Hello and welcome to Snyder’s return a tabletop roleplay podcast. My guest today is one of the duo who highlight, promote and support the incredible and often unsung heroines of the TTRPG community found on social media asking insightful questions, pouring them for wise written words. But also streams isn't just a good idea. It's a critical cause. So join me as we read between the lines, turn over a new leaf and possibly roll for initiative with TTRPG content creator, Interviewer streamer, and one half of women of d&d Sorry, laws. So welcome to the show.
Zoe -Women of DnD:Wow. Hi, Adam. What an amazing introduction. Thank you so much. It's great to be
Snyder’s Return:on. No, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show and sort of highlight what you do. We'll get into that very shortly. Actually, before we do, would you mind telling us how you got into TTRPG, please?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah. Um, so my story is apparently quite typical. I played a game at college a very long time ago. With a bunch of guys it. It wasn't great. It was a little bit awkward, a little bit unwelcoming. And I kind of left, left the game thing. That's not for me. I never went back to it until for just over two years ago. So I'm really new. And I just, I've been obsessed ever since.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah. So how did becoming sort of getting back into it after a break, shall we say? And then coming back into it? How did that go from sort of getting back into the hobby and enjoying it to what you're doing now.
Zoe -Women of DnD:So my husband started playing with a couple of his friends. And I was kind of like, bit funny about it to begin with. I'll just kind of watch him. And then I got a little bit closer. And then I was like, Okay, this actually looks quite fun. And they invited me to play and Meghan joined as well. And I was like, I mean, so in. And, Megan, we've been friends since we were teenagers. So we've completely like, hooked onto this. We were chatting about it constantly. And then we're doing some research online, to see if we could find more women in the community. Because coming to it's so new, we knew nothing of the community. So we sort of did some digging and decide, oh, maybe we should do this ourselves. Maybe we should try and find this community and maybe make a bit of it.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, absolutely. So you say that about finding this community? tacking on to that just so we can sort of support gun support you? Where can we find yourselves and women of d&d on social media, please?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, so we are on Twitter and Instagram at women of d&d, we post interviews pretty much every Wednesday now, on both platforms. And over time, we're hoping that will expand.
Snyder’s Return:So your your interviews, they are techspace, you put them up on so how, how do you go about sort of contact? How do you how do you get your guests because you've had some phenomenal guests, and I'll rattle off a list very soon, just to show how amazing your guests are? What's it been like sort of reaching out to these personalities in the TTRPG? Community?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, it can be scary. It can be a bit a bit intimidating, especially as I consider myself such a newbie. But I don't know, maybe it's because I've worked in the fine art industry for a long time you get used to working with bigger names. So maybe that helped me sort of get over the whole. They're a big name, it's quite scary. But often is just if they've got an email, we just reach out or if we DM them, obviously, we don't hear back from everyone. Which is totally fair. We respect that people have a lot of things going on. Not everyone has time. But we are so grateful for all the amazing people who've been able to speak to
Snyder’s Return:you. Absolutely. And just to just to name drop a few of just how many sort of great people you've spoken to April Regan, Lauren urban, she's my DMing sort of, yeah, God, Fenway Jones addresses Game Day script, the Bard and a few other sort of Kickstarters and indie creators as well. So what's been your favourite person to sort of interview in that respect?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Or? Oh, that is tough, but I don't know if I could pick a favourite. I mean, we have spoken to so many amazing people Fenway might be one of those sort of toppings. inspirational people doing such incredible stuff at such a young age is, is incredible. Yeah. I think Fenway is definitely where?
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, as I say, you know, people need to scroll down and click on the links to Twitter and Instagram because the the interviews you've got, I've just named what four or five there. Plus there was there was one this week. So there's so much content, there's so much to glean and learn and understand new faces to follow new faces to support, you've always got the links in there to so people can go to their shows as well. So it's, it's really helpful to sort of build out that, that awareness and that community. So that respect, thank you very much. Yeah. So do you get to play d&d that often? Now? Do you have a regular game? How much of your sort of time is spent between women of d&d actual playing and and other commitments of life?
Zoe -Women of DnD:The rest of life? Yeah, we have, what we aim at is a Friday night home game. Obviously, scheduling, it doesn't happen every Friday. We're all people in our 30s with no schedules. We do what we can to make it as many as often as possible. But yeah, I love my little home game. It's, it's great. It's kind of it is real playtime. It's something that people don't often get as adults.
Snyder’s Return:So is it that sort of playtime, feeling that sort of keeps bringing you back? What is it that drew you back in? And what keeps you latched into this? Hobby?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, I'd say I spent a lot of my 20s really kind of heavily career focused. And I didn't give myself that break for play, or like playing computer games, anything like that. And I kind of, I think maybe the pandemic might have been sort of going into lockdown and having free time that I've never really had before, and being able to connect with my friends in a way that we wouldn't normally get to. Yeah, it made a massive difference. And it opened my eyes a bit. It's actually genuine. Finding time for play is really important.
Snyder’s Return:So, you know, I couldn't agree more. I really, really couldn't. So do you. Which side of the, of the DM or GM screen Do you tend to prefer?
Zoe -Women of DnD:That's actually really relevant question right now. I see. And the first time very recently. I ran a one shot but turned into a five shot. And it concluded last night.
Snyder’s Return:Oh, awesome. Would you like to tell us a little bit more about it?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah. It was a little homebrew campaign. I know all the all the advice is always sort of find something that already exists, find something small and don't try to jump into homebrew straightaway. But I did. And I just had an idea for for a story. And it kind of kept building and building I spent a few months or padding it out. And I made my players a little murder mystery in a lighthouse. Oh, no, he's Yeah. So I at least gave myself the limitations of one building. So I didn't have millions of NPCs and lots of different maps to worry about it was just this one building to worry about.
Snyder’s Return:So quickly, circle around. But I want to ask this question because of everything you've just said. So what advice I normally say this question to the end, but did you it ties dovetails into perfectly as a new DM, someone that enjoys and has loved the game? It got back into it as moved around to behind the screen. What advice would you give other DMS who are looking for players looking to turn to that DM role?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, I mean, I would say I've been very lucky with my table by I've got a bunch of old friends I've known for years and feel very comfortable with and I think for me as someone who's quite anxious and introverted, that was really key for me, especially sort of stepping into a sort of rough speaking role as the DM I think if you can find a table you feel really comfortable with some people if you feel comfortable feeling really silly with I think that for me anyway was really important. Okay,
Snyder’s Return:well, hopefully, your advice form and your experiences will help guide others who are looking to sort of bridge was bridge the gap between player and dungeon master or games master because the advice Something goes, system agnostic almost. So with respect to play, and then something a little bit more comfortable with, do you have a favourite setting a favourite character? Have you got a character you've just fallen in love with? Or do you just prefer a certain class? Or how do you find your own part of the d&d world?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah. So again, as I am still new, I haven't got a plethora of characters. I haven't played every race and every class and everything but what I have played, I found this character in one of our campaigns, and I love her. She's cheeky little tea fling rogue. And it's interesting, because, again, as as a bit of a quieter, introverted person, she gives me almost permission to be a bit brassy, and a bit loud. Yeah, in the soft space bubble we've created with, with our friends, I can sort of explore being a bit louder, and the talker. And I think in a way she led to me being able to be DM
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, yeah, definitely. I can, it's hard to put across in an audio podcast by consuming your face how much joy user derived from this character, you sort of almost lit up a little bit glowed a little bit as you were describing this character and the way you you feel so it's, it's so freeing when you get to have that safe space to play and explore these characters. So it's staying with the DND for a little bit. You have, or you were a finalist for the game hers. And in your how you put together these amazing streams. I'm incredibly jealous of the streams that you put together. What was it like one sort of being nominated as a finalist for the game hers and then separately drawing all this talent, these amazing people across the community together for these streams?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah. So the game has was, we were blown away, we couldn't believe it. Just to be nominated was just something else. But to become a finalist. Speechless is, we think of ourselves as such a little project, to have resonated with people enough that they wanted to shout about us a little bit really meant the world to us. It's, it was it was something else, definitely. And then, when we moved on to do critical causes, that was probably one of the biggest collaborative projects I personally have ever worked on. We had some amazing people working with us making it happen, raising money for a really important organisation. And if it wasn't for everyone involved, I never would have happened. It was such a great collaborative effort. And the people who were willing to donate their time to play or to be producers, and everything else involved was, it was inspiring to be part of that team.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, I can only imagine. And so sort of taking that spirit of collaboration and sort of using it as a springboard almost as there's something more coming in the future from yourself something I wouldn't say the same, not necessarily replicating, but newer, more exciting projects that you're sort of interacting with the community for?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, definitely. So fundraising is a big part of what we do. And we've recently just finished off a fundraiser for reproductive rights that did better than we could have imagined. And we're so grateful for everyone who just sort of jumped in and help that happen, as it's also our birthday month, this month, two years of women's d&d, we have some big announcements coming at the end of this month, we're also expanding our team, we've got more people joining women of DND. And we can't wait to tell everyone who it is and what we have planned with them. And yeah, there's a lot coming. And there's a lot I would love to do with this project. But I also know I have to pace myself a little bit, because I couldn't run away.
Snyder’s Return:I mean, strength and depth in your team. Like any good adventuring party is a good thing surely. So sort of swinging sweeping between topics like there's no tomorrow I get back to d&d this time. Or better role playing. So the your project is women of d&d, you you sort of Portland streams and interacted with great people of the TTRPG community or other systems that you've wanted to play that haven't you haven't had the chance to things that you're looking at in the future that you will be like even if it's a home game, maybe have a try this see see how this system works with my playstyle
Zoe -Women of DnD:yes, there's there's lots I wish I had more time and I could just play everything myself, but I would love to have a go at Vampire the Masquerade. I think that'd be so fun. Little bit moody, leaning towards my teenage Godself. And something like 10 Candles as well, I think it's really interesting. Yeah, I think the idea of getting people around a table and having that sort of mood lighting and being quite dramatic. I think that would be, that would be really immersive. I'd love to try something like that. Definitely.
Snyder’s Return:Very somatic games. I love it. That's where the story is surely that's where the excitement is in the drama. So sort of looking to maybe play those games in the future and collaborative will we see more said about its man at the table, we see more of you and Megan joining sort of guesting on other other streams or podcasts and things like that you're going to try and sort of open out your world in that respect, or are you going to sort of reinforce the team and then sort of once that platforms in place look to sort of branch out a little bit more,
Zoe -Women of DnD:I would love to join some other streams out there. I think the thing that worries me a bit is the timezone difference because so many of them are based in in the US, but I would love to, like if I could make that work, I would love to join maybe maybe he's a guest or something, but moving forward so our dream would be to have our own Twitch channel where we can like get some real streams out there and start some actual plays ourselves. I think that's a little bit in the future for us but it is in the future for us I'm sure
Snyder’s Return:knows exciting stuff. So you've mentioned expanding and strengthen the team looking to go on podcast more interviews that you know you're reaching out all the time trying to get positive responses back from from the community, people in the community so you can get these these interviews, share the message set share the the TTRPG love as it were. Do you get much downtime we mentioned at the start, you know, you've got this and work and a few other things do you get time away? So there's there's not always a pressure on you to put something out and output.
Zoe -Women of DnD:Short answer is probably no. I do need to be better with my schedule and give myself more downtime. Definitely. In fairness, like d&d has become that as well as women of d&d. So I have my project as well as d&d, but we also have a little home game, so that that is just an evening of Yeah, like Playtime is is a break. But outside of that, yeah, not too much, I would say so I'm also an illustrator. So I often have commissions on the go as well. And I also have a full time job. So yeah, downtime is scarce. I won't lie. I do need to be a bit more on
Snyder’s Return:downtime you sleep at the moment, then. Yes. So just throw me 10 left, I'm just in awe. That's all. You mentioned this the your Friday home game, you've mentioned your, your tiefling character do you have and there's been so much content produced recently, and a time of recording, we've just had things like the new critical role will come out. There's been third party publications, some real strong representation from women of female presenting content creators out there, do you have a preferred setting within the DND sort of multiverse of many places and things? Or are you just happy to go with the with the DM or, or your own imagination takes you?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, I'm very happy to just explore everything. And quite often a lot of the stuff we do is homebrew. So it is just everywhere. But yeah, I'm open to all of all of the sort of adventures that are out there. Really.
Snyder’s Return:It's good to be able to not be too pigeon holed as in that respect. I guess so. No, this is good stuff. So you're on Twitter, you're on Instagram, you're expanding your team or you're looking to go in and you mentioned Twitch, are you looking to expand into other places like discord or, or other sort of social gathering sort of places where we find you on Tik Tok in the near future, or anything like that?
Zoe -Women of DnD:I won't I will do not have planned for tick tock at the moment at the moment. Yeah, we do want to make community more of a thing. So at the moment, where we are is we have our Twitter and we have our Instagram. And though we have amazing community through both those places, something like discord would be a really great space for us to sort of include people a bit more and get people involved. to maybe opportunities for more networking. Yeah, just kind of making it a bit more about everyone. Rather than just our interviewees as much as we love sharing and shouting about our interviewees, it would be really nice to make a space for everyone to get involved. So something like discord, I think we'll definitely be in our future,
Snyder’s Return:or we will look out for that for sure. And if it pops up, and we're made aware, we will, no doubt we will join, but we will also make sure there's a link to it. So we can share the community and and you know, just support each other in that respect. So, you mentioned about building community there. And you've done a number of fantastic work. All of your interviews are fantastic, but you haven't done a number of them, I will rephrase that. You have done a lot of fantastic interviews. What have you learned the most from the responses from the various interviewees
Zoe -Women of DnD:to know that there are? There are consistencies. So when we put together interviews, there are quite often questions that we sort of asked different people and some that might sort of follow through to a lot of people get, like the same single question. And that might change up over time as well. But the things we often hear are, people want to see more representation in their games. And also, when it comes to things like women of DND, like my own story, where people had a bit of a rubbish first attempt at getting into TTL videos, I see that time and time again, that that is definitely something that I've heard quite a lot. That's people's first experiences. So it is interesting in that so many people's experiences are the same or similar. Yeah, there's, there's definitely a sort of theme through the people we interview that these experiences are shared. But in a way, it's kind of nice to know that you may have had a past experience, but other people have had a similar pants experience. And now you're all held together having a great one.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, that's true. So I'm not gonna, I don't think we can put the world's two REITs in one interview, building on that building, from a shared unfortunate experience, but moving into a great experience and good community experience. Good fun experience. What do you think needs to change or shift to allow less of these first bad experiences to take place?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, I think when it comes to avoiding, like a bad experience, something like safety tools, I think would be really key. I mean, my first game was 15 years ago, maybe more, I don't think anyone knew what safety tools were. But now that I'm aware of, but nowadays, you know, these tools are here. And I think they're so important for your games, especially if you're playing with people that you've never played with before. But generally across the board, I think that's a really important key part of any game.
Snyder’s Return:So focusing on that safety tool side of things. Do you have a favourite safety tool? Do you have a preferred system? Because everybody likes to calibrate their table to the group their players, you know, so everybody's safe in the same space? Do you have preferred tools that you you like to use or see used?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Yeah, so again, as I'm such a newbie, I kind of I may not be doing 100% The correct thing. But what I've done is I like to make sure we have a good session zero, to talk about anyone's particular triggering subjects or anything like that. And we run through the sort of rough themes of the game. And then I like to use the x card. And because we're normally playing through roll 20 That can be done as a WhatsApp message, you know, like, that can be done without anyone else at the table needing to now and we just move on. That's like everyone is aware that that is the system.
Snyder’s Return:Okay. That's good. It's good to to ensure that that safety is used. So, when, what is your next interview out? That's it. I'm guessing it's gonna be Wednesday at time of recording, this is Saturday. So Saturday, sort of the early part of June 2022. Your birthday is at the end of June, July. So who is next? Who can we so on next Wednesday from date recording who who's the next interview that we're we can look forward to seeing.
Zoe -Women of DnD:So normally, that's kind of announced on the day. Okay. But, yeah, we have a really great interview coming up. It's an entire team. We've managed to interview all of the women on The actual play podcast. So you have four interviews for the price of one. Wow. Yeah. So it'll be a bit of a beefy one. And it's really fun to great.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah. Sure, it'd be a good read. Yeah, sure. So we will look out for that. Obviously, by the time you're listening to this, that interview will already be out. So scroll back through the feeds, find that interview, read and enjoy, and then go back further and read the others and enjoy and sort of just soak in all the great content that the women of d&d are putting out. So your other half of your doer? Megan, what's it been like? Taking your friendship into this sort of structured, and yet chaotic world of TTRPG is
Zoe -Women of DnD:great. Absolutely. Like so much fun. So, as of now, Megan has had to take a little bit of a step back because she got a promotion, which is great. Like, yeah, so that's one of the reasons, we're expanding our team. And then once Megan's really shouldn't jump back in, she's not gone anywhere. But yeah, so she's had to take a little bit of a step back from now, we're expanding our team. But these past two years of running this project together having been friends, since we were 15, something like that. It's been great. We chat almost every day. It's, it's been such a fun project, to sort of run together. And we don't live close by the so it's like another, like, connection between us. Whereas we may live far apart now. But we're still we're probably talking more than we ever have. Yeah. It's it's just been such a fun project and a really rewarding project as well. And to do that with my best friend, I couldn't really ask for much better than
Snyder’s Return:absolutely, absolutely understand. So we, you know, we've covered quite a lot in in a relatively short space of time. I've been able to keep up with it. Is there anything we haven't covered yet that you would like to go into?
Zoe -Women of DnD:I think you know, I think that's pretty much all I've got. I think something that means a lot to me with women of d&d is that our focus is very much on the people we share and the stories that we're sharing with everyone. So yeah, I'd say an important one for me is just getting them out there. And the best way to do that is for people to give us follow, share our interviews and help these people reach as big an audience as possible. That that is, yeah, that's why we do these things, to help people reach as many people as they can and sort of highlight the women in this community and the amazing work that they do.
Snyder’s Return:Absolutely. So with that so we can make sure we support you properly. Where can we find you and women of d&d? You can
Zoe -Women of DnD:find us on Twitter and Instagram at women of d&d. At the moment, that's all you can find us out, but that might be changing soon.
Snyder’s Return:All right, well, scroll down for the link below if and when a another source of contactable and enjoyable media crops up, I will go back and edit and add that link into the description below this podcast. So please scroll down. Follow those links support women of DND. I'm sure the question on everybody's lips is your murder mystery in the lighthouse? Who did it?
Zoe -Women of DnD:Who did it? I would say I would say the seed. Maybe unbelievable.
Snyder’s Return:Well, there you go. Well, on that wave of positivity and intrigue has always been an absolute pleasure. I'd love to get you back on the show when you know you've expanded the team. And there's there's a lot there's so much to talk about when a lot more to talk about so many developments coming up for for winter d&d. I'd love to get back on the show for a follow up interview if you'd be interested or maybe even a one shot.
Zoe -Women of DnD:Oh, definitely. That sounds great. All right.
Snyder’s Return:Well, it has been an absolute pleasure having some of your precious time I realised that not much time and so many commitments. So I'm trying to sort of make this too long. But thank you so much for coming on and speaking with me today.
Zoe -Women of DnD:Oh, no. Thank you for having me. This has been wonderful.
Snyder’s Return:I look forward to speaking to you again.
Zoe -Women of DnD:Thank you so much.
Snyder’s Return:Thank you. Thank you for listening. If you'd like to learn more about the show, then go to www dot Snyder’s return.squarespace.com. Alternatively, you can find us over on Twitter. At return Schneider, you have a link tree link in the description of this episode. And if you want to sports come and join us over on Patreon and we also have a Discord server. Please leave us a review because we'd love to learn how to improve the channel and provide better content out for for those who are listening until we until we speak again thank you