GamingPerspectives

    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...

          Now that Saul and run Bladerunner the RPG three times and has gone over the Bladerunner RPG by Free League, Saul and Jolene decided to do a quick review of the game.   Saul pre-ordered the Core book and the Starter Kit.          Though Saul really liked the components of the Starter Set the scenario was quite to Saul's liking.  Saul would call himself a fan of the Original Bladerunner mo...

     In this episode we interview Sean Nittner of BigBadCon.  Saul and Jolene have a great talk with Sean Steward of BigBadCon a convention in the Bay Area that is one of the most inclusive and loved gaming cons on the West Coast.  We discuss with Sean his vision of Big Bad Con,  the Pandemic effect and the post pandemic recovery.  What Big Bad Con Does for the gaming community.   Big Bad Con is a...

     For this episode Saul was trying to come up with his current favorite RPG game system.  As Saul was discussing his favorite system Jolene asked about another system, then another and then another.  You all get the picture.      After some discussion Saul and Jolene decided to make an episode of Saul's favorite RPG Game System.      Thank you all for listening.     Web Art by Jim Foster     Ep...

  Social rules in Rpgs is something that is usally overlooked or not included in RPGs.   As the hobby gets more and more people outside the Wargame Hobby the idea of rules including social conflict rules.   Looking at posts about this subject many of those posting stated that they did not like the idea of one simple roll of the dice to determine social conflict.  From convincing the guard to let t...

     Location, location, location.  Everyone knows how important locations are in real estate, but what is less known is the importance of locations in RPG adventures.  No matter the genre or the game, locations are where the adventures take place.        Saul and Jolene dicuss the importance of location in rpgs games and adventures and how each location does not and should not be mapped out in de...

     In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about what you should look for in a RPG for brand new players.   At first it seems like an very easy thing to assertain.  Pick a super easy rpg to run.  But there are other things to consider other than just what game to run.      What are the players expectations,  what genre are they interested in, what kind of adventure do you want to experience.  These...

       Saul and Jolene were talking about some bad dice rolls that were happening in the last session of their Shadowrun 5th Edtion game.  The discussion covered how players usually do not want to roll bad and be reletively successfull in all their characters endeavors.  But what when rolls go bad, really bad.      The idea of Leaning into Bad Rolls came up and Saul and Jolene decided to do an epi...

The new D&D Movie: Honor Among Thieves has been out for about a month.  Jolene and Saul went to go see the movie and decided to do a Spoiler Free episode.  No Spoilers.  If you have seen the trailers then you should feel safe listening to this episode.       So what are Saul going to be talking about?  Three things.  How is the setting of the movie, Forgotten Realms presented to the viewers of the...