Hey there folks. First I need to go drink a 6 pack of craft beer then I can write this thing…

Ok, I’m back and ready to roll. The Happy Jack’s RPG podcast is a group of friends and musicians who reckless venture into the RPG hobby…with beer, and they do it with as much awesomeness and douchebaggery as possible. In fact Stu Venerable and his collection of Boggarts bring the douche each and every week to a podcast that has rabid fans, and is about as unfocused as this paragraph.

In all seriousness the Happy Jacks Podcast did something I hadn’t heard many podcast’s trying to this point, a lot of listener feedback. They read a ton of email and give their opinion’s on the listener’s problems. This did two things for them. It gave their audience a voice, which made them pretty popular, and gave the Jackers a lot of content they didn’t have to come up with. Combined with the variety of craft beer they drink and talk about along with the excellent music by gaming podcast standards, (to be honest the music is pretty good by any standard) and you have some serious popularity.

I have another theory as to why this podcast is well loved. They embody the gamer who left the hobby and has come back. Stu decided to start gaming again after a long layoff. There are a lot of people who seem to be doing this since new technologies make it easier to find games to play in. The Jackers also do a fantastic job of showing how gaming isn’t geeky. Yeah we’re all geeks to some extent, but it isn’t a bad thing, and maybe geek isn’t what we stereo-typically think of anymore. I think geeks are more like the Jackers. They’re sociable, decent people, with jobs, families, hobbies, loves, and passions like the rest of the world. The douche crew helps show a portion of the world this truth. I’m not saying they’re saving the world or anything but from a pen and paper stand point they’re just every day guys and girls in the world. I have the conversations they have at my own game tables. I’m kind of a pervert just like those douche bags. I like craft beer as do they. I can identify with them, and I think a lot of other people can too.

Now that I’ve praised Happy Jack’s I do have a few things to say about their show. It can be a little hit or miss. Sometimes they’re unfocused with a lot of random chatter and tangential conversations, and the content suffers for it. Worse, and this is because they’re just a bunch of guys shooting the shit around some microphones, is they sometimes make statements that are ignorant. For instance in one of their most recent episodes Stork was talking about how D&D is trying to be WotC’s big money maker and the 5e situation is something they probably can’t afford to screw up. Now Stork is just guessing from what he’s seen. Unfortunantly he’s wrong. Magic the Gathering has doubled its profitability in the last three years from a hundred million dollars to two hundred million. Magic is the money maker and it’s still growing. I don’t know why. I’m not a magic player nor am I a fan of the game. I assume people like the game and WotC does a good job promoting it. I’m just trying to express the point that Stork “Storked” it. You can read the article here

WotC also has a substantial game catalog to pull from and are a subsidiary of Hasbro so I don’t think they’re hurting in the game publishing category. You can see the list here. Also the Duel Masters property is the largest card game in Japan between eight and twelve year old’s and they’re bringing it back in America as Duel Masters: Kaijudo. To go along with the game Hasbro’s TV network, Hub, is launching a new Duel Masters cartoon. For the full article I’ve gotten this information from you can click here.

My point is WotC probably won’t fold if 5e doesn’t do well. On the other hand if 5e flops then WotC and Hasbro might sell the D&D property which would be kinda of cool, but this isn’t the place for conjecture. I just tangented to give you the feel of a Happy Jacks Podcast.

To close I do want to say I like Happy Jack’s. Stu, Tappy, Stork, Kimi, JiB, Bruce, CADave, Tyler, and anyone else I missed do a fantastic job of entertaining and informing gamers, new and old alike, with douchey debauchery and little to no class. Keep on drinking.

P.S. The Happy Jack emailers like to put post scripts at the end of their emails.

P.P.S. Did I mention the emailers like to put post scripts at the end of their emails.

P.P.P.S Ok, this is just ridiculous but maybe I can make up for it. Just imagine Kimi saying “Fan boy penis” in a sexy Russian accent. If that doesn’t work for you then you’re a douche bag.

Chris “The Light” Sniezak

I have a hard time describing Fear the Boot. This podcast just doesn’t stick out in any way. It’s not flashy, the production value is pretty basic, and yet I always listen. The booters are just so solid and consistent. They’d have to be since they’ve put out over 250 regular episodes, 43 bonus ones, conducted 21 interviews, and have a smattering of other content including an excellent series on introducing non-gamer’s to RPG’s.

Dan is the defacto leader of this bunch but it’s more of a quorum than a dictatorship with Chad and Pat backing him up. Chris Hussy gets in on the action over the internet while John and Wayne bicker about how cool bards are and Johann shows up about once a month to give his two cents about the topic at hand.

Fear the Boot has a nice simple format. The show bills itself as a round table discussion about RPG’s and a little bit more. They begin with news, if they have any, before moving into a banter topic. After about ten to fifteen minutes of banter they transition into the main topic for twenty to thirty minutes and then end the show. Like I said, simple but in the simplicity is an effective show. These guys are excellent at sharing the issues they’ve discovered over their RPG careers and give sound advice on ways to solve any problems you might run into. In earlier shows they tried to give generic systemless advice but in their later episodes they’ve started to use in game examples to show how their theories work in practice.

Another nice thing about the show is the hosts have very different styles of gaming and they rotate GM’s. This means the hosts have experienced different styles of gaming and have all GMed games at one point or another. Because of this dynamic in their gaming groups you can see each of the hosts as a caricature of a player type at your gaming table. Chad is a Thesbian who doesn’t care about the rules as much as the story. Dan wishes to find the balance between rules and story, Chris doesn’t trust his players but he’s working on it, Pat likes rules, he feels safe and comfy with them around, Wayne is that ADD gamer just wanting to absorb everything because it’s all new and shiny to him, John is a power gamer, and so is Johann. They’ll twink out characters to annialate the opposition but they both still seem to enjoy a good story. The only thing they don’t have is a watcher but I suppose Pat could fill that role since he’s very quiet during many of the episodes.

I like Fear the Boot. It’s not my favorite podcast but it’s up there. The sound quality is very good, the content is very good, and the diversity of view points is probably its strongest aspect. It’s a clean podcast so you can actually listen to it while your kids are around and each episode only runs from about fourty minutes to an hour. I don’t rate podcast’s on a scale or anything but if you’re looking for a general RPG advice podcast Fear the Boot is one of the staples of the genre and it’s a good listen. You can check them out here.

Chris “The Light” Sniezak

Question: Is the D6 Generation an RPG podcast, a board game podcast, a miniatures game podcast, or a video game podcast.

Answer: All of the above

Response from Questioner: You’d think after listening to over fifty of the D6G’s episodes that’d be right. Well due to not listening to the other 40ish episodes you have gaps in your knowledge and are WRONGGGGG!!!!!! The D6 Generation isn’t just a gaming podcast but Craig Gallant’s and Russ Wakelin’s bid for global domination. If you’ve paid attention at all these two have conscripted, cajoled, and coerced numerous people in the gaming industry to talk with them and send  products their way. They take these promo copy’s and give’em away in insane contests asking listeners to build diorama’s (to be fair that one was Raef’s “Hollywood” Granger’s idea but Russ and Craig didn’t stop him) or produce mini audio drama’s for there amusement. That doesn’t count the sponsor’s from all over the gaming world giving them stuff, some which produce Kevlar bags (I’m telling you they’re getting ready to out fit an army or maybe store an army) and they have a base where they meet to plan their world dominating machinations in the form of Myriad Games. I’m sure Dan from Myriad opened up his second store so they could store more gear for the global take over. It’s coming folks. They’re lone wolves, working like (or for) Spartan’s as they prepare for the day when they can show everyone their Warmachine’s and take over the world.

That’s a short taste of how a D6 Generation episode starts. They call the segment Rapid Fire with Geekly McNerdigan. Craig Gallant takes a few shots of adrenalin, dons his McNerdigan persona, and blasts Russ Wakelin and whoever’s in the rotating third host chair with questions relating to the topics covered in the show. Next comes the “Hello” intro where Russ and Craig say “hello” in interesting and poorly musical ways with the third chair chiming in or being taken off guard as Cody and John from Game On with Cody and John were in episode 97. After introductions they roll into

ACHIEVEMENTS IN GAMING

GAMING

gaming

gaming

gaming

There’s always an echo effect. They like the echo effect. In any case, Achievements in Gaming gives the hosts a chance to talk about the games they’ve been playing since the last show without getting into a deeper review. They save the deeper review for a later segment. They cover games played, what they’ve been up to in Modeling, such as putting together or painting models, and any terrain they might be building. Craig is really skilled at this stuff, he’s built a ton of terrain and tables for wargaming, but my favorite is the wild west town he put together for a game called Gut Shot. I wouldn’t care how much the game sucks if I’m playing on a table like that. After Modeling comes the Other section where they hit any video games, books, and other interesting geek culture stuff they’ve been up to.

The rest of the show is split up into six segments, four mini segments and two main segments, the first main segment is something to do with gaming or the industry, for example they do interviews with a gaming personality or designer. Another segment they’ve done more than once is called Mulling Mechanics where they break down the mechanics of war games, board games, or RPG’s and take a look at how they work and how they might be improved. One of my favorites is Inside the Podcaster’s Studio, a fun parody of Inside the Actors Studio where former host Raef “Hollywood” Granger takes the persona of the fictional Peter Lipton, yes folks, that’s a play on James Lipton, and asks Russ and Craig a bunch of “interesting” and “diverse” questions. Pretty much anything is up for grabs in this segment. The second main segment is a review of a game where they really get into whatever game they’re talking about beginning with how it sounds when they open the box, book, or tin. They examine the components and their quality along with the rule book, this is very important to the D6G. A good rule book can shift a rating a whole point in these reviews. They cover game play, pretty much explaining how to play the game so you don’t have to read the rule book and finish with some strategies they’ve seen before giving their ratings using the patent pending D6G rating system. It’s mathematically flawed and immensely interesting when Russ starts adding in his derivations on his d6 roll rating. What’s the rating system? I’ll tell you at the end when I rate the D6 Generation using their own system.

In between and acting as bookends to the two main segments are four others; The News, The Hollywood Minute, Total Fan Girl, and Do You Ever Noticed. The News has News guy, I don’t think he’s ever been named but it isn’t Russ since a hyperactive Russ will always pipe in his two cents about a story or two. It’s an informative segment with humor that’s not too shabby and a nice presses rolling sound effect in the background. The Hollywood Minute is by Raef Granger so he’s still a regular part of the podcast if not a regular host. This is random Raef’s chance to talk about whatever he feels like. Sometime’s it’s comics, other times the games he’s playing, online and off. I especially like any time he talks about practicing law since he’s a lawyer and last time I checked was working privately as an IP lawyer for hire for game companies and publishers. Total Fan Girl is by Nicole Wakelin and deals with nifty little things going on in the gaming world generally, but not always, concerning women in gaming, you can check more of her stuff out on the Geek Girls Network or at her blog at totalfangirl.com. And last but not least is Craig Gallant’s segment Do You Ever Notice. It’s Craig’s chance to make some introspective commentary on the things he notices in the world around him. It’s the shows last segment, and a nice way to to wrap things up since he starts it off with Geekly McNerdigan’s Rapid Fire. It gives the show a cyclical feeling, almost like a hero’s journey. You’ve traveled the great expanse known as the D6Generation, arrived at the place you began, but are not the same, having grown in knowledge and gameitude.

The Rating

So now I need to explain the rating system of the D6 Generation. I’ll be giving the show a rating from 2+ to 6+. What that means is if I gave a podcast like The Bear Swarm a +3 any average listener would like the Bear Swarm on a d6 roll of 3 or higher. For some reason, that makes no mathematical sense, I can assign a re-roll which equates to a half, don’t ask me why, it’s not my rating system. Onward to my rating.

I think the D6 Generation is one of the best produced gaming podcast’s out there. The sound quality and production are top notch. The ad’s, and yes there are ad’s in there for the sponsors, are entertaining and great bumpers between the segments. The content is also exceptional. The reviews are honest; they won’t review games they think are bad, they walk you through the rules, they give you their opinion, then try to look at the game from the average gamer’s view point, and rate it from both perspectives. The segments are entertaining and the humor is “Not to shabby” as Russ always says at the end of the podcast after thanking the listeners for making it to the end of another episode of the D6 generation. I really appreciate the focus and format. It’s consistent and there’s something nice about hosts who don’t wander off point to much. Finally there’s the chemistry Russ and Craig have. They’re good friends, which comes through in their conversations, and well spoken. They also have a knack for making the third host or any interviewee feel comfortable and part of what’s going on. I can’t think of a single interview I didn’t enjoy even if I wasn’t interested in the subject matter because I love stories about people and Craig and Russ manage to get people to tell them. It is a long podcast but with today’s technology you can listen to it in chunks. If you think about it each segment is a mini podcast so in a single episode you’re actually getting eight of them. In the end I’m giving the D6 Generation a 2+ but no re-roll. In breaking with tradition I’m thinking the re-roll means give it a second listen if you didn’t like it the first time. In the D6G’s case I feel if you don’t like it the first time I don’t think you will with a second listen. I’m also guessing you don’t like podcast’s or games if you don’t like what these guys are doing so go check them out. You won’t be sorry.

Later

Chris “The Light” Sniezak

I’m a podcast addict. There. I’ve said it so now I can work on getting better, or do I. Podcast’s are my way of entertaining myself at work while getting the low down on what’s hip in the gaming scene and industry. I’m a custodian by day and the job isn’t all that much fun. In fact it’s pretty boring. Without my Ipod nano I got from my brother and his fiancee a few years ago for Christmas I think I’d have gone crazy by now. (Thanks for saving my sanity Ed and Amanda) With it I’m just about as happy as one could be; cheerful to all the teachers, administrators, and staff I work around, and general pleasure to my two co-workers and boss. It’s because I can engage in listening to what’s up with my favorite hobby while making money. I feel a little guilty since I believe I listen to more podcast’s than a lot of other people. To get rid of my guilt I thought I’d write a little about my favorites, what they’re about, where you can find them, and what their formats are like. I suppose you can call them reviews. Today I’ll start with The Bear Swarm.

The Bear Swarm Podcast is an Explicit Geek Podcast or so says the header on their website Bearswarm.com. The title is telling the truth. Rob Justice (badass name) and Mike are the two regulars who drive the show, Rob does all of the editing, which isn’t much according to him, with a sort of rotating 3rd and sometimes 4th chair. I haven’t been listening since the beginning but the two most current 3rd and 4th hosts are Artemis and Darryl.

The best thing about all the hosts is they don’t take themselves to seriously and they could care less what people think about them. Because of these two factors the show comes off sounding honest. Just guys giving opinions and they’re not so stubborn to admit they’re wrong about something. They hate being wrong but if they are any of the hosts will man up and own it. A perfect example was their opinion of Cortex, by Margret Weis Productions. They felt the Supernatural and Serenity games were piles of crap. I think they’re right personally but when Smallville came out they piled on it as more of the same and not being interested until Cam Banks, designer of Smallville and Cortex+, sent them a demo copy. They did their homework, read the game, and publicly said they were wrong. Now they’re big Cortex+ supporters even using the Smallville engine for a Gotham Nights campaign and spin off campaign called Gotham days.

Did I mention they’re hilarious. Rob is a dick. Because he doesn’t care what people think about him his social filter doesn’t exist so some of the stuff he says is just plain insensitive, but frickin hilarious. Opposite him is Mike the cynic. His dry no nonsense attitude in the middle of a show of insanely inappropriate comments makes you feel sorry for the guy and laugh whenever he sighs at something Rob or Darryl throws out there. Artemis is great for adding in one liners and Darryl is like a the Bear Swarms personal fool. This guy just leaves himself so wide open all the time for Mike and Rob to blast him. While he’s taking dig after dig he just keeps opening his mouth and digging himself deeper and deeper holes. Fortunately these guys all get along and no one’s feelings get hurt. It’s like hanging out with the guys on Saturday playing video games with your boys and rippin on each other because you’re all bro’s. The thing is your bro’s probably aren’t as smart as these guys.

The Bear Swarm knows gaming. You might not agree with everything they say or even be offended at some of the words coming out of Rob’s mouth but these guys understand games and how to tell stories. Check out a  Wrestlecast and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. If the WWE was smart they’d hire them to help write their shows. If wrestling isn’t your thing episode 184 was about linear endings and how they aren’t the devil and 190 was a nice advice piece on how to start a narrative game. They’re also some of the biggest John Wick supporters out there (Rob has a Houses of the Blooded Tattoo) and game designer John Wick is a pretty good friend of theirs. They met because of the podcast. I actually remembered when it was more of an idolization but now Rob, Mike, and Art watch wrestling with John over skype, it’s kinda cute, in a geeky way.

The wrestlecast is a newer addition to the podcast format but a standard show goes something like this. Intro with a little banter, maybe some reader responses, a topic, and then shout outs. Nice and simple but with a whole lot of fun and some good information. Some of the most popular and interesting episodes have been giving the listeners a campaign frame. Check out episodes 190: To Slay a Dragon and 196: The Monster’s Rights Movement for their most recent foray into campaign frames. If RPG’s aren’t your thing there’s still something for you. Artemis always has great suggestions for books, and they’re all into video games. The shout out’s are about things they’re into at the moment like TV shows and whatever fun or interesting thing they’re individually doing at the moment.

Check out an episode. The sound quality is very good and the content is great for a geek.

Chris “The Light” Sniezak