Hello and welcome!

You’ve found Ludology, a place where we look closely at how and why board games work the way they do. Instead of just talking about new games or what we think of them, we take a bigger look at different game topics, including the history of games, how they’re made, and the people who play them.

We put out a new Ludology episode every two weeks. In these episodes, your hosts, Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim, go deep into one subject about game design. They often have a well-known guest from the game world with them. We mostly focus on games you can play on a table, like board games and role-playing games. But we also bring in experts from all sorts of games, from computer games to escape rooms and even slot machines.

On the weeks we don’t have a main Ludology episode, we’ll share two shorter bonus episodes. Erica and Sen are excited to have Sarah Shipp from Shippboard Games and Stephanie Campbell from TTRPGKids joining them for the next year. They’ll be providing extra content between our longer shows.

Sarah’s part, called Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, comes out once a month. It looks at the parts of games that aren’t just the dice and cards we’re all used to.

Stephanie’s part, TTRPGKids, is about how parents and teachers can use role-playing games with kids at home and in school.

We hope you enjoy this extra content!

Our History

We try to make most Ludology episodes something you can listen to anytime, so feel free to check out all our past shows. Most of them should still be interesting. The podcast started back in 2011 with Geoff Engelstein and Ryan Sturm. Mike Fitzgerald took over for Ryan in 2015. Gil and Scott joined the show in 2017 when Mike moved on. Emma joined in 2019 when Geoff stopped being a host. Emma left in 2021, and Erica and Sen became the new hosts. Since then, Scott left in 2022, and Gil will be leaving in 2023. This leaves Erica and Sen to continue the show’s great tradition.

Erica and Sen are working to bring new voices to Ludology and have some exciting things planned as more and more people get involved in gaming!

Get In Touch

Have your own thoughts on what we talk about? We’d love for you to visit our page on Boardgamegeek to join the ongoing conversation.

You can also send us an email.

Ludology is part of The Dice Tower Network, a top group for board game media.

If you have questions you’d like us to answer on Ludology, let us know by filling out this form. You can even leave a voice message for us to play on the show!

Burning Questions for Ludology

Help Support the Show

Ludology is made possible because people like you support us with donations.

We currently have 3 special series that go out to our supporters on Patreon before they are released to everyone else.

• The Memories that Made Us (monthly) – Stories about gaming experiences that helped shape the people who create today’s games.
• Tales from the Designer Toolbox (monthly) – Advice and tips from game professionals, learned from both good and bad experiences.
• Ludology Live – Recordings from game conventions all over the world.

Supporters also get a better chance at winning any giveaways we might have!

Become a Ludology Patron

You can also give a one-time or monthly donation here. This link goes to Erica’s account. People who donate this way won’t get access to the Patreon page, sorry!