Dungeon Delve

Dungeon Delve is the other official D&D podcast from Wizards of the Coast, and this one focuses on actual play rather than interviews. Chris Perkins, the principal story designer for Dungeons and Dragons, serves as Dungeon Master for remastered recordings of live play sessions. The most notable content here is the Acquisitions Incorporated series, featuring Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade alongside guests like Wil Wheaton and Kris Straub. These are historically significant recordings in the actual play space because Acquisitions Inc. was doing live D&D at PAX conventions before the format exploded in popularity. Perkins is a masterful DM who writes official D&D adventures for a living, so his game mastering reflects deep mechanical knowledge combined with a flair for dramatic storytelling. The episodes have been remastered for better audio quality, which is a welcome improvement over the original convention recordings. With 109 episodes covering various campaigns and one-shots, the library is manageable compared to the multi-hundred-episode behemoths elsewhere on this list. The show includes sessions set in popular campaign settings like Icewind Dale and Dark Sun, giving you a taste of official D&D worlds run by the people who actually designed them. Episodes are explicit-rated and run about an hour each. The podcast is less polished than modern productions, but there is a scrappy charm to hearing the early days of actual play from the people who helped invent the format. Think of it as the historical archive of D&D live play.