Making your RPGs Flow Better is the result of a question posed on Facebook. Saul and Jolene talked discussed it and decided to do an episode on it. What can make your game run better at the table. Make your game run smoother and faster. Saul and Jolene talk about things the GM can do the accomplish a smoother and faster running game session. As always, thank you all for listening. Music by T. M. Purple, song Flow, off the album When the Music Fades. Available from Tribeofnoise.com...
Mar 04, 2022•36 min•Ep. 231
We took the family to Dundracon's new home now in Santa Clara California. It was a great gaming convention. We took some new equipment and it worked really good. The Zoom Podtrak P8 limiter really quieted down the background noise. Problem we only have 3 microphones so two of us "shared" a microphone which really didn't work. We would like to talk DDC staff for giving us the space to record, Felipe and Kevin for taking time from their convention time to talk to us. Here is a link to the Alamo Ci...
Feb 24, 2022•39 min•Ep. 230
Hey there listeners, today Saul and Jolene talk about Alignment in RPGs. Saul thinks they are a thing of the past and the one RPG that made them famous, Dungeons and Dragons, will be getting rid of them in their 6th edition. Saul and Jolene discuss, what are alignments, what is their purpose, did players ever use them, are alignments used by today's players? These and many more questions are asked and discussed. Also are there any other game systems that have something akin to alignments? Saul o...
Feb 23, 2022•40 min•Ep. 229
What do you do when your Dice Go Bad. What can you do when a player is getting really frustrated with their dice when they go through a spat of bad luck. Saul and Jolene were talking about dice and how in a recent game of Feng Shui one of the players was rolling bad through a whole encounter. Though Steve the Player took it in stride, he is pretty laid back and loves playing RPGs, but what if a player is really having a bad time. Saul and Jolene took notes of their conversation and decided to do...
Feb 10, 2022•34 min•Ep. 228
The Balanced Party, quite a few TTRPG players want to have one before they set off on their adventures. Many Players feel that certain roles have to be covered in order to successfully adventure. Saul and Jolene discuss why this idea exists and if you really do need or want a "balanced party". Thank you all for listening Music by Fast Astronaut, song Balance, off the album Invisible Sun. Available from Tribeofnoise.com...
Feb 04, 2022•32 min•Ep. 227
Saul was reading some reddit posts and a user had a question about "good Modern RPG games." Saul decided it would make an interesting episode for this podcast. Saul asked Jolene and she had some very good questions about what the user meant by "Modern". Jolene asked if it meant the 1920's or the 2020's . She also asked if the user wanted to play a spy game, investigative, or survival game or any of other genres that could fall under the umbrella of a "Modern" game. Thank you all for listening. M...
Jan 26, 2022•33 min•Ep. 226
Happy New Year, yes we are well into it already. Saul decided to share games that will be published in 2022 that he is looking forward to or are too bid to ignore. Thanks for listening.
Jan 19, 2022•33 min•Ep. 225
In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss what Homebrews and House Rules are in RPGs. Saul defines each one and gives examples of each. They are different creatures though most people might think they are the same thing. As always thanks for listening. Music by Nathan Brumley, song Slow Brew available from Tribeofnoise.com
Jan 10, 2022•30 min•Ep. 224
In running games that have combat one of the most difficult things as a GM to work out is how hard to make an encounter. This is usually called balancing an encounter. In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss the idea of the Action Economy in RPGs, and how much it can impact your combat encounters. Happy New Year and Thanks for listening. Music by The Legend of Wolf, song Fragments of Time, off the album Rapid Fragments. Available from Tribeofnoise.com...
Jan 02, 2022•35 min•Ep. 223
This is a Spoiler Free Episode. Full disclosure Saul and Jolene are have been fans of the Wheel of Time Books since the mid 1990's, and they both love the TV show. With that out of the way this episode discusses the old WOTC Wheel of Time RPG and what other systems you can use to run a Wheel of Time game. Also Saul was a bit off on his estimation of the cost of the Wheel of Time RPG which is out of print. A few months ago people were asking about $150 tops. Now the lowest asking price is $140 bu...
Dec 22, 2021•40 min•Ep. 222
Its the Holiday Season and Saul and Jolene discuss games that would make great gifts for your RPG Gamer. It's not a definitive list, obviously but it should give you a few quick ideas as Christmas Day approaches. Thanks for listening, Music by Darija, song Christmas Story Available from Tribeofnoise.com
Dec 15, 2021•49 min•Ep. 221
In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss TPKs. Saul has very little experience with TPKs and had for many years seen it as negative. A sign of a terrible GM, or Players not playing very intelligently. Years later with one whole TPK under his belt his attitude toward TPKs has changed. Jolene is not totally convinced that TPKs can be a good resolution to a campaign or a game. Thanks for Listening. Music by Hansen Chat, song Party Crasher. Available from Tribeofnoise.com...
Dec 08, 2021•35 min•Ep. 220
Saul has been noticing quite a few Kickstarters and new editions of old RPGs. Some of them really old such as Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls and Twilight 2000. In fact the Twilight 2000 4th edition by Free League funded extremely well. In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss what could be driving the reprinting and the new editions of some very old games and why are they doing so well? Thanks for Listening. Music by Sonic Mystery, song Nostalgia...
Dec 01, 2021•34 min•Ep. 219
At one point as a RPG players your going to get into a situation where you may not be playing in a game that isn't your favorite. Whether the RPG game Shuffler at the Game Con did you wrong or your GM really wants to run a game that isn't exactly the type of game you really like you need to decide to play or make the best of it. In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss games where the ones they participated in were not high on their list of the type of game they usually preferred. From your frien...
Nov 23, 2021•33 min•Ep. 218
Saul and Jolene wondered about multiple GMs running a campaign together. Not at the same time but alternating GM between adventures or story arcs. When Jolene searched on the subject most of the hits were about GMs running the game together. Saul has had a few experiences with co-gming one successful another not so much. For the most part Saul and Jolene think Co-GMing could be a good thing if you do work before the games begin. Music by Izzy Iz Zuddin, song Friend or Foes, from the album Noctur...
Nov 18, 2021•37 min•Ep. 217
A while back Saul Kickstarted Flames of Freedom rpg. Over the Labor Day Weekend Saul and Jolene returned from the first Game Con in over a year and a half and the Flames of Freedom greeted them when they got home. Saul and Jolene discuss the Flames of Freedom RPG in this episode. Thanks for Listening and Please share our podcast with Family and Friends. Song by Silva Breeze, song Freedom Song Available from Tribeofnoise.com
Nov 10, 2021•38 min•Ep. 216
This topic comes from Jolene reading RPG forum and Redit posts. Jolene asked Saul if there were any published RPGs and Saul actually had one RPG in his collection and almost Kickstarted two prehistoric RPGs. They talked about the subject and decided to do an episode on this very interesting RPG topic. The three games discussed are Paleo Mythic by Osprey Publishing, Wurm from Choasium and Cavemaster by Jeff Dee. Saul found a D&D 5th Edition setting book called Planegea on Kickstarter that is ...
Nov 02, 2021•36 min•Ep. 215
The Halloween episode, where Saul and Jolene talk about running Halloween Themed Rpg games. Saul talks about obvious Halloween themes such as Horror and Mystery games that would fit in perfectly with the holiday motif. Saul discusses well known games such as Call of Cthulhu to lesser known games such as Dark Conspiracy and Stalking the Night Fantastic. Jolene points out to Saul other game RPG games would be a good fit. Liminal, Alien and WWII RPGs would be good fits with Halloween themed games M...
Oct 27, 2021•31 min•Ep. 214
Saul and Jolene discuss playing to your GMing Strengths. If your good at art, lean into your art skills and bring that talent to the game table. If your good at making funny voices use that skill at your gaming table. Saul and Jolene discuss these and other skills that can make your GMing at the game table a better experience. Saul of course goes way off course a couple of times and so you have a bit of longer episode. Saul mentions two books which he could not remember the titles of during the ...
Oct 18, 2021•41 min•Ep. 213
A few episodes ago Saul made a comment about 5th Edition D&D. The gist of the comment was that a ruleset not intended as a generic RPG be used as a generic RPG. This was aimed specifically at D&D 5th edition due to one the popularity of the RPG and because of that popularity it has spawned many different RPGs using that ruleset. This was due to the number of RPG PDFs that Saul had bought and was not impressed with the use of D&D 5th edition rules OGL. That was a while ago and since t...
Oct 12, 2021•30 min•Ep. 212
A listener posed a question to Saul and Jolene, does there need to be a Villain in your RPG adventure or campaign. Saul's first thought that sure you can and Jolene wasn't so sure. Saul came up with three different instances where you may not need a Villain pulling all the strings trying to thwart the player characters. Listen to that discussion between Saul and Jolene, though even after what Saul said she didn't seem that convinced. Thank you all for listening and all we ask is that you share o...
Oct 04, 2021•31 min•Ep. 211
The One Ring RPG is one of Saul's favorite RPGs. Saul liked The One Ring so much, he bought extra copies of the rules to give them out to various members of his RPG group. Two failed One Ring RPG starts he finally found a group that was enthusiastic about playing in the One Ring. He even found of couple would be Lore Masters to run some games. The One Ring 2nd Edition was Kickstarted and is close to go to printing and then to distribution to those that pledged. Early PDF's were sent out to those...
Sep 28, 2021•43 min•Ep. 210
In this Episode Saul and Jolene talk about "Game Balance" in RPGs. But there was a failure of a "meeting of the minds" between Saul and Jolene. Saul was thinking of balance in encounters were Jolene was talking about rules balance. As always thanks for listening and please share our podcast with family and friends. Music by Brentin Davis, song On Balance. Available from Tribeofnoise.com
Sep 20, 2021•36 min•Ep. 209
Though we all love an RPG we know the basic rules, which eliminates a hurdle that we gamers have to jump when playing RPGs. There are times that a set of RPG rules fits the setting so well there is no way a generic system could come close to emulating the genre. Saul and Jolene discuss this idea and give examples of game rules that match the genre so well it is hard to contemplate any other ruleset being used. Though Saul could have gone on for hours, Jolene thankfully stops him from going on to...
Sep 11, 2021•30 min•Ep. 208
Money and Wealth in RPGs is handled a multitude of ways from the beginning of RPGs when you just threw gold pieces at the player's characters in the 70's and 80's. Though many games still employ some sort of monetary system some newer games have decided against and accounting style monetary system where you keep a running tally of wealth. Saul and Jolene discuss monetary systems from D&D, Traveller, Shadowrun, Liminal, GURPs, SpyCraft, Space Opera and others. As always, thank you all for lis...
Sep 03, 2021•42 min•Ep. 207
Saul and Jolene on a previous episode discussed making combat encounters more fun, so Saul thought they should discuss encounters that do not center on combat. Non-Combat encounters, even in games like D&D where there is a heavy emphasis on combat. Even in D&D having encounters that do not deal combat or fighting are possible and fun. Saul and Jolene also talk about how adding non combat encounters might make certain players have a bit more fun especially if they didn't make combat cente...
Aug 29, 2021•33 min•Ep. 206
In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about making combat encounters and scenes more fun and interesting. In certain games combat can be a long complicated process and could become dull and mundane. No GM wants to run boring combat encounters. Saul and Jolene discuss things that everyone can do to make sure their next combat scenes or encounters don't become boring. As always thanks for listening and please share our podcast. Music by Film Scorer8, song Prepare for Combat. Available from Tribeofn...
Aug 22, 2021•36 min•Ep. 205
Jolene was watching Youtube videos and a discussion about Plot Armor got her attention. Jolene asked Saul about it and the result is this episode. What is "Plot Armor", hint it is a real thing outside of RPGs? How is it used in RPGs. Saul and Jolene discuss "plot armor" in RPGs. As usual Saul's stance is sort of set in stone while Jolene's tac is a bit more reasonable. A listener posted a comment on a podcatcher that Jolene was looking at and they had a fine idea about the naming of the episodes...
Aug 15, 2021•35 min•Ep. 204
In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss if the GM is a Player in the game that the GM is running. Saul believes that the GM certainly is while Jolene completely disagrees. The two hosts go back and forth and neither is able to convince, totally, the other's perspective. We have decided to change how we name the episodes. Because the title of our podcast is very long many times the title of the episode is not seen on various podcatcher APs. So we decided to put the name of the episode first then ...
Aug 07, 2021•30 min•Ep. 203
Saul and Jolene went on a family vacation and Saul was unable to edit last weeks episode on time. To make up for that Saul decided to talk about his Favorite RPG of all time or as he stated "one of the Top 3 RPGs" on his favorites list. If you listen to this podcast with any regularity Saul brings up Space Opera RPG from Fantasy Games Unlimited as Jolene's says, "ALL THE TIME". So Saul decided to spend as much time as Jolene would allow for Saul to "review" Space Opera. Thanks for listening Musi...
Jul 25, 2021•47 min•Ep. 202
