Alea iacta est
Roll For Impact review
Rating – 
As I have said in the past, I always love to hear from podcast creators who reach out personally. When I had a message ping into my Reddit inbox, I figured the least I could do is give the show a shot. If someone will take the time to contact me, then I’ll repay the favour.
I can’t remember if I’ve ever reviewed a live play podcast before. I might have, but years ago. This isn’t because there aren’t many out there, but more that there aren’t many that I like. As I’m sure I have mentioned in the past, I am a big fan of the game Call Of Cthulhu, and that is where most of my live play listening comes from.
This however, is a Dungeons and Dragons live play. But I guarantee it’s not what you expect*.
So what’s it about?
As I said, Roll For Impact is a DnD live play podcast. There will no doubt be many of you out there who don’t care about gaming, and fantasy role playing in particular. But please stick with me here. And you can stop rolling your eyes and tutting right now too. Show some respect.
The setting in the first adventure (entitled The Stranger) isn’t the high fantasy you’d expect from such a show. The campaign takes place in an almost steampunk era. While the characters are certainly fantastical and can use magic, here the air is filled with jazz music and the clink of champagne glasses.
Starting out on an ocean voyage, the intrepid investigators are stuck aboard during a weather phenomenon known as “The Saturation” that will kill anyone caught outside. From there, the party are flung into a gripping tale of political intrigue.
The second adventure (starting at season 3 of the show) is a more traditional high fantasy setting. This adventure deals with topics of slavery, the world it’s set in is absolutely segregated. Not so much early 20th century America this time, but more like 18th century France.
Is it any good?
The main reason I avoid live plays is because 99% of gamers don’t play how I do. When I had time to play Call of Cthulhu with a gaming group, we didn’t take it too seriously most of the time. We would spend most of the time laughing (which really pisses off a lot of CoC gamers). As such, a lot of the podcasts I hear advertised are packed with people who’s characters border on caricature. Think Joe Lo Truglio’s character in the film Role Models. I get why they do it, I just prefer more low key gaming.
This is not that. If you take away the dice rolls that determine the ultimate success of any given action, you could easily make this a regular audiodrama. For example, S3 EP5: Vianne’s Prologue, is one of the best pieces of audio drama I think I’ve ever heard. It’s expertly written and very well performed. As such I would recommend it to fans of fantasy fiction, regardless of whether they are DnD fans or not.
For the most part the acting is very good. In places, far superior to actual voice actors in more popular audiodramas. Particularly in the second adventure, there are some every emotional moments that are outstanding in their performance.
The writing is also very good. I’m not sure if these are prewritten adventures or homebrew, but I really like it. They are novel enough to keep you invested. And you really find yourself invested in the characters. As I said above, this is because the acting is understated enough never to trip into parody.
Despite all this praise ive heaped upon this show, you may ask why I haven’t given this a perfect 5 brain rating. There are a few niggles that have prevented this. Some maybe due to my lack of DnD knowledge, in which case, I apologise.
The background music can get a bit intrusive at times. I didn’t mind so much in the first campaign, because of the setting, I could imagine there being music all around. In the second campaign however, I seem to notice it more. I get that it adds that “elder scrolls” feel, but there are times when it feels there just to fill up any spaces.
Also, particularly in the second campaign, there doesn’t seem to have an awful lot of actual role playing. At times it’s just huge chunks of dialogue from the DM who even seems to describe what the players are doing, rather than have them make decisions. Playing Call Of Cthulhu the balance was usually 20% scene description, 80% players doing stuff. In this game it feels the opposite. Now, I am not au fait with DnD, so that might just be how it is. It does make the undeniable acting skill of the players feel somewhat redundant at times though.
Final thoughts
Despite all this, this is an absolutely amazing podcast. It is better than the other actual plays I’ve listened to. In fact, it’s better than a lot of proper audio dramas I’ve listened to.
I thoroughly recommend this series, even if DnD live plays aren’t your thing. Just ignore the dice rolls and enjoy the stories.
You can get Roll For Impact here:
For more great reviews, I recommend GreatPods
*I say not what you’d expect. By that I mean if you aren’t familiar with the true scope of the game system.