The Blog for Actual-Play RPG Podcasts
tl;dr Most of the necessary moves are taken to move towards a direct confrontation between Alanna’s coalition and The Proxy. Good, direct role play that works both from player-to-player and character-to-character. One major crossover of player knowledge that feels like a cheap shot. A listenable episode.
Continue reading “Critical Hit: Hays of Shadows – Murder In Hobo Alley”
tl;dr In these first shaky steps in the new Dust arc, there’s some over-explaining and exposition by the GM, plenty of plot holes, but the players manage to work through some good drama and shine a light on where Dust can go next.
tl;dr There are thousands of role-playing game systems available to groups who want to do an actual-play podcast. Which ones work best?
Continue reading “What’s the best game system for actual play RPG podcasts?”
tl;dr A dark, vibrant, intense premiere for the new season of this long-running podcast. The experience shows in high production values, great world-building and solid character work by the GM and party. The world and PC backgrounds need to deepen, but there’s every indication that that will unfold over the succeeding episodes. A great, refreshing listen.
Continue reading “Cthulhu and Friends: Season 6 — Quarantine”
tl;dr A slow-moving cookie-cutter episode with a few cool combat moves, but not a lot of original action. Three combat scenes, which are fine, and two to three shop haggling scenes, which are interminable. This is a skippable episode unless you really hate gnolls.
Continue reading “Critical Role: Campaign 2 — The Howling Mines”
tl;dr As this campaign hurtles towards a hopefully climactic conclusion, we get some nice forward motion, colorful game-play and world-building, but some worryingly new NPCs which seem like a distraction this late in the game.
Continue reading “Critical Hit: Hays of Shadows — The Shadows You Are Sniffing Into”
tl;dr The party moves on from their first mystery arc to life on the open road. Amidst maybe a little too much camping-and-carting logistics, the team has some interesting exposition, dream visions, and aesthetic encounters. The session’s final battle comes out of nowhere but manages to be interesting and complex as only D&D combat can be.
Continue reading “Critical Role: Campaign 2 — The Open Road”
tl;dr On this episode zero for this Urban Shadows campaign, the GM introduces the world and the players describe their characters. There’s some tweaking to get a tight fit of the engine to a fictional Old West milieu, with additional tweaking of character playbooks. Worrying portents for this campaign as this soap-opera system is layered over a murder mystery plot.
tl;dr Klaus and Alanna seem to have taken a couple of logical leaps too far in turning the game into a direct confrontation between two PCs. They call a war meeting of several PC and NPC factions to ally against The Proxy. The episode is bolstered by Rodrigo’s great characterization of the Proxy’s competence and elevated by the layered confrontation between the Professor and the wizard.
Continue reading “Critical Hit: Hays of Shadows – The Meeting”
So you heard about an actual-play RPG podcast from a friend, and you want to try it out. You download it from iTunes or on RSS. Now… how do you get started?