What RPG podcasts do you listen to and why?

#1

Hi! I’m out strolling a lot these days, and have gotten into a podcast habit. Do you have any recommendations for interesting RPG pods, and a few words on why? I’m interested in news, interviews, playtips advice, general good-natured chatter, RPG theory and actual plays of indie games. I’m especially interested in current shows.

I currently listen to:

Norwegian Vertshuset and Vertshuset spiller (an AP pod): Feelgood two guys talking and a varied selection of offbeat RPGs, including Norwegian ones.

Swedish Fummelpodden: Various RPG related subjects (and Swedish Nordnordost)

Danish Lænestolsrollespil: One game as main topic per episode.

I’m aware of The Gauntlet Podcast, Fear the Boot, Happy Jack’s, +1 Forward, Dreaming of Dragons, Red Moon Roleplaying, Design Games, Critical Role.

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#2

You might enjoy The RPG Design Panelcast.

Most of the RPG design podcasts I enjoy are now defunct, like Design Games and The Farrier’s Bellows and Across the Table and James and Lloyd Read Indie RPG Blurbs So You Don’t Have To.

I like Ludology and the Magic the Gathering Drive to Work even though they aren’t RPG directed, they do have some good game design insights worth considering.

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#3

I can’t recommend ChimaeraCast enough:

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#4

It’s a bit of a self-plug because I do a lot of work with them, but I’d invite you to check out the Misdirected Mark network, which has a variety of shows, but for your list in particular, I’d recommend Misdirected Mark and Panda’s Talking Games both for play advice, design, and chatter.

For a lot of RPG design talk, I recommend Stop, Hack & Roll, and actually they formed a network with Game Closet which is all interviews with queer folks in the RPG space and which I also recommend. For indie RPG APs, one of the best is Party of One, which is a series of one-shots of duet play and is a great window both into two-player games and also just indie games and designers overall. One of my more recent favorites has been the indie designer interview show Draw Your Dice, which highlights quite a variety of people and is really thoughtful both as an interview show and a show exploring design.

I listen to a ton of podcasts, so I’m just going to stop there. Plus I find listening to more podcasts is a great way to learn about even more podcasts! At least that’s how it started ballooning for me. :laughing: Enjoy!

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#5

I know you mentioned The Gauntlet Podcast, but I’d also recommend two others from our network: +1 Forward for a combination designer interview & mini-AP for a ton of different PbtA games and Fear of a Black Dragon for a deep delve into what makes a great adventure by surveying different old-school modules. Both are masterfully edited by Rich Rogers.


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#6

I’m gonna do some shameless self-promotion and mention On the Shoulders of Dwarves. We do half-hour episodes with a focus on a specific issue every week.

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#7

I listen to a bunch of podcasts, of very different style and content, but all I can recommend as good entertainment.

Happy Jacks RPG Podcast - has a weekly advice show and a multitude of APs, if that’s your thing. It’s not focused on a specific game system.

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias - focused on horror gaming, horror films and first of all Call of Cthulhu. If you have no interest at all about horror, it might be a wash, but otherwise it’s a fun look at books, films and other media in the horror field and how it relates to gaming.

Savage Interludes - while focused on Savage Worlds, this is in my mind one of the better general advice podcasts out there. The gaming specifics might be SW mechanics, but the advice on scenario design, table tools, humour and other topics are very usable regardless of game system.

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#8

Greetings, all:

Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor spend each podcast doing two things:

First Half: Answering questions (from reddit r/rpg not directed at them (my fav), or from their Discord), with varying degrees of seriousness (usually approaching zero)
Second Half: “Design” a game based on a prompt of something they wish existed.

It’s amazing to see their minds work, and also, a lot of their ideas would be good actual games.

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#9

I listen to all four of The Gauntlet’s current podcasts (The Gauntlet Podcast, +1 Forward, Fear of a Black Dragon, and Trophy Podcast).

For discussion about gaming, I listen to:
Judd Karlman’s Daydreaming About Dragons
The Hard Move with host Sydney Icarus
Diceology with host Mad Jay Zero

I had listened to the Pathfinder RPG podcast Know Direction for many years, but my interests have mostly shifted away from Pathfinder, and I finally dropped that one a few months ago.

And I listen to two Actual Play podcasts…
Twelve Sided Stories
Powered by the Players

And I’ve been listening to The Gauntlet’s back-catalog of AP podcasts, “Pocket-Sized Play” when I have time. (I just finished the second series of “Monsterhearts 2: Mercy Falls” from 2017.)

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#10

I listen to “1MJ de trop” (=one GM too many) I listen to Belfeuil’s actual play podcast because it’s a dream come true of playing weird freeform games by proxy. The large intro and long debrief are very useful to analyze play and games.

I listen to any podcast I find myself directed to or attracted to for a specific question I have at a given time.

I have listened to and recommend : TheBloodletters, OneShot, Friends at the Table for the performers.
And James & Lloyd read indie rpg blurbs so you don’t have to, RPGpanelcast, and Backstory for the creators.

#11

Asides from The Gatunlet podcast and +1 Forward, I also listen to:

  • The Magpies Podcast: Excellent Blades in the Dark actual play. They’re on their last season, where all of the drama is culminating.
  • Party of One: Jeff Stormer is a great host for duet and co-cop RPGs. Jeff’s play is earnest.
  • The Hard Move: I’m a sucker for deep analyses such as what Sidney Icarus does. Currently seems to be in-between seasons or otherwise on hiatus, but the back catalog is groovy.

Also, an honorary mention to Pocket-Sized Play, a currently inactive Gauntlet podcast with tightly edited actual play episodes. I miss the series.

#12

First off, thanks for this post. I’ve added a number of the suggestions here to my listen list.

Secondly, to answer your question (and shamelessly plug), I have been listening to my podcast, World of Brine, because I’m finally getting off my butt and putting my campaign recordings out as a podcast. Why listen? I mean, I’m one of the ones of people who like AP pods :woman_shrugging:. It is that and uses World of Dungeons (WoDu) ruleset. It is available on my website, and all the pod places.

Only about 30 episodes to edit and release :roll_eyes:

#13

I listen to a bunch of AP shows and my favourites (All available wherever you get your podcasts) are:

  • Friends at the Table - consistently telling strong and interesting stories using various indie games. Their seasons often have a loose interconnection between them, but the current one is an ideal jumping on point as they use Heart to tell a weird west type story in a completely new setting.
  • These Flimsy Rituals have a season using their own game Ryne and one using Blades In The Dark along with some really interesting standalone episodes using other less well-known games all set in the same world. They’re a little more serious and the setting is autumnal and fading in a way that I enjoy.
  • Spout Lore is a very funny Dungeon World game that really leans into the collaborative worldbuilding side of things.
  • Crudely Drawn Swords is also a funny and epic Dungeon World game (with occasional wanders into other systems) and among various notable qualities I am the GM, producer, music composer and general production dogsbody, so as you might imagine it’s well aligned with what I enjoy in a show…
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#14

These 3 podcasts brought me here…

+1 Forward because I love PbtA as a genre generator

I loved the Ferrier’s Bellows because of the way they analyzed their game sessions. That one is sadly defunct now.

Fear of the Black Dragon because I’m also keen on many OSR adventure modules written or reviewed with modern sensitivities in mind.

Oneshot Podcast has a load of hilarious actual plays of unusual systems. Some systems and episodes are better than others but there are hundreds of episodes and probably a hundred systems to choose between.

Plot Points for modern reviews of ancient rpgs, and rpg history lessons.

I was enjoying RPG Academy’s Ghost of Saltmarsh until it either stopped it or put it behind a paywall or it mysteriously failed.

CrudelyDrawnSwords because it’s amusing.

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#15

Recently, I have also been enjoying Yes Indie’d Pod and Inside the Caravan.

#16

Yeah…nothing of substance for me to add, but I gotta pour one out for The Farrier’s Bellows. What a great show!

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#17

I also really, really miss The Farrier’s Bellows.

One more podcast to add would be Black Armada Tales.

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#18

I have enjoyed Appendix NDP so far.

And recently I’ve been listening through the back catalog of Megadumbcast, which is a fun podcast about RPG design, but particularly about poor choices in RPG design.

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#19

I love the Character Creation Cast. I learned a lot about different approaches to game design, character creation, and playing games from the podcast. And got introduced to many great games.
Like some of the other podcasts mentioned in this thread it belongs to the Oneshot Podcast Network.

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