A bit over four years ago, I clicked on the only facebook banner ad that I have ever clicked on. It took me to the website of a podcast called Gamerstable. It had only a couple of episodes (one called Episode 0), but they seemed to know what they were doing. Sound quality was great, they managed to pull off a conversational style without walking all over each other or rambling for hours, and, above all, it was about role-playing.

In a very real way, Gamerstable picked up where the Escape Artists podcasts (Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and Pod Castle) left off. Since I was no longer bussing into work, I didn’t have as much time to focus-listen to podcasts. Instead of being able to listen to a podcast on the bus and focus on nothing else, I was listening to podcasts while I worked where I had to be able to focus on what I was doing. Gamerstable fit this paradigm much better as I could listen to the conversation, but if I missed snatches of the conversation because of my work, I could still follow the remainder of the podcast.

In terms of pure content of the show, I’ve been very impressed over the years. The Gamerstable team has talked through quite a few topics, and have done so without feeling like they are reviewing a game, system, or class. Instead, they take the conversation where they, as gamers, want to take it. Furthermore, the length of the show (a little over half-an-hour) almost always leaves some things unsaid, which gives me the opportunity to continue the conversation with my friends.

In addition to the regular conversational shows, Gamerstable also has their role-play dramas. While I was initially a little unsure of the idea (I’ve never really been one to watch or listen to someone else play a game), the folks at Gamerstable really made this work. I can only imagine the amount of editing involved, but, for me at least, they hit the right amount of radio drama to table talk and dice rolling ratio. Here, I feel like the half-hour format is just a little too short, but I’ve fallen into a pattern where each week I listen to all the previous episodes (skipping intros and outros) just before listening to the latest. This makes each week longer than the last, but provides the continuity that I’m looking for.

Finally, I want to make a note about how consistent the Gamerstable podcast has been. For as far back as I can remember, they have never missed an episode; the fact that they release a high quality episode every single Tuesday is itself a feat worth praise. It also sets the bar pretty high for bloggers and podcasters out there.