Dungeons and Dragons 4E Adventures Ben's RPG Pile

I can’t watch it because it won’t download. Did you remove it?

I've tried to like this podcast, to the point where I've watched probably a good 20+ hours of episodes, but the poor execution on just about all levels caused me to give up eventually.

PRESENTATION: as others have stated, there is no editing. Episodes are split up at even intervals and that's it. If the players are out having dinner for half an hour during one of those chunks, well you get half an episode of nothing. There's no effort at all put into bringing the viewer into the experience--players are sometimes introduced quickly but for the most part it's simply disembodied voices coming in over a map. Past possibly showcasing the figurines and terrain, there doesn't seem to be any though put into those watching the podcast.

GAMEPLAY: The focus here is on the fighting mechanics with extremely little actual role-playing. The DM makes a few token gestures towards injecting a bit of roleplay, but the play is generally long, boring battles with breaks in between where he messes with the players on whether or not they're going to get a break before jumping into the next battle. The first couple of episodes seemed promising on the role-play front, but there's very little past that. Most of the players don't seem to know how to play past the basic mechanics and the DM seems to have only a slightly better grasp while making stuff up to hide that fact. It's a legitimate way to play the game, but it doesn't necessarily make it watchable. The DM seems to be using a pre-made dungeon crawl which he modifies at times (again, completely legitimate) but his attitude seems to be 'how do I mess with the players?' more than anything. Again, the figures and terrain take the forefront, to the point where it seems like an advertisement for them, as a lot of them are custom jobs made by the DM or his business contacts (if I understand correctly). This all being said, the players appear to have fun, with a lot of crude humor, but the experience doesn't necessarily carry over to the viewer.

OVERALL: A little editing would go a long way to making this watchable, but even so if you're looking for actual role-playing there would be little point even then.

Stumbled upon this and glad I did. I find the groups very funny and is a great sell on how much fun is had in and out of game. Hope u guys keep the sessions coming!