Blog: Close to the Edge

Something you all may or may not know: I listen to every episode of Saving the Game after it releases. As the only regular host who has never done audio editing, if I don’t make a conscious effort to listen to the episodes after they’re released, I never get to hear them. Usually, that experience is just a nice refresher of an interesting conversation I had with some friends that happened to be recorded, but every now and then, I get hit with something like this: toward the end of our episode with Ken Hite, Ken asked a question in the segment about horror and Christianity that I didn’t actually answer. Fatigue took over and I wound up going on a rambling tangent, but the question was good enough that after listening to the final episode and facepalming for a few minutes, I decided that it still deserved an answer.

The question was: “Any times when you’ve been playing horror games and thinking ‘oh, that was a little close to the edge f […]

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Episode 49 – Horror Games (with Kenneth Hite)

Award-winning author and game designer Kenneth Hite joins Grant, Peter and Branden for a discussion of horror games and stories, just in time for Halloween! Check out Ken’s own podcast, Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff, and keep an eye out for The Dracula Dossier, a really neat project he’ll be Kickstarting soon. We also plug our upcoming charity drive for The Bodhana Group and our store.

After our Scripture readings, we talk with Ken about the fun of horror stories; running a good horror game; types of horror; creating the right amount of fear and horror in games; and writing and playing horror as a […]

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Episode 48 – Trustworthy Characters

Peter and Branden are back to talk about trustworthiness! First, a reminder about our upcoming LIVE recording of Episode 50, and an account of Save Against Fear 2014 from Branden. Then, we get down to the business of trust. We talk about why players don’t trust NPCs; how to convince players that their characters should trust a given NPC; how to indicate that a character isn’t trustworthy; and what to do when a player character can’t be trusted. Enjoy!

Scripture:Proverbs 10:9, Luke 16:10

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Episode 47 – Monsters

Grant, Peter and Branden are back with thoughts on monsters! Our brief news segment discusses our new online store (go buy a shirt or a mug, they’re awesome), a plug for the LIVE episode we’ll record Oct. 16th, and some comments on our completed backlog and our Facebook, Google+ and Twitter feeds. Then we get down to business and talk about monsters (reprising the topic for Crossover Nexus #2, which Peter appeared on.) Why are stories about monsters interesting? What makes particular monsters interesting? How can we and should we use monsters in our games and stories? And what are our […]

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Episode 46 – Kindness (Virtues & Vices, Part 12)

Grant’s back, and there’s so much news! Our official store is open, Peter’s getting published again, Branden has a job, and our live Q&A episode is coming up. And all that’s before we get into our main topic, Kindness. After defining kindness and discussing its nature as a virtue, we dive headlong into its in-game uses and role as a storytelling trope. Finally, we wrap up with a discussion of kindness at the gaming table.

Scripture: Micah 6:8, Ezekiel 36:26, Matthew 25:34-40,

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