GamingPerspectives

    In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about their favorite monsters and Jolene checks out the internet and finds tons of the "Peoples" favorite monsters.   Saul has been playing since 1978 so just in D&D alone from then to now he has fought and used a plethora of monsters in that time.      Saul shares a couple of his favorites from the Fantasy genre that he has used as a GM and many popular on...

    Saul and Jolene had been hearing a lot about D&D 6th Edition.   Saul and Jolene checked out a lot of the latest info and right as they were recording news that WoTC was going to buy D&D Beyond for about 146 million dollars.  So it looks like WoTC might be going "All In" with digital content?  Saul and Jolene discuss what changes to 5th Edition might D&D 6th Edition have in store.  What kind of...

    In this Bonus Episode we interview Brandon Harris creator of Dice Weaver, a VTT, Market Place and Community for gamers.      Saul and Jolene interview Brandon who decided with a bit of pushing from friends to put his ideas and products out there for the world to use.  Before talking to Brandon we thought it was about a new Virtual Tabletop he was creating but it turns out that Brandon has high...

In this Episode Saul and Jolene talk about RPGs where combat is not a main aspect of the game.   In two of the RPGs discussed combat is very unlikely and in another combat is frowned upon.   The games discussed are Monster Hearts 2,  Prime Time Stories and Golden Sky Stories.  Each bring unique visions of what an RPG is about and combat is not one of them.    Thank you all for listening.     Music...

     This question came from a Facebook post.  We had done an episode early in the pandemic about how to keep playing during the Covid-19 Lockdown.  But after a year and a half since those orders were given here in California and later throughout the United States it is a valid question that was quite introspective.      Thanks for listening          Episode art by Michael Shean-Jones      Hosting...

     Playtesting should be part of any publication project especially RPGs.   RPGs need to be able to "work".  Whether the game is a tactical simulation or a more storytelling variety the rules have to be playable.      In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about Playtesting.  Why its important, how it is conducted and their experience playtesting a few RPGs before they were published.     Thank yo...

     There are many new players joining the ranks of ole D&D players.  Though Saul and Jolene love and think 5th edition D&D is a great game they believe that those that love and play D&D should try other RPGs.   As usual Saul tends to meander in the discussion Jolene in this episode seems to get distracted by Saul's meandering and goes along for the ride.     Thanks for listening everyone.      ...

     One of Saul's and Jolene's favorite shows was Firefly.   Shortly after the movie Serenity was out there was a RPG game based on the movie called Serenity.   This RPG use a system first seen in the Sovereign Stone RPG.  It was adapted and used to run the Serenity RPG.  The publisher's of the Serenity RPG went on to published other RPGs based on popular IPs of that time. Each of those RPGs used...

     Saul and Jolene were at Dundracon and were asked to do an episode about kids and gaming.  We did an episode about three years ago but decided that our son is now 18 and share a parents perspective on how gaming has influenced and shaped our son to become the adult he is today.        Saul and Jolene go over the positive influences of gaming, especially if kids are introduced to games at a ver...

     Every gamer has that moment when they need to find a new gaming group.  Whether it is because your just moved to a new city, the last group fell apart, or just want to experience a different vibe,  you as a gamer are looking for a group.   Saul talks about the old days when there weren't many avenues that gamers had to find a group.   But today gamers have this new fangled thing called the in...

     Making your RPGs Flow Better is the result of a question posed on Facebook.  Saul and Jolene talked discussed it and decided to do an episode on it.  What can make your game run better at the table.  Make your game run smoother and faster.  Saul and Jolene talk about things the GM can do the accomplish a smoother and faster running game session.    As always, thank you all for listening.    ...

     We took the family to Dundracon's new home now in Santa Clara California.  It was a great gaming convention.  We took some new equipment and it worked really good.  The Zoom Podtrak P8 limiter really quieted down the background noise.  Problem we only have 3 microphones so two of us "shared" a microphone which really didn't work.     We would like to talk DDC staff for giving us the space to...

  Hey there listeners, today Saul and Jolene talk about Alignment in RPGs.  Saul thinks they are a thing of the past and the one RPG that made them famous, Dungeons and Dragons, will be getting rid of them in their 6th edition.   Saul and Jolene discuss, what are alignments, what is their purpose, did players ever use them, are alignments used by today's players?  These and many more questions are...

     What do you do when your Dice Go Bad.  What can you do when a player is getting really frustrated with their dice when they go through a spat of bad luck.  Saul and Jolene were talking about dice and how in a recent game of Feng Shui one of the players was rolling bad through a whole encounter.  Though Steve the Player took it in stride, he is pretty laid back and loves playing RPGs, but what...

    The Balanced Party,  quite a few TTRPG players want to have one before they set off on their adventures. Many Players feel that certain roles have to be covered in order to successfully adventure.        Saul and Jolene discuss why this idea exists and if you really do need or want a "balanced party".       Thank you all for listening      Music by Fast Astronaut, song Balance, off the album I...

     Saul was reading some reddit posts and a user had a question about "good Modern RPG games."   Saul decided it would make an interesting episode for this podcast.         Saul asked Jolene and she had some very good questions about what the user meant by "Modern".  Jolene asked if it meant the 1920's or the 2020's .  She also asked if the user wanted to play a spy game, investigative, or survi...

     Happy New Year,  yes we are well into it already.  Saul decided to share games that will be published in 2022 that he is looking forward to or are too bid to ignore.      Thanks for listening.

      In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss what Homebrews and House Rules are in RPGs.  Saul defines each one and gives examples of each.  They are different creatures though most people might think they are the same thing.        As always thanks for listening.     Music by Nathan Brumley, song Slow Brew    available from Tribeofnoise.com

In running games that have combat one of the most difficult things as a GM to work out is how hard to make an encounter.  This is usually called balancing an encounter.  In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss the idea of the Action Economy in RPGs, and how much it can impact your combat encounters.    Happy New Year and Thanks for listening.      Music by The Legend of  Wolf, song Fragments of Ti...

     This is a Spoiler Free Episode.     Full disclosure Saul and Jolene are have been fans of the Wheel of Time Books since the mid 1990's, and they both love the TV show.        With that out of the way this episode discusses the old WOTC Wheel of Time RPG and what other systems you can use to run a Wheel of Time game.         Also Saul was a bit off on his estimation of the cost of the Wheel of...

   Its the Holiday Season and Saul and Jolene discuss games that would make great gifts for your RPG Gamer.  It's not a definitive list, obviously but it should give you a few quick ideas as Christmas Day approaches.    Thanks for listening,       Music by Darija, song Christmas Story   Available from Tribeofnoise.com

    In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss TPKs.  Saul has very little experience with TPKs and had for many years seen it as negative.  A sign of a terrible GM, or Players not playing very intelligently.     Years later with one whole TPK under his belt his attitude toward TPKs has changed.  Jolene is not totally convinced that TPKs can be a good resolution to a campaign or a game.      Thanks f...

     Saul has been noticing quite a few Kickstarters and new editions of old RPGs.   Some of them really old such as Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls and Twilight 2000.   In fact the Twilight 2000 4th edition by Free League funded extremely well.       In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss what could be driving the reprinting and the new editions of some very old games and why are they doing so wel...

     At one point as a RPG players your going to get into a situation where you may not be playing in a game that isn't your favorite.  Whether the RPG game Shuffler at the Game Con did you wrong or your GM really wants to run a game that isn't exactly the type of game you really like you need to decide to play or make the best of it.      In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss games where the on...

      Saul and Jolene wondered about multiple GMs running a campaign together.  Not at the same time but alternating GM between adventures or story arcs.  When Jolene searched on the subject most of the hits were about GMs running the game together.        Saul has had a few experiences with co-gming one successful another not so much.  For the most part Saul and Jolene think Co-GMing could be a g...