General Podcasting Tips
  • Turn off wireless phones (no calls in game)
  • Have a “recording in progress” sign
  • If Skype, have them record on their end
  • Don’t talk about people / friends / families or disparage companies
  • Avoid filler words (um, uh, like, ya’ know)
  • Pop filter
  • Avoiding pet / family noise
  • No eating
  • No saying “you” without describing the person
  • No fizzy drinks pre-podcast
  • Opening bumper (see script)
  • Turn off fans if they make noise
  • Write down timestamps of needed edits, and edit backwards
  • Have a backup recording
  • Podcast under a blanket (especially in a hotel) to reduce noise
Here are a couple of actual play podcasts for licensed IPs which actually make money off their podcasts. Not legally defensible in my opinion though and I would not charge money for licensed properties, but folks do (for now) seem to be getting away with it. I think you could do it for free and be OK though.
Star Wars Podcast

https://www.patreon.com/redemption

There are folks that make some money off RPG podcasts:
And if you switch around which IP you use from time to time, I think you COULD do Star Wars, Firefly, etc., so long as you don’t bill it as you’re ONLY IP you’re using.

These guys have a multi-year following, but FYI on the monetization possible with RPG podcasting:

My top priority next year will be for the ‘talk show’ format Podcast I mentioned, since we can talk about whatever suits us and we can pitch our products occasionally, and optionally pitch the possible ‘premium’ adventure podcast (latter maybe a Patreon accessible thing). I’ve read that if you are disciplined and have the right focus you can ‘get it right on the first take’ and minimize editing, which is something I’m hoping to do so it’s not a huge labor-chore.
On the topic of Actual Play podcasts (or videocasts), here are some thoughts.
I think it could be cool to put on your ‘A’ game and do an actual play podcast. Things I’d want to see if I were to be part of such a podcast as a player:
  • Would want it rated ‘PG’ (no cursing or overtly sexual or gore/torture type content)
  • We do a lot of sexual innuendo (most of us I think) and maniacal villain out-of-character banter (Robert’s Godfather content). I’d really want to avoid that in actual play — I’d want any games I’m part of to be something my wife or my fellow church members of my nephews could listen to and I wouldn’t be embarrassed or apologetic about. Family-friendly fare leads to more listeners I think too.
  • I’d want to be legally unassailable, so if the plan it to make money off ads, then would want to avoid IPs that could lead to issues if you took a for-profit approach.

You’d also want to decide if you want to primarily to it do make money or instead to focus on getting more listeners.

If you want it Optimized to Gain Most Listeners I’d pick a popular IP, but do it not-for-profit. Most popular IPs that would attract listeners and that have RPGs I think would be:
  • Star Wars
  • Middle-Earth
  • Star Trek
  • DC or Marvel Superheroes
  • Firefly
Another angle on this is to run D&D 5e with an original setting. Some folks would listen just because it was D&D.
If you want to Optimize to Make Money, then I would do an original IP (of your own making, or you could use Redmark or Imperium or whatever). Keep in mind you could do things like ‘Gammaverse’ (Fallout with IP ripped out) and still get the vibe of a commercial IP, you’d just have to avoid IP like trademarked terms.
Theoretically, the way to get most viewers or most money would involve getting a more diverse players (adding a lady, ideally a voice-actor). Not a requirement but something to think about.
Resources:
Lastly if you wanted to test out a one-shot or two this year just to see how a certain system like Cortex Plus worked on a podcast, I’ve got the below microphone which has an omni-directional mode — if we put this in the center of a table and use the green room with 3 or 4 players, we could get pretty good audio even without the per-person microphones. Just in case you wanted to do a proof-of-concept before doing something more involved.
I’d also love to know how players feel doing an actual-play podcast. Yes, we did this with Dreadfall, but I’m not sure we really tasted the vibe of having a big mic in our face and doing theater-of-the-mind in the way we might be doing in a serious actual-play podcast. I suspect I would enjoy it and it would be fun!
There is also a potential dark side though — Internet trolls who Matt Mercer chides in this article: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3899-Critical-Role-s-Matt-Mercer-On-Civility
One more thing — if you wanted to do the actual play podcast as a once-a-month thing with 4 core players, maybe we could repurpose the 1st Thursday night games or the Ragnarok gamedays for this by next year.
If you’ve read this far, kudos to you! Whew! 🙂
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iMovie (2013): Record video with the FaceTime HD camera https://support.apple.com/kb/ph14675?locale=en_US
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Podcasting

How to Improve Your Voice from a Cheap Microphone with Audacity
https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap050-how-to-improve-your-voice-from-a-cheap-microphone-with-audacity/

Five Tips to Start an Actual Play Podcast
http://www.fandible.com/five-tips-start-actual-play-podcast/

http://www.fscinteractive.com/audio-blogging-how-to-use-podcasts-for-your-brand/
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http://freedompodcasting.com/how-to-set-up-podcast-recording-studio-record-podcast/
https://www.omnicoreagency.com/best-podcast-equipment/

How To Make A Successful Podcast http://www.fscinteractive.com/audio-blogging-how-to-use-podcasts-for-your-brand/
podcast – How do I record a session? – Role-playing Games Stack Exchange https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/1932/how-do-i-record-a-session
TableTech #3: RPG Podcasting Advice from Board With Life | GameCrate https://www.gamecrate.com/tabletech-3-rpg-podcasting-advice-board-life/12031
What’s up with actual play podcasts? Can anyone tell me about some that meet these guidelines? : rpg https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2sy6oe/whats_up_with_actual_play_podcasts_can_anyone/
Recording Actual Plays – Happy Jacks RPG http://www.happyjacks.org/actual-play-games/
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Adventure Cast

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