The Podge Cast's Adam & Luke on V3 and The Outhouse Wall
Topic: podcasts
Yesterday, the eighteenth episode of the Podge Cast hit the interwebs.
It's hard to believe that the guys are only 18 episodes into their run. Just a little more than a week ago the Podge Cast ran its first live, streaming audio feed and shortly thereafter released a video version as well. These guys are all about doing more, doing it right - and above all - doing it in badass style.
From the first episode, the show was firing on all cyllinders immediately moving to the head of the RPG podcast class. Cool beyond reproach, laugh out loud funny, and often right on the money in their commentary, the team of Matt, Joe, Luke, and Adam bring a commitment, professionalism, and passion rarely seen in the medium.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit with half of the Podge Cast, Dr Luke Meyer and Adam "David" Pinilla...
EvilBastard:
What is this V3 everyone's so on about?
Adam:
V3, or Veni Vidi Venatus ("I came, I saw, I gamed"), is our one-shotter day.
Luke:
Adam and I have talked about doing a game day for over a year now. When we planned Fear the Con we had that itch scratched, but with that scrapped* we have a burning desire to play games that we can't contain. So we've created a free game day with the express purpose of getting people out to play games and hopefully try new stuff. It's a no-cost celebration of gaming geekdom in all of its glory. We've got a great game store here in St. Louis with "Game On!" and much to our surprise the idea has taken hold across the country. While we kick V3 off in St. Louis, there will be numerous other sites across the country (and, at this point, potentially internationally) hosting their own V3. It's simulgaming, baby!
Adam:
We're trying to motivate people to perhaps try a game they haven't before, or get involved in their local gaming communities to get something going. One of the things we've noticed is that for all of the strength of community we have at Gencon, gamers seem to be in these disparate pockets.
I can't tell you how many times on forums I've seen the post "Oh wow, you live that close to me? I never knew." Get out and game, that's the whole point. You might find a system you like, you might find a person you like. You'll never know if you just sit around, though.
Currently, we've got locations in San Rafael CA, St. Louis MO, Springfield MO, and Lowell/Nashua, NH. Details on the forums, and the cast, and blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. We've got a few more people who are trying to set things up as well.
Like Luke said, it's something we've always been interested in organizing, and it's nice to have it coming to fruition again.
EvilBastard:
Word is you boys will be putting out a newsletter called The Outhouse Wall. Why do that? Were you looking for an outlet for all of your emo poetry?
Adam:
Hey, I like my emo poetry! It speaks to my soul!
A newsletter is a place where we can place the combined work of a lot of people under one banner. Like with the local gaming communities, one of the problems we noticed with all of the talented people that we know, is that everyone is so spread out. Through the various podcasts we've been on, to the conventions we go, and even from our personal lives, we know some incredibly talented people. I can't imagine that most people don't have the ame situation. So what's different and why a newsletter?
What's different is that we've got the drive to organize and get it done. We've got the connections, and while we've never done something like this before, that kind of thing excites us.
Why a newsletter? It's tangible enough that I can put it in a few gaming stores around the country (for free, of course!) and the articles and content can easily be transformed into a digital copy and syndicated through blog site just like a podcast. Gaming stores have a product that promotes the hobby, they don't have to pay for and is something they can toss the way of people who are interested, so that's another free draw to the store for them (hopefully). And people who are big into the digital content thing can just as easily subscribe to it via iTunes and get the pdfs of the articles delivered to their installation.
EvilBastard:
Who will be writing for it?
Adam:
Lots of people. In relation to me, it's principally friends, family and co-hosts. But, rest assured that the people who are writing are the quality type people I like to associate with and would love to work on projects long term with.
I may solicit some more people from around the RPG-o-sphere for the next issue, but right now we're just getting started and I wanted to keep it as 'in the family' as I could for the first issue.
EvilBastard:
So this will be a regular publication? How often will you print?
Adam:
I'm shooting for doing this quarterly. The December 08 issue is probably going to be a trial run to see what we need to change for the first full year of 2009.
EvilBastard:
Wasn't Egon right when he said that "print is dead?"
Luke:
He also said never to cross the streams. He's obviously untrustworthy.
Adam:
Yes and no. Print isn't dead per se. Neither is radio, though podcasting can be argued as the next-gen radio show.While podcasting is a homebrew evolution, forgetting the lessons that radio teaches is a mistake (where they apply, of course). I feel the same way about print. And, there's something viscerally satisfying about having a printed packet distributed all around the country that was something you produced.
And no, I've never seen Ghostbusters. Yes, I know that's awful. Yes, I know I'm a terrible person because I do a movie review podcast and I've never seen Ghostbusters. :)
EvilBastard:
Adam, you're kind of a prolific guy, lots of irons in the fire. You host the ManCast, co-host the extremely popular Podge Cast as well as co-host Back Seat Producers with Pimp-of-the-Internet Tony Mast. Where'd all this passion come from and when in the world do you sleep?
Adam:
And, you left off the anthology that Tony Mast and I are organizing, which should come out sometime in December.
Heh. I don't actually like to sleep. I get up around 6:45 - 7:00 on my days off and stay up all hours of the night.
I like having things to do. It makes me feel accomplished at the end of the day.
But I have to be honest - a lot of the stuff that's attributed to me wouldn't happen without the support and hard work of a few people behind the scenes. Joe from The Podge Cast does a lot behind the scenes to make the how happen, and even though we rib him mercilessly, it probably wouldn't have happened or continue to happen with out him. Tony Mast is always a whip at my back. Luke keeps me grounded and sane because he's hilarious.
EvilBastard:
Tell me about Spooky Outhouse Productions. What made you set that up? What's your vision for SoP?
Luke:
Adam set it up because he's a glutton for punishment. Actually, it's something I know Adam had been thinking about doing for a long time. Adam and I had both made a ton of friends in the podcasting community and we made the observation that the available podcasting networks were great for linking, but lacked a cohesive community.
What SOP offers is community. Our forums have seen steady growth since launch and have become a great place where listeners can easily interact with their favorite podcasters. It's also great for introducing folks to new shows. They might come to the forums to talk about something like The Podge Cast, but they are immediately introduced to other cool shows like Return to Northmoor and Save Against Frostbite. They can then immediately see what pepole are talking about regarding the shows and judge if it is something they'd listen to. Or something.
We also wanted to help out some of the newer podcasts who don't have a lot of the resources a lot of the big names do. We offer forums, hosting, setup, and tech help. Well, Adam offers those things. I tend to just fetch him beers when he needs them and nod furiously when he talks. I still can't believe he actually thinks I'm listening after all this time.
We want to give members of SOP the tools to succeed because their success helps out all of the other shows on the feed. It's win-win.
The future is looking bright. We've grown to the point now that we have a strong group of like-minded people who can share ideas and help each other out. That's what's turning V3 from a local game day into an international event.
I don't want to hype anything too much, but we've got a lot of cool things in the hopper like charity events and publishing. We've only just begun to spread our wings!
Adam:
Luke hit it square on the head for the vision and all that jazz. I'll answer a little more on the personal side.
I'm not in it for any money, and we make none off of anything that we do (or at least everyone else is cleverly hiding it from me). I get intangible benefits: a sense of accomplishment, being someone in that community, the relationships I have with other people in the feed.
Rob from Bear Swarm and I hardly knew who each other were 6 months ago. He was up for a party last weekend and we talk almost every day now. In December, I'm going down for his birthday to run him a one-shot of Burning Wheel.
So, I'm extremely pleased with the stuff that we've got going on over at SoP. And stuff that we're continuing to work on still amazes me.
EvilBastard:
If you were in a burning house with your Podge Cast co-hosts Matt, Luke, and Joe, and could only save two of them, which two would you save?
Adam:
I wouldn't save Joe, because that jerk said he'd leave me in the burning car.
Thanks for the interview, guys. I can't wait to see what you do next.
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
(*) Adam and Luke, formerly co-hosts at Fear the Boot, were deeply involved in the first Fear the Con. Due to events well-documented elsewhere on this blog, neither Adam nor Luke are associated with FtB or FtC any longer.
Posted by Aron Head
at 6:10 AM CST
Updated: Tuesday, 18 November 2008 9:08 PM CST
For a couple of months now, I have been working with my good buddy Mark Andrew Pope on a podcast. On the show we discuss "music, worship, and points in between." It's irreverent, rowdy, and sometimes there's wrestling. 
I've been running role playing games through email, or play-by-e-mail (pbem), for almost twenty years. I started back in the days before the interwebs. We played on FidoNet back ithen, a network of bulletin board systems tossing mail via packets across the world at a blinding 9600 bps.
Press Release:
Wow...
Wizard World Texas was a total freakin' blast. But...
At one of the DC Panels this past weekend, Senior DC Story Editor Ian Sattler revealed just a little about Run! the upcoming, post-Final Crisis story to be written by Matt Sturges. The story will focus on a key super-villain from Final Crisis. Sattler promised lots of chat-worthy moments in each book of the series, "It will kick total ass!"