GamingPerspectives
Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene is a husband and wife team that love Hobby Gaming. We play RPGs and Boardgaming and wish to share our love of this hobby with everyone we know.
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Episodes
Saturday Jun 20, 2020
Saturday Jun 20, 2020
Saul and Jolene discuss Traps! in your RPG games. Saul discusses how he has never really used traps in his fantasy RPGs. Saul talks about his earliest recollections of playing D&D and how traps had not played a big role in his early games and how that directed him to not include them in his games when he started running games.
Jolene tried to keep Saul on topic but allowed him to digress. Jolene as always did a bit of research on using traps and found "Grimtooths books of Traps". Which causes Saul to talk about an old story about seeing Grimtooth's Books at the first con he attended.
As always, thank you all for listening and please share our podcast on your favorite social media networks.
Here is where you can get reprints of the famous Grimtooth Traps book.
https://goodman-games.com/grimtooth/
Music by Anna Wang, song Trapped.
Available at Tribeofnoise.com
Friday Jun 12, 2020
Friday Jun 12, 2020
Technology has greatly advanced since the introduction of RPGs in the mid 1970s. Saul and Jolene discuss the pros and cons of having today's tech at the gaming table. For the most part the discussion is positive about technology at the table. From laptops, cell phones, tablets and HD TVs technology at the game table can really help in running an RPG. Things such as PDFs of the rules, music and sound effects, pictures and movie clips can really spice up your experience at the RPG table.
But of course technology can also be a problem.
As always thank you all for listening and all we ask is that you share our podcast on your favorite social media.
Music by Stock XL, song Technology Background
Available at Tribeofnoise.com
Sunday Jun 07, 2020
Sunday Jun 07, 2020
Saul and Jolene talk about sticking to canon in RPGs. Saul usually tries to be a rebel but feels sticking to official "canon" of a setting or IP is important. It may not be really important to Saul as a fan of a genre, but when he runs RPGs, he feels that staying close to canon is important. One of the reasons it is important is because when you list or describe your game being set in a certain setting, from Star Wars to Star Trek to Forgotten Realms, the players coming to sit at your table come to expect certain elements when you describe your game as such. If you describe your game as a Lord of the Rings game, well there shouldn't be light sabers or the Prime Directive. If you change too much then you might alienate your players.
Jolene mostly agrees with Saul's position and is one of the reasons Saul thinks its important to stay as close to canon as possible. Not for the first time Saul recites the dreaded "Shuttle Shields" incident. Where Saul running a Star Trek Adventures game got something so wrong it caused great consternation with three of his players at the game table.
As Always thank you all for listening and all we ask is that your "Share" our podcast in your social media networks.
Music by the Real Knative, song Crowd Official, off the album "Northern Nevada Dreams".
Available at Tribeofnoise.com
Saturday May 30, 2020
Saturday May 30, 2020
Saul and Jolene talk about "Backtracking" in your RPG, also known as RetConning. Jolene read about a GM asking about advice on a situation where a two player game resulted in a TPK and one of the players wanted a do over.
Jolene was surprisingly harsh and was against the idea and Saul was open to the idea. As the discussion progressed, Jolene was able to convince that allowing the do over was not a good idea.
As always thank you all for listening and all we ask is that you share our podcast in your social media networks.
Music by Jackal and James, song Image of Our Lives(Backtrack)
Available from Tribeofnoise.com
Saturday May 23, 2020
Saturday May 23, 2020
The classic Druid class in D&D is discussed by Saul and Jolene in this episode. Though not a favorite of Saul or Jolene they have had a number of players in their groups who played druids. From Saul's the cavalier childhood friend to the critical thinker druid played by the son of a friend. Each character were was played very differently due to how each player interpreted what a druid was.
Of course Saul digresses with an old, Jolene would say very OLD, tale of Saul's friend which luckily for the listener Jolene bring Saul back to the topic.
The Druid is a very versatile character class. Not a front line fighter or tank, not the medic of the group, and not the Wizard or Sorcerer with massive firepower spells, the druid is a class of their very own.
As always thanks for listening and please share our podcast in all your social media platforms.
Music by Damiano Baldoni, song Celtic Warrior off the album Lost Destiny.
Available at Tribeofnoise.com
Sunday May 17, 2020
Sunday May 17, 2020
This is our 100th Episode which means we are only four weeks away from 2 years of podcasting which is a pretty good milestone in podcasting. People like the big round numbers so this is 100 weekly episode, which does not include interview or recordings from gaming conventions.
Paranoia is this crazy, wild game of a "Humorously Dark Future." Saul bought the box set one summer in 1984, that year is oddly familiar, when Saul was staying over the summer with his sister who lived in the big city of San Jose California.
Saul convinced his friends to play it a few times but it never really was more than a game that he ran when taking a break from the regular D&D game. Years later Saul bought Paranoia XP, but has yet to run it.
Listen as Saul reminisces about the past and his experiences with Paranoia and when he finally got to play with a great Paranoia GM.
Thanks to all of you that listen to our podcast. We only ask that you share our podcast with friends and family via social media. Its the only advertising within our budget. Thanks again and stay safe everyone.
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Saul and Jolene talk about "Realistic" Post Apoc RPGs. Having discussed this genre when they talked about Gamma World we decided that another sub genre needed to be discussed in detail as they can tell a different kind of story.
As always thanks for listening.
Music by Robert Vasley, song The Seedling.
Available at Tribeofnoise.com
Wednesday May 06, 2020
Wednesday May 06, 2020
Today Saul and Jolene talk to Marcus Bone. Like Saul, once Marcus saw the cover of Dark Conspiracy RPG in 1991 he had to have it. Though Saul liked the theme and the game overall Marcus was a true fan. At first one of three co-creators of Demon Ground, then author of DC supplement "Of Gates and Gods" and even owner of the license to publish Dark Conspiracy itself.
Dark Conspiracy 4th edition was just announced to have a new publisher. And like all DC fans we are hoping to see DC 4th edition in our hands and then on the game table in the near future.
Marcus is a whirlwind of talent and manages several websites of his favorite RPGs. Here are just a few.
https://www.darkconspiracytherpg.info/
http://www.unboundbook.org/
http://www.stormbringerrpg.com/
As always thanks for listening and all we ask is that you share our podcast in your social media networks.
Stay safe everyone.
Music by Daniel777, song All This Darkness
Available at Tribeofnoise.com
Sunday May 03, 2020
Sunday May 03, 2020
In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss "Saying Yes AND..." as GM tool to keep the players engaged in your roleplaying session. Of course Saul has to relate it to the ancient history of his first days of playing D&D and how playing D&D back in the late 70's and early 80's was a different experience than roleplaying games of today. Leaving the Dungeons to playing outside in an open world caused a fundamental difference in the stories that D&D games could tell.
D&D games where the DM was the creator and the players were the players in the DM's world and story changed when players were able to exit the dungeon. Saul relates how it was difficult to leave the scripted linear adventures. Those adventures were ones that were a consequence of playing early adventures of D&D, especially in dungeons.
But players once given free range of the world do not always do what the DM/GM expects and hence the tool of "Yes and..." is a great tool to keep the players engaged in the game. Unfortunately it means more work and more skills have to be learned by the GM.
As always thanks for listening we ask you all to share our podcast on your favorite social media.
Music by Ednaploi, song Say Yes Instrumental.
available at Tribeofmusic.com
Friday Apr 24, 2020
Friday Apr 24, 2020
This this episode we took an off podcast discussion and invited long time friend Mike to come on the microphone and talk about his idea that modern RPGs "coddle" players. And that this "coddling" is not good for the players or the GM that has to treat the modern gamer with kid gloves. Saul and Jolene ask and discuss this idea of being too easy on players. This discussion went a bit longer than our normal session but we think it is worth a listen to.
As always thanks for listening and please share our podcast in your social media circles.
And Stay Safe Everyone!
Music by Lotus, song Easy(It's Too..)
Available from Tribeofnoise.com