In this course, we will investigate innovations in tabletop gaming by looking at contemporary experimental role-playing games and boardgames. Modern tabletop games are firmly grounded in today's technological landscape and use digital tools to develop and distribute new types of games and to experiment with new ways of playing. We will look at different types of games, investigate new game mechanisms, new genres and new ways of playing. We will also look at the place of modern tabletop games in contemporary culture and the ways they create meaning (e.g. in the form of political games).

To get a better understanding of how those games work, we will play selected examples, discuss and analyse them and also tinker with modifying their mechanics.

Active participation and written essay.