Hello and welcome to Snyder’s return at we're taught roleplay podcast My guest today is worked something of a Marvel by turning friends to rivals and better friends all for our entertainment. He cooks up art for the eyes, ears and tastebuds will keeping us informed as to what's happening in the district. Never idle unless embodying their role as a champion. They are always keen to help us weather the storm has new DMS, like Virgil to our Dante, he is wise a guide and a survivor in his own. It's an absolute pleasure to welcome TTRPG player dungeon master Twitch streamer, and socially unconventional art cultivator of Waterdeep. And beyond. Brian Gray, Brian, welcome to the show.
Brian Gray:Hello, it's wonderful to be here I am. I am overwhelmed and embarrassed by that introduction. That was wonderful.
Snyder’s Return:Thank you very much. Well, many of the things I've alluded to there in the introduction we'll get to later on in our interview into the future. But Brian, how did you get into tabletop role playing games, please,
Brian Gray:I have been playing tabletop role playing games since the 80s. I started with Dungeons and Dragons. And that was around the time that there was a lot of a lot of hubbub about the content in the game and worrying about it affecting young minds. But we had a small group of players, we were late elementary school at that point. And I was awful at it. It was fun to play in terms of fantasy, but I couldn't manage the math at all. And I tried my hand once at being a dungeon master and I did not do well with it. And eventually, I just kind of fell out of fell out with a hobby not fell out with the hobby, but I kind of fell out of practice. And trying to pick it up over the years tables weren't as supportive and welcoming. So aside from that, in the 80s, I think I stopped playing for wait a few decades until picking it back up again recently.
Snyder’s Return:Where in the the intervene into intermediate in the middle of time, the middle space, over your What was your focus between sort of when you sort of not stepped away, but allowed the game to fall away from you a little bit, and then picking it back up in a more sort of recent timeframe.
Brian Gray:There was more of a focus on my other kind of nerdy or geeky hobbies. I've always loved science fiction, I've always loved comic books, and video games. And I feel like more of my time was spent on that. And I'm Generation X. So the internet really started to be a thing as we were, as we were getting older. And I ended up really kind of turning to the the worldwide web and this online world of sharing just everything and discovering things. And I feel like a lot of my essentially a lot of my hobbies and focused turned to meeting others for just other kinds of hobbies. tabletop role playing just wasn't a huge part of it, initially,
Snyder’s Return:okay. So when you did start to pick it back up, when did it become When did content creation, and short of Twitch streaming and, and all those sorts of things really start to tie in together?
Brian Gray:That's interesting, because I had played in the intervening years, I played one once or twice with other systems and didn't really stick with them. For long, I did live action role playing very briefly and a D 20. system very briefly, but Twitch was something that my friend Tanya paths had mentioned, hey, I do this thing where I stream playing my video games online. And it seems like something that maybe you would enjoy. And I've always sort of via my blog and other means always sort of put my content online. Just because I I was fascinated by all the all the things you can do online and all the ways you share information online and content. So I tried it. And it was a lot of fun, basically to be able to slot out time to play video games. And you know, I don't consider myself a major pundit or critic or anything like that. But it was just nice to be able to share my thoughts and what about games I found fun and then to hear other people who watch and share theirs and chat. And I would say the majority of role playing games and content creation sort of came together, right around the start of the pandemic. And most of most people were inside and people who had gone my friends who had gone met up with their gaming groups in person. We're doing it all virtually. And I think a lot of our eyes sort of open to the idea. I suppose our minds open to the idea that, well, maybe we can start some virtual groups. And I'm sure people were already doing that I'm certain. But we ended up creating a show, Tonya created it. And we were all playing Animal Crossing at the time. And she had been on Gary WIDA had a talk show that he hosts in Animal Crossing, and she was on and said, Well, have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons? And turns out he had not. So we ended up pulling together a show called dungeon crossing, where Tanya taught players and I was a returning player to play Dungeons and Dragons. And we had a short adventure in while our characters were in Animal Crossing, and it was a lot of fun. And we play yeah, we played through a I think it was a starter module with some some light changes here and there. And after that, we schedules being what they are schedules are the ultimate and final boss of any gaming. We weren't able to really finish it. It's so true. I know everybody out there. sympathise is like, how have you managed to win I see people talk about their gaming groups. And you know, oh, these, these friends have been playing d&d For 30 years together. I cannot imagine how what a nightmare it is trying to get all their calendars together. But after after dungeon crossing, I had done some other some other one shots online, and I was really enjoying getting back into the hobby. It was really nice to come back to d&d in fifth edition, when it was what I feel it has been the most accessible in years in terms of being able to welcome new players and focus on what you want to focus on, whether it's the storytelling, whether it's the fantasy element, whether really, it is building your perfect build and putting all your numbers together and making something super effective. And I played in some one shots after dungeon crossing, and then Tanya, the rivals of Waterdeep, two of their cast members, I believe, to one or two. This is where my own memory comes in. And so they were casting for their casting for new members. And Tanya asked me if I would be interested. And I absolutely said yes. But are you sure you don't want to ask anyone else, because it was such an important show. And I didn't want to be the one who gets who joins the cast and messes it all up. But she had faith in me and the cast was very welcoming. And I joined along with my friend, Daniel Vargas. And it really was for someone who had lightly, lightly gotten back into tabletop role playing games, it was really diving into the deep end, and I just had a blast. It really was amazing jumping into an established story with a wonderful cast. Who just made it fun to get back into d&d,
Snyder’s Return:I can imagine and the show remains an important part of sort of the d&d and tabletop role playing game community. To this day and and onwards in your, your role within the show has changed during your your time. As part of the rivals team, shall we say? What's it been like making the transition from sort of player through to co Diem alongside your, your girlfriend your hernia?
Brian Gray:It has, it was terrifying. I won't lie. Since rivals of Waterdeep generally does change the ends every season, they rotate. And I had not had much interest in being a DM I had said that upfront. I said, Well, I'm really still kind of getting back into the mode of playing and that mindset. And essentially Janja was already an excellent DM and an excellent storyteller. So yeah, the idea came up well, what if the two of you did it together? And it was still, it was still a so much pressure, you know, being handed essentially control over these characters who have had so many adventures together. But I feel like because I had essentially a writing partner and a, you know, a scene, a scene partner. In terms of us being DMS, we definitely brought the same energy that we play with to us being a DM because as much as as much as rivals is friends getting together and playing d&d. It's also a strange show, and it isn't itself a show. So part of it is you are performing even if you're simply playing your character and going through things and even as the DM you're performing a little bit. And it was a lot of fun. We had a great time we wrote together we collaborated on our plot ideas and in real time, doing the equivalent of passing notes to each other back and forth. We had a private chat going so that almost every every other minute of of things happening on screen. He and I were both looking at this document and it was, I would say it's the equivalent of being a newsreader where you have somebody who is someone in the studio and your ear feeding you, maybe what you need to do next, or say next. It was like that we were feeding that back and forth to each other so that we could keep the adventure going. And it was it was nice having a bit of a hive mind, so I didn't have to handle it all on my own.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, no, I've got I would ask you a bit more but but but so in case people are inspired and want to sort of follow you and and rivals on social media, where can you find your good self and everything that you're associated with? Please?
Brian Gray:Oh, well, right now, you can find me everywhere as urban bohemian, except on Tik Tok because I couldn't get the handle. And it's impossible to get one if somebody else has taken it. And if you want to find rivals of Waterdeep, you can find them on Twitch at rivals of Waterdeep. And on Twitter at rivals Waterdeep. But yeah, definitely stopped by Sunday Afternoons. 1pm Eastern on twitch.tv/rivals of Waterdeep for that, and I'm currently in a few other shows. I'm doing a d&d five e horror campaign on Thursdays called God plain. I am. Currently you mentioned idle champions, idle champions presents hunger of the far realm is a show that they have where the creators of their champions, bring their characters into the game and have an adventure. And that's run by BJ Walters. And I'm also in a cyberpunk read podcast, cyberpunk independence that comes out on Thursdays. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something I'm doing a lot. And I look forward to being able to take a small rest from it over winter. Like just just just a tiny, just a tiny bit of time off just a little bit,
Snyder’s Return:a little a little bit of respite, a little bit of recharge the batteries. And you're involved in so much. And the cyberpunk podcast is certainly one I'm going to check out for myself having sort of picked that up relatively recently. So I will definitely be sort of subscribing to that. But I will make sure those links are in the description below this podcast, please scroll down. And support Brian Wright was an all the shows that were mentioned there. Although support is something that is key for rivals, I've noticed on Twitter primarily that you, the team are running an Indiegogo for the support of rivals, you mentioned to being like a show, so how is it important? How important is it to have that sort of that support that fan base and that community around the show, and the creators that make it it's interesting,
Brian Gray:because, you know, I hadn't really before joining the cast of rivals, I had watched the show a lot. And you know, for me it was getting to watch my friends do amazing things and put put together this amazing world full of great storytelling. And having joined the cast, I do sort of realise it's one of those things where you, you maybe don't realise how important something might be until you're a part of it. And you're and you're, you know, on the other side. And it's, it's become important to me because we are, you know, the entire cast are people of colour, which is something that you at the time were able to come out you typically had not seen. And another facet of Rivals is the point of it was to show that anyone can play d&d, you know, it had players at all different skill levels and levels of experience from different from different creative backgrounds playing. So to be able to keep it going is wonderful. I mean, I was already, you know, bowled over by the fact that when I joined the cast, it was sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, aka the people who own d&d. So if I can go back and tell myself, who played poorly in the 80s, that one day, you're going to be on the show sponsored by the company that writes all this, I would not have believed it. But they have decided to change, they've decided to change how they're how they're laying out their funding. So so yes to essentially we're running the Indiegogo right now to be able to finish telling our story, our characters started at level five, and we're currently level 19. And at the end of every season, we level up and we will be level 20. Not many actual play shows have characters that have essentially grown into level 20. They may do level 21 shots or epic adventures. So it's really important for us to be able to finish out the story. And it's also important for us to note that rivals of Waterdeep doesn't happen without that financial support. It certainly can happen and I don't want to say that you can't do a TTRPG actual play. You can't do a stream. Essentially, without that financial support. Of course you can, but there is a level of production that people have gotten used to there. No, there's a level of of essentially upkeep, maintaining our podcasts and hosting, paying our cast and paying our crew. I will say the number one thing that I love about being on rivals is we do have a producer that essentially all we have to do is show up and be ready to play, where when I do my own stream, I am all of the staff, I am the on screen talent. And I'm everyone behind the scenes. And the fact that rivals currently has financial support allows us to all be able to focus on our jobs without worrying about, you know, pushing all the buttons and levers while we're in process while we're in progress. So that is essentially what our Indiegogo was asking for it is we've laid out the budget of what it takes to produce a season of our show. And that's all we're asking for, we're essentially not asking you to profit, we're not trying to make money off of this, we just want to finish the story. And we are being very open and honest about what it costs to, to put on TTRPG ease, which is a discussion that a lot of people do not truly comprehend the I really think that they don't understand the cost of putting on a well produced show, which is odd because we watch well produced shows our entire lives on television. But it seems like that that idea changes when you look at it and think oh, that's just six people sitting on Zoom. That's nothing major. And I'm like, it's it's still pretty good.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, yeah, no, it is. And I know that like conversation has happened. As part of the the Vampire the Masquerade. streaming shows have have raced the same, same thing. And I'm, I'm fully in support of supporting content creators and shows and for the production value that and the hardware, the people were in, they do deserve to be compensated. And, you know, life is certainly isn't cheap at the moment. So I certainly understand and support shows that, that have the structure and the infrastructure to be able to put on such amazing content for us to it enjoy, primarily for free to be fair,
Brian Gray:that's I think that's the that's the thing that we try to impress upon people is that, you know, we're all used to getting great entertainment for free, but it's supported financially, somehow. And most actual play shows do not run ads, they don't take breaks, they you know, they're not filling their time with sponsored content. And people are consuming that and hopefully enjoying it for free. And in our case, we have been able to secure that financial support without having that affect our viewers. It's just when that financial support ends, any production is going to have to look for alternate sources of income. And that's what we're doing.
Snyder’s Return:And so we mentioned the the cast the party involved in rivals the heading to level 20. Currently, the episode released a time recording was on the 10th of November, words, which or blades, as you can sort of go to the website, check that out, and link will be in the description below. But the adventure also continues in another medium that we've also mentioned idle champions, and your character in specifically being brought to life through the medium of the computer game. So what has that experience been like?
Brian Gray:I like we're not speaking on video, but you cannot see I just started smiling. The minute you mentioned that, because as somebody who's played video games, there, you know, for as long as they've been available. It's, it is just amazing to have all of my, like all of my love's come together this way to be able to create a d&d character for the show, than to have a company say, Well, we're putting the characters from your show into a video game. And it's a video game that I apply foot hundreds of hours into. It's really overwhelming and amazing. And I just today, when we're talking was the first time that I actually unlocked the character in the game and played and I had a stream this morning. And it really it just like my friend said you couldn't stop smiling. And it's true. It's I love the fact that codename Entertainment has gone to look at actual play shows. And it's kind of a nice way that they're recognising the impact of that entertainment. But they've gone and they said, Well, these shows sort of aligned with what we're doing with this game. So we should approached we should approach those shows, and work with their cast members to create their characters in game and it's been really great to see I just like I'm just probably going to be I said I'm going to be insufferable about it because I have a character in a video game. So yeah.
Snyder’s Return:Absolutely. Well, to really sell the point, if you wouldn't mind. For those that maybe aren't aware. Would you mind telling giving us a little bit of insight about who Virgil is and why they are so special to you.
Brian Gray:Sure, Virgil. I created Virgil as sort of a combination of Um, all of my nerdy and geeky loves Virgil is sort of comic book characters combined with like movie special effects and a lot of touches of my own personality. And Virgil is a storm sorcerer, which innately, essentially innately a powerful magic user. So for me, it was drawing inspiration from superheroes, mutants and other other powered characters. Virgil is a storm sorcerer. And that, to me is sort of a cheeky nod to the fact that a lot of comic book characters would always seem to give their black characters electrical or weather based or lightning based powers. And I was like, well, let's just go ahead and see that to its nth degree. And I've also created Virgil as an awesome RF sorcerer. And that is a race in d&d that has a celestial angelic heritage, but it isn't like, it isn't a consistent thing throughout family lines. And for me, that was the, you know, still seeing Virgil as the other which is, you know, which sort of bringing, like, you know, myself, you know, being a black person being a queer person, that kind of element to, to the character. And also, after joining the rivals, Virgil had been on his own, aside from Aside from his partner Kent, joining the rivals was sort of a way of saying like, found family is the best family. So, the fact that this I think the other thing that I really liked about Virgil because I had to create him at such a to me high level was that he's just casually like any d&d character at you know, once you start to hit 1415 is just casually powerful. They're, you know, it's like yes, you you have access to all of this magic or you have access to all of this fighting ability, your connection with divinity depending on where you're, you know, what your class is, and yet, you still sit down and you know, your characters still go to taverns, you know, they still go out and do things. And I said, Well, yes, our characters have amazing amounts of power inside them, but we're still just doing normal things like we don't sit around saying, oh, you know, oh, woe is me to be sitting here and having access to control all of the elements and I just don't have time to help you find your lost puppy like of course not we're going to find that lost puppy Of course we are
Snyder’s Return:going out and finding the Lost puppies, Virgil in the game and I'm sure as part of the law has their own familiar going from puppy to familiar have a baby Luna Dragon Lord Yeah, all these elements together. Did you unlock that as well? Does that come as a bundle? Or is that something you're gonna have to work on as well?
Brian Gray:In the game you can. So in the the TTRPG actual play idol champions presents, that is where they sort of feature our our characters. You can do Vargas, as Kent and mine were recently added to the game, and this time the theme was spell jammer and far realm and we eventually created spell jammer outfits and those that are familiar so each of the characters got familiar. Virgil got a baby lunar dragon and Kent got a baby solar dragon and the other characters got Chanda got familiars. And those are available. Now you can purchase those as skins in the game. And that's that's just kind of fun. Now I'm basically having fun dressing up my character in different skins and having familiars on the on the field. I also created a familiar prior to this for the game, which is a baby Moonstone dragon named disco. So I've had that in the game as well. So essentially, I feel like I want to just get all the dragons that they have as familiars in the game, and and use them and have them all on the field at once. It's it's, it's just fun and cute. It really is.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah. 100% 100%. So we've sort of spoken about what's sort of next for Robert Waterdeep, and things like that. But what about you, where are you going at time of recording, I'll caveat that with what's what's next on the agenda for your good self.
Brian Gray:As I mentioned, sleep, I hope. But let's see coming up soon. I'm trying to remember I always get the dates wrong, but Pax unplugged is coming up soon, which is a large tabletop gaming convention here on the East Coast. And that I'll be doing some shows there. And after that, as we mentioned, I believe that after that for the winter, I'm probably going to take a little bit of a break. Simply because October, September, October, November has been a big time I had a birthday in September, and then took that month off and then October November has been packed. And I would like to just get back to enjoying streaming a little bit more. Bye Do you want to try, you know, I want to work on improving my at home setup, I would love to do more cooking more cooking streams, more food and drink, I'll definitely be doing charity work. I love doing charity streams. And I'm really kind of hoping that what I miss is, if you've like seeing online and see my Twitter account, What I miss is kind of enjoying the city. Again, I'm looking forward to that, doing so safely and comfortably. So that's probably what's going to be happening for me over like winter 2023 and 2002 2003. I just want to kind of get out and about and get out a little bit more and not take a break necessarily from streaming. But, you know, doing essentially, four shows a week while also having a day job. And doing my own streams. That's a lot going on in one week. And it'll be nice to take just a little bit of time off. And then beyond that, I want to I want to once again, I want to start finding shows that may be you know, seeking new cast, I want to see if people want to want to help showcase their games. And sometimes they do that by doing you know, actual play one shots. I am currently working on currently part of the the team working on the end of the motherland's setting in game book, and that will be out. So, you know, I may also look to see if anybody else would like, would like me to work with them on their project. I'm mostly doing like editing, proofreading, I, I don't write if you send my blog, I do write, but I don't like write like that yet. I don't definitely don't have confidence enough on my writing for that. But I think I want to, I'm so happy that tabletop role playing games, not just d&d, but all different kinds of systems, genres, settings, cultures, etc. has seen such a renaissance that I kind of want to do that for as long as I can have fun. And right now, virtually, with friends is the way I do it. I used to have a gaming group here in DC, but as I said, scheduled, sort of destroyed that. And so yeah, I you know, I just want to keep playing games. And I want to keep sharing that with others. And keep streaming and keep sharing that with folks online.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to into the Motherland having spoken with bday, Ben and Tanya, and you could self as well, being involved with it. And the the process is going through with with that coming out, that's going to be great. There's, as you mentioned, there's coyote and Crow is in another great Yes.
Brian Gray:Oh, yes. Okay. Yes.
Snyder’s Return:There are, there are so many other games that are, as you say, opening out to and being respectful of the cultures in which they are representing. Yes, it's, it seems to be such a, as you say, such a good time for communities and tabletop role playing game to really expand it. Is there any, any more, or anything else you would like to see happening in the sort of the tabletop role playing community, as it were to help support content creators of colour and people of colour and just everybody inclusivity for for everybody, really,
Brian Gray:I think the most important thing is, honestly, honestly, the most important thing you can do to support is to invest in the projects that people are doing. For some people, that means buying, you know, buying a copy of their gaming book. Others non-financially Watching their show, telling other people about it, but I feel like the, you know, kind of seeing, seeing things become more inclusive and more diverse. And I know some people, some people see that as a, you know, kind of a danger word. But honestly, the most important thing about games, whether tabletop video, etc, is that they are for everyone to play, and everyone to enjoy. And I feel like that is the most important thing. And when we talk about games that are are essentially speaking to specific cultures, you're you're meeting those people where they live, you're not telling somebody Oh, you have to come up with you have to basically start playing a game that is drawn from fantasy that people kind of based in like a Eurocentric mediaeval vision, you're saying no, this game is about you and your culture and your culture is mythology. And it's you know, essentially these are the things that are already accessible to you. And if that translates to more actual plays, then of with people of colour with people from different cultures, you know, basically tables of all women tables, I know there there are some games out there where the entire cast is you know, I think death to divinity. Essentially they they consider the themselves like the all fat all women all POC game, which I think is wonderful, just because in terms of things that you see on screen, that's not usually it. So I think that seeing if people can look past the most popular TTRPG actual plays out there and the most popular TT RPGs and start playing more playing different things, inviting different people to your table and deciding to watch something that may be out, not comfort zone Exactly. But maybe it's something that you wouldn't normally add to your list on twitch or as a podcast. I think that realising there's so much more out there than just, you know, and if somebody out there only likes watching d&d, that's fine. There are so many d&d actual plays out there, tonnes of them. So, you know, I'm not saying you have to you have to try something that isn't d&d, but I think that, you know, we, you know, you look on Twitter, I know, we're coming up to a tabletop gaming convention. So it's going to be a lot more news coming out of there of shows to keep an eye on, I think that that's going to help grow this, this whole industry, culture, etc. You know, we, we didn't really lose tabletop role playing games, but they didn't do so well, for a long time, in terms of something that everybody wanted to play and was popular. And it's popular now. I think that that is on us, the hobbyists now capitalise on that and not let that change again. And we can do that by as I said, meet people where they live and say, Oh, well, you say you don't like TTRPG is but what about this one? That's you know, based on a magical girls like you like the enemy. This one's based on magical girls want you play that or anything? I actually do want to play a magical girl TTRPG I think it'd be hilarious.
Snyder’s Return:I can think of a few. But, ya know, as you say they are they are out there different. As much as I don't want to say don't watch or played d&d, I definitely agree with. If you're, if you're a games master storyteller, MC DM, whatever. My advice is, is to not only get asked it, but my advice if people want it is to try new systems, read new systems. See how different games handle different situations? Because it's all knowledge. And it can all be turned around and put back into your d&d game for your table. Exactly. And yeah, some of the games that that are there to represent and, and sort of respect culture? Take it. People have put hard work into it.
Brian Gray:Oh, oh, um, you know, in general, advisors, sensitivity readers. Yeah. Things like that. Yeah. So
Snyder’s Return:it's, it's important and good that people have sort of brought in diversity advisors, sensitivity readers and things like that. So we can totally utilise the things that they have refined for us made sure that they are effectively safe our tables to use and then we can convert them and take them into our d&d games, for example, it can be Pathfinder staff, and whatever the tabletop role playing game of choices. Right. So one thing that you've mentioned a couple of times, and that has been catching my eye a lot. Is your blog, your food, basically, not gonna lie, you're cooking. Oh, you're cooking looks phenomenal.
Brian Gray:It's something that I've always loved to doing. And I, when I moved, basically, when I was in college for the first time, I think my mother gave me a book that literally is, you know, what do I do now that mom isn't here to take care of me, and it had basic recipes in it, so I wasn't just eating, you know, like ramen and canopies every night or something like that. And I've just kind of always enjoyed doing it. And I fully confess to becoming a foodie, when the foodie sort of craze was a thing. And it really was just growing up. I was a latchkey kid, my parents both worked. And essentially, they didn't have time to cook. So they weren't, you know, they weren't coming home and making gourmet meals. It was really just kind of whatever made sense to make that was quick and easy. And I said, Okay, well, that's fine. But now, I live on my own, I can do what I want. There's, there's a joke that says, you know, once you realise that you can make bacon anytime you want. Like, it's just kind of a revelation. And for me, for me that revelation was cheesecake, like I can make cheesecake anytime I want now, and I don't have to ask anyone's permission. But I've always enjoyed. I've always enjoyed cooking and baking and trying new things. And I have as many failures as I have successes. But I want to focus I wanted to focus especially once since we were all inside for the most part in the past two years and all of us didn't necessarily have great access to all the food. I just started for focusing on what was easy? What was delicious and accessible? And you know, what kind of substitutions could be made. And a while ago, a friend suggested that I do a cooking stream. So I do those every now and then but most of the time, it's just okay, what's in the fridge? What can I make? And then I just take a picture of it and share it online. You know, just what you do. You take pictures of what you're doing, and you share it on the internet and people like it.
Snyder’s Return:I greatly appreciate it makes me salivate every time I see your posts go up. So thank you. And and not thank you, because drooling in public is not my best luck.
Brian Gray:I don't think it's anyone's No, but Well, unless you're a dog, and then a social enthusiast that sort of, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Snyder’s Return:So and your you your blog, not just for food, which content I adore, but not just for food you mentioned, and you sort of do things around DC. And so what's it been like, obviously, we've been in cyber COVID for a period of time and getting back out, whereas safe and responsible, but what's it like learning about the the environment around you in that respect?
Brian Gray:i It's interesting, I've, I think I've not I haven't always lived in major cities, but either in or near a major city. So for me, it's, you know, enjoying where you live, which I feel like where I live now is Washington DC. And it would become very easy for people to become jaded about living here, because, you know, we have monuments, we have museums, you see them once, and then you never visit them again, unless somebody is visiting, and then you take them there. But a friend and I, we just started looking up exhibits all the time, we started looking up off the off the beaten path types of things like we have a lot of public gardens and some private gardens here, you know, we would go to see travelling exhibits. And you know, a lot of that also harkening back to my food stuff is also trying a lot of different restaurants and going and eating. And I just felt like, I could just get up, go to work every day, come home, order and cook go out to eat. And that will be my day. And then on the weekend. What's interesting is that I, you know, I grew up in the suburbs, so the weekend was chore time and errand time, and you'd have to hop in the car and go everywhere. But I no longer have that living in a city, I can walk to most of my conveniences I can have things delivered, which just left me all of this free time. And as much as I loved playing video games, it was also just as nice to go out and see my friends go out and have a nice brunch, sometimes go out and have a nice brunch for like six hours at a time, you know, don't judge. And it was just, it was nice to kind of lean into the fact of discovering where you live, and what makes where you live fun, interesting and exciting. And even if it's just stuff you think is cool, you know, like, it doesn't have to be whatever one thinks of in the city, it can just be this one nice coffee house that you go to. And that's where you sit and you enjoy reading or writing for a few hours. But I don't want to miss out on that. And I think that because you know I work in IT. I sit and I sit at a computer, essentially both to work and to sit at a computer to relax, it can be very hard to remember to break out of that cycle and go and do something else. Think about something else, look at something else. And then just kind of remember that everything around you is meant to enrich you and enrich your soul. And I like doing that by myself. I like sharing it with people. And I also like I love taking pictures and writing about stuff because maybe people who live in DC don't know about an exhibit that's happening. And now they do. And it's you know, everything, almost everything here is free or fairly inexpensive to enjoy. So I loved reading about that and sharing about it or just kind of seeing a random thing. And as much as I love, I love social media, I love Instagram. Sometimes just sharing a picture for me is not enough, like I need to talk about, you know what led me to that moment or how it made me feel or what I thought about it. And at the same point I want to share with others like how you can also find this cool exhibit or go to this nice restaurant or enjoy this pop up. So living, essentially not just living in someplace but truly living where you are. In that, you know, like you live in a place for a while or you travel around a lot, being able to kind of experience it to its fullest. You know, whatever level of that is comfortable, comfortable for you has kind of always been something I've loved. Because it's very easy to become a homebody, especially nowadays. Like it's very easy to just say no, never going outside again. And, you know, I feel like now that it feels a little more comfortable to go out and a little safer to go out. We like I want to go out and see things and do things again, even if they're just blocks away from my house.
Snyder’s Return:That sort of the difference between the existing and living I guess. Yeah, yeah. Nice. And so taking on all these experiences and finding things locally and getting to know somewhere inside and out might be pushing it but but to a greater depth and understanding that your surroundings on your blog, you also have advice for first time DMS? Do you use experiences that you've had from, from your local area? And do you bring that into your to your sort of world building if you do any.
Brian Gray:I do take ideas. And I haven't and I have an entire document of story ideas that I have started. And I don't know if I plan to make those make use of them myself, or if I plan to pass them on to somebody else say, here are some story hooks. But I have taken some of my experiences, but a lot of stuff. When I when I co diem for I was a Waterdeep a lot of stuff was pre written like I would sit and I would sit and think okay, well here are, here's our major story, here's the elements that we want to make sure we hit. And then in between the episodes, we would then refine that to based on what they did in the previous episode. Because the saying goes is that no plan, no plan survives contact with your players. And for the most, for the most part, we were able to tell the story wanted to tell. But yeah, they would divert, they would find interest in some in some tiny facet. So we did end up writing a lot of it on the fly. And I feel like we mostly wanted to incorporate, like a big a big cinematic story in our season. And some elements, you know, essentially, you're always drawing elements of things, you know, I always feel like I draw, I draw parallels to more movies in you know, I tend to think of more movies when I when I think about telling a story for either as a GM or as a player. I'll pull in a lot of that. So no, I didn't put a lot of local flavour yet into into my jamming yet. Although I, you know, I have thought about people who do homebrew stuff for cities. And a lot of them do homebrew stuff that takes place in quote unquote, any city. And then you sort of add your elements to it. So that might be fun to try sometime.
Snyder’s Return:Definitely. And you do you know, your blog does have that first time DM advice off the cuff almost. Do you have that sort of that? That banker for that sort of response when someone says if you've got any tips for a first time, GM or DM,
Brian Gray:as cliche as it is, don't panic, and trust that your players want to be a part of the awesome story that you want to tell. So you shouldn't be an antagonist to your players, even if one of your characters might be. But you should make sure that you remember that as the DM you're also a player at the table too. You may be in charge of the story. But you shouldn't stress out so much on making sure that the experience is great for them that you forget to have fun yourself.
Snyder’s Return:I think that's very fair. Very valid. So thank you. Thank you. It's always nice to get a new DMS perspective on being a new DM because often Yeah, my
Brian Gray:other advice to that is Don't Don't do it. It's hard. Oh, terrifying. You're sweaty? Yeah, like you know, let's let me be honest about it. Okay. I was sweating bullets five seconds before we went live that first time and I got used to it and I got I got into it. But yeah, I was still nervous every single time.
Snyder’s Return:I think the adrenaline adrenaline helps. But ya know, it can it can be unnerving, I guess, as an experience, but hopefully as the deputy was the players on the table feels cohesive. And you get to relax slowly. So. So you you mentioned you work in it, then you come home and your computer is your space to relax. So why is it you're playing at the moment what or what is coming up in the future that you're excited to play and stream for for those that can come and follow you on Twitch?
Brian Gray:It's interesting. I'm not great at looking, looking ahead to new games, but I currently I played Destiny by Bungie forever and I always look forward to there's going to be a bunch of new content in February. So I look forward to playing through that. I want to look at the new Gotham knights game that has come out. I do. I do love some comic books. And I love that the way that they've adapted. They've adapted the Batman family to video games. So I want to try that. Recently, I played Ghostbusters, which definitely had that good nostalgia to it. And that was a lot of fun. But I love looking at independent titles that are you know, maybe by smaller studios and lesser known but they end up being really captivating games. So I'm always on the lookout for something new at don't currently have, there's nothing that's currently on my watch list. I suspect that my streams, my streams right now, or a lot of my comfort games, because of the other projects that I'm involved in during the week, I don't always have time to look out for a new game.
Snyder’s Return:That's fine. So what what is, what are your comfort games, what's your go to if you like, and I just want to relax, I want to enjoy it, maybe chat with chat with chat, that makes sense. And just sit and just almost be a one with myself with the game and with the community, your community
Brian Gray:it is, oddly enough, because people have commented on the different kind of chill vibe, it is a it is a first person shooter, it's going to be like destiny two, because I played it backwards and forwards. I know the Lord inside and out, or it's going to be something. I've also played Tom Clancy's The Division Two, which again is, you know, it's a shooter. So you don't really assign it with like, Oh, this is just something I play to relax. But because I played so much of it, you know, your hands are almost moving on autopilot. And you can then focus and say, Okay, well, let me let's talk, let's let me tell you about my day, let me see what's going on in chat. Because, you know, there's also no stakes, they're still they're still mostly single player games. So if if I, you know, if I get shot while doing a mission, I can just restart, and it's fine. I don't, you know, I don't worry about it. Versus if I were playing something that was competitive with other people, I would feel like I needed to focus more on the game. But those I just love to sit back and play. And also I got very heavily into Animal Crossing during the pandemic. So that is something that on a Sunday morning, I will start up Animal Crossing, I will turn the stream on. And, you know, you just run around a virtual Island and and do stuff. And, you know, it's perfect background to just chat with people. Definitely.
Snyder’s Return:And we have spoken at length about many things we've mentioned, you know, sort of introduction and growth through tabletop role playing games. Rob was a water deep, you're streaming your copy book interest? We've touched on there and things like that. Is there anything that we haven't mentioned so far in this interview that you would like to bring up now?
Brian Gray:I don't think so. I feel like we have we have really gone over a lot. It's been a wonderful conversation. I don't think so. No. All right.
Snyder’s Return:Well, that's fair enough. So if someone wants to come and join, you're sort of 9000 subscribers on Twitch 1000 followers on Instagram, or approaching 10,000 followers on Twitter. What are your What are your where they find you on social media? What are your handles and make me make me scroll down or follow you,
Brian Gray:as it were? The easiest way I think is to search urban bohemian on Twitter, Twitch and Instagram. And also urban bohemian.com Is my blog that has contact that also has a contact page, which I listed like a link tree, I've listed all of my social media handles there. However, I always say that Twitter is the best place for now to keep up with what's going on with me. And if not to catch me on Twitch.
Snyder’s Return:Well, I will make sure those links are in the description below. So please scroll down support those links follow the podcast. Brian has mentioned earlier again, links to those will be in the description below. And support this incredible content creator Brian has been such a pleasure to have you on the show, to getting to know you and your involvement with the tabletop role playing game community.
Brian Gray:Thank you for having me. It's been a lot of fun today. Has and
Snyder’s Return:I'd love to get you back on in the future. Say after your downtime, should we call it in over the winter? Get you back on the show in the future, see how things are developing new projects and all that sort of stuff in the future if you'd be willing. Oh, that'd
Brian Gray:be fantastic. Yes.
Snyder’s Return:Perfect. We will get that sorted out a future date. Thank you so much for joining me, Brian. 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 support us, 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