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Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. For Halloween this year, I wanted to inject some real life horror into the show! I visited the RPG Horror stories reddit and searched online to find stories and examples of horrific TTPRG experiences! While not horror in the thematic sense, but instead horror in the sense of experience playing in terrible game situations. Some of (if not most of) these stories will likely remind you of your own experiences running or playing games. True tales of player and GM encounters that will boil your blood or make you feel vicariously exhausted! Tune in to hear these awful and horrific stories to see if you can relate to the author's experiences, or in some cases, is the author themself part of the problem? If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Pining For Pixels podcast! This is my video game variety show podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a subject or theme that interests me, and I will speak about what is on my mind in the world of video games! Now that Halloween is here, it is time to complete the 40th Anniversary of Castlevania special that I started last week. This week I am looking closer at the mainline franchise itself, to see how it evolved over the years, how it redefined itself, and ultimately what I consider to be the top 5 absolute best entries in this legendary series. Tune in to hear about how many games have been released in the Castlevania franchise, and to see if my top 5 matches up with yours. If you haven't played a Castlevania game before, then this should give you a good idea of the franchise and my top 5 acts as a list of recommendations on where you can start, although I am sure many will disagree with my picks.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. This week I wanted to tackle the subject of burnout in both GMs and Players. Due to the nature of the hobby, this is a very real phenomenon that can be experienced. No one is completely immune to it. I researched common ways that people in the community describe burnout and try to discuss how to mitigate. It is most common to hear about GM burnout since they typically have the most work and responsibility than anyone else at the table. However, Players can just as easily feel burned out too, for a whole host of reasons. Tune in to hear what I found to be the most common causes of burnout, and hopefully solutions to them, but also stay to hear my own brushes with burnout.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Pining For Pixels podcast! This is my video game variety show podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a subject or theme that interests me, and I will speak about what is on my mind in the world of video games! As Halloween is almost upon us, and 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of the legendary Castlevania franchise, I wanted to focus on what makes this series so good and examine the tremendous impact it has had on the video game industry as a whole. There is so much to talk about with Castlevania, that I couldn't possibly keep it to just one episode. So for this week's entry, I wanted to look at all the games that have followed this franchise's lead and have paid homage from loving nods and eerie atmospheres, to straight up clones and spiritual follow ups. The DNA of Castlevania is so easily recognizable, and whenever a game tries to follow in its footsteps, it often leads to good things. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I think this can be seen directly with how the Castlevania franchise has inadvertently produced so many ill-begotten offspring! Tune in to hear some great game suggestions if you have already played everything in the Castlevania franchise and still want more!  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. After thinking long and hard about it, I have opted to do an episode of Making a Character that covers all the versions of Basic D&D from the Holmes basic in 1977, the OSR iconic Moldvay B/X in 1981, to the Mentzer Basic red box in 1983, all in one episode. To set expectations, I opted not to actually create a character for each of these Basic editions, but instead compare how the generation of a level 1 character feels different between each expression of Basic. At the end of the day, these are all very similar systems mechanically speaking, using the wood grain/white box 0e as a starting point. I simply didn't want to move on to later editions without acknowledging the level 1 experience for these versions of Basic given their importance to so many D&D players all over. Tune in to hear my impressions and which version of Basic suits my preferences.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Pining For Pixels podcast! This is my video game variety show podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a subject or theme that interests me, and I will speak about what is on my mind in the world of video games! With another quarter safely behind us, it is now time to reflect on the prior 3 months and talk about what games were the best over that period of time. It started out rather quiet in July, as the Summer months tend to be quiet on that front. In August we a ramped up as the holiday release season approached, and of course September, the first month of holiday rush releases kept things busy as expected. It seems even busier this year since many developers and publishers are trying to avoid November due to GTA 6. I will say though that this year so far has produced some very good games, and Q3 just added more notable titles to the mix. Game of the Year for 2026 is going to be tough! For now though, tune in and let's just focus on the best of Q3 2026.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. This week I wanted to talk about one of the core components of running a long term D&D campaign - keeping track of all notes and records. At first it might seem easy enough, but after enough time, it quickly can become a herculean task. When I am talking about "long term" I am meaning multi-year. Some groups out there have been running their game world for over 40 years, almost as long as the hobby itself has existed! I envy those games. If you have ever read or seen anything about one of these legendary campaigns, it seems like it is all so magical, but behind all of that is someone, or a number of people putting in the hard work to maintain their living game world, which is no small task. Thankfully there is a lot of advice out there online and plenty of tools and resources you can use to better manage your world and even enjoy doing it. Tune in to hear what advice I discovered and some of the stuff to be mindful of if you are out there looking for something similar yourself.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Pining For Pixels podcast! This is my video game variety show podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a subject or theme that interests me, and I will speak about what is on my mind in the world of video games! Time to talk about my progress with the Trails series. I have recently completed the original Trails in the Sky Second Chapter, and started into Trails in the Sky the 3rd. What a ride this series has been so far, and this is only the first official story arc! I wanted to be sure to complete Sky SC before the remake came out, and I did. In this episode I go over all my thoughts on this monumental entry in the series as I have experienced it for the first time, as well as what my first steps in Trails the 3rd have been like. I will warn though, that this episode has lots of spoilers, and since there is a recent well received remake of Trails SC, be wary if you don't want to be spoiled. Tune in if you have already played these classics or if you don't mind getting spoiled and you want to hear my thoughts on what makes these games so great (so far)! If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. Cancellation of a pre-planned TTRPG session is something that everyone has experienced for one reason or another at various times. In my opinion. this is a bit of a specific issue with TTRPGs in general, you can have everything set and planned for a long time, and then 1 or 2 hours before game time, someone bails, potentially throwing the game into disarray. Now this isn't always the death knell of your plans, perhaps it is a an old school sandbox style game that can still march on, but sometimes if one person cancels, others start to fall like dominoes immediately after. Whatever the reason, an unexpected game cancellation sucks, especially when it becomes a pattern. This week I wanted to examine these situations in details to understand why this can happen to a TTRPG group, how we naturally handle it, and what you can possibly do about it. Tune in to hear my own real life examples and how I handle it, or in some cases, how I plan to handle it.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Pining For Pixels podcast! This is my video game variety show podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a subject or theme that interests me, and I will speak about what is on my mind in the world of video games! September 29, 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the Nintendo 64 console here in North America! This was a big release for me as this was the first console I purchased with my own money that was saved up from my part time Job at the time. This was the first time I was getting a home console that was not a Christmas present. It was such a surreal feeling to have a new console during a normal time of the year. It was also a huge advancement in how games were made  and how we experienced games going forward. Despite the fact that the N64 was not as successful as its primary competitor at that time, the Sony PlayStation, it had a much more important impact on the world of gaming from a hardware perspective and certainly from a software perspective. Tune in to hear my thoughts and what some of my favourite games were on this landmark console.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. Wizards of the Coast announced earlier this year that they will be starting a new line of official D&D books, called "Universes Beyond". This concept was a hit with their other game, Magic the Gathering, so as anticipated they have brought the concept over to D&D. For anyone unfamiliar with this line, it is essentially doing cross overs with other popular IP to generate interest in the game. It is usually aimed at cross brand synergy for both properties. It will start this November with the release of the World of Warcraft D&D book, which is also when World of Warcraft is launching a new service for the still popular MMO video game. As official previews of this upcoming book are popping up everywhere, I wanted to speculate on what this line means for official D&D and the TTRPG hobby in general, as well as what other future crossovers might happen. Tune in to also hear what some non-D&D games could potentially cross over with as well if they were inspired by this.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Pining For Pixels podcast! This is my video game variety show podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a subject or theme that interests me, and I will speak about what is on my mind in the world of video games! At the beginning of every year, I always compile a list of the games I am most looking forward to, that are set to release in that calendar year. I usually don't do too much with it after the fact though, but this year I wanted to change that and re-visit this list to see how well it held up not that the years is about 3/4 over. The likelihood that something is going to be announced soon that is set to release by December 31, 2026 is highly unlikely at this point, so I thought it was worth a look at what is almost certainly the final list (although I won't complain if Square Enix decides to do a remaster of Xenogears and shadow drops it!). Tune in to hear which games met or even exceeded my expectations, and which ones didn't quite live up to what I had hoped for. If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. Now that Arcana Unleashed and the adventure Deadfall that goes with it are both released everywhere, I want to give my first impressions of this dual release. This is following in a similar fashion of having 2 smaller sized books released as one thematic set, much like the Forgotten Realms books last year. The players options and surprisingly high level focussed adventure books are both themed around all things arcane, as one would expect. This fleshes out some sorely missed content that was left out of the 5.5 PHB if you are a Wizard player, and attempts to add some new systems for magic items among other things. Tune in to hear what I considered to be pros and cons of the player options book and why this high level adventure surprised me.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Pining For Pixels podcast! This is my video game variety show podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a subject or theme that interests me, and I will speak about what is on my mind in the world of video games! Time for another Report Card episode! It is also another 2 for 1 report card as well! Like Sony's recent back to back presentations, Nintendo also did a back to back duo of shows. They did a Legend of Zelda 40th anniversary show that focussed heavily on showing off the upcoming Ocarina of Time remake, and the next day they a a 45 minute general Direct. There was a ton of content shown off, from ports of existing games, closer looks at games we already knew about, and more than a few surprise announcements. Tune in to hear what my thoughts were on this pair of Directs from Nintendo.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC

Welcome to the Saving Throes podcast! This is my Tabletop role-playing game podcast, part of the Red Rooster's Gaming Coop network where I talk gaming and gaming culture every week. Each episode will feature a topic or theme along with my take on current happenings in the world of tabletop role-playing games and semi regular updates on the games I am currently involved with, or new games or products I have come across. This week I am taking on some more requests for DM advice. Although these requests were not specifically aimed at me, I collected up requests from a Reddit source where DMs of all different experience levels were posting to source opinions. I provide my advice in this episode and try to bring a different perspective, especially for those who may be newer to the hobby, and bring some assumptions with them about how things should be due to their experience with 5e. Tune in to hear my advice and even the outcome one poster had after utilizing the advice they got, albeit not from me.  If you would like to reach out, you can reach me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!  Follow me on X: @RedRoosterGC