GamingPerspectives

Episode 258: Urban Campaigns, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

     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 discussed where and why cites sprouted in certain areas.  Also how cites are constructed when planned or not, how they are populated and groups that form inside a city.    Saul and Jolene also discuss that most RPG campaign  of different genres usually take place in urban settings.  They discuss the various games they played and play where the primary location is the big city.    Thank you all for listening    Web Art by Jim Foster    Episode Art by Micheal Shean-Jones
     The two Waterdeep books that Saul was trying to remember were Dungeon of the Mad Mage and Dragon Heist.        Music by Edna Poli, song Life in a Big City   Available from Tribeofnoise.com    Used under that Creative Commons License 4.0
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Episode 257: Running Horror RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

      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 now has quite a few what one would term Horror genre RPGs.       So how to you run an horror rpg and make it scary.  Jolene and Saul talked about the few horror rpgs that they have played in and the ones that were a bit scary had some similarities.   Talking about those games that were scary Saul and Jolene decided to do an episode about horror games and how to make them scary.    *The End of the World Series of RPG Books that Saul mentions was published by Fantasy Flight Games       Thank You All for Listening.      Web Art by Jim Foster       Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
    Music by Tim Kulig,  song Horror House.   Available from Tribeofnoise.com    Used under the Creative License 4.0     
 

Episode 256: The Player Director, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

      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 how they played, and for Saul is was not fun at all.      So years later Saul and Jolene have experienced this phenomena at various tables at various times.  Saul and Jolene discuss this topic and give tips on how to deal with fellow players that want to do this in their games.  So if you have a director at your RPG table or find one in the wilds of some random RPG table, listen and see how to best deal with those situations.     Thank you all for Listening      Web Art by Jim Foster     Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
    Music by Trevor Horton, song Direction, off the album Heaven and Earth    Available from Tribeofnoise.com    Used under the Creative Commons license 4.0    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.en
 

Episode 255: Why Some RPGs Successful and Others Not, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

     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 topic and she went to the internet and found various reasons why Dragon Bane was seemingly more popular than Low Fantasy Gaming.    Thank You All for Listening.
     Web Art by Jim Foster     Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones      Music by Keith Heirmericks, song Popularity.    Available from Tribeofnoise.com    Used under the Creative Commons License 3.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode.en

Episode 254: Making Players Learn the Rules, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

 
          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 curiosious about some of the games in Saul's extensive RPG library.      In both groups the playes learned the game to various degrees of expertise.  Saul and Jolene were talking about how, you as a GM, you can make players learn the rules.  Looking at the various degrees of success in Saul's gaming experience, Jolene decided it would make a good subject for an episode.    Thank you All for listening.
    Web Art by Jim Foster    Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
    Music by Music Matters, song Learn to Play    Available from Tribeofnoise.com    Used under the Creative Commons License 4.0     https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.en

Episode 253: The Long and Short Rest, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

    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 thoughts about the Long and Short rest.        In short, Saul realized and not right away that he didsn't D&D's 5th edtion rules on the Long and Short rest.  Listen to Saul's reasons and Jolene's thoughts on the subject.  Will the next version of D&D have Long and Short rests??  Saul doesn't think so.     Thank you all for listening.  We really appreciate all those that download and listen to our little podcast.    Web Art by Jim Foster    Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones     Music by Max Miecchi, song Restless, off the album New Day    Available from Tribeofnoise.com    Used under the Creative Commons License 3.0

Episode 252:Omitting Rules in Rpgs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

    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", rules get ignored.     Saul and Jolene had a conversation of some rules that are ignored at their RPG table.  Rules from D&D 5 Edition to Shadowrun rules just get changed for many reasons.  Saul and Jolene discuss those rules and the reasons those rules are often ignored or changed.    Thanks for Listening    Web Art by Jim Foster    Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones      music by Kathleen Martin, song Rules of Engagement off the album Rules of Engagement.   Available from Freemusicarchive.com   Used using the Creative Commons License 3.0    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/legalcode

Episode 251: Funny RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

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 played a wide assortment of games that are intended to be funny and some by their very nature bring out the laughter.  Saul and Jolene discuss their favorite RPGs when they want a session of laughter and fun.   Web Art by Jim Foster    Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
   Music by Static in Verona, song Funny Things, from the album Secret Like Shadows.    Available from Tribeofnoise.com    Used under the Creative Commons License 4.0       https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode
 

Episode 250: Strange Character Requests, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

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 Reddit about a player that wanted to play a 5 year of Tiefling.  Saul remembered a story about a player that wanted to play a very old bar owner.     What should you consider when a player asks to play a very unusual character.  One that as a GM believe might break your game or world or not fit in to the group's idea of a good character.   
 Thank you all for listening  
   Web Art by Jim Foster    Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
    Music by Al Stone, song Strange, off the album I Want It All  Available from Tribeofnoise.com  Used under Creative Commons Licene 3.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode

Episode 249: Most Popular Character Type, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene

     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 class in most games no matter the genre is a sorcerer or wizard.  Yet fighters are the most played character type according to 2020 D&D Beyond data that was published.      For many reasons the Fighter in any genre seems to hold a lot of appeal.  The D&D, to Feng Shui, to Shadowrun the down and dirty fighter types are the character type of choice for many RPGers.  Saul and Jolene discuss why this might be in this week's episode.   Thank you all for listening.
   Web Art by Jim Foster   Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones
   Music by Temple Velocity, song I Will Fight For You, off the album Murder of Crows   Available from Tribeofnoise.com   Used under the Creative License 3.0   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode   
    cited article https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/07/dd-and-the-most-popular-class-is.html