Audio Noise: Definitely Not Your Parents Public Radio

Hey everyone and welcome to a $%&$*@ explicit edition of of the Dispatch!

Last week I talked about a very narrative 4e actual play but this week we are looking at something a little... different. So without further ado, let's crank up the radio and listen to some...

Role Playing Public Radio Actual Play

Focus: Actual play sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, Call of C'thulhu, Monsters and Other Childish Things, and any thing else that they feel like doing.
Audio Quality: four out of five announcers
Content Quality: four out of five announcers
Average Length: About three and a half to four hours
Language: If you don't like foul language, don't even start listening to this one. Seriously.

The Role Playing Public Radio Actual Play site is actually a spin off from the original Role Playing Public Radio podcast (henceforth known as RPPR because it's too long to keep typing!) After recording a number of actual plays and just posting them on their feed, Ross and Tom over at RPPR decided to split their actual plays to a separate feed to make it easier for people to download. But enough about RPPR! Right now let's just look at the Actual Play side of things.

As I mentioned before, these guys cover a wide range of systems but their longest running one is a 4e campaign of epic proportions, so epic in fact that they have created their own campaign books that are available online. These are not your usual fan created word documents either. Both are illustrated PDFs with a background on the setting, adventure seeds, new monsters, a new player race... all in all, a whole lot of 4e goodness that is free for download that lets the listeners dive into the New World campaign setting themselves if they want to.

But you're probably wondering about the podcast itself. The DM of this game is aiming for a grand game with political intrigue and sweeping character development as the players explore the New World, helping the first colony to survive and flourish, and he does a pretty good job with it as well. There are lots of little twists and turns that the players are involved in, most of which would set the characters at each others throats if they found out about them. The guys do a very good job with the role playing and though they do joke around a lot, they are able to bring it back around and get back on track... at least until the combat sessions. These tend lots of die rolling with random jokes and tangents thrown in. This breaks up the actual play experience but can be really entertaining as well... as long as you're not easily offended.

As for the other games, they are definintely an interesting listen and lets you experience some games that are off the main stream. The only downside can be Ross (he runs most of the games) really likes the C'thulhu mythos. This can make things a little predictable at times but for the most part they're still a lot of fun to listen to.

Overall, if you are looking for some new and different actual plays to listen to, give RPPR Actual Play a try... but consider yourself warned; these guys earn their explicit tag within the first five minutes of every 'cast.