Author: Mike Perna

Episode 28 – Playing the Bad Guy

  By ,

It’s fundraiser time! We’re raising money this year for The Bodhana Group as part of the 2013 RPG Podcasters Charity Drive!

In this episode, Grant, Peter, and Branden plug a couple of things, including Atomacon, before getting down to the main topic: Playing evil characters in roleplaying games. We look at the topic from both the players’ and the GM’s perspectives, examining why you want to or need to be able to play evil characters and how to do so effectively without ruining play or giving in to that character’s evil yourself.

Scripture: Isaiah 1:18-20, Romans 3:10-12,

Continue reading

Episode 27 – Episodic Structure and Pacing (Science of Storytelling, Part 2)

  By ,

Branden, Mike, Peter, and Grant pick up our “Science of Storytelling” series with a discussion of episodic storytelling structure and pacing! Branden walks us through the structure and guides the discussion; and as usual, we come up with examples along the way. See the full show notes for Branden’s suggested outline.

Scripture: Genesis 1:14-18, Matthew 28:19-20

—-more—-

Branden’s suggested episodic structure outline:

  1. I see a problem
  2. and decide to do something
  3. that helps the situation
  4. but something else happens related to one of my actions
  5. and I must deal with that
  6. so […]

Continue reading

Episode 25 – Therapeutic Roleplaying (with Jack Berkenstock)

  By ,

It’s our distinct pleasure to welcome Jack Berkenstock of The Bodhana Group as a guest host for this episode! We give Jack plenty of time to talk about his group and their mission to help young victims and perpetrators of sexual trauma—a mission they’re carrying out with tabletop roleplaying games as a crucial therapeutic tool. We also discuss the science and goals of therapeutic roleplaying and trauma therapy in general. Plus, we do our best to plug Save Against Fear, a three-day convention in Lancaster, PA from Oct. 11th-13th hosted by and fundraising for The Bodhana Group. A big list of everything Jack mentioned is below the fold, too.

We don’t usually ask this, but please share this episode around. We want to get the word out about Save Against Fear in time for […]

Continue reading

Episode 24 – Wrath (Virtues & Vices, Part 7)

  By ,
We welcome Mike, occasionally known as Mindtakerr on the Internet, as a new host! Then we talk about wrath – when anger is (and isn’t) a mortal sin, and how it can manifest in people. Then we talk about how incredibly common wrath is in all forms of entertainment, including roleplaying games; and we wrap up with a discussion about handling anger and wrath in your group of players.
Things we said we’d link to in the show notes: 

Continue reading

Episode 23 – Narrative Structure (Science of Storytelling, Part 1)

  By ,

Two major announcements: This is the first episode in our new “Science of Storytelling” series; and Save Against Fear, a remarkable gaming convention and fundraiser for sexually traumatized kids, is the weekend of October 11th-13th. You’re going to be hearing much more about Save Against Fear in the future!

In this episode, Grant, Peter, and Branden (but mostly Branden) explain the continuous plot structure used in almost all movie scripts. (See our full show notes for a copy of that outline!) Then, Branden walks us through creating an actual plot for a game using the outline he laid out in the first half of the episode.

Scripture for this episode: Psa […]

Continue reading

Episode 22 – Morals in Stories

  By ,

Back when we recorded this episode, Saving the Game had just turned one year old! That’s pretty awesome! A big thanks to all of our listeners, old and new.

In this episode, Grant, Peter, and Branden discuss morality in storytelling: How to effectively tell stories with moral lessons without pontificating, without insulting the other players at the table, and without taking away player agency. Peter also references an episode of Extra Credits, “Beyond Fun” (S5E8).

Scripture for this episode: Micah 6:8, 

Continue reading

Welcome to the new Saving the Game site!

  By ,

Saving the Game has switched to Podbean for our web hosting—they’re specifically designed for podcasts and as such, require much less maintenance. Unfortunately, that also means we have a bit less control over things like RSS feeds and core Wordpress settings, so a few things have changed.

First, our RSS feed is now at http://savingthegame.podbean.com/feed.  This is also going to be our ‘default’ feed for podcast aggregators like RPGPodcasts.com, which means blog posts and the like will creep in. This is probably the biggest inconvenience for longtime listeners, and we apologize—we’d have kept our feed URL the same if we cou […]

Continue reading

Episode 21 – Redemption Stories

  By ,

This time our episode topic is redemption stories in your roleplaying games. We discuss how to successfully tell redemption stories in a collaborative storytelling environment; how these stories differ for protagonists and antagonists; redemption stories for player characters and NPCs; and how to get Branden and Peter to argue. Also, Peter’s bookseller rage activates!

Scripture: Psalm 111:9, Titus 2:11-14, Romans 3:22-24

Continue reading