Why do GM's, Referees, Keepers, Loremasters of many other people that "run" RPG game do it? This was a question that Saul across online and since Saul GM's quite a bit he asked himself and other fellow GMs why they GM roleplaying games. As you would guess not all people that run RPGs do it for the same reason, though many peoples reason does overlap. Saul asked Jolene why she GMs and after that discussion they decided to record an episode on the subject.

Thank you all for Listening! You can email us at gamingperspective.com@gmail.com

Podcast Art by Jim D. Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones

Music by Edna Poli, song Leaders of Tomorrow Available from Tribeofmusic.com Used under the Creative Commons License 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/usic

A friend of Saul and Jolene ran two TTRPGs back to back on a Friday evening over Zoom using a lite ruleset called There and Back Again, and on Saturday morning The One Ring 2nd Edition RPG. The games did not use the same characters. On Friday the players played a group of Dwarves who set out to enter Moria, against the standing order of King Dain Ironfoot. It was literally a tale of There and Back Again. Saturday the players in an on going campaign are around the area of Tharbad. In the past we encountered a pair of Dwarves and later heard about a group of them passing through the ancient city of Tharbad. So the storylines intertwined but only for a moment. Jolene decided to write a tale that one would hear at a tavern. Her character in The One Ring is a schlar and a bit of a storywriter. From her notes of the game and imagination was born Marigold's Dwarven Tale. Saul edited it and added some sound effects but the story was all Jolene. Thank you all for Listening! You can email us at gamingperspective.com@gmail.com Podcast Art by Jim D. Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones

There was no music for this episode but Saul did use Tabletop Audio, here is the link: https://tabletopaudio.com/about.html Music used under the Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Saul and Jolene were watching Youtube and came across Dungeon Craft whose host had gone to Gen Con in 2025. He was amazed at the size of the convention and the number of TTRPGs sessions that were available for convention attendees to play in. He decided to do some number crunching to figure out what were the top ten TTRPGs by the number of sessions offered. As he went down the list some of them were no surprise and others were. On a late night sometime after watching that video, Saul decided to do the same for an upcoming local convention called DunDraCon. How many TTRPGs were offered and what games had the highest number of games offered of each RPG game is what Saul wanted to figure out. Going through every game offered he wrote down each RPG and if there were offered more than once he noted it with a hash mark. In this episode Saul and Jolene present his totally unofficial findings.

Thank you all for Listening!

You can email us at gamingperspective.com@gmail.com

Podcast Art by Jim D. Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones

Music by Beat Mekanic, song Game Day Available from FreeMusicArchive.com Music used under the Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Saul and Jolene usually do a New Year episode where they pick the RPGs that they are most looking forward to or ones they find interesting. This episode is a top ten of upcoming TTRPGs that Saul thought were pretty interesting. Thank you all for Listening!

You can email us at gamingperspective.com@gmail.com

Podcast Art by Jim D. Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones

Music by Quadrilles, song Gong Hey Fat Choi Available from Tribeofmusic.com Music used under the Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

This topic comes from a Reddit post which asked about what rules should a GM need to know when running a game. And which rules can they leave to look up later at the game table. Saul states that he really dislikes the opening of the rulebook at the table as it distracts players and stops immersion of the game world. Saul and Jolene discuss various games they have played and state their experiences from letting the GM's word be the final arbitrator to people contesting the ruling and looking up the rule in the book at the game table. A lot depends on the GM's preference, the players and the game that they are playing. Some games make it really easy to run like Tales of the Loop while others like Shadowrun 5th Edition are much more difficult. Thank you all for Listening!

You can email us at gamingperspectives.com@gmail.com

Podcast Art by Jim D. Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones

Music available at TribeofMusic.com Music by King Delinquent, song Now You Know Music used under the Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Saul and Jolene were invited to a weekend RPG event hosted by Bay, a very good friend of theirs. One game that both Saul and Jolene were eager to play was Brindlewood Bay. Saul was interested because of the way the “mystery” was “solved” and the use of PBTA rules. Jolene is a fan of mystery both in book and TV format. Jolene watches a lot of mystery shows from old to new, American TV to British style mysteries.

Another good reason both Jolene and Saul wanted to play was that Bay is an excellent GM and has not disappointed either Jolene or Saul in a game that he has run. So Saul was hesitant about the rpg ruleset “working’, Jolene was super eager to play in a real mystery RPG adventure.

Saul and Jolene have mentioned Brindlewood Bay on previous episodes but it was from an opinion of just reading the rules and reading other peoples opinion of it. Now that they have both played the game, they decided it would be a good thing to review the game on an episode.

Thank you for Listening.

You can reach Saul and Jolene gamingperspectives.com@gmail.com

Web Art by Jim D. Foster

Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones.

Music by Tim Dry, song Mysterious World, off the album Happy Accidents

Music used under the Creative Commons License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

When you are playing in a RPG, whether it is online or an in person game, keeping the player engaged in the game can be at times hard. Saul and Jolene over the years have noticed that some people find it hard to pay attention to the game during a session. Things that make people tune out of the game are many, from cell phones, side conversation, kids, significant other, boredom, the list goes on. As a GM what can you do to keep the player engaged at the game table. How much can a GM do? What about the Player? They are the ones that tune out of the game carry the majority of the burden to keeping up with what is going on at the game table. Jolene and Saul discussed what they have seen other GM do and reasons why and what players can do to keep their attention to the table. Saul and Jolene decided to record an episode on Player Engagement. Thank you for listening! Website Art by Jim Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones

Music by Martin Stirrup, song Rules of Engagment, off the album Rules of the Road

Used under the Creative Commons License 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

Reading Reddit posts Saul cam across a post about a problem that they had when they joined a new group with an on going campaign. The Poster was upset at a number of things that happened when he first started playing. They sought help with dealing with their problems since joining. Saul thought about things that could minimize problems like this Original Poster had. He talked to Jolene that had multiple questions about the situation. Though Saul didn't have a lot of information about the original post, Jolene and Saul discussed ways or things that players and GMs could do to make the adding of a new player to a group a smoother transition. Especially when the new player joins an existing campaign.

If you have any questions or subjects you want Saul and Jolene to discuss please email: gamingperspectives.com@gmail.com If you like our podcast please leave a positive review where ever you listen to the podcast. As Always thanks for listening Website Art by Jim Foster Episode Art by Michael Shean-Jones Song by Mack White, song Something New Used under the Creative Commons license 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/