1:55

long

2:00

time, but they're coming up on

2:02

their year anniversary and it feels like they've been

2:04

a big part of the space for that entire

2:06

year.

2:07

Yes. Well, you also live with a

2:10

bunch of girls trying to run these worlds, so

2:12

maybe that's why it feels like it's been forever. That's

2:15

true. That's true. For you it has.

2:18

Always making the girls and

2:21

their worlds happen either on the

2:23

basketball court or on the table or

2:26

playing chess or playing

2:28

Minecraft. Aww. I'm really

2:30

excited about the Minecraft DLC that is

2:32

coming soon. Yeah,

2:36

yeah. The folks making

2:38

that look like

2:40

they have spent a lot of care in bringing

2:43

iconic locations

2:45

from the Forgotten Realms to life, including

2:48

Candlekeep and

2:51

so many amazing areas from

2:53

the Rebels' End, the Icewind

2:56

Dale, even the crashed Mindflayer

2:59

ship in

3:01

Rime of the Frostbaiden is there

3:03

in Minecraft. So super cool to

3:06

see all that and we'll be able to all play along in

3:08

the coming months.

3:09

Yeah, but very cool partnership.

3:12

I love seeing these things happen. I think it's just

3:15

all audiences on both sides are going to

3:17

love it.

3:18

There's a lot of tendrils between Minecraft

3:21

and D&D, right? Or the kind of

3:24

survival RPG aspect of

3:27

Minecraft and they both

3:30

have giant spiders, for example. They

3:32

have a trail. And now you

3:35

can use the monstrous

3:37

compendium that many of the designers

3:39

at the D&D studio worked on to include

3:41

Ender

3:42

Dragons, Endermen,

3:45

and of

3:47

course the Creeper in your D&D

3:49

game. And that can be fun as a one

3:52

shot or just as an interesting monster that

3:55

fans of Minecraft and

3:57

D&D might recognize. They're trying to claim

3:59

those. No, I've claimed

4:01

them myself. I

4:03

just want people to make the sound effect of the creeper Whenever

4:09

they blow up um you

4:11

should take that recording and use this Effect

4:14

in your game do you do a professional

4:18

sound just here's a windshield wiper Not

4:23

on your sweet car

4:26

maybe I'm mine Oh

4:35

Like a banshee of inner shin yeah

4:41

Exactly an Irish banshee of course Anyway,

4:46

what were we talking about DMD? the

4:49

best Super

4:53

exciting to add sound effects into your game Just

4:57

this episode has got tons of them

4:59

welcome all you new listeners

5:05

This is like one of the old ones where you would just go

5:08

in tandids talking about Burton Ernie and R2D2

5:11

talking yeah,

5:12

those were the days those were the days But

5:18

now are the days where we get to chat to

5:20

people who are making this space a more

5:23

inclusive and amazing storytelling

5:28

opportunities So I'd love to throw

5:30

it to Ryu and Eva from girls

5:32

run these worlds and find out exactly how

5:34

they are running these worlds and how they

5:36

can encourage other girls To run these worlds

5:39

let's do it Everyone

5:42

let's welcome Ryu and Eva to

5:45

Dragon Talk Yay

5:50

So excited that you are here

5:52

from girls run these worlds a wonderful collective

5:59

production studio

5:59

making, streaming, and

6:02

things happen in the TRPG space. Welcome,

6:04

I'm so glad you're here. Hey, appreciate

6:07

the insight. Yes,

6:09

thank you. Yes, very

6:12

excited to talk to you and about the

6:14

awesome work that you do. And I think probably

6:16

a great place to start is to talk about

6:19

Girls Run These Worlds and

6:21

what exactly it is, what is

6:23

the

6:24

mission behind this collective,

6:27

as Greg says, I really like that. Maybe Ryu,

6:29

we can start with you. Of course, so

6:32

I'm Ryu, director

6:33

of technical productions over there at Girls Run

6:35

These Worlds. And

6:38

I don't even know how to start, but it was a whirlwind

6:41

that Sarah came to me, which is

6:43

someone that I just played a game with

6:45

once. And then she came to me with some wild idea

6:48

of, hey, do you wanna put together

6:50

a production studio? It might be crazy. Yeah,

6:53

sure, sign me in the ******* rack and stick it

6:55

up. There's

6:59

the first one. We were like 60 seconds

7:01

in. I love it. Guys,

7:04

I didn't go to this store. You

7:06

are my people. Frackin'

7:08

rockin' awesome. So

7:11

I was like, yeah, sure. The mission

7:14

specifically is to put

7:16

women and femmes in the storytelling seat with

7:19

prioritizing of

7:23

BIPOC creators. So we

7:25

have more people with my faces

7:28

in the seat controlling the stories or

7:30

telling the stories or running the stories that are being

7:32

told. So that's exactly

7:34

what we set out to do. And

7:37

you're doing it. And how long ago was

7:39

that? I

7:42

want you to know, April

7:46

20th will be our one year anniversary. It's only

7:48

been a year. It's been a year.

7:51

It's been a year. Literally, it's been a year. Capital Y.

7:54

Capital Y.

7:57

Wow. OK, so I kind

7:59

of want to know. what happened in that one game

8:01

that Sarah was like, hey, you, me,

8:04

let's start a production company

8:06

together. Probably because as

8:08

a player,

8:09

I make kitchen sink

8:11

characters. So my character was

8:13

supposed to do all kinds of shenanigans. In

8:16

most of the game, I just spent begging her to let

8:19

me do a thing because

8:21

my dice were not letting me. So

8:26

between that and previous conversations and

8:28

me being a variety streamer on my own, she

8:30

was like, surely you can bring something awesome

8:32

to the table. And that's where I stuck with the production

8:34

part. So

8:36

if you, if we're

8:38

out there live, that's me

8:41

helping doing things. I did it.

8:44

I love that title, technical production,

8:46

director of technical productions. It's

8:49

such a, it's so fancy, but it is

8:51

that catch all term of like, I make this stuff

8:53

work, right?

8:54

Like, and there's a lot of troubleshooting, a lot of

8:56

tech stuff, but it's also just schedule. And

8:59

helping people work through whatever problems or

9:03

emergencies that seem to pop up with every single.

9:05

Training new producers and everything. So yeah.

9:07

Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So

9:10

what's that like? Getting people to be like, all right, I can't be there

9:12

at everything. I need to delegate a little bit.

9:14

Scary. In

9:18

the sense of, it's only scary for me because

9:20

I'm allowing, allowing

9:22

cheese. I'm teaching

9:24

someone everything that I know in

9:27

a small snippet and you

9:29

either have it or you don't when it comes to the troubleshooting

9:32

in the moment. So I can't

9:34

teach you that, but I can teach you how to do everything correctly

9:36

and hope for the best later. Right. So

9:39

that I just give you all my brain power and hope

9:41

for the best. Like

9:44

a good dungeon master. I was gonna

9:46

say, only we can train up

9:48

dungeon masters like that. That's

9:51

what we've been doing with you, Shelly, this whole time. I'd be like,

9:53

yeah, here you go. Now you have all the training and then. Yes,

9:56

in eight years, you too can finally

9:58

be ready. No

10:01

pressure from that. Eight

10:05

years of weekly training. That's

10:08

a long time in the chrysalis. But

10:11

you are now a butterfly. I'm

10:14

like a moth. I'm earning

10:16

those things.

10:17

Also equally as beautiful and important.

10:21

It's true. It's true. It's

10:23

true. A little fuzzier. Ava, you stepped

10:25

in as a performer and been a part of this.

10:27

I honestly

10:30

didn't have a lot of

10:33

expectations going in. I kind of saw

10:37

an application for a reuse

10:39

game on a whim in a Discord

10:42

that we're both on for

10:45

Blackfems. And just

10:48

on the off shots,

10:50

like, okay, well, I'm taking a break

10:53

from doing a lot of other private games. I

10:56

kind of want to try something new. Let's try it out. I

11:00

didn't think you knew of me because

11:02

we didn't talk that much, but

11:05

apparently she liked how

11:07

I talked in the Discord enough to be

11:09

like, yeah, I want her to be a permanent

11:11

headache for me.

11:13

Yes. And I've had that

11:15

permanent headache ever since I joined

11:18

literally around the same time. And

11:21

you're on the show

11:22

Roll for Luck. What character do

11:24

you play there? So

11:27

for Roll for Luck, I play a Dex Paladin named

11:29

Samir, who is

11:31

like most characters I play because

11:33

I like to keep to a trope, a

11:35

team mom who essentially she plays straight

11:38

lace

11:41

because everyone else in the party tends

11:43

to be a bit more chaotic than I personally would. I

11:48

personally,

11:50

well, I would say this as I

11:52

love chaotic characters. However,

11:55

as a Virgo, it stresses me out

11:57

way

11:57

too much. Oh, wow. You

12:00

can do that? It's

12:03

a part of my everyday playing D&D. Just

12:06

everyone's chaotic. I have to

12:08

be like, no, I have to be the stable force. So

12:10

team mom right now. But

12:14

you

12:14

chose this game. Okay. You

12:18

also chose me. You're right. You're

12:21

right. It

12:23

seems like you're choosing to play against type, which is,

12:26

you know, that's the role playing challenge right

12:28

there. We need Dr. Megan to come back and

12:30

talk about this. I'm

12:34

not a Virgo, but I suspect there's got

12:36

to be some Virgo rising somewhere because

12:38

I crave that organization

12:40

that Virgos are so good at. But

12:43

I too,

12:44

like chaos when

12:46

I play, I don't

12:48

and I think I have with Dr.

12:51

Megan's help listening to her talk about why

12:53

we choose to play the types of characters we choose. But

12:55

I do think it's because I don't get

12:57

to do that in real life

12:59

because I got to keep it

13:01

together. But it

13:03

feels so good

13:05

to just play characters that are just

13:08

making terrible decisions and not thinking

13:10

about it and just going through

13:12

the world. Just

13:14

like, oops, did I just drop a fireball?

13:17

Sorry, I'll clean that

13:19

up later. It's like it's amazing.

13:22

It's so freeing. You would think

13:25

that I would want to lean into that

13:27

more, especially because I'm a

13:29

military child. So again,

13:31

I would want to rebel from that

13:34

strict organization, but it's never

13:36

occurred to me ever. It's just always

13:39

been mainly straight-laced, usually

13:41

leaning towards lawful neutral. I

13:44

can look away from chaos if

13:46

I need to, but otherwise, it's

13:48

like, please don't have me

13:50

involved. I just need to have

13:52

a nice quiet area to nap. Me,

13:55

an actual chaotic neutral rogue

13:57

in real life.

13:58

Yeah. Yes.

14:01

That was where I was thinking too. Yeah.

14:05

That was fun. But I have had fun

14:07

playing the, in the one shots and stuff, do

14:09

like the more

14:11

straight-laced order-based paladin.

14:13

Usually it's that like nope, a knight trope

14:16

that is, can be fun in

14:18

short doses, at least for

14:20

me as the chaotic person. I actually bring some

14:22

chaos to the order, which is, you know, also

14:25

fun. Mix things up. Yes. Right?

14:28

And then, okay, so Ryu, you refer

14:30

to yourself as a chaos mistress. Yes.

14:33

You're the dungeon mistress for Roll for Luck. Yes.

14:36

So what's, can you tell us a little bit about the

14:39

story of Roll for Luck? And then

14:41

I'd love to learn a little bit about

14:43

what your style is. Wow.

14:47

How to put in a very small

14:50

shot class of my style. Okay.

14:53

So Roll for Luck

14:56

itself is literally, fine, I'll

14:58

do it myself. A

15:00

kind of game where I made the world that they're

15:03

running through, which is Amagarth, which

15:05

kind of is based off the

15:07

word amalgamation, literally

15:09

all the things that I love about video

15:11

games, anime, anything that I could

15:13

find, there's probably a nod to it in

15:15

that world. And I basically

15:17

bring them the bones of a sandbox and

15:20

it's player-driven, more so

15:22

than a story already made in my head.

15:26

For instance, the

15:28

story we're currently on is

15:31

a Battle of the Bands, where they met our

15:33

version of BTS and

15:35

had a drinking contest,

15:37

and Kiansei got kidnapped. And

15:42

now they have to find Kiansei so that she

15:44

can do her surprise performance at the Battle

15:46

of the Bands. I want you to know, I didn't write

15:48

any of that down before we started our first episode.

15:51

Wow.

15:55

I literally bring the bones and

15:58

the chaos mistress is just... just me driving

16:01

the bus as the players make the story.

16:03

I have an idea, I have an overall,

16:06

what things could happen,

16:07

but it's literally a day in the life of,

16:10

would be adventurous, maybe

16:12

heroes eventually, we don't know. Yes,

16:16

that's up to you, Ava. That's

16:18

my DM style. So difficult.

16:20

Right,

16:21

have a few bullet points and then be like,

16:23

all right, it's up to you. I work on

16:25

bullet points. That's why, okay,

16:28

I need that. Don't get when DMs do that.

16:30

Me neither, Ava. I just don't get

16:32

it. How could you do that? We need to

16:34

dig in a little bit more, because when you mentioned

16:37

the bones, so.

16:39

Bullet points are the bones. So yeah, so okay,

16:41

but like what specifically, like

16:43

can you just give some examples of like, this

16:46

is a bone versus like, just

16:49

as a point of comparison between

16:51

like how we got from this bone to

16:53

they have to rescue Chianti.

16:56

I would love to know that road

16:58

specifically, because I don't know how to got

17:00

it. I have an answer for the Chianti bit.

17:02

So whenever I am in

17:05

a game, I like

17:07

to be a type of gremlin where I want

17:09

Beyonce inserted into the story

17:12

in some way. So like if you talk

17:14

with my partner, every time he's running

17:16

a game, I always have to include

17:18

Beyonce in some way, shape or form to

17:21

the point that there was one game in particular where

17:23

he banned me from putting her in the

17:25

list of things to be included,

17:27

because I would just happen way too often. It's

17:31

like,

17:31

no, we cannot this time. We just

17:33

put her into vampire masquerade.

17:36

We just can't do this right now.

17:37

I like it. She's like an Easter

17:39

egg, a very obvious Easter egg. She's like

17:41

your Easter egg. I like it. When

17:45

I say I bring the bones, I mean, I bring

17:47

the bullet points, the bones, the story,

17:49

the setting and what their,

17:54

not goal so much as the next

17:58

leg of whatever part of it.

17:59

quest or thing that they need to do next.

18:02

And then they tell me

18:04

how they get there depending. But

18:07

they don't know what that is. They

18:10

do know, but not yet. Like

18:13

they're running through their character situation. The

18:16

meetup, the BTS

18:19

thing was wild. That

18:21

happened from one of the newer players that came

18:23

to Ro Filik Bri, who

18:26

I guess their Easter egg is now BTS.

18:29

And everything. And

18:32

now we have, and right off the

18:34

bat, the character, well, I don't remember

18:36

all of them, but I do remember myself

18:38

and DK were immediately like,

18:41

and one of them is going to be an orc. I

18:45

was like, yeah, yeah, it's

18:48

the lead. They're the lead singer. That's

18:51

all we wanted. That's all we needed. But

18:56

yeah, I bring the bones as in

18:59

here's where you are. This

19:01

is your current setting.

19:02

What would you like to do? Whoa.

19:05

Yeah, that's so freeing. Did

19:09

it take you a while

19:11

to get to this place as a dungeon master,

19:13

dungeon mistress, chaos mistress,

19:16

or were you always just like, this

19:18

seems to work. But I

19:20

have, I've got the odd a, right?

19:22

So, um, no,

19:25

it didn't take long at all. I, at some

19:27

point I've had too many terrible

19:29

games in my past. And then I've had

19:32

some good games that turned out to be bad people

19:34

at the table.

19:36

So when I say I'm going to do it myself,

19:38

I said, well, what if the, if

19:41

it was more improv and more

19:43

player based

19:44

and not pushing there, the, the

19:46

DM's narrative.

19:48

Right. That's the bad

19:51

thing. And that's why I love that style too,

19:53

because it becomes so much more

19:55

of a shared storytelling experience

19:58

rather than. Okay, we're on

20:00

to the next set piece. This is the encounter that

20:02

I have made for you. And it doesn't feel like there's any

20:05

agency for

20:06

the players or the DM really, because the DM

20:08

planned it all, you know,

20:09

three weeks ago, right?

20:11

And so it feels like, okay, following

20:13

a formula doesn't fulfill

20:15

what I love about this game, right? Which

20:18

is that chaos that comes from,

20:21

it's not necessarily not knowing, it's

20:24

just trusting the fact that

20:26

it's gonna be funny or fun or

20:28

fulfilling in some way because of

20:31

the people you have assembled around you. And that's, I

20:33

think, really the real important thing there

20:36

is that you've assembled this group that

20:39

you trust, right? It's had

20:41

a couple of iterations and

20:44

each table has brought something completely

20:47

wildly different

20:48

to the story and the table itself and

20:51

how I'm going to tell the story too. So yeah,

20:54

for sure. It depends on the trust and the people at the table.

20:58

Now I just want to make sure that Ava, you get

21:00

to contend against Beyonce at

21:02

some point, right? Where she-

21:04

She ends up being the villain? She could be

21:06

the villain and you don't even know it, right? Like that's,

21:09

am I giving you too many good ideas? Don't

21:11

do this to me. She's a Virgo.

21:13

She can't fight

21:15

against- I can't go against my queen Virgo.

21:19

That's it, in her party, then there's gonna be some in her party

21:21

conflict. A cleric going against

21:23

their god, like, oh. I

21:25

mean, this is, it's kind of a good story.

21:28

I know, right? What

21:30

would she do? It'll be fine.

21:33

Be depressed because literally

21:35

that's also happening in a private game right

21:37

now where at level 17,

21:40

my cleric is finally having a crisis of faith

21:42

moment. So that's

21:44

gonna be fun to play later

21:46

on tonight. Wow. Whoa,

21:49

what was the driving force for

21:51

this crisis of faith? So

21:54

it's been an ever evolving

21:58

back of the mind thing.

21:59

My character is a cleric

22:02

of light and her whole kingdom

22:05

and homeland is very,

22:07

very focused on that

22:09

faith in that particular deity. But

22:12

then

22:13

over the years that we've been

22:15

playing, there have been instances of finding

22:17

out, oh, the lore of my

22:19

people was not correct. Oh,

22:21

the things that are essentially

22:24

like

22:25

legacy or legendary or

22:27

faith-based to our God was

22:29

actually not attested to her.

22:33

And then just finding out a previous session

22:35

that the God in question is preparing

22:38

for a fight that she has no idea

22:40

about. So it's now

22:42

a question of, hey, what

22:43

you doing? Are

22:47

you gonna be against what we're

22:50

trying to do? Like what's happening

22:52

right now?

22:53

Also my staff that

22:55

I got, apparently for my ancestor

22:57

and not you, could have told

23:00

me. So

23:03

she is gonna be flipping to a grave cleric

23:05

now after this point.

23:07

Wow, from a light cleric to a grave

23:09

cleric. Yeah, oof, yep.

23:12

There's gonna be a lot of tears tonight. That

23:15

sounds exciting. Makeup is waterproof today. This

23:21

is amazing. So level 17,

23:24

I've actually never played a character

23:26

that high level before.

23:28

This private game I'm playing,

23:31

and I don't wanna quote it wrong, but I believe we've

23:33

been playing it for about five years,

23:35

five to six years. Wow. That's amazing. And it's

23:37

slated to finish, knock on all

23:40

wood, finish it this year. Because

23:43

we've been trying to finish it since last

23:45

year.

23:45

What's the finish? Like, how

23:48

do you know it's finished? Is it just- We

23:50

finally have an end. We have essentially

23:53

an end date

23:53

for the inverse thing.

23:57

Essentially we have to fight against.

23:59

gods that are coming through and

24:02

we have the date of the apocalypse

24:04

set. So we have to make sure everything is

24:06

done before that date. So

24:10

we'll be level 20 at that point, but

24:12

it's just hammering home. We need

24:14

to finish this as soon as possible.

24:18

That's incredible. Yeah,

24:21

it's like when I hear people

24:24

like both of you talking about your stories,

24:26

the worlds that you're creating and the

24:28

players that you've been playing

24:30

and all of these different arcs. It

24:33

makes me realize over

24:35

and over again how many millions

24:38

of stories there are out there

24:40

just being told through this game or through

24:42

TRPGs in general. It's

24:44

just like I just love these little

24:47

insights, like these little snippets into your

24:49

worlds to just hear like

24:51

the way you're talking about this character. I'm like, I

24:54

would read that book. I would watch that

24:56

series that stars this character. I

24:59

want to see the evolution of how this cleric

25:01

went from a light cleric to a grave cleric

25:04

and it's from a game. It's just not

25:06

a question, just a statement. Just like, wow,

25:09

I just appreciate you and the stories

25:12

that you're putting out there. It's amazing. That's

25:15

definitely how I feel about a

25:17

lot of things. I've

25:20

ingested so much

25:24

actual plays that everybody has,

25:26

like you said, everybody

25:27

has different styles of play. Everybody has different

25:29

styles of playing their character, different

25:31

ways of building their world from people

25:33

that do full lore in the background to

25:36

people like us that do bullet points

25:39

and just keep going with the way.

25:42

In every

25:44

occasion, I just want more. I

25:46

just want to keep watching. I just want to keep listening.

25:50

That recognition I love

25:52

is starting to be

25:54

out there more. You mentioned going to the

25:57

gaming awards this month. I

26:00

love the fact that there are now award

26:03

ceremonies for actual plays,

26:05

for things, for what people are doing in this space.

26:07

Like that's so amazing. I want

26:09

there to be more of them out there.

26:11

Yes, we need more. And

26:14

personally speaking, we need more BIPOC

26:17

faces up front,

26:18

accepting those awards, getting the recognition

26:21

as well. So.

26:22

Yeah. So you're heading to that event, right?

26:25

I am. I will be going there on behalf

26:29

of Girls Money's Rose because we were nominated for

26:32

a diversity award,

26:33

which is one that

26:37

the gaming associates, like them themselves,

26:40

chose us out of however

26:42

many people. So it's us and five other

26:45

wonderful people that I'm on stream

26:47

teamed with that I found out later. And

26:49

I'm like. Oh. Amazing.

26:55

Is this like, like, if you

26:57

win, will you make a speech? I hope

26:59

it's not me because I can. Ryu,

27:06

I went to school for writing.

27:07

If you need me to write something, I can. You

27:09

got a speech writer? This is true. Make sure

27:12

to credit me.

27:13

You absolutely

27:15

know I will. Get those index cards ready.

27:18

I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press.

27:20

Credit your writers, please. Yes. Yeah,

27:22

of course. That's incredible.

27:24

So as we talk about the mission

27:26

of Girls Run These Worlds and

27:31

why it's important for representation and

27:33

inclusivity and diversity, my

27:36

Easter egg is The Bachelor.

27:39

And I do try to drop The Bachelor

27:41

into a conversation with Greg. But

27:44

it's relevant. Do

27:48

you know there is some hot Bachelor news right now

27:51

in which the creator of The Bachelor, has

27:53

finally been ousted after

27:55

like two decades. After

27:58

finally an investigation.

29:56

people

30:00

were for

30:02

women and femmes being in that

30:04

seat until the well went

30:06

dry and we needed, like we are

30:09

in our first month or two,

30:12

our pitch calendar was filled

30:15

up to these

30:16

like

30:16

November de Sivir.

30:18

We've had, I don't know

30:20

about the space around me outside

30:22

of the Twitter dramas and

30:24

everything like that. I only know that

30:27

everyone that comes to us with

30:30

about the same tired look on their face

30:32

of,

30:33

oh my God, you're actually helping. Oh my God,

30:35

you're actually doing this. Oh my God, you're actually able

30:38

to, you're actually gonna put me on, you're actually gonna do this,

30:40

blah, blah, blah,

30:41

every single time.

30:43

And that tells me something about all the others

30:45

that aren't doing what we're doing.

30:46

And I even come from a place of

30:49

being very new, not

30:52

in general for playing

30:54

in TTRPGs, but being in

30:57

this realm of actual

30:59

plays

30:59

in TTRPGs, I

31:02

knew that there was an issue because

31:05

just as a black person, there's always gonna

31:07

be an issue. But

31:09

as I started to get to know more people,

31:12

following more people, playing

31:14

with more people, it was very

31:17

evident that there was a problem

31:21

that wasn't being addressed. And

31:24

even though people were making improvements and

31:26

steps to address that problem,

31:29

there was always just one other

31:31

group who made a very dumb

31:33

decision. And it just like, why?

31:36

You could have not said anything

31:38

at all. But

31:41

luckily for every dumb mistake,

31:44

there are several other better choices

31:46

that have been made to at

31:47

least broaden and expand

31:50

the diversity that we see in this community.

31:54

Right, it was a slow change. It still

31:56

is a slow change. Most other

31:59

studios will do. will

32:01

have their token, either their token woman

32:03

or their token PLC, or

32:05

their token show that

32:08

has all of the above, and everything

32:10

else on their lineup is all stark

32:12

white. So

32:15

that's not what we want anymore.

32:19

Yeah, there's that aside, we're,

32:21

we're going to flip that table and make other tokens.

32:23

But yeah, so for Girls Runnies Girls,

32:25

all you have to do is identify as a woman or a femme

32:28

to sit at the DM's table. Everybody else can

32:30

sit in the player's seat. But yeah.

32:34

And I think that's really important that it

32:36

came from femme and

32:40

BiPAP creators. Like it's like, as you

32:42

said, to start this interview, it was like,

32:45

I had to do it. Right? And I

32:47

had it, you know, I didn't see it there. And now

32:50

I'm making it happen. And I think, you

32:52

know, Dungeons and Dragons has tried

32:55

to bring, you know, people

32:57

of color and things on all of our streaming shows and

32:59

make it all happen. But that was only going

33:01

to do so much. That was only going to like, you know, get

33:03

the door a little bit open. And then now it's up to

33:06

the creators to kind of burst it and

33:09

have it all happen. Of course, we're supporting. Break it down.

33:12

Exactly. Like smash the glass ceiling,

33:14

the glass door, the whole house is

33:16

gone. Let's

33:16

rebuild the house and make

33:18

it happen. And I think it's really

33:21

it's really gratifying to see. I mean, honestly, I

33:23

can't believe it's only been a year. But because

33:25

it feels like this was, you

33:28

know, kind of the necessary evolution of making

33:31

these spaces more, you know, indicative

33:34

of what our culture is like.

33:36

Exactly. Yeah, I,

33:39

I don't know

33:42

that I've talked about this extensively

33:44

on here. No, it's not The Bachelor this time, but

33:47

it's about Real Housewives.

33:51

I

33:55

mean, I would have listened. I don't follow

33:57

the Real Housewives, but I have a friend

33:59

who gives me. every single random

34:01

like story bit and also being

34:03

in Maryland. I have to know Potomac. I

34:06

have to know if Potomac. Don't

34:08

sleep on Real Housewives of Potomac. They're the

34:10

best franchise. I want to work

34:12

on it eventually. It's on the list. Start

34:14

at season one. How did we get here? No,

34:17

that's good. I'm that good,

34:19

Ryu. I'm that good. Eventually,

34:22

you'll all be talking about it. No, no, no.

34:24

About kids. Again, I love

34:27

kids. I love Dungeons and Dragons. I

34:29

love kids playing Dungeons and Dragons. And

34:32

what I love and hope for is

34:34

that these eight and nine-year-old girls

34:36

that I play D&D with do

34:38

not know a world in which it's

34:41

wild to

34:43

see a woman as a dungeon master.

34:45

Like, this is crazy. Because for them,

34:48

that's their only experience.

34:50

They've only had one dungeon master, and it's

34:53

a woman. And they're

34:55

playing at tables that are filled with women. These

34:57

other eight and nine-year-old boys are

35:00

sitting at tables filled with girls, too. So

35:02

I do hope that we see a world in which

35:05

they eventually are just like, this

35:07

is a game. This is just a game,

35:10

period. But do you see... Are

35:12

you seeing a

35:13

shift? Are you noticing with

35:16

the people watching the shows, the

35:18

people who are interacting with your shows, have

35:20

you noticed there being a shift

35:22

in your audience? There's more

35:25

people like

35:25

me that appreciate. Roll

35:27

for Luck specifically. And that's

35:30

truly because we just reset

35:33

our cast. So it's an all-black cast,

35:35

and then there's Mo. Our

35:39

wonderful token, Mo. Which

35:43

I asked if they were okay with that. They are.

35:47

They're okay with being token. And

35:49

so our

35:51

audience has shifted to people that

35:53

wanted to see that, that

35:54

needed to see that. And people

35:57

that come to any of

35:59

the games that...

35:59

we put on. My Twitter

36:02

is always banging and I keep getting

36:04

followed by people that I'm like,

36:07

I'm sorry, you know I exist. What do you mean?

36:11

Excuse you? Who are you? What? Is this

36:13

fake account? Hold on.

36:18

And it's the same thing when I go under our Girls 1

36:20

Eats Girls things and I see where

36:22

we're nearly at a thousand followers on Twitch.

36:25

We're over a thousand,

36:27

almost 15 I think on Twitter and all

36:29

of our other stuff. And like,

36:32

that's how I know this was needed and

36:34

we just have to keep going. Like it's

36:37

tiring. We have

36:39

like a profit sharing situation.

36:41

So it's not the top people that are being paid. Every

36:43

person that comes to play

36:46

with us

36:47

has a bit of a pie, even if it's a little piece.

36:49

So that's cool. So

36:52

everybody's invested. Everybody has

36:54

a little piece. Yes. I love that. Well,

36:57

I mean, as the token

37:00

white man on this podcast right now, I

37:04

love to, I mean, this is something I ask

37:06

often because it was eye opening

37:08

for me to be

37:11

aware of, you know,

37:13

bringing more of a spotlight to people

37:15

within this hobby. And it's

37:17

something I, you know, I'm passionate about. But

37:20

I know people listening might not know

37:22

the best way to go about that and might not have,

37:25

you know, might have good intentions, but do something inadvertently,

37:28

you know, against

37:31

that mission. Right. And so what would

37:33

you say to folks that like, Hey, I thought

37:35

I was doing the right thing by having a black

37:39

person or a woman

37:41

join my group. Now you're saying it's token.

37:43

Like what, I can't win. How

37:46

do you respond to that and make

37:48

sure people understand, you know, the

37:50

right perspective there. It depends

37:53

on how they ask, because it

37:55

might have to say a word that I can't say on this podcast.

37:59

We'll bleep it out, it's

38:02

okay. Okay. I'm

38:04

just trying to soundboard now. Essentially,

38:08

yes, you're doing the

38:10

right thing so long as you put the cast

38:12

call out and you made

38:16

an effort. You didn't just pick by

38:19

their name. You didn't just pick

38:21

by what they've been in. You didn't just pick by,

38:23

oh, your friend's circle.

38:25

If your friend's circle is only the one, then

38:28

that isn't helping.

38:30

You are unfortunately still

38:33

part of the issue. You have to be able

38:35

to open yourself up to more people

38:38

in your own circle to be able to put them

38:40

at the table in the first place.

38:44

And to even be able to do that, you

38:46

have to listen to the marginalized voices.

38:49

If you don't listen to their experiences

38:51

or the advice that they offer, how are

38:54

you expected to grow? It comes

38:56

with listening and learning,

38:59

but also making sure

39:01

you're putting into effort into personally

39:04

expanding. Exactly.

39:07

Right. And then too often, I see people,

39:09

I see this conversation online where it becomes defensive

39:12

or putting up walls

39:14

and you're like, no, you need to listen. I

39:17

love that. Listen. Like any good dungeon

39:19

master, again, listen to your players. Internalize

39:21

what they're saying, what they want and try

39:24

to bring everybody on board.

39:27

I've also learned that if their first

39:29

response is to get defensive, that's

39:31

something on their side that they have to fix. And

39:33

there is no amount of words that's

39:34

going to change it in this moment at

39:37

all. So you

39:40

can have your puffed out chest, but you can have it over

39:42

there. I'm just telling you that you're doing it wrong. And

39:45

I hope the best for you over

39:47

there. Block.

39:51

That block button is free, baby.

39:55

I love

39:57

that block button. I use it pretty

39:59

much daily.

41:57

Now

42:00

I get to control my own space and I love

42:02

that. I love that that's where we are now because of

42:04

the representation, because of seeing people like

42:07

themselves playing out there. It's happening in the hobby

42:09

all over. I mean, what you what Ryu

42:11

said is very good point. And I'm just trying

42:14

to think about my experiences and I feel

42:16

like

42:16

my experience getting into it

42:18

was a bit weird. So

42:21

my first ever table was a diverse

42:23

table, mainly

42:25

queer,

42:26

queer people at the time,

42:29

mostly femme presenting, except

42:31

for our DM who was a white man and

42:34

another player who's a white man. But

42:37

otherwise it was pretty good. Eventually

42:40

some things came out in regards to that DM.

42:43

So eventually one of the players was like,

42:46

I can try running it. And

42:48

that has been the five year campaign

42:50

that I've been in ever since. So

42:53

I've always been in groups

42:56

and I try to gravitate to groups that I

42:58

see some for. And I've always been

43:00

in a different form of connection with whether it is with

43:02

my queerness

43:05

or my people like being a person of color,

43:07

not really caring too much about

43:11

what could be

43:14

a hindrance.

43:14

So I think I think the best

43:16

way to put this is find

43:20

don't be afraid to find places that look

43:23

similar to you. You

43:26

could always go to a comic

43:28

or a gaming shop and there

43:31

could be a chance you see a group with

43:33

a couple of women, a couple of black

43:35

people, a couple of gay

43:37

people. Just

43:39

start there and eventually

43:41

meeting those people, it's going to expand

43:44

more of the horizon for you. Cause

43:47

they're out there. You just have to make sure to look. Anything

43:50

to that, please add discord

43:53

to that search. It's 2023. You

43:56

can find a game, you can find a group,

43:58

you can find a server.

43:59

with like-minded folks

44:02

that you can game with.

44:04

And that's where you will probably find

44:06

the people that...

44:08

Who knows? You might end up

44:09

being the best of friends afterwards. I

44:12

found... The Discord that Ryu and

44:14

I are a part of, I found it on TikTok about...

44:18

About maybe two months before

44:21

Girls Run These Worlds was doing a promotion

44:23

for Raulful Luck. So

44:26

it's just a matter of looking in the

44:28

right places and putting your

44:30

faith out there. Using

44:33

the tools to meet

44:35

up with folks. And you're right, like most... Maybe

44:38

it is most games are now happening not in

44:40

person, right? Where it's like, yeah, it doesn't...

44:42

You don't have to have that locality of

44:45

a local game shop anymore. You can

44:48

find that local game shop on Discord, on

44:50

TikTok, wherever

44:51

people are gathering. I think that's also

44:54

had a really great impact in having

44:57

like-minded people come together. But

45:00

you mentioned branching out, Ava too. And I'd love to hear

45:02

more about your game, Exquisite

45:05

Corpse, possessed with the thirsty

45:07

sword lesbians. I've loved that. The

45:11

cover I've seen and I think I have a copy I've

45:13

ordered that hasn't yet come in. But

45:15

yeah, oh, there it is. Yeah, sweet. So what's

45:18

that system like? How's it been?

45:20

It's so fun. Yeah. Talk a little

45:22

bit about that system and what it's been like playing

45:24

with that group.

45:25

So it is a power

45:27

by the apocalypse system. So it's just

45:30

the two dice, the 2d6s that

45:32

you need. You have

45:34

playbooks kind of similar to classes

45:36

and you can essentially play whatever you want with

45:38

thirsty sword lesbian. The purpose

45:41

of it is to smooch someone or at

45:43

least have some type of romantic

45:45

entanglement with someone along the line.

45:47

The game that I'm playing

45:50

in right now is an authorian

45:53

retelling

45:55

of sorts where we play

45:58

the children of the

45:59

Arthur Tails. My character is

46:02

one of two princesses who is

46:04

the daughter of King Arthur and Queen

46:06

Vint Anguenivir. And we're essentially

46:09

traveling to try to find Excalibur

46:12

and maybe unalive

46:16

evil

46:18

unicorn that killed our father. Oh.

46:23

Don't know if we're actually going to. Maybe

46:25

we'll try to befriend it. I honestly don't know

46:28

what was good. What's going to happen at this point.

46:31

And then you're going to smooch it.

46:32

I mean, actually

46:34

we did find out that that corrupted unicorn

46:37

is the mother of one of the players. So maybe

46:39

not. So. Oh.

46:42

When we found out, it's like,

46:45

Oh, sorry. We may have to

46:47

kill your mom. Oh no. Oh

46:51

no. There's a lot to unpack

46:53

there. It's very much a lot

46:55

to unpack.

46:58

I love a wild story. Wild, wild

47:00

rag. Definitely. That

47:02

sounds awesome. Yeah.

47:05

I've. So we were, we

47:07

talked to somebody on Dragon Talk

47:09

that must have had, it had a connection with thirsty

47:11

sword lesbians or was playing. That's the

47:14

first time I heard it. And ever since then, I swear

47:17

just the words thirsty sword lesbians

47:19

just pop up in my head and like, Oh, there

47:21

they are. Just, it's just, it's just

47:24

so fun. I love hearing the sign that you have to

47:26

play. I think it is because every time

47:28

I hear somebody talk about it, I'm like, that's,

47:30

that sounds.

47:32

I will say coming from someone

47:34

who has exclusively played

47:35

Pathfinder or D&D.

47:37

Don't go in there

47:40

with that mindset because

47:43

I made a big beefy person and

47:46

I was like, Oh, I can't fight my way.

47:48

I have to kiss someone. I, I,

47:50

I'm too much of a thembo for that. I can't be a unicorn.

47:58

That is good advice. I think with

48:01

a lot of games that aren't in

48:03

that, D&D

48:06

Pathfinder ilk, right? It is very much like

48:08

you're gonna have an experience that is very different, embrace

48:11

it, but it's, or kiss

48:13

it or smooch it or don't. But it is

48:16

not the same for sure.

48:18

That's awesome. I think, but has it enriched

48:20

though? That I think that's what's really kind of cool is playing

48:23

other games, I feel enriches

48:27

the D&D storytelling that can also happen

48:29

because you're like, oh, I don't have to

48:32

follow along the thembo tropes of

48:34

beating up people with my great sword. Maybe

48:36

I can smooch some more folks in

48:38

my D&D game, right?

48:42

Exactly. And I live by that truth

48:44

of I will smooch everyone, even

48:46

if it's a headache for my DM. That

48:49

is for Ryu and that is for my partner.

48:51

I don't know if you know this, but

48:54

everybody's queer and

48:56

they're all gonna kiss each other. And that's exactly

48:58

what they put on our safety form. They were

49:00

like, romance, extra green. Yes.

49:05

So far, my character has slept with two

49:07

people and maybe

49:09

kissed others. She will not

49:11

tell anyone.

49:12

She doesn't kiss and tell. Of

49:15

course, she's a lady. But

49:19

we'll talk about it on the stream with hundreds of

49:21

people. Yeah, of course, of course. It'll be fine. Dragon

49:24

talk after dark. The people know. Oh yeah.

49:27

She does it.

49:29

I need to know when y'all get after dark, please.

49:31

And thank you. Yes.

49:35

No, I'm kind of into it. That's

49:38

a good job. So I have

49:40

to ask Ava again about

49:43

dodging people who ask you to

49:45

DM. What? My

49:49

current goal in Girls' Run These Worlds

49:51

is bully Ryu

49:54

lovingly, be

49:56

a good player, but also every

49:58

time Sarah or Ryu

51:54

The

52:00

announcements here on Dragon Dragon. No. Okay,

52:04

let me ask you this, Ava. What if

52:06

Beyonce said, oh, I've always wanted

52:09

to play. I've never,

52:11

and you were the only one in the room. I

52:14

would need confirmation from her actual

52:16

factual manager, Blue Ivy Carter, that

52:18

she would want to have that. Well,

52:20

what if she says, what

52:22

if Blue Ivy Carter says, hey,

52:24

mom, I think this game D&D sounds awesome.

52:27

I'd love to learn how to play.

52:29

Then she would also have to run me a check. I'm

52:32

not D&D for Beyonce for free.

52:36

I like it. All right. Give

52:39

me money, Beyonce, and then I'll run a game for

52:41

you. Okay. You

52:43

heard it here? Yeah. That

52:45

was kind of an announcement. I love it. Beyonce,

52:49

no, you listen. She does. She

52:51

does. She's one of our subscribers.

52:52

She's the way she's calling in right now. Call

52:55

her right now. We're

52:59

going to go fold down on you. Microphone.

53:04

So are you an Ever

53:06

DM, or do you play as well?

53:09

As of right now, I have been an Evergreen

53:12

DM because work, actual

53:15

work keeps me away from being able to play so many

53:17

more games that I want to play and run,

53:19

honestly. But

53:21

before I started Roll for Luck, I was

53:24

a forever player. So, but

53:27

then, I mean, being in the

53:29

DMC allows

53:33

me to help the Gremlins do

53:35

what they're going to do.

53:36

When I say I get to play,

53:38

I make kitchen sink characters.

53:42

Everything goes into them. However

53:44

many classes I think, any

53:46

kind of shenanigans with the feats I put in,

53:49

any kind of shenanigans with backgrounds or

53:51

whatever else I can

53:53

throw into this character, I

53:55

don't get to play often. I'm going to play this. I

53:58

think my last character was...

54:00

a Triton pirate who

54:02

just so happened to turn into the captain.

54:05

And I didn't want that, but here we

54:07

are. I'm the captain now. It's fine. I

54:09

just wanted to shoot things off the side from

54:11

the water because I wanted to do a swim, but that's

54:13

fine.

54:15

Is that, I mean, I

54:17

feel like there's a personality type there too, where you're like,

54:20

all right, well, if I'm going to play, I'm going to be

54:22

the best dang player that

54:24

you ever seen, right?

54:26

I'm the best player as in because

54:29

I always have the spotlight, quote

54:32

unquote, with Ro for luck. I tend

54:34

to help boost everybody else. So

54:37

I,

54:38

in real life,

54:39

got a neutral rogue. In

54:41

any other game, I try to

54:43

steer from rogue, unless there's a trick to rogue. But

54:48

yeah, I kind of help boost everybody else so

54:50

they can have their spot on.

54:52

So you're even as a player, you're

54:54

kind of a dungeon master.

54:57

Oh, yeah. I don't, you know, over

54:59

DM, you know, how

55:05

some players, DM players

55:07

will try to over DM the

55:10

DM. I don't do that. I do beg

55:12

for things though. I'm like, but

55:14

what if I could do that? Like think

55:16

about outside of my position. And you had real complaints

55:18

when we do it. Yes, I do.

55:20

The hypocrisy.

55:26

You know, you decide when I try to lawyer for

55:29

my fellow players and yet

55:31

here she is trying to lawyer when

55:33

she gets a lawyer. I

55:36

don't lawyer. I just make it happen by

55:38

accident. It's fine. That's

55:40

the

55:41

power of the DM. Yeah,

55:43

that's for doubt. Well,

55:49

I think that's amazing because it shows

55:51

that you're a facilitator. Right.

55:54

You're like you're like making it happen. Not only around

55:56

the table as a player as the DM, but also

55:58

as you know,

55:59

the producer of making girls

56:02

run these worlds happen. Yeah. Yeah.

56:05

That's got to hit the same pleasure

56:08

button, right? Where you're like, oh yeah, I love making

56:10

stories occur. And that's something that I think

56:12

is rare out there in this world. And

56:15

we should foster it more.

56:17

Yep. Celebrate it. Also

56:20

foster it by sending money because we

56:22

need more to do more things.

56:24

We need it. Give me money. Capitalism.

56:27

Capitalism sucks. Capitalism sucks. But

56:29

if you could just rain a little bit over here.

56:34

It's pouring everywhere. Pour a little bit

56:36

here. Yeah. So, you

56:38

know, to that end, what's

56:40

a good way to get people listening

56:43

now to, you know, be active, to

56:45

support, to, you know, to give monetary

56:47

support or just internet,

56:50

you know, support. What's the best way to make

56:52

that happen? Like, subscribe,

56:54

share, you know, all the things that is

56:56

Girls Run These Worlds. And

56:59

then drop us a coffee

57:01

every now and again or go to a, we have a merch

57:03

store. Oh, really?

57:04

That's cool. Yeah.

57:07

We've got a thread list. We've got, we've had

57:09

some sponsorships, sponsored games. We actually had

57:12

a sponsored, I

57:13

don't know if I'm allowed to say that. You're allowed. Sure.

57:16

Why not? Yeah. Okay. Well,

57:19

yeah, we had a sponsored alien game just this last couple months, which

57:22

is pretty cool. And we had some other sponsored

57:24

games, which are really awesome. So it helps pay

57:26

the

57:27

people for their time.

57:29

And it also helps us upgrade people's

57:31

tech so that they can play more stuff

57:34

with us. So

57:36

that's awesome. Hit

57:38

us up on the Twitters and all of our

57:40

wonderful stuff. Our Twitch will have all of our links

57:42

and stuff as well. Great.

57:45

Yeah. What's the word? Yeah.

57:48

I mean, do you want to just, yeah, just shout it out here.

57:50

Just in, in, in audio

57:53

form. In addition to all the links we'll put

57:55

in. You know, I, I'm a higher

57:57

up there. So you think I would have it just. save

58:01

or something. We finally

58:03

stumped her. But like a professional, you're filling time

58:06

until you can actually pull in. Yeah.

58:10

Yeah, like okay, so for instance, if

58:12

I had it in front of me, right? Like, it would be something

58:15

like um

58:18

Girls Run These Worlds or Twitter

58:21

specifically is Girls Run

58:24

Why? Girls

58:26

Run These Worlds. If you is struggling

58:29

right now, I will promote myself

58:31

because I am precious and wonderful

58:34

and polite. You can

58:36

find

58:36

me anywhere at Madam Ava

58:38

Couture. It's

58:40

Couture like the fashion thing on

58:43

Twitter. Twitch, I don't

58:45

stream, but you will see me lurking on

58:47

Twitch. I have a Beacons

58:50

website so you can get that link

58:52

on my Twitter. And you can

58:54

send me money through all the cash

58:57

applications because Beyonce

59:00

tickets are expensive, y'all. And

59:02

I did get Beyonce tickets. It's

59:04

just expensive and then I would like some money back from

59:06

it. Because tax

59:08

season, I don't think I'm gonna get much. Oof. I

59:12

feel that.

59:14

Yeah, figure it out, please, please. Did

59:16

I buy you enough time, Ria? Thank

59:19

you so much. It was on my link. Thank you

59:21

like a fool. It's Girls20sWorlds.com

59:24

is

59:26

the official website for us. And

59:29

there you can find our Twitch, YouTube,

59:32

where we put all our VODs and

59:34

Instagram and Twitters

59:37

and on those all the way

59:39

at the bottom, if I'm not mistaken, will be our coffee

59:42

and our threadless.

59:45

But Girls20sWorlds.com is the place

59:48

to get all that information, the quickest.

59:50

Love it. Alright,

59:53

head there now. I'm gonna get a t-shirt because...

59:56

You gotta get them for your daughters. I need

59:58

t-shirts, yeah. That's way to tell.

59:59

Just be careful on which one you get, because

1:00:02

there is a dungeon mistress one. It's

1:00:05

great. As long as it doesn't say, you know,

1:00:08

frag a rock on it. Oh

1:00:10

no, you're good. I think we do have another

1:00:12

one though. I think we do have a mother fragging world.

1:00:14

Just read

1:00:16

that, I wanna watch. It's all I'm saying. Read

1:00:18

her before clicking on it. I

1:00:21

love it. I'm going shopping. Well,

1:00:24

thanks so much for both of you being on. Love

1:00:27

everything that we talked about, and

1:00:30

here's to more. Here's some coffees

1:00:32

coming your way.

1:00:33

Yep, so good. So good to meet you.

1:00:36

Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. Nice to meet y'all

1:00:38

too. This is so great. What

1:00:42

an inspiring conversation it is when

1:00:45

we get folks playing

1:00:48

Dungeons and Dragons out there and making it

1:00:50

their own. It is, it's

1:00:52

fantastic. I love it. The more

1:00:54

people, the better. Yeah. Love

1:00:56

this. Women, more people

1:00:58

of color playing Dungeons and Dragons, and not

1:01:01

just doing it in the home games, but streaming

1:01:04

it out there to the world and creating these

1:01:06

communities and spaces where women

1:01:09

storytellers can feel empowered.

1:01:11

Like,

1:01:12

that's my jam. That's, I think, with

1:01:15

my daughters and your passion for education

1:01:18

and getting young people into it. I love

1:01:20

that angle, that question that you were talking about is like, are there

1:01:22

younger people that are feeling inspired

1:01:25

by what girls in these world

1:01:27

is doing? I mean, they'll just be, like, it'll

1:01:31

just not be a thing, hopefully because

1:01:33

of the work that people like Ryu

1:01:36

and Avar are doing. It's just

1:01:39

normalized. There are women

1:01:42

and femme dungeon masters everywhere you look.

1:01:45

Dungeon mistresses about. Dungeon mistresses.

1:01:48

Definitely excited to check out the merch too.

1:01:51

Totally, yeah. I love merch. More

1:01:53

merch. More merch. Awesome,

1:01:56

well, if you want to jump in and start

1:01:59

running your own world.

1:01:59

those of you listening out there, you

1:02:02

can do all that through

1:02:05

D&D Beyond is a great place to start.

1:02:07

It'll get you locked into some

1:02:09

digital content out there, but of course

1:02:11

follow us along on social with Wizards

1:02:14

underscore D&D on Twitter, Facebook

1:02:17

pages, the Discord server as

1:02:20

shown by both Ryu and

1:02:22

Eva is a great place to meet and

1:02:25

find

1:02:26

interesting people that are more in your

1:02:29

wheelhouse for the storytelling that you would like to do

1:02:31

for Dungeons and Dragons. So get out there and

1:02:34

meet and mingle in the social

1:02:36

networking spaces out there. There's

1:02:38

a lot. There's a lot.

1:02:41

So, Shelley, you

1:02:43

and I are gonna be at the Get Lit Festival

1:02:46

talking about Welcome to Dragon

1:02:48

Talk very soon. I know,

1:02:50

I'm excited. Can't wait

1:02:53

to meet former

1:02:56

Dragon Talk guests, Dr. Terrence

1:02:58

McMillan, who has been awesome

1:03:00

enough to get us here at this event

1:03:02

as well as Justice Arman who is dungeon

1:03:05

mastering for us.

1:03:06

Dungeon mastering an adventure

1:03:09

that he penned from

1:03:12

Keys from the Golden Vault. So do

1:03:14

you think that's...

1:03:16

have you ever DM'd something you wrote? Not

1:03:20

anything that I wrote and

1:03:22

that was published, but I have certainly

1:03:24

like, you know, done more sketching

1:03:27

out of an adventure on a couple of pages, you know,

1:03:29

the bullet points that we were just talking about, like, you

1:03:31

know, and then run that a couple of times.

1:03:33

I wonder what that's like.

1:03:36

Like, is it like, I don't know, I don't really

1:03:38

have anything to compare it to. Reading

1:03:40

your own...

1:03:42

narrating the audio book. Narrating your own

1:03:44

book is kind of similar. I don't know. Like,

1:03:46

is it... Does

1:03:48

it make you feel more protective or

1:03:50

are you more just like,

1:03:52

get out there and play and see what happens? I don't know. I

1:03:55

think that's a good question. I think prep is a little

1:03:57

bit easier just because you lived and breathed

1:03:59

it, right? I hope so. And I knew what was happening,

1:04:02

so I feel like you can run

1:04:04

with the, roll with the punches a little bit more.

1:04:07

Yeah. That's kind of it. It's where you

1:04:09

don't have to necessarily worry about the

1:04:11

details, but you feel very comfortable with the

1:04:13

skeleton and the bones, as we talked

1:04:16

about in this interview, and then just-

1:04:18

Skeletons and bones. Have fun with the different

1:04:21

muscles and sinew and flesh that you put

1:04:23

on said bones. Whoa. I

1:04:25

am destroying this metaphor, but I'm gonna make it happen.

1:04:28

Uh-uh. Nope, I appreciate it. I'm gonna be stuck

1:04:30

with it. And if you

1:04:32

want to find out about our appearance at the

1:04:34

Get Lit Festival and all the amazing other

1:04:36

things that are going on, you can follow me at

1:04:38

Greg Tito on Twitter. I

1:04:41

am also underscore Tito at Instagram

1:04:44

and a couple of other social media places like the Mastodons.

1:04:47

Hello. What about you, Shelley Moo?

1:04:49

Well, I am on Twitter

1:04:52

and Instagram at Shelley Moo, so

1:04:54

please join me.

1:04:57

Yes, we shall. And go to your

1:04:59

website, of course. And my website, ShelleyMazanoble.com.

1:05:03

What a great dot com out there. And I am gonna

1:05:06

put it out there. GregTito.com is going

1:05:08

to be a thing, hopefully by the time you're

1:05:10

listening to this. When? Hopefully. Really?

1:05:12

Yeah, I've got it almost ready to go.

1:05:15

I just gotta work on some contact page

1:05:17

shenanigans and things like that. How exciting.

1:05:20

I know, I wanna get that out there. Now

1:05:22

I feel locked in and I have to do it. So, deadlines.

1:05:25

And you'll find out about all the productions I'm

1:05:27

doing from deadline productions, including Ex

1:05:30

Husband, which may be in a film festival

1:05:32

coming up very soon.

1:05:34

Yes, we haven't talked about this in a

1:05:36

little while. I know, but we submitted it to a whole bunch of

1:05:38

places and so we're just waiting to hear back about

1:05:41

when it came premiere.

1:05:43

Is it in? Not

1:05:45

quite yet. Oh my gosh, this is so

1:05:47

exciting. We did all the early entry

1:05:50

deadlines, so we have to kinda wait for all the deadlines

1:05:52

to kinda go by and then

1:05:54

of course, to make their decisions and announce

1:05:56

those. So, fingers crossed. Okay, well,

1:05:59

I have... an outdoor movie

1:06:01

projector and a screen. Can

1:06:03

we do a West Seattle premiere?

1:06:06

Yes, absolutely. I was thinking about doing an ad,

1:06:08

I don't know why, but the Dakota building,

1:06:11

it's like

1:06:13

on California there, we'll talk later.

1:06:15

Oh my gosh. And there's actually

1:06:17

a new place that just opened too that is exactly

1:06:19

for this type of thing. I was also meaning to think about just

1:06:22

the Admiral Theater, the place where I saw the D&D movie

1:06:24

or our movie theater. I might be able to do it there too. Oh

1:06:27

my God. I'm so excited. We'll

1:06:30

make it happen. Awesome. Hopefully we'll

1:06:32

be showing that off. X-H

1:06:59

What do you and your, what

1:07:01

do your crew do?

1:07:02

Okay. So I don't know if,

1:07:04

if drunkie can ascertain

1:07:07

this in a split second,

1:07:09

but when they left, did it

1:07:11

seem like they were like, oh, get her?

1:07:13

Or was it more like,

1:07:17

she's back? Like, could

1:07:19

I tell like what their demeanor was? Roll

1:07:22

me a, a

1:07:24

perception check. So

1:07:29

they seemed like

1:07:31

they were eager to find her. They

1:07:34

wanted, they wanted to find her

1:07:36

not through any, not

1:07:39

to arrest her, but just to be able to, to

1:07:41

know where she is and know that she's safe.

1:07:43

Oh, okay. So they're worried about her too. Yeah.

1:07:46

Oh, okay. Yeah. So they're,

1:07:48

they're running past and there's,

1:07:51

I remember I, you know, it's almost like a little

1:07:53

bit of an atrium. You have to go around a few, you

1:07:56

know, inside this crystal,

1:07:58

this like living large crystal.

1:07:59

carved out these hallways and then you kind of have to

1:08:02

do a few twists and turns before you get open into

1:08:04

the Preserve of the Ancients that's a

1:08:06

little bit more green and

1:08:08

a larger room. So

1:08:11

you have a split second. Are you going to continue with your Minor

1:08:13

Illusion? Yes, but

1:08:16

I want to continue with it as long

1:08:18

as I can before me and the

1:08:20

rest of my party runs off to where,

1:08:23

to Shola's

1:08:25

office, whatever it would be. You

1:08:27

met her in the Preserve of the Ancients. It

1:08:30

was in that larger area. Well,

1:08:33

we just have to scatter. We

1:08:35

have to go. We can't go in their direction. So

1:08:37

you're going to go out? Yes. Of

1:08:39

the Citadel? No. Into the

1:08:41

city itself or into the Preserve of the Ancients?

1:08:44

That's my only choice. Let's just go.

1:08:46

Let's go. No, I mean you have infinite choice,

1:08:48

but I was trying to which direction are you going to go? I

1:08:51

don't want to go where they are. I want to like go somewhere.

1:08:53

I want to get in, but

1:08:57

I don't want them to see us because I

1:08:59

want us to be able to explore without the guards

1:09:01

on our tail. Okay, so I'll say

1:09:03

that the entryway has

1:09:07

two exits and it

1:09:09

goes through offices and other things, so you can

1:09:11

lose them or attempt to lose them there.

1:09:13

Okay, let's do that. So you go through that. They're

1:09:16

going one way. You show the Minor Illusion of Shola going

1:09:19

to the left. And then

1:09:21

you're going to say to the party,

1:09:24

let's

1:09:25

go. Follow me. All right.

1:09:27

And you try to go that way. I'm going

1:09:29

to ask for two roles though now because

1:09:31

one is another deception

1:09:35

role to try to see if they will believe this

1:09:38

illusion that is not making a sound and

1:09:40

is going farther

1:09:42

down. So go ahead and roll me a deception roll there.

1:09:47

Okay, good.

1:09:49

So you are able to at least

1:09:51

get them out of this

1:09:53

entryway area and around a corner.

1:09:55

You're out of sight. There are a couple other people milling

1:09:58

about those. So roll me a stealth.

1:09:59

check to see if you

1:10:02

are able to get in without being detected.

1:10:05

Funny. 20, okay, great. All

1:10:08

right, so yeah, you go through and the

1:10:11

group is moving somewhat

1:10:14

hurriedly, slowly. How are

1:10:16

you progressing through these hallways

1:10:18

before you get to the open?

1:10:20

You'll say the equivalent

1:10:22

of walking,

1:10:25

like you have to boop and you're trying to get

1:10:27

to the bathroom. Like not running,

1:10:30

but like kind of stiff walking,

1:10:32

but quickly. On your

1:10:34

toes. Yeah, in the school. Clenching your,

1:10:36

okay, interesting. So

1:10:40

as you're doing that, you catch a glimpse

1:10:43

of some people noting your passing,

1:10:46

right? So a few elves, a

1:10:48

few humans, one

1:10:50

gnome kind of in

1:10:52

these offices as you're passing by. And

1:10:56

I'm gonna see.

1:11:01

Oh, okay, so as

1:11:03

you're kind of going past these offices, the

1:11:08

gnome, a small tiny voice

1:11:10

calls out and says, hey, what are you doing?

1:11:12

Don't you know we're in a lockdown? Yes, that's

1:11:15

what I say. You say yes, hold

1:11:17

up, stop. Can't stop, locking

1:11:19

down. And you keep going? Yes.

1:11:22

Samson is like, wait, wait, wait, no. All

1:11:24

right. And you keep

1:11:27

going and you hear, hey, hey,

1:11:30

wait a second. Okay, I'll stop. What?

1:11:33

We need to find Shola. We're all trying

1:11:35

to find Shola. Well, you're sitting in an

1:11:37

office. Like I don't really know how that's helping.

1:11:39

That's what they told us to do. Why are they,

1:11:41

what do they tell you to do? Somebody

1:11:43

thinks they saw her. So we're looking. Where

1:11:45

are you looking? In the offices.

1:11:48

Like you're. Where we are.

1:11:50

This is highly irregular. I

1:11:53

might have to call someone. Okay, I'm

1:11:55

gonna go up to. Because

1:12:02

I'm a big tabaxi. Yeah. Yeah.

1:12:05

He's looking at you. He's got his hands on his hips being

1:12:07

like, I don't know. Okay. This

1:12:10

makes me laugh. I'm

1:12:14

going up to this little tiny

1:12:16

gnome and I'm going to grab his little

1:12:19

fist. No, you know what I'm going to do?

1:12:21

I'm going to do what my mom used to do to me. I'm going

1:12:23

to take a little pinch on his tricep.

1:12:25

How? No. So

1:12:30

he's holding his hands on his

1:12:32

hips and you go and pinch his tricep? Yes.

1:12:36

All right. First

1:12:38

of all,

1:12:41

I feel like you need to roll

1:12:43

me a... Yeah,

1:12:46

you have to roll me an attack to see if he can get through there

1:12:48

and make that pinch happen. An attack?

1:12:51

Yeah. Just do like an unarmed

1:12:53

attack. So add your dexterity

1:12:56

bonus or your strength bonus, whichever is

1:12:58

more.

1:12:58

Oh, my dexterity bonus

1:13:01

is more. Okay. Now

1:13:03

I feel bad. I kind of wish I didn't do

1:13:05

this. That's why

1:13:07

I love it. Okay.

1:13:10

Roll, roll. And

1:13:12

then 16. Okay.

1:13:15

So

1:13:15

yeah, you go out and you rinse and you

1:13:17

pinch the skin

1:13:20

on his... Oh God, I hate this so much. Roll

1:13:25

3d8 psychic damage. No,

1:13:29

I don't want to. And

1:13:33

he goes, ow,

1:13:35

you monster. I was close to the list.

1:13:40

And he's basically

1:13:42

thrown up a hue and cry and you

1:13:45

start to hear voices and people coming to

1:13:48

your position. Do I really have to roll my

1:13:51

psychic damage? Sure. I

1:13:54

just think psychic damage is what that pinch would

1:13:56

do. Total.

1:14:00

Oh my God, he's on the ground. He's

1:14:02

like, I can't move. It

1:14:04

hurts so much. That's

1:14:07

a little dramatic. I am dramatic.

1:14:11

I pick him up. Can I just pick him up? Yeah.

1:14:14

And then he's like, ow. I

1:14:17

cradle him like a baby. I'm just a bureaucrat.

1:14:21

OK, well, we're going to

1:14:22

be. And then we'll pick it up next time as you're holding

1:14:25

and cradling this very loud, crying

1:14:27

gnome man, and more

1:14:29

people are coming to you.

1:14:30

Oh gosh, I

1:14:32

keep making mistakes. I love it,

1:14:34

though. It's so good. Till

1:14:38

next time.

1:14:39

All right.