I know, I know. You wish you could be reading about Zombies and Super Art Fights and awesome stuff, and I keep throwing D&D in the mix. My apologies, but this is webcomics related so I’m letting myself slide.

During Beta testing for 4th Edition, Wizards asked the guys at Penny Arcade to do ads for them. They wanted something different, and not just a banner, so what happened is that Mike and Jerry (Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade) and Scott Kurts (from PVP) sat down with WotC’s own Chris Perkins for a run of Keep on the Shadowfell (4th Edition’s first adventure module). What’s better, is that they recorded the whole thing.

Wizards is posting a clip of their 8 hour session every Friday in a Podcast series to show people how 4th Edition works. Gabe and Scott are collaborating on a comic to illustrate their adventure, select panels of which are displayed on WotC’s site alongside the podcast. You can check out the first three installments here, here and here (in order). You’ll have to sign up for a D&D Insider account to see the comics, which is painless, but I’ll link the MP3 podcasts directly below.

Listening to this reminds me of every D&D session I’ve ever played. The DM (very often myself) dishing out the story and action, and the banter of the players having fun and trying to figure out the best way to proceed. It’s a good indicator what D&D is like, so if you’ve never played or haven’t for a while, give it a listen to see what’s up. I can’t stress enough that 4th Edition is the perfect version of the D&D game for new players to enter. It’s so tremendously easy on both player AND Dungeon Master so there’s more fun to be had all around. Even if you think it’s not your thing, you should give it a shot at least once.

Those direct links to the podcasts? Oh, they’re right here:
Podcast 1
Podcast 2
Podcast 3