The Tabletop Takeaway: A Board Game Design Podcast

20. Social Deduction

What can you do to make games less stressful for the evil team? How do you structure interesting puzzles when information is not trustworthy? Learn about social deduction

19. A Fake Artist Goes to New York

What happens when the traitor is left in the dark? Can you have a social deduction game without conversation? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda discuss A Fake Artist Goes to Ne

18. Blood on the Clocktower

Why should you balance information and doubt in social deduction games? How do you encourage people to talk to each other? Is dying actually good for the good team? Join

17. One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Do players need to know what team they are on? What is the purpose of minion roles? What are the benefits of super-short games? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie talk about One

16. Cooperative Games

How do you encourage interactions when it is the players versus the game? What makes an AI opponent compelling? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda wrap up the cooperative game g

15. Marvel Champions

How do you represent the duality between a superhero and their alter ego? Can you have different types of resources that can still be used interchangeably? What should yo

14. Spirit Island

Why should you foreshadow random events? How do you encourage players to stay on-theme for their characters? Do games need strict turns and timing? Join Ananda, Charlie,

13. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

How much communication do players need in a coop game? What happens when somebody loses the game for everybody? What makes for a good twist on a familiar mechanic? Charli

12. Tactical Combat

In this special episode, Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor discuss the tactical combat genre.

11. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

How do you make progression fun when players are getting weaker over time? Does AI for tactical combat need to be complicated? Can you have too much content? Trevor, Anan

10. Mage Wars

How granular does a representation of space actually need to be? Can you really give players access to their entire deck without overwhelming them? Where does simultaneou

9. Chess

What are the advantages of only allowing players to move one piece per turn? Are one-hit kills broken? Should you design a variant? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda discuss th

8. Logical Induction

In this extra-fun episode, Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie discuss logical induction games and their design.

7. Turing Machine

How do you avoid unintentional information leaks due to player choices? How can you avoid making people feel dumb in games about being clever? What should happen when a p

6. Visitor in Blackwood Grove

Do induction games always need unambiguous secret rules, or can fuzzy rules work? Can asymmetric roles work with induction? Check out the Visitor in Blackwood Grove with

5. Zendo

What is the difference between induction and deduction? How do you make logic-heavy games friendly and approachable? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor get started on the logica

4. Tile Placement

Bonus Episode! Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie talk about tile placement games in general. How will they use this mechanic in future games they're designing?

3. Galaxy Trucker

Can a game be more fun to lose than to win? How do you make a game accessible to new players when there are so many different tiles to remember? Is real-time play compati

2. Carcassonne

When are rivals willing to cooperate? Should players draw their next tile at the start or end of their turn? What is the purpose of the abbot? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor

1. Kingdomino

How do you make terrain types feel different from each other? Why do players need to know the distribution of tiles? Should you use multiplication for scoring? Join Trevo