I’ve just driven from one end of England to the other (ish), which means that I’ve just listened to a lot of podcasts, one of which was the excellent Gelatinous Cube.
Most RPG podcasts feature reviews of games, or actual play, or occasionally a bit of pontificating about games design and worldbuilding. And then there’s Gelatinous Cube, in a class of its own.
Each GC podcast starts with a very short prompt for an adventure: “This Goblin Wears Lipstick”, “This Mountain has a Witch on it”, “The Spirits are Restless”. One of the two presenters, siblings Adam and Rosie, acts as DM for that episode, and explains the encounter or short adventure they have written to go with the prompt. If they’ve already incorporated this encounter into their campaign then they also talk about how their players responded. The two then throw the idea about a bit, talk about ways it could be fleshed out, alternate takes, possible consequences and follow-ups… and then they throw it over the the show’s silent third host, the eponymous Gelatinous Cube, for an alternate take. Working only from the short prompt, the Cube presents its own entirely different set of encounters/adventures.
It’s a really simple and delightful format, and its bursting with ideas. If it were just Rosie and Adam discussing their adventure ideas, this would still be well worth a listen, but The Cube’s creative contributions take it to another level, and really get the creative juices flowing. Comprehensive show notes mean that each episode is playable pretty much as-is.
I listened to a LOT of gaming podcasts 18 months ago, but Gelatinous Cube is the only one that I still regularly download and listen to.
All of the the podcasts are here, but if you want show notes for the more recent ones then head over here.
Leave a Reply