Thursday, September 04, 2008

Podcast Goodness

I'm using my new iPhone a lot. Not as a phone though. Instead, I'm using it far more often as an iPod and a pocket computer. My most common activities are checking email and listening to podcasts.

I've found myself with about eight hours each week behind the wheel taking my wife to work, so listening to podcasts has helped me to keep my sanity when she's not in the car.

I started with some World of Warcraft podcasts, with my favorite being The Instance. These guys seem to know what they're doing while still acknowledging the existence of casual players, and it's an entertaining listen, although it's fallen off the top of my list since I entered the post 70 blues.

After listening to some WoW podcasts, I decided to branch out into some podcasts for my other hobbies. Specifically, I started checking out some D&D/D20 podcasts and some Warhammer podcasts. My favorites right now are Radio Free Hommlet for D&D and 40k Radio for Warhammer 40K. I'm also interested in RFH's sister Star Wars Saga Edition podcast Order 66, and the Warhammer Fantasy Podcast Podhammer, but I've only listened to one episode of each of those so far.

I'm also going to add 40k Warcasting to my list. They do complete army book breakdowns, and their recent Eldar breakdown was impressive, even if it did miss a few points I've gotten from other sources. Also, one of the guys appears to be a retailer, which adds some extra insight into an area I have some interest in. Unfortunately, their posting is a bit more sporadic than the other podcasts I've mentioned.

An honorable mention goes to the Penny Arcade/PvP/WotC D&D play sessions featuring Tycho and Gabe from Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz from PvP running through portions of Keep on the Shadowfell. A couple of guys from WotC serve as DMs (the first session has Chris Perkins, and James Wyatt takes over for the second session). Tycho and Kurtz are veteran RPGers, and Gabe is a longtime video game geek, but new to RPGs. All three of them are new to 4th edition, so the dynamics are interesting. Listening to them play really made me want to play myself. You can tell they were having a blast despite having some of the crappiest luck with the dice ever in the second session. You can currently find them here, but the WotC site still pretty much sucks, so who knows how long that link will work. There are eight episodes and the guys added a couple of pieces of artwork to each episode featuring memorable quotes or scenes from the episode.

4 comments:

rayipsa said...

You might also want to d/l Pandora for your iPhone. It is a cool app based upon the music genome project.

Fulminata said...

I think I did try that, but I've found that I don't actually listen to music much on my iPhone, just podcasts.

Anonymous said...

Hey Fulminata,

Jay from 40k warcasting here. Thanks for the post. I'm just letting you know we got back into the podcast and are going to try to make it regular now.

I'm just curious what points we missed on the eldar codex, as I'm always looking for ways to improve the podcast.

Fulminata said...

Hey, thanks for the post!

It's been a while since I listened to the podcast, so I went back and listened to a bit of it again today to see if I could jog my memory on what I was talking about.

One thing that stood out in light of the FAQs that have come out is that you repeatedly say that psychic powers can't be used from inside a vehicle, which is not the case at all in 5th.

When discussing the Autarch you missed what is arguably his most significant ability: the bonus to reserve rolls.

I didn't get to the core choices on my re-listen, but I'm pretty sure that you missed the ability to get three flamer templates out of a squad of storm guardians with a warlock, which can make them a decent choice in the right list. I noticed that only because I've been playing with a list that does just that.

Overall though, you did a really good job, and you caught some things that other overviews missed, so don't take my comments as a major criticism. I meant it when I said your coverage was impressive, especially given how soon after the release of 5th edition it came out.

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