Crunchy campaigns, sharp jokes, stranger systems.
Boogieman Buddies runs on table chatter, campaign consequences, and people arguing their way through strange systems. Recent episodes move from Lancer battlefield tactics to Werewolf morality tracks, with April Fool's detours that are intentionally ridiculous.
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Boogieman Buddies is an actual-play show for listeners who like hearing the table think out loud. It is not sleek. That is part of the point. The group leaves in the rule debates, the corrections, the name slips, the tactical math, and the moment when a grim scene gets undercut by someone who cannot resist the joke. Recent episodes show a wide swing in systems and tones. Fighting in Harmony, the Lancer campaign, is loaded with revolutionary aftermath, noble politics, mech combat, collapsing corporate power, and a final mission with extinction-level stakes. The show gives that material real density, from former nobles adjusting to life after their titles to battlefield turns built around evasion, engineering checks, armor, drones, shields, and airlocks. It can sound like a campaign wiki caught fire during a boss fight. Then it pauses for an aside about how easy it is to destroy a planet if physics is allowed to be rude. The Werewolf: the Apocalypse sessions push in a different direction. Session zero builds characters, interests, mystery hooks, and pack expectations through open table negotiation. Later play turns toward forensics, trauma, supernatural horror, and the question of whether moral or spiritual damage can actually be walked back. Even bonus discussion is useful, because the group is willing to examine where a rulebook gestures at recovery without giving the table much to use. Daggers & Delights shows the same crew in lighter mode, using a Lasers and Feelings hack for masked intrigue, social leverage, and messy aristocratic gossip. The April Fool's special is cruder and more deliberately absurd, turning Pokemon into a running bit about vibes, attraction, and bad taste. Across all of it, the show is ensemble-first. The table sounds comfortable with digression, but the digressions usually reveal something: a mechanic, a character priority, a setting detail, or the group's shared tolerance for chaos. Boogieman Buddies works best when the campaign is both very serious and clearly surrounded by people who refuse to treat seriousness as a sacred object.
Made for: For actual-play listeners who enjoy crunchy mechanics, ensemble table banter, and campaigns that can pivot from tactical combat to horror or political lore. Best suited to adults comfortable with irreverent humor and messy, conversational pacing.
What sets it apart: It stands out by leaving the machinery visible: rules disputes, lore dumps, jokes, tactical planning, and character work all occupy the same space. The result feels less like scripted performance and more like a living table with unusually dense worlds.
An actual-play podcast that doesn’t actually play Dungeons and Dragons. I know, crazy, right?
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Detailed campaigns, tactical play, and unruly table chemistry make Boogieman Buddies an absorbing record of stories being negotiated in real time.
Boogieman Buddies builds actual play around players who enjoy the machinery of a game as much as the story it produces. Fighting in Harmony mixes Lancer combat, revolutionary politics, family maneuvering, and jokes about invented television, while Calm Like a Bomb turns…
A revolution pauses for a cooking-show renewal, if your favorite plots take the scenic route.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A busy Lancer fight that lets the table talk and tactics share the same beat.
Fighting in Harmony moves from Avantnext's collapse in Adrianopolis into a duel-heavy present tense, and the pace keeps the scene lively without losing sight of the people at the table.
A filthy Pokemon ranking game turns improvised personality reads into the whole joke.
A Pokemon ranking bit turns into a loose, dirty exercise in vibe detection, opening on new Mega forms before drifting into Generation 2 creatures and judging them by imagined personalities.
A late-breaking Daggers and Delights shift turns a stolen-house complaint into a sharper bit of trouble.
Daggers and Delights is presented as a Fighting in Harmony spin-off launched just before the final mission, and that timing gives the piece a built-in sense of urgency.
A first-night pack learns that trust gets harder once the investigation turns brutally physical.
Four people gather in a small, dark room late at night, trying to turn an uneasy first session into something like a werewolf pack. The early talk of trust and vulnerability gives the campaign a social problem before the supernatural frame fully settles in.
Character sheets meet Maryland mystery as the table keeps drifting toward Scooby-Doo.
Werewolf: the Apocalypse opens with a session zero that treats character creation as both planning meeting and comic free-for-all. Colin, the storyteller, brings Ape, Squares, Non-Eclidian Cat, and Bobbin Threadbear into a Maryland setting on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay,…
A church election turns revolutionary planning into a crooked detour through family business and reality television.
Fighting in Harmony turns the high priest's death and the coming church election into a scramble over who gets to steer the revolution. Jean-Luc hears that his great uncle Montague may place an Armand in the church's service close to its highest office, while Johnny leaves to…
The Doctor and his companion Leo arrive in 1775 Boston during the American Revolution, where they bicker about the TARDIS settings and discuss historical details like indoor plumbing.
The hosts discuss Illuminati-like secret societies across supernatural factions in World of Darkness, focusing on Dracula's role in vampire lore.
The revolutionaries arrive at the Armand summer home to reconnect with Jean-Luc's family and prepare for the upcoming church election.
Leonel chases a small critter through numbered market areas, using a "flashy" roll to clear the crowd and a fate-point decision to grab it.
This episode discusses the mechanics and narrative implications of Hoglossk and Horano in Werewolf: the Apocalypse, focusing on the lack of rules for reducing them and the use of the Gaia's Tear talisman.
Bobbin Threadbare opens with a recap of Avantnext's collapse in Adrianopolis and the fallout around Count Renard, AMX, and the rise of new management groups.
Boogieman Buddies opens its April Fool's 2026 Pokémon Smash or Pass episode by detouring through new Gen 1 Mega forms like Mega Raichu X and Mega Starmie before moving into Generation 2.
This episode provides updates on the fates of various noble characters following a revolution in a Lancer campaign setting.
In this episode of Fighting in Harmony, the revolution's vanguard navigates traps and discovers Arcturus's plan to use a planet-destroying weapon, escaping with help from an anonymous soldier to a new mech-printing bay.
Bob and Threadbare open with Daggers and Delights.
Four people gather in a small, dark room late at night and try to become something like a pack.
Colin opens session zero as storyteller for a Werewolf the Apocalypse game set in the world of darkness.
In this Doctor Who roleplay episode, the Doctor and Leo Albright embark on a time travel adventure where Leo is immediately thrown into helping pilot the TARDIS.
The episode continues a Lancer campaign where the Revolution vanguard navigates political intrigue after the death of a high priest, with characters splitting up to handle elections and scouting missions.
This Doctor Who-based RPG episode follows trans man Leo Albright as he encounters The Doctor and a mysterious entity called The Wire while working at an electric vehicle charging station, leading to a connection with his father's organization URBAN.
An electrician describes his rigorous daily routine, emphasizing safety precautions and the dangers of working with high-power electrical systems.