Saving the Game: Recent Episodes
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This is it, folks: the last episode of Saving the Game. In this one, we explain why we’re shutting down the podcast, answer our remaining Patreon questions, thank people who helped us along the way, and reminisce a bit. We wanted closure for all of our listeners – and ourselves – and hopefully this episode […]
For those who have not heard, we have decided to end the podcast. Next week’s episode will be the last one. I have a draft of a much longer, more introspective post started, but you know what? I’ve been posting a lot of melancholy and bittersweet stuff for the last few months (which has been […]
An Important Note: This is the second-to-last episode of Saving the Game. Our last episode will release in two weeks and will be a “goodbye” episode. More details in the episode itself and a full-breakdown in the next one. This is the second part of the Prep/Improv two-parter we brainstormed during a Patreon question. We […]
As we near the end of 2020, it’s hard not to look both back and forwards with pessimism and cynicism – this year has taken so much from so many and has planted seeds of further tragedy and uncertainty that will likely take many more years to resolve. Hundreds of thousands of people that we […]
This week we have another installment in Grant’s reading of the sermons of the Reverend Bob Lawrence. If you haven’t heard the previous entries, this one, like the others, is an imagined slice of life from someone adjacent to the Christmas story. Rev. Lawrence was quite the storyteller, and there is a reason these sermons […]
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts and readers have doubtless noticed for themselves, this has been an exceptionally rough year. We’ve been through what feels like a decade worth of struggle, hardship, chaos, discord, and, at least in my case, not a small amount of genuine fear. And there’s probably more to come before it’s […]
This episode marks the first of the two episodes we came up with based on a Patreon Question back in episode 189 – we’re talking about GM Prep. We check in as usual and then – perhaps ironically, perhaps appropriately for an episode that we came up with while answering another Patreon question – we […]
This year has been a potent reminder that “may you live in interesting times” is a curse. The year has seen natural disasters, civil unrest, viciously polarized politics, and a massive global pandemic which has caused its own enormous set of problems. I have to admit, it was hard to summon up much enthusiasm for […]
It’s a thing that often happens in games but seldom gets much detailed thought put into it: the PCs decide to go off and find something mundane to do like shopping or fishing. We start the episode off with the usual check-in and then move on to our Patreon question where Alex Huggett asks: “How […]
I have made it known on both the podcast and this blog that I am not the world’s biggest fan of published adventures or settings. A lot of the creative enjoyment of GMing for me comes from making my own stuff, and with that as given, why would I skip that part? I mean, I […]
We’re back with our 4th-quarter episode selected by our Patreon backers and it’s definitely kind of an “old-school” episode by our standards where we take a specifically-biblical theme and unpack and discuss it. This time, we’re ruminating on the topic of Eden and all of the themes of paradise, fall, and “first-ness” that come with […]
Today is election day in the US. If you’re reading this the day it drops, live in the US and haven’t voted yet, mask up (we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, after all) and go do so. Much depends on it. If you’re looking for a little late-in-the-game guidance, I cannot recommend Phil […]
This week’s episode is something a little bit different: we did an online panel on spooky elements at the tail end of SAFe 2020, sort of a sum-up of our “spooky fall” series with some general advice. It turned out well enough that we have decided to pull the audio and provide that as our […]
Fall is usually the time when we turn to horror media. Halloween decorations of witches, skeletons, zombies, mummies, werewolves, Frankenstein’s monster and more start to appear in the yards of houses, horror movies, books, and games all come out, and people embrace the weird and spooky. Large, multiplayer video games like Overwatch and Fortnite roll […]
As October continues, so does our “Spooky Fall” lineup of horror and horror-adjacent topics. This time, we’re talking about “creepy crawlies” – the vermin and pests from snakes to spiders to locusts that can cause problems far bigger than their apparent size. We start off as usual with a host check-in, but we really haven’t […]
As I’ve mentioned on the podcast, I have a supporting role in EN Publishing’s “Level Up” project, and they have, as of this writing, released three playtest documents. The Origins document, which details the new “race” mechanics (split into heritage and culture) and backgrounds, the first ten levels of the new Fighter class and the […]
Spooky fall continues with creative collaboration episode! We start with a check-in and some news – we can now be found on the Pray.com app and Faithcasts.com, should either of those strike your fancy. We all had fairly decent weeks leading up to recording, and kick off with a discussion that rapidly leads into “what […]
This post has its roots in a recent blog post from Richard Beck in which he laments the worst effects of social media and makes the rather bold and controversial assertion that Christians shouldn’t be on social media. It’s a short post – I’d ask that you read it and come back if you haven’t […]
We’ve decided that a fun way to carve some enjoyment out of this uncooperative year is to do a general spooky topics roundup and so we’ve got another one for you this week. We start off with some exciting news: Jenny has done a fashion walk and Peter is on the general design team for […]
One thing that I have noticed on social media (specifically the TTRPG corners of Twitter) is that when people try to change things from how they’ve been done in the past, there’s often significant pushback. In addition to the usual nasty internet behavior such as name-calling, insults, sea lioning, and even death threats, there’s often […]
If you like our longer episodes, you’re in for a treat with this one. We had a lot to say this time, and the fact that we recorded this one in two different sections due to some connection issues probably also contributed to the overall length. We start off as we usually do, checking in […]
My Sunday group finally got to play again this weekend after I had to cancel two sessions in a row. Because the sessions are every other week now, this meant that it was over a month since I last got to play with that group, and I was very anxious to get back to it. […]
Though we’ve done an episode on undeath in general, we figured that ghosts deserved an episode of their own, since they occupy a somewhat unique role in fiction. We start the episode off with a check-in as usual and… last Monday and the days leading up to it were rough, folks. The equipment issues have […]
One of the most common challenges of GMing is to keep coming up with NPCs that are meaningfully distinct. Another used to be coming up with names, but in today’s world of the internet, that one is solved. Between name generators, baby name sites, and sites that break down the specific meaning of names, you […]
With Grant out due to illness and a host of technical issues (that have thankfully since been mostly resolved) besetting us, we opted for a bonus episode this week. This episode is specifically focusing on adding some additional texture to the religious life of a Karkovian barony for a future game Peter would like to […]
I’ve written about the planned game for the Saturday group a couple of times, but one thing that’s been interesting for me is that various meta-considerations have altered my plans for it, though the general plan remains the same. So let’s talk about the way that’s happened, how the changes are generally pretty good things, […]
This week’s episode is the second-quarter Patreon topic (a little late). We’ve referenced cosmic horror a number of times throughout our run, but never in this kind of depth. As is usual, we spend a bit of time catching up and then move into our Patreon question, supplied this time by Paige Lowe who asks […]
A quick acknowledgment and thank-you to my supervisor at work is in order. I had him look this over before I posted it, and he thought of a couple of things I didn’t. In particular, the note about URL shorteners is to his credit. This post has been on my list of things to write […]
Not feeling well and not being able to get to the internet robbed us of Jenny this week. However, despite that lack, this was a great episode because we had an awesome guest host! Paranoia writer WJ MacGuffin joined us to talk about incorporating real-world faiths into our gaming. We started off the episode with […]
Things have stabilized enough where I feel comfortable coming back to the post I wrote about King’s Quest III back in May. I mentioned in that post that I think it’d make a good fantasy scenario – let’s take a look at what that scenario would work like. Meta Considerations Before we get too far […]
Well folks, this is it – the last of the 3×3 grid of alignments, and arguably the worst of the worst. Note: Spoilers for the City on a Hill, Season 2 Finale from 9:12-11:35 We start off with an announcement that mirrors our recent blog post. TL;DR: we’re going to be a little freer talking […]
So this week I have something a bit less sobering, even if the impetus behind it is tied to the last post. Based on the chatter in the Discord and on general social media, a lot of people affiliated with this community sprang for enormous itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality By the time […]
A quick note: our two-week lead time can sometimes mean that a lot happens between when we record an episode and when we release it. On may 25th, four officers of the Minneapolis, MN police department killed George Floyd, an unarmed black man. On May 28th, we recorded this episode as Mr. Floyd’s death was […]
This marks the at least temporary abandoning of our apolitical stance at Saving the Game. The world has reached a point where striving to be completely apolitical and ambiguous about our views has hampered our ability to speak as Christians. If you read Tuesday’s blog post, I mentioned that I had some thoughts but the […]
I had plans for a blog post this week. I wanted to continue off the thread I started two weeks ago where I looked at the story of King’s Quest III and break it down for game ideas. I have the start of a draft of that post. But honestly? With everything that’s going on […]
In this episode we’re joined by none other than Elizabeth Garn of Christ and Pop Culture. (Elizabeth has written some great articles about faith and gaming and she should be on your radar if she wasn’t already!) We start off the episode with the usual check-in, which includes this time that Grant is running his […]
I’ve written about King’s Quest III before, way back in September of 2016 in the context of unfinished stories. But that take doesn’t quite do justice to my feelings about the game, and given that I still have opinions about something that originally released back in 1986, it’s probably worth taking another crack at. I’m […]
This week we have more unstructured, conversational episode for you. Grant and Peter realized back in episode 173 that we’d like to talk about when players know what the GM is planning, but as we talked about the upcoming episode, we all realized that what we had was more of a discussion and a collection […]
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. -Galatians 6:2 There’s a meme going around, I’m sure you’ve seen it, that frames the extra time granted by the COVID-19 pandemic as some kind of opportunity to be seized. It’s not. I mean, if you have extra time and […]
Grant, Peter and Jenny are joined by Jason Brick, veteran freelance writer in the TTRPG industry (and several others besides!). We kick off with a little chatter and swiftly move into our Patreon question from Joseph Linardon who asks ” What would be your dream job?” Answering that takes significantly less time than you’d expect, […]
I was hoping to get to this specific post a little sooner, but circumstances intervened in a number of different ways. This is going to be another breakdown of translating a specific style of game (in this case with only one real entry) from the realm of video games over to a TTRPG environment. The […]
The hosts are all here for this one, and we kick off with a discussion of our games, which are generally going quite well, and a bit about the homeschooling of Grant’s kids during the pandemic lockdown. The Patreon question this episode comes from Paige Lowe, who asks ” How have your games changed as […]
Once again, the specter of harassment and bad behavior has reared its ugly head in the gaming community. This time it came to our doorstep. For the first time since we opened up the Discord, we had to ban someone in March. The cause? Harassment of another Discord participant. And now the news has started […]
We’re back to our usual release schedule and episode progression this week for True Neutral. The discussion kicks off with the obligatory nod to COVID-19 (wash your hands!) and a nod back to our “emergency bonus” episode and blog post about remote gaming. There’s a bit of discussion about how that’s proceeding and then we […]
As promised, this is our “emergency bonus episode” about remote gaming. It’s edited much more roughly than normal but as we say in the episode, turnaround was our top priority for this one. In the episode, we referenced a blog post that I posted yesterday. That is here for easy cross-referencing. Scripture: Numbers 6:24-26 , […]
As I sit down to type this, basically the entire world is in at least a limited state of lockdown. The COVID-19 virus is sweeping across the world, and countries are all taking steps to attempt to limit the spread and “flatten the curve” of the virus. It’s an unprecedented and surreal time. It’s also […]
With Jenny out due to travel, Grant and Peter return temporarily to the days when it was just the two of them on the podcast and do something they haven’t done on air before, or at least for quite a while: brainstorm about one specific game, namely the campaign Peter is running on Sundays. We […]
My Sunday game has reached the level threshold where my PCs are starting to really get powerful (the party is currently level 9) and that means I can trot out some of the bigger, meaner threats I have waiting in the wings. In fact, I’ve already started; the PCs are going to kick off the […]
With Grant and Jenny back from their respective ordeals, it’s time to continue our alignment series! We start off with a quick catch-up session (thanks again Ashley and Derek for filling in!) but there’s not a lot of note in our lives since the last episode we were on together (or at least, not that’s […]
Reflecting back on the discussion I had with Ashley and Derek back in Episode 171, I find myself contemplating a related topic: namely that of where the evil we wish to fight comes from. The theological answer to that is “us.” Though Eve needed some prodding from The Serpent in Genesis, she ultimately made the […]
This week’s episode is a little different in multiple ways. With Grant out with illness and Jenny out with bureaucracy, Peter is joined by Ashley Mowers from Min/Max and Derek White from The Dungeon Pastors (this is the first episode of drawing on a larger hosting pool like was mentioned back in November). We went […]
I’ve built up a small stock of things that I’ve learned, good and bad, from my ongoing campaign. None of these are worth a full blog post on their own, but I figured they were worth sharing. Some of the more veteran GMs out there probably know most or all of these tricks, but new […]
In this episode, we welcome back Kimi from Golden Lasso Games to talk about pre-game tools. We last spoke to Kimi in our mammoth two-parter on fitness back in episode 103 part 1 and part 2, and this time she’s here alone rather than part of what was (at the time) the single largest number […]
In the previous two installments of this series that you can find here and here, I went over the mechanical side of the soulslike, laying out how you could simulate the mechanical side of those games. However, that’s only part of the proverbial equation. The other is the feel of the games and their settings. […]
With the first batch of three from our ongoing alignments series concluded, we’re back to normal topics for at least a few episodes. And this week, we have one that was selected – in a landslide – by our Patreon backers: Old Age and Retirement. We start off with our usual check-in and discuss our […]
As I mentioned in the last post in this series, this one will deal with recommendations for mechanical/prep adjustments for a “soulslike” feel. If you haven’t read the first post, go check that out, as this one definitely builds on the material in there. Before we get started, I’d like to touch on a couple […]
With the holidays over, we’re back to our normal episode format, and in this one we wrap up the first batch of 3 from our alignment series with Lawful Evil. We start off with a brief holiday check-in and run down some interesting gifts we received and gave. (Guess which one of us unironically gave […]
I’m trying a new project here – specifically I’m breaking down how to use various genres of video games as resources for TTRPGs. The type I’ve been seeing a lot about lately is “soulslikes,” so I figured I’d start there. This turned out to be a significantly lengthier topic than I expected, so this particular […]
In keeping with tradition—sort of—Grant presents a very special Christmas bonus episode: A reading of a unique sermon given on Christmas Day, 1986, by Rev. Bob Lawrence of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC. You can find previous sermons in this series here! Merry Christmas, from all of us to all of you. Music: “Er […]
A quick content warning: this post talks about self-harm in a religious context. If that’s a bit much, you may want to leave this one unread. Zero graphic description – just the acknowledgement of the practice. If you listen to the podcast regularly, you’ll conclude (mostly accurately) that I’m less a fan of dark characters […]
This is the corrected version of 167. The first version ran the main episode audio into the outro due to an editing mistake on my part. My apologies. -Peter We’re back with episode 2 of our alignments series, this time talking about Lawful Neutral. We start off with the story of some adorable kittens in […]
This post is going up a little later in the day than usual. I got my timing goofed up with the holiday weekend and the subsequent need to move recording time to Monday. -Peter The party in my Sunday game has started to do something I’ve been wanting to do in-game since I started watching […]
We’ve been promising it for a while and here it is, the first episode in our series on alignment. We last talked about alignments as a topic waaaaaayyyy back in episode 2 of the podcast (if you listen, we’re so sorry about the audio quality), and we figured it was high time we updated things […]
Since I committed myself to the project here, I figured I’d check in again here. NaNoWriMo, despite not being an actual novel, is going significantly better this year than last. I fell a little bit behind on my word goal yesterday after an exceedingly busy weekend that also included some other writing projects. There’s nothing […]
Every33!Mike Perna of Innroads Ministries, Game Store Prophets, and Bard and Bible joins us as he does every 33 episodes to talk about something he’s been itching to talk on the mics about for ages – unlikely heroes with a strong emphasis on Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. We also give a shout-out to The Dungeon Pastors, […]
Hi folks, this post comes at the end of some intense discussion on behalf of the hosts. We’ve been discussing what works, what doesn’t, how it affects our lives, and who is in charge of what here at Saving the Game and we’re simplifying and changing a few things. The TL;DR for the anxious reader […]
Today may be Halloween, but tomorrow is the start of NaNoWriMo, and I personally get more excited about that! As some of you may recall, I spent last year trying to get the setting of the “motorcycle game” into a full-on book form. I made some progress, but I ultimately stalled. And while I’d like […]
After several episodes with either more or less than the three main hosts, Grant, Peter, and Jenny finally get to sit down together and talk about monsters just in time for Halloween! First, though, there’s a bit of catching up to do, and a delightful question from Patreon supporter Richard Lorenz who asks a simple, […]
This past Sunday was the first proper session of the new campaign. And like any good campaign, already my PCs have done something I was not expecting. Before I get into what happened, though, I should probably introduce the PCs. Edborth is the leader of the party and the captain of the ship. Edborth is […]
With Grant out again for chaotic work-related reasons, Jenny and Peter are collaborating again—this time on setting material for Peter’s new D&D game! First, though, we answer a Patreon question from Douglas Underhill, who asks us “If you statted yourself as a 5E character, how would you allocate the default starting array of ability scores?” […]
One of the things that I’ve struggled with of late is the overwhelming number of useful tools for GMs out there. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem, because if you just dip shallowly into everything, you’re going to wind up with a mess where you wonder which place you put […]
Professor, researcher, leading thinker in the psychology of RPGS both tabletop and LARP, and contributor to the first college textbook on RPGs Dr. Sarah Lynne Bowman joins us for a second time (we first spoke to Sarah back in episode 111) to discuss more of the psychology around RPGs. The episode starts with a quick […]
I’ve long said that the gaming group that Grant, Jenny, Krissi and I are in with two of our other friends is the best gaming group I’ve ever been fortunate to be part of. We’ve built up a lot of trust and at this point it’s also the closest and most enduring group of friends […]
(Update: The Ross Rifles Kickstarter is live right now! If the game interests you—and it certainly interested us!—be sure to back it and help support this excellent project.) Creative professional and storyteller Daniel Kwan joins us on this episode to talk about gaming in historical settings! Daniel is a former museum historian, a game designer […]
CW: Injury. This post is about getting hurt. I’m trying not to be too lurid about it, but there’s some frank discussion of (non-serious) real-life injury in here, so if that bothers you, you might want to give this one a pass. I had an unpleasant and ignominious experience while helping my wife at a […]
Our Ten Commandments series finally wraps up this episode, and we end it on a high note! (Yes, even despite the episode going up almost a day late.) We’ve got a bit of a preview of an upcoming discussion to start with, as Grant’s kicking off a game of Offworlders. Our Patreon question this week […]
It’s been quite a while (several years) since we’ve had to post one of these. Hopefully it’ll be just as long before we need to again. We pride ourselves on being punctual with the podcast and blog posts. However, sometimes, it’s just out of your hands, and this is definitely one of those times. The […]
It should come as no surprise to hear me lauding the virtues of tabletop RPGs. I, my co-hosts, and our guests have waxed eloquent both in the podcast and here in the blog about how gaming is a fantastic creative outlet, how it’s good for processing personal baggage, how it encourages fellowship, teaches math skills, […]
Grant’s out on vacation in lovely Myrtle Beach, SC this week, so Jenny and Peter tackle a special project—working together to create a unique setting centerpiece for a game Jenny will be running at her library! First, we answer a question from Patreon supporter Tom Stephens, who asks, “What is your favorite item that you’ve […]
As I’ve mentioned in a few previous blog posts (that you can find here and here) I’ve been working on a new campaign, but I’m missing some key resources that I’m going to be using to run it. Namely the Arcana of the Ancients books from Monte Cook Games, which I should be getting sometime […]
Guest—and possible honorary host—Krissi Woodward joins us this episode to break down her first time running a tabletop roleplaying game! Krissi ran a very successful arc of World of Darkness: Innocents for our gaming group and was willing to discuss that experience with us. First, a little bit about shiny new library cards and dirty […]
As always, you can find all the posts in this series by clicking here. Phew! It’s been a while since I put one of these out, and while the intensity has dropped a bit, I haven’t been totally idle on this project, either. Unlike some of the previous posts, this one’s going to be a […]
We’re nearing the end of our Ten Commandments series! This episode tackles lying—or as the Ten Commandments are commonly translated, “bearing false witness.” First, though, Peter talks a bit about his entry in the World Anvil worldbuilding contest; we discuss Krissi’s Innocents game and how it wrapped up, as well as Vampire and the various […]
After running into a case of writer’s block last week, I polled the folks in our Discord server for ideas, and DM Dad, loyal listener, Patreon backer, and friend of the show (and hosts, at this point) gave me an intriguing suggestion: what about a book report? Had this past week not been my vacation […]
This week’s topic is a sort of follow-up to our latest episode in our Ten Commandments series, except it’s also entirely City On A Hill Gaming‘s fault, we promise! We’re talking about how to make treasure and wealth in your games exciting and unique without surrendering the player characters’ moral high ground as they acquire […]
I’ll admit it: I’m suffering from a case of writer’s block this week. But I still want to provide something useful and/or interesting, so I figured I’d share some resources that I’ve personally found useful for various things lately and may not have mentioned at all, or have only mentioned in the Discord. Most of […]
Bryan and Mike from the Geek at Arms podcast join us this week to talk about the unwritten rules at our gaming tables (and elsewhere in our lives!) Geek at Arms is an excellent, thoughtful podcast in the geeky faith space and we’re delighted to have two of its three hosts on this episode. Both […]
As I mentioned in the last blog post, I’ve been trying to bolt some pretty disparate setting material together for a game I plan to start running next year around this time. Making matters more complicated, I don’t even have all of the stuff I plan to use yet, at least not in 5e-compatible form. […]
Oh, hey, guess who’s back! That’s right—Grant rejoins Peter and Jenny back on the mics. (And thank you, seriously, for everyone who reached out or who prayed for me. It’s really appreciated. – G.) We pick up our Ten Commandments series with the Eight Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” and since our hobby kicked off […]
Back when I wrote the blog post about using Cthulhu Mythos material in my upcoming campaign, I made brief mention of putting material from disparate sources together cohesively and then ran right past that because I had another topic in mind. However, I tend to do the whole “blend things from mismatched sources” a lot, […]
Jenny and Peter welcome Kyle Rudge of Geekdom House and Mythos & Ink back onto the mics, this time to talk about publishing! We’ve a bit of news first—Grant’s out for a bit due to some health issues, and that’s also shaken up our gaming schedule, which means there might be an Innocents game in […]
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” -Genesis 2:2 (NIV) Craft show season has begun. For those who aren’t aware, my wife makes her living sewing and selling purses at craft shows, and those run from about May-November. […]
Peter and Jenny have the mics to themselves this episode, and they’re talking about one of the funniest and most imaginative books of the Bible: Jonah! First, though, we take a moment to mention the unfortunate and early passing of Rachel Held Evans, a Christian writer and thinker we’re all quite fond of taken from […]
As always, you can find all of the posts in this series by clicking here. Penfield is another small town located in the Yuthi desert, and is named, somewhat uncreatively, for the massive private prison in the middle of a flat plain that dominates the the town. The pen in the field, if you will. […]
Ryan Felton, GM and producer of City On A Hill Gaming, joins Grant, Jenny, and Peter to discuss creating actual play content! We’ve mentioned City On A Hill plenty lately, since Ryan was kind enough to invite the three of us on his show as players (and performers, as we’ll discuss in this episode.) You […]
If you listen to the podcast closely, you’ve probably figured out that the game I was running in the world from my setting design series has died. Nothing dramatic, really, just the standard life stuff that tends to kill off campaigns in gaming groups consisting entirely of adults. I’m still working on the setting (I […]
It’s our one hundred fiftieth episode, and we are excited! We’ve got a lot of people to thank, of course, and spend a couple minutes at the top of the show doing that. We’ve also got a touch of podcast business, and a mention of a recent episode of the Marengo Holy Happy Hour radio […]
One of the problems I have as a player is that I tend to be a little too forceful. Partly because I’ve been doing a podcast for years and partly because it’s just my personality, I tend to be really enthusiastic about my gaming and I want to interject a lot. I am the classic […]
Rev. Derek “The GeekPreacher” White joins us once again, and this time it’s even more special than usual. This episode is a sort of test case for a new thing we might be doing with Derek more regularly—having Derek on to talk about specific theological topics from a geek perspective! First, though we’ve got a […]
My wife had a craft show this weekend, which meant a bunch of time in the car for me. At indoor shows like this one, we take both cars out, I help her set up on day one, and come home. On day two I show up a little before the show ends and help […]