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What was the first podcast that specifically focused on tabletop RPGs?

Wikipedia says the term "podcast" was coined in February 2004. If there were any RPG-related radio shows or actual play recordings from before then I would be interested in learning about those, too.

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    \$\begingroup\$ FWIW podcasts started back in the 80s: before Apple coined the term "podcast" they were just called internet radio, or webcasts, or audio shows. They were made a lot more discoverable though once they collected under the one name and had some major new services debut to support them. \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 12:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener Good point; I would love an answer that gave insight to RPG-focused internet radio or audio shows from the 80s or 90s! \$\endgroup\$
    – Serp C
    Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 12:53

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With regards to the first online “Actual Play” recording - it was made on the 29th January, 2003 by Paul Maclean of Yog-Sothoth.com. It was a recording from a D&D game of “Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil”, see: https://www.yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/RPGMP3.com

With respect to the first RPG online audio show that I know of, that would be “Mortality Radio” from November 2001. https://www.enworld.org/threads/mortality-radio-celebrate-mortality-nets-2-year-anniversary.68550/

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    – Someone_Evil ♦
    Commented Mar 22, 2021 at 21:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ Great answer, thank you! The writeup on the Yog-Sothoth wiki was very interesting, like how it was almost accidental. Trying to find out more about the Mortality radio show, I found enworld.org/threads/mortality-radio-podcasts.305859 and web.archive.org/web/20020222052552/http://www.mortality.net/… Too bad it doesn't look like the episodes have been archived anywhere. \$\endgroup\$
    – Serp C
    Commented Mar 23, 2021 at 15:42
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The earliest one I have been able to find is RPGMP3.com, with their "World's Largest Dungeon" series that started on Sep. 24, 2004. Not too long after the podcast term was coined. And they're still uploading recordings!

In researching this I found some runner-ups:

All of these podcasts have since ended, but All Games Considered was the longest running of these, ending on Aug. 02, 2018.

Another one that came up was The Harping Monkey's Round Table Podcast, but the earliest episode date I could find for it was Episode 14 on Dec 02, 2005. As such, I think it unlikely that Episode 1 was before RPGMP3.com's 2004 release.

Interestingly, it wasn't until 2007 that "Best Podcast" became an award category in the Ennies (it went to Have Games, Will Travel).

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The 1995 Kaze to Honō no Majin (or Demons of Wind and Flame) was an adaptation of the second novelization in the Record of Lodoss War series (itself based on a D&D campaign), if we're counting audio drama based on novels based on "replay".

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    \$\begingroup\$ It would be helpful to talk about the format of this production to support this answer. Google indicates that these were released as a set of CDs which, I do not believe meet the generally accepted criteria of what a podcast is. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rykara
    Commented Sep 25, 2019 at 19:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ If a friend were to invite me to listen to Lodoss and then to listen to The Adventure Zone, I’d be sitting at their computer for both. I could put both of those on my phone. The distinction is mainly in distribution, which admittedly is part of the definition of a podcast. \$\endgroup\$
    – Firebreak
    Commented Sep 25, 2019 at 19:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ This is an interesting bit of history I was not aware of, and is worthy of an "honorable mention" since it's audio and rpg-related. But it's not really what I'm looking for because it's a couple steps removed (based on a novel) and an audio drama rather than a recording of a play session or a discussion about RPGs. \$\endgroup\$
    – Serp C
    Commented Sep 25, 2019 at 22:15

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