Roleplay Friday - 5 RPG Podcasts to Check Out
The roleplaying world is becoming more and more accessible, but many gamers still maintain an outdated view of how much investment is required to try out roleplaying. It’s very likely that, with the many thematic board games that have come out in recent years, most of the tabletop community has roleplayed to some extent even if they weren’t aware of it.
So here are five roleplaying experiences that you can check out if you’re interested!
Roleplaying is a fun personal experience as you try to discover who a character is and how to play them. But it’s also enjoyable to listen and watch other people go through the same learning process until a fully fleshed-out personality emerges.
So today we’re celebrating different RPG podcasts—some interviews and some actual play. Hopefully, you’ll be able to listen and find another opportunity to delve into the world of roleplaying. Without further ado, let’s jump into some RPG audio.
I AM HEAR
I Am Hear is a new podcast to me. I hadn’t heard of it until recently, but it’s one that definitely intrigues me. It’s a conversational podcast, so it isn’t going to have the actual play content that a lot of listeners expect from an RPG-focused podcast.
What it does do, though, is introduce guests who have extensive experience with RPGs and the tabletop community. And it shares their stories, highlighting specifically the journeys of members of the community “marginalized by race, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, and/or disability.”
It’s a platform that aims to boost the visibility of those guests and anyone else who feels represented by them in the roleplaying space. There are currently three seasons of the show and you can learn more about the podcast here.
Not Another D&D Podcast
College Humor sketches appeared most prominently in earlier years of YouTube but they remain some of my favorite inside jokes with my brother and other friends. That’s pertinent because several of the actors who I remember the most from that time—Emily Axford, Brian Murphy, Jake Hurwitz, and Zac Oyama—feature in the Not Another D&D Podcast.
Those comedic actors have pivoted to a new realm of improvisation and character creation with their podcast worlds.
There are four different adventures that you can check out and the crew has different DMs for each of the stories, so there should be something for everyone if you’re not the biggest fan of one narrative.
If you think this is up your alley, then get lost in the NADD podcast!
20 Sided Stories
Sometimes, the fantasy world of D&D is not what you’re looking for. And that’s totally understandable. I need a break from that place sometimes. I’m thinking about ALIEN of course, but different strokes for different folks.
If you need something fresh and new, though, then consider 20 Sided Stories, which lives in a world where Pokemon are real, Marvel is a thing, twilight is still a scary time of day, London is in need of sunshine, and other stories abound. The comedy RPG podcast features a bunch of friends who explore all of these popular worlds and roleplay some truly humorous characters in unscripted stories.
Each narrative is 20 episodes or less and guests jump into the mix to keep everybody guessing. If actual plays or other podcasts seem to stretch too long, then the anthology style of 20 Sided Stories might catch your interest.
Enjoy the madness here.
Behold Her
Lysa Penrose is a Renaissance woman. She’s got a lot of different things going on, but one special part of her repertoire is the Behold Her podcast, which features women from across the tabletop roleplaying hobby and explores their inspiring stories and achievements.
It’s a diverse spread of guests and each femme gives a very unique perspective on the industry. Most podcasts are brand new to me since I’ve just started listening to them, but I love a good interview and Penrose has a lot.
The host and producer has a lot of audio stories to share and her episodes have included designers, writers, cosplayers, streamers, and so many other members of the RPG space.
Behold the podcast here if you think it’s something you’d like.
Very Random Encounters
If you’ve ever been around RPG players while building a character…
If you’ve ever been a DM trying to craft a convincing world and the stories to fill it…
If you’ve ever tried to build a story…
Then you know that it can take forever and that it’s not always easy to create something special. But what if you designed everything randomly and then picked up those pieces to make some memorable? That’s the idea behind Very Random Encounters, a podcast show where the performers take pen-and-paper RPGs and assign much of the narrative—the characters, the places, and names, and just about everything else—use random determinations.
What’s harder: acting out a character that you’ve built or one that was built moments ago from some dice rolls? Well, the answer might be tough to figure out but the result is very amusing with this podcast. The Listening Guide gives you some suggestions of where to start.
What roleplaying podcasts do you listen to? Let me know in the comments so I can check them out!