The Tabletop Takeaway: A Board Game Design Podcast

What makes for a good Winston draft? How can you make wildcards strategically interesting? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor cram for finals in Studies in Sorcery.

How do you create long-term goals for players? Can one-shot cards progress your engine? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie excavate lairs in Wyrmspan.

How much theme can an abstract strategy game have? What makes abstract strategy games replayable? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor talk about multiplayer abstract strategy games.

Can supply limits define a game? How do you define spatial relationships without a board? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor destroy stars in Homeworlds.

How do you design zero level heuristics for abstract strategy games? What are the benefits of limiting how many actions a player can perform? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda break the ice in Hey, That's My Fish!

What is better, strategy or tactics? How does attack-left benefit multiplayer games? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie manipulate nature in Element.

Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie run the 2025 Iron Designer Challenge, a game jam event.

How do you get players to value things differently? What styles of auction are there? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie talk about Auction games.

Where should the money from an auction go? Does research need to be complicated? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor merge companies in Indonesia.

How do you encourage players to lead with their best bid? Why are catchup mechanics so important in auction games? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda petition the gods in Cyclades.

Should currency be hidden? Why is liquidity so powerful? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie pass the buck in No Thanks!

How do you make a game fun when players lose most of the hands they play? Should cards have effects when played? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie talk about trick takers.

Should players be encouraged to exploit catch-up mechanics? What are the benefits of stacking decks? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor trawl the depths in Fishing.

Why is bidding popular in trick-taking games? What is a suit, really? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda collapse superpositions in Cat in the Box.

How do you make each suit feel different? Why shoot the moon? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie avoid the queen in Hearts.

Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor each give their top 10 takeaways in this very special 100th episode.

Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda respond to listener takeaways in this special 99th episode.

What should happen when two locations are joined by a route? Which mechanics work well with route-building? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda talk about Route-Building games.

Do routes need to branch? How do you get players to care about action resolution order? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor build a public transit network in Bus.

When players share control of assets, how do you give them unique advantages? What should happen to the money spent in an auction game? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie listen to the jingle, the rumble, and the roar in Wabash Cannonball.

Can victory points and progression go together without snowballing? How can you draw a map to something when even the game doesn't know where it is? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda discover temples in Akrotiri.

How should authority be divided amongst players? How should conflicts be resolved? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie discuss tabletop role-playing games.

How does the illusion of control affect players' perception of conflict resolution mechanics? Can players be made to look forward to their elimination? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda face their fears in Dread.

Broken glasses, angry ghosts, and dwarven journalists. Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda seek justice.

Loss, baby dragons, and giant pecs. Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda flee their doom.