Audio Noise: Pennys and Dragons and Players, Oh My!

Hey everyone and welcome to a red penny box edition of the Dispatch!

For this installment of Audio Noise, we are going to look at several parts of another podcast but not really the whole thing. Confused yet? Don't worry, it will make more sense as we delve into...

The Dungeons and Dragons Podcast

As I mentioned, for this one we are not looking at the whole podcast but just certain parts, specifically the Penny Arcade actual play sessions.

Focus: 4e actual play sessions.
Audio Quality: four out of five shiny copper dragons
Content Quality: four out of five shiny copper dragons
Average Length: Roughly 40 minutes
Language: Enough for color without going over the top.

So why only part of the podcast? Well, there's nothing wrong with the rest of the 'cast but if you aren't playing 4e there isn't really much point. The main focus of the podcast is to tell you about new 4e products that are coming out, answer commonly asked questions, things such as that. Then there are the actual play sessions.

The first three have the guys from Penny Arcade and PvP sit down with some of the staff Dungeon Masters from Wizards to play through a short campaign (sure the guys from Wizards have some other job in the company, but the idea of them having some DMs on staff just to run games amuses me). These sessions follow the exploits of Acquisitions Incorporated as they begin their adventuring career. As an added plus, the first few episodes give you a good idea how the basic mechanics of 4e work so they can serve as a great little primer. Beyond that, they are just fun to listen to. The DMs in all three sessions do a great job and all the players have really good chemistry which is definitely a huge plus for an actual play.

There is also a fourth actual play with guys that is run by one of their own. This series departs from the ongoing story line as they move into the world of Dark Sun. By this point, the guys know the mechanics of the game but this setting is completely new to most of them so it's a nice introduction to this "new" campaign setting.

All four of these series are a lot of fun to listen to and I definitely recommend them to anyone interested in actual plays. The rest of the podcast is done fairly well and you can give it a try, but if you aren't playing 4e it might not be up your alley.