Support NeoGAF

[Malyse]

I kinda want this thread locked so I can reformat the whole OP better. :\

Well, I'll at least update the best list.

 

[dawgparty]

I love this idea but so far haven't been able to find one I really liked. Welcome to Night Vale has a good premise but was just far too "whacky!!! wait WHAT!! xD" for me. Seemed a little inane. Marscorp was the best I've heard yet. Any suggestions on ones that are just a tad more subtle?

 

[More_Badass]

I love this idea but so far haven't been able to find one I really liked. Welcome to Night Vale has a good premise but was just far too "whacky!!! wait WHAT!! xD" for me. Seemed a little inane. Marscorp was the best I've heard yet. Any suggestions on ones that are just a tad more subtle?

Sayer, The Magnus Archives, Limetown

 

[Malyse]

Sayer, The Magnus Archives, Limetown

And PleasureTown.

 

[More_Badass]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bronzeville-podcast-teams-laurence-fishburne-939887

Laurence Fishburne and Larenz Tate have joined forces for a new 10-part podcast called Bronzeville, which will begin streaming in January.

Written by Josh Olsen, an original screenplay Oscar nominee for 2005’s A History of Violence, the series is set in the African-American Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago and follows the lives of players who ruled the numbers games, the illegal lottery that swept through the black community in the 1940s before it was taken over by the mafia.

Fishburne, Tate and Kc Wayland, who directed the We’re Alive audio series, are directing Bronzeville, with Wayland also serving as producer. Fishburne, a best actor Oscar nominee for 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It, and Tate are also part of an extensive voice cast that includes Tika Sumpter, Lance Reddick, Brittany Snow and Mitch Pileggi, among others.

 

[Natiko]

I finally finished Sayer today. Went to look at people': thoughts regarding the ending and discovered that the creator announced a return to the Sayer podcast in mid-2017 (after he launches a kickstarter for it). Thought some of you may want to know since it wasn't posted in here.

 

[More_Badass]

I finally finished Sayer today. Went to look at people': thoughts regarding the ending and discovered that the creator announced a return to the Sayer podcast in mid-2017 (after he launches a kickstarter for it). Thought some of you may want to know since it wasn't posted in here.

Yes! Awesome! Got a link? I'm very happy now. That just might be the first non-game Kickstarter I back

 

[Natiko]

Yes! Awesome! Got a link? I'm very happy now. That just might be the first non-game Kickstarter I back

Yep, he announced it on his twitter feed and also posted updates to the official Sayer twitter. His tweet is here.

 

[Natiko]

I'm current on The Black Tapes, The Magnus Archives, Sayer, Hello from the Magic Tavern, King Falls AM, Limetown, and Small Town Horror.

I have Tanis downloaded but am still iffy on starting it with the opinions I've seen here. What should I check out next? Looking to download the first handful of episodes of two or three. I get through a lot of them at work.

 

[Malyse]

I'm current on The Black Tapes, The Magnus Archives, Sayer, Hello from the Magic Tavern, King Falls AM, Limetown, and Small Town Horror.

I have Tanis downloaded but am still iffy on starting it with the opinions I've seen here. What should I check out next? Looking to download the first handful of episodes of two or three. I get through a lot of them at work.

I put work in that OP dammit.

 

[More_Badass]

I'm current on The Black Tapes, The Magnus Archives, Sayer, Hello from the Magic Tavern, King Falls AM, Limetown, and Small Town Horror.

I have Tanis downloaded but am still iffy on starting it with the opinions I've seen here. What should I check out next? Looking to download the first handful of episodes of two or three. I get through a lot of them at work.

Uncanny County is cool, but campy.
Beef and Dairy Network is some great absurd humor.
A New Winter is interesting, but I have to listen to more episodes before deciding if I want to keep listening.
We're Alive is exciting zombie fiction with a big voice cast and good sound effects.
The Bright Sessions is an intriguing take on the "people with powers" premise.

 

[More_Badass]

I put work in that OP dammit.

To be honest, Name, Icon, short blurb, if it's finished or not might be more efficient, effective, and easier to maintain and add new series without running up against the character limit. I had to simplify my Podcast OT due to that issue.

I also think having the podcast icon helps. Like a good book cover, sometimes a slick icon will catch your attention before the title does

 

[Malyse]

To be honest, Name, Icon, short blurb, if it's finished or not might be more efficient, effective, and easier to maintain and add new series without running up against the character limit. I had to simplify my Podcast OT due to that issue.

I also think having the podcast icon helps. Like a good book cover, sometimes a slick icon will catch your attention before the title does

Character Limits.

 

[Natiko]

I put work in that OP dammit.

There's so many listed as good it overwhelms me with indecision!

Edit: Actually I think you've updated it further since the last time I looked. The top recommendations list helps a lot, thanks!

 

[DagsJT]

Magic Tavern isn't in the OP. That needs fixing.

Possibly my favourite podcast along with Magnus Archives.

 

[Sadsic]

what's the scariest fictional podcast? I tried Welcome to the Night Vale and Kings Falls AM and more found them interesting than scary.

 

[DagsJT]

what's the scariest fictional podcast? I tried Welcome to the Night Vale and Kings Falls AM and more found them interesting than scary.

Magnus Archives is pretty creepy.

 

[Speely]

I finally finished Sayer today. Went to look at people': thoughts regarding the ending and discovered that the creator announced a return to the Sayer podcast in mid-2017 (after he launches a kickstarter for it). Thought some of you may want to know since it wasn't posted in here.

WHAT? Awesome! I am nearing the last stretch of Sayer now, and it has impressed me completely. I don't think I could ever get tired of the premise and the execution. Nice.

 

[FunnyJay]

I thought the first season of The Black Tapes was really good. Creepy and mysterious and quite ominous when you found out

Spoiler

that pretty much everything was connected.

I then listened to season 2, which just seemed to drag on and on.

Spoiler

It felt like no progress was made regarding the main plot were suddenly EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING. What made the end of season 1 so interesting was suddenly just not that interesting anymore. Add to that the quite (in my opinion) boring subplot about insomnia which lead nowhere (just padding the season with 2 short and boring extra episodes)

I'm seriously wondering were they intend to go with the show after season 2 and I'm starting to doubt they can recreate the creepiness of season 1.

And the sponsor-thing seemed to get a lot worse during season 2 as well. I understand that they need to pay the bills somehow, but putting in 2-3 several minute long commercial breaks in each episode really dragged my opinion down.

 

[jon bones]

The Black Tapes fell off so hard. They should have stuck to anthology stories.

 

[More_Badass]

The Black Tapes fell off so hard. They should have stuck to anthology stories.

It loss me with the Season 1 finale.

Spoiler

I felt it was obvious that everything was connected about halfway through the season, and of course Strand had ulterior motives, so treating it like a big twist just made the finale quite anticlimactic

 

[Gigglepoo]

Does anyone know what the popular fictional podcasts are? And how many listeners they have? My guess is Welcome to Night Vale and Lore but maybe I'm missing something obvious.

 

[More_Badass]

Does anyone know what the popular fictional podcasts are? And how many listeners they have? My guess is Welcome to Night Vale and Lore but maybe I'm missing something obvious.

Night Vale is big, enough that the creators started a whole label to create new stories. We've Alive was big; the creators are currently working on a Laurence Fishburne/Lance Reddick historical crime drama series.
I think the PNWS podcasts is quite popular, but not quite at the other two's level

 

[Fancolors]

what's the scariest fictional podcast? I tried Welcome to the Night Vale and Kings Falls AM and more found them interesting than scary.

Maybe you will like Limetown? It's not quite as scary as Magnus Archives. It's more of a suspenseful thriller, but there are some genuinely tense moments on that.

The Deep Vault is another good one for the same reasons, but with a very different premise.

Spoiler

Here's hoping Limetown doesn't go the same path as Black Tapes.

 

[Regulus Tera]

Started skeptical of Within the Wires, but it became my favourite Night Vale production by the end. Easily the most emotionally resonant out of everything they are churning out at the moment.

 

[blackw0lf]

Going to post this comment from the writer of the Magnus Archives, in terms of his thoughts about how he approaches writing the story, and vaguely what can come to expect. No real spoilers for upcoming episodes (though some minor spoilers for season 1). Definitely worth a read though

http://rustyquill.proboards.com/thread/210/file-40-consumed?page=2

1) One of the main tightropes to be walked with this series is the one stretched between Horror and Mystery. It's a common problem with stories like this, because Horror and Mystery work FANTASTICALLY well together at the beginning, as both thrive on the unknown, but as any story goes on they become bitter enemies. If you reveal too much then the horror loses all its power: the sinister, terrifying presences simply become characters with known qualities and motivations. But if you keep too much hidden, then the audience you've taunted with shreds of mystery feels cheated, because they're never going to actually get any real answers.

I have been trying to balance this, of course, but it's always going to fall a bit too far either side for some: as the series goes on it will lose a few of those who only want pure horror and feel that too much of the fear has gone from evil beings that are now too well know; and it will lose some who are only invested in the mystery, and grow frustrated with slow reveals, or that there will always be some dark corners that aren't illuminated.

Now, one of the questions that will always be left as late as possible to answer is to "Why?", because knowing motives and plans is one of the quickest ways to lose the fear. It's one of the reasons most classic movie monsters have no discernible motive beyond "Murder" or (in a few nuanced cases) "Vengeance". With

Spoiler

Jane Prentiss, the main question that is still left unanswered is the "Why?". We now know more or less who she was, what happened to her, what she was doing and how she was stopped, we just don't know why. And I'm afraid we won't for a long time.

Unlike many of the other questions, the various "Why"s of the Archive are going to be a long time coming, not only because it helps preserve the horror, but also because most of them tie into a central aspect of the MA world, which is going to be gradually coming into focus over the next few seasons. If the slow burn frustrates you more than it intrigues you, then that's a completely fair reaction, although I'm obviously sad you feel that way.

All I can say is that eventually you will know what is going on, and I hope you stick with us through the journey.

2) There is a story at the centre of The Magnus Archvies: the story of the Archivist himself. The rest makes up a world with many, many other stories within it. Some are the stories inherent in the statements themselves, others are stories that are hinted at across several statements, or simply lurk in the background informing others. Many of them cross over and intersect, and most of them will touch the Archivist at some point in one way or another, but they remain fundamentally different stories. What I think of as threads.

Trying to tie them all together into a single narrative is only going to bring frustration, because they're not. It's not much of a spoiler to say to anyone wondering, for example,

Spoiler

how the Lukas family fits in the story of Jane Prentiss

, that they don't. Their stories are in the same world, and may conceivably brush against each other, but they're very distinct. What this means is that many of these threads will have resolution at different times, but most of them have plenty more to say. Indeed, because of the nature of statement chronology, it may be that we discover the resolution of a thread, then later discover its origin.

Now, it is a fair criticism that I concentrated on setting up these threads in Season 1 almost to the exclusion of resolving any of them. This is true, and I may have been a little bit overeager to establish the depth of the world at the cost of giving enough actual closure. I'm hoping to address this a bit more in Season 2 and beyond, where threads will be resolved, as well as opened. That said, as I mentioned above, in most cases, even when they're resolved, you're going to need to wait a while until there's a definitive answer to the "Why".

There will be clues, though. There are always clues.

I for one am looking forward to it

 

[Natiko]

Going to post this comment from the writer of the Magnus Archives, in terms of his thoughts about how he approaches writing the story, and vaguely what can come to expect. No real spoilers for upcoming episodes (though some minor spoilers for season 1). Definitely worth a read though

http://rustyquill.proboards.com/thread/210/file-40-consumed?page=2



I for one am looking forward to it

Thanks for posting. Seems like a fairly reasonable perspective to have. I'm looking forward to when it returns.

 

[More_Badass]

This series seems interesting. The first episode was promising

Mabel

A podcast about ghosts, family secrets, strange houses, and missed connections.

 

[Fancolors]

I started the Bright Sessions and have found it interesting so far. It's about therapy sessions with patients who have unusual conditions.

What I like the most so far is the voice acting quality, I'm not sure where the story is going and that's okay.

 

[blackw0lf]

Writer of The Magnus Archives recommends Knifepoint Horror and says it was one of the main inspirations for his show.

 

[DagsJT]

I tweeted Rusty Quill about Magnus Archives and it sounding odd that all of the statements are being read in really well spoken English and using the same words/phrases regardless of where in the UK the person was from.

They replied:

Spoiler

"True. Which makes you then wonder what kind of editing statements may have gone through before they reach the Archivist or that the Archivist is putting his own spin on them by reading, subconsciously or otherwise ;-)"

Brilliant! Very intrigued!

 

[frequency]

I have to suspend my disbelief with the Magnus Archives in that way. I have to ignore/overlook that all these different people all apparently write the same way and have the same mannerisms. Also the archivist's dramatic reading of it seems out of place. Reading more like a voice actor reading a script with emotive expressions that you wouldn't get from a written statement.

 

[Malyse]

I have to suspend my disbelief with the Magnus Archives in that way. I have to ignore/overlook that all these different people all apparently write the same way and have the same mannerisms. Also the archivist's dramatic reading of it seems out of place. Reading more like a voice actor reading a script with emotive expressions that you wouldn't get from a written statement.

unless the act of reading causes a subconscious mental possession. I mean, he also has to use bad recording equipment.

 

[More_Badass]

Not exactly an audio drama, but it is historical (and alt-history) fiction

Twilight Histories

You are a time traveler sent to a strange and exotic land. You will explore Egypt ravaged by an Ice Age, a Carthaginian colony on Mars, a resurgent Aztec empire, and many more strange and nightmarish worlds. So step into your time machine… if you dare.

The aim of the Twilight Histories is to blend the grittiness of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History with the creepiness of the Twilight Zone.

 

[Speely]

Started skeptical of Within the Wires, but it became my favourite Night Vale production by the end. Easily the most emotionally resonant out of everything they are churning out at the moment.

Agreed. I think it's pretty great and absolutely love the premise. Definitely hit me harder than I expected, as well, which was a nice surprise.

 

[Phyranion]

what's the scariest fictional podcast? I tried Welcome to the Night Vale and Kings Falls AM and more found them interesting than scary.

My pick would be the lesser known podcast Help Me. It's published as a blog, so start with the first post (the one in the link), and proceed with the Next Post button.

 

[Malyse]

My pick would be the lesser known podcast Help Me. It's published as a blog, so start with the first post (the one in the link), and proceed with the Next Post button.

I really don't like Help Me.

Spoiler

Her friends are such assholes that it breaks immersion. Like, who is that fucking mean about a dead friend? Plus the acting gets super stilted. And the music is a really questionable choice? If this is supposed to be off the cuff, then why is the previews and an opening theme? Break the fourth wall or don't. Half measures are BS.

And it's in podcast apps. You don't have to listen via blog.

 

[Speely]

I have to talk about Sayer here. Episode 6: "A Dreamless Sleep" was the point when I realized how amazing this podcast is. Is there anyone else here who listens to this production and thinks that episode was just flat-out phenomenal?

Edit: Anyone unfamiliar with Sayer should just listen to this ep. It's fairly self-contained yet has some of the best writing to be found in the podcast realm. You can always go back if you like it and not be spoiled. That's why I am focusing on this ep.

 

[Realeza]

Not exactly an audio drama, but it is historical (and alt-history) fiction

Twilight Histories

This has potential, and their artwork is sick. Will give it a listen.

 

[More_Badass]

I have to talk about Sayer here. Episode 6: "A Dreamless Sleep" was the point when I realized how amazing this podcast is. Is there anyone else here who listens to this production and thinks that episode was just flat-out phenomenal?

That's when I knew I was hooked for the rest of the series. I think I listened to that episode like three times. It's perfectly paced and does some wonderful world-building.

Spoiler

How can you not grin at that mid episode shift?

Any time I recommend Sayer, I say to listen till at least episode 6 to see if you'll be into it.

I'm so happy he's doing more Sayer stuff. Will be the first non-gaming Kickstarter I back when it launches

 

[Speely]

That's when I knew I was hooked for the rest of the series. I think I listened to that episode like three times. It's perfectly paced and does some wonderful world-building

Any time I recommend Sayer, I say to listen till at least episode 6 to see if you'll be into it.

Fist bump! It really is flawless. I can't name many narratives in any medium that impressed themselves upon me like that one episode. Chills just posting about it.

Edit:

Spoiler

yeah the mid-ep shift was so, SO well-done.

 

[DagsJT]

I've listened to three episodes of Sayer and it's good but nothing great just yet. When I'm browsing for a podcast to listen to, I'll look past it at times as it hasn't really grabbed me and made me really need to listen to the next episode.

Also the voice drops and echo's just get a bit annoying. I dont feel like it adds to the atmosphere, if anything it breaks the immersion.

 

[More_Badass]

I've listened to three episodes of Sayer and it's good but nothing great just yet. When I'm browsing for a podcast to listen to, I'll look past it at times as it hasn't really grabbed me and made me really need to listen to the next episode.

Listen up to at least episode 6.

 

[Fades]

For the group of people that haven't fallen off the wagon, PNWS announced in the Halloween bonus episode of The Black Tapes (and, previously, on their Facebook page) that a third season of The Black Tapes is coming, after PNWS finishes and releases a brand new, secret podcast series (so probably not the true crime podcast mentioned on their website?).

 

[Realeza]

For the group of people that haven't fallen off the wagon, PNWS announced in the Halloween bonus episode of The Black Tapes (and, previously, on their Facebook page) that a third season of The Black Tapes is coming, after PNWS finishes and releases a brand new, secret podcast series (so probably not the true crime podcast mentioned on their website?).

I hope they take their time with season 3. The PNWS series are still the best podcasts of their kind out there, but the second season of both their shows felt rushed and disjointed.

 

[More_Badass]

I hope they take their time with season 3. The PNWS series are still the best podcasts of their kind out there, but the second season of both their shows felt rushed and disjointed.

Best in what way?

 

[Malyse]

Homecoming

The first scripted series from Gimlet Media, starring Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, David Cross, and Amy Sedaris. Homecoming centers on a caseworker at an experimental facility, her ambitious supervisor, and a soldier eager to rejoin civilian life — presented in an enigmatic collage of telephone calls, therapy sessions, and overheard conversations. It's an innovative, immersive audio experience — a psychological thriller unfolding across the six episodes of Season One.

https://gimletmedia.com/show/homecoming

 

[More_Badass]

Wow, first the one with Laurence Fishburne and now another series with Oscar Isaac

Is that the next step for this medium?

 

[Malyse]

Wow, first the one with Laurence Fishburne and now another series with Oscar Isaac

Is that the next step for this medium?

Someone must of figured out the monetization problem.

 

[Glass Shark]

I love this idea but so far haven't been able to find one I really liked. Welcome to Night Vale has a good premise but was just far too "whacky!!! wait WHAT!! xD" for me. Seemed a little inane. Marscorp was the best I've heard yet. Any suggestions on ones that are just a tad more subtle?

I feel the exact same way about Night Vale and I loved Limetown. The Message was pretty good, too. I really haven't been able to get into any other fictional podcasts.