Category: Saving The Game

We’re back with an episode topic selected by our Patreon supporters: That old adage, “the ends justify the means”—in other words, consequentialism! First, a few announcements: Grant now regularly streams the editing process for these episodes over on Mixer, so come hang out if you want to chat with him while he does that. Also, to help wrap up our “summer of mental health” focus, Jenny and Grant have pulled together a few mental health resources; we’ve got those listed below.

Our Patreon backer question this week is from Doug Hagler, who asks us about using a board game to introduce or set the scene for a tabletop roleplaying game. We struggle a bit with this one, admittedly, but we do manage to come up with a couple of ideas!

Then we settle into the main topic: Consequenti […]

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Booter, con organizer, and friend Adam Gottfried joins us to talk about planning Fear the Con and other conventions! First, Adam has an announcement (the first piece of news ever broken on Saving the Game!)—Fear the Con 11 will be June 22-23, 2018. Also, there will be a Kickstarter for the con at some point, although those dates aren’t exactly set in stone yet. (For more Fear the Con, see Episode 61 with Derek Knutsen and a host of others.)

Having made that announcement, we tackle Patreon backer Jim’s question about obscure media we’d want to turn into a RPG. We also discuss an impending visit from the Bishop of Jerusalem, which naturally leads int […]

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We’re delighted to welcome Jack Berkenstock Jr. of The Bodhana Group back onto the mics this week! Jack previously joined us on STG 25, when he introduced us to the idea of roleplaying games as an adjunct therapeutic tool for children who were victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse, among others. This time, he’s here to talk more about RPGs in treatment for social skills, grief, loss, and more. After catching up with our old friend a bit, we let him plug Save Against Fear 2017 (Oct. 13-15 in Harrisburg, PA)—which we can confirm Jenny will attend this year, so catch up with her there too if you see her! We also plug the

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Adam Davis and Adam Johns from Wheelhouse Workshop join us to discuss how and why they use Dungeons & Dragons in social skills therapy! Their Seattle-based organization has been doing this for a couple of years now, and they’ve got a lot to say. (We’ve also worked with Adam and Adam previously on some Game to Grow content.) We also tackle a question from Patreon supporter Francisco (of the Retro Rewind Podcast) about replacing our favorite RPGs with board games in a pinch, and Grant briefly describes his trip to

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We’re joined this week by Matthew Surber, who’s both the Program Director at the West River Center in Maryland and a game designer affiliated with Defy Danger Adventures. We actually found Matthew through the most unlikely of sources (Reddit comments, of all things) but he turned out to be a fantastic guest! After addressing Patreon backer Tom’s question about broad and narrow skills in roleplaying games, and a quick diversion from Jenny about the dangers of Canada’s nucl […]

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Our Ten Commandments series returns with the Fourth Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” Before we get to that, however, we have a bit of business to go over and a bit of catching up to do. We spend a little time discussing our Patreon support, since we haven’t updated listeners on that in a while. Grant’s learning Korean, and blogged about that a bit; and Jenny needs to issue a correction regarding the Battletech game she described in the previous episode. After all that’s out of the way, though, we tackle a big question from Patreon supporter Richard, who asks us about our favorite RPG characters.

All that taken care of, we dive headfirst int […]

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It’s a special bonus episode this week, as Jenny and Peter recap their Fear the Con experiences! Peter also recently wrote about his very emotional slot 6 game, and if you haven’t read that yet, you really should. Special thanks to everyone involved in planning and producing Fear the Con; everyone we gamed with; and everyone who helped with the charity drive for Pat this year!

Also, our apologies for any audio issues in this episode; this was recorded on a single microphone designed for one person, so there was a lot of handing the mic back and forth. (On the other hand, this was recorded on Jenny’s new audio equipment, so look forward to a better sound from her on future episodes!)

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Grant, Peter, and Jenny discuss playing characters who are much better—or much worse—at things than you yourself are! This topic was selected by our Patreon backers, whom we’re very grateful for and who bring you this show every other week. First, though, we spend some time discussing Fear the Con X (which was last weekend, and which Peter and Jenny will run down next episode.) We also briefly discuss Overwatch and Dead Cells. We answer a question about wargaming from Patreon backer Kevin, and then get down to business—which includes a lengthy rant from Grant, and a surprising amount of bickering!

Mentioned in this episode:

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Psychology researcher, professor, and LARPer Dr. Sarah Lynne Bowman joins us for a fascinating discussion of LARP and the psychology of play and roleplaying! Sarah had an enormous amount of information to pass along to us about different styles of live-action roleplay, terminology and concepts in LARP and in the psychology of play, the seeming dichotomy between tabletop and live-action play, and so much more. It’s a bit less organized than many of our episodes, simply because we let Sarah take charge of much of the conversation, but we definitely think it turned out better for that! (And check below for a long list of links Sarah provided for us.)

We also answer a question from Patreon supporter Paige, who wanted to know how much time we spend each week on tabletop gaming; briefly discuss Overwatch; and mention

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The Rev. Derek White, longtime friend of the show and known to the Internet as “The Geekpreacher”, joins us once again to discuss spiritual warfare! After introducing Derek (and letting him plug GaryCon), we turn our attention to some important information about fake beards and Fear the Con. Peter and Jenny will be wearing fake beards (ridiculous, nonsensical fake beards, to be clear) to Fear the Con in support of Pat Roper (one of Fear the Boot’s hosts) and his ongoing treatment for Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. We also pass on the news of a listener’s new game,

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