AndrewGould

Yes, I remember that.

It wasn't the fact that Rick was acting up that annoyed me - he was right in that it would have been boring just running down the road - it was that the acting up was so juvenile. Personally, I got over that kind of humour in 5th grade when I discovered that there were more interesting things in the world than my own penis. I didn't expect highbrow sophistication, but this was ridiculous.

I confess to being extremely tempted by these. http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/2063/

Your hard work is appreciated! Seriously, eating munchies has always been part of the D&D experience. We're not here for slick production values, we're here to hear a bunch of funny guys play D&D.

I've been following Johnn's roleplayingtips newsletter for many years now. Well worth it.

There are also people who collect dice the way some people collect stamps or coins. Check out http://www.reddit.com/r/DicePorn/. Like I said, if I had any disposable income to speak of, I would absolutely collect exotic dice.

I've picked up Party Roll, chich has 6 episodes so far. They're running the Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign - in fact, they started partway into it - so it's interesting to see how differently they do it from the way I ran it with my group. It's not bad. I'm also listening to the Adventure Zone, who started off playing LMoP, but went way off into their own story. They're pretty fantastic as well. I'd love to get into Critical Hit, but the back catalog is extremely daunting.

Oh yeah, if only I was a cashed-up comedian or comic book writer or something, cause I'd hit that site so hard.

Okay, I'm looking for some actual play podcasts that don't involve drinking. I'm a recovering alcoholic, so I really don't need to hear other people drinking, which rules out things like CritJuice (which was a shame because it was pretty good). Also, I don't want to have to go through a massive back catalog if I can help it, so new shows are better. I'm deep into planning for my own D&D podcast (sorry, but it'll be single-mike to start with because I have no money), and I really want to get a feel for what's out there. Any suggestions?

I love how the musical notes gradually tail off.

Yup, me too.

Yeah you are. It's okay - I do it too.

There's been a couple of times when the players have tried to talk things out, and the giants just attacked. There was that first time with the red giant - they got quite a bit of information there. And then there was the latest time with the blue giants on the bikes. Look how far it got them that time. Far be it for me to tell Blaine how to run his game, but I think the players would be a much more engaged if they had a nemesis, and if they had some friendly NPCs to talk to.

Yeah, I get that.

I've always found them kind of unnecessary, since they don't achieve anything that an honest throw can't, but some people like using them.

I watched my first episode of @Midnight the other day and Steve was on it. I have to say, rarely has someone on a podcast looked so different from what I thought he would look like.

Every time Brian asks how to make a saving throw, or Sarah asks what a bugbear is, I start to doubt the idea that these guys have been playing D&D for ten years. They even weren't sure what dice to roll to make up a new character! Seriously - 4d6, drop the lowest is the most basic, fundamental part of D&D. It's the first thing any new player learns. Especially if their characters die as often as they have claimed they do - I'd have thought they'd be making tons of new characters all the time. Of course, the rules aren't as important as the story, and if everyone's having fun, who cares, really?

I love finding new subreddits.

Remember: you can never have too many dice.

You're already doing the main thing, which is to have fun playing. The only other thing I would suggest is to get familiar with your character's abilities. Welcome to the wonderful world of D&D!

You may have assumed they actually have character sheets. Seriously, awesome. Well done for going back and tabulating all the equipment and hit points. The lack of spells cast by the wizards in particular has been bugging me.

I am generally okay with most advertising, but one of the reasons I never listen to commercial radio is that in the audio format I can never just tune the ads out. It's the only platform where I find advertising incredibly annoying. I've paid to get premium ad-free versions of podcasts. But yeah, if you're hearing advertising that isn't spoken by Brian, then it's not part of the show and is being added by someone else.

Fifth-level wizards should have a decent stack of 1st and 2nd level spells to choose from.

Especially the ones with wieners in them.