Show overview
Eidolon Playtest has been publishing since 2020, and across the 6 years since has built a catalogue of 434 episodes, alongside 36 trailers or bonus episodes. That works out to roughly 500 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence, with the show now in its 30th season.
Episodes typically run an hour to ninety minutes — most land between 5 min and 1h 37m — with run-times ranging widely across the catalogue. The publisher flags most episodes as explicit, so expect adult themes or strong language throughout. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language Fiction show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed earlier today, with 40 episodes already out so far this year. Published by Drawn from the Undertow.
From the publisher
Eidolon Playtest is an award-winning actual-play podcast playtesting EIDOLON: Become Your Best Self, an RPG inspired by Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Persona!
Latest Episodes
View all 434 episodesThreadspinner SPARK premieres June 1!
Threadspinner FLAME premieres May 25!
Eidolon ISLAND / FLASHBACK / ADULT GM Postmortem
Undertow Update #1 - Refresh
Eidolon PROTO, Act V: This City Made Us
[PREVIEW] Eidolon Playlist #50: Tool
[PREVIEW] Design Session #76: Devils and Development
Eidolon PROTO, Act IV: The Will of One
Eidolon PROTO, Act III: No Way Back
Eidolon PROTO, Act II: Calling Out
Ep 1Eidolon PROTO, Act I: The Hounds
E<html><p>Three heroes stand in the rain-soaked junkyard on the outskirts of The City. They have reforged themselves into cybernetic beings of pure vengeance, ready to confront The Machine that has enslaved humanity.</p><p>🎶 <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LChtBpTjvTY&amp;list=RDLChtBpTjvTY&amp;start_radio=1" target="_blank">There is a flame that I've been fanning</a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LChtBpTjvTY&amp;list=RDLChtBpTjvTY&amp;start_radio=1" target="_blank"><br/></a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LChtBpTjvTY&amp;list=RDLChtBpTjvTY&amp;start_radio=1" target="_blank">There is a fire waiting to catch</a></em> 🎶</p><p>CREDITS:<br/>Molly Rhinebeck as Cascade Incursion<br/>Iris Christianson as Tacit Dragoon<br/>Crystal Zaslavchik as WiFi X<br/>Luke Varner as The GM</p><p>Edited by Luke Varner<br/>Music by Max Knightley<br/>Cover Art by Tavish Buchanan<br/><br/>Content Warnings: Authoritarian oppression, gun violence, body horror, dog attacks, child death, mass murder.</p><p><a href="https://physical.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Buy our book!</a><br/><a href="https://undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Support us on Patreon!</a><br/><a href="https://discord.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Join the Discord!</a></p></html>
Ep 4[PREVIEW] THE TOWER, Episode 4: Capstone
E<html><p>Ace Wizards Arroai the Pragmatic and Nerevin'e Livolias meet The Tower's prior tenant, who reveals numerous construction complications that were not previously disclosed!</p><p>CREDITS:<br/>Max Knightley as Arroai the Pragmatic<br/>Iris Christianson as Nerevin'e Livolias<br/>Tyberius Wilson as Xalatan the Triumphant</p><p>Music by Max Knightley<br/>Edited by Max Knightley and Crystal Zaslavchik</p><p>CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains chewing and mouth noises, storm noises, and fireworks noises.</p><p>This episode is possible thanks to all $10 and up <a href="http://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest" target="_blank">Patreon</a> subscribers! If you're listening to the 5-minute preview of this episode, then you can listen to the full episode by <a href="https://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest?utm_medium=unknown&amp;utm_source=join_link&amp;utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&amp;utm_content=copyLink" target="_blank">subscribing today</a>!</p></html>
Eidolon PROTO premieres March 30!
trailer<html><p>Eidolon PROTO is the final Eidolon miniseries before we begin our transition to playtesting Threadspinner!</p><p><strong>Episode Count:</strong> 5</p><p><strong>Crystal</strong> as <em>WiFi X</em><br/><strong>Molly</strong> as <em>Cascade Incursion</em><br/><strong>Iris</strong> as <em>Tacit Dragoon</em><br/><strong>Luke</strong> as <em>The GM</em></p><p>There’s nobody left who remembers a time before The Machine. At least, nobody down here. Up in the tower they say the Inventors, the men that built The Machine, they’re still alive after all these years, dining out on our misery, laughing and feasting and toasting to the despair that reigns down below. </p><p>The year is 2XX6. In the last century, or maybe the one before, Man learned how to channel lightning into metal to create light, then learned how to channel lightning into stone to create thought. That was the beginning. Every step in human history from that day forward was a step toward the construction of The Machine, though no one knew it yet. Bombs were detonated, bullets fired, minerals extracted, oceans drained. And now, today, we reap the fruits of our ancestors.</p><p>If the world has survived beyond the City, we’ll never know it; it’s surrounded on all sides by endless wasteland, the ground too cracked and dry to support any life at all, the City’s supplies stretched too thin to support an expedition to find out if it really does go on forever. The City stands as the last bastion of civilization, the last bastion of humanity, the last bastion of life on earth. A garden, mercilessly tended and culled by The Machine, a perfect system of steel and sorrow, a computer brain half again as big as the city that controls every moment of our lives; when we wake, when we sleep, when we work, when we die. The Machine’s control is absolute, enforced by autonomous drones that patrol every corner.</p><p>This is not a world that can be bent to your will, to anyone’s will but The Machine’s; <strong>The World has been removed from the Fate Deck.</strong></p><p>There is no joy here, no cause for celebration; <strong>The Sun has been removed from the Fate Deck.</strong></p><p>This is not a world where you can achieve the impossible; <strong>The Magician has been removed from the Fate Deck.</strong></p><p>You can never hope to triumph through force over a being as powerful as The Machine; <strong>Strength has been removed from the Fate Deck.</strong></p><p>No, this is a world where Hope Rides Alone, where the only reason anyone has to go on living is the faintest spark, the secret prayer that maybe some day someone, anyone, will rise up, will find a way out of this hell, will bleed and sweat and cry and reveal a new path for the rest of us. <strong>The Star is still in the Fate Deck, though its light burns dim.</strong></p><p>Who would dare stand against The Machine? Does courage even exist in this immiserated age? Even if someone were foolish enough to try, where would they find the raw calories to resist on the starvation diets enforced by The Machine’s brutal government? Who could possibly stand against this? You, of course.</p><p>It started ten years ago. The Machine is powerful and it sees so much, but its eyes cannot be everywhere. You formed a resistance group, nearly twenty strong now, headquartered out of an old decommissioned sewer tunnel. The work is slow, the cracks in The Machine’s armor so thin that hardly anything can slip through them. There is a junkyard on the outskirts of the city, a vast expanse of discarded mechanical debris, old models of robot enforcers, obsolete components of The Machine that it has discarded without a care. The scrap heap goes on for miles, and in The Machine’s perfect efficiency it has determined that it need not surveil every inch of the space, so long as its walls are high and its guards well-armed.</p><p>It never counted on you finding a back way in. For two years straight your team dug through the cracked and dusty earth, tunneling from the sewer system to the ground beneath the junkyard. It was grueling, backbreaking work, and smuggling the dirt out to the surface was a near impossible operation on its own. And it was only once the tunnel was completed that you could begin your true work. In the dead of night you scour the junkyard, salvaging anything you can find. By definition, everything here is older, frailer, and weaker than the firepower you intend to use it against. But for all its power, you have one thing The Machine does not: rage.</p><p>A lifetime of suffering has honed you, forged you, molded you into being of pure vengeance, every cell
Eidolon TOOL #4: Puscifer
<html><p>In the final round of the demolition derby, our heroes must fight to the death against each other for the chance to make their wish reality!</p><p>🎶 <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-JoL-bHjQ" target="_blank">Praise all the ways we fantasize your ending</a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-JoL-bHjQ" target="_blank"><br/></a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-JoL-bHjQ" target="_blank">Only pray that on the day you see Him coming</a></em> 🎶</p><p>CREDITS:<br/>Tyberius Wilson as Felicia Furaffinity<br/>Molly Rhinebeck as Devlin Dripdry<br/>Crystal Zaslavchik as Deimia<br/>Mike Painter as The GM</p><p>Music by Max Knightley<br/>Edited by Crystal Zaslavchik</p><p>Content Warnings: Desecration of corpses, body horror, choking, and death of an infant.</p><p><a href="https://physical.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Buy our book!</a><br/><a href="https://undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Support us on Patreon!</a><br/><a href="https://discord.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Join the Discord!</a></p></html>
Ep 4[PREVIEW] Eidolon Playlist #49: The Protomen Act I
E<html><p>Luke gathers Molly, Crystal, and Iris to meditate on the philosophical themes of to The Protomen's first album, a classic of geek culture that reinterprets the Mega Man games as a rock opera! Tune in to the end for a special announcement!</p><p><a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLACFgvu0w8pfn5fCZHkxhltjyoLIoTq8P&amp;si=ca0CozPUXIyKUj7U" target="_blank">Listen to the playlist here!</a></p><p><em>Edited by Iris</em></p><p>This episode is possible thanks to all $3 and up <a href="http://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest" target="_blank">Patreon</a> subscribers! If you're listening to the 5-minute preview of this episode, then you can listen to the full episode by <a href="http://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest" target="_blank">subscribing today</a>!</p></html>
Ep 3Eidolon TOOL #3: A Perfect Circle
E<html><p>The sky grows dark and starry in the semifinals of the demolition derby, as H. reveals the true purpose of the event!</p><p>🎶 <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmWhY_irAXE" target="_blank">Swaying to the rhythm of the new world order</a></em> 🎶</p><p>CREDITS:<br/>Tyberius Wilson as Felicia Furaffinity<br/>Molly Rhinebeck as Devlin Dripdry<br/>Crystal Zaslavchik as Deimia<br/>Mike Painter as The GM</p><p>Music by Max Knightley<br/>Edited by Mike Painter</p><p>Content Warnings: Frequent violence against animals, drowning, and suicidal ideation.</p><p><a href="https://physical.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Buy our book!</a><br/><a href="https://undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Support us on Patreon!</a><br/><a href="https://discord.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Join the Discord!</a></p></html>
Ep 75[PREVIEW] Design Session #75: Consequences
E<html><p>The time of Threadspinner Playtest is very nearly upon us, which means we need to get the game finished up and ready to play! Let's circle back and talk some more about how "dying" works, and flesh out the mechanics for this game's version of the Phantom Clock! And let's actually play a little Threadspinner to make sure it makes any sense at all!</p><p><em>Edited by Luke</em></p><p>This episode is possible thanks to all $3 and up <a href="http://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest" target="_blank">Patreon</a> subscribers! If you're listening to the 5-minute preview of this episode, then you can listen to the full episode by <a href="https://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest?utm_medium=unknown&amp;utm_source=join_link&amp;utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&amp;utm_content=copyLink" target="_blank">subscribing today</a>!</p></html>
Ep 2Eidolon TOOL #2: Green Jelly
E<html><p>The competition grows ever fiercer in the second round of the demolition derby, but a new threat emerges that may be beyond H.'s power to control!</p><p>🎶 <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSyFd25DiIY" target="_blank">Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,</a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSyFd25DiIY" target="_blank"><br/></a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSyFd25DiIY" target="_blank">livestock of all ages, step right this way.</a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSyFd25DiIY" target="_blank"><br/></a></em><em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSyFd25DiIY" target="_blank">Walk up in the big tent tonight!</a></em> 🎶</p><p>CREDITS:<br/>Tyberius Wilson as Felicia Furaffinity<br/>Molly Rhinebeck as Devlin Dripdry<br/>Crystal Zaslavchik as Deimia<br/>Mike Painter as The GM</p><p>Music by Max Knightley<br/>Edited by Mike Painter</p><p>Content Warnings: Frequent violence against animals.</p><p><a href="https://physical.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Buy our book!</a><br/><a href="https://undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Support us on Patreon!</a><br/><a href="https://discord.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Join the Discord!</a></p></html>
Ep 74[PREVIEW] Design Session #74: Governing Arcana
E<html><p>Each Region in the Wake is aligned with one of the major arcana, which define what challenges the Threaded will have to face while exploring that land and what conditions they must satisfy to complete their quest.</p><p>So how does any of that actually work?</p><p><em>Edited by Luke</em></p><p>This episode is possible thanks to all $3 and up <a href="http://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest" target="_blank">Patreon</a> subscribers! If you're listening to the 5-minute preview of this episode, then you can listen to the full episode by <a href="https://patreon.com/eidolonplaytest?utm_medium=unknown&amp;utm_source=join_link&amp;utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&amp;utm_content=copyLink" target="_blank">subscribing today</a>!</p></html>
Ep 1Eidolon TOOL #1: Children of the Anachronistic Dynasty
E<html><p>A beast-woman, a wet wrestler, and a phobonaut join an occult demolition derby to the death, in the hopes of receiving a prize from the reality-warping Lateralus.</p><p>🎶 <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HtZ8Na_CFE" target="_blank">The earth I knew exists no more</a></em><em> </em>🎶</p><p>CREDITS:<br/>Tyberius Wilson as Felicia Furaffinity<br/>Molly Rhinebeck as Devlin Dripdry<br/>Crystal Zaslavchik as Deimia<br/>Mike Painter as The GM</p><p>Music by Max Knightley<br/>Edited by Crystal Zaslavchik</p><p>Content Warnings: Frequent violence against animals.</p><p><a href="https://physical.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Buy our book!</a><br/><a href="https://undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Support us on Patreon!</a><br/><a href="https://discord.undertow.cards/" target="_blank">Join the Discord!</a></p><p></p></html>