We couldn't help ourselves and review just one game. Instead, we looked at Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, and New Frontiers, Tom Lehman's three variations on a theme.

Speaking of variations, in our feature discussion, we discuss how designers reuse their core mechanics and core themes from one game to a next, including designers like Tom Lehman, Uwe Rosenberg, Michael Kiesling, Ryan Laukat, Simone Luciani, Vital Lacerda, and Vlaada Chvátil.

What we've been playing:
01:26 Men at Work
03:37 Carpe Diem
05:34 Orléans & Rococo
09:03 Tony beat Gloomhaven!

FEATURE REVIEW:
11:09 Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, and New Frontiers
11:30 Tom Lehman, San Juan, and Puerto Rico
22:59 New Frontiers vs. Empires of the Void II
34:00 Iconography

FEATURE DISCUSSION:
35:37 Iteration by board game designers
36:15 Tom Lehman's iterative designs
39:23 Fixing games - 1846 and 2038
40:32 Designing into different play spaces - Res Arcana
42:17 Designing for curiosity - Uwe Rosenberg, Feast for Odin, Patchwork, Cottage Garden, and Indian Summer
43:03 Agricola
44:53 Why we love designers - Designer personality, Uwe Rosenberg, and Michael Kiesling
46:38 Ryan Laukat's long journey to Empires of the Void II & Islebound
48:55 Simone Luciani's design iterations in the Voyages of Marco Polo, Tzolkin, Lorenzo, Newton, and Barrage
50:59 The adaptive designer - Vital Lacerda, Escape Plan, and Lisboa
52:18 The adaptive designer - Vlaada Chvátil, Space Alert, Mage Knight, and Codenames
54:11 Norwegians, the smallest iteration