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Thoughts and Review
World of Arkonis is a beer-and-pretzels romp through the home campaign world of Vince "Evil DM" Florio starring a semi-rotating cast of mostly regular characters (and their respective players). Having grown into AD&D from its roots in 5th Edition, it is high magic, high action, and plot driven - a fun listen and an exquisite unexpurgated representation of how home games tend to feel.Full Disclosure
As evidenced by the episode reference in the post title, this review is written having listened to season 2 (episode 24 through episode 42) - the season in which the game shifted from 5e to AD&D as its system of preference. The decision was not intended to slight the older episodes nor to disparage the system or its proponents - it's just not my cup of tea, so I was curious about the AD&D content more so than 5e. Presumably, if you've found your way to this blog - I likewise figure it's probable it's not your cup of tea either.Additionally, I've never played AD&D - my first exposure to D&D was in the 2e era, followed up by a primarily B/X OSR experience - so the reader is advised to take with a grain of salt my position on the portrayal of how the rules work in the World of Arkonis podcast. I had started to peruse old rulebooks to try to improve that position (thereby reducing the salt shortage) - however finding that I had an abundance of thoughts to put down already, I did not want to unnecessarily elongate this review.
What I Like
The first thing that stands out about the World of Arkonis is the professional production quality. Sound effects are non-intrusive, voices of players are easy to understand, and the volume of all elements seems equalized - so players rarely are different in terms of how easy it is to hear and understand them and music or theme elements mesh cleanly (read: don't blow your ears out) when they transition in. Though it is common for streams and live casts - which, as of season 3, I believe World of Arkonis is live, streamed on Twitch - to have audio issues, this podcast does not - something that I really appreciated from episode to episode.Like I mentioned above, the main drive of the game is the resolution of story arcs: the characters get to know and remember NPCs, the characters engage with and understand the lore, and there is ample opportunity for in-character role play and discussion. Because of this emphasis on interactions - something that old school games tend to omit mechanics for in favor of player injection - there is a healthy mix of mechanical exposé and theater. That is, the podcast has elements where you learn how to play and observe how the GM adjudicates in-game activities (spell effects, combat resolutions, explanations for game terms to the players, etc.) - but it's wrapped in a role-play sandwich: although I listen to hear the game, many people listen to hear a story, and the flow here described provides a mechanism for both that is sufficient to keep either type of listener engaged.
What I'm Impartial About
The 5e roots of the game show through in a handful of ways that someone migrating from a new school game to an old school game might notice and greet with enthusiasm. Namely, the characters have routine access to magic via the gold economy: the literal phrase "ye olde magic shoppe" is used on occasion - though it is not the name of said magic shop. This cheapens some of the magic - hit points are less of a resource to be tracked if healing potions are a dime a dozen - and as such, serves to undermine resource management. That said - why am I impartial? Because high magic does not necessarily a non-OSR game make - and if you and your table enjoy a high magic setting, it's not going to break the world in order to have more magic available: especially if you move into domain play or other expensive coin sinks - consumption of magic becomes a longer term management of resources game. I personally would not do it in my home game - but I don't think doing it disqualifies a game or system from implementing an old school play style.In addition, the characters have some at-will powers which are unique to them. This likewise increases access to magic - however is regulated: it is limited, for the most part, and does not allow the character to become overpowered. AD&D does have a system of cantrips - that is, weak spells that can be memorized en masse in exchange for expending a higher spell slot - however it is unclear to me, listening to the podcast, if this rule is used. Even so, the OSR spirit is rulings over rules: if a character has a unique power to them, balanced by the GM and appropriate to the character's idiom, there's again nothing wrong with it - it is something I have done in home games, though it's not something I do expressly or as a rule.
Lastly, banter.
A part of any table is banter - pop culture references, out-of-character jokes, and the like have permeated every table I've ever been at: the table at World of Arkonisis no exception. The banter and at-table humor makes up roughly half of the enjoyment value for the podcast - and, for a new GM, it's a good foreknowledge to have (or forewarning, depending on your players) that it's a natural part of the experience. Why impartial? Because at the same time, it can distract from the meat of the actual-play: on a couple occasions, I found myself skipping forward a bit to get past the locker room humor and back into the episode.
What I Don't Like
Character voices. This is a personal thing for me - so if you don't mind, or do enjoy, voice acting at your table or in your podcasts, you can strike this one off: but for me, the use of voices distracts from the main game. Arguably, using voices is a good way to delineate in-character from out-of-character conversation: but at the same time, word on the street was when Gary ran, all conversation that wasn't express questions to the GM were in-character.Lastly, 5e relics. I know I mentioned it already as an indifferent element - but I wanted to include them here because, although mostly they do not detriment the entertainment value of the podcast, they do introduce some new-school elements that affect the value of using this podcast as a learning tool for new or new-to-OSR GMs. Players - early on, more so, but admittedly, they learn to role-play it by the end of the season - are bad about trying to roll to do things: that is, they may say, "I check for traps!" and then you hear dice fall: as opposed to the more common OSR sentiment that you are better off to interact with the environment and, if a roll is necessary, the GM will call for it. Similarly, as a byproduct of the story-driven (or, really, mystery-solving) nature of the podcast, there is not a lot of dungeon delving going on. Again, this is not a detriment to the entertainment value of the podcast - really, having a plot arc to follow is beneficial, from the perspective of telling a story - the nature of old school gaming tends towards exploration, tends towards delving and coming out with gold. Knowing that, again, this aspect of the show reduces the value of the podcast as a teaching tool for new or new-to-OSR GMs.
In Conclusion
I like World of Arkonis. It has been added to my listen-to list, I write as I am rolling forward into season 3. It incorporates elements from newer editions and newer-style games which distract the listener from it's AD&D roots, and by its design - it is not intended as an exposé of rules, but more so an avenue towards sharing the experience and story from its table with the listener - however, for that reason it is a good entertainment cast - it is a good distraction for if you're listening to something on the elliptical and it's good background for something in the earbuds to prevent people from talking to you at work. For those reasons, I rate it Leather.Roll high, guys!
