Podcast Follow-Up

I mentioned in my blog on podcasts that I was thinking of subscribing to two more podcasts, but that I had only listened to one episode of each of them. I've now listened to a bit more of each and wanted to comment on them.

The first is the Order 66 podcast. This one is a winner. At first I could do without their humor segments, but they've grown on me, and there is the occasional real gem among them. Plus, they are usually short enough that it's no big deal if they fall flat. Not only have I decided to subscribe to the podcast, but it's the first one for which I've decided to go back and listen to all the old episodes from the beginning. So far I've listened to over a dozen episodes, and I have to say that if you have any interest in the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG then I would highly recommend you try out this podcast.

Two episodes in particular have been my favorites so far. The first featured an interview with a GM and one of his players that was inspired by the player complaining about bad GMing on the part of the GM in the podcast forum. It was entertaining listening to both sides of the story as well as just listening to them outline the progress of their campaign, which sounds like a fun one overall, even if I do think the GM made a few mistakes. The second was a two hour long special featuring the only full time dev on the Star Wars RPG at WotC, Rodney Thompson. Lots of good rules clarifications and insight into the development process.

The other podcast is Podhammer, the Warhammer Fantasy podcast. I'm still on the fence with this one. The first one I listened to was a very good analysis of the Lizardman army. The second one I listened to was the one year anniversary episode that featured a bunch of drunk guys talking crap for an hour. It was bad. They finally put on something decent when they played back a pre-recorded interview, but I'm lucky I even got that far. The third one wasn't as good as the first, but was far better than the second, and from comments made by the podcasters themselves is apparently a more typical episode. If that's the case, it's probably worth listening to except for one more thing.

The one other problem I have with Podhammer, is that they've decided to make some of their content premium content available only to members of a Podhammer club that costs $15 a year to join. Now, I don't have a problem with these guys trying to cover the costs of producing the show and maintaining the website, or even making a few bucks on top of that. But this show is already borderline, and it sounds like some of the segments I'd be most interested in are being moved to the premium side of the content. Aside from the cost, this means I'd have to actually go to their site and download the content, which is an annoyance as I generally just get my podcasts updated automatically through iTunes.

I may end up doing it anyways, because they are doing a package deal this month with 40K radio that has a similar program that I've been thinking of joining just to support the guys putting out a good podcast, but I just haven't decided yet.

They're both worth checking out if you play the related games, and I'd argue that Order 66 is probably worth checking out if you've just thought about playing the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG.