GamingPerspectives

     Aging in RPGs.  Some games have rules about them, some games ingnore age of the characters and other games, age is an intrical part of the game.     Saul and Jolene talk about age in RPGs from the very young and the very old.   How and what effects are there due to age seem reasonable and how do different RPGs handle  age in their games.    Thanks for listening, we really appreciate it.     ...

     Reading from the Reddit post about RPGs, Saul came across a post by a first time GM who was looking for advice on his ideas that he has for a brand new campaign.  The new GM wanted to embed a powerful NPC with the party that would grow in power as the party grew in power.  There was quite a few responses and Saul talked about the post with Jolene.  There was quite a bit of discussion and funn...

     In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss the use of Side Quests in a tabletop RPG.   Should you add Side Quests to your rpg campaign?  What are Side Quests?  What different types of Side Quests are there?  Are there any problems with using Side Quests?     Happy New Year to all of you.  Thanks for listening.       Web Art by Jim Foster     Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones         Music by Jo...

      Most GM that have been in the hobby for a while will have one, two or a few RPG games that have never hit the table.  Saul is no exception to this problem.   Though Saul might have quite a few more RPGs on his bookshelves than most but then again he has been playing RPGs since 1978.  Still whether it's a couple games of half you collection of RPGs that you have not played it does become a bi...

         This Episode Saul and Jolene discuss some RPGs that are making their was to being published in 2024.  Saul threw in a couple that have just been published in the last months of 2023.   These are games that have piqued the interest of Saul and Jolene.      Podcast Error: the first RPG discussed by Saul he stated was called the Lost Isle but it is called the Hidden Isle.  The link to their...

     A bit different in this episode Saul and Jolene talk about Miniature Wargames.   Miniature Games come in all genres, from large armies to single miniatures on a table.   Some have large books for rules others don't.  Jolene was asking about miniature games that were not Warhammer 40K and easy to play.   Saul has played more miniature games than Jolene but she has been going to conventions and...

     Saul saw a post on Reddit about a GM who had problems Roleplaying Dialogue with the PC when they were talking for the NPCs.   The GM also wanted the players to do more RP in their sessions.   Saul realized this was a big problem for a GM that wants more RP from his players but was really intimidated by NPC dialogue.  There were quite a few help hints in the responses but other Reddit users.  ...

    In this Bonus Episode we interview Panny and Aled of Leyline Press who just very recently fullfilled their Kickstarter for Salvage Union a post apocalyptic mech game.  I came across their rather large "Quickstart" rules a while ago and was impressed with the scope of their free quickstart PDF and how well their RPG was presented.       I remembered dealing with Panny when he worked for Modiphi...

    Saul was looking at FB posts and he read a post concerning the topic of metacurrency in RPGs games.  The Original Poster had a rather negative view of metacurrency.  One that too many new RPGs were using this "gimmick".  Another complaint was that it drew him out of the immersion of the roleplaying session with the use of metacurrency which there was little or no explanation about the metacurr...

Roleplaying during combat scenes?  Is this possible.  It seems that most "real" Roleplayers check out during this part of the roleplaying game because it is the least interesting, too tactical, too simulationist.   Saul and Jolene counter this mindset and say that you can indeed have Roleplying during Combat.      They discuss different games and playstyles.  With creative input from the GM and th...

      This is a subject that is very close to every GM.  Saul who has been a GM for over 40 years has gotten things once or twice over those years from rules, to setting GMs can make mistakes.  Usually these mistakes do not have any long lasting effect on a long running game.         When Jolene told Saul about this topic from a Reddit topic, Saul starting thinking of mistakes he has made over the...

     Saul was thinking about running an Urban FRPG in the near future and looked to see what kind of materials where available for running an Urban Campaign.   A campaign in that takes place entirely in a city.  He talked to Jolene about it.  She was intrigued by the concept and went off to find what she could on the subject.      Saul remembered a Physical Geography class from Jr. College that di...

      With Halloween coming up real soon, Saul and Jolene were discussing the idea of Horror RPGs specifically what it takes to run a good horror game.   Though Saul would say he is not the type of gamer that like the horror genre he does own more than a few Horror RPGs.  One of the first horror RPG he bought was Stalking the Night Fantastic back in the late 80's and Dark Conspiracy in the 1990's....

      Saul and Jolene have experienced that player that wants to direct the other players action.  In boardgames its called quarterbacking.  In the old days of Original D&D and Advanced D&D there was the Caller, who told the DM who did what to make the game go by faster.  Back in the day Saul's brother and friends did not play that way.  Once he went to a D&D club and that was exactly...

     Saul was looking at the Dragon Bane RPG boxset that was a gift from this brother Felipe.   He was looking at Low Fantasy Gaming and wondered why Dragon Bane was more successful.   They both very similar products.  Both were a D20 based Fantasy RPG, both are simple rules and yet there seems to be a disparity of how each was recieved by the RPG buying community.     Saul asked Jolene about this...

            One of the many plights of GMs of RPGs is the dreaded getting the players to learn a new game.  Due to Saul's seeking to find that perfect RPG or just likes the "new shiny."   Due to this affliction Saul tries to share this affliction with all his players.  In some of Saul's groups the players groaned everytime they heard Saul had bought a new game.  In other groups his players were cu...

    This week Saul and Jolene discuss the Long and Short rest from D&D 5th edtion.  Jolene had asked Saul what he thought about how these affected the game.  Jolene was not prepared for Saul's the long winded tirade about the topic.     At some point Jolene stopped Saul and told him it would make a good episode for the podcast.  Saul quickly got his GP notebook and starting scratching his thou...

    Many times players and GM's ignore, change or get a rule wrong.  Sometime by accident, other times on purpose because  they don't like that rule.  Known as "House Rules", "Home Rules", and many other names changing and omitting rules is done all the time.   There are some type of rules that usually go out the window, whether you play the "Best Selling RPG" or the smallest "Indie RPG ruleset",...

Play and GM RPGs long enough and you will experience a gut busting funny RPG session.  This happens whether your are playing D&D, GURPs or any other RPG.  Play long enough and there is that session where everything comes together it is just play funny.          What about RPGs that try to bring that amusement, merriment or funny situations to the forefront of the game.   Saul and Jolene have p...

After GMing for any significant period of time one has to deal with some unusual character requests.  Sometimes players want to try something new or just different.  Every once in a while a player will approach the GM with a very unusual or strange character idea.        This got Saul and Jolene wondering what the most unusual character requests have been put forth by players.  Jolene found on Red...

     Jolene asked Saul, "What do you think the most played character class is?"  Saul immediately said, "Fighter."  Jolene asked how he came up with that guess.  A discussion followed about the most popular character type and why people like to play Fighters.      Saul and Jolene decided to record an episode about this topic.  Why are "Fighters" so popular?  Saul and Jolene say their favorite clas...

     Jolene was asking Saul if he thought his views on RPGs had changed over the years.  At first Saul didn't think his views had changed but Jolene was being very wiley and knew they had.  It did not take long for Saul to change his mind about how some of his views had changed.        Jolene asked about the games Saul did not like in the past, Traveller, CoC and Vampire, and immediately Saul knew...

In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about a question saw on Facebook that asked, "Does being a paid GM change your game?  There were plenty of comments and Saul picked out a few to discuss how it correlated with being a paid GM. One comment was asking if the GM would be considered to be a player in an RPG game.  For Saul it seemed like a silly question but if you really dig into the issue it is n...

     Saul and Jolene were talking about "leveling up" in RPGs.  They were talking about the difference between D&D and Shadowrun.  Saul thought about all the different ways RPGs handled character advancement.  As Saul and Jolne talked about it they decided to write down some notes about their discussion and make a Gaming Perspectives Episode.        Though Saul digresses as usual to the subjec...

    Jolene and Saul have been to many local gaming conventions over the years.  They usually attend 3 game cons a year.  All local SF Bay Area conventions.   They have always thought about going to a larger game convention such as Origins, Gen Con and now Game Hole Con, but have yet to make the trek to one of those larger game cons.        But all conventions have similar hurdles to enjoy them as...