Oct 18, 2020

Emma and Gil welcome Sen-Foong Lim back to the show to discuss
the differences—and similarities—between board games and
roleplaying games. We go through the perspectives of playing them,
designing them, and examining the culture of play between both.

Sen originally appeared on
Ludology 134: There’s No “I” in Team with frequent co-designer
Jay Cormier.

SHOW NOTES

0m41s: Board games Sen has designed or co-designed: Junk Art,
Belfort,

D&D: Rock Paper Wizard. RPGs Sen has designed, co-designed,
or written for:
Jiang-Shi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, Kids on
Bikes,
The Curse of the House of Rookwood, North
Sea Epilogues

3m39s: If the comparison between RPG and improv intrigues you,
wait till you hear Ludology 237…

4m47s: An example of a crunchy old-school RPG: Traveller

5m10s: Chainmail was
the game that D&D evolved from.

5m20s: While Gil agrees with Sen that encumbrance as implemented
by a game like D&D tends to bog down gameplay, a nice
counter-example is Torchbearer, a
dungeon-crawling TTRPG in which encumbrance is a central
mechanism.

7m44s: You can see one Emma’s chats with Peter Adkison (who
founded Wizards of the Coast and owns Gen Con) here.

11m34s: Sen is currently watching Black
Sails.

12m31s: RPGs where your character is likely to die: Fiasco,
Paranoia

17m55s: The RPG Masks: A New
Generation.

19m14s: Gil and Sen’s friend and beloved loudmouth Errol Elumir.

19m40s: This is literally Errol’s
first rule of escape room puzzle design.

20m36s: Critical Role (with
GM Matt Mercer) is the most popular of the vibrant active play
scene.

21m46s: The party game Cranium.

22m25s: Save
Against Fear, a convention about gaming in therapy.

23m01s: Roll20 is an online
platform for playing RPGs, as is
Role. Tabletop
Simulator can handle crunchy RPGs like D&D as well.

28m21s: Formula D
(née Formula Dé)

30m00s: We had Mike Selinker on the show for
Ludology 189: Missing Selinker.

31m13s: Sen’s favorite D&D module, Expedition
to the Barrier Peaks

31m30s: Star
Frontiers

33m05s: You can hear more from Jiang-Shi co-designer Banana Chan
on Ludology
228: The Roles We Play.

35m51s: Emma’s storytelling games …And Then We
Died (…And
Then We Held Hands is a different game)

45m02s: “Jay” is Jay Cormier, Sen’s frequent collaborator.
“Jesse” is game designer Jesse Wright.

45m30s: Jay and Sen’s tabletop escape game
Scooby Doo: Escape from the Haunted Mansion.

47m20s: The TV show Bob’s
Burgers.

48m50s: Itch is an online
platform for digital games, but has a lot of downloadable PDFs for
tabletop games. DriveThruRPG
offers PDFs and PODs of many RPGs.

50m12s: RPGs that Emma mentions: Burning
Wheel, Paranoia, FATE
Core System, Ryuutama, Over the Edge.

51m58s: For more about safety tools in RPGs, check out Ludology
227: Respect the X.

53m04s: You can access all these tools via the TTRPG Safety Kit.

56m05s: Gil’s board game safety tool Check-In
Cards.

1h07m06s: Board games that allow for relaxed conversation:
Sagrada,
Lotus.

1h08m27s: More about
the semiotic function.

1h09m57s: Sen mentions psychologist Lev Vygotsky.

1h10m30s: Emma is a Mythic-tier
Magic player!

1h11m55s: More info about the D&D Adventurers
League.

1h14m13s: Jay and Graeme’s game In
the Hall of the Mountain King. Jay also created the Fail
Faster playtesting notebook.

1h19m31s: Sen’s web series, the Meeple Syrup Show, with Jessey
Wright and Erica Hayes-Bouyouris. 

1h20m59s: Sen’s licensed games:
Batman: The Animated Series – Rogues Gallery,
Legend of Korra: Pro-Bending Arena, and the Scooby Doo and
D&D games mentioned above.

1h22m01s: The manga and anime My Hero
Academia.

1h23m08s: Follow Sen on
Twitter!