Ludology

Erica and Sen welcome guest host Steph Campell on this week's installment of TTRPGKids. In their segement, Steph talks about the power of writing and journaling in TTRPGs and how writing in game can positively impact writing in the classroom.

Sen and Erica talk with Ellie Dix about her work in making corporate games. Whether they're to increase brand recognition or for team building and training purposes, Ellie describes her process when designing games outside of the hobby sphere.

Erica and Sen welcome Sarah Shipp, guest host of the Thinking Beyond Mechanisms segment, to talk about events in game design. Sarah talks about how to use well-designed events to provide variety, increase challenge, change up the narrative, and more when it comes to design a tabletop game.

Erica and Sen welcome Matt Leacock to talk about one of the hobby's staples - Pandemic. First published in 2008, the Pandemic system has been expanded and used to fight viruses, rising tides, Elder Gods, and now - the forces of evil that seek the One Ring. They talk all things Pandemic, from it's ideation to its many iterations, from fighting back chain reaction of diseases on Earth to fighting back hordes of orcs and other minions of Sauron in Middle Earth. 

This week, special guest host Steph Campbell discusses the importance of why learning should be fun and how TTRPGs can bring fun to what can be a very complex situation.

Erica and Sen talk to Matt Gubser, modeler and comedian, about his work in the tabletop industry and the shift from traditional to digital modeling techniques.

In this special guest episode, Sen and Erica welcome Sarah Shipp to talk about how designers can raise the stakes to strengthen a game's hook, taking it from bland to bold!

Sen and Erica welcome Evan Derrick from Van Ryder Games to discuss the past, present, and future of Final Girl - a highly expandable, solo, horror boardgame co-designed by Evan and AJ Porfirio. Evan talks about the game from inception to evolution and gives us some insight into what makes it tick. 

Steph Campbell brings their segment, TTRPGKids, to Ludology. This week, they breakdown their TTRPG "Photosynthians" that they made as a resource to demonstrate how to teach science with TTRPGs and how to integrate lesson plans and other classroom basics into the game itself for designers.  The game is free and part of the classroom-ready toolkit that Steph made and is available here: https://ttrpgkids.itch.io/the-classroom-ready-ttrpg-toolkit (name your price)  

Sen and Erica welcome guest host Sarah Shipp to her segment, Thinking Beyond Mechanisms. In this installment, Sarah looks at designing games that ask players to be creative. Sarah examines some of the common pitfalls you can encounter when you ask players create content for the game and discusses how to avoid them.