#RPGaDay2015, Day 13

rpg-a-day-2015Today’s topic is one where I am at a distinct disadvantage: Favorite RPG Podcast. Here’s the thing: I don’t actually listen to podcasts. It’s not that I don’t want to — I’m very interested in the form: I used to work in radio in the early-to-mid-90s (the local NPR station), and I regularly listen to audio dramas from BBC Radio 4 (which thankfully are available streaming internationally) and Big Finish Productions.

I’m fascinated by the possibilities of podcasts… but for whatever reason, I haven’t made the leap into a regular listener, even when everybody was raving about Welcome to Night Vale and Serial. Part of it is time — I’m up to my eyeballs in late projects, and I can’t really concentrate on what needs to be done with anything more than just music playing in the background. On those few days when I leave my office, and take the 45 minute drive to teach at the Kansas City Art Institute, listening to a podcast in my car would be perfect — except my car is old, with no way to connect my phone to the speakers (I’ve tried using a radio adapter, but there are not enough “dead spots” in the signal spectrum in this area, and we can’t use a cassette-adapter because the car has a CD player).

kartasThat said, I do semi-regularly listen to a podcast, and it is, at least nominally, an RPG podcast — although they spend more time talking about non-RPG-specific topics. That podcast is Ken And Robin Talk About Stuff, with Ken Hite and Robin Laws. The wonderful thing about this podcast is that it essentially is a slightly-more-categorically-structured version of what it’s like to sit with Ken and Robin at any convention bar. Seriously. Conversations about film, or weird history, or, yes, sometimes even gaming topics — and getting a chance to take part in that, even passively, via a weekly podcast, is far better than the 1 to 3 times a year that I’d otherwise have.

So there’s my answer. It seems that Dave Chapman has a similar difficulty with this topic, as he demonstrates in today’s video: