MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I'm a fan of comedian Chris Gethard's podcast, Beautiful Anonymous. The format is that he takes a random anonymous caller and talks to them for an hour. There is some pre-screening and he selects which to air and when to air them, except at his live shows, but these are not scripted and the guests are not celebrities.
His most recently released episode was released as an "extra" because when he finds out that the caller often run D&D games, he sets up an impromptu game session.
Except its not.
It ends up just being an improv of a D&D game. No dice are rolled. They just act and the DM resolves actions. While it is funny at times, it is a very poor representation of what TTRPGs are. It is D&D without the game.
While I enjoy listening to Dragon Friends and other "live play" pod casts acted out by improv actors, I'm getting a bit tired of D&D as an improv session.
First, letting the dice determine the outcomes creates a more interesting dynamic to act against.
Second, and for me most importantly, stripping out all the crunch and opportunities for tactics and rules mastery ruins it as a game, both as a player and as an audience member.
Here's the link if you are interested:
https://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-adventures-of-glandon-oakfoot/
More interesting is the main episode with a different caller. A member of a group of D&D players who only knew each other over VTT talking about how she drove hours to suicidal player's house, along with other members of the virtual group to help her out. It is nice to see that kind of friendship build from an on-line group translate into being there for each other IRL.
https://www.earwolf.com/episode/a-heros-journey/
His most recently released episode was released as an "extra" because when he finds out that the caller often run D&D games, he sets up an impromptu game session.
Except its not.
It ends up just being an improv of a D&D game. No dice are rolled. They just act and the DM resolves actions. While it is funny at times, it is a very poor representation of what TTRPGs are. It is D&D without the game.
While I enjoy listening to Dragon Friends and other "live play" pod casts acted out by improv actors, I'm getting a bit tired of D&D as an improv session.
First, letting the dice determine the outcomes creates a more interesting dynamic to act against.
Second, and for me most importantly, stripping out all the crunch and opportunities for tactics and rules mastery ruins it as a game, both as a player and as an audience member.
Here's the link if you are interested:
https://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-adventures-of-glandon-oakfoot/
More interesting is the main episode with a different caller. A member of a group of D&D players who only knew each other over VTT talking about how she drove hours to suicidal player's house, along with other members of the virtual group to help her out. It is nice to see that kind of friendship build from an on-line group translate into being there for each other IRL.
https://www.earwolf.com/episode/a-heros-journey/