GamingPerspectives

     As a GM would you let a player, play a traitor in your Roleplaying game?  At a Con Game or in a One Shot would you as a GM make a character that is a traitor to be used by a player.   This week Mike asked about installing or using a traitor in your RPG.  He asked if it was a good idea or bad.  Mike also wanted to get our take on using this idea in an adventure or campaign.

      Saul would for the longest time say that was a hard "No!"  Much along the lines of playing an evil character having an embedded traitor in your adventuring party might be a game or group killing endeavor.

     Saul might have had his mind changed after buying and running the Alien RPG by Free League, where one of the types of characters is the "Company Man" who if you have seen Aliens the movie you would know why nobody would trust that character.

     In this Episode Saul and Jolene interview Gabriel Garcia who is writing War Stories a World War Two RPG using the Year Zero system.  Saul came across Gabriel's post about War Stories on Facebook.  Saul has been a fan of supernatural WWII RPGs such as D20s Weird War II, Savage Worlds Weird War, and Saul even used Spycraft 2.0 to run a series of Weird War II adventures for his home group.  

     Seeing what he liked in War Stories playtest PDF he decided to ask Gabriel to do an interview and see who was this creator from Miami.  Turns out that this is not Gabriel's first foray in writing gaming material.  

    Listen and Saul and Jolene grill Gabriel Garcia about his gaming roots, his RPG street cred and why Year Zero engine for a World War Two RPG.

       Thanks for listening.  All we ask is that you share our podcast with family and friends.

      As more and more people get vaccinated and the Pandemic is starting fade, the thing all gamers have been craving is In Person Gaming.  Saul and Jolene discuss moving some of their online games back to In Person gaming.   Saul and Jolene talk about what they like about gaming in person compared to online.  

     Saul ponders if there are some elements from online gaming that will continue when game go away from the virtual table and back to the dinner table. 

     What do gamers miss most from in person games?  What everybody else misses.  The list is long.  From food, to miniatures and terrain, to maps and mats, all of these are what people miss from roleplaying in person.  

    Thank you all for listening and please share our podcast with friends and family.

   Music by The Prisoner Reformed, song Going Back to Texas, off the album The Prisoner Reformed.

    Available from Tribeofnoise.com

     A question from the internet is this week's topic for the latest episode.  How do you restart or come back to a campaign that has been on an extended break?  Saul and Jolene discuss two ways to get back to your campaign in this episode.

    The first one is the easier one, and that is just start exactly where you left off.  This seems like the best and easiest way to restart or come back to a campaign.  There are some things you can do to make this a smoother transition in getting back to the action.  Saul and Jolene discuss before taking the long break is to take good notes.   Saul and Jolene also discuss recording your sessions.  This is very easy now as most games are online but as you transition to in person games, it requires a bit more work.

    The other and possibly more fun option according to Saul is letting a bit of time to pass in the game world and then ask the players where and what their characters have been up to during the break.  Saul suggest a passage of 6 to a year of game time passing giving the characters plenty of time to travel and accomplish some important tasks.

    Thank you all for listening.  All we ask is that you share our podcast. 

    Music by Rain of Kings,  song Where Were You?

    Available from Tribeofnoise.com 

    In this bonus episode Saul and Jolene interview Paul Mitchener creator of Liminal an urban fantasy rpg based in England and it's folklore.  Liminal was successfully Kickstarted by funding 6 times it goal.  Liminal uses a very creative 2d6 system in which you can create a wide variety of character in little time.  Recently Paul Kickstartered Out of the Ashes a fantasy post apocalyptic rpg.  Out of the Ashes will use a similar dice mechanic but instead of 2d6 it is a 2d10 system.  

     Saul and Jolene ask about his geek history, and Paul has plenty of geek cred and he is a Professor of Mathematics at Sheffield University.   

      Saul and Jolene really like the bonus interviews as we see that though we may come from varied backgrounds and countries we all share something by being RPG gamers.

   Here is the link to the Liminal KS page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/9257403/liminal-rpg?ref=discovery&term=Liminal%20rpg

    Here is the link to the Out of Ashes KS Page:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/9257403/out-of-the-ashes-2/posts/3170073

    Please consider donating to the following charity mentioned in a previous episode.

    The Charity is called the RPG Creators Relief Fund.  Please give if you can.  

     http://www.rcrfcharity.org/

     As always thanks for listening.  All we ask is that you share our podcast.

     In this episode Saul and Jolene what makes a good RPG.  For Saul it comes down to two things, Setting and Rules make a game good.  

     Saul and Jolene use recent and older games they have played to discuss this topic.  Saul starts with 4 game setting he really likes but seem to fall short in the rules department.

     Games mentioned in his podcast are Cyberpunk, Dark Conspiracy, Space Opera, Shadowrun, Liminal and Victoriana.

   Thank you all for listening.  All we ask is that you share our pocast.

  Music by RBG8, song Mind Games.

  Available from Tribeofnoise.com

     The Middle of the Campaign is the most meaty and the where most of the game happens.  Most GMs come up with great beginnings with an eye to the end but most of the game takes place in this nebulous part of the campaign, I am calling the middle.  So how do you plan for this part of the campaign?  

     Saul and Jolene discuss how to plan for the middle of the campaign.  Discussing different types of game setting, types of rpgs, the amount of player agency and how it will affect the planning of your middle campaign.

    Also we had a request to mention a charity from a fellow RPG player.  

    The Charity is called the RPG Creators Relief Fund.  Please give if you can.  

     http://www.rcrfcharity.org/

    As always thanks for listening.   

  Music by Off Ramp, song The Middle, off the album Dark Matter.

   Available from Tribeofnoise.com

    Saul and Jolene continue their conversation about comparing old rpgs versus new rpgs in which they only got as far as the 1980's.  So in this, second part which Saul changes the name of the episode to "Evolution of RPGs" they discuss how RPGs changed in the 1990s, the 2000's and in the last 10 years.

    As always we would like to thank you all for listening and please share our podcast.

    Today we have a bonus episode, an interview of Stephen Turner of Britannia Game Design the creators of Chivalry and Sorcery 5th edition.   C&S has a long history, first published in 1977 by Fantasy Games Unlimited.  In this interview we discover Stephen's gamer roots and then learn of how he became to be the publisher if this historic RPG and plans for the future of Britannia Game Design.

     As always thank you all for listening.

    Chivalry and Sorcery have a "Bundle of Holding" that benefits the Honey Pot Children's Charity.

   Here is the link to the C&S Bundle:  https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Chivalry

  Here is the link to the Charity itself and the amazing work they do:

https://www.honeypot.org.uk/what-we-do