It finally happened. Three years after Chris Parsons and friends announced their podcast on this very blog, I have joined the Cephalosquad (I actually joined almost a year ago, but we have A Backlog).
Meet Patches Tenderfoot, a rabbitfolk necromancer who believes that if he delves deep enough into the arcane arts, he can de-extinct legendary monsters driven past the brink by rampaging hordes of inconsiderate adventurers.
Dugong’s and Seadragons is an actual play Dungeons and Dragons podcast with a twist: everyone on the show is involved in marine science and conservation, the adventures are themed around actual issues facing our oceans, and we frequently degenerate into wildly divergent discussions about ocean science, speculate on whether the biggest dude could lift the smallest whale, calculate how many fathoms are in an imperial parsec (badly), and slowly realize that Travis accidentally gave us a the biggest boat ever built because unit conversions are hard.
The latest episode, Glitter in the Water, drops you in the middle of a very long and complex ongoing adventure, but it is a pretty good place to start. It’s got ocean science, lot’s of weird maritime trivia, some necromantic nonsense, and does a good job capturing the overall feel of the podcast. You might as well give it a listen, it’s only half an hour.
Here’s the problem with pretty much every Dungeons and Dragons Actual Play podcast: if you don’t start following along right at the beginning, it becomes very difficult, very quickly, for new listeners to jump in and have any idea what’s going on. Fortunately, our favorite Kelp Forest Druid (and author of the novel Memoirs of a Mad Scientist), Erin Z. Anderson, put together a series of very fun videos introducing the show and getting new listeners up to speed.
And hey, if you’re worried about committing to a 4-hour-long slog, we’ve got good news for you! Every episode is only 20 to 40 minutes long. We’re busy, too.
I’m not in the earlier seasons (but, oddly enough, I was in the audience for the very first recording at IMCC5).
And if you do happen to enjoy the show, you can subscribe to the Dugongs and Seadragons Patreon (I’m not just a podcaster, I’m also a subscriber), where you’ll find even more incredibly nerdy D&D and other RPG audio productions.
Listen on Spotify or where you get your podcasts: Dugongs and Seadragons.
