D&D General What are your favorite D&D-related podcasts and actual plays -- and why?

[Malmuria]

I really like the Acquistions Inc streams. They don't come out very often any more but I find the banter pretty fun to listen to. It's pretty much the only one I listen too, including the C team back when it was running.

I really liked Acquisitions Inc when Chris Perkins was running it, and I like the C team also, though I haven't listened to all of it. I like that they don't take any of it too seriously, and have really good banter among each other as friends. Though I did not like Will Wheaton. I listened to some of dice camera action and it was interesting to see how Perkins himself took the players through the adventures he wrote, but I thought the players were trying too hard to make it like critical role. I find Jeremey Crawford's style less compelling for some reason, but also the game has become like some caricature of 5e. Like, listen to the recap of events on the most recent episode. There was another thread asking what 5e does well...whatever that game has become, that's what 5e is good at.

 

[Malmuria]

Dimension 20 -

I can see the appeal of dimension 20, but it's a bit too much for me, in the sense that I feel everyone is "preforming having fun" for the camera. I get it, because actual plays can be really boring sometimes, but it just seems over the top.

Dragon Talk - The official WotC podcast is a mix of news, interviews with WotC creators about upcoming projects, regular features like How to DM or Random Character Generator, in which the host and a WotC staffer use D&D Beyond's random character generator to show how even a weird mix of stats can be made into a (normally) compelling NPC or PC. Most of the podcast each week is a long interview with someone connected with D&D in some fashion, sometimes clearly (like Jim Zub, who's written D&D comics and products) and sometimes not (various actors who played D&D once or twice). But the hosts are charming and most episodes are worth listening to, although I admit to skipping many of the interviews after listening for a few minutes, if there's nothing I find compelling about the guests.

I cannot stand this podcast, maybe because it's the offical wotc one so there's no critical perspective at all. But I just think the hosts are not good at their job. One episode I did listen to all the way through was the interview with Tony Diterlizzi, because I'm a huge planescape fan. Tony was great, but so many moments in the interview were cringeworthy. The hosts got a bunch of things wrong, and asked some really bad questions.

 

[Zardnaar]

Dungeon Dudes tier lists and similar things. Don't care about their campaign world.

Treantmonk is alright but quite capable of min/maxing.

 

[Daraniya]

Because the annual Ennies nomination list is mostly people shouting out names, but nothing more, I thought it'd be worth putting together a more substantive list of D&D-related podcasts.

Although I'm not listening to them on my commutes like I did in the Before Times (it's likely my job will be work from home indefinitely, as the corporation has realized that not paying for so much office space is a big win for them), I listen to a lot of podcasts. I mostly confine my RPG listening to my evening walks or on weekends, when I'm not being distracted by work (stupid work, always distracting me from fun!).

My list as waxed and waned over the years, but here's what I listen to nowadays. All links are shows I can vouch for, as opposed to something I've downloaded but not actually tried out myself:



So, what are your favorite D&D adjacent podcasts, and why?

Check out "High Rollers" Excellent series. They got me through the pandemic, very cool group of UK/scottish gamers. And they are running a modified "Curse of Strahd". I appreciate the "roleplaying", and you really grow to love the characters and the development.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3qtZRMtWNaD2Q96STxgOrA (I 'youtube-dl' the audio from these, because the audio podcasts miss a lot of side-discussion.)

Lightfall was an amazing campaign, Aerois is great. They have a VERY active Discord

 

[Mecheon]

They have a VERY active Discord

That channel was like, the second Discord channel I ever joined. aaaand I've been inactive for like, yonks on it once I fell behind a long while back. Oops.

Aside from High Rollers, also a fan of Arcadum's various bits and bobs on Twitch

 

[Daraniya]

That channel was like, the second Discord channel I ever joined. aaaand I've been inactive for like, yonks on it once I fell behind a long while back. Oops.

Aside from High Rollers, also a fan of Arcadum's various bits and bobs on Twitch

I feel like I can't be in the community fully until I catch up, still about 30 Aerois episodes behind, and between Brute Force podcast, Sword and Quill, and "The Grognard Files" I'm a bit slow on catching up.

 

[Malmuria]

I feel like I can't be in the community fully until I catch up, still about 30 Aerois episodes behind, and between Brute Force podcast, Sword and Quill, and "The Grognard Files" I'm a bit slow on catching up.

Vintage rpg podcast is also really great. Grognard files is good but require a long road trip or something

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

My top three have been mentioned already.
Critical Role, High Rollers, and Dimension 20. I like them all for various reasons, some similar and some not.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I can see the appeal of dimension 20, but it's a bit too much for me, in the sense that I feel everyone is "preforming having fun" for the camera. I get it, because actual plays can be really boring sometimes, but it just seems over the top.

It helps that I just listen to the podcasts, rather than watch on YouTube. So I don't see any mugging for the camera they might do.

I cannot stand this podcast, maybe because it's the offical wotc one so there's no critical perspective at all. But I just think the hosts are not good at their job. One episode I did listen to all the way through was the interview with Tony Diterlizzi, because I'm a huge planescape fan. Tony was great, but so many moments in the interview were cringeworthy. The hosts got a bunch of things wrong, and asked some really bad questions.

I think they're both not good interviewers but also are trying to ask questions they think a general audience would want to know. I don't believe that Greg Tito really knows as little as he seems to of D&D lore, for instance. But there are better ways to ask those questions other than to profess total ignorance of some of this stuff.

 

[Charlaquin]

After all the hubub about Jeff Goldbloom guest-starring on Dark Dice, I went and checked that out. Only a few episodes into the first season, but I like it a lot! Really excellent production value, and with the way it’s edited, it straddles the line between actual play and audio drama very nicely. Might be a bit too grimdark for some, and I don’t love that they use a sanity system, but overall quite enjoyable.