: The mangaka Junji Ito. 46m58s: Battle of the Boy Bands, a game by Clio Yun-su Davis and Vicci Ho that Banana published under the Game and a Curry label. Enjoy some music from Stray Kids and BTS. 50m05s: Night Witches, by Jason Morningstar. We had Jason on in Ludology 161 What's the Story, Morning Glory? Banana also mentions his game Juggernaut. 50m52s: Avery Alder's Monsterhearts. 51m25s: Here's the moment in the video Gil was mentioning. Alex Roberts, who plays the ghost, is the designer of the award-winning RPG Star Crossed. 52m13: Gil is referring to Ludology 226 - Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo, in which Dr. Mary Flanagan discussed how psychological distance helps people better associate with a subject. 53m39s: If you're interested in Goat-2-Meeting, here are the details. 56m44s: The designers Banana mentions are: Jabari Weathers, Jonaya Kemper (mentioned above), and Fertessa Allyse.

Scott takes us through the twisted history of the classic game Twister. How did it overcome its risqué premise to become a perennial favorite? Bibliography of a Board Game: Video - Twister was created 55 years ago Video - Ren Guyer: The Man Who Invented Twister & Nerf Video - Original Twister Commercial Video - Twister Mania for Xbox 360 review Text - Ren Guyer's story of Twister from his official website Text - Twister on Board Games Galore Fandom Wikia Text - Patent information on Twister Book - Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them, by Tim Walsh 7m46: One interesting note is that Shuffle Twister's gameplay is similar to Bez Shahriari's independently-released In a Bind, but Shahriari released her game in 2015, one year earlier. In a Bind went on to be re-implemented by French publisher Gigamic as Yogi. 9m19s: To clarify, Monkey Auto Races wasn't #1 on the BGG Hot Games; as an April Fool's joke in 2007, a bunch of BGG users gave the game a high rating, and it was actually the #1 game on BGG for one day.

Emma and Gil moderate a roundtable on safety tools in games, with guests Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk (creators of the TTRPG Safety Toolkit) and John Stavropoulos (creator of the X-Card). We discuss consent and safety in games, starting with tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), but expanding to all sorts of games. How can safety tools help in games, and in what ways do they help? Content Warning: this episode mentions occurences of consent violations, domestic abuse, and sexual assault. SHOW NOTES 23m25s - The D&D Adventurers League is an official ongoing play, organized by D&D's publisher Wizards of the Coast. 32m29s - Kids on Bikes, by Jon Gilmour and Doug Levandowski. 33m17s - Avonelle Wing is a longtime RPG/LARP player, convention organizer, and advocate for equality and justice for games. She's one of Gil's idols. 34m11s - Kate Bullock is a TTRPG designer, advocate, writer, and president of the Indie Game Developer Network. 39m58s - Nordic LARP is a form of LARP with minimal rules and GMing, but heavy atmosphere and story. Compare it to demonstrative (boffer) LARPs, which tend to be more fantastical and have NPCs and combat rules. 43m20s - An otome game is a story-based video game that generally has the player control a female character, to try to develop a relationship with one of the game's male characters. 46m10s - Here's an especially horrifying story about an awful GM that came out of UKGE last year (BIG CONTENT WARNING for sexual assault in that link). Note that this is one story, but there are many more that never get this much coverage. The story about the public live stream that went wrong is here, and carries a similar content warning. 52m07s - You didn't think we were going to go a full episode without bringing board games into it, did you? :) 1h00m26s - Self-Promotion: you can find more info about Gil's Check-In Cards here. 1h00m57s - Twilight Imperium being a 6 hour game about galactic conquest. 1h06m58s - Psychologist Susan Silk and her friend Barry Goldman wrote about this in the LA times. They called it "Ring Theory," and in it, they discuss how you can comfort a grieving person while not burdening them with your own pain, by placing them in the "center" of the crisis and being mindful of where you are relative to others in that ring. 1h10m03s - Restorative justice is a methodology that has the victim and offender meeting (often with community members), with the expectation that the two parties will come to a consensus on what happened, how much damage was caused, and how the damage can be repaired. This gives the offender a clear path to righting the wrong, and empowers the victim in the process of seeking justice.

Geoff discusses the phenomenon of counterfeiting in game production. How prevalent it it, and how badly does it affect game publishers? Here's the ICV2 interview he mentions.

Emma and Gil welcome Dr. Mary Flanagan, designer of Monarch, Visitor in Blackwood Grove, Buffalo, Awkward Moment, and plethora of other games in a myriad of styles and platforms, from party to strategy on digital in tabletop. Dr. Flanagan is also an artist, having exhibited works (many game-related) all around the world, and teaches game design at Dartmouth, who also hosts her game design and research lab, Tiltfactor. We discuss designing games from the perspectives of fun and meaningful change. How does one make a transformative game that players actually enjoy, but that is still effective at building empathy and fighting prejudice? CONTENT WARNING: There is a brief mention of racial prejudice, and sexual assault in literary works towards the end of the episode. SHOW NOTES 0m21s: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence. This video explains it, and other lexically ambiguous sentences. 1m21s: Tiltfactor, Dr. Flanagan's game design and research lab at Dartmouth 1m57s: If you're reading this, congratulations, you're reading the show notes! 3m58s: Professor Scott Rogers covered The Game of The Goose in Biography of a Board Game 221.5. 4m27s: For more information on these French Revolution-themed versions of Game of the Goose (Jeu de la Revolution Francaise), check out page 17 of this PDF. It's also interesting to note that Robespierre attempted to install a new state religion for France during the Revolution, the Cult of the Supreme Being (Culte de l'Être suprême); it's entirely possible that its dogma was reinforced through things like board games. Perhaps it also helped with the bizarre decimal-time-based calendar that Robespierre couldn't get to stick, but that still frustrates historians to this day. 5m30s: More information about Dr. Flanagan's book, Critical Play. 6m39s: The Landlord's Game by Lizzie Magie is the game that Monopoly was based on. 7m51s: September 12: A Toy World is a game where a player is trying to kill terrorists by firing missiles at a village. But every terrorist you kill creates more terrorists, as the locals get angrier at your actions. Soon, the village is gone and you are surrounded by terrorists. There is no way to win the game through shooting. 7m56s: Paolo Pedercini also makes commentary games. (Note that this link contains adult content.) Jump to the McDonald's Videogame here. 8m13s: More info on Profit Seed. 8m33s: More info on Layoff. 9m40s: More info on Pox: Save the Puppies. 10m32s: "Designing Games to Foster Empathy," the paper Dr. Flanagan wrote with Jonathan Belman. 15m04s: More info about psychological distance. 16m16s: Gil is referring to Ludology 213.5 - The Incan Gold Experiment, run by Dr. Stephen Blessing and research assistant Elena Sakosky. (Gil refers to the game from the original European release's name, Diamant, but it was released in English as Incan Gold.) 19m51s: For a longer discussion on what "fun" means in a game, and on a deeper level, how games create meaning, check out Ludology 201 - Are We Having Fun Yet? 21m20s: More info on the party game Buffalo. 24m14s: More info on social identity complexity 26m13s: More info on the party game Awkward Moment. 31m10s: For more discussion on board games and colonialism, check out Ludology Episode 197 - Empires Up in Arms. For more information about the effects of "terra nullius" in board games, check out this article from Nancy Foasberg. 32m26s: "Failed Games: Lessons Learned from Promising but Problematic Game Prototypes in Designing for Diversity," by Dr. Flanagan, Max Seidman, and Geoff Kaufman. 34m15s: Dr. Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University, has suggested that biological differences could explain why there were fewer women in science. 36m18s: More info about Blokus. 39m39s: More info on the strategy game Monarch. 40m04s: Dr. Flanagan's book (with co-author Helen Nissenbaum) Values at Play. 40m18s: Here are some articles on Will Wright and Chris Trottier. 45m12s: More info on This War of Mine: The Board Game and Freedom: The Underground Railroad. 49m05s: More info on Dr. Flanagan's art, including giantJoystick. 50m40s: Gabriel Orozco's Horses Running Endlessly. 51m48s: Dr. Flanagan's paper, with Sukdith Punjasthitkul and Geoff Kaufman, on "Social Loafing." 54m53s: The article in question is "The Mechanical Muse," published in The New Yorker on January 7, 2020. 56m28s: Here's an article in Wired on the paper in question, in which large collections of photos used to train image-recognition software - including one used by Google and Microsoft - were found to amplify exisiting biases. 57m15s: In 2015, Google apologized for their facial recognition software mislabeling Black people as "gorillas." 57m42s: More info about Reload: Rethinking Women and Cyberculture. 58m49s: The story here is "No Woman Born," by C.L. Moore. 1h03m31s: The show will be called "Gameplay: Video Game Culture," at the CCCB in Barcelona, Spain. 1h04m07s: "Max" is Max S

Join Scott as he recounts the history of the game that blurred the line between a game and a toy: Mousetrap. Bibliography of a Board Game for Mouse Trap It's All a Game by Tristan Donovan A World Without Reality: Inside Marvin Glass's Toy Vault by Bill Paxton Mental Floss – Mouse Trap Game Facts Chicago Tribune – Toying with Success Best Play – History of Mouse Trap: Murder, Playboys and Plagiarism Google Patents Rube Goldberg.com Smithsonian Mag – Teaching physics with a massive game of mouse trap

Today, we put Emma in the spotlight to find out what went into designing her newest game, Abandon All Artichokes, how many cards she actually designed for it, and how the game was almost derailed by an Infinite Potato Problem. SHOW NOTES 5m44s: Magic: The Gathering and the marvelous deckbuilding video game Slay the Spire. Also check out Ludology 198 - Inspired, featuring Slay the Spire's co-designer Anthony Giovannetti. 6m00s: Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, two video games where the player starts in a remote area with very little in the way of equipment, and ends up building a small town. 7m22s: If you want to check out more deck-wreckers, try Xenon Profiteer (one of Gil's personal favorite games), or Fine Sand. 8m39s: Don't let the bean theme throw you off. Bohnanza is one of the best trading games you'll find. 9m15s: Bonnie Pang did the wonderful art for Artichokes. 9m43s: Sushi Go, by Phil Walker-Harding and also published by Gamewright, is an excellent light drafting game. It was good enough to spawn a family of light, charming drafting games. Phil has mentioned in passing that Sushi Go took many, many tries to get right. Another example of how hard it is to make a good, light game! 11m16s: Emma mentions some other Gamewright titles that fit a similar mold: Go Nuts for Donuts and Qwixx. 15m22s: Emma casually references Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey here. 26m29s: Seth Jaffee's article on balancing game elements and "finding the unit" is still immensely valuable to game designers everywhere. 31m59s: Cardboard Edison's publisher directory is an invaluable resource to game designers looking for a publisher for their prototypes. 48m44s: The incredibly adorable Abandon All Artichokes trailer and its accompanying how-to-play video. 49m18s: We'll post a link to the design diary in the Ludology forums as soon as it goes online! 55m16s: Emma's first episode. 56m43s: Dominion, the game that popularized deckbuilding as an in-game mechanism.

Geoff ruminates on the limitations of using AI to balance games. Why can't we use machine learning to fully balance a game experience, and finally make a game that everyone on BGG will find perfectly fair on the first play? SHOW NOTES 1m17s: For more on this subject, check out our two GameTek episodes on AlphaGo : GameTek Classic 218.5 Alpha Zero, and GameTek Classic 222.5 Alpha Zero, Part 2. 2m00s: Geoff's game The Expanse. 5m29s: The fantastic trading game Sidereal Confluence (which will soon have a new edition!) 6m18s: League of Legends has grappled for a long time with how to balance their champions for players of all skill levels. Here's their latest approach on how they're trying to do it.

Emma and Gil sit down with Chris Rowlands of Funko Games to discuss the design of IP-based games, and what it's like to design as part of a group collective. SHOW NOTES 0m00s: Playtest safely online with Gil and Emma! 4m11s: Mox Boarding House is one of the premier board game stores in Seattle. (Here's hoping they can stick around until everything is able to reopen!) 12m21s: The Frosthaven Kickstarter project. 16m45s: Personal plug: Abandon All Artichokes is Emma's newest game. 19m47s: Power Grid is the #36th ranked game on BGG. (Rankings are not absolute, objective measures of quality, of course, but still. It's a big game.) 24m01s: Beth Hawley was responsible for the amazing art in Chris' game Under My Bed. 27m18s: Disney Villainous, in which each player is a Disney villain with unique special powers, is one of their more well-known titles. 29m05s: The party game Yeah Nope. 30m52s: Funkoverse, the tactical minis game using modified Funko figurines. 32m33s: All of "Prospero Hall's" credited games on BGG. 34m04s: The games Horrified and Jaws. 38m17s: Prospero Hall's website. 43m28s: The "tracer" scene from Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy. (Explicit language warning) 50m31s: Personal plug: Avowel is currently available on Android, and coming to iOS soon! 54m10s: The game Jurassic Park: Danger. 1h02m35s: Paper Girls and Manifest Destiny 1h03m26s: Sea of Thieves 1h03m48s: Infocom's original help guide entry to the horrible and notorious Babel Fish puzzle in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy video game, written by Douglas Adams himself, is an absolute wonder to read. Keep clicking "Next Answer." Favorite quote on step 19 of the hint: "At this point, brave men have been known to break down and cry." 1h05m11s: Building the Game, a podcast on game design. 1h06m34s: Some articles about wrestling's current audience-less format. 1h12m04s: Our episode on ludonarrative dissonance was Ludology 192 - Diabolus in Ludica. 1h14m04s: Back to the Future: Back in Time and Last Defense!

Scott goes into the checkered history of The Game of Life, which has had many inspirations and incarnations, and is still going strong. (Content warning: this episode contains quick, passing references to sex and suicide.) 0m00s: Join Gil's and Emma's remote playtesting groups! 1m44s: A Little Pretty Pocket Book. Fun fact: this book contains the first appearance of the term "base-ball," although that term at the time was an alternative regional name for the sport now known as Rounders. 2m37s: The New Game of Human Life. Here's the original French game that inspired it, which BGG has under the name La Vie Humaine un Nouveau Jeu. 3m19s: More information about the teetotum, which was often used to avoid the impression of gambling. 5m48s: The Reward of Merit, The Mirror of Truth: Exhibiting a variety of Biographical Anecdotes and Moral Essays calculated to Inspire a Love of Virtue and Abhorrence of Vice, and The Mansion of Happiness. 7m45s: The Checkered Game of Life. 9m17s: The Game of the Telegraph Boy, Game of To the North Pole By Airship, and The Game of Playing Department Store. 9m32s: More information about toy and game designer Reuben Klamer. 10m48s: The famous blue and pink pegs are, of course, the inspiration for the name of the excellent board game podcast Blue Peg, Pink Peg. 11m44s: Here's a page with a photo of the 1960 edition of The Game of Life. 12m28s: More information about the resolution of the lawsuit between Klamer and Markham. 13m32s: The Game of Life: Twists and Turns 14m08s: The Game of Life Express 16m33s: This would also be a good time to mention some modern board games that handle the same subject matter, and were no doubt somehow inspired by The Game of Life. The Pursuit of Happiness, Funny Friends, CV, and My Story.

Emma and Gil welcome Anya Combs and Luke Crane from Kickstarter to discuss how crowdfunding is changing, especially in light of recent events. Anya: [email protected], [email protected], @anyayna Luke: @burning_luke, burningwheel.com Note that this episode was recorded on March 25, 2020, so if we talk about things happening "a few weeks ago," we're referring to late February/early March. This wouldn't normally be an important detail, but things are changing a lot quickly these days. SHOW NOTES 0m00s: Playtest safely online with Gil and Emma! 1m28s: For those who have never heard it, the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" set a template for punk rock's sound well before its time. (Explicit language warning) 3m52s: More info about the Burning Wheel roleplaying system. 8m32s: The original Alien Frontiers and Cards Against Humanity projects. Both were modest successes. Double Fine Adventure, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, and Shenmue were much larger successes. 9m48s: The original Kingdom Death: Monster was a wild success, but the second edition was one of the largest Kickstarter Games campaigns ever run. 9m56s: We recorded this episode before Frosthaven launched. As of the time of this episode's release, it has raised over $7 million USD. 10m31s: Gil's Kickstarter projects are all visible here. 12m39s: The Dispel Dice Kickstarter project. 17m23s: The F*** Yeah Dice Kickstarter project (Explicit language warning, of course). 16m56s: Itten made the unique game Stonehenge and the Sun. Oink and Bouken don't have any Kickstarter projects, but their games are worth your attention for their distinctive look and style. Luke also brings up Bouken's game Diet & Friends. 17m17s: W.M. Akers has a series of baseball simulators called Deadball. 18m23s: You can find Emma's weekly news show on Twitch every Friday at 2 pm Pacific. 20m00s: Here's the Fantastic Factories Kickstarter project. Here's the Kickstarter for Coloma, designed by Jonny Pac, who was on Ludology 221: The Pac Less Traveled. 20m36s: Here's the Gladius Kickstarter project. 21m51s: More info about the Skylanders video game, which discontinued support in 2017. 24m42s: Here's the Multiverse Kickstarter project. (Incidentally, if you're interested in a platform similar to Multiverse, check out Roll20). 27m34s: More info about the Jackbox party games. 28m20s: The Spaceteam Kickstarter project (Note that this is for the original video game, not the card game inspired by it). 30m10s: More info about Twine. We go more into detail about this platform in Ludology 217: What IF? 30m43s: More info about AVOWEL, the mobile version of Wordsy. 31m05s: The latest Chronicles of Crime Kickstarter. 32m46s: Commands & Colors by Richard Borg is a family of outstanding light wargames that includes BattleLore and Memoir '44. 34m33s: More information about Kickstarter's Make100 and ZineQuest initiatives. 43m16s: More information about the newest God of War game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_War_(2018_video_game). 43m36s: Animal Crossing! Hoo hoo! That's a link to more info about New Horizons, the newest game in the series. There's a lot of interesting discussion going on about the game and how timely it is, how its soothing imagery is perfect for the current times, and how it offers an escapist fantasy (literally escaping to a desert island) to people who are stuck at home. 47m13s: Ankh, the newest CMON game, is at over $1 million USD from about 14,000 backers at the time of this episode release. Tapeworm has not yet launched at the time of this episode release. 46m45s: Pax Pamir's most recent Kickstarter. It's from Cole Wehrle (and his brother Drew), whom you heard two weeks ago on Ludology 222: Johnny Fairplay. 47m06s: The Sea of Stars Kickstarter project, and the Swords 'n Magic and Stuff project. 52m34s: Anya performs in the Hungry March Band, the Funkrust Brass Band, and the Brooklyn Wind Symphony. 55m26s: Of course, Team Ludology does not subscribe to Luke's spicy hot take here, and we're pretty sure Rob Daviau has played D&D more than once. :) Rob was guest on Ludology 70: Risky Business. If you want to hear him GM, check out the actual play podcast Story Roost and its first story arc, The Unmarked. (Explicit language warning) 59m17s: DRUGGIES AND BULLIES BEWARE BULLYPROOF Kickstarter project. 1h00m30s: OLDIE BINGO Kickstarter project.

Geoff continues the discussion about Alpha Zero, this time pointing out the impact a self-learning AI can have on an established tournament meta, like Magic or Hearthstone. Show Notes: 0m47s: More info about Agent57, the DeepMind AI that can beat humans at 57 different Atari 2600 games. 1m52s: The Ares Project, Geoff's first published board game (designed with his son Brian) 2m15s: More info about the Halifax Hammer strategy from A Few Acres of Snow. 2m29s: The current list of banned cards in Magic: The Gathering. And, the current list of changed Hearthstone cards.

Emma and Gil welcome accomplished designer Cole Wehrle, designer of Root, Oath, and Pax Pamir (Second Edition), back to the show (Cole previously appeared on Ludology 163 - A Pain in the Asymmetry). We discuss fairness in games. Has it been around for as long as we think it has? What can an "unfair" game do that other games can't? Cole is a staff designer at Leder Games, and co-founded Wehrlegig Games with his brother Drew. SHOW NOTES 2m18s: You can watch Cole's GDC talk here. 12m02s: Learn more about Twilight Imperium (this is the most recent version, but there were previous versions with slightly different rulesets) 13m52s: Learn more about Memoir '44. 14m25s: Learn more about Scythe. 16m04s: Learn more about Blood Rage and Sushi Go! 19m30s: Gil remembers a bunch of Viking games in the mid-aughts. One of the biggest was Michael Kiesling's Vikings, whose gameplay, while clever, did little to evoke actual Vikings. 22m41s: The book Strike Four was recommended to me by Dennis Goodman, who is himself a baseball historian and rules expert, and has written a streamlined rulebook for the sport. 24m16s: The book Cole refers to is The Games Ethic and Imperialism (Sport in the Global Society) by J. A. Mangan. 25m14s: I'm referring to the book The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer/Football, by David Goldblatt. The exact title depends on if you buy the US or UK version; this link is to the US version. 27m07s: Cole refers to the book Making England Western, by Saree Makdisi. 27m33s: Thomas Arnold was headmaster of Rugby School from 1828, and was influential in reforming the British public school system. Tom Brown's School Days was written by Thomas Hughes and published in 1857, and popularized British public schools as a literary setting. 28m11s: If you're curious, here is the official 2019 NFL rulebook. If your eyes aren't crossed yet, here is the official 2019 MLB rulebook (though note Dennis Goodman's streamlined take on the rules of baseball, mentioned above). And to finish you off, here is the official ICC web page on all the Playing Conditions of every form of cricket (although to be fair, they have to handle all three major forms of the game - imagine if the NFL rulebook had to account for Canadian and Arena Football as well!) Side note: I also checked out the official Laws of World Rugby Union, and I was stunned to see how clearly-written they were! They are made to be read by a layperson, not a lawyer, and come with many video examples of rule violations. 30m42s: This is a good time to remind you to check out Scott Rogers' Biography of a Board Game last week for The Game of the Goose. It's not technically a Victorian board game - no one knows how old it is - but it's the template for many Victorian parlor games. (I wish we could say we planned these episodes to run consecutively, but it was just a happy coincidence!) 32m08s: We're discussing The Landlord's Game, by Elizabeth Magie (interestingly, Hasbro still does not officially acknowledge Magie's role in the creation of Monopoly, perhaps for legal reasons) 32m56s: More like 150-175 years old, really. Most sports rules began getting formally codified in the mid-19th century (though cricket had already started getting codified in the 18th century). 33m14s: The Eton Wall Game is still played today. And yes, there's video of it! Note that Eton has a second code of football, the Eton Field Game, which is closer to soccer, but still contains many elements found in rugby. There's a video of the Eton Field Game here. 36m34s: Cole is referring to Bernie De Koven and his book The Well-Played Game. He also refers to the games Acquire and Caylus. 37m23s: To Emma's point, Prussian college professor Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig invented the first wargame in 1780, but it was Kriegsspiel, designed by Prussian nobleman George Leopold von Reisswitz in 1812 and refined by his soldier son Georg Heinrich Rudolf Johann von Reisswitz in 1824, that introduced realism and verisimilitude into the form. Note that these wargames were designed more for military training than recreation. 37m43s: H.G. Wells, who wrote many seminal science-fiction novels like The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, was also a game designer. In his books Floor Games and Little Wars, he establishes rules for the first recreational wargames. (Also, the idea of games solving world problems is still alive, most notably by Jane McGonigal in her book Reality is Broken.) 38m53s: Alexander Pope's classic (albeit somewhat overly-dramatically-named) poem The Rape of the Lock. Read it here. 39m58s: Roger Caillois' Man, Play and Games, written in 1961, probably deserves its own episode. 42m00s: Hare and Tortoise is, of course, the first Spiel des Jahres winner. (On a related note, Scott's Biography of a Board Game about Eurogames is a really good listen on this subject.) Cole then mentions Die Macher and Catan. 46m20s: I did not come up with this "roll a d

In today's Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the long history of The Game of the Goose, which became a template for almost every roll-and-move game into Victorian times and beyond. Show notes: 1m49s: The ancient Egyptian game of Mehen 2m04s: History of the labyrinth 2m24s: The Discus of Phaistos, also known as the Phaistos Disc 2m50s: Games mentioned The Mansion of Happiness The Checkered Game of Life 3m33s: Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive de divers ouvrages anciens et modernes, a book by Claude-François Ménestrier, is available to read online in French. 4m33s: Works mentioned: La belle Hélène, an opera by Jacques Offenbach The Will of an Eccentric, a novel by Jules Verne 5m07s: Works mentioned: Le Pont du Nord, a film by Jacques Rivette Il grande gioco dell'oca, an Italian game show based on the game (Wikipedia page in Italian)

Emma and Gil welcome Jonny Pac, designer of Coloma and other games set in the Gold Rush West. Our main topic of discussion is multiple paths to victory: what it brings to a game, what kinds of games need it, what kinds of games don't, and how to avoid the dreaded "point salad" effect. Jonny's published games: Hangtown Coloma A Fistful of Meeples Sierra West Lions of Lydia (on Kickstarter as of the release of this episode!) Merchant's Cove Show notes: 06m28s: Jonny likens Scythe to a race game. Check out Chapter 2 of Characteristics of Games (George Skaff Elias, Richard Garfield, K. Robert Gutschera) for more information about the distinction between a "race" and a "brawl." 07m35s: Games mentioned: Lords of Waterdeep Caylus Caylus 1303 08m32s: Games mentioned: Catan 09m48s: Games mentioned: 7 Wonders Duel 12m56s: Ah, the "Victory Points Suck" argument! Here is the original talk, and here is the rebuttal blog post that Gil wrote. (Scott Westerfeld is actually a really cool person; he was just being a bit hyperbolic.) 13m32s: Games mentioned: Get Bit Red Dragon Inn 15m02s: Games mentioned: Agricola 18m06s: Games mentioned: Azul El Grande 6 Nimmt! 22m27s: Games mentioned: Point Salad 32m01s: Games mentioned: Century: Spice Road 34m09s: Games mentioned: Dominion 35m58s: Games mentioned: Tzolk'in Terra Mystica 42m12s: Games mentioned: Carcassonne 46m47s: Games mentioned: Ticket to Ride Amazonas 49m28s: Zero-level heuristics - the strategies and tactics players embrace when first learning the game. Go back to Characteristics of Games, Chapter 4, for an excellent introduction to this topic. 51m11s: Games mentioned: Stone Age 53m14s: Games mentioned: Concordia 56m38s: Tragedy of the Commons is a well-known game theory problem that pits collective good versus self-interest. 1h01m55s: Games mentioned: Santa Maria Raja of the Ganges Castles of Burgundy 1h04m58s: For those who may not know, ASCAP and BMI are the two largest music performance rights organizations in America. They monitor radio play and live performances, and make sure that every time a song is played publicly, its rightsholder gets paid. 1h06m27s: Eat Poop You Cat is the activity that Telestrations was based on. 1h09m42s: More info on Placerville, CA. 1h13m42s: Games mentioned: Five Tribes Trajan Istanbul Spacewalk 1h14m34s: Jonny is referring to Ludology 176 - Taxonomy Driver.

Geoff welcomes Dr. James Wootton, quantum computing expert and one of the people behind the digital game Hello Quantum, which is made to teach its player about the fundamentals of quantum computing. Here is Dr. Wootton's blog. Here is the Quantum Information Science Kit (QISKIT) blog Dr. Wootton mentioned. If you're technically inclined, here is Dr. Wootton's GitHub repository. And if you want to take a quantum computer out for a spin, here is the cloud-based service Dr. Wootton mentioned.

Emma and Gil welcome Jennifer Ellis and Keith Baker of Twogether Studios. We discuss their approach for integrating stories into their game, whether directly embedded in their game, letting them emerge from the players, or evoked from the look of the product. Show notes: 05m03s: Check out Keith and Jenn's games: Gloom Illimat Action Cats Phoenix: Dawn Command 17m04s: Keith and Jenn's forthcoming Adventure Zone game is based on the Adventure Zone D&D actual play series. 36m46: More info about Descent. 38m36s: Illimat is a card game conceived by and designed with the band The Decemberists. 40m00s: More info about Cthulhu Fluxx. 49m19s: More info about Keith's award-winning D&D setting Eberron.

Scott leads us through the history of Trivial Pursuit, from its conception from two Canadian journalists after trying to play a game of Scrabble with missing pieces, to a full-fledged global 80s fad, to a billion-dollar empire.

Professor Scott Rogers joins Gil and Emma once again! This time, we're discussing Scott's time as an Imagineer designing games and experiences for Disneyland, and his subsequent work designing VR attractions. It's a fascinating topic, with a surprising amount of overlap into any kind of game design! Show notes: 05m45s: More info about Disney Play here. 08m06s: Scott is right, sportscaster Al Michaels was indeed traded for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. 18m16s: Ludology 189 - Missing Selinker, wherein Mike Selinker shares a funny story testing Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: 30m20s: The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman. Highly recommended to anyone who wants a better understanding of how people interact with objects. 40m53s: The history of how Tetris has chosen its pieces is really fascinating! 41m29s: Some more information about Legends of Frontierland: Gold Rush. 46m09s: We discussed dark rides and the challenge of choice in an immersive environment Ludology 214 - Escape from Reality with Strange Bird Immersive. 52m34s: Two-Bit Circus, the place in LA where you can experience the Terminator-themed dark ride that Scott worked on. 1h02m46s: Geoff interviewed Curtis Hickman, CCO of The Void, in GameTek 134. 1h05m51s: More info about Dreamscape. 1h06m37s: More info about Evermore. 1h10m58s: We discussed emergent vs. embedded narrative in Ludology 213 - Your Humble Narrator. 1h11m24s: Look, it was a long recording session, okay? :)

Geoff discusses Alpha Zero, a neural net that can play Go, Chess, and Shogi better than anyone in the world. It defeated the best AI in those respective games (each of whom had previously defeated the best humans in the world) with only a few hours of training. What does this spell for the future of AI, and the future of game design?

Emma and Gil welcome Geoff Engelstein and Isaac Shalev back to the show to discuss their new book Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design. This is a reference of board game mechanisms that any designer, new or experienced, can use to look up different tools they can use to solve problems in game design. Games and other things mentioned in this episode: 19m30s: Kraftwagen Glen More Francis Drake Egezia High Rise 19m39s: Opinionated Gamers article on time track vs. one-way track Patchwork Thebes Tokaido Tutankhamen 22m13s: Impulse 23m11s: Great Western Trail 33m55s: Empire Builder 35m22s: Monopoly Sushi Go Advanced Squad Leader 41m07s: BoardGameGeek official mechanism page 51m30s: Diplomacy 52m10s: Republic of Rome Cutthroat Caverns 53m07s: Prisoner's Dilemma 54m27s: Catan 55m55s: Interview with Donald X. Vaccharino about theme, mechanism, and data 1h04m54s: Drop Geoff a BGG GeekMail Drop Isaac a BGG GeekMail Encyclopedia of Mechanisms Guild on BGG

Scott uncovers the history of the classic game Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, which has been delighting kids (and kids-at-heart) since 1964. He discusses the influences that converged in making the game, why the combatants are robots, and how it's influenced everything from video games to real-life combat robotics.

Legendary Interactive Fiction writer Andrew Plotkin joins Gil and Emma to talk about text-based stories that players can participate in. We explore the form's history and unique strengths, and discuss what good writing can bring to a game's experience. Interactive Fiction platforms mentioned in this episode: Inform Twine ChoiceScript Ink Check out some of Andrew's IF work: Shade Spider & Web Hadean Lands Other video games mentioned in this episode: Colossal Cave Adventure Zork Donut County 80 Days Heaven's Vault Galatea AI Dungeon No Man's Sky Board games and analog IF mentioned in this episode: Werewolf 7th Continent 1,001 Odysseys Choose Your Own Adventure™ books Meanwhile Fighting Fantasy books Leanna Fled the Cranberry Bog If you would like to explore the world of IF, a good place to start is the Interactive Fiction Database - it's like the BGG of IF! Some good games to start with (this is hardly an authoritative list): 9:05 - You can easily play this in one sitting, and in most cases, you will want to immediately play again when you finish it the first time. Photopia - This is a spectacularly well-written game, but it can bring up some intense emotions. The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo - A fun horror game. Howling Dogs - This is a work by Porpentine, whom Gil has raved about several times on the show and this episode. Be sure to find both endings. Counterfeit Monkey - A fairly long game by Emily Short built around some remarkably brilliant word-manipulation mechanisms. You will likely need to use an emulator if you want to save your game and use the game's graphical map. Enjoy exploring the IF rabbit hole!

In this GameTek Classic, Geoff describes the idea of "path dependence," and discusses how human game players allow their past to affect their present. Should players care about how they got to a certain point in their game?

Ludology returns for 2020, with our annual tradition of bringing on board game industry veteran Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games/Indie Game Studios to discuss the state of the industry. 2020 will be an interesting year for board games. What challenges await us? Is it smooth sailing? Doom and gloom? Somewhere in-between?

In this episode recorded at BGG.CON, Scott and Gil tell Emma all about Tabletop Network, a convention about the theory behind game design that happens right before BGG.CON. We gush about our favorite talks, and tell you what makes Tabletop Network so unique.

Scott gives us a history of the classic social deduction game Mafia, from its origins in a Russian high school classroom to its transformation beneath a full moon into Werewolf.

Escape rooms have been providing a new form of play for much of this decade. At the same time, immersive theater has been providing a new form of storytelling. What happens when the two get mixed? In this episode, Emma and Gil are joined by Haley E.R. Cooper and J. Cameron Cooper of Strange Bird Immersive, who run the hybrid escape room/immersive theater piece The Man From Beyond, and the Immersology blog. How can escape rooms use immersive theater to tell a story? And how can we learn from that to better tell stories in our games? (Note: starting this episode, we are going to feature more detailed show notes of things we bring up in our conversation. That's especially important in this episode, as we refer to theater works that may not be well-known to others!) Games mentioned in this episode (all digital):The Stanley Parable Myst Gone Home Theater shows mentioned in this episode:Sleep No More Sweeney Todd (2017 off-Broadway semi-immersive) Selfie museums (e.g. Color Factory) Meow Wolf Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 Then She Fell The Nest Also mentioned this episode: Improv for Gamers (book) Bartle Taxonomy of Gamer Types Ludology Episode 159 - Getting Out Scott Free (with Scott Nicholson)

Back in Ludology 185, Geoff brought up a thought experiment. What if someone rethemed Incan Gold to a firefighting game? Would people play any differently? Dr. Stephen Blessing (@cognitive_gamer) of the University of Tampa took up the challenge, and with the help of research assistant Elena Sakosky, designed and ran the experiment that Geoff proposed. In this GameTek, Dr. Blessing and Sakosky join Geoff to discuss their findings. Did players take more risks if they felt, thematically, that lives were on the line? If you'd like to hear more of Dr. Blessing's work, listen to his podcast, Cognitive Gamer: http://cognitivegamer.com/

Gil and Emma discuss narrative in games. How can narrative improve games? What is the difference between embedded and emergent narrative? And what the are common ways that prototypes of narrative games can fail?

In this special episode of Ludology, recorded live at GrandCon 2019, Gil and Geoff go back in time to recount their earliest game designs. Were they as embarrassing? Were they any good? What is Gil's infamous action mechanism, and was Geoff able to capture the essence of the Battle of Cannae for a school assignment? We also take some live listener questions at the end.

Emma and Gil welcome mass-market game and toy inventor Kim Vandenbrouke to the show. How is "inventing" a mass-market game different than "designing" a hobby game? Why is the toy/mass-market industry so much more secretive? And how does one deal with all the publisher rejection? You can read Kim's writings on the toy and mass-market game industry here: https://www.thegameaisle.com/kim-vandenbroucke/

Geoff welcomes digital archaeoludologist Cameron Browne, principal investigator of the Digital Ludeme Project, to find out how we can use artificial intelligence and machine learning to try to derive the rules to ancient games like Senet by breaking games down into what Browne calles "ludemes." Find out more about the Digital Ludeme Project on Twitter (@archaeoludology) or the web: http://ludeme.eu/ You can play some games that Browne has constructed from ludemes here: https://ludii.games/

In May 2012, Geoff and Ryan brought Michael Lee, owner of the relatively new company Panda Games Manufacturing, on the show to discuss the art and design of manufacturing games. Over 5 and a half years later, Gil and Emma are delighted to welcome Michael back! Panda Games Manufacturing has grown along with the industry, and Michael hasn't stopped focusing on the intersection of components and game design. What has changed in manufacturing since 2012? What kinds of components does Michael find most exciting? And how do components inform the experience of a game, especially in the current gaming boom? You can find Panda Games Manufacturing on Twitter and Instagram at @pandagm.

Scott covers the lineage of games that began in 2004 with Wings of War: Famous Aces. The "Flight Path" system that appeared in this game spawned follow-up titles Wings of Glory, Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Card Game, Star Trek: Attack Wing, D&D: Attack Wing, and Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles.

Gil and Emma are joined by game designer Jenn Sandercock to discuss her edible games. How do you design a game where the players eat the components? What design challenges does that bring up? And how do players react to being allowed to literally play with their food? Find out more about Jenn here: http://jennsand.com/ Find out more about Jenn's edible games here: https://ediblegames.com/

In this GameTek Classic, Geoff covers the history of dice, and the social stigma attached to them. Who were the first civilizations to play with dice, and how did they deal with the way their society frowned on them?

Emma, Gil, and Scott discuss a theory Scott is working on that describes 6 distinct physical zones when playing a board game. How does the physical dimensionality of a board game affect its gameplay? Read more about the 6 Zones of Play here: https://mrbossdesign.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-6-zones-of-play.html https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94203/pleasure-arousal-dominance

Scott takes a peek at the history of the frantic real-time co-op game Space Cadets, designed by our own Geoff Engelstein, his daughter Sydney Engelstein, and his son Brian Engelstein.

Emma and Gil welcome the multitalented Hawke Robinson, who discusses his experiences using role-playing games as therapy for at-risk youth and adults. How can games help people gain empathy and pull them into a positive mindset? And how has Hawke's 40+ years of RPG experience helped him form these programs? You can learn more about Hawke and his work here: http://www.hawkerobinson.com/ CONTENT WARNING: This episode touches on sensitive topics like suicide, homicide, violence against children, and sexual assault.

Geoff reviews the concept of "information" from a mathematical perspective, which might be different from the definition you're used to. What real-world implications did this concept lay the groundwork for?

Emma and Gil welcome Justin Gary, designer of Ascension and Shards of Infinity, to discuss card-based strategy games. What makes them so different than other games? How does one handle things like balance, plans for expansions, and in-game marriage proposals?

Gil, Emma, and Geoff field listeners' questions in an episode recorded live at Gen Con 2019 in Indianapolis.

Emma and Gil welcome accomplished designer Tom Lehmann (Race for the Galaxy, Res Arcana, and many others) to discuss game arcs versus story arcs and how an inflection point can help the arc of a longer game. We also get into how the plot of Romeo & Juliet compares to a cooperative game, and how game design could possibly connect to contra dancing.

In this GameTek from August 2017, Geoff goes through three interesting bits of of game design-related research. Is there such a thing as momentum in sports? How does the brain react to the prospect of punishing others for violating social norms? And how does the Prisoner's Dilemma change if we alter its framing?

Scott did some research and came up with all the different ways a board game can end. In this super-sized episode, Scott, Emma, and Gil go through this list and share our thoughts on how a game experience concludes, and how we designers can affect our players based on the different ways we wrap up our games.

Scott covers the history of the seminal board game Dune, its legal tangles with its IP, and its retheming as Rex: Final Days of an Empire.

Daniel Solis (@danielsolis) joins Gil and Emma to talk about graphic design from a nuts-and-bolts perspective. What are the elements of graphic design that game designers should be aware of? During the show, Daniel mentions the website https://blambot.com for fonts, and https://game-icons.net and http://thenounproject.com for icons. We also bring up his Bird Bucks (https://www.drivethrucards.com/product/128925/Bird-Bucks) project that replaces generic paper money in games.