GamingPerspectives

      Saul and Jolene went to a couple conventions in late August and Early September.  In late August they went to Galaxycon in San Jose.  It takes place in downtown San Jose at the McEnery Center.  It is the largest convention center in the South Bay.  Saul was really impressed with all the guest speaker, panels, activities that were available at Galaxycon.  This was Jolenes and Sauls first time attending a Galaxycon.  Both came away impressed with the con and it was a very fun experience for the both of them.

Website Art by Jim Foster

   No music for this episode.  

A listener, Phil, asked about how easy would it be for a video gamer to become a TTRPG gamer. At first glance it would be a no brainer that those that played video game on a conole or PC would move to playing TTRPGs.  Saul and Jolene talked about some of those differences and what similarities that video games have to TTPRGs.  

Website Art by Jim Foster

Music by MINDJAMM3R, song Change

    Many times there seems a point in an RPG when the players should either not fight an encounter.   Why do players not consider the tactic of running away.  Saul and Jolene discussed this topic.  Saul admitted that he ran a lot of D&D and Pathfinder and the rules are set up for the GM to match the encounter to the level of the players.  This comes from the rules to published adventures and modules that are tailored to a specific number of PCs and certain levels.

Website Art by Jim Foster

Music by Trevor Horton,  song Runaway,  Off the album Heaven and Earth

     Saul was reading and thinking about long campaigns and what it took to keep them going for extended period of time.  Saul ran two D&D to Pathfinder Campaigns from 2001 to 2009.  Then he started running campaigns for his 6 year old son and his friends.  Saul ran another 2 campaigns starting with Pathfinder to D&D 5th edition which concluded right before the pandemic.  What kept these 4 different campaigns going for an average of 4 and a half years each?  

Website Art by Jim Foster

         Jolene was reading about a GM who was running D&D 5th edition had players trying to do combat actions before the GM had called for Initiative.  She asked Saul about this and asked if it happened in his D&D or any other RPGs he had GMed.  After a brief discussion they decided to do an episode on this subject.

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     Saul was looking at Reddit posts and came across a GM that was lamenting that his players had not learned their characters abilities after 10 sessions of D&D 5th edition.   The GM didn't go into too much detail, for example age of players, experience of players, etc.  Saul noticed the large number of negative reaction to the players but those offered no real help abou this GM's plight.  

Website Art by Jim Foster

 Music by Ed Napoli, song Learn to Live

 Used under the Creative Commons License 4.0

     Jolene was looking at the different types of games she has played in.  Though she likes tactical combat games.  She loves Shadowrun 5th edition and D&D for example, she also likes mysteries, dramas, and crime solving.  So she asked Saul about what games do not concentrate on combat but other types of settings. 

 Used under the Creative Commons License 4.0

     Jolene was looking for some interesting topics to talk about and came across an article discussing Rotating GMs.  She looked for more articles and there were quite a few articles and discussion on how to do this type of roleplaying.

       Jolene was reading online and came across an article that talked about things that GMs say that players should pay attention to.  She told Saul and this and Saul thought about some things he says that conveys more than intended.  Sometimes these comments from GMs are questions, in fact most of them are and it is at this time that players should really be paying attention to what is happening at the game table.     

    Music by Seven Story Fall, song Say It,  off the album Stories and Analogies

     Jolene was looking online at RPG topics and came across a confession by a new GM.  This novice GM was running their first campaign which they had been running with new players for nine months.  There was a point in the game were a character would have been killed but the GM pulled their punch.  The character did not suffer a death.  Even though there had been a Session Zero where the GM had discussed that Death of Characters was indeed possible.  

    Thank you all for Listening

    Music by Smack Rabbit, song Killer Part-Time