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Saturday, July 3, 2010

Audio Noise: The Knights At Night

Hey everyone and welcome to a knightly edition of the Dispatch!

It's time for more Audio Noise as we look at another podcast that I recently found that puts an interesting spin on all things 4e. People complain that 4e Dungeons and Dragons is just glorified tactical combat simulator but things are a little different on...

Thursday Knights

Focus: Actual play sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition with a heavy story element.
Audio Quality: four out of five knights
Content Quality: three and a half out of five knights
Average Length: About three and a half to four hours
Language: Occasional slips but usually pretty clean... at least until the computer crashes...

One of the common complaints that I have heard about 4e is that it is more of a tactical game then an RPG. Based on most of what I've seen and heard for 4e, I admit that I can understand that complaint but Thursday Knights has managed to make the system work in a fairly innovative way. Rather then just rolling the dice and waiting for the DM to tell them if they've hit, this group brings a lot of story telling into the game. For example, when they are in a combat they describe how their character is attacking and damaging their opponents. It might seem like a small thing but it makes the whole thing much more interesting to listen to as it becomes less a bunch of die rolling and much more of a story. This isn't to say that there aren't parts that bog down (usually during the really long combats) but for the most part the sessions seem to flow quite smoothly.

Another thing of note is the characters are all paragon tier so don't expect to see them facing off against goblins and kobolds. In fact, their first episode recounts their epic battle at the Temple of Elemental Evil as they lead an army against the Temple. That is another thing of note, the recording starts at the end of an earlier campaign. Their current campaign actually starts in episode four and continues through the latest release. I only listened to part of the first episode, then decided to jump to the fourth so that I could focus on the current story.

Other then the occasional computer problem they have had, the only thing that I have not enjoyed about the podcast has been the attitude of one of the players. Of the group, she seems to be the least familiar with the rules and has complained several times about the other players and the DM telling her she can't do certain things. This doesn't happen all the time but it has happened enough that I think it counts against them in the content category. Even with this complaint, I definitely have enjoyed listening to this podcast and look forward to hearing more as their story unfolds. So if you like actual plays and want to hear an interesting spin on 4e, I definitely recommend checking out Thursday Knights.

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