Dice Like Thunder celebrates 100th episode

The Warhammer 40,000 podcast scene has exploded over the past year, with dozens of high quality shows appearing overnight. However, one show stands above the rest in terms of quality and endurance: Dice Like Thunder. DLT is run by a gaming group based in Chicago. DLT has changed formats several times but the show has maintained a high level of quality over its entire run. It celebrates its 100th episode this week and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Mack Martin (Miggedy Mack) created the show two years ago as an exercise in podcasting when no other 40k podcast were broadcasting on the Internet. The show almost faltered in its baby steps, as his early hosts could not consistently appear on the show. The appearance of Dan Duran (Dirty Dan) and Richard Eckert (Tricky Dick) made sure the legacy would continue strong through any hardship. When Mack moved away from Chicago, Dan and Richard became the leaders of the Chicago crew. Mack could not drop his beloved project and began a subsection called the Cali40k-tion crew. The Chicago team and the California team worked on separate episodes and released them on alternating weeks. The experiment was nearly a success but was cut short when Mack left the show for his new position at Fantasy Flight Games.

The show’s charm comes from the complete lack of decorum held by the hosts. The hosts curse, discuss adult topics, mock each other, and speak their minds (even when it would mean denouncing an official Games Workshop product – Planetstrike). They do not edit out mistakes, even if it paints the hosts in a negative light. In one show, the hosts describe their experiences at a convention and refer to a particularly obese woman as a ‘sweaty stack of pancakes’. In another, Richard steps away from the mike in absolute frustration at the state of the game. Through it all, the hosts’ affection for each other and the hobby is blatantly apparent. This fondness makes listeners feel like they are a part of Dice Like Thunder’s extended gaming family.

These podcasters’ influence spreads out far among the hobby. Fans travel across the country to meet them at conventions, such as Adepticon. They appear as guests on many other podcasts, including 40k Radio, Imperial Vox Cast, The Eleventh Company Podcast, and the Imperial Truth. They created the Hobbytalk Network to bring awareness to fellow podcasts the Imperial Vox Cast and the WarBanner.

At least one of their contributions to the Warhammer community has taken root among the hobby. They invented and popularized the unit configuration called the DDM: the Space Marine Dreadnaught, armed with a Multi-Melta and coming onto the battlefield on a Drop Pod. The setup is so effective in the Fifth Edition metagame that folks who have never heard of Dice Like Thunder use the term.

It seems almost a disservice to label Dice Like Thunder as solely a podcast group. Their multiple projects seem to almost dwarf the show altogether. The DLT crew has released countless unofficial rules supplements, codices, and campaigns to spruce up gaming tables across the world. The DLT Missions book (released before the official 40k supplement) allow for 360 scenario variations. The fan Codex: Soul Drinkers is a labor of love for Ben Counter’s book series. Their grandest project is the Fluid 40k project, where they attempt to balance older codices with the newer Fifth Edition armies.

After taking all their extra projects into account, the best label for Dice Like Thunder can be ‘gamer group, with a love of the hobby’. When host C-Swizzy muses about the show, he says “we really have a good thing going.” The thousands of listeners tuning in each week vehemently agree.

Website: http://www.dicelikethunder.com
RSS: http://www.dicelikethunder.com/?feed=rss
iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dice-like-thunder/id281564272?uo=4