Save Vs Rant: Recent Episodes
Save Vs Rant
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re going to talk about Warhammer, the most popular fantasy wargame franchise of all time. Our episode today focuses on the hobby aspect of the game – the world created for the game, the miniatures and other aspects that don’t directly relate to the rules of the game. I’ve been … Continue reading "S03E13 – Warhammer: Part 1"
Today’s episode is about the game behind (and beyond) the game – the metagame! It’s hard to imagine what a game without a metagame would even look like, and yet so frequently we only speak of “metagaming” pejoratively. Today, we’ll be discussing what the metagame is and how you can view it with appreciation rather … Continue reading "S03E12 – Metagaming"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’ll be discussing two player games – tabletop duels! These games let you focus exclusively on the other player, be they an ally or nemesis, and make for very personal gaming experiences! A quick rundown of the games we discussed this episode: Fog of Love is one of our favorite … Continue reading "S03E11 – 2 Player Games"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re discussing ways to improve as a DM. In this episode, we present tools, strategies and techniques that will help you grow and improve as a DM, ultimately resulting in a better experience for both you and your players. I’ve joked before that DMing is a subtle form of performance … Continue reading "S03E10 – DMing 103"
Oh, shucks! Today we’re talking about one of the worst official D&D modules ever published: Castle Greyhawk. An enduring part of TSR’s post-Gygax legacy and an enormous letdown and slap in the face to everyone who gave a single flying frick about the legacy of the setting or the lore of one of the most … Continue reading "S03E09 – Castle Greyhawk"
A little more than a year ago, we posted our look at the playtest version of Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Now that the full final version is out, we’re pleased to give you our first impressions of the new edition of the now iconic successor to D&D 3rd Edition, and one of my favorite roleplaying games. … Continue reading "S03E08 – Pathfinder 2nd Edition"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we are giving our review of Dungeon in a Box, a monthly service that sends you everything you need to run a brief adventure that combines with 11 others in a series to create a coherent campaign for D&D 5th Edition. Happy Labor Day! …it’s still technically Monday, so let … Continue reading "S03E07 – Dungeon in a Box"
Today on Save vs. Rant, we chronicle Jeremy’s annual vacation to Gen Con, North America’s largest game convention and a perennial favorite destination of ours. For four days every year, the latest and greatest in gaming can be found in one large complex in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. Join us as we discuss Jeremy’s … Continue reading "S03E06 – Tales from Gen Con"
Today’s episode deals with the various genres of RPGs, where possible giving examples of games set in those genres. Join us for our discussion of the themes and ideas underlying the games we play. Also, welcome back from GenCon, to all those who attended the convention! As an excellent example of our postulate that genre … Continue reading "S03E05 – Genres of RPGs"
Today we will be discussing a classic setting that dates back to the origins of Dungeons and Dragons – the Forgotten Realms, fantasy writer Ed Greenwood’s personal setting originally created when he was but a lad. While it is not our favorite setting here at Save Vs. Rant, it is an integral part of gaming … Continue reading "S03E04 – Setting Spotlight: The Forgotten Realms"
Today, we’re discussing boxed text, text meant to be read aloud. Named for the early gaming convention of enclosing it in a box (a convention adopted due in part to printing limitations), read-aloud text can serve as a useful summary of the settings and plots of adventures. First thing’s first, the Laser Pistol from Expedition … Continue reading "S03E03 – Boxed Text"
Today’s episode is about the small portable parts of RPGs – mechanics (the individual rules that can be separated out), the subsystems (expansions to existing mechanics within a game) and the minigames (games within a game). Understanding what they are and what the overall effect of them together is an important step if you have … Continue reading "S03E02 – Subsystems, Minigames and Mechanics"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re going to talk about the kinds of people who play RPGs. No, this isn’t a dissection of gaming culture (although we may yet rant about that), but a discussion of the different motivations people have for playing RPGs. We also touch briefly on the classification of RPGs and Tabletop … Continue reading "S03E01 – Player Archetypes"
Today on our season finale of Save Vs. Rant, we’ll be discussing Spires of Xin-Shalast, the final module in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure path. This marks the end of our second season and the end of our examination of Paizo’s first Adventure Path set in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting. While we have enjoyed … Continue reading "S02E26 – Spires of Xin-Shalast"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’ll be talking about the penultimate module in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path: Sins of the Saviors, a module that focuses on the player character’s first true challenge to the peerless Runelord Karzoug. Every module can’t be the best, and we at Save Vs. Rant consider this the … Continue reading "S02E25 – Sins of the Saviors"
Continuing our ongoing examination of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path by Paizo Publishing, the next installment for us to examine is Fortress of the Stone Giants, a combination civic defense / dungeon crawl adventure. Join us as we continue our discussion of what works, what doesn’t, what was improved in the anniversary edition … Continue reading "S02E24 – Fortress of the Stone Giants"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re continuing our series on the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path by Paizo Publishing with the third module in the series – The Hook Mountain Massacre. Ogres and their kin, Stone Giants, townsfolk in peril and yet another ghost story await! For those paying attention, you may note a … Continue reading "S02E23 – The Hook Mountain Massacre"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we are continuing our look at the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path with Part 2: The Skinsaw Murders. Gruesome murders, a haunted house and a vicious cult. Join us as we delve deeper into this adventure path! Note: There is some content in this module that may be disturbing … Continue reading "S02E22 – The Skinsaw Murders"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re discussing the first module of Rise of the Runelords, the first adventure in Pathfinder’s Adventure Path series set in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Setting. Why would we review an Adventure Path from 2007 (re-released in 2012)? Not only because of the insight it gives us into the mentality professional … Continue reading "S02E21 – Burnt Offerings"
Welcome back to Save Vs. Rant! Today’s episode is all about miniatures, in the context not only of their own hobby, but as part of board gaming and roleplaying games. Miniatures are a phenomenal part of gaming! Take it from us, everyone loves miniatures! Along with artistic images, they are one of the strongest sources … Continue reading "S02E20 – Miniatures"
Today’s episode of Save Vs. Rant is about making one time exceptions for the awesome things that happen in your RPGs as a way of rewarding creativity by your players and generally promoting a more interesting game. Join us as we discuss this more or less universal gaming phenomenon! Almost every game has a built-in … Continue reading "S02E19 – Rule of Cool"
Today’s episode is all about the economics of RPGs – how gold coins work, what the labor market of a fantasy world looks like and how games like Pathfinder RPG approach macro-scale economics within their game worlds. We at Save Vs Rant really do understand that RPGs aren’t economic simulators. We realize that the purpose … Continue reading "S02E18 – RPG Economics"
Today’s Save Vs. Rant is about the design philosophy of NPCs in RPGs. While every game system has its own guidelines and rules for the design of characters (some unifying the systems for PCs and NPCs, some treating the two completely different), the basic philosophy behind designing NPCs remains the same across the entire spectrum … Continue reading "S02E17 – NPC Construction"
Do you aspire to be a tabletop game designer? In this episode, we will be discussing our experience with The Game Crafter, a company that provides print on demand services for game designers, allowing both prototype testing and even storefront shopping for games without necessitating a full print run. Join us for our discussion of … Continue reading "S02E16 – The Game Crafter"
Today’s episode of Save Vs. Rant is focused on bizarre board games – those that evoke a perplexity or, perhaps, intrigue. The qualifying factors for this discussion are not whether the game is good or bad or anything particular in between, but just how strange a given game is. How unique its mechanics or play … Continue reading "S02E15 – Board Games WTF"
Today’s episode of Save Vs. Rant is brought to you by all the designers who choose to take risks and create something truly unusual and unique. Where’s the Fruit? Who’s the Foreman? What the Fudge? Why the Face? Dark Heresy Set in the wildly popular grimdark distant-future world of Warhammer 40,000, Dark Heresy puts the … Continue reading "S02E14 – RPG WTF"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, out episode is about the Halloween game Jeremy runs annually, and the art of the bespoke gaming experience. Is the title a bit much? Too late to reconsider! We’re committed now! Let’s dive right in! “The Halloween Game: A Bespoke Gaming Experience” – there’s a lot to unpack in that … Continue reading "S02E13 – The Halloween Game: A Bespoke Gaming Experience"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’ll be discussing some of our biggest tips for being a good player. Our tips are about both how you can best enjoy the game and how you can be the kind of player others want to play with. We need to dispel a myth about roleplaying, so let’s start … Continue reading "S02E12 – Playing 101"
Welcome to another edition of Save Vs. Rant! Today, we’re focusing on Golarion – the official campaign setting of the Pathfinder RPG. Golarion is a big place, and there’s an alarming amount of material for the Pathfinder Campaign Setting. While some of the regions have been explored in great detail – Varisia, The River Kingdoms and … Continue reading "S02E11 – Setting Spotlight: Golarion"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we present five more considerations vital to the success of any DM, including a bit of advice on keeping your game portable. We call it DMing 102! Our DMing 101 podcast contained 10 points we felt were important to instill in the rookie DM. A number of the points were … Continue reading "S02E10 – DMing 102"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re talking about some of the gems Jeremy plumbed from the rich mines of the exhibit hall. Join us, won’t you? My cat did for about the first 5 minutes of the podcast. Everything is better with cats! Jeremy went to GenCon this year, and I went to the hospital. … Continue reading "S02E09 – Spoils of GenCon"
Today’s episode is all about our impressions of the Pathfinder Playtest. Since we’re both veteran Pathfinder players, we came to the playtest with a pretty strong understanding of what we felt were Pathfinder’s strengths and weaknesses, and what makes Pathfinder, Pathfinder. As such, we were both excited to see the developments. Paizo Publishing, makers of the … Continue reading "S02E08 – Pathfinder Playtest"
What’s a gaming group to do when you feel like your favorite games are played out? The answer may be “find a new game,” but it might also be “get an expansion!” Today’s Save Vs. Rant is about expansions – their history, what kind of expansions exist, the advantages – and disadvantages – of each, … Continue reading "S02E07 – Expansions"
Today’s episode is all about a specific brand of NPC ally – the cohort. For our purposes, a cohort is a character that the player has some control over, but not the level of control they may have over a player characters. They are common in some of the most popular RPGs and can be … Continue reading "S02E06 – Cohorts"
Today’s episode is about Micro RPGs, typically defined as compact games that fit the entirety of their rules onto one or two pages. These are usually best for one-off or short campaign games, and are, in many cases, intended to be a complete story in a single session. One of the beautiful things about Micro RPGs … Continue reading "S02E05 – Micro RPGs"
Today, we decided to take a detour from our road map and talk about world building – the process of creating compelling settings for your RPG. World building is a vital aspect of almost all games, with only a few abstract and classic games offering experiences devoid of flavor. Today, we touched on the two … Continue reading "S02E04 – An Introduction to Worldbuilding"
Today’s episode of Save Vs. Rant is all about novel ways of telling classic stories, be they real-world legends, existing fiction, outdated modules or other sources of inspiration. Something that we touched on in this episode is how every monster has a connection to stories – modern or classic – from which to draw inspiration. … Continue reading "S02E03 – Retelling Classic Stories"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re going to discuss a fairly broad category of game: those with RPG elements. These games are a sort of gateway between RPGs and pure tabletop games. What makes a game with RPG elements so interesting to the tabletop game hobby is that they act as a sort of bridge between … Continue reading "S02E02 – A Touch of RPG"
Welcome to the 2nd season of Save Vs. Rant! Today’s episode is all about Virtual Tabletops, and, to a lesser degree, the broader topic of gaming over the internet. In today’s episode, we focused on a few specific virtual tabletops that we felt stood head and shoulders above the rest, a position that we developed … Continue reading "S02E01 – Virtual Tabletops"
Today is our second episode Kingdom Death: Monster. This is our full spoiler episode where we talk about the unfolding story and discuss the ever problematic nemesis encounters. This episode is a little longer because there are so many hidden secrets in this game and wonderful little twists and turns to explore. Hello once again … Continue reading "Episode 24 – Kingdom Death: Monster Part 2"
Today’s episode is about Kingdom Death: Monster, a cooperative boutique nightmare horror miniatures game. This is our mostly spoiler free episode. describing the game play, theme, and controversies surrounding this game. Hello everybody, Jeremy here! I figured that John has earned a much needed break and so for the month of April I’ll be taking … Continue reading "Episode 23 – Kingdom Death: Monster Part 1"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we’re discussing RPG rules we really like – rules that can make good games great as well as rules that make unique game systems unforgettable. Part of what we discussed today was rules that can be ported to nearly any game. This is a very small category of rules, given … Continue reading "Episode 22 – Favorite RPG Rules"
Today’s episode of Save Vs. Rant is about bad house rules – non-canonical rules introduced to a game by a well-meaning group that end up making the game worse. What makes a rule bad? What causes part of a game to fail despite the best laid plans of designers? While the idea of “bad” is … Continue reading "Episode 21 – Bad House Rules"
The focus of today’s episode is how to ease newcomers to the tabletop board gaming hobby. When the average person thinks of “board games” and “card games,” they tend to think of the family game night games that everyone remembers with varying degrees of fondness (often completely unrelated to how enjoyable the games themselves were). … Continue reading "Episode 20 – Touchstones of Board Gaming"
Today’s episode is about complexity creep, of which the making of this episode was an example. When we set out to do this episode, we planned to go over only a few specific examples, but the subject proved much richer than initially expected. Even beyond what we covered in the episode, there remains a lot … Continue reading "Episode 19 – Complexity Creep"
Today, we talk about Sentinels of the Multiverse by Greater Than Games, one of our favorite co-op card game experiences! Sentinels of the Multiverse is an homage to comic books, which I only discussed very briefly in this episode. The comic books of the 1930’s and 1940’s were very different from those of the 1950’s and … Continue reading "Episode 18 – Sentinels of the Multiverse"
Design philosophy changes with time. You can see this in advertising, in clothing style, in food (consider the truly incredible inedible Jell-O nightmares of the 1950’s) and, most pertinent to this podcast and its blog, in gaming. In today’s Save Vs. Rant, we’re going to break down the differences between the Old School and New … Continue reading "Episode 17 – Old Vs. New RPGs"
Today on Save Vs. Rant, we want to discuss something that will hopefully be valuable information with all the upcoming (and ongoing) gift-giving holidays: casual games. Casual games are not only a huge part of the story of tabletop gaming, but an awesome way to introduce people to the hobby! Games and companies mentioned in … Continue reading "Episode 16 – Getting Serious About Casual Games"
On today’s episode of Save Vs. Rant, we delve into the theory of fun itself. What makes things fun? How can we understand fun on a deeper level? Why are two completely different things both enjoyable even though they may share virtually nothing in common? Find out, when we discuss Eight Flavors of Fun! Game … Continue reading "Episode 15 – Eight Flavors of Fun"
Today’s episode is about two examples of poor characterization: the Mary Sue and Pants. Mary Sue being a reference to a very old Star Trek parody fanfiction, and Pants being a reference to the Oatmeal’s less than flattering review of the Twilight series. Spoilers start at 09:05 and continue to 10:59 for Curse of Strahd, and 10:59 … Continue reading "Episode 14 – Mary Sue and Pants"
Today’s episode is all about the game SeaFall, a 4x inspired Legacy game by the ingenious designer Rob Daviua. Despite the fact that Daviua is a living legend, we at SVR do not recommend SeaFall. It is our opinion that the game has too many flaws to provide a game experience we feel is up to … Continue reading "Episode 13 – Seafall"
Today at Save Vs. Rant, the story’s the thing as we discuss lore, and why it’s important even in everyday board games. Every game can have a story, whether that story is just an excuse for a game, or the game is just an excuse for a story. “Ok, each turn you choose a player … Continue reading "Episode 12 – Lore"
Today at Save Vs. Rant, we’re going to be discussing math and logic, the building blocks of games! Remember: if you think you hate math but you like games, what you really don’t like is the presentation of the math, because all games are, at their core, math. Monty Hall, the famous host of Let’s Make a Deal, … Continue reading "Episode 11 – Beautiful Math"
Today here at Save Vs. Rant, we hope to give you an introduction to DMing with 10 pieces of advice applicable to virtually any game. We call it – DMing 101! 10 points, a quick review: 1. Remember: You’re Here to Have Fun Having fun and running a game are not mutually exclusive. Some gamers perfer … Continue reading "Episode 10 – DMing 101"
Today’s topic is Games That Missed the Mark, wherein we discuss some games that we feel failed to live up to expectations. When we talk about games that missed the mark, we aren’t talking about bad games necessarily. Nearly every game on our list is a decent game, but it fails to live up to our … Continue reading "Episode 9 – Missed the Mark"
Our topic today is Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight Games, one of our favorite games of all time. The original Call of Cthulhu and other mythos stories were about how insignificant and inconsequential humanity is on a cosmic scale. The notion that we aren’t the top of the food chain – that we are beneath … Continue reading "Episode 8 – Arkham Horror"
GenCon’s tagline is “The Best Four Days in Gaming,” and we here at Save Vs. Rant agree enthusiastically. As veterans of the convention, we were overjoyed to have the opportunity to attend the 50th anniversary of the iconic celebration of gaming culture! Today’s special podcast details our experience at the convention and some of the … Continue reading "GenCon Special"
Today’s topic is initiative, the determiner of turn order. For most games, initiative and turn taking is essential to ensuring that the game run smoothly, and in role playing games, it is very seldom as simple as going around the table in clockwise order. In nearly every game, there are actions that can be taken … Continue reading "Episode 7 – Initiative"
The struggle between good and evil remains one of the most common themes in fantasy literature. Since fantasy is the genre that defined the most popular roleplaying games, it should not be surprising that this conflict is frequently reflected in both the setting fluff and rules crunch of the games. Today, we tackle the topic … Continue reading "Episode 6 – I’m Chaotic Evil"
Sometimes called “social deduction games,” hidden role games are games where you are assigned a secret identity that determines your victory conditions. The classic example is Werewolf (sometimes called “Mafia” or any number of other variants), but the genre has expanded to include a diverse set of games. The classic Werewolf / Mafia game, without … Continue reading "Episode 5 – Hidden Role Games"
In our fourth episode, we get a little heavier and discuss the prospect of character death in RPGs. Some games aren’t meant to be played as long-term campaigns. In these games, character creation is usually quick and dirty, sessions and the game mechanics strongly support a rapid means of removing characters from the game. Dread … Continue reading "Episode 4 – Character Death"
In our third episode, we share our thoughts on crowdsourcing – where it goes right, where it goes wrong and what it means for gaming. One of the most disappointing things about gaming-related Kickstarter campaigns that fail to deliver is the damage they do to future campaigns. Every time a successfully funded Kickstarter can’t fulfill … Continue reading "Episode 3 – Kickstarter"
With a wee few exceptions, every game features some sort of bookkeeping, be it tracking the position of the pieces on a board, recording important information about the player’s resources or simply recording the history of the game. In today’s edition of Save Vs Rant, we delve into this topic, discussing both front-end and back-end … Continue reading "Episode 2 – Bookkeeping"
Power gaming has been a part of roleplaying games since the very first time rules were put to paper. It’s a natural part of the drive and motivation to “win” and an inevitable result of humanity’s will to compete. While we obviously can’t go into all the examples of powergaming in any given system – much … Continue reading "Episode 1 – Power Gaming"