Sunday, June 4, 2017

ViscountEric's Current Podcasts

Outside of a few choice episodes, it's been a year since I did a cataloguing of what podcasts I've been listening to.  Here's a quick review of my Top Ten:

#10:  DAD DND - A bunch of dads of varying experiences (and kids of varying ages as well). Playing D&D.  Pretty vanilla, but I like the concept for reasons the average blog reader could guess.

#9:   Nerdist -  Summer and Fall were pretty much me catching waiting for updates and listening to the backlog, but recently even the guests I'm excited for have felt like lackluster background noise to paint to.  Maybe its a bad run, because unlike most of grumpy nerdom, I'm haven't felt the overload of Chris Hardwick beyond Nerdist, Talking Dead, and those annoying Xfinity commercials.

#8:  Miskatonic University Podcast - There were two production gaps, first a lack of episodes, then a declining quality issue, before they they went sponsor-infatuated with Golden Goblin (can't really blame them) and have been correcting the ship thus far this Spring.  Depsite our group's eight month Cthulhu hiatus, the nuggets of genius from the hosts are starting to appear again.

#7: New Books in Military History - I started listening to this one because our own Dr Bob from the Cthulhu campaign is one of its hosts.  The authors interview range from dry toast academics to rambling dudes from Jersey who initially sound better suited to detail your car in Parsippany than discuss the lifelong interests.

#6: Talk is Jericho -  If I went back in time and told June 2016 me that I would be listening to Chris Jericho's podcast.  I would have had myself committed.  Then I listened to his interview with Living Colour while shoveling snow during the Blizzard of '17 and I instantly converted.  I'm not a religous listener, but everyone I download is a well-constructed, personable, informative interview whether it's music, film, or professional wrestlers I may or may not remember.  And sometimes, I completely forget his setting up a commerical, when I know one is due.

#5: Happy Jacks RPG Actual Play - I'm not a fan of all their games, but they have offered a decent look into Savage Rifts, with a group of players that would not normally gravitate towards it. Their Savage Rifts is suffering the same problems as regular Rifts has, and that's not necessarily a condemnation.  The plot still progresses well, in spite of system boons or problems. I will also be checking out the FFG Star Wars game they have very soon, for reasons you'll learn further down the list.

#4: Happy Jacks RPG Podcast - It's conistent, it's relatively professional, the crew rotation is such that the discussion of their fairly repetitive letters gets different responses each episode.

#3: One Shot - The first big find of 2017.  A creation of Peaches & Hotsauce, host James D'Amato runs games of different systems to a group of actors, improv players, and comedians, many of whom never played RPGs before this podcast.  Dogs of the Vineyard, Feng Shui, Princesses and Palaces, All Outta Bubblegum have been well presented by this podcast.  Even their return to the ever-popular Crazy Partiers every once in awhile is done in a different system each time!  And they have the best theme music in all of podcasting. *We are adventuring, we are adventurers...*

#2: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff - Still the Gold Standard by which podcasts should be judged, Ken and Robin are so good, that I take them for granted.  My idea folder in my blog drafts gets fresh meat from every episode.

#1: Campaign Podcast - Another Peaches & Hotsauce production. This is a Star Wars Edge of the Empire (FFG) campaign broken down into hour long episodes.  Some of the regulars you might hear on Oneshot are your mainstays on Campaign, including James D'amato.  Either Host Kat Kuhl is an awesome gamemaster, or she should be making six-figures for her skills editing the episode.  I'm currently fifty episodes in the backlog and have kept current for the last few weeks.  Don't worry, there's so much delicious chaos in each episode, I'm only certain that the characters didn't die in the episodes.

Alright, kinda certain.

One second thought, all bets are off.    The crew of the Mynock remind me of the Star Wars d6 game run decades ago back in Easton, only with less Zorak and Wookie porn.

Edit:  And I just realized that the back story of the Mynock's crew took place over mutliple episode of One Shot under the Star War 3.5 and Edge of the Empire listings that I had avoided.   Work through those before starting Campaign, it's worth it!

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