Podcast Secret Level (podcast recommendations thread)

Input Tune of the Fatman
21

Yeah was just coming here to post that. I agree Griffin is the funniest


the scenarios her comes up with on TAZ are genuinely cool too and lately have come with some neat incidental music.

i’ve been listening to a good deal of Watch Out For Fireballs! which is by the same dudes as Bonfireside Chat. It is sometimes overlong and the skits at the beginning are hit-or-miss (though always short) but Kole and Gary are nice enough guys to listen to and it’s neat to hear an overview of games i haven’t played and probably won’t. They straddle the line between populist gamer and indie hipstershit (picture me vaguely gesturing at this entire website) v. well too. I listened to the Fallout 3 main story one the other day and it was gratifying to hear them come down on the game for the stupid series-breaking tone it has, especially re: the shitty east coast Brotherhood of Steel.

22

I agree but it annoys me so goddamn much that everyone except Griffin seems to be cheating on every single roll, right? Or do I just understand how D&D works even less than I thought?

I mean in the last episode I listened to (train murder chapter) Griffin devises this p. cool scenario and then the three players are like “we are gonna do this stupid non-intuitive brute-force thing which will definitely fail unless we get amazing rolls” and then they no joke roll a 17, 19, 18, 19, 20 like they do every time and obliterate everything and its like well who even cares then.

So, ok, I get that real D&D isn’t really what the show is about and I’m sure that they are all on board with fudging the rolls for storytelling expediency but I just think the show would be so much better if they had to improvise around bad rolls, instead of every fight being 30 minutes of “I rolled a 19” “wow ok yeah that’ll do it, roll 3 d6 for damage” “ok I got a 6, 5, 5” “ok jesus you cleave him in half” / repeat until all enemies are dead.

Does this ever get addressed by anyone in the show? I’m guessing not so I might just start skipping the fights altogether.

(basically I just want Justin and Travis to face consequences for their often rail-roading of dumb decisions in what is an otherwise fun story. The dad is fine though.)

23

I’m sure they’re fudging the rolls more than a little bit though i know Griffin sometimes demands to see the dice and threatens to kill off their characters if they’re doing something outright moronic. Said characters are pretty internet popular though, they might have lil plot armor. So, i dunno. I also think their characters are beefier than they would be in a normal campaign (they have some huge modifiers), but don’t quote me on it because i know little of DnD mechanics. There hasn’t really been a straightforward fight since the train chapter, if that helps!

24

I haven’t listened to this show yet at all, but a part of this might just be them editing out all the misses because DnD has a real problem with boring as hell combat, particularly for inexperienced players/gms.

In essence, they’re just doing a highlight real of any combat sequence because listening to a full length combat would put even the most ardent fan to sleep.

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25

The others often comment on Travis’ absurd luck with the dice. And their dad’s bad rolls. If Clint gets a good roll Justin will chime in with “no it actually happened, I’m seeing it now, I mean it.”

In the latest arc Clint gets near death at least once. You could argue he’s Saved By Railroading a bit, but that sort of thing doesn’t bother me. I’m in it for the goofiness. And the Klarg.

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26

Yeah OK now that I’ve sampled it I’m a huge fan of Rose Buddies they’re such a charming couple ;____;

Plus it introduced me to the following crime against humanity:

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27

Yeah Rose Buddies is delightful!! Also it confirmed my suspicions that Bachelor/Bachelorette (which ive never watched) is an utterly execrable/despicable program

28

sleepysmiles I took bonfireside chat for a test drive only to learn it is staffed by monsters who like SPEC OPS: THE LINE plz answer 4 this crime :waynestare:

29

I don’t know what that is.

30

ignorance of shruglaw excuses none. ;_;

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31

Is it like a Kane and Lynch “ironic” 3PS thing? Because that’s what wikipedia makes it sound like.

Gary and Kole seem nice. They do an annual games benefit for TransActive. They’re ok in my book.
Gary does a podcast with his roommate about weird/bad music videos called Teenage Dirtbags that is funny and good.

32

Kane & Lynch isn’t ironic ;______;

33

I actually haven’t played that either ¯_(ツ)_/¯

34

Spec Ops is sort of like if Dog Days was a milshooter made by idiots I guess.

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35

OK I’ll keep listening I just take every opportunity to yell about people being wrong re: the objective evil that is spec ops the line on the internet because I am the worst human shrug OK OK

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36

Yo! I’m way too into podcasts, and it seems you guys have the same kinda tastes as me. So here are a few I’m really into that haven’t been brought up yet:

The Insert Credit Show - I mean, this one’s pretty obvious, but I didn’t see anyone mention it. I thought it was much better when they had Alex Jaffe hosting it, but it’s still pretty good.

Violence Island - Alex Jaffe, Tim Rogers, and Vito Gesualdi pit characters from all forms of media against each other in a randomly generated tournament bracket. I put off checking this one out for a long time, but I’m on season 2 now and getting really into it. The podcast itself is a kind of game that they’re designing as they go, and they’ve been slowly creating a goofy kind of narrative out of the whole thing. It’s REALLY funny too, has me laughing out loud more often than most podcasts.

Morph Club - Two graphic novelists read Animorphs and discuss it, with each episode covering one of the books. This podcast just got started, and I’ve been really enjoying it. The hosts are great. They manage to summarize each book’s plot in a way that’s actually really engaging to listen to, and their reactions to the surprisingly sad and dark aspects of these books is really refreshingly earnest. I loved Animorphs as a kid, and this podcast has been such a fun way for me to revisit that world.

Reply All - I don’t have a lot to really say about this one, but I dig it. Very professionally produced, intriguing stories about internet related phenomena.

Adjust Your Tracking - Since I studied film, I’m really picky about film podcasts, and this is the only one I’ve been able to stomach in the long term. Two extremely intelligent, knowledgable, and laid back film buffs discuss new movies that have intrigued them in some way. It strikes that sweet spot of unpretentious and informal while maintaining a really high level of discourse. They can be a bit crabby about new trends in cinema, but if you get past their occasional rants, then they quickly get into some really great discussion.

The Book Was Better - Two Australian librarian comedians read movie-to-book novelizations and make fun of them, summarizing them and quoting choice passages. This show was incredible up until one of the two main hosts left to have a kid, and since then it’s been kind of hit-or-miss depending on the guest host. BUT if you start at the beginning and work your way up, this is really top-notch stuff. You wouldn’t believe how crazy these books get.

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37

Seconding Reply All, that show is real good. I think the quality that makes it for me is the hosts’ genuine affection for each other. It’s so central to the appeal of the show that I’m willing to believe that it’s entirely intentional and Reply All is some kind of wacky po-mo genre exercise.

I mean they made a whole half hour episode out of a recording of them just going outside and doin stuff.

1 Like
38

Been listening to this for like 3 weeks now, on episode 21. I have also not played a single microsecond of DnD and this podcast is wonderful anyway. I feel like the first 5 or 6 episodes were the funniest but the newer ones are more narratively satisfying.

I don’t listen to many podcasts, but I’ve listened to Like What I Like religiously since it started, uh, 6 weeks ago? Every other week, they try to force each other to like one piece of media, and it’s pretty fun. I especially like the interlude episodes because they’re less structured and super goofy. Getting better as it goes along.

39

Thirding Reply All - binging on it has gotten me through some horrible commutes over the last week. I actually sat in my car in my garage for an extra few minutes just so I could hear the end of the episode about the Longform.org guys and their experience trying to buy longform.com.

Does anyone know of any “good” bad movie podcasts? I’ve tried both How Did This Get Made and The Flop House, and they are fine enough I guess. I like everyone involved in HDTGM and the podcast can be funny at times but their actual response to most of the movies isn’t very insightful or good. TFH is alright too but it seems super in-jokey and I don’t like the hosts enough to deep dive into the hundreds of hours of TFH that is currently available.

For as many bad movie podcasts as there seem to be, they all tend to take the same surface-layer “CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS THING??” attitude, which isn’t really what I’m interested in atm.

For reference, I’m looking for something like Nathan Rabin’s My Year of Flops articles from back in the day on AVClub, but I haven’t found anything in podcast form that similarly tries to take the “bad movie” track in an insightful or thoughtful way.

40

Sophomore Lit is an alright 'cast about books you might have been forced to read in school hosted by the droney brother of one of the Flop House gents (the droney one) + rotating guests.

The following link is to their latest, which might clue a doubter in to some of the ways in which Moby Dicks owns!