Shows
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 321: Best Non D&D Campaigns, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene A listener asked what we thought were some good Non D&D published campaigns? Saul questioned what makes a good, quality and fun campaign. Saul's criteria was the same if it was you home campaign but in a published one it is essential that the criteria that Saul sets out is met. There are many campaigns out that that would meet these elements so Saul picked the ones he liked the best or has had the most experience in playing or running the games.
Saul comes up with 3 things every campaign must meet. Saul then discusses with Jolene, what publish...
2025-05-2136 min
Talking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 265 - Whilst Lucy (and the rest of the UK) performs a rain dance, Saul is experiencing his usual Devon weather - blow some our way, Saul! But his mind is rightly so on his 10-year anniversary as Stonelands Head Gardener - congratulations, Mr W!Spring is the season when gardeners throw off the hibernation and slumber of months of wet feet, many layers and waterproofs and are reborn anew! The stirring of life in the garden is one of the years great experiences, and makes a gardening life such a worthwhile pursuit, not only is it good for the planet to see the earth greening up, it is also good for the gardeners soul. But there is still lots of hard work to get on with - seeds have to be sown, mulch laid, supports erected and lawns mown. So join Lucy and...
2025-05-1736 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 318: Cozy RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Saul was at Kubla Autumn a new game con taking place over Veteran's Day which is celebrated here in the U.S. on November 11th. Right when he got there he sat in a seminar the dealt with the future of boardgames. In that seminar they talked about Cozy games. Saul immediately thought of Cozy RPGs. Saul noticed a lot of RPGs that would fit under this genre. He talked to Jolene about it and discussed the subject.
This episode is the result of that conversation. Saul list five RPGs that he thought would fit under the genre of Cozy. Hi...
2025-04-2435 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 261 - Saul is joined on this episode by Head of Horticultural Relations at the RHS, Emma Allen, to talk about her teams role in the horticultural charity, funding through bursaries and the new role of the Expert Groups.Spring is the season when gardeners throw off the hibernation and slumber of months of wet feet, many layers and waterproofs and are reborn anew! The stirring of life in the garden is one of the years great experiences, and makes a gardening life such a worthwhile pursuit, not only is it good for the planet to see the earth greening up, it is also good for the gardeners soul. But there is still lots of hard work to get on with - seeds have to be sown, mulch laid, supports erected and lawns mown. So join Lucy and...
2025-04-1337 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 260 - Magnolias are 'Go' in Essex! Of course, they've been Go in Devon for weeks, but Lucy's East Anglian location isn't as mild as Saul's in the South West. The duo also talk about peat policies, filming highlights and upcoming speaker bookingsSpring is the season when gardeners throw off the hibernation and slumber of months of wet feet, many layers and waterproofs and are reborn anew! The stirring of life in the garden is one of the years great experiences, and makes a gardening life such a worthwhile pursuit, not only is it good for the planet to see the earth greening up, it is also good for the gardeners soul. But there is still lots of hard work to get on with - seeds have to be sown, mulch laid, supports erected and lawns mown. So join Lucy and...
2025-04-0533 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 315: Running on Short Notice and Time, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Saul is slowly recovering from heart valve surgery but Jolene and Saul are back to recording episodes. This episode comes from a Reddit post about a GM that needs to run a game with no prep for 1st time players with only a 2 hour window. Though many answers were the names of games that people suggested Saul took a different angle.
Saul was thinking what the GM had to think about the game they decided to run. From the system, to the adventure, to the GM's comfort in running the game. Also there was what are the expectations of the pla...
2025-04-0233 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 314: Starter Box Sets, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene *SPECIAL NOTE* Saul and Jolene would like apologize for the lack of epidodes for the past Month. This was due to Saul having to have heart valve replacement surgery. Saul is recovering and Jolene is taking care of him. Saul and Jolene would like to thank all the listeners for their support of their podcast.
The latest episode concerns Starter Box Sets. What a good starter set should have in the box and why. Starter Sets have changed from the days of the D&D Blue Box Set. After their brief discussion Saul lists 3 Stater Sets are to him are what...
2025-03-2035 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 252 - Cutting lawns, testing waterproofs, showcasing ladders, favourite gardening shows for 2025 - this week, Saul and Lucy are covering plenty of ground. Oh, and yoga whilst gardening - do you do it?Well winter is on our doorsteps, and for the general population any thoughts of gardening stops, as the common thought is the 'garden has gone to sleep'...Well nothing could be farther from the truth, as the season of shorter days and chilly weather could be one of the most important and busy in the yearly life of your garden. Join Lucy and Saul every week as they show you exactly how busy they are, whether getting everything festive for Xmas, clearing up after the latest storm, enjoying the emergent shoots of early flowering plants or getting ready for...
2025-02-0835 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 304: Making an RPG Based on a Computer Game, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene In this Episode Saul and Jolene talk about making a RPG from a computer game. This was from a question that Saul read online about a father that wanted to make a RPG for his kids that played Destiny 2. Saul thought he recognized the game and even thought he had the older computer game but he was thinking of Mass Effect 2. Still Jolene and Saul discussed the trials and tribulations of making your own RPG.
It has been Saul's belief that making your own game would be a big work and time investment. But a few years ago he saw the...
2024-11-1335 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 298: Time Travel RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Saul and Jolene recieved an email from a listener Morgan who had some suggestion for episode topics. Thanks Morgan! One of the topics was Time Travel RPGs. Saul and Jolene thought it was a good topic and discussed several TV shows that had time travel episodes or where about time travel. They came up with way too many shows to discuss, so Saul picked his top 4 shows.
Then the discussion began about what if any RPGs were about time travel. Saul looked on RPG.net and was surprised at the number of RPGs published in this genre. Saul played in one...
2024-09-1336 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 286: Controlling the RPG Table, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Saul and Jolene were talking about when at a RPG table session, sometimes the group goes off the rails. Not in game but at the actual game table. Non game side discussions, players looking at their phones, players joking around out of character and many other things that players can do to disrupt a RPG session.
If you GM for any length of time this will probably happen to you as a GM or even see this as a player. You might even be the player causing the table disruption. Saul and Jolene discussed why this happens and what the GM...
2024-06-0631 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 277: Influences on Play Style, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and JoleneWhat are things that influence what your play style in RPGs. Saul and Jolene discuss a couple of things that might influence the way you play your character. Saul admits that for about 20 years, Saul played variations of his own personality and not really trying to Role play an aspect of himself.
As usual Saul strays from the subject by talking about two of his all time favorite RPGs, the One Ring and Shadowrun 5th edition, and Jolene brings him back to the subject at hand though Saul was using those two games as examples of how a game...
2024-03-2834 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 270: Dragonbane Review, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Saul was given a Dragonbane Box Set in July and though he looked at it he did not delve too deeply into the rules. Fast forward to the middle of January 2024 and Saul's brother decided to run a Dragonbane game for their regular Friday Knights Night. Jolene also plays with the Friday Knights group and after a couple of game session of Dragonbane Saul and Jolene decided to do a review of the game.
Saul had sworn off Kickstarting any Fantasy Roleplaying Game due to two factors. One was that Saul himself realized he had too many FRPG's in his col...
2024-02-0137 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 264: New RPGs for 2024, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene This Episode Saul and Jolene discuss some RPGs that are making their was to being published in 2024. Saul threw in a couple that have just been published in the last months of 2023. These are games that have piqued the interest of Saul and Jolene.
Podcast Error: the first RPG discussed by Saul he stated was called the Lost Isle but it is called the Hidden Isle. The link to their Kickstarter page is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/causacreations/the-hidden-isle
Our Apologies for this mistake.
Thank you all for listening
If you have any question or ga...
2023-12-2236 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 259:When the GM is Wrong, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene This is a subject that is very close to every GM. Saul who has been a GM for over 40 years has gotten things once or twice over those years from rules, to setting GMs can make mistakes. Usually these mistakes do not have any long lasting effect on a long running game.
When Jolene told Saul about this topic from a Reddit topic, Saul starting thinking of mistakes he has made over the years and most were pretty small but couple affected the players characters significantly. The Reddit poster had a question about approaching a GM about a ruling mist...
2023-11-1141 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 257: Running Horror RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene With Halloween coming up real soon, Saul and Jolene were discussing the idea of Horror RPGs specifically what it takes to run a good horror game. Though Saul would say he is not the type of gamer that like the horror genre he does own more than a few Horror RPGs. One of the first horror RPG he bought was Stalking the Night Fantastic back in the late 80's and Dark Conspiracy in the 1990's. Saul now has quite a few what one would term Horror genre RPGs.
So how to you run an horror rpg and make it scary...
2023-10-2541 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 256: The Player Director, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Saul and Jolene have experienced that player that wants to direct the other players action. In boardgames its called quarterbacking. In the old days of Original D&D and Advanced D&D there was the Caller, who told the DM who did what to make the game go by faster. Back in the day Saul's brother and friends did not play that way. Once he went to a D&D club and that was exactly how they played, and for Saul is was not fun at all.
So years later Saul and Jolene have experienced this phenomena at various ta...
2023-10-1837 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 254: Making Players Learn the Rules, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene
One of the many plights of GMs of RPGs is the dreaded getting the players to learn a new game. Due to Saul's seeking to find that perfect RPG or just likes the "new shiny." Due to this affliction Saul tries to share this affliction with all his players. In some of Saul's groups the players groaned everytime they heard Saul had bought a new game. In other groups his players were curiosious about some of the games in Saul's extensive RPG library.
In both groups the playes learned the game to various degrees of expertise. Saul and Jolen...
2023-10-0542 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 253: The Long and Short Rest, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene This week Saul and Jolene discuss the Long and Short rest from D&D 5th edtion. Jolene had asked Saul what he thought about how these affected the game. Jolene was not prepared for Saul's the long winded tirade about the topic.
At some point Jolene stopped Saul and told him it would make a good episode for the podcast. Saul quickly got his GP notebook and starting scratching his thoughts about the Long and Short rest.
In short, Saul realized and not right away that he didsn't D&D's 5th edtion rules on the Long and Short rest...
2023-09-2941 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 249: Most Popular Character Type, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Jolene asked Saul, "What do you think the most played character class is?" Saul immediately said, "Fighter." Jolene asked how he came up with that guess. A discussion followed about the most popular character type and why people like to play Fighters.
Saul and Jolene decided to record an episode about this topic. Why are "Fighters" so popular? Saul and Jolene say their favorite class in most games no matter the genre is a sorcerer or wizard. Yet fighters are the most played character type according to 2020 D&D Beyond data that was published.
For many reasons the Fighter in...
2023-08-3030 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 248: Does Getting Older Change Your View on RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Jolene was asking Saul if he thought his views on RPGs had changed over the years. At first Saul didn't think his views had changed but Jolene was being very wiley and knew they had. It did not take long for Saul to change his mind about how some of his views had changed.
Jolene asked about the games Saul did not like in the past, Traveller, CoC and Vampire, and immediately Saul knew the trap had been set. So the discussion ranged from a variety of subjects about how getting older changes one's view about many RPGs and the ho...
2023-08-2246 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 247: Does Being A Paid GM Change Your Game, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and JoleneIn this episode Saul and Jolene talk about a question saw on Facebook that asked, "Does being a paid GM change your game? There were plenty of comments and Saul picked out a few to discuss how it correlated with being a paid GM.
One comment was asking if the GM would be considered to be a player in an RPG game. For Saul it seemed like a silly question but if you really dig into the issue it is not so easily answered. Another commenter didn't like the use of the term play because they thought it did...
2023-08-0441 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 244: Bladerunner RPG Review, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene
Now that Saul and run Bladerunner the RPG three times and has gone over the Bladerunner RPG by Free League, Saul and Jolene decided to do a quick review of the game. Saul pre-ordered the Core book and the Starter Kit.
Though Saul really liked the components of the Starter Set the scenario was quite to Saul's liking. Saul would call himself a fan of the Original Bladerunner movie, Jolene on the other hand has a slightly different opinion. But no matter what her opinion of the movie was she really enjoyed playing in the world of Bladerunne...
2023-06-3048 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 179 - Don't panic!! This time of year can leave gardeners feeling frazzled and torn between jobs, so how do Saul and Lucy survive this "May madness"? Plus, the Chelsea Flower Show is on the horizon - Lucy and Saul both have plans to be there.What is that on the horizon - well, it's Spring of course. The klaxon for warmer, longer days is finally sounding and Head Gardeners Saul and Lucy are looking forward to it immensely. Spring is a wonderful time of year but also incredibly busy for all professional gardeners up and down the country as the gardens come alive with colour, texture and the occasional weed! Join them both as they navigate this beautiful time of year, bringing you the sights and sounds of Stonelands and East Donyland, as well as their home gardens and beyond.Hold onto...
2023-05-1832 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 237: Gnomes, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Jolene has always liked Gnomes( She pronounces gnome with a hard G) and when we were thinking of a new episode we thought about the last couple of episodes dealing with Elves and Dwarves. We agreed that Gnomes was a good topic to continue our discussion of playing other character races other than humans.
Gnomes for Saul had been one of those groups that he had never played. Saul usually played humans and possibly played one elf back in AD&D days so he could play a multi-class character. Though recently Saul has favored playing two Gnomes in the last...
2023-04-2930 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 235:Different OSR RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene We got a text asking about the different version of OSR RPGs so Saul and Jolene read through some of the OSR games that Saul has collected in printed and PDF format. Jolene also looked at various blogs and Youtube vidoes for some of the more popular OSR games that Saul did not have in his library.
From Original D&D to 2nd edition there are several OSR games for each version of "Old School" RPGs. What is really interesting is that they each have their own reasoning for making their version of an old D&D RPG.
S...
2023-04-1441 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 222: Top Ten RPGs We Want to Play in 2023, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Happy New Year! As 2022 ends Saul and Jolene decided to do an episode of Top Ten RPGs they want to play in 2023. Saul cheated on number 10 and threw in a quick list of 8 games that he wants to get to the table in 2023.
The list is not top ten of new RPGs just RPGs that have been in Saul's library for a while and have not seen any or enough action at the RPG table. This list come mainly from Saul but Jolene added one or two to the list. Some on this list is just published as in Blade...
2022-12-3045 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 219: Shopping in RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss shopping in RPGs. This topic was put forth by a Facebook post asking Saul to read a blog about shopping. Saul mentioned it to Jolene who didn't think there would be much opinion on the subject, but even Saul was surprised by how adament people's opinion on the subject was.
From the players and GMs that absoulutely hated shopping in a RPG session to some that made it a feature of starting of their campaign.
Saul and Jolene discuss their experiences with shopping and how their kids really liked shopping when the par...
2022-11-3034 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 209: Summer of SRD, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about the SRD's (System Reference Document) that are being published by some game publishers of their in house RPG Systems. Saul has been wondering about this happening with a couple of publishers.
Specifically Modiphius with their 2D20 system and Free League with their Year Zero Engine. Each of these publishers have made several RPG rules using a version of their in house systems. Saul has GM'ed or played in several of each publishers games. Conan, Mutant Chronicles, Star Trek Adventures, John Carter of Mars for Modphius and Coriolis, Tales From the Loop and A...
2022-08-2037 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 135 - Join Saul for five days at Stonelands, as he leads you through a typical week of gardening at Stonelands House, expect highs and lows as he manages flowers, vegetables, garden tours and a rather annoying tyre!Spring 2022 has arrived and a new chapter in our gardening lives has started as bulbs, early blossom and the early tufts of seedlings and herbaceous perennials speak of the year ahead. As days in spring seem to tumble one after another in an ever-accelerating list of garden jobs, plantings and hum of mowers - it's a great time to shake off the winter slumber and start to engage with the natural world around us, enjoying the spectacles of spring that lie within. As ever, Saul and Lucy will bring you their waffled musings and exciting revelations as this most...
2022-05-1435 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 124 - Prepare yourself for discussions on spring colour, new trailers and garden visits. Also brace your brain for a full-blown explanation on potato chitting, as Saul and Lucy get their teeth into another episode of the Talking Heads Podcast.We are now firmly in winter, and you might be thinking that Head Gardeners Saul Walker and Lucy Chamberlain are taking things easy on their respective estates. But as these latest episodes will show, the two are fervently working away as busily as ever. With jobs such as planting, pruning, clearing and renovating on the cards, Lucy and Saul are at no risk of getting cold during this chillier season. The gardening friends are also busy thinking of the year ahead, so expect plenty of discussions about the weather, biscuits, buying new equipment, mowing, spreadsheets vs. lists, (more biscuits...
2022-02-1031 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 122 - It's snowdrop time! Saul and Lucy discuss their favourites, and we also chat about box moth controls, hedge laying and using plant-based biofumigants in the garden.We are now firmly in winter, and you might be thinking that Head Gardeners Saul Walker and Lucy Chamberlain are taking things easy on their respective estates. But as these latest episodes will show, the two are fervently working away as busily as ever. With jobs such as planting, pruning, clearing and renovating on the cards, Lucy and Saul are at no risk of getting cold during this chillier season. The gardening friends are also busy thinking of the year ahead, so expect plenty of discussions about the weather, biscuits, buying new equipment, mowing, spreadsheets vs. lists, (more biscuits...
2022-01-2938 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 121 - The seed sowing season is almost here - have you made your seed orders yet? In this episode, Head Gardeners Lucy and Saul discuss what prestigious varieties are lucky enough to make it onto their respective order lists.We are now firmly in winter, and you might be thinking that Head Gardeners Saul Walker and Lucy Chamberlain are taking things easy on their respective estates. But as these latest episodes will show, the two are fervently working away as busily as ever. With jobs such as planting, pruning, clearing and renovating on the cards, Lucy and Saul are at no risk of getting cold during this chillier season. The gardening friends are also busy thinking of the year ahead, so expect plenty of discussions about the weather, biscuits, buying new equipment, mowing, spreadsheets vs. lists, (more biscuits...
2022-01-1535 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 120 - It's the start of a new year, so the two Head Gardener hosts, Lucy and Saul, catch up after the festive break and discuss what's been happening in their horticultural livesWe are now firmly in winter, and you might be thinking that Head Gardeners Saul Walker and Lucy Chamberlain are taking things easy on their respective estates. But as these latest episodes will show, the two are fervently working away as busily as ever. With jobs such as planting, pruning, clearing and renovating on the cards, Lucy and Saul are at no risk of getting cold during this chillier season. The gardening friends are also busy thinking of the year ahead, so expect plenty of discussions about the weather, biscuits, buying new equipment, mowing, spreadsheets vs. lists, (more biscuits...
2022-01-0831 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 119 - As the end of 2021 beckons, Saul and Lucy become reflective and begin to think about the gardening resolutions they wish to make for the coming year.The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!The year is almost out as Christmas and the New Year...
2021-12-1934 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 118 - With no particular subject for this episode Lucy and Saul chat, debate and discuss their way through all sorts of gardening topics with storms, decimated carrots, nuisance bamboo and spineless holly all on the menu.The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!Head Gardeners Lucy and Saul realised they had no topic for...
2021-12-1131 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 117 - Dust off your finest (virtual) togs - it's the 2021 Garden Media Guild Awards! Saul and Lucy sing the praises of some of the finest horticultural communicators our industry has to offer.The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!The gardening sector is jam packed with writers, bloggers, radio broadcasters...
2021-12-0231 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 116 - Hedges are important! When it comes to choosing, planting and pruning Lucy and Saul know that planning and preparation is key. In this episode, they discuss their respective hedging masterplans.The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!Whether you love formal or informal, evergreen or deciduous, large or...
2021-11-2734 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 115 - Summer and Autumn in the Vegetable Garden may have passed, but how much should we focus on Winter as well - Lucy lets Saul know there's lots more going on than we think!The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!Throughout Spring, Summer and Autumn we think of the Vegetable plots a...
2021-11-1431 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 114 - Autumn leaves are showing their colours, but what exactly is happening for the tones of yellow, orange, red and purple to be at their glorious best? In this episode, Saul and Lucy delve in to the science of autumn colour.The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!Autumn leaf colours are one of the marvels of our temperate...
2021-11-0635 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 113 - At this time in Autumn there is an abundance of produce coming out of our Kitchen Gardens - but does anything beat the taste of a home-grown Apple or a swig of freshly pressed Apple juice - Saul and Lucy don't think so!The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!One of Saul and Lucy's great joys at this time of...
2021-10-3036 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 173: Halloween Themed Games, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and JoleneThe Halloween episode, where Saul and Jolene talk about running Halloween Themed Rpg games.
Saul talks about obvious Halloween themes such as Horror and Mystery games that would fit in perfectly with the holiday motif.
Saul discusses well known games such as Call of Cthulhu to lesser known games such as Dark Conspiracy and Stalking the Night Fantastic.
Jolene points out to Saul other game RPG games would be a good fit. Liminal, Alien and WWII RPGs would be good fits with Halloween themed games
Many games are mentioned in this episode.
2021-10-2730 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 112 - There's been a disaster! (Well, actually, there have been a few in the garden this year). But these give us opportunities to learn, so Lucy and Saul reveal what 2021 has taught them.The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins!Well, in actual fact - don't mention Saul's pumpkins or Lucy's...
2021-10-2439 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 172: GMing to Your Strengths, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Saul and Jolene discuss playing to your GMing Strengths. If your good at art, lean into your art skills and bring that talent to the game table. If your good at making funny voices use that skill at your gaming table. Saul and Jolene discuss these and other skills that can make your GMing at the game table a better experience.
Saul of course goes way off course a couple of times and so you have a bit of longer episode. Saul mentions two books which he could not remember the titles of during the recording of the episode...
2021-10-1841 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 171 Making Non-Generic RPGs into Generic RPGs, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene A few episodes ago Saul made a comment about 5th Edition D&D. The gist of the comment was that a ruleset not intended as a generic RPG be used as a generic RPG. This was aimed specifically at D&D 5th edition due to one the popularity of the RPG and because of that popularity it has spawned many different RPGs using that ruleset. This was due to the number of RPG PDFs that Saul had bought and was not impressed with the use of D&D 5th edition rules OGL.
That was a while ago and since then...
2021-10-1230 min
GamingPerspectivesEpisode 170: No Villain In Your RPG Adventures, Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene A listener posed a question to Saul and Jolene, does there need to be a Villain in your RPG adventure or campaign. Saul's first thought that sure you can and Jolene wasn't so sure.
Saul came up with three different instances where you may not need a Villain pulling all the strings trying to thwart the player characters. Listen to that discussion between Saul and Jolene, though even after what Saul said she didn't seem that convinced.
Thank you all for listening and all we ask is that you share our podcast with your gamer friends.
2021-10-0431 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 111 - For an instant splash of colour in Spring planting bulbs now throughout the Autumn is the single most effective way of welcoming in the new gardening season, so Lucy and Saul take a look at their recent bulb orders.The mellow fruitfulness of Autumn has been heralded by the subtle change in temperature and darker mornings and evenings in the garden. For Lucy Chamberlain and Saul Walker this starts one of their favourite times of year as Lucy's vegetable patch is at maximum yield producing food for East Donyland Hall and Saul revels in the changing colours in the canopies of his precious treescape at Stonelands. So join us throughout the season as we bring tales of crispy leaves, hibernating plants and plenty of pumpkins! Although Autumn may bring signs that this year's gardening season is c...
2021-10-0231 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 109 - The flowers in Lucy and Saul's meadows are now over and shedding their precious seed for next years display - this is a very important time in the year for cutting, sowing seed and winter maintenance in preparation for next year.Summer is upon us at last! The warmer weather seems much overdue this year, so Lucy and Saul are relieved to at last see the abundance of growth that this season can bring. This explosion requires selective intervention and management, so get ready for lively conversations about how these two experienced Head Gardeners keep calm - and cool - during the garden's peak period. If there is a subject that gets regularly looked at on the Talking Heads Podcast its Saul and Lucy's meadows which they are both very rightly proud of! And the late summer into a...
2021-09-1834 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 161: Space Opera RPG Saul and Jolene went on a family vacation and Saul was unable to edit last weeks episode on time. To make up for that Saul decided to talk about his Favorite RPG of all time or as he stated "one of the Top 3 RPGs" on his favorites list.
If you listen to this podcast with any regularity Saul brings up Space Opera RPG from Fantasy Games Unlimited as Jolene's says, "ALL THE TIME". So Saul decided to spend as much time as Jolene would allow for Saul to "review" Space Opera.
Thanks for listening
Music by Al...
2021-07-2647 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 158: The Bait and Switch Saul and Jolene discuss the Bait and Switch game. It is when you, as the GM, present a game of a genre, a type a particular setting or even a system, but when the players sit down to play, you switch it up on the players and try to run something other than presented. Saul discusses an idea with some fellow GM's and they inform Saul that its a bad idea and say its a "Bait and Switch" game. Saul was thinking it was just a way to surprise the players and didn't think he was baiting and switching playe...
2021-06-2734 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives With Saul and Jolene Bonus Episode: Gabriel Garcia writer of War Stories a WWII RPG In this Episode Saul and Jolene interview Gabriel Garcia who is writing War Stories a World War Two RPG using the Year Zero system. Saul came across Gabriel's post about War Stories on Facebook. Saul has been a fan of supernatural WWII RPGs such as D20s Weird War II, Savage Worlds Weird War, and Saul even used Spycraft 2.0 to run a series of Weird War II adventures for his home group.
Seeing what he liked in War Stories playtest PDF he decided to ask Gabriel to do an interview and see who was this creator from Miami. Tu...
2021-05-261h 11
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 152: Where Were We A question from the internet is this week's topic for the latest episode. How do you restart or come back to a campaign that has been on an extended break? Saul and Jolene discuss two ways to get back to your campaign in this episode.
The first one is the easier one, and that is just start exactly where you left off. This seems like the best and easiest way to restart or come back to a campaign. There are some things you can do to make this a smoother transition in getting back to the action. Saul and J...
2021-05-1634 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 151: What Make a Good RPG In this episode Saul and Jolene what makes a good RPG. For Saul it comes down to two things, Setting and Rules make a game good.
Saul and Jolene use recent and older games they have played to discuss this topic. Saul starts with 4 game setting he really likes but seem to fall short in the rules department.
Games mentioned in his podcast are Cyberpunk, Dark Conspiracy, Space Opera, Shadowrun, Liminal and Victoriana.
Thank you all for listening. All we ask is that you share our pocast.
Music by RBG8, song Mind Ga...
2021-05-0931 min
Saul TalkSaul Talk - PromoSaul Talk is a series of discussions featuring the thoughts and words of W.B. Saul High School’s Class of 2021 Natural Resource Management students. Saul Talk focuses on, addresses, and provides possible solutions to environmental issues as it relates to climate change, water quality, waste management, and environmental injustices to name a few. It is our goal at Saul Talk to educate our Philadelphia community about these topics in order to create change and improve the state of our city and planet at large. We at Saul Talk believe everyone can participate and contribute towards correcting our environmental wr...
2021-04-1400 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 146: Animal and Anamorphic RPGs Saul and Jolene explore RPGs which subject are animals or anamorphic in nature. Saul talks about his first experience playing an animal rpg called Bunnies and Burrows. Saul goes into some details about B&B. Saul recounts the next game being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which he briefly collected the comic books but didn't get the RPG until the mid 90's after the first TNMT movie had come out by New Line Cinema.
Jolene's first encounter with this kind of game was in Gamma World were some of the creatures were mutated animals of which the two most famous...
2021-04-0434 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 145: Solo RPGs Though Saul and Jolene touched on the subject before Saul thought that a whole episode detailing Solo RPGs would be worth while.
With the Pandemic still raging across the world, though there is light at the end of the tunnel, some people are not able to play with their normal group and for one reason or another do not want or cannot play RPGs online. And they want to still get that RPG feel from a table top game.
Enter the Solo RPG experience. Saul and Jolene discuss how today's solo games are remarkably different from the "Choos...
2021-03-2835 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 144: Making a Good RPG Villain In this Episode Saul and Jolene talk about making a good RPG Villain. They discuss only a few tips of many ways you can make a villain in your RPG stand out and not be a cliche. Saul offers two examples from games that he has run. One was a convention game which was played in an 8 hour session at a local game con, the other is from a long running home D&D game.
Each example showcases the tips Saul used in creating a Villain that the players really learned to hate and cheer each time the villai...
2021-03-2139 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 143: Damage in RPGs In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss how damage is determined in RPGs. Though there are many implementations of how damage is determined, Saul believes there are really only two ways damage is dealt with in RPGs. Static and Random.
As usual Saul goes meandering off topic but this time Jolene was a bit at fault for his digression. Saul and Jolene discuss what they like and dislike about the ways damage is determined in RPGs.
As Always Thank You for listening.
Music by Hoffman Sloth, song Damage Done, off the album Hoffman Slot...
2021-03-1434 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastBonus Episode #11 - Lucy and Saul are joined in conversation with Lou Nicholls, Head Gardener at Ulting Wick - we hear about her life in horticluture, her time at Ulting Wick with owner Phillipa Burrough, and her Adventures in Horticulture initiative.From time to time Lucy and Saul decided they wanted to record conversations with other Head Gardeners, Curators, Garden Owners and fellow horticulturists across the UK, these will be published as Bonus Episodes alongside their usual format of chatting about their gardening lives. We hope you enjoy.For the Bonus Episode #11 Lucy and Saul and joined by Lou Nicholls, Head Gardener at Ulting Wick, a plantsman paradise in Essex owned by Phillipa Burrough (See Episode 56 and 57 for Lucy and Saul's visit there). Lou chats to us about her time in horticulture, both ups and downs, what its...
2021-02-2741 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 138: Crunchy RPGs In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about the term "crunchy" in RPGs. Saul, again, goes way back to the beginning when he first started playing roleplaying games, and the first game he played was Original D&D. Saul does this to explain why he thinks the roots of OD&D being where crunch comes from. How OD&D set the standard of how a RPG should look and who played RPGs back in the late 70's and early 80's.
Saul and Jolene talk about the early RPGs from D&D, Traveler, Space Opera, Aftermath and Shadowrun and how the...
2021-02-0735 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives With Saul and Jolene Episode 137: Liminal RPG In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss the Liminal RPG by Paul Mitchener. It is a modern urban fantasy RPG set in England. Saul received a free PDF from Modiphius and it garnered enough of an interest that Saul bought a physical copy of the rules. Saul ran the game twice in two days over a weekend and the game was well liked by the players in two different groups.
Saul and Jolene cover the rules, the setting content and how what they liked about the game. Of course Saul digresses a couple of times but Jolene is there t...
2021-01-3034 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 135: Playing More Than One Character In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss playing more than one character in a RPG. Saul begins the discussion with playing back in the ole days of D&D where people would "play" a character of a player that could not make the session. Saul admits they really didn't RP those characters but just went through the mechanics of playing the missing players character.
From there Saul talks about friends playing with more than one character due to not being able to attend games on a regular basis and would instead play with his brother, a GM and one pl...
2021-01-2031 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 133: New RPGs for 2021 Part One Happy New Years to Everyone. In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss, well mainly Saul does, the most anticipated games for Gaming Perspectives. Not even covering all the RPGs that are slated to be published in 2021, Saul and Jolene discuss over two podcasts the RPGs they are most interested in playing or running.
Discussed in this episode are Flames of Freedom Kickstarted in the 2nd half of 2020 will be published in 2021.
More info at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grimandperilous/flames-of-freedom-powered-by-zweihander-rpg
The next game Saul is looking forward so is Beowulf: Age of Heroes. Sau...
2021-01-0330 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 69 - In this, part two, of their composting discussions, Lucy and Saul chat about large-scale composting on their estates. Saul's system has Lucy green with envy!2020 has been an unusual and difficult year for many, and we understand that the full repercussions of what we have all been through are still to be felt - but with summer now distant and the glory of autumn in full flow, we continue with a healthy amount of discussion on some of our favourite horticultural topics, bringing a little dose of the garden to your daily lives.As Head Gardeners on large estates, Saul and Lucy are lucky enough to have a sizeable amount of plant waste at their disposal. This allows them to complete composting...
2020-12-0923 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode127: Picking your Next RPG To Play Sometimes when Saul and Jolene feel extra enthusiastic they record two episodes back to back. Problem, sometimes Saul loses the recorded episode in the hundreds of files he has on his computer for the podcast. So back in October they recorded this episode and Saul found it after Jolene reminded him of the episode.
Picking your next RPG for your group to play? Saul and Jolene discuss that they are pretty lucky to be able to play in 4 different groups that meet on 3 different days of the week. Two games are played on Sunday every other week. :)
Due...
2020-11-2232 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 126: Dungeon Crawls In this Episode Saul and Jolene discuss Dungeon Crawls. They seem to be making a resurgence? What about the Mega Dungeon? Why are they popular and do Saul and Jolene like them.
Saul starts the conversation by stating that he doesn't have a lot of experience playing or running Dungeon Crawls. Though he does have recollection of this brother's Tunnels of Terror, but it wasn't the center of his brother's campaign. It was something that was always there if the characters needed something to do or a chance to score some extra gold. Though Saul doesn't remember Dungeon Crawli...
2020-11-1536 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 124: Planning Your RPG Adventures How do you plan your adventures. Saul and Jolene discuss this important part of any RPG session and that is how you plan or organize your RPG adventures, whether you play D&D, Conan, Star Wars or CoC.
Saul, of course, talks about how he used to brainstorm then then commit to paper his initial ideas about an adventure. Saul also discusses how that really didn't work for him or anybody else since he would come up with stories that he tried to forecast what the players would do. As any GM out there that has GMed even a li...
2020-11-0131 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 123: Conan 2d20 RPG In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of and what they liked and what they saw as problematic. For the most part both Saul and Jolene enjoyed the game. Saul Kickstarted the Core Book due to a recommendation by his older brother, who is a total Conan fan.
He was also the GM for the game that Saul has played in a few times and lately it was their Friday Knights Game, a group Jolene has joined.
This Conan set of rules uses Modiphius' house system called the 2d2o System whic...
2020-10-2535 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 120: Houserules in RPGs In this episode Saul and Jolene discuss Houserules in rpgs. Saul uses his boyhood rules of Monopoly which were actually heavily houseruled. It wasn't until he played much later as an adult that many of the rules as he knew them were not actually official rules of Monopoly. Saul then moves the conversation to Original D&D and how immediately many people started houseruling this set of rules.
Saul and Jolene discuss different types of houserules used in RPGs and if you do use alternate rules or special house rules, you should always tell your players about them.
...
2020-10-0435 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 118: Roleplaying Dragons, Gods and AIs In this episode Saul and Jolene tackle the idea of playing a Dragon, God or AI. Something that can be so alien to us that it really is incomprehensible to understand, as humans, their motivations. So we humans give these beings human like traits. In roleplaying games, playing some so alien is daunting. Saul and Jolene discuss how they RP their NPC Dragons, Gods, AI and even Aliens, not Xenomorphs cause they just want to eat you.
Saul discusses how he has played dragons in D&D and Shadowrun. Saul and Jolene talk about sources that they use as inspi...
2020-09-2029 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 117: The Wayward Player The Wayward Player, is discussed by Saul and Jolene. The single player that takes their character on their own side quest without discussing it with the other players/characters. Should the GM be stuck with running two separate games or splitting time between one player and the rest of the group? Saul and Jolene talk about what would make a player do this and how to handle this situation.
Saul digresses quite a bit on this episode, and Jolene for once, maybe she was tired lets him ramble a bit too long on certain digressions. But Saul finally ci...
2020-09-1336 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 47 - Saul takes a little time out at the end of the day to enjoy his garden and give you a tour of its big leaves and exotic flowers....As the Coronovirus pandemic has changed many aspects of life over the past many months, the gardens and green spaces all across the UK have continued in full glory over the spring - but Summer has arrived and for many the outdoors is the sanctuary from the continued uncertainty of what lies ahead. Head Gardeners Saul and Lucy have still been full at work at Stonelands and Easy Donyland (as well as their own gardens) and continue to share their lives as professional horticulturists, there tips and tricks and their observations of their gardening lives.Saul has...
2020-08-1927 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode112: Solo and One Player RPGs In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about Solo and One Player RPGs. Saul starts with his first sight of Tunnels and Trolls Solo adventures he saw at a Northern California game convention known as Pacificon. Also Solo adventure rpgs remind Saul of the old "Choose your Own Adventure" series of books.
Jolene was asked by a friend to do a Solo adventure in preparation for a CoC game he was going to run, in order to get her into mood of the game. Her solo CoC adventure ended with her not being able to escape the town and ge...
2020-08-0936 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp.40 - We're Back! After a small unscheduled break from the Podcast, while Saul's back recuperated - we dive into his passion - Exotic Plants - so Lucy and Saul discuss big leaves and nectar rich flowers...As the Coronovirus pandemic has changed many aspects of life over the past many months, the gardens and green spaces all across the UK have continued in full glory over the spring - but Summer has arrived and for many the outdoors is the sanctuary from the continued uncertainty of what lies ahead. Head Gardeners Saul and Lucy have still been full at work at Stonelands and Easy Donyland (as well as their own gardens) and continue to share their lives as professional horticulturists, there tips and tricks and their observations of their gardening lives.Apologies for...
2020-07-2030 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 105: Traps Saul and Jolene discuss Traps! in your RPG games. Saul discusses how he has never really used traps in his fantasy RPGs. Saul talks about his earliest recollections of playing D&D and how traps had not played a big role in his early games and how that directed him to not include them in his games when he started running games.
Jolene tried to keep Saul on topic but allowed him to digress. Jolene as always did a bit of research on using traps and found "Grimtooths books of Traps". Which causes Saul to talk about an old story a...
2020-06-2138 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp.33 - Instead of being in our gardens, this week Lucy and Saul should have been at BBC Gardeners' World, assessing the floral marquee awards and running the Plant Experts Advice Desk, instead we thought we'd dedicate an episode to it...As the Coronovirus pandemic has changed many aspects of life over the past many months, the gardens and green spaces all across the UK have continued in full glory over the spring - but Summer has arrived and for many the outdoors is the sanctuary from the continued uncertainty of what lies ahead. Head Gardeners Saul and Lucy have still been full at work at Stonelands and Easy Donyland (as well as their own gardens) and continue to share their lives as professional horticulturists, there tips and tricks and their observations of their gardening lives.Saul and...
2020-06-1823 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp.31 - For large gardens or large plant collections, labelling and cataloguing the varieties and species you have can seem quite boring (and a little nerdy!), but it's far from it and can be absolutely essential as Lucy and Saul have a chat about....As the Coronovirus pandemic has changed many aspects of life over the past three months, the gardens and green spaces all across the UK have continued in full glory over the spring - but Summer has arrived and for many the outdoors is the sanctuary from the continued uncertainty of what lies ahead. Head Gardeners Saul and Lucy have still been full at work at Stonelands and Easy Donyland (as well as their own gardens) and continue to share their lives as professional Horticulturists, there tips and tricks and their observations of their gardening lives.Saul's personal...
2020-06-1023 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 103: Canon in RPGs Saul and Jolene talk about sticking to canon in RPGs. Saul usually tries to be a rebel but feels sticking to official "canon" of a setting or IP is important. It may not be really important to Saul as a fan of a genre, but when he runs RPGs, he feels that staying close to canon is important. One of the reasons it is important is because when you list or describe your game being set in a certain setting, from Star Wars to Star Trek to Forgotten Realms, the players coming to sit at your table come to expect c...
2020-06-0733 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp.27 - With the mercury rising and rain in short supply in both Devon and Essex, its Irrigation, Irrigation, Irrigation for Saul and Lucy, but that doesn't mean they can't take time to enjoy their meadows and harden off tender plants...Lucy and Saul are fully aware that the world has taken a monumental shift - the Coronavirus outbreak has left our little bit of the world in Horticulture reeling both personally and professionally. So we both decided that instead of our longer format episodes every 3 weeks or so - we going to record shorter podcasts, through the week, to bring you a slice of our lives at East Donyland Hall and Stonelands and beyond - trying to bring a little bit of spring and sunshine to your eardrums.With echos of the past two years - the...
2020-05-2925 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 101: The Druid The classic Druid class in D&D is discussed by Saul and Jolene in this episode. Though not a favorite of Saul or Jolene they have had a number of players in their groups who played druids. From Saul's the cavalier childhood friend to the critical thinker druid played by the son of a friend. Each character were was played very differently due to how each player interpreted what a druid was.
Of course Saul digresses with an old, Jolene would say very OLD, tale of Saul's friend which luckily for the listener Jolene bring Saul back to the topi...
2020-05-2432 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 100: Paranoia the RPG This is our 100th Episode which means we are only four weeks away from 2 years of podcasting which is a pretty good milestone in podcasting. People like the big round numbers so this is 100 weekly episode, which does not include interview or recordings from gaming conventions.
Paranoia is this crazy, wild game of a "Humorously Dark Future." Saul bought the box set one summer in 1984, that year is oddly familiar, when Saul was staying over the summer with his sister who lived in the big city of San Jose California.
Saul convinced his friends to play it a f...
2020-05-1730 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp.21 - The May bank holiday means more time in our home gardens - Saul has been joining online botanical classes from Florida and Lucy has been growing and selling plants from her Essex garden....Lucy and Saul are fully aware that the world has taken a monumental shift - the Coronavirus outbreak has left our little bit of the world in Horticulture reeling both personally and professionally. So we both decided that instead of our longer format episodes every 3 weeks or so - we going to record shorter podcasts, through the week, to bring you a slice of our lives at East Donyland Hall and Stonelands and beyond - trying to bring a little bit of spring and sunshine to your eardrums.Bank holidays are always gardening weekends in Lucy and...
2020-05-0422 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 96 Steampunk RPGs In this Episode Saul and Jolene talk about one of their favorite genres, Steampunk. Saul talks about various books of the Steampunk genre he has read. Saul and Jolene discuss the various RPGs that fall under the genre of Steampunk. Some are dismissed as not Steampunk by Saul but Jolene thinks that some of those dismissed by Saul are Steampunk. In the end Jolene asks Saul to run a RPG of the Steampunk variety.
As always thank you all for listening and please share our podcast in your favorite social media.
And during these times Stay Safe e...
2020-04-1936 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp.15 - The extended Easter break has meant four solid days for Lucy and Saul in their own gardens, so they share what they've been up to, discuss their love for greenhouses and Saul reveals his Pleione orchids...Lucy and Saul are fully aware that the world has taken a monumental shift - the Coronavirus outbreak has left our little bit of the world in Horticulture reeling both personally and professionally. So we both decided that instead of our longer format episodes every 3 weeks or so - we going to record shorter podcasts, through the week, to bring you a slice of our lives at East Donyland Hall and Stonelands and beyond - trying to bring a little bit of spring and sunshine to your eardrums.In this episode Lucy and Saul reveal what they've...
2020-04-1321 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp.10 - Lucy and Saul take a look at which gardens have influenced their gardening careers the most...Lucy and Saul are fully aware that the world has taken a monumental shift - the Coronavirus outbreak has left our little bit of the world in Horticulture reeling both personally and professionally. So we both decided that instead of our longer format episodes every 3 weeks or so - we going to record shorter podcasts, through the week, to bring you a slice of our lives at East Donyland Hall and Stonelands and beyond - trying to bring a little bit of spring and sunshine to your eardrums.In this episode Lucy and Saul have a chat...
2020-03-3118 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 8 - Spring is in the air - Lucy and Saul bring you the latest from their Gardens....Lucy and Saul are fully aware that the world has taken a monumental shift - the Coronavirus outbreak has left our little bit of the world in Horticulture reeling both personally and professionally. So we both decided that instead of our longer format episodes every 3 weeks or so - we going to record shorter podcasts, through the week, to bring you a slice of our lives at East Donyland Hall and Stonelands and beyond - trying to bring a little bit of spring and sunshine to your eardrums.With a majority of the UK in lockdown, Lucy...
2020-03-2615 minTalking Heads - a Gardening PodcastEp. 7 - What do Head Gardeners get up to in their own gardens - Lucy and Saul tells all...Lucy and Saul are fully aware that the world has taken a monumental shift - the Coronavirus outbreak has left our little bit of the world in Horticulture reeling both personally and professionally. So we both decided that instead of our longer format episodes every 3 weeks or so - we going to record shorter podcasts, through the week, to bring you a slice of our lives at East Donyland Hall and Stonelands and beyond - trying to bring a little bit of spring and sunshine to your eardrums.In this episode Saul and Lucy look to their...
2020-03-2316 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Bonus Episode: Saturday at Dundracon 44 Saul and Jolene went to Dundracon 44 in San Ramon California over the President's Day weekend. On Saturday they recorded at DDC and had two people join them on the microphone one was the much mentioned Felipe, Saul's older brother, and Phil, Saul's long time friend and fellow gamer. Felipe is the older brother that got Saul started on his lifetime love of hobby gaming with the introduction of Original D&D in 1978. Phil, Saul met in a high school Geometry class, but didn't game with him until Saul returned from college and was re-introduced to Phil by Jim, a fellow...
2020-02-251h 07
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 86: Dark Conspiracy RPG This week Saul and Jolene talk about one of Saul's favorite old rpgs called Dark Conspiracy. It is a game of "near future horror roleplaying game. Published in 1991 Dark Conspiracy called DC by fans first caught the eye of Saul way back in 1991 at a B. Dalton's Bookstore in the local mall. From the cover and the story line that intrigued Saul, he kept going back to that store and finally bought the book after three months of thinking about it.
Saul ran two campaigns of DC. One for the old friends which he started playing RPGs with in Sal...
2020-02-0227 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives With Saul and Jolene Episode 79: Journals in RPGs Saul and Jolene asked the Webosphere, if there were any topics they wanted covered by the podcast. One topic was posted on the Gaming Perspectives Facebook page was journals. Now Saul didn't have an exact idea what the poster, Michael, exactly meant by "journals" but that didn't stop Saul from answering the question anyway.
As always Jolene was had to corral Saul from meandering too far from the subject. Saul and Jolene discussed how journals or diaries could be used in roleplaying games. Players and GM's writing session notes, character journals/diaries and even campaign notes seemed like a goo...
2019-12-1522 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives With Saul and Jolene Episode 74: The Year Zero System In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about the new RPG engine by Free League they are calling the Year Zero Engine. It is the system that was introduced in Mutant Year Zero RPG and was used in the subsequent other publications. This New Zero system was tweaked and used in Coriolis, Tales From the Loop and Forbidden Lands RPGs.
Free League decided to streamline the rules, clean them up and publish them as an Open Gaming License publication. Meaning that you can under certain circumstances use the system and publish your own content.
Saul and Jolene talk...
2019-11-1033 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 73: The GMPC Saul and Jolene discuss the GMPC, the game master player character. Saul saw a poll on social media about how often should a GM use a GMPC. All the possible answers varied from always, sometimes, and use only infrequently. Saul was surprised to see of those that replied that a vast number of people said it was totally okay to do. They all had their "reasons" for using a GMPC. Jolene was a bit puzzled by the topic Saul presented so she used her research skills and found some pretty funny anecdotes on the subject.
Saul definitely has his opinion...
2019-11-0231 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 72: The Evolution of the Game Store Hobby Game Stores have evolved from the small mom and pop store of the 1970's and 80's. Saul and Jolene discuss how they have had to evolve from those small hobby shop game stores that have mainly gone the way of the dinosaurs. In today's small profit margins and competition from online sales they can't, like other retail establishments, do business the same old way.
Saul relates the two old style hobby game stores from when he was a kid. Neither one of those two stores remain, but instead we have bigger and more inviting game store that have to b...
2019-10-2726 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 65: Getting Paid for GMing The Dream of many a gamer is that of Getting Paid to Play. Well at least in this case getting paid to GM a game. Saul always considered this kind of a pipe dream and not very possible. Then Saul read an article about a GM in San Francisco that gets paid over 500 dollars a session. Saul was reminded, by Jolene, about Becky Thomas of The Roleplay Workshop who has been making a living of GMing for over 25 years. Saul and Jolene decided to take the conversion to the microphones and share it with you as an episode of Gaming P...
2019-09-0928 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode 58: Gamma World In this episode Saul and Jolene talk an old rpg Gamma World by TSR. It was the first RPG owned by Saul and it was Jolene's first RPG game she played way back in the early 80's. Saul and Jolene discuss all the iterations Gamma World that were published. From the first edition published in 1978 to 8th edition published in 2010. Saul has copies of 4 different editions. Saul and Jolene talk about why they liked the game. Saul discusses running the latest edition at local con in kids and teen rooms.
Thanks to all that listen to our podcast and all...
2019-07-2134 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives With Saul and Jolene Episode 57: Ghosting In RPGs Saul and Jolene talk about Ghosting in RPGs. So what is ghosting and where does this term come from. Saul listens to many podcasts and it was a term used on another gaming podcast called "Gaming and BS". In it a host talks about ghosting. Saul had never heard of the term and asked Jolene what it was about. Saul and Jolene discussed and laughed about this subject and decided to record and episode about this strange way of dealing with a problem player or group in RPGs.
Why to gamers Ghost games or players. It an long held ster...
2019-07-1433 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives With Saul and Jolene Episode 55: Chasing the Perfect RPG Saul and Jolene discuss the buying of new RPGs. Why do people continue to buy new RPGs? If players and GMs like a particular RPG why would you buy new ones. What makes gamers continue to guy games even as their collection grows to the point they won't be able to play all of them? It is an interesting question which Saul and Jolene dive into. As Jolene marvels at the number of different RPGs on her shelves she knows that Saul will continue to look at and buy new RPGs. Saul says because he likes certain mechanics that some newer g...
2019-06-3038 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode Thirty-Six: Player Narrative Control In this episode Saul and Jolene talk about Player Narrative Control in RPG's. It is sometimes difficult to define some of the terms that pop up in Role Playing games. Saul defines what Narrative Control means to him and Jolene questions his definition. Saul and Jolene discuss this term and what it means in role playing games. Saul describes games that don't have implicit narrative control like old school games like Original D&D, Space Opera, Shadowrun and those that do like Feng Shui, Fate and GM less games. Jolene questions if it is needed or even wanted by players...
2019-02-0330 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode Thirty-Two: Kickstarters Saul and Jolene talk about Kickstarter. They discuss both the pledging and creating Kickstarter Campaigns. As a long time supporter of a few Kickstarter campaigns, Saul discusses why people support Kickstarter campaigns. Jolene attests to the number of KickStarter that Saul has pledged and who has been pretty happy with most of the pledges. Saul discusses the help that is out there for creators and talks about specific Kickstarter campaigns he has supported in the past and one that is currently active.
Happy New Year Everyone!!!
For tips on how to run a good Kickstarter campaign you...
2019-01-0634 min
GamingPerspectivesGaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene Episode Sixteen: The Railroad Game After reading Mike Mearl's tweet "Railroading has gotten such a bad rap in RPG circles that we forget it is one end on a continuum.", Saul was a bit surprised that Mr. D&D was defending Railroad games. Saul talked to Jolene about the quote and the decision was made to discuss this topic on Gaming Perspectives with Saul and Jolene. We dicuss the definition of the term railroad and Saul slowly comes around to Mike Mearl's way of thinking. Jolene doesn't like the term "railroad" and uses the term linear. Saul and Jolene discuss what is a Railroad/Linear...
2018-09-1533 min