Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist

Many of you who play fantasy RPGs are, I hope, familiar with James Holloway's podcast 'Monster Man' in which he reads his way through gaming books and looks at the monsters and creatures therein.  If not, I highly recommend it - a month or so ago (after about five years of broadcasting!) he created a Start Here episode.

I'm a Patreon backer and, as such, occasionally get to suggest the theme for a Special Episode.  Most often than not I'm quite at a loss when my turn comes up, but recently with 'Under Hill, By Water' on my mind I suggested an episode about encounters where the resolution isn't kill-and-loot.

He released the resul today and, if you have been interested by my recent posts about 'Under Hill, By Water' it's a must-hear.  He gets the tone of the game down to a tee.

Apart from anything else, it was worth it for James' coining of the word Nobbits for "Little Folk, similar too but legally distinct from Hobbits" (Not Hobbits).

For longer that I care to look into I've been promising to restart this blog.  And for most of that time, I seem to have been promising to talk about podcasts.

Perhaps what has been putting me off is that my thoughts on podcasts are really unoriginal.  I'm going to summarise them in a few points

• if you podcast is over an hour and a half long,  it is probably too long
• if you podcast contains a description of how you've edited it, you've failed in the editing process
• nobody wants to listen to you eating or drinking (unless it's a really niche podcast)

a podcast hosted by two friends and former grad-school colleagues who have been reading and enjoying the [Icelandic] sagas for years. We’re both professors of medieval literature and we both have beards.  Though we live quite far apart, recording Saga Thing gives us an opportunity to get together again (virtually) and talk about our love of medieval Iceland.  Our goal is to read and review the sagas, one at a time, in an epic quest to put the sagas of the Icelanders on trial and to celebrate the greatness of saga literature.

This one is a present for The Wife

This one is for me

It has nice pictures

And we both like this film

Now, I think I've probably mentioned James Holloway's podcast Monsterman ('Because Monsters Are Interesting') before.  Some of you will know James from his blog Gonzo History: Gaming Edition, but Monsterman is

a podcast that delves into the classic AD&D Monster Manual from 1977. Every episode looks at one or more D&D monsters, digging deeper into their inspirations and uses. 

It's not so learned as to put one off, but there's some really interesting stuff there.  Basically a mix of 'real' mythology and a consideration of why it appealed to hairy '70s types.  If you play RPGs and especially if your a GM who's interested in world-building, it will reward listening.  We need more of this kind of stuff.

It suits my magpie mind very well and, quite frankly, if you find my approach to blogging of interest, James does in much better.