A place to find new actual play podcasts and actual play streams

Revews are posted every other wednesday at 6:00 pm central. A place to find reviews of actual play streams, shows and podcasts. done by someone who has no idea what they are doing. feel free to message me about shows you want me to review next. up next: Critical role s1 ep1-28

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Dungeons and Daddies

Dungeons and Daddies

Type: Podcast. dungeons and dragons 5e, forgotten realms/homebrew

Episodes: currently airing, as of review there are 10 episodes

Average episode length: one hour and fifteen minutes

warnings: swearing, dad jokes, take “not a BDSM podcast” with a grain of salt

Cast: Freddie Wong as Glen Close a human bard.  Matt Arnold playing Darryl Wilson, a human barbarian. Will Campos as Henry Oak a human druid.  Beth May as Ron Stampler, a human rogue.  The dm is Anthony Burch

Episode one here

Premise: Dungeons and Daddies is not(?) a BDSM podcast. It is about four dads from our world that get whisked away to the forgotten realms and attempt to find their children. Fifty percent of the dialogue is dad jokes, while the other fifty is everyone making the worst decisions.

                                                        ratings

Gameplay: 3

           This group using the rule of cool but still uses the core mechanics of dnd at the same time more than any other I have seen. You want nunchucks? Sure! There is a 1/10 chance you will hit yourself in the genitals if you mess up though.  You use your hide action to hide in your pants, alrighty, roll them dice. Its louse enough that the gameplay does not feel burdened by dice rolling and the few times it would be the cast is well aware of it and makes it a fun moment.  There are rarely if ever any hard no’s from the dm, but I get the feeling that all of the players are experienced with dnd, so they know when to ask for a ruling. Might be a little luce for rules lawyers but this is one of my favorite dming styles to listen to.

Postproduction: 5

           Music, sound effects, editing, and crystal-clear sound. Some of the highest production series I have listened to. The production is not overbearing and most of the time it is just the players talking, but when there would be music or a demonic voice, there is a good amount of auditory editing.

Story/Rp: 2.5

           This is by far one of the funniest rp podcasts I have listened to, but the story is not exactly the strongest point.  While it is still pretty early in the series, even the moments that could be taken more seriously are majority undercut by jokes. This isn’t exactly a negative thing, because all of the jokes hit, but I would be lying if I said it hasn’t gotten frustrating after listening to the characters make horrible choices, learn the consequences (i.e., many people dying) then immediately joke in-character.  It is just the style of the show, this is pure comedy with a lot of heart, but as someone coming from more seriously-inclined rpg experiences, it is very different then what I usually see.  

It is scaled back from the usual 5e story. Instead of saving the world, these guys are saving their kids and failing miserably while doing so. There has been a couple of tense moments, but they are quickly brushed off and moved away from. While I love the comedy of this show, I could see it rubbing some people the wrong way. It Is almost exclusively dad and silly humor if you don’t like these things this show probably won't do it for you because that is 98% of it.

Representation: 3

            As of episode 10, there is only one queer character being an asexual npc, though there are a lot of dads kissing dads. There is also positive fat representation though Darryl,  though played as a joke a handful of times, it is not his only character trait, and the jokes are never mean-spirited.  The show has touched fantasy racism in an inoffensive way, as in there are slaves, but it is never seen as a political statement by the dm, and always played for good-natured laughs.  Noting about this show has made me cringe or be uncomfortable outright, but there hasn’t been anything really challenging the status quo as well. Overall: harmless, but could be better

Overall: 4.5

This is a super silly show, whose premise is unlike any other that I have watched.  It feels very similar to the Balance Campaign of The adventure Zone, so much so that I would suggest dndads to anyone missing that setting and characters.  I would also recommend this show for anyone else looking for something light, and that will make you laugh.  It's light easy to digest, and just intriguing enough to keep you coming back.  

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Hey everyone, im sorry this blog kind of fell off of the face of the earth.  I would like to start it up again but I would like to know if there is any interest in this.  I have a lineup for the next few weeks of reviews, though I might need to tweak the schedule due to classes, I still want to do this.  

here are the reviews I have in the works. if there is a show you think I should review let me know, and I would be happy to check it out! I know I’m leaving out a couple big names here but they are most likely being saved for if I run out of material or milestones. 

Dungeons and Daddies

Critical Role s1 ep1-27

Critical Role s1 ep 28- end

The Adventure Zone: Dust

High Rollers: Aerois 

The Chain

this list might change in order or what is on it depending on what catches my interest. but! I will try my hardest to get all of these out to you when I say I will get them out.

also, would anyone here be interested in a campaign diary from my game? it would not interrupt the scheduled reviews. just a bit of extra dnd in your life

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Session four: Dice Carma Action season 1

Watch here episode 1

   31 episodes, averaging 2 hours and 10 minutes. About 58 hours and 24 minutes total. It started on  Mar 16, 2016, and the final episodes came out on Dec 9, 2016.

Dice Carma Action is a D&D 5e game set in the Forgotten Realms. They play the official published modules from Wizards of the Coast, for season one they played Curse of Strahd, with some character story integrated. It stars Chris Perkins as the DM, Jared Knabenbauer as the human rogue Diath Woodrow. Anna Prosser Robinson as Evelyn Marthain, a human paladin of Lathander. Holly Conrad playing a Tiefling sorcerer named Strix Skizziks. Then Nathan Sharp is playing Paultin Seppa a human bard.

I was really excited when I first heard about Dice Camera Action because I have been a big fan of Projared since his early Normal Boots days. So when he announced made the announcement video on his channel, I was stoked.  Not only was I a major fan of the content creators that were going to be involved, but I was also just getting into Critical Role the same time. Then when I learned that the DM was a writer for Wizards of the coast, and most likely knew the module from cover to cover better than anyone, made me even more excited.

Though with all of this going for it, I have to say Dice Camera Action is not a show I watch every week, nor have I seen all of the episodes. It isn’t a bad show by any means, it just does not catch my attention like some other shows do.   In most aspects, it is just painfully average.

Gameplay: 4.5

With this show being produced by Wizards of the Coast, and shown on the official D&D Twitch and youtube it follows the rules very strictly. While I do not feel like the rules get in the way of the gameplay, it is on the very cusp of having that happen.  If you are a rules freak, you might enjoy how strictly they follow the 5e books, though there still is some player input into the story. (some spoilers ahead skip to the next section if you do not want to see them) Really the only thing that is not taken strictly from the book is how some of the NPCs that interact with the PCs have been changed slightly. Both Strix and Paultin have family in barovia they did not know about beforehand, and some of the NPCs are actually played by guests rather than the DM.

Pre/postproduction:3

Not great and not awful production value. The live stream on Twitch, and the only additional visuals, beyond the player’s faces, are illustrations out of the curs of Curse of Strahd, book. The later seasons have animated intros and on-screen stats for the characters, but for season one it is just their faces and illustrations of monsters. The audio is not perfect, but it is not offensive in any way, everyone is just using a headset with a microphone rather than higher end recording equipment. They do sometimes peek and the audio crackles and pops some, but nothing worse than say the average video game streamer uses.

Story/RP:  3.5

It’s Curse of Strahd, with moderately exciting characters.  I only find about half of the pcs interesting, and truthfully, I struggle to remember Paulten when talking about the show. There are a few excellent moments that make up for midcore PCs. (spoilers start) The whole storyline of Diath dyeing and coming back is super compelling, and as a DM myself I have taken a lot of notes from this side story (end spoilers). If you want to watch a good stream of Strahd, or indeed any of the modules that Dice Camera Action covers this may be the show for you.  It is also an excellent way to see how the module plays before you buy or run it yourself.

Representation: 2.5

I cannot think of anything outstandingly good or bad about the representation in the show.  The DM does not go out of his way to add any minorities to the game, nor can I think of any major representation with the pcs.  I guess I could count the vistani people as analogs for the Romani people in our world, though they were already found in the module before the people of Dice Camera Action played it.

I could be wrong with this, it could be stated in a later episode that a PC is LGBT+ or disabled in some way. I believe that some of the characters may have PTSD or some mental disorder, but it is played for laughs. It is no worse than most tv shows, but along with some fantasy racism that just comes with the setting of the forgotten realms, this is defiantly something that could be done better.

Overall:

While not an offensive show in any way Dice Camera Action is not precisely the most interesting D&D 5e show out there. It is just average, defiantly worth looking at if you are interested in the modules they are playing, but beyond that, it isn’t exactly super unique and original. It is not a bad show in any way, and I still watch it from time to time, but that’s generally if I don’t have anything else to watch, or if I find the guest interesting.  Still, you may like it, and I like specific parts of the show, but overall it is painfully average.

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High Rollers: The Lightfall campaign

48 episodes each averaging 3 hours and 28 minutes. 277 hours, 10 minutes in total. The first episode came out Mar 7, 2016, and the final came out on May 31, 2018.

Watch episode one here.

Did I make this whole blog, so I would have an excuse to talk about a criminally overlooked Actual Play Livestream? Could I not wait until past the 2nd post to talk about it? Well, I guess you will just have to wait and see.

High Rollers: The Lightfall campaign(from here on out I will just be calling High Rollers) stars Mark “Sherlock” Hulmes as the DM. Chris Trott playing Cam Buckland, the Lightborn (a homebrew race) Cleric. Katie Morrison as Elora Galanodel, the Moon Elf Druid. Kim Richards as Jiutou Zhiji, a Tiefling Monk. Matthew Toffolo playing Trellimar “Trell” Aleath, a Dark Elf warlock.  Matthew has to leave the game after forty episodes due to scheduling conflicts. His spot in the party is then filled by Tom Hazell playing Reynard Ferehorn, a human Ranger.

The high rollers crew is playing D&D 5e, in a homebrew setting with a lot of homebrew content. Many people compare it to Critical Role, and I there are many reasons why. Much like Critical role, there is a lot of content to get through with High Rollers. The tone and storytelling feels a lot like Critical Role as well, but it is most definitely its own entity. The tone is lighter and while a lot of the villains are compelling, the stakes do not feel as high as they are in other Actual play shows (though they more or less are the same stakes as it is in a lot of other actual play shows)

Ratings

   Gameplay: 3

A wonderful mix of homebrew and following the rules. Mark is excellent at streamlining some of the slower rules but keeping the game engaging for the listeners and players.  Homebrew and updated monsters keep the game fresh. New mechanics for smaller fights and large-scale battles. though the game still follows the rules enough that it doesn’t get too frustrating for rules critics.

   Postproduction: 2.5

This is a live stream with a pretty small team, I believe just one or two people behind the camera. So, they get the technical difficulties that come with that. Sometimes players forget to turn on or off their microphones. The sound and/or video has given out on more than one occasion, and in the early episodes, the microphones were not as good as they could have been. While not great, don’t let it stop you from watching or listening to the VODs.

  Story/Rp: 3.5

   This is a hard one for me because there are excellent moments in this show, but there are also some arcs that drag on for way too long and very unsatisfactory conclusions.  The final arc and the penultimate arch should have been switched. I understand why they had it the way they did, but the 2nd to last to last BBEG (big bad evil guy) is the one the story hyped up through the whole campaign and is not the last fight. There are quite a few episodes after what should have been the conclusion of the story.  Sure, the last bad guy is interesting, and he does not come out of nowhere, but he is not as well fleshed out as the previous villain.  Because of this the ending just falls a little flat for me

   Representation: 4

   So good! A lot of conical LGBT characters, two of them being in the actual party. Though the players do not want to put labels on their characters one of them is cannon WLW, and the other is Cannon MLM, and while not explicitly stated the two other male player characters could be MLM as well.  There are only a few cannon NPC ships, only three that I can think of off of the top of my head, and one of them is a healthy lesbian relationship.

There is a major NPC who is non-verbal. Then there is another one, while not explicitly stated, feels to be coded as autistic. While I am not sure If the DM has personal experience with disabled people, but all of his RP feels respectful.  

   The only thing bringing down this score is that there is some not-so-great fantasy racism. Some races are kept as slaves by other races, and while not too crucial to the main story, (until the last arc)it does feel slightly out of place and clunky at times.

   Overall:

   While High Rollers: The Lightfall Campaign definitely has its problems, it is one of the strongest Actual play streams out there. I first listened to it in late 2016 stopping once I caught up. I re-listened to the whole show it over the summer of 2018 and found that I still liked it. While not my favorite Actual play show, I would say It is in my top five. The setting is classic but new, the characters are diverse and fun to watch. It is NSFW with lots of sex jokes and cursing, but nothing so out of character or lewd that I feel uncomfortable. If you are caught up with Critical Roll and want to watch something that feels similar but unique, try out High Rollers: The Lightfall Campaign.

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TITAN’S GRAVE: Ashes of Valkanha

Watch it here: Episode 0

10 episodes each averaging 48 minutes. About 7 hours and 15 minutes total. It started on Jun 12, 2015, and the final episode came out on Aug 14, 2015.  It stars Wil Wheaton as Game Master, Alison Haislip as Kiliel the half-Elf half-dwarf rogue, Hank Green as Aankia the saurian rogue, Laura Bailey as Lemley the human warrior, and Yuri Lowenthal as S'Lethkk the half-saurian half-orc wizard.

For my first review I will be doing the first actual play show I watched, “TITAN’S GRAVE: Ashes of Valkanha.” A mix of sci-fi and fantasy. Set in the titular world of Valkanha, this game uses the “Age System” which put simply the only dice the players are rolling are 2-3d6 plus a modifier for their actions. The system is unique, fun, and fast-paced, I do not know if it just Wil Wheaton’s DMing style, the game system or the editing, but it appears that the GM has a lot more control over the action then in 5e, especially in combat encounters.  

As you can see compared to a lot of other actual play shows “TITAN’S GRAVE” only has a handful of episodes that were aired in 2015. While I did not do too much research on what happened, Wil Wheaton’s show “Table Top” on Geek and Sundry also abruptly ended around the same time. This is not the time or place for me to speculate over a show that ended over three years ago, but if you are a newcomer to this show; you should probably not expect a season two at this point.

           Gameplay: 4.5.

While I am tempted to give this game a five, I do not feel comfortable enough with the system to say how strictly the GM is fallowing it. The rolls definitely add to the story, and they do not get in the way of the action.

           Postproduction: 5.

 The postproduction on this show is excellent, there are integrated GIFs, art, and music. The artwork, while sometimes getting a little graphic, is terrific.  The in-game HP (health points) tracking, and the on-screen dice calculations are both helpful to see. All of the art is unintrusive and if you just want to listen to TITAN’S GRAVE, and not watch it, you won’t be at a disadvantage.

           Story/Rp: 3.

I would love to give this category a little more love, only having 10 episodes really brings down the score. There are a lot of loose ends at the end, but they will most likely never be resolved. The RP is engaging and I love the characters, but I just want more of it.

           Representation: 3.8

While I have a feeling that there several of the characters are LGBT+ there are not explicit statements about them being LGBT+.  There is one canonically disabled player character, and she is affected by this disability, it isn’t just a plot device it has an effect on her in-game. There is a little bit of fantasy racism in this show, but I think it is handled well. 

          Overall:

 A super fun and exciting story and setting. Unique characters and fun callbacks. A lot of D&D and pop couture references but no more than what you would see at any other table. If you like to want to watch something a little shorter, with an emphasis on worldbuilding and RP, this may be the show for you.

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I will be using a few ‘gamer’ terms/words/phrases in this blog, so if you are confused here are a few of them explained

information under the cut

Pc: aka “player characters”. These are the characters that the majority of the table will be playing. Specifically, the ones that the GM does not play (there is a loophole here, but I will explain it if it comes up)

NPC: aka "non-player charter". These are the monsters, the helpers, the barmaids and everything in-between and then some. These are the creatures that the GM runs. They are usually not as thought out as PCs, but they are essential for the storytelling purposes.

GM/DM: aka “game master” or “dungeon master,” but there are many other names for this position as well, but most of the time I will be saying DM and GM interchangeably. This is the person that knows all of the secrets, the person that sits behind the curtain. They are a much more 'wonderful wizard' (‘do not look behind the curtain!’) then all-seeing and knowing god. They are the ones that control the monsters and the mail, the one who knows the PC’s deep and dark secrets and will bring them up at the most unfortunate of times. they are more-or-less the ones running the show

System: this is what game they are playing, I may say “they are playing 5e” or “they are using the apocalypse system” is just a shorthand way of saying what game they are playing. Now you may be thinking ‘well aren’t all of these games the same?’ Well yes and no. You could theoretically tell the same story using two different systems, but that would be a challenging thing to do. Game systems are much like game engines, they dictate what type of game you will be playing; something like the apocalypse system is made for heavier storytelling and RP, while something like 3.5e or 4e are much more combat-focused.

Setting: this is the world the game is based in.  This mostly a applies to Dungeons and Dragons, though I will give my thoughts on the setting no matter what system the game is using.  it is a little more critical for dnd because they have pre-made modules (a book created by Wizards of the Coast (the people who make the official D&D content)), or a dm could use homebrew content, and it is a good thing to know what they are playing

Homebrew/Homebrew content: this is when the DM makes original content for the players. It can be as simple as a unique weapon, or as advanced as a whole game.  I doubt I will talk much about small amounts of homebrew, but if it is an entire setting, I will speak about it some.

Rp: aka “role play”. This Is when players act, talk, and do things in-character. It is when the players take on the mind (or role) of the character they are playing and act accordingly.

#D#:  I doubt I will be using this term much, but it is one of the weirder ones.  The ‘D’ stands for dice, and the # is a number. If in one of my reviews I say this system uses 3d6,  this is what it means broken down: the three is how many dice are being rolled, the ‘d’ just stands for dice, and the ‘6’ stands for how many sides the dice has. So 3d6 means the players are rolling three six-sided dice and adding them up.

“Fantasy racism”. I will be using this term quite a bit in the representation section. Some DMs like to have in-game racism, from something as traditional as “the dwarves hate the elves because of reasons” to something as drastic as “race A enslaved race B for one thousand years. Now they are mortal enemies, that will never forgive each other”. Now this is can be fine, and can add some fun conflict, but sometimes it falls flat, sometimes the dm tries to make their story ‘deeper’ by having an allegory or moral using fantasy racism, but more times than not, it comes out kind of… not that great. It can be done well, but most of the time it falls flat.

“Fantasysexism”: while not unlike the term above, fantasy sexism is a little different. Most DMs don’t do this anymore, but there are a few that say ‘well this race would treat women like trash because of ____”. Thankfully, in all of the shows, I’ve watched it really hasn’t come up, but I thought it would be worth explaining here in case it does in the future.

“Edgy”/ “Grimdark”: these are a couple of terms I may be using for a tone, they are kind of interchangeable but not 1:1. The way I use it is that edgy generally a character trait, and grimdark is a setting trait, though a grimdark setting can still be edgy.  Edgy characters are the classic ‘lone wolf,’ ‘my family is dead, and I want to avenge their death’ and other things like that. Batman, Reaper from overwatch, and Nico di Angelo could all be considered ‘edgy’ characters. Grimdark settings are ones who tone is oppressing, and sad, ones whose characters die on the flip of a coin, and that hope seems lost at all times. Settings like anything written by Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft, or set in Gotham city could all be considered grimdark. Edgy and grimdark are both just as much about aesthetics as tone as well.

[rollingrevews]

Rolling Review: Session Zero

I’ve watched a lot of actual play podcasts/streams over the past few years. Since around 2015 they have been my primary source of entertainment. Though I’ve noticed recently: there are a lot of them out now and that some are much better than others.

I am hoping that with this blog I will be able to make a simple system, so you have a place to quickly find a new actual play podcast/stream that is right for you. I have watched/listened to all of the shows I will be reviewing. maybe not the whole way through but at least the first few episodes, or as many as they have out at the time

I am not a professional in any way. I just think there is a void of information for when you are looking for a new actual play show to listen to, and maybe don’t want to put in the two/three hours it takes to get through an episode or two of one of these shows, just to find it is not for you.

My ratings will be from one to five, with discussions on why I rated a show in such a way. There will be four categories along with an overall score. I will do a small synopsis and my personal thoughts/history with some of the shows so you can see how jaded I am with some of them. The four categories are Gameplay, Pre/Postproduction, Story/Rp, and Representation. Here are what I will be discussing in these categories.

          Gameplay: for this rating, I am going to say how much the people were playing follow the rules of the game. This part of the review it is less a critique, and more just letting the viewer know how the game may feel. I know a few people who can’t listen to podcasts that do not fallow the rules. While I prefer a loser take on the rules, wherein the story isn’t stopped every five minutes for people to look up a rule.

           Pre/postproduction: now this one is tricky, because depending on the show there may be no post-production because it is live. Or on the other hand, there is a lot of postproduction because half of the show is animated. In the case of a live show, I will be talking about if they have regular technical difficulties, audio issues, and fan interaction. In shows that do pre-record their episodes will be reviewing what they add on, how it affects the show, and what it might add.

          Story/RP: this section I will be tackling the feeling of the show, the tone, pacing, themes, and the genre of play.  I will try to keep it to general topics, and spoiler free. Though if I feel that there is an important point to make about something specific I will make sure to point out spoilers before I comment. Also in this section, I will talk about campaign settings, whether they are using a module or homebrew, and how effective they were using and/or making their setting.

Representation: this category is one of my favorites before I started listening to actual play shows I did not see anything as inclusive as an actual play show. Now after I have listened to so many, when I go back to ‘normal’ media I find myself missing it. This category may be a little tricky because like many other people I enjoy shipping, but I will only be counting conical LGBT+ characters. So, it has to be said or regularly shown in the show that a character is LGBT+ for me to count them towards this score. Also, there is more than one type of representation, I will be looking for canonical POC characters, and disabled characters and how well they are represented in the show.  I am LGBT+ and Disabled so I may be concentrating on those aspects more just because I am better educated on them, though I will try my best to discuss the racial aspects of these shows.

So, from a Zone of Adventure to a group of High Rollers; we will explore some actual play shows, how they are played and their stories. Then maybe on the way, we’ll pick of five gold and a party, come every other Wednesday as long as my school schedule allows to get another Rolling Review.