Really.
No matter how fucking cool and exciting your last gaming session was, if you can't turn that 7 and 1/2 minute meandering and boring tale into a 30 second highlight reel, we don't want to hear it. Yes, tell us about how you smuggled your gold plated blaster past security by secreting it in your anus. Don't tell us how how you landed your ship, got a deal on the fuel on planet, talked the dock master down in his fee had and all the other bullshit that puts us to sleep.
You might think all of the minutiae is interesting and exciting. Trust me when I tell you, we don't care. Get to the point or we may just stop listening all together.
Inside jokes.
Another thing that is interesting to you, the podcast host and your fellow hosts, but for the rest of us, we don't get the joke. It's worse than being boring, it's frustrating. Cut the shit out. Leave the inside jokes to the time you spend bullshitting with your other hosts before and after recording. This doesn't mean avoid telling jokes or funny stories, just avoid shit that needs insider knowledge. You want your podcast to be accessible, not exclusive.
Stop with the fucking belching.
You! Yes You! You know who you are. If you wouldn't do it in front of "the normals" and wouldn't do it at a gaming table at a con, don't do it on a podcast. You are no longer 16. You are probably 46. Fake the maturity if you somehow lack it.
Have some knowledge of the game systems you are talking about.
If you don't know something, you are better off admitting it than making up an answer, because your listeners probably DO know the right answers. I really hate yelling at my car speakers when someone calls LotFP Weird Fantasy a AD&D 2e clone or has no idea how multiclassing works in AD&D.
Avoid scripts.
This shit get's painful. I'm not saying don't have a topic or even an outline, but when I hear folks reading from a script I want to mentally insert belches... and I hate belches.
Stop reading letters verbatim.
Nothing is more boring than listening to a letter being read on air that was poorly written in the first place. If you are going to read letters, edit them before hand to get to the meat of the discussion, otherwise you are just filling time that could be used for something else - like listening to a more interesting podcast.
All my ranting for now ;)
This is true about broadcast media in general.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly with less belching though.
DeleteCouldn't agree more!
ReplyDeleteAll right. I get the point. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteThere are worse offenders than you. Way worse.
DeleteTrust me on this ;)
Also goes for videos on YouTube and such places. Most other people's game sessions aren't interesting to begin with, but on the off chance yours is, SHOW US THE GAME! Not the beforehand stuff. Especially don't show us the 30 minutes of sitting around shuffling papers and waiting and scratching butts and picking noses while the GM is trying to get organized. Edit that out.
ReplyDelete