Post by friartook on Feb 11, 2015 21:16:27 GMT
I wanted to post here with a short list of D&D related podcasts I listen to (beside the best D&D podcast; The DM's Block!). I realize some may think I should put this in another category, but I have found these podcasts to be amazing resources for me as a DM, so I am posting here.
-Select Episodes of the official Dungeons and Dragons Podcast: Most of the episodes in this podcast are not very good. Special guests talking about design and development, kinda boring. Currently they are doing a series of interviews with Dungeon Masters for their Dungeon Masters Appreciation Month, so that's kind of cool. The episodes I am referencing specifically are the Penny Arcade/PvP D&D sessions. There are three or four series of these, they are mostly episodic, and follow the adventures of characters developed by the Penny Arcade guys (Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik) and the creator of the web comic PvP (Scott Kurtz) with special guests including Wil Wheaton and Patrick Rothfuss. These sessions are DMed by Chris Perkins, who is perhaps the best DM I have ever heard in action. You will have to dig into their archives on iTunes, but they are fairly easy to find on the Wizards website. Listening to these sessions is what inspired me to pull my D&D books out of the basement and consider starting my first campaign in over 20 years.
-Nerd Poker: Dungeons and Dragons with Brian Posehn and Friends: This is a podcast of comedian Brian Posehn and several of his comedic buddies playing D&D. They are pretty funny, but the hidden gem here is their DM, Sark. Sark's campaign design is amazing; he perfectly captures the micro to macro style of play that I try and fail to achieve with almost every campaign. The PCs start off in a single location, and get a tiny snapshot of whats going on. Then Sark slowly reveals the larger plot over a series of sessions. He also deals with a very rowdy and difficult group of players with perfect calm and aplomb. They are currently on episode 114 of an ongoing campaign, I've gotten up to episode 34.
-Harmontown: This one is not about D&D per se, but they do play D&D and, more recently, Shadowrun. This is a podcast by Community creator Dan Harmon. Harmon is the centerpiece of the show, and he is often obnoxious and witheringly narcissistic. However, once again, the DM stands out here. Spencer Chrightendon (spelling?) was an audience member who got called up randomly on an episode where Harmon asked if there was a DM in the house, and is now a weekly fixture. Spencer creates everyone's character sheets and rolls all the dice for everything that happens. He is often only given 20 minutes of the show to run an encounter in an ongoing episodic campaign. And again, his players are, lets just say troublesome (meaning they are all comedians seeking a laugh in front of a live audience while drinking large amounts of vodka on the rocks and attempting to derail Spencer's planned encounter at every opportunity). Again, this is all handled with aplomb on the part of the DM.
The reason I consider these to be resources is purely the joy of listening to these DMs. Sark and Spencer's campaigns are purely homebrew and full of creative and fun ideas. They are all masters of the craft. Perkins works for Wizards doing campaign design, so even though his campaigns are official D&D campaigns, he also had a hand in their creation and does great running "off book". Enjoy!
-Select Episodes of the official Dungeons and Dragons Podcast: Most of the episodes in this podcast are not very good. Special guests talking about design and development, kinda boring. Currently they are doing a series of interviews with Dungeon Masters for their Dungeon Masters Appreciation Month, so that's kind of cool. The episodes I am referencing specifically are the Penny Arcade/PvP D&D sessions. There are three or four series of these, they are mostly episodic, and follow the adventures of characters developed by the Penny Arcade guys (Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik) and the creator of the web comic PvP (Scott Kurtz) with special guests including Wil Wheaton and Patrick Rothfuss. These sessions are DMed by Chris Perkins, who is perhaps the best DM I have ever heard in action. You will have to dig into their archives on iTunes, but they are fairly easy to find on the Wizards website. Listening to these sessions is what inspired me to pull my D&D books out of the basement and consider starting my first campaign in over 20 years.
-Nerd Poker: Dungeons and Dragons with Brian Posehn and Friends: This is a podcast of comedian Brian Posehn and several of his comedic buddies playing D&D. They are pretty funny, but the hidden gem here is their DM, Sark. Sark's campaign design is amazing; he perfectly captures the micro to macro style of play that I try and fail to achieve with almost every campaign. The PCs start off in a single location, and get a tiny snapshot of whats going on. Then Sark slowly reveals the larger plot over a series of sessions. He also deals with a very rowdy and difficult group of players with perfect calm and aplomb. They are currently on episode 114 of an ongoing campaign, I've gotten up to episode 34.
-Harmontown: This one is not about D&D per se, but they do play D&D and, more recently, Shadowrun. This is a podcast by Community creator Dan Harmon. Harmon is the centerpiece of the show, and he is often obnoxious and witheringly narcissistic. However, once again, the DM stands out here. Spencer Chrightendon (spelling?) was an audience member who got called up randomly on an episode where Harmon asked if there was a DM in the house, and is now a weekly fixture. Spencer creates everyone's character sheets and rolls all the dice for everything that happens. He is often only given 20 minutes of the show to run an encounter in an ongoing episodic campaign. And again, his players are, lets just say troublesome (meaning they are all comedians seeking a laugh in front of a live audience while drinking large amounts of vodka on the rocks and attempting to derail Spencer's planned encounter at every opportunity). Again, this is all handled with aplomb on the part of the DM.
The reason I consider these to be resources is purely the joy of listening to these DMs. Sark and Spencer's campaigns are purely homebrew and full of creative and fun ideas. They are all masters of the craft. Perkins works for Wizards doing campaign design, so even though his campaigns are official D&D campaigns, he also had a hand in their creation and does great running "off book". Enjoy!