Here's what I've listened to this week.
Wooden Overcoats - Ep 2
A look back at childhood here, as we get an insight into Antigone's and Rudyard's school days. They are about as dreadful as you're imagining.
Standard comedy fare in this one, about their own particular brand of social inadequacy leading to the downfall of multiple teachers, as well as a sneaky Thunderbirds reference, in which Thom Tuck steals the show I think.
Dungeon Economic Model - Ep 1 to maybe 5ish?
Tin Can Audio once again, in this case advertising the incredible potential that can be achieved when you decide to put a dungeon in the area around your village. Lots of monsters with treasure, lots of adventurers who turn up and overspend on basic supplies, and Zardos. It hits the 60s(?) government broadcast tone really well with the main narrator and the associated sound scaping, but I admit I'm mostly enjoying David Deveraux in the background making a lot of stupid noises.
The one downside was I managed to start listening to this as adverts got introduced into the feed - when you've got about five minutes per episode, it's very painful to have half a minute of the exact same bitcoin advert at the start and end of every episode. Admittedly, this finally convinced me to actually buy the Tin Can Discography, but it does reinforce my usual complaint about algorithm'd adverts.
Demipia - Ep 1 - 3
Picked up this one because of a brief mention on twitter. It's a British horror actual play, which I've got through four episodes of thus far. Homebrew world, with a range of new races, and very high stakes, in that the first fight nearly kills someone off. Not sure I've tracked what system they're in yet, but I'm not listening to this for the accuracy.
Five players plus GM means I was a bit confused by voices on occasion, and even more so with the rather large number of NPCs that were around at the start. It's not great about doing reminders, and not amazingly distinct, but if you turn your ear off, can listen to just the flow of conversation. And that's certainly fun, in that they're obviously enjoying themselves, but frequently get picked up by the GM.
There's a particular thing that keeps happening, where essentially table talk turns into an in-character outburst. Naturally, this means that they come across as rather odd, when the GM plays with it. Will be curious to see whether a bit more listening has me get better at picking people out, and also whether it gets as grim as it seems to be threatening to do. Shame I know it's got a relatively short run though, which may not be completed satisfactorily.
Musical Interlude
Not a podcast this one, but I've been enjoying going back to the songs from Not The Nine O'Clock News. They've both remarkably catchy, and very good parodies of the source material.
Garden Plots with Skeletor - Ep 1 - 19
This is one I listened to back in the start of 2021, but didn't hold onto for too long. Came back to it, and listened to loads.
The premise is ludicrous. Skeletor, the sworn nemesis of He-Man, is sufficiently enthusiastic about gardening, that he's decided to start a podcast to educate all of the sniveling future minions of his rule (when he finally takes over Eternia).
This is such a weird combination that I can't believe it works, but it's excellent. Skeletor is joined by his intern Riley, who runs all of the sound desk, and is a "raised eyebrow in human form", but relatively quickly the cast grows. There's Evil-Lyn, Beastman, and in one amazing scene, both Prince Adam and He-Man himself. Essentially a workplace sitcom, it has actually useful gardening advice, as well as pet safety in the "Will it kill Beastman?" segment.
Absolutely brilliant, particularly the character and voice of Skeletor, which has been written to really evoke the feeling of the old cartoons. Can't recommend it highly enough.