Saul and Jolene were talking about how people "backtrack" or take their turn over in boardgames, they take their turn and then change their minds and redo their turn. Saul and Jolene discused how it seems like a bad idea. This act of "backtracking" can frustrate other players but what about in an RPGs? The idea of backtracking an action or a scene …

In this Episode Saul and Jolene answer a question proposed by listener Mike. He asked about maps. How much detail do you share with players when you give them a map. Saul and Jolene thought it was a good question to make an episode. Along with maps, Saul thought about how much general information do you share with players. Saul asked how much shoul…

What are things that influence what your play style in RPGs. Saul and Jolene discuss a couple of things that might influence the way you play your character. Saul admits that for about 20 years, Saul played variations of his own personality and not really trying to Role play an aspect of himself. As usual Saul strays from the subject by talking abo…

Someone asked about World Building, and if there was any advice, books, or manuals on how to do it. Saul looked at his vast amounts of PDFs and found a couple of books on World Building, and Saul even found he had some physical books on the subject. Jolene not a fan of World Building, she finds it odd that people would spend the time on world build…

Saul and Jolene were discussing how would a GM Desiminate Information about their RPG Setting. Especially when the lore is vast and deep. Saul and Jolene came up with various methods and things to consider what a GM can do to make the "Info Dump" not only be easier but actually work. Saul used Bethorm rules written by Jeff Dee, for running his Sakb…

Recently Saul and Jolene were at a local Gaming Convention and at a RPG game and when the group broke for a quick dinner break, one player never came back. This has happened at gaming conventions and even in home game groups. What can a GM do to mitigate the affects of the missing player. Though usually more problematic at a Convention or in a One-…

Saul and Jolene were at a Con recently and there a few people stated that there needed to be more rpg games and therefore the idea of needing more GMs came about. There was even a discussion on Facebook about what gamers could do to get more people to gm at conventions. With that discussion in mind Saul and Jolene decided to record an episode of wh…

This is one of our Bonus Episodes an interview of Lester Smith the author of one of Saul's favorite RPGs, Dark Conspiracy. Lester Smith has worked for many famous game companies. From small companies like Flying Buffalo to TSR. Lester was gracious to talk to us and share some of his story. From his gaming roots, to finding RPGs to being hired to wo…

A husband asked a question about a good Modern RPG that he could run for his wife. She was not interested in anything related to Fantasy or the Science Fiction genre. Not interested in any fantastical or supernatural elements in a modern setting. When Jolene asked about this situation he immediately went to his bookcase and his Drivethrurpg Library…

Dungeons and Dragons turns 50 this year. Saul and Jolene discuss what they feel has been some of the most important changes to D&D from it's publication and how it has impacted their lives. Thanks for Listening. Web Art by Jim Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones *editorial note: Saul states that the first hardback AD&D book bought was the Mon…

Saul was given a Dragonbane Box Set in July and though he looked at it he did not delve too deeply into the rules. Fast forward to the middle of January 2024 and Saul's brother decided to run a Dragonbane game for their regular Friday Knights Night. Jolene also plays with the Friday Knights group and after a couple of game session of Dragonbane Sau…

Familiars and Animal Companions in RPGs. This was a topic that Saul came up with and starting to talk to Jolene about her thoughts on the use of both in RPGs. The first RPG discussed was of course D&D from AD&D to 5th Edition but others were discussed and how different genres could have different iterations of a Familiar or Animal Companion. Saul a…

Aging in RPGs. Some games have rules about them, some games ingnore age of the characters and other games, age is an intrical part of the game. Saul and Jolene talk about age in RPGs from the very young and the very old. How and what effects are there due to age seem reasonable and how do different RPGs handle age in their games. Thanks for listeni…

Reading from the Reddit post about RPGs, Saul came across a post by a first time GM who was looking for advice on his ideas that he has for a brand new campaign. The new GM wanted to embed a powerful NPC with the party that would grow in power as the party grew in power. There was quite a few responses and Saul talked about the post with Jolene. Th…

In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss the use of Side Quests in a tabletop RPG. Should you add Side Quests to your rpg campaign? What are Side Quests? What different types of Side Quests are there? Are there any problems with using Side Quests? Happy New Year to all of you. Thanks for listening. Web Art by Jim Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-…

Most GM that have been in the hobby for a while will have one, two or a few RPG games that have never hit the table. Saul is no exception to this problem. Though Saul might have quite a few more RPGs on his bookshelves than most but then again he has been playing RPGs since 1978. Still whether it's a couple games of half you collection of RPGs that…

This Episode Saul and Jolene discuss some RPGs that are making their was to being published in 2024. Saul threw in a couple that have just been published in the last months of 2023. These are games that have piqued the interest of Saul and Jolene. Podcast Error: the first RPG discussed by Saul he stated was called the Lost Isle but it is called the…

A bit different in this episode Saul and Jolene talk about Miniature Wargames. Miniature Games come in all genres, from large armies to single miniatures on a table. Some have large books for rules others don't. Jolene was asking about miniature games that were not Warhammer 40K and easy to play. Saul has played more miniature games than Jolene but…

Saul saw a post on Reddit about a GM who had problems Roleplaying Dialogue with the PC when they were talking for the NPCs. The GM also wanted the players to do more RP in their sessions. Saul realized this was a big problem for a GM that wants more RP from his players but was really intimidated by NPC dialogue. There were quite a few help hints in…

In this Bonus Episode we interview Panny and Aled of Leyline Press who just very recently fullfilled their Kickstarter for Salvage Union a post apocalyptic mech game. I came across their rather large "Quickstart" rules a while ago and was impressed with the scope of their free quickstart PDF and how well their RPG was presented. I remembered dealin…

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 …

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…

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 thinkin…

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 Geog…

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 lat…

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&…

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 com…

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…

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 notebo…

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 R…

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…

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 p…

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…

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 an…

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 quest…

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 d…

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 hav…

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…

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…

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.…

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 c…

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 no…

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 adventur…

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 …

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…

Jolene has always liked Gnomes( She pronounces gnome with a hard G) and when we were thinking of a new episode we thought about the last couple of episodes dealing with Elves and Dwarves. We agreed that Gnomes was a good topic to continue our discussion of playing other character races other than humans. Gnomes for Saul had been one of those groups…

Saul was persuing the internet looking at Steam Punk RPGs and stumbled across Carbon Grey a Diesel Punk RPG by Magnetic Press. It uses a slightly tweaked version of the Classic Star Wars D6 system. Its quick and easy to understand and play. That Star Wars D6 system has always been liked for its playablity and fun. Carbon Grey is set in a alternate …

We got a text asking about the different version of OSR RPGs so Saul and Jolene read through some of the OSR games that Saul has collected in printed and PDF format. Jolene also looked at various blogs and Youtube vidoes for some of the more popular OSR games that Saul did not have in his library. From Original D&D to 2nd edition there are several …

In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss using your good skills while running RPGs. All GMs have skills and talents. Saul and Jolene agree that when GMs do this they make better games for their players. Along with strengths, GMs have weaknesses, we all do. Saul and Jolene also believe that we as GMs learn and progress with every game we play and run…

Dwarves in RPGs, Saul and Jolene discussed Elves in a previous episode and they could not ignore the other popular RPG race, Dwarves. Saul again harkens to Tolkien origins but doesn't believe that Tolkien was as much a fan of his Dwarves than his Elves. Jolene found quite a bit of articles and posts about how people liked or disliked playing Dwarve…