GamingPerspectives

Episode 342: What Games Are People Running, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

     Saul and Jolene were watching Youtube and came across Dungeon Craft whose host had gone to Gen Con in 2025.  He was amazed at the size of the convention and the number of TTRPGs sessions that were available for convention attendees to play in.     He decided to do some number crunching to figure out what were the top ten TTRPGs by the number of sessions offered.  As he went down the list some of them were no surprise and others were.    On a late night sometime after watching that video, Saul decided to do the same for an upcoming local convention called DunDraCon.How many TTRPGs were offered and what games had the highest number of games offered of each RPG game is what Saul wanted to figure out.  Going through every game offered he wrote down each RPG and if there were offered more than once he noted it with a hash mark.       In this episode Saul and Jolene present his totally unofficial findings.
    Thank you all for Listening!
  You can email us at gamingperspective.com@gmail.com
Podcast Art by Jim D. FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
Music by Beat Mekanic, song Game DayAvailable from FreeMusicArchive.comMusic used under the Creative Commons Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
 

Episode 341: New Year New RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

Saul and Jolene usually do a New Year episode where they pick the RPGs that they are most looking forward to or ones they find interesting.  This episode is a top ten of upcoming TTRPGs that Saul thought were pretty interesting.      Thank you all for Listening!
  You can email us at gamingperspective.com@gmail.com
Podcast Art by Jim D. FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
Music by Quadrilles, song Gong Hey Fat ChoiAvailable from Tribeofmusic.comMusic used under the Creative Commons Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Episode 340: Rules You Need to Know, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

This topic comes from a Reddit post which asked about what rules should a GM need to know when running a game.  And which rules can they leave to look up later at the game table.     Saul states that he really dislikes the opening of the rulebook at the table as it distracts players and stops immersion of the game world.       Saul and Jolene discuss various games they have played and state their experiences from letting the GM's word be the final arbitrator to people contesting the ruling and looking up the rule in the book at the game table.     A lot depends on the GM's preference, the players and the game that they are playing.  Some games make it really easy to run like Tales of the Loop while others like Shadowrun 5th Edition are much more difficult.    Thank you all for Listening!
  You can email us at gamingperspectives.com@gmail.com
Podcast Art by Jim D. FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
 
Music available at TribeofMusic.comMusic by King Delinquent,  song Now You KnowMusic used under the Creative Commons Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
 

Episode 339: Brindlewood Bay as Closer Look, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

 Saul and Jolene were invited to a weekend RPG event hosted by Bay, a very good friend of theirs.   One game that both Saul and Jolene were eager to play was Brindlewood Bay.  Saul was interested because of the way the “mystery” was “solved” and the use of PBTA rules.  Jolene is a fan of mystery both in book and TV format.  Jolene watches a lot of mystery shows from old to new, American TV to British style mysteries. 
      Another good reason both Jolene and Saul wanted to play was that Bay is an excellent GM and has not disappointed either Jolene or Saul in a game that he has run.  So Saul was hesitant about the rpg ruleset “working’, Jolene was super eager to play in a real mystery RPG adventure.
     Saul and Jolene have mentioned Brindlewood Bay on previous episodes but it was from an opinion of just reading the rules and reading other peoples opinion of it. Now that they have both played the game, they decided it would be a good thing to review the game on an episode.
   Thank you for Listening.
   You can reach Saul and Jolene gamingperspectives.com@gmail.com
  Web Art by Jim D. Foster
  Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones.
 
Music by Tim Dry,  song Mysterious World,  off the album Happy Accidents
 
Music used under the Creative Commons License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
 

Epiosde 338: Player Engagement, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

When you are playing in a RPG, whether it is online or an in person game,  keeping the player engaged in the game can be at times hard.   Saul and Jolene over the years have noticed that some people find it hard to pay attention to the game during a session.  Things that make people tune out of the game are many, from cell phones, side conversation, kids, significant other, boredom, the list goes on.        As a GM what can you do to keep the player engaged at the game table.  How much can a GM do?  What about the Player?  They are the ones that tune out of the game carry the majority of the burden to keeping up with what is going on at the game table.  Jolene and Saul discussed what they have seen other GM do and reasons why and what players can do to keep their attention to the table.   Saul and Jolene decided to record an episode on Player Engagement.    Thank you for listening! Website Art by Jim FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
Music by Martin Stirrup, song Rules of Engagment, off the album Rules of the Road
 Used under the Creative Commons License 3.0  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode
 

Episode 337: Adding a Player to an Existing Campaign, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

      Reading Reddit posts Saul cam across a post about a problem that they had when they joined a new group with an on going campaign.   The Poster was upset at a number of things that happened when he first started playing.  They sought help with dealing with their problems since joining.  Saul thought about things that could minimize problems like this Original Poster had.   He talked to Jolene that had multiple questions about the situation.      Though Saul didn't have a lot of information about the original post, Jolene and Saul discussed ways or things that players and GMs could do to make the adding of a new player to a group a smoother transition.   Especially when the new player joins an existing campaign.  
     If you have any questions or subjects you want Saul and Jolene to discuss please email: gamingperspectives.com@gmail.com       If you like our podcast please leave a positive review where ever you listen to the podcast.  As Always thanks for listening    Website Art by Jim Foster   Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones Song by Mack White,  song Something NewUsed under the Creative Commons license 3.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Episode 336: Lethal or Deadly RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

     Saul was reading "RPG Reddit" posts and came across a person who described themselves as a 5th edition D&D player.  In this post they wanted to know about games that were more "lethal" than D&D.  They mentioned that D&D was too easy to survive.     Saul mentioned it to Jolene.  Saul went into his collection and found some RPG systems that were to his mind more deadly than D&D 5th edition.   Saul realized that not all the systems were of the same genre, setting or tone.   So why were all these systems "more Deadly" than D&D.  The answers to that question was the basis for this episode.      Thank you for listening! 
Website Art by Jim FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
Music by Vitne,  Song I Am Feeling Deadly, off the album Neon used under the Creative Commons License 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Episode 335: The Three Pillars, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

     In this Episode Saul was reading a blog where they discussed the Three Different Pillars of D&D.  Saul went on to read other sources from other bloggers to Reddit posts about this idea of what makes a good D&D Game.      Saul starting thinking about how some games or genres don't rely on these Three Pillars for running great sessions or adventures.He discussed it quickly with Jolene who had never heard of this idea and they decided to record an episode on this topic.        Thank you for listening! 
Website Art by Jim FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
 
Music by Radmilaj,  Song We Three Kings, off the album Whispers of Winter 
Used under the Creative Commons License 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Episode 334: TTRPGs Niche or Big Deal, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

Jolene was looking at TTRPG topics and came across a Reddit Post where a user was asking why people consider playing TTRPGs a "niche" hobby.  The original poster was quite surprised that people thought that TTRPGs are not that popular. There were quite a few replies to that post and most were proposing that TTRPGs are not that big of a deal in the hobby sphere.      A number of TTRPG players in the U.S. that was quoted quite often was 50 million people in the U.S. play or have played TTRPGs.  Saul wondered where this 50 million stat came from.  So Saul went down the numbers rabbit hole.  He found an article about number of players in the U.S.   Then, Saul considered the number of participants of other hobbies in the U.S.      The result is this episode about whether TTRPGs are a Big Deal or still a Niche hobby.
    Thank you for listening! 
Website Art by Jim FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
Music by Keith Heimericks, Song PopularityUsed under the Creative Commons license 3.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 

Episode 333: Troika the RPG, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

      Saul and Jolene went to a game convention over Labor Day weekend.  Their first game there was a RPG called Troika.  Saul had seen this rpg mentioned quite a bit in various posts.  From "Best Ever Indie Game", to "Most Underrated RPG" and many other lists.   Even though Saul had bought the PDF of Troika he had not yet looked at the rules, but had been very interested in what the buzz was about this RPG.        So Saul and Jolene played Troika for the very first time.  It wasn't the "usual" Troika, the GM was using a setting about the world consisting of only a huge bridge.  We had 7 players in the game and though we didn't know anything about the rules this RPG is pretty light so it was very easy to pick up.      After Saul and Jolene discussed this game, they decided to do an  episode of Troika.
Website Art by Jim FosterEpisode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
 
Music by Gypsy Summer, Song Wild Horses Used under the Creative Commons License 4.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en