Ludology

Gil and Sen are delighted to welcome Sara Thompson to discuss depictions of disability in tabletop games. Sara is the creator of the Combat Wheelchair for D&D, and of the Medicine on the Path supplement for The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG. SHOW NOTES 0m49s: Critical Role, with GM Matt Mercer.  3m35s: The D&D campaign Storm King's Thunder. 15m075s: The Greek god Hephaestus. 17m23s: Jennifer Kretchmer's Twitter. 21m35s: The thread in question, in which Sara describes Geralt as disabled and how that significantly affects his story. 25m08s: The Witcher: Baptism of Fire. 32m44s: Lauren Hissrich, showrunner of The Witcher TV show. 33m45s: A sample clip of the very silly Steve Martin film Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. 46m46s: Amanda Leduk's book Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space. 52m19s: The Witcher: A Tome of Chaos supplement for The Witcher RPG. 53m22s: The Combat Wheelchair was featured on Critical Role episode C2E113 A Heart Grown Cold (at least, we're pretty sure it was!). It was used by NPC Dagen Underthorn. Also, Critter Hug is a show with Critical Role participants Matthew Mercer and Mica Burton interviewing people in the tabletop community. Here's the episode with Sara; you might recognize a couple other friendly faces in the same episode!

Scott takes us through the history of Quirkle, the smash hit game from Susan McKinley Ross. 

Scott sits down with Erica, Gil, and Sen to discuss the design and making of his newest game, Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. We also discuss designing to an IP, and how to make a horror game. SHOW NOTES 0m58s: The original Alien film 1m31s: The other board game based on the film Alien. Scott is not counting board games influenced by the film without the official license, like Nemesis or The Awful Green Things From Outer Space. He’s also only counting games based specifically on the original film, so board games based on any of the sequels, like Aliens, or Alien vs. Predator, do not count. 1m38s: The “Optimus Prime Conundrum” is a term coined by the legendary and wonderful podcast Flip the Table. It describes a situation where a game breaks the IP it’s based on by allowing multiple copies of one character. This was coined in their very first episode, in which they reviewed the Transformers Adventure Game, where each player gets to play a separate version of Optimus Prime.  2m00s: The publisher Ravensburger. Note that Scott pronounces it “Ray-vensburger”, while the other hosts pronounce it “Rah-vensburger”. 3m34s: The films Elf, Home Alone, and Gremlins, and the animated series Gargoyles. 8h25m: The Topps Alien trading card set. 11m15s: The Betrayal games. 14m11s: Back to the Future: Dice through Time. 16m06s: The film Ten Little Indians, also known as And Then There Were None. There have been several versions of this film, all based on an Agatha Christie novel. 28m59s: Scott is correct in that Alien is the first film to provide a genuine “cat scare” - that is, a jump scare that turns out to just be a harmless cat. The so-called “cat scare,” in which the source of a jump scare turns out to be something ordinary, appeared 35 years before Alien. TV Tropes credits it to producer Val Lewton, in his 1942 film Cat People.  However, despite the film’s name, the source of the scare was a bus, not a cat. Note that one month after Alien’s wide release in the US, The Amityville Horror came out; it also featured a cat-powered “cat scare.” Perhaps between these two films, the cliche was solidified.  34m15s: The Horrified games: Horrified and Horrified: American Monsters. A short checklists of cryptids: Bigfoot, Mothman, Windigo, and the Jersey Devil.  36m39s: Camp Grizzly 37m17s: Clue/Cluedo, 1313 Dead End Drive 39m19s: Dread 39m51s: Kingdom: Death Monster 41m03s: Peter Jackson's "splatstick" film Braindead (released in North America as Dead Alive) 42m49s: Dixit, Weird Stories, Unspeakable Words 44m03s: Final Girl 45m05s: Mansions of Madness 47m47s: Geoff's book Achievement Relocked, Ico, Death Stranding, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Aerith from Final Fantasy VII 49m15s: Nyctophobia, Ten Candles, Vampire Hunter, Waldschattenspiel/Shadows in the Forest 51m39s: Apocrypha, the World of Darkness series of games (including Vampire: The Masquerade) 53m33s: Erica’s news: Disney Sidekicks, Rat Queens: To the Slaughter 54m29s: Sen’s news: Avatar Legends RPG 55m16s: Gil's news: GameTek on the global shipping snarl, Weird Stories

Geoff harnesses all his mathematical techniques to answer a burning question: are Pop-O-Matic dice truly random?

Geoff (making a one-off Ludology return) and Gil chat with Al Leonardi, designer of the legendary picture-book game Ace of Aces, and a legion of spinoffs using the same brilliant first-person system. SHOW NOTES 4m19s: Richthofen’s War  8m18s: If you're interested about Ace of Ace's mathematical underpinnings, and its true nature as a hex-grid game, here's Geoff's article. 9m52s: There were two Star Wars games Al worked on: Star Wars: Starfighter Battle Book, and Star Wars Lightsaber Dueling (which was based on Lost Worlds, which we discuss later in the episode). Also: Dragonriders of Pern: The Book Game, Bounty Hunter: Shootout at the Saloon, and Ace of Aces: Wingleader. 11m11s: The Immelman turn, in World War I, was a difficult maneuver that allowed a skilled pilot to turn their aircraft around quickly. In modern aerobatics, it now refers to a type of half-loop. 16m58s: "Ditto sheets," known in the UK as a "Banda machine," refers to a method of print duplication used for much of the 20th century, and very popular in American schools at the time. People of a certain age will recall paper quizzes with a distinctive blue ink on the paper. 22m16s: Two more aerial maneuvers: the wingover, and the snap roll. 25m32s: Lost Worlds 27m48s: The Society for Creative Anachronism. 39m15s: TransAmerica, Ticket To Ride

Scott takes us through the history of Afrikan tähti ("Star of Africa"), a legendary Finnish game first released in 1949.  Foreigners in Finland article One version of the game Another version of the game An interview with the publisher Related Ludology episodes: Ludology 197 - Empires Up in Arms (discussing colonialism in board games with Mikael Jakobsson and Rick Eberhardt of the MIT Game Lab) Ludology 247 - Orc-Kay Computer (discussing cultural appropriation in games with cultural consultant James Mendez Hodes)

Erica and Scott welcome game design legend Mike Elliott, creator of innumerable Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon cards, designer of Thunderstone, and co-designer of Quarriors and the Dice Masters series. And of course, of DuelMaster and Charm Angel, which were both huge hits in Japan. Mike also runs the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame, commemorating the work of legendary tabletop game designers. SHOW NOTES 1m22s: NeoPets, Hecatomb, The Harry Potter Trading Card Game. 1m41s: Game designer and friend of the show Eric Lang. Gil and Geoff chatted with Eric in Ludology 175 - Auld Lang Design. , Also, Wiz Kids is a publisher that should not be confused with Hasbro-owned D&D and Magic: the Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast (aka WOTC, often referred to as "WHAT-see"). Wiz Kids and WOTC are two unrelated companies, although Wiz Kids publishes some D&D-related products under license from WOTC. 3m24s: Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are the credited designers behind the first version of D&D. Richard Garfield designed Magic: The Gathering, King of Tokyo, and Robo Rally. Jordan Weisman founded legendary RPG publisher FASA before starting WizKids. Reiner Knizia has designed hundreds of games, including Tigris & Euphrates, Medici, Ra, and Lost Cities. Vlaada Chvatl designed Through the Ages and Galaxy Trucker. 3m58s: Uwe Rosenberg designed Agricola, Le Havre, A Feast for Odin, and Bohnanza. Bruno Cathala designed 5 Tribes, Kingdomino, and 7 Wonders Duel. Maureen Hiron has been in the industry for decades, with games like 7 Ate 9, Cosmic Cows, and Qwitch. 4m31s: The Strong Museum of Play, in Rochester, New York, is a museum dedicated to play, toys, and games. If you're ever in Rochester, make an appointment with their archivist to look at Sid Sackson's meticulously-kept diaries; they are amazing. GAMA is the Game Manufacturer's Association, a trade organization of tabletop game publishers and retailers. GAMA runs the industry convention GAMA Expo (formerly the GAMA Trade Show), and the public convention Origins. 5m26s: Little Wars, by novelist H.G. Wells (author of War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and The Island of Doctor Moreau), was a rulebook for playing with toy soldiers. That sort of formalized ruleset for a wargame was rather novel in 1913. Note the cringeworthy full title: Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books. 7m39s: Here's the website Mike mentions. Note that Mike is in the middle of the photograph on the front page, in the black short-sleeved shirt. 8m31s: Here's the Biography of a Board Game for Pass-out. 9m43s: And here's the Biography of a Board Game for Quarriors. 10m22s: Del Mar, California. 15m44s: Hearthstone 21m34s: If you want to know more about the intersection of gaming and improv, check out our episode of Improv for Gamers author Karen Twelves, Ludology 237 - Improv-ing Games. 28m22s: Halo ActionClix, Star Wars PocketModel TCG, DC HeroClix: Batman (Alpha) 34m00s: The Dice Masters family of games. 35m04s: Duel Masters Trading Card Game, from WOTC and Takara Tomy (both of which are part of Hasbro), part of the Duel Masters franchise. 38m44s: Battle Spirits: Trading Card Game 45m27s: More information about Target halting sales of trading cards, including Pokémon. 46m01s: Thunderstone, published by Alderac Entertainment Group. Alderac is usually abbreviated as AEG, but is unrelated to the massive sports/music promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group, which is also abbreviated as AEG. Alderac is run by John Zinzer. 47m25s: Kingdom of Loathing   50m45s: Card Jitsu was originally part of Disney's MMO Club Penguin, which has since been replaced by Club Penguin Island. 54m08s: Quarriors 58m25s: Yahtzee: Doctor Who edition, and its TARDIS dice cup. 1h00m26s: The Quacks of Quedlinburg, The Mind 1h05m17s: AR games, or Augmented Reality games, utilize technology like phones or tablets to augment real-world locations with computer-generated enhancements. The most successful AR game at the moment is Pokémon Go. 1h07m53s: Mark Rosewater is the head designer for Magic: The Gathering. 1h15m15s: The film American Pie.

In this special GameTek, Geoff and Gil sit down with Justin Bergeron of ARC Global Logistics to discuss the global shipping snarl that's delaying so many board games (among other goods). How is it affecting the industry, what's behind it, and how long could it possibly last? You can reach Justin via email. Here's the web site for ARC Global's parent company, Logimark Group.

Gil and Sen are delighted to have RPG/story game designer Avery Alder on the show to talk about her games that show how communities deal with upheaval and change. We also discuss the change that RPGs saw in the past 20 years, going from the expectation of custom, bespoke systems for each game to the consensual adoption of systems like Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark. SHOW NOTES 02m39s: The Forge is no longer active, but you can read its archives here. Also, My Life With Master. 04m24s: The RPG Top Secret. 07m52s: Jiangshi. 10m36s: Here's Avery's talk at NYU's practice convention. Also, Dream Askew, and Apocalypse World. 14m09s: Dungeon World (note that its designer Adam Koebel has behaved problematically in the past, showing issues with consent in games - content warning for mention of sexual assault in link), Monster of the Week (and the Adventure Zone podcast), Avery's game Monsterhearts (now implemented as Monsterhearts 2), and the Powered by the Apocalypse system. 15m17s: Blades in the Dark, the Forged in the Dark system, and Scum & Villainy 16m36s: Dream Apart, Sleepaway, and the Belonging Outside Belonging system. 29m34s: Volley Boys, based on the anime Haikyu!! 39m19s: The Quiet Year 44m34s: Bohnanza 50m09s: Dramatic structures, including the 3-Act Structure, and the Hero's Journey 57m13s: The minis game Hordes, and its Legion of Everblight expansion. 1h07m13s: Geoff and Gil discussed hard vs. soft incentives in Ludology 185 - Soft Boiled. Also, Snow Tails.

Scott shambles through the history of the beer-and-pretzels game Zombies!!! He runs us through its various iterations, tells us what made it stand out from other games at the time, and discloses the personal impact the game and its designers had on him. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME (Audio) An interview with Todd Breitenstein  The Zombies!!! 20th anniversary Kickstarter (Text) Another interview with Todd Breitenstein on the digital version of the game Todd passed away in 2013 from cancer.