Review: Adventures from the shed
Live play Dungeon World podcast
Other campaigns have been played in, D&D, Pathfinder, Star Wars, Edara, and Tavern Tales.
Players and their Characters
Joe The GM
Mickie plays Nesolis
JJ plays Kalam’Te
Kurt plays Truk
Britanny plays Aleyna
Today’s review is of a podcast that frankly could be used as a class on how a live play podcast is done. And, it's done so well it sounds unintentional, as if the DM and players are just instinctively aware that there are listeners. Your average live play podcast, even very good ones have moments where players step all over each other and create an audio miasma that is grating and unlistenable. It's the opposite of dead air. Excessive air, in which lots of noise is happening and the listener couldn't possibly understand what's going on until the DM rangles everyone back on track like a den mother. In The Adventures from the Shed podcast this almost never happens. And if that was the only positive thing about this live play it would be worth your time.
But wait! There’s more! The DM and the players are almost perfectly in sync when it comes to the flow of the narrative. You get all the nostalgia of brief game dynamics peppered on top of an almost seamless player and DM storytelling. This delivery is so flawless that every episode leaves you with the coveted story artifacts that are the true reward of role playing games. Stories you can tell like they happened to people you know. “Oh man! Remember that time your arm got stuck in that ghost? That was crazy!”
The storytelling is so fluid that you can jump right in. Again this is rare. It's easy to feel lost in a campaign when you haven't listened from the beginning. This can create a listener burden. A listener may ask, “Do I want to listen to the previous fabillion episodes?” With Adventures from the Shed you don't need to worry at all. The show begins with insightful character interactions and just enough “previously on” that jumping in is just fine and you’ll quickly be following along.
The players consistently role play which is the magic of a good live play narrative. They don't just tell you what their characters are doing, they actually role play. It's not to say there aren't moments where the players and DM discuss mechanics; for example dice rolls and experience earned but it's done properly. You expect to hear these sorts of game mechanics when listening to a live play. The question is, is the dice roll exciting? Do they players emote that they care that their character earned something. In Adventures from the Shed they do.
Community
The silent power behind any podcast is community. While content brings you in and keeps you listening, community is that something special that separates two otherwise equal shows. Adventures from the Shed appears to have an active Facebook presence. Personally I'd like to see posts for each episode so I can excitedly follow along! But really, that's the best criticism I have. I've listened to a few episodes and I can tell you that my subscribe button will stay on. I have yet to hear any segments in the show that address listeners or others in the creative community. It could be that they just don't do that, or they didn't do it in the shows I listened to.
When I asked Joe if there was anything he wanted review readers to know about the show he told me;
“Our first priority is to create an entertaining audio podcast. Most of our episodes are actual play sessions, and we also publish "Sidebar" podcasts where we give opinion and advice for RPGs in general.”
In Summary, Adventures from the Shed is worth you time. The narrative is so good that even if you’re not into role playing games you would probably still enjoy this podcasts. I for one look forward to the rest of this campaign and hopefully many more to come.
Happy hunting,
Anthony.
