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The Fandom Portals Podcast
So you want to play D&D? Personal Growth in Role-Playing Worlds with Mitchell "Modbrew" Svensk from Among Mates D&D
What if a game could change the way you see yourself and connect you with like-minded individuals? Today, we have a special guest, Mitchell Svensk, also known as Modbrew, who has dedicated his life to creating inclusive and welcoming Dungeons & Dragons communities. We discuss the transformative power of D&D in personal expression, share delightful stories of introducing our children to the magic of tabletop gaming, and celebrate the vibrant content creators who enrich our gaming experiences. This conversation is a heartfelt homage to the bonds forged over dice and imagination.
From the excitement of co-op gameplay to the nuanced narratives of single-player adventures, we reflect on how our gaming journeys have evolved. We dive into the resurgence of our passion for gaming with titles like Baldur's Gate 3, the camaraderie built through Among Us, and the profound personal revelations discovered in Dungeons & Dragons. These stories illustrate the incredible connections and insights that emerge from shared virtual and tabletop worlds, highlighting how games can be a mirror to our true selves.
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Mitchell "Modbrew" Svensk
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Hello everybody and welcome to Fandom Portals podcast, where curiosity meets community in a celebration of all things geek. We build connections on every episode by delving into your favorite fandom questions and the time it takes you to fold your laundry. Now I'm your host, aaron Davies, and today I had the really awesome experience of interviewing somebody by the name of Mitchell Svenske, also known around the online communities as Modbrew. Now, if you've had the pleasure of running into Modbrew online, you may have found him on an Among Us server, or you may have played some TTRPGs or Dungeons and Dragons games with him. He prides himself on creating inclusive communities for all of the people that want to play D&D, which is his major passion at the moment, and he is a very, very, very knowledgeable man when it comes to all the different sorts of systems of play, but also he's very knowledgeable on what it takes to create that welcoming sort of community and what Dungeons Dragons can do for an individual in terms of allowing them to express themselves. So, talking to Mitchellitchell or mod brew, I was able to and I hope you from the interview also gather some tips and tricks that you might find when you're looking for a dungeons and dragons community to play with and throughout the episode as well. We also connected over fostering a love of gaming in our children, but also connecting with others through other forms of games, including our first gaming experiences and being able to connect with those tabletop RPG moments from your games and talking about them as if they're a memory from real life. Now, mod is also a very insightful man and our chemistry was really good when we were talking through this episode. It felt like we could have talked for hours and hours and hours about all these kinds of things, because it's a passion, interest for both of us and I really hope you enjoy the interview. It was a pleasure to be able to talk to such a knowledgeable and also passionate guy and I probably will end up interviewing him again passionate guy and I probably will end up interviewing him again Towards the end of the episode as well.
Speaker 1:We also start to talk about some of the content creators that you might like to go and look at if you are interested in starting up some D&D, because a lot of them also run their own communities. So in the show notes below you should see some links to some amazing creators that you can go and explore and just see if you can engage in their communities as well, because there's lots of great Dungeons Dragons players out there and lots of people that are wanting to welcome you into the fandom. So if that's something that you're looking for, this is the episode for you. Stick around at the end to see who those creators are and also make sure you go and check them out from the show notes.
Speaker 1:So, without any further ado, let's jump into the interview with Mitchell Svenske, aka Modbrew. Let's get a roaring welcome for the man whose creativity knows no bounds. He's an avid TTRPG player. He's beloved on lots of Discord servers and communities. His kindness and his high energy is well known throughout the D&D space. He's a proud father, a gamer and, most importantly, this man is a friend, the one and only. Mitchell, aka Modbrew, or Mod.
Speaker 2:Yo Hang on my man. Good to see you.
Speaker 3:I honestly, halfway through that intro it was getting so good. I was like there's going to be a special guest and I started looking behind me. Then I so good. I was like there's gonna be a special guest and I started looking behind me. Then I realized you don't know where I live, but there was no way you're gonna sneak in behind me. So I'm so excited to be here. I'm a big fan of the valiant odyssey podcast. I'm a big fan of your accents. I'm mainly here just to get some uh lessons on how to do.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah man, it's um, it comes from a big, big history of just watching tv and parroting lines on tv from characters, and I don't think I did it intentionally, to the point where I think I actually annoyed my family doing it. So if I, if I watched something on tv, for example, let's say, like pirates of the caribbean, have you seen that part where the uh, the crusty barnacle guys, like part of the ship, part of the crew, uh, he sucks himself back into the wall? He's like part of the ship, part of the crew. And I just said that walking through the hallways of my house all the time. Surely just imagine that at night time, it's just no, thank you. Oh, that's how it got good. So terrifying the uh. The price is obviously, um, you know, losing some friends and family because of annoyance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, but the thing is that, um, I don't think anyone would have family because of annoyance yeah, no, but the thing is that I don't think anyone would have left because of that. Because voices are always fun. Any of my friends that do voices, I kept them around. The ones that didn't, I got rid of them, just dead weight.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why I'm here you know, Exactly right you don't do such a bad voice yourself, though I've played some TTRPGs with you.
Speaker 3:Your accents go, all right, I like my voices go. I do the Aussie Bogan, I do like the Bogan English guard, you know, just like a the Cockney. The Cockney, yeah, just nice dumb low IQ. So basically, any country low IQ, I can do. That's sort of my wheelhouse.
Speaker 1:What about if you've ever played the Fable games? There's always just that that villager sort of accent that everybody kind of does yes yeah, I know, into a shop I think that's what I modeled off.
Speaker 3:I model off that and also monty python, like bring out your dad.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's the way yeah, god, they're so good. I know they're really good. So let's get into some questions. I guess because we sort of started to have a chat and talk about. We discussed that we were going to have a talk about, you know, our love of gaming, fostering that love of gaming in a community and with our kids as well, and also growing up with gaming in the 80s and the 90s. Yeah, I know for sure that when I was growing up, I think I got my first console when I was about six. It was a Sega Mega Drive. Rose, what's your earliest memory of gaming?
Speaker 3:Earliest memory was our rich neighbor across the road had an Atari, so when it came out he got pitfalls. So that was pretty impressive. But four years before that my parents, for work purposes, got a computer and on it it had chess called chessexe. So absolutely no frills there. And there was also a game called Target where all it was was was a picture would pop up on the screen. There would either be a guy with a gun or a girl screaming and you had to click on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you had to click, obviously, the gun wielder. Yeah, it wasn't made in.
Speaker 3:Black, where it was like little girl in the ghetto reading advanced quantum physics books. Yeah, those books are way too advanced for her. No, that guy was sneezing.
Speaker 1:Yep and he got the job. That's thinking outside the box. I loved that too.
Speaker 3:Oh dude, such a good movie. Yeah, the only way the movie could be better is if they re-released it. And when he pulled that, tommy Lee Jones walked out and slapped him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would have been great. You know, I think if they did that in this day and age they probably would, because you know, oh so much has changed between movies then and movies now, and same as gaming as well, like gaming then and gaming now. So I I obviously remember the sega megadrive being like a side scrolling kind of kind of game.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, lion King Aladdin, did you ever play Golden?
Speaker 1:Axe.
Speaker 3:Oh Golden.
Speaker 2:Axe.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that's where my love of fantasy kind of really sort of kicked off. It sort of planted the seed that would later be ignited and watered by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. No, that's fair enough. Yeah, so like Golden Axe is, if you don't know it to the listeners, golden Axes if you don't know it to the listeners. It's a side-scrolling game where you can pick one of three characters. You have a barbarian, you have a female sorcerer who's also kind of like a warrior princess as well, and then there's like a little dwarven battlesmith basically, and you run around through the different levels and one of them's on the back of an eagle, one of them's on the back of a turtle, and you're basically going on this quest to find the golden axe.
Speaker 1:And I just remember some of the respite parts in between levels where you you'd find there's a little that guy with a little sack bag that's it, yeah, yeah, ingrained in the memory and you do like it sounds mean, but you'd go along and you'd kick that guy and he'd give you all the loot. So and then you get potions and throw up the potions. But you know those those sorts of simple side scrolling games. There was no grinding, it was just a quest and it was actually the first like cult game that I that was an amazing game like that.
Speaker 3:I will tell you a game that I. I put golden right up there just under its battle toads. Oh right, I've played battle toads. Battle toads is like double dragon but, and like golden act, except they got the combat to a point where it was really cool and then the stages are basically like space, sort of like 80s techno manga, battletoads fighting in Technicolor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's basically the next Golden Axe. It's really cool, yeah, but Golden Axe was right at the top. That was a great game, and just above that was Cyber Dogs.
Speaker 1:Mate, there's two I haven't heard of. I pretty much dove in at Golden Axe, and you know how I'm probably different now as well, but when you're a kid you had like one game and you played the absolute crap out of it because that was what you had, and you didn't have access to it. The only way I played different games was when we went to the video store the Blockbuster or the Video Easy and you got the games for the weekend or the night, or whatever, Isn't it?
Speaker 3:amazing. You used to rent a game overnight for like $6.50. Yep, and that was back when $6.50 was like and that was your allowance man, that was your pocket money. Well, yeah, yeah, to put things in context, when I started working, uh, as an apprentice, I got paid four dollars, nine an hour, bro. So that's extortion a full hour's work plus a bit would get me an overnight video game so.
Speaker 1:But you know, you'd probably pump as many hours into that game in that overnight space and that's basically how our generation learned to not sleep at nighttime, all because of Video. Easy Sleeping is for the Wii Well, especially when you've got games to play. But yeah, they even used to do a PC game that you have to install on your computer overnight and then take back. And obviously we had the family computer and, yeah, my father wasn't impressed with the amount of games that would just go on there all the time.
Speaker 3:We never had that come out and I'd never saw a PC game that you could hire. That's great.
Speaker 1:This was in sort of Wollongong area near around Sydney, but I remember that's the first time I ever played the Star Wars pod racing game. That's great. Yeah yeah man, that was a banger. That was a good game.
Speaker 3:That was a really good game. I actually really enjoyed that. That was right up there I actually saw someone playing it on Twitch recently.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think I did too, and you know how some people have the Formula One car setup that they have and they drive around on that Formula One sort of car setup.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This guy actually had the Anakin podracer sort of built in with the screen in front of him. He was doing the gears and everything like that and it was two fans at the top of him sort of blowing on on him, so he felt like he was really in it.
Speaker 3:But listen, if that guy's got a relationship.
Speaker 1:You know he wears the pants yeah, or that's like his weekend, like the olden days, you know, but yeah, yeah, I wish man it'd be nice, you know sorry, I'm just chopping your camera, so you look prettier.
Speaker 1:There you go there we go no that's fine, whatever you need to do, but I, I think like we've been talking about all these older sort of games and for me, the golden axe sort of really sort of fed into my love of rpgs, which then fed into my love of TTRPGs, which is how we actually sort of met each other through a tabletop RPG. So what sort of allowed you to move from that transition into gaming? Was TTRPGs your first dive into role-playing?
Speaker 3:TTRPGs came really late in life for me. I actually was having a grand old time doing everything else We've spoken about this but ADHD. So basically my life consisted of sports, craziness, drama, drinking. I was the one that threw the parties at my school. I was the one that threw parties for my marching band. Oh, I was in a marching band, I was in jazz bands. Like my day didn't end until like nine or ten at night most nights, and then I played computer and then I'd be up at five doing other stupid stuff. Uh, so I I was away with military when I was about 34 and I was talking to my friend luke and ross and that who will actually be on my stream on Monday, and when I was gone away throwing a buck night for three guys that were getting married.
Speaker 3:When we got home in a penthouse thing we rented, with bulls and strippers and everything, it was just the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. Apparently, when I spent $10,000 in like one weekend, they stayed on base and save their money and play D and D and I'd had no idea. And then eventually, after years of me partying and then playing, they're like hey, would you like to play with us? And I was like I've never heard of this game before. I'm a music drama singing like gamer that used to play Warhammer. How is this not on my radar? I didn't even know it existed. Yeah, yeah, and I fell in love and I will throw in my quote here. I normally do it at the start of my stream, although I'm late to the game. I will say it's a Chinese proverb the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but the second best time is right now.
Speaker 2:So as soon as I found it.
Speaker 1:I planted that tree and I've been building my skills ever since, yeah, you've been watering that tree every day and I can attest to that too, because you have like a YouTube channel that you do and you also have been on a lot of people's YouTube channels, including Luke, the guy that you were talking about before. Yes, you and I play frequently on the Crit and Miss community server.
Speaker 2:It absolutely is.
Speaker 1:Yeah and that's kind of leading me to my next question For D&D, I think the appeal for me not only was the fact that you're obviously escaping into these imaginary worlds and you get to build all these characters that are know, really, you exploring different parts of yourself, but it was also really fun to explore that with friends and explore that with community and community building and hearkening back to when we're talking about the, the gaming experience. My earliest love of these games was how cool the games were, but it was also playing with my, my brothers and just like co-oping through a level and beating that challenge together. You know that's what gaming is all about to me, and to the point where when I started to play solo, I kind of lost a bit of interest in gaming. But you know that come back because lots of studios now are making amazing single player story games.
Speaker 3:I stand with you. Then I stand with you, like my biggest issue, like Baldur's, gate 3 is the greatest game ever made. I cannot believe how good it is. I still haven't finished the first act because I struggle to play it on my own, because I've played it with you, I've played it with other people. It was so much fun playing it with people. And then, as soon as I'm playing it by myself, I'm like did you see? Did you see that?
Speaker 2:there's nobody, maybe I should record it.
Speaker 1:Maybe you should stream it so someone gets to enjoy it with me yeah, that's exactly it, and and that all comes down to the absolute crux of like dungeons and dragons and games like baldur's gate 3 it's the people that you play with in the community that you build. So we mentioned before the Crit and Miss community and some of the different sort of gaming communities that you've been a part of. You started as an Among Us gaming community, correct? Can you talk to us about what that was, but also what it was to build that community and what do you think makes a good gaming community so?
Speaker 3:the way it all happened was I started playing. I got introduced to Among Us by a few friends playing it. I got into it. I started playing it late at night for extended periods of time and made random friends on the internet, which branched into meeting the developers of the game Nice on the internet. Which branched into meeting the developers of the game Nice who then, just randomly, I got invited to play with people online, some bigger people, and they gave me early access to the next edition, next release. So I was playing on the dev mode before it all released, which was amazing. I ended up playing.
Speaker 3:I got to kill Thorpe once and I played against sycuna as well. Uh, unfortunately the sycuna one was not a uh voice one, but it was one of those ones where it got verified later that it was him by watching him on stream. But, um, yeah, it was, it was good. It was good. The thing that got me was I loved it so much.
Speaker 3:I love the concept of and I'll come back to D&D with this the thing I loved about Among Us is the more you played it with your friends, the better you knew them and the better the game got, because the thing that binds all these games together DTRPG, murder, mystery, board games is when you're playing the player, not the game, and I'm not saying like that, like D&D, you have to win. Games is when you're playing the player, not the game, and I'm not saying like that, like dnd, you have to win. But when you're playing a card game, when you're playing among us, you're trying to manipulate the situation to your favor, but you're also not trying to be an asshole. So it's like a really amazing social experiment in a 10 minute packet yep.
Speaker 3:And if you repeat that 200 times, all of a sudden, any movement you make, it's like playing poker. Any movement you make, any eye contact, any lack of a response, becomes an admission of guilt that you are the one yep, and it gets. And then it gets more intense and we were playing with like six different types of killers and all the different normal modes and engineers and psychics. And it got to the point where, like our relationships had gone so far that I was really enjoying it. So I started. I decided to myself, like we need to add some stakes. Yeah, so I started running a competition Very cool when we'd actually have set things we'd do and different, and it just it got lots of fun and it built and built, and built and the thing that actually ended it was that people started really getting aggressive, trying to get spots on the stream and I sort of said listen, guys, like I wish you well. I don't want to spend time fighting with my friends and arguing about things that you know, as long as we all get a share.
Speaker 3:But I was a bit sad. But going back to dnd and ttrpgs, the reason I love them isn't because they hide, like a lot of people say that, in ttrpgs. You hide in them and you hide in your character and you live in a different world, while that is technically true, that you are in another world and it's different rules, I actually think, because I've got a thing, that I say a lot, but it wasn't until I met my wife that I really felt that anybody was hearing me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's beautiful man, that is really beautiful.
Speaker 3:You've got to marry the right person. Man, I'm stealing that. It literally was using that line. Yeah, it was. Just I'd been talking my whole life and not, like most people, take what you say and then hear it through their lens and think you say a different thing or that you meant a different thing.
Speaker 3:It's very hard to understand people, I think, with dnd, when you're playing a character and then you play another character and you play another character. Every character always has truth based in from your personality, from your values, from the things that make you unique, and they will always travel through. And it's one of those things that I feel you truly get to know someone when you spend time learning about the way they see other characters. Because if you were to portray me or I was to portray you, there were parts of your character that would come out in my portrayal of you, but there would also be things that you could see that are coming straight from me. Yeah, be things that you could see that are coming straight from me. Yeah, so it's that. It's that bit that comes through the filter. That, I think, is the most truest part of a human's love, happiness, like it's a real connection that you can grab hold of and you can really spot the one in a million people when they start role-playing, because a lot of those things start to shine and it's why some of the most famous TTRPG players every character they have you fall in love with. It's because they're a genuine person inside and they've got a certain spirit that you adapt to, that you like and as they're playing characters, it keeps exuding out, even when they're trying to play something else, and it's one of those things that I don't like to blurt it out, because a lot of people like to hide behind the idea of their disappearing.
Speaker 3:But I think what D&D is and this is why I want to talk to Ali about this stuff is a lot of D&D. For me is actually like therapy, allowing people to be themselves, because that's something I've never struggled with. I was the kid that, like I loved, struggled with. I was the kid that, like I, loved basketball, and I was the only kid that played basketball until like year nine and I played on my own if I had to because I loved it so much. I was in marching bands, I was in choirs, I did everything that I was told guys aren't meant to do, but then I also did the guy stuff if I wanted to yeah.
Speaker 1:So it was like I think that's really, really insightful and also the the truest sort of form of yourself that you're sort of playing as you go through these characters.
Speaker 1:I definitely agree, because I know myself and I've played some characters.
Speaker 1:The characters that I've played when, when I'm going through something in my life for example and I remember this because one of the first times I ever got to play as a player because I'm always a dm whenever the first, one of the first times I ever got to play as a player because I'm always a DM, one of the first times I got to play as a player, it was because I needed to step away from DMing for a while and the character that I played was this grizzled old paladin that had basically just stepped completely away from his order due to a moral reason and he was just shunning the world, and I thought that was the character I wanted to play.
Speaker 1:At the time I didn't really want to dive too much into it, but then, looking back on it now in retrospect, I'm like I think I was actually going through something there and then through that game I was able to connect with the other players through the game and then connect to their characters open up, as my character find that, hey, these are some friends that I can hang out with and go on through that way, and it's that game of D&D that helps you, that community, that sort of ties you together and finding those good players and those people you can do that with is really valuable and really it's irreplaceable, which is why I think the crew that are at the the crit and miss server is is really good to play with, because everybody there that I've played with has been an absolutely amazing experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and like that's exactly right, like the like you go through things with them. Um, one of my sorry, before we go too far away from golden axe, I just I was going to mention before sorry, I'm going to jump back.
Speaker 3:This is my adhd. Oh yeah, that's all right, I'm with you, man, I'm with you. So, uh, when we're talking about golden axe and we talked about the little elf, yep, the first time I ever dm'd was for my brother, blue, who was my um first dm of third edition, so he was technically my first dm. Jr, who was my first dm of fifth edition. So literally my brother, who was my first one shot, and my first two dms were my, and then my best friend, jerem, who I grew up with, like from the age well, one of my two best friends that I grew up with, sort of thing and and literally was those four at a table and we were doing a module for about, I want to say, 40 minutes and I was like screw that, that's boring.
Speaker 3:And we went into some crazy thing and as they're walking out to go to a quest, they had a rest and then the person on watch rolled a 20 for perception and I was like you hear some music and you did it and, yeah, a little leprechaun with like a big sack over his shoulder started running around and I was like it looks like there's gold or something and they're trying to chase it and one of them kicked it and health potions flew out. Did any of them?
Speaker 1:get the reference. Did any of them get the gold notes?
Speaker 3:At the time, no. One get the gold at the time. No one of them just wanted to kick it because he thought it'd be funny to kick a left. That is the right thing to do, because the game taught us that. You know, I think it was built in from history that that's what he wanted to do. But it wasn't until afterwards I was like, did you get that? And they're like, oh, I just wanted to kick the little guy.
Speaker 1:But yeah, now I'm with your gold knife is awesome. I get it now. Yeah, no, I, I fully agree. Like Now I need to put one of that little guy in my campaign and just have him rolling around as an ongoing gag.
Speaker 3:It's really fun and it's even good if you make it like a thing that happens once they get a magic item. But you have it, so you actually have music Because you play in real life. You don't have to draw on your phone or something. Yeah, yeah, but for me I'd just have it loaded to that Like if I wanted to play it, I could just click the button and it would play the music. Yeah, and then you don't do it for a while, so they're all going to rest and they're all like Is it going to happen? I think that would.
Speaker 1:Every single time there would be a rest after that. You just Someone would ask.
Speaker 2:They'd be like is is the leprechaun here it creates that moment, you know, are we gonna get a level?
Speaker 1:yes, I have dark vision, which is if you're listening to this and you're playing dungeons and dragons. We know, we know you have dark vision.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100%, we know I had a conversation about dark vision with uh fizz, who's in chat, the other day. Yeah, because we're talking about dnd and dark vision and the mechanics of it, which is honestly the biggest nightmare I've ever dealt. I like the way you deal with it in your games, because you barely deal with it. You sort of you talk about it being dark and you might do a disadvantage here and there, but like you make it like a real light, which is how I think you know in dnd rules if there's a guy carrying a torch 200 feet away and he's walking, waving, waving it around, going shoot me, you can see that guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can see that guy, but in D&D, if you're in the shade under a bush, technically you're in darkness and you're going to shoot with disadvantage at the guy. But yeah, so the yeah, I think the first character I ever played was actually it was just after my son was born and I think the first character I ever played was actually it was just after my son was born and I think it was like I was working through a lot because I was really struggling with having kids, because the like I loved my kids and I love my wife and everything was good, but the concept I'd been carefree and absolutely no fear of death, I used to do cliff jumping and absolutely ridiculous things when I was younger.
Speaker 1:I agree, man, I'm 100% there with you. Same thing when I had my son. You immediately get that fear of the end, but also pending responsibility, because that little thing is relying on you for everything. Yeah, 100%, I'm with you.
Speaker 3:And yeah, it's one of those things it built up. I got scared and then my first character was literally a celestial warlock that was raised in a cult, and the second that he sacrificed his son was when he realized that he was in a cult and he couldn't take it back. And then he made a pact and basically, as I was going through in Adventure League, basically to achieve his goal, he had to do a certain amount of good in the world to make up for what his son would have done. Yep, because you know, son, infinite possibilities. And basically I was counting all the healing points I did throughout and it was like, basically every time he healed people, he was scarring himself and all this horrible shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It was like this full big thing, but it was basically dealing with like the concept of my life being worth less than my wife and my children and like how can you?
Speaker 1:and so it was this really deep thing that I was working through and I was really struggling with, and by the time I finished that character, I was much more comfortable being who I was or you at least approached it in a different way, or in a in an enlightened way, I guess, because you were able to explore that sort of fear that you had in a sort of safe manner, with friends around the table too. And I can definitely absolutely relate, because becoming a father for me was life-changing, both mentally. You have to mature very, very quickly. Oh yeah, the drive home from the hospital. Yeah, that's exactly how long it takes. How do I drive again? Yeah, the speed limit's 60. I know, I know. Why are these maniacs doing 60? It's a 60 zone, that's it.
Speaker 1:And I think I I have put in npcs as forever dm, but also played potential characters that have just protective instincts, because that just exudes from me now as well I feel like I have these strong protective instincts and I just need to display that and it's almost like automatic, and you can probably attest to that too yeah, the um, I will say, the uh, most horrific thing.
Speaker 3:And, like I like for me my life sort of started when I had kids. Like, up until that point I literally could have died and it I wouldn't have cared, like it wouldn't have been something that I was worried about there's absolutely no fear. And it wasn't until I started dealing with the concept of life and eternal life and religion and all that sort of stuff, where I got to the point like this is how it works, and now I'm actually really comfortable with the whole concept. But it was one of those things where I was what's the word I was searching for All of a sudden, I was searching for answers I'd never considered before.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, back in the day I wore a communist hat. Back in the day I did all that stupid stuff, yeah. And then all of a sudden I started understanding that, like, first of all, for the people out there, children aren't for everyone. It's not something you should force people to do. Children are an amazing gift, but if it's not that time, or it's not happening, or you're not trying to, sometimes there's other ways about it and there's other paths in life where you can do a lot more about it and there's other paths in life where you can do a lot more.
Speaker 3:The thing that I wanted to say is I see children very much almost like religion and I count it like a force multiplier. So like for me the worst day of my life before I had kids, like if I, if I had a test coming up that I hadn't studied for and I was sick and my girlfriend left me and my dog died, if all those things happened and that was the worst possible thing that could happen to me. Now that seems like a walk in the park compared to a child being sick and not knowing what to do because all of a sudden it's not just you feeling like a kid.
Speaker 3:You're looking at something, feeling so goddamn helpless you don't know what to do. But on the plus side of that, the less serious side and sorry, I know this isn't a dad cast, but it's one- of those things that I'll take the opportunity to spread the knowledge.
Speaker 1:I like that this is moving in a fluid sort of direction. It's good.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, on the plus side of that, a lot of people walk around and talk and they don't think about it much and they just do their job and they crack on. The first time you see your child walk, I can guarantee you it's better than graduating high school, it's better than graduating uni, it's better than getting a promotion, but anything like that it is the best thing. When your child starts playing sport and they bounce their knee and you you know it's part of it, you're like every single thing you get to read it. It kind of reminds you how amazing life is.
Speaker 1:I heard a quote from somebody. Sorry to interrupt.
Speaker 2:I heard a quote from somebody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard this thing that they said when you have kids and you're watching them grow, it's like you're watching them live for the first time, but you are reliving through their eyes. So I remember the way that my son first reacted when he went on grass. I was like I've walked on grass a thousand times and I've never stopped to notice it. But they kind of make you appreciate the little things as well. Yeah, because he was just enamored by grass and he'd pull it all apart and you'd see what was underneath it. And he has the finest detail for just things that he can find, and they're things I would just usually skip over. So they, they really open your eyes to things and yeah, it's, it's definitely life-changing yeah, sometimes my kids say stuff and it just there are things that I can't.
Speaker 1:I can't watch in movies anymore because I think about how that would impact me as a father, or me as, or the child that is going through that hard thing, like I used to be able to watch anything and just just take it in my stride no, that that's one of those things like, as soon as the child's involved, we're turning it off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so yeah, it's one of those things where, um, it does change your whole outlook on life and, like you know, I'd I'd experienced anger before. But you know, uh, kids will drive you up the wall, but, uh, they'll also make you happier than you've ever been.
Speaker 1:So it's one of those things. Let's let's swing this sort of talk of fatherhood back into the direction of ttrpgs and stuff, because we were talking as well about how, how you can foster a good community, obviously in your t, your TTRPG space. The godfather of D&D yeah, I think that obviously. I don't know if you probably have, but mine are too young at the moment to play D&D with your children. So let's talk about how you can make a welcoming game for any fathers or mothers out there that want to introduce children to D&D. And then after that, let's chat about what people can look for, even if you have kids or you don't. Let's talk about what you might look for when you're actually trying to find a D&D community to play with, and what are some things you might want to look out for. So let's dive into that sort of area.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about first your… I will say thank you for keeping me on task, because I will drift with the wind buddy, what advice would you give for mothers or fathers that are looking to introduce their children to dungeon the dragons? This is a simple one a ttrpg um.
Speaker 3:So the best way to do it is like for me it was really easy because I was once or twice a week I was going downstairs to play dnd. My kids obviously were like, oh, I wish I could. I could play D&D. You know, because they want to be part of what dad's doing and you know, if we go play sports they want to play sports. So talking about D&D in front of them and TTRPGs and games in front of them does help them be able to understand the concept of you're going to do something fun and the way you approach. It is good.
Speaker 3:If you don't have that um, then just playing a game with dolls and stuff, you can bring them to the idea of rolling dice so you can roll dice, make decisions. The way I went about it was as soon as um, they were both like what are you doing? What is dnd? I was like let me show you. And we sat down at a table and I sort of said what's your favorite thing? And at the time my daughter's favorite thing was elsa uh, from frozen for those people that don't have kids. So let it go.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, they would have heard that. They would have heard that uh and my son's with dinosaurs. So I sat down and said, okay, uh, you can play a um ice sorceress princess and you can play a druid, so you can turn into any dinosaur you want. And basically I just said, okay, your crown got taken by those people over there and you're gonna have to go get them, but to do that, and basically I just made up a little character sheet, I got rid of everything, yeah, and basically it can be daunting yeah, I didn't want to put a character sheet in front of them, I just said, hey, listen, hold on to this.
Speaker 3:Like you get this die and this die. When you want to do something, uh, magical or powerful, you roll this die and that'll be like attacking, defending all that stuff. And when you want to do something you know where you think about things and see things and learn things, it'll be this die. So I just kept it to two dies like brains and brawn or magic. And then we walked down the jungle path and then rolled some perception didn't attack and I was actually so blown away Like Logan was just straight away into like I want to turn into a T-Rex and rip that guy's head off. But my daughter was, like she ran into the middle and I said, oh, no watch out, like they're shooting an arrow at you.
Speaker 3:They're about to oh, they've just launched a giant arrow at you. They're about to oh, they've just launched a giant arrow at you. They're about to hit you and she's like can I do it? So when it hits me and like I shatter, and then behind me you see that that was like, not me, it was like an ice sculpture.
Speaker 1:That is good imagination.
Speaker 3:She was like six years old at the time and I was like there, my daughter just cast ice clone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's so goddamn cool and yeah, it was unreal. And like, you know, can I do this? And like I kept it that they froze the bad guys and like, yeah, you know when, when logan making it pg, yeah, when logan ate them as a dinosaur. He then pooed them out and they were okay, yeah, um, yeah, and they were just asleep and they, so there was a whole and they were stuck in the poo. So there was a whole heap of frozen people going help unfreeze us and a whole heap of people covered in poo going help we're stuck in poo.
Speaker 1:I don't know which bandit I'd rather be. To be honest, I'd go with the frozen, I'd go.
Speaker 3:no, I actually know that physical damage as well. Like in real life, that would suck, but in the game I'd go frozen.
Speaker 1:You know what in the game I'd probably go poo, yeah, just because it's funny.
Speaker 3:Walk into a tavern and say I've been swallowed and eaten by a dinosaur and I survived, hey that's like the witcher, yeah in the witchery does that walks out, exactly, but no, um, so basically making it something along the lines they're already interested in. One thing that I found really easy, uh, to do it the next times is I got my kids involved in the um kids stories podcast, which is a ninja series about the valley town ninjas, done by paul bechamel or something. Um, we'll put the link in the show notes I'll send it to you.
Speaker 3:But, um, very, very cool, cool story and it's basically the concept. Once they liked those characters, I could sort of play the game with them and even use some of the bad guys from his stories, and we just kept it simple. Other people Luke did get his daughter straight into D&D, like with the character sheet, but Luke and I play very different D&D so that makes a lot more sense for him because he's actually a lot more structured and reasonable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's the thing about D&D as well. It can be played lots of different ways and enjoyed lots of different ways. But I think to recap what you were saying, first of all, obviously, communication, talking to them about games. Second of all, you actually role played playing dnd, like with the toys and the dice and things like that. So you role play is a big part of dnd, but you also role played playing the role playing game, yeah, yeah. And then third, get rid of the, the nuts and bolts, keep the essential essentials, character-limits for the first few things. And fourthly, obviously just pique their interest with their interests.
Speaker 3:Well-known stories. Stories are the key to everything in life If you want to do marketing, if you want to do sales, if you want to get a kid to do the dishes stories. That's why the Bible is effective. That's why Valiant Odyssey podcast is effective.
Speaker 1:We're a narrative podcast. That's why the Bible is effective. That's why Valiant Odyssey podcast is effective. We're a narrative podcast. That's exactly right. But yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Hitting those four steps is a really good way to introduce your kids to some tabletop RPGs. And they might like it and they might not, but at least you tried.
Speaker 3:That's the dream, but yeah, so that's the best way to do it a, uh, a dungeons and dragons community.
Speaker 1:So, if you're a player looking for somewhere to play, or what are some of the things you should look for in a community? Because, as we said, it can be very vulnerable. It can be a place where you are expressing different parts of your personality, whether you intend to or not. So what do you look for? And then also, what are some red flags, what are the D&D community red flags that tell you to swipe the other way, okay.
Speaker 3:So I think one of the first things you want to do is you want to realize what you want to play for. If you're the sort of player that just wants to have a close, intimate group and play with them, that's perfectly fine. And if you have people around your house, around your location, there's Adventure League. I actually, when I first started D&D, no one around me played. So I'd actually go to Adventure League and I would look for the kids that were getting dropped off by their parents and just left there and they didn't talk to anyone. They just sat there quietly until the game started. Then they'd put their hand up and sit there quietly and I'd grab those kids and put them in a game and I'd run the DM and then I'd try and make them into friends. And if they're nervous, I'd be like princess, please, and really palm up their character and try and get them involved in friendship groups, because I think in-person friends are really important.
Speaker 3:But, failing that, going online and finding a community I would say finding a like you can go on the group search things like roll 20 and that have paid to play, and that sort of thing I honestly think the best way to go about it is to go on Twitch and search Aussie D&D, ptrpg and watch a few and talk to people in chat. This is actually how I found out about Sven from Crit and Miss Yep same as me, same as you and that's actually how I found about Valiant Odyssey podcast from Sven. He said that you do the podcast and you do a drawing thing on Twitch. So I actually signed into that and started chatting to you and then I worked my way until I'm here and I got behind the screen. I played you like a fiddle.
Speaker 2:You fool, it's all been for this, it's all been for this.
Speaker 1:Like I've probably played more TTRPGs with you and that crew than anybody else now, so it worked.
Speaker 3:We're drawn to each other, so it's all right.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 3:But like it's one of those things that talking to people in the chat about the game you're watching, so go to it's Fate's Grip podcast. Reddit GM DeadHozzyGamer. He has an amazing podcast set in like modern times with modern times with werebears and stuff as cops. It's honestly one of the best.
Speaker 1:What's that one called? We'll put that in the show notes. I believe it's called.
Speaker 3:Eberron PD, but I'll find the exact name for it, but it's under Dead Aussie Gamer and I'll send it through to you. It's really good and they've got some really funny like he does the GMing and the people in it are just hilarious. So it's a full season of that and it's basically buddy cop drama, so yeah, and it's like a lawful paladin and so good. But yeah, so talking to people in the Twitches and actually say, hey, I've never played before, where do you guys play, and just be open and honest about what you want to do, and most people will say, hey, I've never played before, where do you guys play? And just be open and honest about what you want to do, and most people will say, hey, I've got a Discord.
Speaker 3:Like I know, I've invited 20, 30 people to Sven's Discord at Crit and Miss.
Speaker 3:I've got an Among Mates Discord, but that was mainly for Among Us, so I don't really invite people there for D&D too often. But it's one of those things where you reach out and then while you're in that community, you reach out again. So through Sven, I've played with you. I've played weekly with Mark Mark actually did World Render today Mark Hillman and Fizz Elric Jason, and those guys have been playing together for like a year and a half now weekly and I didn't know them a year and a half ago, sort of thing, like it just randomly ended up joining in, which was so I think, as as before communication, communicate your intent, like hey, I'm looking for a group, I'm Australian, I'm a good person and like one of the quickest way to get into a game is say I've never played before. I love D&D, I've never known anyone that runs it. Do you know anyone? And like I reckon 50 of the people I know would go, I'll run a game for you yeah in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I think they're. You'd probably flooded with requests to the point where you'd have to choose yeah, and that'd be the tricky part uh, just quickly, um, regarding dnd communities, um, they can be so important and I actually had a?
Speaker 3:um, amazing breakthrough. Uh, the other week I was watching I believe it was the dms layer, one of the youtube channels and they were talking about running uh, when you run a game in a sandbox world and they were talking about if you try and make the world too realistic and you're making it Because you know how, in life, shit always happens Like we were going to stream, oh yeah, and then my kids wouldn't go to bed and we started like 45 minutes late because of my shit, exactly, okay yeah, which I apologize for, like everyone that's watching this on recording.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry I was late, it's my fault If you're watching this like 20 years from now just know that on this date Mod was late, I was late, and on most days.
Speaker 3:Mod is late, but it's one of those things that I was a little bit uh. I sort of was watching the show and I talked about how, if you don't give direction, even though you make the world so realistic because it's so realistic and it's hard to determine what the most important part of the storyline is they get pcs will freeze crippled paralysis yeah decision paralysis.
Speaker 3:They won't know what to do. And I flash back to halfway through a campaign I based. They started complaining like why won't know what to do? And I flashed back to halfway through a campaign I based, they started complaining like why won't you let us leave nicodranas? Because I'd made up. I started off. What is it? It's our explorer's guide to wild mount. Yeah, so I started them. There's a level one mission in nicodranas on an island and it sinks and there's some sahagran or whatever the fish people are that attack you. So we started off with that and then it just turned into this big bullshit. There was a death race involved where there's like it was like pod racing but everyone had like mecha zords and like giant tanks and shit and a kuma like people drifting and shit.
Speaker 1:It's basically like the. You know that scene when it's morphin' time on Power Rangers and all those zords come out of the ship. That's what it was, Everybody.
Speaker 3:they're miraculously inside the zords, that's exactly what it was. And there was like all the it's morphin' time, they're all doing stuff.
Speaker 1:And then there was like all the it's more from time. They're all doing stuff. And then there was a little goblin on a tricycle and perfect, just running alongside the zords.
Speaker 3:That is great. That's a good image dream. His dream was to get past the first corner because 17 of his siblings had competed every year and every year they get crushed and killed before they get to the first corner. Oh, and did he did? He ended up. They used like magical powers and all sorts of stuff that you do in D&D to keep him alive and he ended up like coming second after them and you know there was heat-seeking missiles and stuff involved and lots of explosions and a bridge that like collapsed behind them, like doing the whole sine wave thing. So it's like exploding, exploding, but they're sort of sliding down the bridge towards the finish line. So big, epic things and had all that stuff going on and magic cars like harry potter and they had something like 120 magic items and 60 000 gold and they're like why won't you ever let us leave nicodranas.
Speaker 2:I was like you've got a fucking flying car, you're gonna fly car. You're level fucking 12. You'd like cast and shit. You've got guns. You've got a fucking flying car, you're gonna fly car. You're level fucking 12. You'd like cast and shit. You've got guns. You've got tanks, you can go wherever you like, you can go wherever you want, just fucking leave. I've even given you a quest and they're like, yeah, but every time we're gonna leave you're like there's something weird about that. But I'm like that's because there's always shit going.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to impress to you that if go that way you will miss out on shit here. But they were seeing it like oh, we'll just party up all these little side quests before we head off on the main quest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like completionists in a video game.
Speaker 3:Exactly that's how they're playing.
Speaker 1:They were marking off all the little dots on the mini-map.
Speaker 3:So we had a great time, but I fucking blew up as a DM and I'm like why aren't you people matching my energy? Um, but they were. They were amazing. It literally was just like when they accused me of not letting them go, I was like there is no look. You know, it was like a magician there are no walls.
Speaker 3:There are no walls here like a mime. Yeah, well, that's what it was. The mime stopped them and, yeah, I was blown up. So I had this realization that I actually gave them decision paralysis and I kept hinting at all these subplots in the area that kept them there. So I pulled up one of my favorite players and, I'll be honest, joey is my favorite player of all time.
Speaker 3:No, like, I'm not being biased, it's just the amount of detail and love that goes into characters. Like I received letters, I received instructions. Like the backstory was like it wasn't just a lot of people when they do a backstory, they'll just give you a family tree and say I have 37 brothers and sisters. Their names are Johnny, timmy, greggy. I'm like I'm not putting that in your backstory. Yeah, you'll see, maybe one of those, your favorite one, which is and they're like I love all of them equally. You're like I love all of them equally. You're like shut the reunion.
Speaker 3:So very intense campaign, lots of themes. I love dealing with themes and being a mad scientist to see what I can do to people. But I called up to apologize and I said joey, listen, I apologize for this. I just wanted to make an apology and this is this is going to be weird because, uh, basically joey didn't used to be called joey. Joey became joey and joey sort of said to me like hey, you don't need to apologize, we had a great time.
Speaker 3:It was a really good campaign, best campaign I ever been in. It made me cry a fair bit. But then was like actually remember my character? And I was like, yes, and this comes back to what we're talking about before. I said yes, and do you remember something special about my character that my character did? I'm like my god, did you leave home and impress your parents and the parents of a loved one or something? And they were like, no, no, the the other thing. I went, oh shit, sorry. And I was like and then, um, like during the campaign their character had transitioned and they'd done all this stuff. And then, since the campaign, they've come out and they're now Joey. Oh, wow. So I was like that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was so amazing so they kind of like found their identity.
Speaker 3:I guess Not fully, not fully, yeah, I wouldn't take any credit for that, but to be any part of it where they felt safe enough to explore. It was a huge thing for me, Like that, honestly. And then the world, first of all. That I was told as well, but it's just absolutely gorgeous, Like wonderful person, best role, Like honestly, if they jumped online and started doing D&D, I honestly think they would jump very quickly up the thing, but I'd never push someone into that world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, anyway, I just thought it was very relevant with what we were talking about.
Speaker 1:No, I agree it's good Again with finding people's identity and expressing things that you feel safe to do so with. Let's look at that topic of safety, because you've been a part of lots of different communities, played lots of different D&D games. There are some things to look out for. Sometimes you can be in a game and you think it's okay, but it leads to some things that may impact you. So what are some things in your experience? Like keeping it relatively like we don't want to well, not PG, but just we don't want to make people fear jumping into a community. But what should they look out for?
Speaker 3:So one thing I would caution against is jumping into communities and judging them instantly. While you need to be protective of yourself, you have to understand you will be dealing with people from all around the world, people from different cultures and people that are more familiar with each other than with you. So they might be talking on a level of familiarity or have an in-joke that you don't quite understand yet and they might say something and it might take you actually having to say I find that offensive or what was that, and they might say, oh my God, I'm so sorry it's got to do with this character that I played like. I've seen people get very upset before they find out it's not actually relevant to what they thought was being said. Um, so approaching something with an open mind is always best.
Speaker 3:Once you're there with an open mind, the thing I would watch out for is and this goes for people building a community as well is communication and themes. So if you do have a history of certain things or a overpowering fear of certain things, I would probably bring that up at the start of a session zero and say listen, if you came from a country that did have slavery and you suffered through that stuff. I would probably mention that. If you'd been in any kind of physical altercation that was very serious in any manner, I'd probably mention that. And if you've got religious beliefs that are overpowering, I'd probably mention that as well, because it's one of those things that if someone's aware of it, they might make mistakes, but they're less likely to say something extremely offensive on purpose.
Speaker 1:Exactly yeah, and I think that can be very important during a session zero.
Speaker 3:But no, I think the main thing to realise is, yeah, and I think that can be very important during a a session zero, but now the um. I I think like the main thing to realize is, if you're joining a community most discord communities and we did say, go through discord, go through twitch most twitches and most discords have a warning page when you join up and you have to sort of sign on and most of them will say, hey, this is an inclusive environment. Actually, I've never seen a dnd site that doesn't say this this is an. It's one of the safest places on earth. Honestly, this is an inclusive environment no judgment, no racism, no sexism, no this, no that.
Speaker 3:So if you go to a discord that has that, I would probably feel fairly safe. I'd be fairly confident and talk to people. If you have an issue with something that's said either. If you're not very confident, feel free to like click on the person and click message and say hey, I'm sorry, I'm a little bit nervous, I didn't want to say it publicly, found what you said here a little bit offensive. If they say like f you back or something, I'd probably I wouldn't just leave the community straight away. Uh, it could be like. Sometimes you do cut your losses and do that. Like you know, the world's full of amazing people, but there's also a few assholes. Yeah, there's some bum bums out there too, some bum bums out there, um, but I would also probably dm the owner of the server and say, hey, here's a screenshot of that person saying this to me. I was offended by this.
Speaker 3:Give them the whole story, don't give them half the story. Give them the whole story, even if you're a little bit in the wrong, and just let them know that one of their players or people said that, because it might actually help them to help that person, because sometimes and this is one thing I love about D&D sometimes you can actually role play through those scenarios and help someone come to the light on some of those issues. I had some friends that were very, let's say, uh, anti, uh, I won't even say the country, but anti certain country. So when I was like dnd, I put them in the situation of that country and they acted very similarly to. So it was a little bit of a, um, psychological experiment, but the thing is they came to the same conclusion as the people that they said they hated and I was like, okay, well, you know?
Speaker 1:did you pull the curtain up from them? Then did you? Did you do the?
Speaker 3:eventually. I didn't do it directly, I just said hey, listen, I never thought about this, but the um, I never realized. But that thing where those people were doing that was so similar to these people here.
Speaker 1:I never realized, I never realized it.
Speaker 3:But I was talking to this person who knew the whole time and they were saying this and they went, yeah, like to me, like it's like dead on. I'm like is it, is it like? I guess it is similar. And, yeah, those people have sort of changed their whole outlook on that situation and, like that, I wasn't looking to make them change, but the way they're speaking of it was a little bit less, um, thoughtful than it could be yeah, so yeah it's, it's interesting, but the thing I will be aware of um will make people aware of is dnd.
Speaker 3:you can make it safe, but it will be boring. I actually think dealing with scenarios in creative and interesting ways and philosophizing around them makes an interesting game and an interesting world. I'll give you one little tidbit example of one that I did recently, and it was they got to a world. It's a new frontier town like Wild West style, so there's mines and stuff. Where the mine was there was a fork of zombies on the outside of town and when they went out to examine it, the zombies were being used. So when the miners would go out and work until they died, the mining company would get a necromancer to come in resurrect them so they could keep digging and the mining company would get a necromancer to come in resurrect them so they could keep digging and the mining company would keep paying their family, so the family would get an income.
Speaker 1:That is kind of that is a conundrum. It is a conundrum Because they were like necromancers are evil.
Speaker 1:However, paying the family Corporation that takes advantage of their dead workers, that work them to death, evil. But using those funds to pay for the family that was left behind charitable, what do you do? What do you do? And it was one of those situations. Because if you cut off the sorry to cut you off, but if you cut off the company and you end that, on a moral standpoint, there's no income, then the family has no income, but they also have no loved one. Yeah, they lose twice. Yeah, that's. And did you come up with that?
Speaker 3:that's awesome uh, that's a good one, the. The other one is a um, sorry, I'm just going to give you this one because I love this. This is one of my favorites. I haven't used this one yet, so if you use it first, you can claim it. Um, I came up with it.
Speaker 1:You can't see it on the podcast, but i'm'm licking a pen putting it on my notebook.
Speaker 3:I did a streaming game for one of the charity ones, but I played in Dreaded GM's game. Jasper's game, oh Jasper's.
Speaker 3:Jasper's yeah, and my artificer had got kicked out of. You know in Baldur's Gate how the big vines come over and close the area off the enclave. Yeah, so I was in one of the enclaves and I got kicked out. They actually worked out a way to get me out and kick me out because I'd invented a streaming service. So basically I was, I went down to like the local water source and I was sending like illusions through, like advertisements and podcasts and stuff. It was like I'd started my own podcast.
Speaker 1:That is good and you know what. That is also like streaming, because it's in the stream.
Speaker 3:But it went too far, because Space Girl is famous for making all these horrible spells. So I made a potion so that elves that were married to humans could have the same age. But what it did was make the elves age like the humans. So everyone was really angry. It shortened the lifespan.
Speaker 2:It shortened the lifespan.
Speaker 3:And then the streaming thing, the podcast. When I did it it not only went out of the enclave and it led everyone to the enclave because they're trying to shut the thing up, it also went into every water source. So everyone that went to drink had like the thing playing. Every time it got separated it would start playing the podcast again. Like you, just refresh the browser.
Speaker 1:Every time you take a drink it's like do you have an empty scalp?
Speaker 3:So these sort of concepts are fun things to play with, like hey it's cool, and then wait, that's really pervasive, that's going to ruin the whole world. Slavery bad Slavery to save lives and provide food and water and industry bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like that question mark that sort of makes your games a little bit sort of interesting and allows you to explore some things with your players but also have them sort of think outside of the box as well, in a situation you would absolutely not get in everyday life.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and being able to explore those things wouldn't be possible if you didn't allow slavery in your game.
Speaker 2:So I would be careful about avoiding things that make you uncomfortable.
Speaker 3:If you have the capacity, yeah, is that a nice?
Speaker 1:way to say it. Yeah, I think so, and I think the thing to take note of there is also to go in with an exploratory sort of thought pattern, but also know that if it gets to you or if it gets to your mental health, then it is very much okay to withdraw and go and find something else. As you said earlier, like if you want to cut your losses and go away from that, that's fine, because you know it's worth more than its price. Of gold is finding a good D&D community, because then you get to explore parts of yourself, all these different things, and you get to do so in a safe sort of manner and you can create all kinds of different games and fun experiences that then feel like real life. You know, or it doesn't feel like real life to the point, but you have these memories, just like you would have memories of someone that you grew up with. You have memories of playing around the table in an imaginary world with others as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so one last thing to add on to that is when you do find a community, treat it like a new community and don don't don't push it like a lot of people. When they build a community, uh, they build crazy expectations for where they want to go with it and try and push it upwards to my. And like I'm not saying don't follow your dreams and that I'm saying enjoy people for who they are and I feel like the growth will come as a result of you doing it in the right way.
Speaker 1:So if you're actually building the community to connect with people, to play games that are immersive but also respectful, and you've got a community of 30 people, that's still way better to me than having a community of 3,000 because you wanted to grow up on Twitch or have the biggest D&D community in Discord, because you lose that connection which made it great in the first place. So these are for listeners that are thinking of starting out one. It's definitely quality over quantity and, as you said, mod, build it for the right reasons, but foster that sort of relationship that started the actual enjoyment in the first place.
Speaker 3:And appreciate the time you get with your new friends, where you get to sit down for a few hours a week and learn about them, learn about how they see the world, learn a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1:I love it, and I think we might end it there, matt, if that's all good with you.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say one thing before we end yeah, go for it, because this will still be going the whole time. So, guys, go to Winter. I'm going to check this streaming site. One second oh, is this AJ Winters, aj Winters, what is it?
Speaker 1:called. Is it Winter's Tales? Her streaming channel is called Winter's Tales.
Speaker 3:Yes, which, yeah, so they're streaming every Sunday at 9am, I believe, Australian Eastern Standard Time, and they are doing like a Bridgerton type thing, like a long form.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it was advertised as Bridgerton crossed with the Hunger Games. Yeah, it got epic.
Speaker 3:I was watching it the other day and I don't want to mess with it too much, but basically in the third episode's it's been all drama up into that point and then, out of nowhere, shit got crazy.
Speaker 1:It was very similar to the first bit of the hunger games, where everyone's running for weapons and shit's going on, and then it ended and I was just like this is good yeah, and also if you can't watch it on twitch because you're listening to this quite a while away, I believe it is also on youtube, on on the same link, and we'll put the that in the show notes below, because, um, she's also another really great australian content creator, has a great dnd community and you should go and check that out as well. Good shout out mod. That was awesome. Anyone else you want to shout out before we leave?
Speaker 3:and where they can find them. Yeah, what I would say is tuesdays, australian eastern standard time, 11 am. Dreaded gm's channel on twitch that dreaded as in like dread hair, and then ed or ed rgm. He does something called a guild hug where everyone sits around and they'll just talk about people and life and gaming and stuff very similar to what we just did, but open form, open chat, and there's a lot of good feels there and people talk about issues they've had. It's really good. So if you're having dramas, go there, have a chat. Apart from that, crit and Miss Sign in, do that stuff, because I won't advertise your stuff because it's on your channel. It's a little bit hypocritical.
Speaker 3:No, that's all good uh crit and miss is a great group of people. Um, I've seen several games start off from there. Some people have split off and done their own channels as well, but you got cyberpunk red, you've got uh dnd, you've got all sorts of games being played and yeah, it's a dream so good.
Speaker 1:Community in there too. Community, nice people. Yep, two of them are speaking to you right now. So if you come in and you see Modbrew or Valiant, odyssey or Aaron from Band and Portals, make sure you definitely say hello.
Speaker 3:Also, I do have one person to shout out to, absolutely so. This is Clerical Era, or Steven Garstone. I used to do podcasting and talking with him about League of Legends, but I see you've been posting a lot about Star Wars recently. Yeah, stephen, a while back actually offered to run a thing for me called I think it's West End Games, star Wars. Yeah, and it's like Star Wars, but I think it's like cinematic and you don't roll and you do stuff. But I know you're're into star wars and he told me he's gonna. I am happy to run one of these games like a one shot for me and I actually think I'm gonna send him some links to your fandom portal stuff, because he knows a lot of shit about star wars.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it could be a very good person to talk to, very talented, I would love to have him on as a guest and just pick his brain, because I've always loved Star Wars, but there is a lot that I do not know.
Speaker 3:It's a beautiful story and also, why else would Harry Potter have copied it if it wasn't a beautiful story?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and on that mic drop. Thank you so much, modbrew. It has been an absolute pleasure. I know that we talk all the time, but doing this formally, you might say has been really, really special. So thank you for sharing your insights, thank you for giving up your time. It's been amazing for me.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me, man. I hope it was good for you too. Keep up the good work. And dads out there me and Aaron do it Make like one of my favorite. This is my final joke. Final joke I did a Christmas special with luke recently and I said, mate, you've got a family, you got your wife, you got your daughter, but you managed to play dnd like five times a week.
Speaker 3:How do you do it? He looked at me, went neglect. Yeah, funny as shit, he's not neglectful at all. They're amazing. Amazing family, beautiful people, uh, people. It is about balance. So there are times in your life you won't be able to play, and that's okay. Your friends will understand if you're going through financial hardships or divorce or anything tough. Be honest with your crew and just say, guys, I need some time off and just take that time to heal and then come back and work through the shit with your friends playing dnd and killing some goddamn goblins yeah, always remember you're doing it for fun and you're doing it for yourself and look after your mental health and all of that.
Speaker 1:And D&D and community building and gaming can be really good for that.
Speaker 1:And take a step away if you need to. That's awesome advice, monk Way to leave it off and that is it. Let's go back through the portal. So that was my friend Modbrew. He is a one-of-a-kind kind of dude, really happy to have gotten to be able to interview him, and I especially loved the way that he spoke about playing dungeons and dragons with his children, introducing it on their terms and just really being able to connect with them with something that he loved, but also obviously, something that they would eventually enjoy as well. That was really awesome. I also enjoyed the way that he spoke, but also obviously, something that they would eventually enjoy as well. That was really awesome. I also enjoyed the way that he spoke about the manner in which people play dungeons and dragons, how it can be extremely different from one person to the next, from one table to the next, but overall, the experience is generally welcoming, and especially if you find the right group in the right community. But it can. It can be something that can last with you for a while now.
Speaker 1:Mods obviously played quite a few games of dungeons and dragons and you can find him on discord on the crit and miss server. The link for that is in the show notes below. You can also find him on socials, which is in the show notes below as well. He's not too active on the socials but he is very, very active on the discords, but he is very, very active on the Discord, so if you want to connect with him, I'm sure he would not mind answering any of your TTRPG questions. Modbrew also streams on Twitch, so if you wanted to see the man himself in person, you can go and check him out on that platform and he releases YouTube content as well, and all of those links again will be in the show notes for you. To catch up with the guy, he's one of the most welcoming people that I've ever had the experience of, of chatting to. We met through playing ttrpgs and we've just connected ever since and, as he sort of mentioned in the podcast, we haven't actually physically met in person, but we can chat for hours and he just has that welcoming sort of presence and it's it's a really great pleasure to be able to meet somebody like that and share some gaming experiences with him.
Speaker 1:Now, again, as you heard, some of those amazing content creators at the end of the podcast are listed in the show notes. Those include Fate's Grip, winter's Tales, dreaded GM All of those amazing content creators are definitely worth your time, all of which have great communities that you can go and join yourself into, and you will be welcomed with open arms if it's something that you're looking forward to doing, and they take any experience level as well. So if you're a beginner, they definitely won't shy away from having you. If you're an expert or someone who's a seasoned player looking to get back into it, they'll also be very welcoming there as well.
Speaker 1:Now, through the podcast, the Valiant Odyssey podcast was mentioned. That's my Dungeons Dragons podcast that I've been running for quite some time with a big group of friends. It's a narrative-based podcast and if you are interested in listening to some stories, definitely go and check that out. That's in the show notes below as well. It's a campaign where four different groups are basically traveling through the same world. Their paths intersect and they're on the same sort of quest. Some are at odds with one another and others are working in allegiance, all surrounding a adventurers guild known as the valiant odyssey. Some very unique characters in there and a lot of the players in that campaign actually started as beginners and you can see their growth through that story as well so just a little personal and selfish plug there for the Valiant Odyssey podcast.
Speaker 1:If you wanted to go and check out something else that I do, you can go and see that again in the show notes below. As always, guys, I want to thank you for tuning in. I really love doing these interviews and you'll probably see throughout this show a mixture of solo hosted and also interviewed content as well, just because I think that the fandom experience should be something that is shared and there are definitely more experts out there than me that you can listen to that I can give you access to as well. If you're listening to this and you have an expertise in any sort of fandom area, or if you're just somebody who wants a platform to talk about something you love, make sure you definitely reach out to us on socials. You can also go onto our email.
Speaker 1:Those links again, show notes below. You can find it all waiting for you there. Now. We do have a motto here at fandom portals. You're going to hear me say it quite a lot, especially during the sign-off, but it is always important, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that you connect with respect, and that is me, aaron from fandom portals, signing off for another week and we hope to catch you next time. Thank you again.
