I listen to a lot of TTRPG podcasts, but of all the DMs, Yubi does one of my favorite things in gaming better than anyone else: melding mechanics with roleplay and flavor. You won’t get “Eh, two Displacer Beasts come out of the woods, roll initiative;” instead, you get a genuinely suspenseful lead-up to a gripping, terrifying battle... but when you go in and check, you can see that Yubi has followed all the rules of the game flawlessly. This podcast proves that you can have the strong story of The Adventure Zone AND the mechanical purity of Critical Roll.
Not only that, but the atmosphere itself is just incredible. Yubi’s descriptions, the players’ (and characters’) reactions, and Rachel Graff’s music all create a beautifully treacherous world where every NPC, every spell cast, every health point matters. I will never forget how Yubi made a simple divination spell, something a spell caster gets by level five or six, seem awe-inspiring and just as incredible as we might find it in our world today. They are one of my biggest inspirations for DMing and the show is one of my favorites.
