For Day 13, RPGaDay asks what is my favourite RPG Podcast?
I actually listen to a lot of RPG podcasts. For a while, I used to have up to an hour and a half commute every day, each way, plus lots of driving over the course of a day. It’s much less now, but during that time, I started following a lot of RPG podcasts to help fill the drives. Now I’m slowly whittling them down as I just don’t have as much time to listen to them.
The problem with picking a favourite (aside from having so many to pick from) is that they’re mostly so different from one another, they’re almost not even in the same category, so I’m going to pick my favourites from different categories of podcasts:
Actual Play – One Shot – I was introduced to RPG podcasts through actual plays, so that’s what I’m most familiar with. Some people hate them, but I generally enjoy them. One Shot is the most professional actual play podcast, extremely well-edited and because the cast are usually made up of improv actors, they’re especially funny to listen to. The best episode in my opinion is episode 50, S-N-HELL. It’s hilarious!
Drunk Actual Play – Minions of the Monster Master – They’ve pod-faded, but if you ever want to listen to a bunch of drunk guys playing games, check it out. It’s a bit of a slog since they don’t edit – at all – but it has its moments that make it all worth it. Their Fiasco games in particular tend to be pretty good.
Game Discussion – Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff – Ken Hite and Robin Laws talk about a wide range of stuff, generally hitting some GM advice, historical what-ifs, adventure ideas, occult lore, game concepts and much, much more. It’s well-edited and full of useful information.
Nice Game Reviews – Plot Points – This podcast delves deep into RPG products and reviews them in a generally very positive, through critical way. I appreciate how they spend a lot of time going through the products they review, giving you a very thorough understanding of what you’re getting if you go out and buy it.
Scathing Game Reviews – System Mastery – These guys try to review the “worst” RPGs ever released. They’re cruel, but funny. My favourite episodes are when they review games that I own and I remember how bad the game was. I disagreed with their Top Secret review that stated it was unplayable, as I played the game for years, but the criticisms they level against the system are largely true, and in retrospect, quite funny.
GM Advice – Critical Success – Many of the other podcasts offer GM advice, much of it excellent, but Critical Success wins this category because I appreciate how the host, James D’Amato, focuses on a topic for a specific podcast and delves into that one topic with focused concepts and ideas rather than a general discussion of the topic.
It might seem like a lot of “favourite” podcasts, but I’ve left almost double the number I currently listen to off my list, many good ones. This is the cream of my podcast crop (except Minions, but that’s my drunken selection), so check them out!
Justin Schmid
Justin started tabletop gaming in 1983 with Basic D&D (red box) and never looked back. He runs and plays in a wide variety of games, including Savage Worlds, Dungeon World, Trail of Cthulhu and many, many more.
He also writes professionally for role-playing games, including writing and creating Night's Edge an Alternate Reality Universe for Cyberpunk 2020. He went on to write eight more adventures and sourcebooks in the Night's Edge line, adding vampires and other supernatural perils to the already dangerous world of Cyberpunk.
As a freelance writer, he wrote The Bermuda Triangle for Call of Cthulhu, Shadows of the Mind, and Psi Wars for Conspiracy X and contributed to Last Unicorn's Star Trek RPG, as well as to Cybergeneration sourcebooks, and many other games.
When he's not creating imaginary worlds for his daughter, he's running games for his friends and writing new adventures or designing new game systems. He currently lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.