This week's preshow is mostly raves about Dispatch and I can't be even a little bit mad about it.
It's kind of fun to watch Phil, Matt, and Joe discuss the narrative-heavy game while trying their best to be vague enough to not spoil any plot points. Liz appreciated that, because she hasn't really played Dispatch that much. She spent a lot of time prepping for their next Tavern Watch adventure, Brindlewood Bay, which is like an eldritch version ...
2025-11-27 16:35:46 +0000 UTC
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This week we have four listener questions answered by our lore experts Joe and Matt.
First, they discuss the Ethereals and what their timeline is in relation to the timeline on Azeroth. Has this race existed for years, decades, milennia -- or something different entirely. They pivoted to the dragons and their aspects, and how choice figures in. Chromie, for one, clearly got some element of choice in how she appears in her bipedal form. How might other dragons choose, and how might new ...
2025-11-25 21:00:06 +0000 UTC
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It's time to take to the stars in search of interplanetary adventure as Tavern Watch plays Starfinder's newly-released second edition. This system blends the crunchy, high player choice character building of Pathfinder with a wholly original science fantasy setting, and there's really nothing like it. If you've ever wanted your space wizard to cast doom scroll (and yes, it does exactly what you think it does), this is the game for you.
In this exciting finale...
2025-11-24 22:48:40 +0000 UTC
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We're one week farther into 2025 which means we're one week closer to Player Housing, which hits early access on December 2. But in the meanwhile, there's still news out there, so I've rounded up everything that happened last week and everything coming up this week to help both of us keep track.
Here's what you need to know to be ready for the week ahead. (And a little help with your Player Housing plans, too.)
What happened last week?
In this week's preshow, our cohosts are playing The Outer Worlds 2 so they're debating the efficacy of high Charisma as opposed to lockpicking.
A new set of Magic the Gathering cards was released, this time featuring Avatar, not the James Cameron one, the anime one, and Joe has thoughts. Plus, another set of Dispatch episodes dropped, so we're excited -- but as vague as possible -- about that. If you'd like to, you know, do the thi...
2025-11-21 01:11:15 +0000 UTC
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As we make our way toward Midnight, Joe and Matt are making sure we know what we need to before the expansion launches. Chief among those things is the lore of Blood Elves.
It starts with the Highborne and the schism between Night Elves and High Elves, which eventually led to the Blood Elves and the creation of the Sunwell.
But ancient history isn't all. Joe and Matt also discuss some of the notable figures in Blood Elf society that are important to know. Lady Liadr...
2025-11-18 22:17:30 +0000 UTC
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It's time to take to the stars in search of interplanetary adventure as Tavern Watch plays Starfinder's newly-released second edition. This system blends the crunchy, high player choice character building of Pathfinder with a wholly original science fantasy setting, and there's really nothing like it. If you've ever wanted your space wizard to cast doom scroll (and yes, it does exactly what you think it does), this is the show for you.
In this case, ...
2025-11-17 17:08:06 +0000 UTC
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I can stop staring at the login screen any time I want. Any time I feel like it. I just don't feel like it right now is all. It's perfectly fine.
If you, like me, have lost track of the week already I'm here to help with a rundown of what’s happening in the world of our favorite games last week, as well as what's coming up this week.
What happened last week?
If you're here for the preshow I hope you like trains and snow and broadway musicals, because that's what our cohosts are serving up.
Train travel can be fun and inexpensive or it can be incredibly long and expensive without much wiggle room -- but trains will get you to Broadway without having to park a car, so that's probably well worth it. Especially if you can see, if I could recommend, Death Becomes Her the musical. If you'd like you can fast forward to 31:40 to skip the p...
2025-11-13 21:08:47 +0000 UTC
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Because we aren't all constantly filled with existential dread, Joe and Matt are answering some deep questions asked by some of our listeners.
The first concerns the afterlife in Diablo, namely where we all go when we die. Heaven and Hell in the world of Diablo aren't really in keeping with our religious afterlife paradigm, after all. Then, they're asked about what the moon or sun is, really, in WoW. This one is a little less harrowing, since we see ...
2025-11-11 20:28:03 +0000 UTC
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It's time to take to the stars in search of interplanetary adventure as Tavern Watch plays Starfinder's newly-released second edition. This system blends the crunchy, high player choice character building of Pathfinder with a wholly original science fantasy setting, and there's really nothing like it. If you've ever wanted your space wizard to cast doom scroll (and yes, it does exactly what you think it does), this is the show for you.
In this c...
2025-11-10 17:00:20 +0000 UTC
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There’s not much longer to wait for the Midnight beta to launch, but if you’re waiting for the latest news about Midnight (and/or player housing), you may as well catch up on last week’s news first. Here’s the rundown of what’s happening in the world of our favorite games this week.
What happened last week?
In this week's preshow, the crew goes Halloween!
They talk about what they did to celebrate spooky season over the weekend. From historic ghost tours to mall hopping to old man candy, it seems like they had a great time. But it's not all ghosts and ghouls. With a pseudo-horror film lead in, they also discuss a slew of movies they enjoyed of questionable quality. If you're not on board with obscure movie references you might want to skip the preshow by forwarding to 31:52.
2025-11-07 01:31:02 +0000 UTC
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As we head into Midnight, we know this act begins with a direct assault on the Sunwell. But what is the Sunwell?
Our Loremasters Joe and Matt discuss the history of Xal'atath's next target. The Sunwell isn't even the only well of power to be found on Azeroth -- they discuss the Well of Eternity, and the Nightwell, too.
This isn't the first time the Sunwell has been directly assaulted -- and hopefully, it won't be the last, if our champions have anything to say about...
2025-11-04 22:10:13 +0000 UTC
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Here at Blizzard Watch, the staff has been abuzz about Midnight ever since it was announced, but this week we're a little more abuzz because the beta test was just announced — and that brings us one step closer to launch. But if you haven't been able to stay on top of the news, here's what's happened last week and what's coming up this week.
What happened last week?
Blizzard a...
2025-11-03 06:17:19 +0000 UTC
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On the Tavern Watch Podcast, a mention of a crowdfunding campaign for Lodestar leads us to discussing areas where the community has picked up for Wizards of the Coast's slack on the Tavern Watch Podcast. While D&D's modern stewards often seem content to take a one-and-done approach to campaign...
2025-10-31 20:17:07 +0000 UTC
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This week in the preshow we talked a lot about other games -- what we've played, what we've liked, and what our various unplayed games are.
Also, Liz has finally caught on to my master scheme of recommending her good games on Steam, so someone else's account is just as much a disorganized mess as mine is. If you prefer your podcast meal without an appetizer, jump to 28:58 to skip the preshow.
If you thought we were going to talk about something other than changes...
2025-10-30 22:29:23 +0000 UTC
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In the first of three questions we answered this week, a listener wanted to know some of the influences our hosts Joe and Matt see in WoW from literature, movies, and myth.
They talked about a slew of varied media, from 60s sci-fi (no, not that one, though yes, that one) through comics. There are a lot of cultural touchstones and homages to explore in WoW. They also sort of explored the opposite with a different question, discussing which idea or technology they'd...
2025-10-28 19:00:47 +0000 UTC
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We're in the midst of a busy PTR season with both WoW and Diablo 4 running test realms right now — though Diablo'sis only running for a few more days — which makes this weekend a great time to test out new game features. (The besttime to test out new game features would have been last week when player housing was still live on the WoW PTR, but you have to take what you can get.) But there's more than PTRs happening this week, so let's run down ...
2025-10-25 06:25:42 +0000 UTC
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In this week's preshow, we're all a little bit weird.
The crew spent a while talking idiosyncrasies, which led to the explanation of "Liz Noises." These are not swear words, believe it or not, because Liz leads by example, but she has to focus very hard on Windwalker Monk or she pitches herself off a cliff, according to Phil Ulrich and Joe, who are both in her guild. We'll have to take their word for it. Plus, Joe is into Pokemon again. If the thought of sitting through this makes you ...
2025-10-23 19:58:34 +0000 UTC
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Matt and Joe sit down this week to discuss Vampire: The Masquerade: its lore, some of the source material that inspired it, and how it rippled vampires forward in pop culture.
They break down what you need to know about the history of vampires in this setting, which goes back almost to the beginning of humans, so there's kind of a lot to discuss. Clans are the core concept to be aware of, as the demi-families Vampires belong to with certain shared traits. They also have Se...
2025-10-21 21:40:27 +0000 UTC
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It’s spooky season here on Tavern Watch, so we’re playing something appropriately spooky — Shadowdark! But a spooky old-school-esque system isn’t enough on its own, so we’re diving back into one of the most classic horror tabletop game modules of all time — the original I6: Ravenloft for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1E. When new spooky rules meet old haunts, will our heroes survive the night?
Episode three brings our adventurers into p...
2025-10-20 15:30:58 +0000 UTC
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Player housing continues to dominate our thoughts and dreams, as the entire Blizzard Watch team jumped onto the PTR to playtest housing as a group. It hasn't always gone well, but at least we're having fun — and hopefully you are too if you hop on the PTR to play aro...
2025-10-18 06:02:21 +0000 UTC
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During the preshow, the crew discussed the games that just keep rolling out the new content, from WoW through No Man's Sky, all the way through the never-ending content churn that is the Star Wars universe these days. Star Wars is, by the way, a kids' movie, and retconning it to make the writing better isn't doing anyone any favors, George. We can write our own stuff with TTRPGs, though. And it just wouldn't be a preshow without trash talking Jared Leto.
2025-10-16 22:44:53 +0000 UTC
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Now that we've seen Timewalking a bit, a listener asks the Lore Watch team what other events in Azeroth's history we should get to go visit through that system.
While the listener suggests the War of the Three Hammers -- which Joe and Matt are on board with -- the response runs the gamut of Azeroth's history, from ancient events to a couple from WoW we just weren't there to see, all the way back to the creation of Azeroth herself. They ran through events with dizzying spe...
2025-10-14 21:23:28 +0000 UTC
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It's spooky season here on Tavern Watch, so we're playing something appropriately spooky -- Shadowdark! But a spooky old-school-esque system isn't enough on its own, so we're diving back into one of the most classic horror tabletop game modules of all time -- the original I6: Ravenloft for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1E. When new spooky rules meet old haunts, will our heroes survive the night?
Episode two finds our trio of adventurers exploring t...
2025-10-13 21:32:24 +0000 UTC
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What a week it has been my friends, with the World of Warcraft Midnight alpha continuing to add content and Legion Remix launching. But there's more to come this week as Player Housing hits the PTR for everybody to try (at least briefly). Let's get to the news of the week!
What happened last week?
2025-10-13 06:54:37 +0000 UTC
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Most of the preshow this week was all about the new season of Critical Role.
Everyone was excited to chat about Brennan Lee Mulligan's turn in the captain's chair, how the players' characters are already starting to gel, and just D&D stuff. There are no spoilers for the first episode, but if you are being overly cautious about not spoiling a single second and want to skip the preshow, zoom ahead to 27:20.
Liz had the good fortune to make her way...
2025-10-09 19:53:56 +0000 UTC
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The ultimate fight of The War Within, Dimensius is a hulking purple Void Lord, and several developer interviews have led us to believe he may be the last one. Or, at least, that's what two of our listeners asked about -- is he the last Void Lord? And if he is, what does that even mean?
So Matt and Joe start off the episode explaining the Void and Void Lords a bit, before making a turn -- in the way only Lore Watch can. If Dimensius is the last Void Lord, which weren't not...
2025-10-08 01:44:32 +0000 UTC
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It's spooky season here on Tavern Watch, so we're playing something appropriately spooky -- Shadowdark! But a spooky old-school-esque system isn't enough on its own, so we're diving back into one of the most classic horror tabletop game modules of all time -- the original I6: Ravenloft for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1E. When new spooky rules meet old haunts, will our heroes survive the night?
In this case, our intrepid heroes, outsiders to the r...
2025-10-06 02:01:35 +0000 UTC
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