Join RavenWerks guild Leaders Mikaela and Taylor talking about their favorite parts of Dungeons and Dragons and what they would or wouldn’t change about their early campaigns based on their experience as players.
[Taylor] Hey! If you’re just tuning into our channel, I’m Taylor…
[Mikaela] Mikaela.
[Taylor] This little nugget back here is Mini.
[Mikaela] Um… and we just wanted to to turn around and chime in. We know it’s been a while since we launched our… um… intro videos and it was like kind of a second way to try to connect with you guys on our platform. For those of you who don’t know, most of our business and our work is on our website and our blog. You can find the link in the description box below. Um… But we wanted to turn around and take today- you know so far we have focused more on our sustainability and spirituality and being environmentally friendly and that kind of stuff – but a big purpose behind RavenWerks that we have kind of discussed in the past is making those alternative hobbies and those other interests you want to pursue in life and learn about, more approachable, and removing alot of the the stigmas from around them. And one of our favorite topics in that area is… um… Dungeons and Dragons. There are kind of a lot of- i feel like- misconseptions about what playing Dungeons and Dragons is. You know, for the longest time, it was labeled as the nerd geek pastime. And especially- it’s begining to become more mainstream and more accepted but it’s still… there’s a lot of fear and trepidation around -you know- starting to try and play or find people that have those common interests. And especially starting playing as an adult, without that backstory. And especially as a female. So… um… we kind of just wanted to take some time to reflect on our previous experiences and have a bit of a conversation there. Sooo…
[Taylor] Sooo… we just have a couple questions today to start with and we’ll cover more in the future BUT to start, I guess… uh… FIRST QUESTION… What is your fart… *DIES LAUGHING* Word salad… it happens… What is your favorite part of DnD as a whole? *still struggling not to laugh*
[Mikaela] As a whole (repeated). Ummm… For me -I think- favorite part of DnD as a whole is the community. Not just the playing and of itself and um the other people that you connect with. For instance, if you watch critical role or if you are on some of the Facebook groups and that. But like whoever you’re actually playing with, it’s a good social interaction especially if you’re an introvert because it’s usually like a small group of people. You can relax, have fun, get in character and kind of out of yourself and have that adventure but have it with other people…um… in really most of the time in a non overwhelming setting. So for somebody like me that’s… when I played my first campaign there was like 6 of us that played. It was once a week. That was our Sunday event. That was basically the majority of our day and I came home feeling relaxed, like I had had a healthy social interaction but I also wasn’t drained from it.
[Taylor] Uh. I would actually agree. So I feel like my favorite part from DnD as a whole is very much the social aspect because it’s… it’s a different outlet of social. Like there’s one thing if I like to get dressed up and go out and party or if I go to the movies with friends or I interact with people at work or whatever. But… ummm… DnD is a little bit more of like a- I don’t want to say, uh, intimate setting- but it’s like it’s your friends and it’s a different outlet because you get to be artistic with them. It’s… some of my friends are more long distance too so I get to interact with them and video chat and that and I don’t have another outlet for it because they aren’t going to drive, you know, 6 hours once a week to hang out with me.
[Mikaela] Also I feel like it challenges you to get to know you friends in a different way.
[Taylor] Yeah. You do definitely start to realize things about them… because you get to be silly about things and play with different scenarios you wouldn’t come across in real life. So feel like… yeah… social aspect for me for sure.
[Mikaela] Ummm… so then what was your biggest challenge in wanting to start playing and what would you say to someone wanting to learn to play that’s never touched it before?
[Taylor] So I actually feel like for me it was finding a group of people to start with. It was kind of intimidating because I… I actually wanted to play for years. I kept bringing it up. Uh… You even bought me like little miniatures and like a book and I still didn’t start playing for a while. I think I had a set of dice set aside for like 4 or 5 years because it seems daunting when you look at it. There’s a lot of different, like, processes for combat and things like that…that once you know are super easy but it takes having somebody maybe walk you through it for a couple of sessions for you to feel comfortable. And it’s also hard, or it least it felt intimidating to me to find a group to play with to initially start it because I feel like you either think that everybody’s already got an established group and you can’t come into it and you can’t come into an established campaign OR you think that if you bring it up with your friends you are just going to get weird looks. Maybe I just didn’t have the right friends though. I don’t know.
[Mikaela] No. I- Honestly for me I would say it was a two pronged thing. Number 1, yes. Finding the right group of friends. Cuz I had a very small social circle. Um. And at least for me, my friends were the right kind of nerds. They were all as geeky wierd as I was if not wierder. Um. But some of their nerd wasn’t necessarily the same kind of nerd.
[Taylor] Yeah.
[Mikaela] Ummm… It was a little bit easier for me to find a group because I actually got invited. Thomas and I actually got invited to play by his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. So that was a good experience but I think for me, I think having the right group of people is part of it because it plays a part in your comfort level of putting yourself outside of yourself. Which for me was the hardest part because it’s real easy to have your character and your timeline and this awesome story adventure in your head and it is sometimes a lot more uncomfortable to then role play that in front of people because it does feel goofy when you are first learning.
[ Taylor] Yeah!
[Mikaela] You’re sitting at a table making strange voices, whole equally asking does this work? How does this work? Can I do this? If you are playing with a more experienced player. So for me the scariest thing was putting myself outside myself in public. Um… but what I think made all the difference was having a big enough group to fun but a small enough group to have it not be overwhelming and have them be people that had played before that could teach me what to do and had the patience for it. As far as what I would say to somebody wanting to start, I would just say don’t do what I did and hold back for as long as I did because the second I into it- not so much the mechanics, that takes time, learning what dice to use with what thing and what you have an action and a talking or a movement… that part is going to take time- but I was gonna say throw three sheets to the wind, get out of your own head, and get into it. Because the more you put into it as far as your character goes, the more you are going to get out of it.
[Taylor] Well, and I would also say, um, I just…. I want to say real quick that we are coming at this right now for like a player perspective… not so much like a DM perspective. And I… I mean I am writing my own campaign right now. I do have ideas. I do want to be a DM but just haven’t-
[Mikaela] Haven’t had the oportunity yet.
[Taylor] Yeah. I haven’t had the oportunity yet. So like, we will touch on that later as I get more experience there but, um… As a player I agree 100%. Like I just feel like I wish I could back and tell myself a little bit just like put my big girl panties on and…. or even just go to like a gaming bar and just talk to some people because I almost guarantee there are people… there’s a hund-… I mean there’s tons of people out there that would want to play, would welcome you in, even if they are mid campaign.
[Mikaela] They are excited when people ask questions.
[Taylor] Yeah. Yeah. The people in the DnD community, for the most part -Like there are some real hard asses out there- But like, for the most part as very, very accepting and they want to teach you, they want to bring more people into it even if it’s mid campaign or even if they do like a one shot. They will find ways to work around that.
[Mikaela] You can be a guest character.
[Taylor] Yeah. Yeah. So just go out. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. Okay so…um. Next question here. Looking back at your first campaign, what would you have changed about the experience?
[Mikaela] It kind of ties in with that last one. I would, i would honestly say, get into it farther, faster. As far as, as far as like, I spent a lot of time out of character asking, like, can I do this? Most of the time, if you go and try and do something in character that doesn’t work, your DM (Dungeon Master) is going to tell you. So it would be really hard to have that mental shift between character and then breaking character to talk to somebody. So I guess if I could change anything, I would, I would approach it a little bit more comfortably and open minded from the get go and I would be hopefully less afraid to ask questions because part of it- nobody likes to feel you know dumb of stupid or like they are not picking it up and I felt like I was afraid to ask certain questions because I felt like I had already asked it and so I should have understood it at that point.
[Taylor] Sometimes it takes hearing it a couple different ways for it to click. [Mikaela] Or watching somebody else do it before you are like “OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH… That’s how that works.”
[Taylor] Mmmmhmmmm…
[Mikaela] But… But there really is, like she said, so much acceptance in that community that like, they really don’t care if you ask a question repeatedly cuz they want you to enjoy it. They want you to come back. They want you to part of their group. Ummm… I really honestly think that’s my biggest one. That like, I was so afraid of being social with it for so long, that like, I hesitated to go every single week. And then when I was there I had fun.
[Taylor] Yeah. Okay. So for me, this is a… *sigh*… I think there is three things. And I think I am going to contradict myself, some of the things I have said before, just a little bit. And I will explain why. So, the first thing that I would say is, ummm… really get into character.Like, do not be afraid to get into character. I feel like my first campaign, IIIIIII- and I, this is something I want to work on a couple of others because I am now on like 3rd campaign kind of situation- ummm… none of my characters, I have really played with like voices and things like that and I really wish I had. It doesn’t have to be an accent, it could just be like the way you change your tone…
[Mikaela & Taylor] Your vocabulary…
[Taylor] I feel like I have really gotten into character in the way my actions play out in things like that but I really want to play more with like ACTUALLY PORTRAYING IT. So like when you here me speak as my character vs when you hear me speak META, you can tell, because again it’s a way to play with the different- it’s just like… yeah. That would be the first thing.
[Mikaela] There are some words that one character wouldn’t use or terminology because they aren’t relevent to them.
[Taylor] Exactly. The second thing I really wish that I had done is…. I know I said just do go out and just, like, do it. But like, also do be careful of who you do it with. (Are we talking about DnD or safe sex???)
[Mikaela & Taylor] For a first campaign.
[Taylor] Like, later it’s whatever, but my first campaign I just have to bring up, we all knew each other except for the DM. We had a DM… Mini please stop (she was scratching and shaking the whole couch). So we had a DM who basically ghosted us maybe siiiii…. oh, maybe a year into the campaign. He was long distance (DMing online), we onlyu really knew him over the video chat. And it was just such a bummer because I felt that we, as newer players, were just finally just starting to get really into it and that, I just complete… I don’t know…
[Mikaela] It kills momentum.
[Taylor] It was just such a let down. We had to find a new DM, Start a whole new campaign. And it’s one thing, sometimes campaigns fall apart (especially really long ongoing ones) but I guess, just, that was my first campaign and that was such a bummer so I guess at least know somebody in your first campaign or know that they are serious about it. And that was going to be my next thing (#3), is that, maybe make sure you find people who are just as invested as you. Like if you’ve got people who are really just not into it, and they are not paying attention and they are not really, don’t care at all. Like they are there JUST for the talking, it kind of puts a damper on you playing and learning because if you are really invested and nobody else is and you are the only one that really wants to get into character and do things…
[Mikaela] That almost adds to the discomfort.
[Taylor] It makes it harder for you to learn, it makes it harder for you to get into it. It’s just… so yeah… I feel like those are the biggest things with my first campaign that I really was just (nonverbal emphasis with hands lol), I struggled to get into it, the first one. So yeah. I think that’s it.
[Taylor & Mikaela] *A whole lot of yeahs*
[Mikaela] Last Question. Describe your perfect DnD setting or ambience.
[Taylor] For me… I really like to get into it. Like if you have got mood music for it, depending on the situation. Like I have different play lists set up for my campaign. I am very ready for this. My current campaign is, that I am in is One Piece based and we actually started as a bigger group- which can also be challenging, So don’t go too big. Like 9 people in combat is a lot- ummm but we all kind of fallen into kind of a role like what we bring. Like I tend to bring salty snacks and somebody brings alcohol, and somebody like candy and everybody is swapping stuff around. So I really personally like having that. And it’s not something we set up at all. It’s just kind of roles we’ve… it just happened. It’s just really nice because we’re all able to like bring something to it. We like to like dim the lights a little bit (I do in my campaigns at least) sometimes. It depends on the mood. It depends on the campaign and who you are with too. So like part of that depends on the situation. I also prefer if everybody is around a table. It’s hard to do it in like a living room setting or something like that just because there’s no central area and I like to see people and talk to them when I am in character. I would say that that’s my biggest thing. I tend to prefer mine a little bit more relaxed um, vs, like really, rigid.
[Mikaela] Yeah. As far as like, rigidity goes, I will say I prefer a little more relaxed beccause especially if it’s your first campaign. Not only do you have to have some give and take with your DM, and when people have like a… like if your working with a DM that has absolutly no flexability in what they will allow and are very by the book- and for some people that’s great- I’m not one of those people. So I like the flexability aspect of it. As far as ambience goes, we always- my friends are all kind of like I said, extra- so we allways went extra. It was our Sunday thing and the ambience of the room adds- if you are in a well lit, blank walled room with a table… yeah you can play if you’ve got your character sheets and a good group of people that are really invested. You could totally do it. But especially if you’re nervous and are coming into it, having the right ambience almost makes it easier for somebody that’s shy to get out of that box and get themselves into that character. So like what Macey would do, we had our long table, and the five of us would be around it and she either when she was creating her own world, drew her own maps or we had the minis, and she built landscapes and we had all of our character pieces and she would move them around to give us distance examples. She at one point had a little fog thing set up on the table. Someday…
[Taylor] That’s sick.
[Mikaela] Someday… those tables… Someday I will have one. I will build one, I will whatever. That it’s inset and that you can move your people and you can make the mist set up and have the light and everything. But in the meantime, she had music and she changed it for whatever. She would sometimes have the actual playlist set up because she actually knew what timeline we were going to be on. But obviously then your characters threw a wrench into that so then if we ended up in a fight she switched it to like if it was dungeon fight music or bar fight music music or whatever. And we did, we rotated who cooked because it was usually like a whole day think which I thought was awesome. I would usually bring like one or 2 snacks or baked goods. If we were doing it at whoevers house was hosting it, they provided dinner, whether that was ordering food in or like- we all like to try different recipes. So sometimes what we would do – and this was super cool but super goofy I guess- was, each person, when it was their week to cook, would prepare a meal or food that would have been custom and normal for their character and we shared it.
[Taylor] I like that. I like that idea.
[Mikaela] We had drinks and they weren’t always alcoholic but there were. And that way you didn’t have to get up and feel rushed or leave or if you were uncomfortable and needed a break or a bathroom break, you had something to break those moments. And it just made the whole thing relaxed. She would sometimes, depending on where we were, have a candle lit with a certain scent that… it was like it added to the…
[Taylor] Scent therapy is a thing.
[Mikaela] The whole thing was just very emersive.
[Taylor] Yeah. So I have to say that… ummm… so we are actually… the One Piece campaign is actually building one of those tables and I am super stoked. I LURV the idea of the food for your character thing. So, previous campaign, we would rotate houses and who hosted and whoever hosted was in charge of food but I never thought about doing a character thing. That is a whole different level. I really like that. I will say, the One Piece campaign, we all, maybe some of us did get a little more into this than others. I spent like a year making a costume. But depending on my mood and like how rushed I am to get to the campaign, I still wear that. Like, pieces and parts. Not all of it but sometimes pieces and parts. Because for me it does help a little bit to fall into that character. And there’s something else to consider there too. When you write your backstory, you’ve got this idea of who your character is. Don’t be so attached to it that your character doesn’t grow. Like my characters have become something else sometimes. Sorry. That just popped into my head. BUT… ummm yeah… I feel like… PROPS… props are so huge. Not just for a DM but for a character, because, like I said, I haven’t DM’d yet, but I know when my DM has a prop- like they’ve brought a picture of one of the NPC’s or like they’ve built something and have it in the middle of the table or they’ve done their own map- like that visual for me is amazing. But as a character, I have to tell you how excited the other people at the table are if I thought ahead of something my character would have. For example, in my One Piece session, there’s something called vivre cards in that world that I like pre prepped and I been like, as I get to develope relationships with other players characters, been like, rolling for stealth to hide them in their belongings, slipping it into their belongings in real life, not explaining what they are, and then in like a session or 2 they will find them and be like, what the hell is this? And it’s, like an extra layer of excitment. Or like if something is happening and I whip something out (like my own photo’s of my summons or transformations etc), like everybody else’s excitent. So you aren’t- the DM’s not only doing ambience, you are just as responsible for adding that extra little bit ambience or UMPF to all those other character too.
[Mikaela] Yeah. So like if you know up partially in costume, it give them a visual for you as well other than… hey there’s a girl with cool colored hair sitting in the chair accross from me.
[Taylor] Exactly. So that’s what I was talking about too with like finding a group that’s as invested as you because if you that they want to do that and they are into that kind of stuff too, it’s going to be so much more fun for you.
[Mikaela] And it’s a good reflection of DM’s time too. It’s really depressing to watch somebody that’s spent all this time building a diorama or a map on top off writing the actual campaign and the frame work of your story and then you have a group of people that just sit around the table and they are like mike character is going to doooooo this. And that’s just kind of, there is no give and take, there’s no…. I don’t do the whole, I am going to do this anymore… I just in character say it and my party can either respond or… sometimes if it is out of line or it doesn’t work, then my DM will out of character by like…. so I love you but you can’t do that.
[Taylor] Well I will also say too though that it takes a little bit to work up to that because the first sessions… we’re probably, maybe, I don’t know, like 30 sessions into this One Piece campaign right now and we’re just finally getting to the point where I feel like, like for example, my character…. I knew my character, but you have to KNOW your character. Like it takes a little bit to get to the point where you are ready enough to be like IN character that much because you are learning the character as much as they are. So like. don’t beat yourself up if the first 2 or 3 sessions or more, like I said it took a little while, we have a really big group so it took a while to get everybody really in character. But don’t beat yourself up if right off the bat, you’re not like… I don’t know what I am saying.
[Mikaela] Give yourself some grace. It does take time.
[Taylor] It does.
[Mikaela] And I will be interested in future conversations- because you brought up a couple of things make me want to start talking about them now but obviously in the interest of time we wont do that. But in future talks, to be able to talk about character building and yourself vs your character. Because that’s like a whole different dichotomy thing. SO… if you guys found this interesting and you really liked it, give us a shout, let us know if you have specific DnD questions or things you would like us to cover. Obviously our video blog portion is not just limited to DnD, But we figured this was a great place to start because especially for women there aren’t, I feel I don’t meet as many women playing DnD. Most of my campaigns have been full of guys. So like if you have questions, if you want to reach out, if you are looking to connect with people. Or if you certain things you would like us to go over or cover in the future… Let us know. Otherwise you can find the link to our blog down below and just keep tuned. Keep coming back!
[Taylor] Down below. *whispered* Also…
[Mikaela] You had to with the fingers.
[Taylor] I had to, I had to. Also, I just want to say you will be seeing more videos on some of the other topics but we are also going to have a blog post kind of related to this on our website here, later this week as well. So just keep an eye openand we will be covering more topics and we look forward to talking to you soon.
[Mikaela] Yeah.
[Taylor] Bye!