The Tome Show Tome Show Productions

I don’t listen to The World Tree Burns so I can’t speak to that show, but the rest of the shows hosted here on The Tome Show are a wonderful place to hear news & reviews of D&D and its related products. In particular, Behind The DM Screen is a huge inspiration for me and always gives me ideas for my own characters and games.

Great review and news about D&D developments.

I like the content of Monstrous but really dislike the odd "accent" and voice-acting. Would you consider a more natural delivery?

Overall, these shows have good energy from the host and his guests. They love the game I love and help me understand what's going on in the community. They keep a diverse group of guests focused on the topic...a rare treat in podcasts! And I can't agree enough about the high-quality sound and editing.

The Tome Show keeps listeners up-to-date on the latest in D&D news and trends but suffers greatly from a lack of basic interviewing structure and setup.

I was excited to delve into this show when I heard about it two years ago and have been listening on and off throughout that time. My favorite series was ‘All About x’ where Jeff has some great guests on to talk about classes and more. Over time I’ve started to notice a lot of Jeff’s interviewing habits that really hold this show back from it’s full potential. This review has a particular focus on those episodes as a frame of reference.

My biggest concern is Jeff’s inability to ask basic open or closed questions. Frequently he’ll shut out guests from talking about something in order to bring up his own opinion or validate his own knowledge in the form of a yes or no question.

An example from the last ‘All About Megadungeons’ episode at about 6 minutes in
Jeff: Neil, what is your favorite Megadungeon?

Neil: (To paraphrase, says he’ll provide a short answer, Undermountain, and a longer answer, his current home campaign of The Emerald Spire in Pathfinder written by various authors for each level)

Jeff: Which is similar to the way, they sort of, uh, designed and wrote Dungeon of the Mad Mage, which is similar to the latest incarnation of Undermountain, as I recall, right?

Here Jeff starts out by asking a question that is way too open, i.e. one with too many answers. It’s like asking someone what their favorite movie or book is. Both Neil and the second guest Sam show some difficulty answering this question as a result. To follow up, Jeff adds a highly specific question which does let us know more about Dan Dylan’s involvement in Megadungeons but prevents Jeff from talking more about his answer.

This example may seem innocent but Jeff does it at least a couple of times in every interview I’ve listened to. A better line of questioning could’ve been:
What was the last Megadungeon you played?
Followed by
What are things you’ve enjoyed from it?
This leads with an easy question (closed) and provides an opportunity to expand on an interviewee’s answer to their content.
How could you lead with ‘What is your favorite Megadungeon’ as your first question anyways? Jeff is acting like it’s a simple introductory question but it’s one that demands explanation and follow up questions. Maybe lead with more biographical info like how long they’ve been playing? I like how he gives a brief background of everyone at the start though.

Juggling questions like that is very difficult and could be forgiven if Jeff didn’t keep driving the conversation towards dead ends. In this same interview only about three minutes later Jeff asks something about Monty Cook that doesn’t really go anywhere. He did the same thing in other interviews that sound something like:
Jeff:“Wasn’t this class feature invented in 2e in order to do this specific thing for this reason?”
Interviewee:”Yes/No.”
Jeff:”See, I thought that it was because...”
It just slows down the interview overall which is odd given how much Jeff cares about being on schedule. I just want to get more information from the guests given that they have a lot of perspective and expertise.

The greatet offence that Jeff has made is the podcast’s audio quality. I’ve tried listening to this podcast in a car and the volume difference between Jeff and his guests is painful. His voice is way louder by comparison and it makes the experience unbearable. I have my problems with Skype in general but there have got to be better online calling apps as alternatives.

Jeff steps on the line between being a casual interviewer and information hound preventing him from receiving either of the styles’ advantages.
I really do respect him and the team’s effort in growing this podcast and spreading the love of D&D as a whole. I hope that future episodes show a greater understanding of how to listen and respond to great guests on what continues to be an overall fun show.