GamingPerspectives

     Jolene was looking online and found a person who was asking for help.  They had never GMed a RPG and they only had two players.  The person was asking if there were any games that were made for one GM and two players.  Jolene asked Saul about this and after a brief discussion they decided to do an episode on the subject.      Jolene and Saul have an episode dealing with single player games, o...

         A listener and friend asked Saul and Jolene about a question his daughter had asked him.  The questions was, "Should a GM change a dungeon campaign after the players make characters that can see in the dark."  The GM designed the dungeon with the idea of limited visibility of the characters due to it being pitch black in the dungeon.  Slightly upset at the characters the GM decided to cha...

     In this Episode Saul and Jolene talk about making a RPG from a computer game.  This was from a question that Saul read online about a father that wanted to make a RPG for his kids that played Destiny 2.  Saul thought he recognized the game and even thought he had the older computer game but he was thinking of Mass Effect 2.  Still Jolene and Saul discussed the trials and tribulations of makin...

     Saul was looking at Reddit and found a post about how the person didn't like playing "Lighter" RPGs because they were more work for him in roleplaying than a crunchier systems like Pathfinder.  Others also agreed and added comments about why they didn't like RPGs.        Saul and Jolene have tried a few "Light RPGs".  Games like Kobolds Ate My Baby, Sleepaway Camp, The Quiet Year, Tales From...

          Saul and Jolene decided to ask a question of their gaming friends, Felipe, Cipriano and Michael,  "Why do you still game after playing for so long."   Saul has been gaming with Felipe, his brother, since 1978, with Cipriano right after that and Michael since Junior High.  Though some of them had some short stints of not playing here or there,  Saul and his friends are still playing RPGs...

      This episode comes from Jolene surfing the internets and finding a post on Reddit.  She mentioned it to Saul and they talked about this idea.  Saul remembered that at some Convention Games a few GM's did this to get the players ready to enter the world of the game,  break the ice between players and do some information dissemination.                 Thank you all for Listening      Web Art b...

          A question was floating around in social media and on Reddit, that if you only had three RPGs to play for the rest of your life which ones would they be.  Saul was intrigued of whittling down all his favorite RPGs down to three that he would play forever if he had only three to play.   Saul and Jolene discussed it a bit and though Jolene didn't like the idea of paring down the RPGs she l...

      Since Jolene and Saul have been playing various RPGs they have been discussing what they liked and did not like about the RPGs.  One thing they zeroed in on was combat in the different RPGs.  It also made Saul think about some game mechanics he had seen from some pretty old games like Space Opera, TOP Secret SI and many others.         Saul and Jolene discussed how each game dealt with Comba...

     There have been times that a certain player at your table took charge of the table or maybe was the leader at the table.  Heck back in the ole Days, there was a player who was, "the Caller".  It was their job to talk to the GM and tell the GM what the players were doing.  It was a way to speed up game play.  Saul once played in a game where they took this idea to heart and only The Caller wou...

        Saul and Jolene recieved an email from a listener Morgan who had some suggestion for episode topics.  Thanks Morgan!  One of the topics was Time Travel RPGs.  Saul and Jolene thought it was a good topic and discussed several TV shows that had time travel episodes or where about time travel.   They came up with way too many shows to discuss, so Saul picked his top 4 shows.         Then the...

     In this episode Saul and Jolene interview David Gabriel of Producer of Kublacon Conventions.  Kublacon is the SF Bay Area Largest gaming convention that takes place over Memorial Weekend.  But this year they are putting on Kublacon Fall Veteran's Weekend.  It will be the first year this event is happening.  So if you want to ease your way into a Kublacon, this is the way to do it.  The follow...

          Saul and Jolene were discussing mystery shows and came across a reddit post.  The post was from a GM complaining about how his players are not getting all his clues that would point the PCs toward the Big Bad Guy.  The GM was lamenting how much work he had been doing on the campaign.  The GM had made maps, developed numerous NPCs, many of which had informaton that they could give the PCs...

     Saul and Jolene were talking about long campaigns.  The discussion lead to games were character played gernerations of a character.   I was thinking how many generations one could play and what RPGs make it part of their system or setting.      The first game that came to mind was Pendragon.  A friend of mine ran the Great Pendragon Campaign for some fellow gamers.  That GM runs games where "...

     Bonus Episode, an interview of Dave and Matthew from the Effekt of podcast.  Saul and Jolene interview the very likeable chaps from the UK.  Not only do they have a very successful podcast called the Effekt podcast which mainly deals with Swedish RPGs but they discuss all kinds of RPG topics.   They also have been working on a gritty, Western RPG called Tales of the Old West using a version o...

         Saul and Jolene were discussing the Sanity stat in CoC and if any other RPGs used some sort of Sanity stat in games.       That lead to Saul and Jolene to think of other games where the mental conditon of the character was kept track.     What seemed like would be a short list of games became longer and longer.  It seemed that quite a few games     included a way of determining the mental...

     This episode came about when Saul was reading Reddit Posts and came across the question of what was more important in a RPG, Mechanics or Setting.  Saul noticed many posts that sided with the idea that it was "mechanics" that was more important one of the two.  A few chose setting but they were largely outnumbered by those that thought mechanics were  more important in RPGs.      Saul brought...

Jolene read a post from a father of three young daughters who he wanted to run a roleplaying game for but one daughter was very adverse to combat and violence.  Jolene talked to Saul about the post and they discussed the various games they had run for very young and new RPGers.   When their son was young, Saul regularly ran games at local con for kids.  From D&D to Gamma World,  Saul ran "kids...

     Saul and Jolene have run and been in various RPGs where planning took place from the simple to the complex.   Saul and Jolene were talking about why certain RPG games, adventures and players tend make plans to deal with situations in RPGs.      From games like Shandowrun and Cyberpunk to good ole D&D gamers make plans.  Some games players are just inclined to make complex plans such as Sh...

          Saul and Jolene were talking about the various Science Fiction RPGs that they had played and GMed.  Saul was talking about his favorite ones and asked Jolene about her favorite Sci-Fi Rpg.  They discussed how the different rules worked for and against liking the various Science Fiction themed RPGs.       After a while Saul decided to take notes and suggested doing an episode on the Best...

          Some RPGs try to mimic things in the real world, things from movies books,  and even things that the author remembers.  These things are then added to their RPG as an in game mechanic that really sets that RPG apart from other games.  Saul and Jolene discuss their favorite game mechanics that really make the RPG stand out.            Saul and Jolene discuss Traveller, The One Ring, Tales...

          Jolene came across a post on Reddit of a new GM asked a question about how emotionally invested other GMs are in their creations for their games.  From NPCs, to actual towns and villages do GMs care about Towns and it's inhabitants.         Saul and Jolene discuss how those people who are younger and newer to RPGs can have a different view of how to play an RPG than older gamers.  Viewin...

A popular way to start out an adventure or campaign is "in media res".   Though most RPG games start off with a common scene of the Tavern or Pub.   This in the beginning type of start is what most gamers know.  Another way is to put the characters in a stressfull situcation from the beginning.  One common way of doing this is the "your all in prison" beginning.         Now this beginning can be v...

       The idea of cursed items comes from the very beginnings of RPGs.  Even the Original D&D had a list of cursed items that you could give away to the characters in their treasure loot.   The question is why would a character ever take something that is cursed.  From simple to powerful items many players are willing to risk the chances of touching or using a cursed item because of some perc...

       Saul and Jolene were talking about when at a RPG table session, sometimes the group goes off the rails.  Not in game but at the actual game table.  Non game side discussions, players looking at their phones, players joking around out of character and many other things that players can do to disrupt a RPG session.      If you GM for any length of time this will probably happen to you as a GM...

          Saul and Jolene were thinking about the rules about who goes first in RPGs.  It was a lively discussion where we talked about several different games and how they dealt with initiative.   Saul and Jolene talked about it at length and decided it was a good topic for an episode the podcast.           Saul and Jolene discuss initiative system from the ole Dungeons and Dragons to Feng Shui,...