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I think it's good that you guys run a mix of campaigns and oneshots, and even your campaigns are short enough to have an end in sight, and you jump a lot between different systems. The GURPS Terminator mini-campaign I thought was a cool little concept, and you made the system sound real easy to run. I've certainly learned how to run investigations and heists from listening to the CoC/Trail/NBA episodes, and from a listener perspective it's easier to jump into a podcast when it doesn't have a three dozen episodes worth of backlog for you to catch up to.
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Oct 19, 2015 09:38
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clockworkjoe posted:Thanks! I'll be honest - as a former Podcaster myself (http://www.theindependentcharacters.com), it was VERY hard to listen to an "uhhhhh" every other word in some of these cases. Mind you my Podcast was absolutely NOT an Actual Role Play type show. We edited heavily to clean up that type of thing, but it actually put me off of listening to the show. To be fair, I am now sure I would/could do better in that type of format, but I felt it was fair to point it out as something that could use improvement. I think this was Ross GMing? It's really evident in the Nyarlathotep episodes: http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2015/02/genre/horror/trail-of-cthulhu-masks-of-nyarlathotep-new-york-episode-1/ The thing is, I am really interested in the content, I just can't get past the presentation. I have been listening lately to Skype of Cthulhu (http://www.cthulhu.me/) though their web site is horrible, I just download the episodes through iTunes. I have been enjoying their Horror on The Orient Express stuff. It is interesting listening to other GMs (regardless of which show), and seeing the differing techniques. I will say that you can REALLY tell when a GM has prepared well in advance. If anything it has made me ensure I am prepared ahead of time for my players!
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Oct 20, 2015 00:35
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The Last Flight was run by Tom. I know what you mean about the verbal tics but editing isn't really an option because of time and energy constraints. Even though we have a ton of players, no one else has expressed any real interest in doing any of the technical work. RPPR is largely shaped by what is relatively easy and quick to do for a single person. It's also by audience reaction/feedback - our latest AP has something like 46 comments on the site and a ton of referrer links because people really dig it. I used to spend weeks to edit a single radio play http://slangdesign.com/rppr/category/comedy/ab3-story/ but they don't compare to the hype that new APs get. I know I can't appeal to a lot of potential listeners because our production quality is too rough for them, but there's no fast or cheap way to improve that. It's frustrating to me that I can't reach out to people like you but I don't know how to get past that roadblock.
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Oct 20, 2015 04:31
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clockworkjoe posted:The Last Flight was run by Tom. I hear what your saying. Perhaps in making folks aware of the verbal tics though it might help them to become better at it. By the time we finished podcasting (five years later) we had eliminated a lot of it. I know it's helped me with presentations at work and communications in general. I'll give it another go in a couple months I think. Please accept this all for what it is; constructive criticism. I recognize the trials and tribulations of putting out free content and then listening to some jerk complain about it!  (edit: corrected spelling error) Ghost Hand fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Oct 20, 2015 |
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Oct 20, 2015 14:47
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clockworkjoe posted:The Last Flight was run by Tom. Yeah, editing a 3-5 hour session (or two 2.5-3 hours ones in my case) is a slog, and would eat up so much free time. Without someone with masses of free time, it would be an nightmare. The best most people can do is try and deal with the worst of it. One thing that jumps to mind with RPPR (or at least, the Know Evil campaign) was the choppiness of audio levels - most of the talking is done at one volume, then you get "Mr Shouty" (I haven't listened to enough to get his real name) who makes my eardrums bleed every so often. I know I've got the internet based issue of background mike noise, but we are taking steps to work on it, and have just switched away from skype. We're having some robot voice issues, but overall, I like to think the last few sessions of Star Wars and Shadowurun have been better. Then again, I did start listening to one this week from RPGMP3 where, and I kid you not, the first five minutes the GM had to fight against the sound of someone unpacking snacks. Overall though, I love AP podcasts - as a GM, its always great to see other peoples methods of doing things - I'm a reactionary, let the crazy roll style of person, but I do love seeing the intricate planning some people put in - I sometimes wish I could do that, but my group broke Pendragon so badly. We were so far off script by the time Aurthur rolled up looking for his sword that they joined the bad guys, knocked out Aurthur, and stole Excalibur! I have given up planning more than a couple of sessions ahead, as you never know when you will have to introduce a drug smuggling section into Star Wars.....
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Oct 20, 2015 15:21
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Not that it means much, but I don't mind the "uhhhs" and whatnot. Never came across as being a bad thing, that's just a natural occurrence.
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Oct 20, 2015 15:24
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Serf posted:Not that it means much, but I don't mind the "uhhhs" and whatnot. Never came across as being a bad thing, that's just a natural occurrence. Yeah, people playing a RPG and making stuff up as they go along are always going to um an err. It's human nature.
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Oct 20, 2015 15:32
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I think Tom and Aaron are the ones with the most noticeable verbal tics, but Aaron has really improved over time, and the core Masks of Nyarlathotep crew don't have any at all. It could be better, but you seem to be aware of it already and your options are limited. If it's any consolation, the audio quality is lightyears ahead of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, which should otherwise be a fantastic podcast content-wise, but it's like listening to old AM radio.
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Oct 20, 2015 15:32
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Yeah I literally don't listen to Ken and Robin, and they are my favorite designers and incredibly interesting guys, but their podcast quality is absolutely bottom-of-the-barrel dreadful. I can't listen to it. Buying local recording software and a couple of Snowball mics is like 150 bucks all told, and stitching the audio tracks together takes 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure they could quintuple their audience if they just gave a poo poo.
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Oct 20, 2015 17:28
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clockworkjoe posted:The Last Flight was run by Tom. As someone who actually does edit APs, I can say that it still takes us between 80% and 150% the actual length of the episode to do content editing and that's not even including "uh"s (although we do cut out times going to the rulebook to figure something out and the times when people breathe into the mic when possible). The only way The Drunk and Ugly is able to do even that minimum of content editing is with a whole team of editors. The time I got into trying actual post-production on the show it took about 12 hours to do a single episode that, as Ross mentioned, got no additional notice compared to something that took 2 or 3 hours to edit.
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Oct 20, 2015 19:40
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crash2455 posted:As someone who actually does edit APs, I can say that it still takes us between 80% and 150% the actual length of the episode to do content editing and that's not even including "uh"s (although we do cut out times going to the rulebook to figure something out and the times when people breathe into the mic when possible). The only way The Drunk and Ugly is able to do even that minimum of content editing is with a whole team of editors. The time I got into trying actual post-production on the show it took about 12 hours to do a single episode that, as Ross mentioned, got no additional notice compared to something that took 2 or 3 hours to edit. Yeah again - I don't think editing is the answer in this case. It's more of a learned skill to remove at least the majority of them. There are many approaches that can be done to handle it. Toastmasters clubs (where you practice presenting), or even just listening to yourself each episode and hearing it for yourself. One episode to the next you aren't going to see any uptick in downloads. However, over time a show that works on this type of thing will gain listeners as a result and will get known as putting out a superior product. When your medium of choice is audio - there is nothing more important than the audio quality and clarity of presentation. Heck - it's even argued that in video... audio is more important. Again just food for thought. Listening from about 2:32:00 to about 2:35:00 in the episode below - you can hear what I am referring to. http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2015/08/genre/horror/trail-of-cthulhu-masks-of-nyarlathotep-kenya-episode-12/ And again - let me reiterate, that I don't know that I could do any better in an Actual Play format. The show I ran was a discussion heavy and often preparation heavy type of show. Though I do notice it is not an issue in other Actual Play Podcasts. Maybe it's just this specific presenters style. The group as a whole seems to be having a good time and that's the important thing. Fun definitely comes through on a radio program. However, if I were going to start doing an Actual Play type show I would take a lot of things into account. I would also likely have mics set up for each player. But then it would kind of cease to be about just playing the game and would start to be more about playing FOR the audience. So maybe that's the difference? I don't know... I would have to give that some more thought. What I do know is that in the world of Warhammer 40k Podcasts out there - many come and go. The ones that tend to not do so well are the group of people that say "Hey we love 40k and we talk about it all the time. We should just record those conversations." That ends up not necessarily producing the best show for an audience. Grey Hunter posted:Yeah, people playing a RPG and making stuff up as they go along are always going to um an err. It's human nature. While I agree with this. I also think that the better your preparation, the less you falter. This is how it worked for me anyway... Ghost Hand fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Oct 20, 2015 |
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Oct 20, 2015 21:44
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Grey Hunter posted:Yeah, editing a 3-5 hour session (or two 2.5-3 hours ones in my case) is a slog, and would eat up so much free time. Without someone with masses of free time, it would be an nightmare. The best most people can do is try and deal with the worst of it. Aaron's definitely gotten better about his verbal tics, especially when you compare early games like the age of masks to his games now. Know Evil was recorded on a Zoom H2 direct to mp3, which is why the earlier APs like Know Evil are choppy. Since March 2014, I've switched to the Zoom H2N, which I record to .wav and then run through levelator. I think it's improved the audio quality. I always record in my dining room area and when I record to the main podcast, I unplug my fridge so it wouldn't make noise. The main podcast I record with 4 shure m57 mics plugged into an audio interface into my laptop. Skype is harder to record to obviously but I've gotten decent results with Pamela recording to Wav and then trying to get other people on the call to record on their end.
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Oct 20, 2015 22:53
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If you're recording multiple people on your end, try out Discord. I've started using that for my VOIP RPG-ing lately and the sound quality difference between that and Skype is profound. It's also not p2p, so there is no problem of the host's internet going wonky and kicking everyone out of the call. Only real negative I've found is that it doesn't have screenshare, which I have no idea if you use.
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Oct 20, 2015 23:08
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mikeycp posted:If you're recording multiple people on your end, try out Discord. I've started using that for my VOIP RPG-ing lately and the sound quality difference between that and Skype is profound. It's also not p2p, so there is no problem of the host's internet going wonky and kicking everyone out of the call. My show isn't AP, so I've been just haunting this thread, but when we conduct interviews with remote guests, we just have them record on their own Audacity track, clean their room tone themselves, and then send us the mp3 to line up and edit with our own. It takes a little while but there's never any warble, fuzz, clicks, or whatever. Just sounds good. theironjef fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Oct 20, 2015 |
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Oct 20, 2015 23:34
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theironjef posted:My show isn't AP, so I've been just haunting this thread, but when we conduct interviews with remote guests, we just have them record on their own Audacity track, clean their room tone themselves, and then send us the mp3 to line up and edit with our own. It takes a little while but there's never any warble, fuzz, clicks, or whatever. Just sounds good. Oh, yeah. I do that for my podcast too. Only time I record everyone on my end is when I'm streaming something. I just wanted to give the tip of Discord for AP-makers here who might do that, and also because it's so so much better than Skype.
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Oct 20, 2015 23:52
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mikeycp posted:If you're recording multiple people on your end, try out Discord. I've started using that for my VOIP RPG-ing lately and the sound quality difference between that and Skype is profound. It's also not p2p, so there is no problem of the host's internet going wonky and kicking everyone out of the call. Yeah, we switched to Discord a couple of weeks ago, and it does seem to help. Screenshare is not an issue, as we use Fantasy Grounds as a virtual tabletop. clockworkjoe posted:Aaron's definitely gotten better about his verbal tics, especially when you compare early games like the age of masks to his games now. That's good - Although I'm only adding what I'm hoping is constructive criticism. I know none of us here are professionals.
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Oct 21, 2015 05:22
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Grey Hunter posted:Screenshare is not an issue, as we use Fantasy Grounds as a virtual tabletop. As an aside, you seem to have really gotten a lot of use out of Fantasy Grounds, it's kind of amazing. Does it ever get in your way to implement houserules using it?
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Oct 21, 2015 05:27
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gradenko_2000 posted:As an aside, you seem to have really gotten a lot of use out of Fantasy Grounds, it's kind of amazing. Does it ever get in your way to implement houserules using it? Not really - at its core its a dice roller, screen sharing program with some nice extras built in (if you can find a ruleset for the game you are playing) - there are few house rules that can't be fixed by using the modifier bar. I prefer it to roll20, but mainly becuase, if you play a popular system with a ruleset for it, it really cuts down the work . Also its not browser based, so I can do other things in the background without it showing on the screen! I do like things from Roll20 however - the built in soundboard is nice, and its better for maps and the like. Its not free though - unless your GM is like me, and has paid out for the ultimate version. I've got my moneys worth from it though! Steam says I'm closing in on 300 hours, and I've been using it for a hell of a lot longer than it was on steam.
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Oct 21, 2015 14:17
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mikeycp posted:If you're recording multiple people on your end, try out Discord. I've started using that for my VOIP RPG-ing lately and the sound quality difference between that and Skype is profound. It's also not p2p, so there is no problem of the host's internet going wonky and kicking everyone out of the call. We've been talking about ditching Skype for Mumble since we're witnessing the slow and inevitable heat death of the Skypeoverse
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Oct 21, 2015 19:32
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crash2455 posted:We've been talking about ditching Skype for Mumble since we're witnessing the slow and inevitable heat death of the Skypeoverse If you're going to ditch Skype for something definitely go to Discord rather than Mumble. It's really really good. It's good enough that I'm unintentionally shilling for them in here. 
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Oct 21, 2015 19:45
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We will Def look into it then.
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Oct 23, 2015 19:15
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These one shot people are going to ruin other actual play podcasts for me. It's hard to go back to podcasts where people scream into microphones and act like tools even if it's only occasionally. The MBMBAM guys podcast is excellent though. I love them. I love that whole family. I want to date that family.
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Oct 24, 2015 02:13
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Harvey Mantaco posted:These one shot people are going to ruin other actual play podcasts for me. It's hard to go back to podcasts where people scream into microphones and act like tools even if it's only occasionally. The McElroy Brothers (and Father) are my spirit animal
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Oct 24, 2015 06:42
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clockworkjoe posted:The Last Flight was run by Tom. Just posting to say I like your podcast, fun team and it's interesting to take a peek at modules/systems I'm not familiar with (ie all of them).
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Oct 29, 2015 17:35
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Had anyone seen a podcast featuring the Dresden Files RPG?
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Nov 2, 2015 03:23
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bowmore posted:Had anyone seen a podcast featuring the Dresden Files RPG? We're working on it. Also, thanks Mike12345!
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Nov 2, 2015 08:02
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bowmore posted:Had anyone seen a podcast featuring the Dresden Files RPG? The Roo Sack Gamers did a few Dresden Files episodes, starting at episode 64 in the link. It isn't a full length campaign or anything (7 episodes), but it's there.
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Nov 2, 2015 08:50
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bowmore posted:Had anyone seen a podcast featuring the Dresden Files RPG? Helical Nightmares posted:Highly recommend you check out Knights of the Night.
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Nov 2, 2015 09:30
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Thanks guys 
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Nov 2, 2015 09:37
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Just throwing something I listen to out there if people are craving more games to listen to, I'd recommend the folks over at Fandible, more specifically their Rogue Trader game which has one of the best ork characters I've heard in quite some time as part of the early team. The other game I'm especially fond of is their Unhallowed Metropolis game which features quite a bit of great character work in it. They tend to do systems in episodes, you'll get a session broken up into 2-3 parts and then they'll jump across another couple of systems for a while before returning and continuing with the story. While I could do with system solidarity it's still a pretty fun listen and they've got quite a backlog to pick through  . Audio quality is a bit rough in some of the earlier stuff but it steadily improves.
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Nov 22, 2015 14:42
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Harvey Mantaco posted:These one shot people are going to ruin other actual play podcasts for me. It's hard to go back to podcasts where people scream into microphones and act like tools even if it's only occasionally. A lot of it is having nice microphones that don't explode into distortion when they do get loud though. That said I'm going off campaign. They've spent pretty much the last 5 episodes where I've gotten to shopping and are aggressively refusing to advance the plot and is getting pretty boring.
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Dec 16, 2015 23:06
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ShineDog posted:A lot of it is having nice microphones that don't explode into distortion when they do get loud though. It's hard to keep a campaign focused, especially in longer ones. I notice episodes of our campaign games tend to get fewer comments and discussion than one shots. However, don't listeners want well-role played PCs, which is harder to pull off in shorter games? I wonder if RPPR should focus more on shorter games or not. A vexing dilemma.
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Dec 17, 2015 00:38
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clockworkjoe posted:It's hard to keep a campaign focused, especially in longer ones. I notice episodes of our campaign games tend to get fewer comments and discussion than one shots. However, don't listeners want well-role played PCs, which is harder to pull off in shorter games? I wonder if RPPR should focus more on shorter games or not. I think the larger force at work there is that you can listen to one shots whenever but you have to listen to campaign episodes in order, so it's easy to get behind and not have listened to the latest episode in time to really participate in much discussion about it. I know I'm at least two episodes behind on both Masks and the Atomic Robo campaign myself but I jumped right on that Monster of the Week episode because I love PBTA so.
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Dec 17, 2015 00:41
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clockworkjoe posted:It's hard to keep a campaign focused, especially in longer ones. I notice episodes of our campaign games tend to get fewer comments and discussion than one shots. However, don't listeners want well-role played PCs, which is harder to pull off in shorter games? I wonder if RPPR should focus more on shorter games or not. I love the campaigns - but I am also an impatient person who wants to listen to them all at once (as much as possible) instead of waiting for them to be posted. This isn't a problem, because I'm just now finishing up Know Evil and have a bunch more backlog to listen to, but maybe some people also wait for the whole thing to be posted, then listen to it. There's not quite as much reason to comment, then, because you look at the comments and a) most of the stuff's been said and b) probably not too many other people are going to look at them.
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Dec 17, 2015 01:29
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clockworkjoe posted:It's hard to keep a campaign focused, especially in longer ones. I notice episodes of our campaign games tend to get fewer comments and discussion than one shots. However, don't listeners want well-role played PCs, which is harder to pull off in shorter games? I wonder if RPPR should focus more on shorter games or not. Just floating this idea. I think the drop in comments on rppr podcasts is correlated with the release of Fallout 4.
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Dec 17, 2015 02:24
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clockworkjoe posted:It's hard to keep a campaign focused, especially in longer ones. I notice episodes of our campaign games tend to get fewer comments and discussion than one shots. However, don't listeners want well-role played PCs, which is harder to pull off in shorter games? I wonder if RPPR should focus more on shorter games or not. There's roleplaying their characters well and there's making every trip to the shops to buy new gear a huge thing. I know that in the games I GM if I spent 5 episodes shopping my players would be getting hella restless and I know I as a listener am feeling the same. The Myrkr arc took a fair while to resolve but at least something different happened in most of the episodes. The Mandalore concert arc has been interminable.
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Dec 17, 2015 09:50
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It's weird listening to people roleplay shopping, as I normally have a "make a list at home" rule where you have to have everything you want to buy written down before you talk about going to a shop. If that means writing down extra potions while waiting for your turn, so be it.
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Dec 17, 2015 09:54
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clockworkjoe posted:It's hard to keep a campaign focused, especially in longer ones. I notice episodes of our campaign games tend to get fewer comments and discussion than one shots. However, don't listeners want well-role played PCs, which is harder to pull off in shorter games? I wonder if RPPR should focus more on shorter games or not. I think you guys have gotten better at campaign length over time. I've never actually listened to A New World because of how many episodes there are in it, and that's turned me off from a bunch of other podcasts because I don't really know where to begin. The NB Agents, Iron Heroes, Divine Fire, 13th Age and various CoC runs are just about the right length, IMO. I know if I hypothetically was doing an AP podcast with year-spanning campaigns I'd try to do "season enders" and "season premieres" every dozen sessions or so to act a signal to new listeners to jump in at that point if they don't want to start from the very beginning. As an aside, I thought your timing of the return to Shanghai with the May 30 movement for Masks of Nyarlathotep was really clever. Did you plan that ahead of time or did it just fall into your lap? I kept wondering why you were tracking the date so closely.
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Dec 17, 2015 10:33
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Turtlicious posted:It's weird listening to people roleplay shopping, as I normally have a "make a list at home" rule where you have to have everything you want to buy written down before you talk about going to a shop. If that means writing down extra potions while waiting for your turn, so be it. But also the shopping episodes of Campaign are maybe the best? Maybe second only to the bottle episodes?
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Dec 17, 2015 15:37
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gradenko_2000 posted:I think you guys have gotten better at campaign length over time. I've never actually listened to A New World because of how many episodes there are in it, and that's turned me off from a bunch of other podcasts because I don't really know where to begin. The NB Agents, Iron Heroes, Divine Fire, 13th Age and various CoC runs are just about the right length, IMO. Without spoilers, I can say that the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion was an invaluable aid when running the game. I highly recommend it. In the post-mortem I talk about it a lot more.
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Dec 18, 2015 22:30
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