Hello, and welcome to Snyder’s return a tabletop roleplay podcast. My guest today breaks news breaks bread breaks hearts and minds all within the realms of fantasy fiction and fandoms. Not to press the issue too hard, but spent a short amount of time with their interviews or articles. And you'll come away informed, excited, educated and entertained. From slaying dragons to breaking Dungeons and Dragons. My guest is hot off the press word on the street and a beacon in the dark. It is an absolute pleasure to welcome game writer TTRPG enthusiast and journalist for IO nine. And Gizmodo. Linda Codega. Linda, welcome to the show.
Linda Codega:Oh, my gosh, thank you so much. What an introduction. That was that was really incredible, man. I feel I feel very hyped up. That's, that was really great.
Snyder’s Return:That was wonderful. Well, this is all your works. Panda Swan back to you. So it's, it's a privilege to have you on the show. Before we get to some of the things I've alluded to there in the introduction, Linda, how did you get into tabletop role playing games, please?
Linda Codega:Yeah, so it all started, I think when I was 10, or 11, I was young. And I discovered role playing game forums online. So it was just like, you go on on a forum and like you create a character. And then you just do like text based role playing with other people. And that was really how I was introduced to like role playing games in general. And then I found Dungeons and Dragons sort of in college. And that's kind of when I started actually playing games with dice and not just, you know, going online with friends and making up silly little stories. Oh, wow.
Snyder’s Return:So once you've picked up Dungeons and Dragons to the hobby, as a hobby, sort of started rolling dice, where did your journey go from there? And how has how have you sustained yourself with the hobby, since that initial sort of start point.
Linda Codega:So when I first started playing Dungeons Dragons, it was right around the time that five E was coming out. So it was still a time where there was like a lot of dude bros in the hobby. And it wasn't really that welcoming for me as like a femme presenting non binary person. So I sort of like picked it up and put it down over the years and sort of always preferred like role playing with with my friends online. And stuff like that. And then a couple a couple of years after that, I found indie games and I found the the sort of side of tabletop role playing games that are far less crunchy, and far more experimental, and focus, and I just never realised that that there was a whole different side of the, you know, paper and dice games out there. And once I did, it was sort of all over for me because I loved it so much. And it was like oh, I can take this like I can take this out and like bring it to a table and like play with other friends and I just really dove in deep into the indie tabletop role playing game seen and kind of never left so that's really how I've sustained myself in the hobby and like focused on the the innovative art that's coming out from a lot of different small creators and is really what I still really love to focus on even now as I am hot on the heels of the Dragon beat.
Snyder’s Return:So with respect to that the indie games you you found at the start and have maybe influenced the way you have carried forward and we'll get to your your game writing a little bit. What were the indie games you found first and which of which of them have really stuck with you as a either a memorable experience or just a great system that you'd love to sort of take advantage of in the future?
Linda Codega:So I think it was powered by the apocalypse systems I don't remember if it was Apocalypse world or Dungeon World or something along those lines but it was one of the early powered by the apocalypse systems. It might have even been monster of the week that really you know sparked sparked something in my brain where I was like This is incredible. Um, so I think that was probably those were probably some of the first ones I still love Monster of the Week and I really love the power by the apocalypse game masks by Brendan Conway at a magpie games There's just something about like those two games in particular, I think are really, really good at what they do. And I think powered by the apocalypse games are incredibly valuable for like genre emulation. And once you sort of get a niche with your game and like you know you stick to something like for mass is obviously like teenage superheroes for Monster the week it's monster the week television shows like supernatural and X Files and once you sort of like hone in on the kind of genre you want to emulate, powered by the apocalypse really facilitates creating a game that does that and does it really, really well. And one of the one of the recent power by the apocalypse games that I really love is called interstitial our hearts intertwined. And it's a Kingdom Hearts heart by the apocalypse game, where it's basically just like, yeah, and it's basically just like it's a game for writing a bunch of like crossover fanfiction. So in the, in this one AP that I listened to, it has like, Criss Angel, and also like, someone from Final Fantasy, and then someone from like, the Goofy Movie, and they're all like this adventuring team that go off on adventures. And it's just really fun and allows people to kind of be goofy and Gonzo, but also stresses the kind of Kingdom Hearts vibe of friendship, love darkness. So Well, I would say powered by the apocalypse. Yeah,
Snyder’s Return:feel free to name drop that that actual play. We love supporting other other shows here at Snyder’s return. So if you Oh,
Linda Codega:it's it's interstitial, our hearts intertwined. It's like the actual play that supported the game, a Kickstarter, and like it's run by the GM, and the GM is the author of the game as well. I love that podcast.
Snyder’s Return:Cargo that. So outside of of that particular power by the apocalypse game, and that natural play, what other games have sort of guided your hand through to, to where you are now, as a TTRPG? Player, enthusiast and supporter?
Linda Codega:Yeah, I think another good game is the trophy dark system. By the gauntlet, it's it was written by Jesse Ross and published by the gauntlet. But that game is just like, short, sweet, effective, really leads into the kind of play to lose horror that I really enjoy, where it's just like, No, you are going to like make a character and you are going to see them through until they destroy themselves. So sort of recognising that like, you don't have to be precious about the kind of characters you make, and you don't have to be protective of your characters in the game. I think that was a really, really great lesson. And then also, I think, from Trophy dark, they, when they first published that game, they also published alongside it a how to write an incursion for trophy dark. And sort of getting that step by step. Here's how you write your own version of this game, I think was really informative, and very clever. And probably the first time that I'd ever seen, Oh, someone like wants me to write something for this game, I'm gonna do that. And that's just because it's, you know, indie, indie games, you know, they're fast and loose. It's the wild wild west out there. But it's, I think that that that game in particular has has a very strong plays on my design sensibilities as well.
Snyder’s Return:Well, it says in an article you read recently, that you wrote recently that I read even more recently, that you use that as your basis for when you started game writing. Yes. So where has that journey taken you?
Linda Codega:So I mostly just like puttering around, I write supplements, here and there I write. So I wrote some small games, I really enjoy it. It's something that it's something I do in my spare time, which is increasingly less and less. nowadays. I don't even know the meaning anymore. Um, but I want to do more games writing and I have a couple of things kind of in my email inbox that I need to respond to that are game design, in game writing questions, so hopefully, I'll be able to give myself like a little bit more structure and some more discipline and just like no, Linda, you can't spend three hours replaying BioShock you have to spend at least one hour writing, I guess. So hopefully I'll be able to You know, give myself a little bit more discipline and write the games that I want to write because there's some really cool ones I have floating around Google Drives and in emails,
Snyder’s Return:I'm sure I'm sure. So where did where did your TTRPG? And journalism? When did B intersect and sort of become your core employment? I guess?
Linda Codega:Yeah. Good question. I always wanted to be a writer, and I've been pursuing writing professionally, for the past 10 years or so. And it's really only in the past four or five years that I've had, that I've made any money off of writing about tabletop role playing games, and only the past year or so that it's been my full time job. So it's been about four, four or five ish years of, you know, doing freelance pitches, and like writing for other outlets, or, you know, spending most of my time writing about advertisements for my full time job, and then freelancing on the side. So it's just one of those things where it's like, I always knew that I wanted to write and I always knew I wanted to write about the stuff that I really enjoyed doing. Because anything else was just not very satisfying. For me, and I'm just like, I know that I'll do a better job at any job that I do, if I actually love the work that I'm doing and love the subject matter. So it was just sort of like, you know, 1010, five to 10 years of sort of making lateral moves and like slowly moving into a space, like at IO nine, where I can write about the stuff that I really, really love, which is science fiction, fantasy, tabletop role playing games, and, you know, whatever, more or less whatever I want, like whatever interests me, there's some limits like, here's, here's a limit that I'm going to, I'm going to break down. I'm like, if my editor is listening to this, I'm sorry, I'm coming for you. He does not want us to cover Magic Mike, even though there's a third, there's a fourth movie coming out. It seems like I'm like magic is right in the name. It gets right there. This writes itself. So hopefully, I'll be able to, like, sneak that one in. We'll see if it works. But I'm just like magic is writing the name. If that's not science fiction and fantasy. I don't I don't know what it is.
Snyder’s Return:It's certainly somebody's fantasy. So
Linda Codega:exactly. It's what I'm saying.
Snyder’s Return:So we've mentioned IO nine. And we've mentioned your good self and this sort of long, sideways manoeuvres through to get to where you are. So now you are where you are. Where can we find you,
Linda Codega:you can find me being weird online at Twitter, which is just at li N, cod, e ga. And you can follow me on iOS nine, which is a vertical of Gizmodo. And that's where like all my writing is right now. Just on IO nine. And also I promote my writing, like the writing that I'm proud of on Twitter. So you can pretty frequently find my articles there as well.
Snyder’s Return:All right, well, I will make sure links to you i Oh, nine, Gizmodo, and all the other things we're going to mention including the the actual play you've mentioned earlier, down the description below. So please scroll down support Linda, and the fantastic work you do bringing us news and information. You mentioned their sci fi, fantasy TT RPGs films. What has been your favourite of each of those genres? In the last I don't know. Let's let's go with your five year sort of rain, sort of favourite game that you've either written about or you've watched, but maybe not been able to write about Magic Mike doesn't count on.
Linda Codega:You and my editor. Ridiculous. Um, that I haven't been able to write about. That's really hard because I think like a lot of really great television and films have come out in the past couple of years.
Snyder’s Return:What have been your favourites? I'm not going to try and overcomplicate the question.
Linda Codega:Yeah, that's what do you mind if I talk about the stuff I have written about? Yes, please. Okay, okay. Okay. I'll talk about like some of my favourites of the past year, because that's much easier for me because it's like in my little Rolodex. I just I know this is an audio medium, but I just pretended like my head was Rolodex and like spun my ear around you guys missed it. I really loved for films, everything everywhere all at once. Just an incredible film. And I obsessed over that film. I got to talk to the to the directors. I got to talk to Stephanie Chu. I loved that film so much. It really meant a lot to me. I'm on a one on a number of levels. And I think I produced a really incredible interview with the with the Daniels where they were talking about the structure of the film, and I was able to format the interview to reflect the structure of the of the film. I'm really I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of that interview. Yeah, I also for for television, I really loved Interview with the Vampire. I thought it was very, it was an incredibly well done contemporary retelling. It was hilarious and funny and dramatic and intense and sexy. And it really, I was expecting something much cheesier and pulpy or like kind of in the vein of like, oh, supernatural, like, I love it, but it's also just like, supernatural man. What are you gonna do? But they AMC and the whole cast and crew deliver this really elegant prestige drama somehow. And I'm just like, how did you pull this off? It was it was just incredible. I really, really wonderful, wonderful film, a wonderful piece of television for games. Gosh, there's so many that came out, um, games that came out last year. I really, really like into the odd and I've said that before I wrote it I wrote a review of into the odd which is sort of like old school role playing just like straight up dungeon delving but also like very clever about it satire and leaves a lot of open space, I think into the odd was probably one of my favourites from last year and I don't remember when orbital blues came out if that was last year, or the year before, but I'm I'm in an orbital blues game right now and I really am loving it. My GM is so good. He's so good. And I'm playing with like him his wife and like another friend and it's just like, it's really really wonderful. It's sad Space Cowboys, basically.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah. Yeah. Into the out is great. Most doing interview the creator of that game and the artwork in the book and the dungeon delving and hex call. It's all very cleverly done. The artwork is fantastic. Yeah, but to pick up a copy of it.
Linda Codega:Yeah, I totally agree. Oh, a book that came out last year monster care squad. An incredible book. Beautiful, like really nails this kind of like Pokeyman meets Final Fantasy vibe. Really, really love it. Um, another game that I've played multiple times over the past year is Apollo 47 by Tim Hutchings. I have not played that. It's so simple to play. It's basically like a chatter, space chatter game. The concept is, you are the 47th mission to the moon. And it's kind of this sort of like retro futurism where it's like, oh, yeah, like you're definitely on a mission to the moon. But it's like really boring, actually. And every time something interesting happens, like you end the scene. So it's just like nonstop radio chatter. And it's really, I don't know what it is about it that makes it like so fun. But it's incredibly fun. And I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of the 1000 page, NASA manual that the game comes with. So basically, like the game is like six pages at the front of this, like 1000 page, massive manual that's like, here's how to repair a rover. Like here's what the spacesuits look like. And you can literally just like flip to any page and start like bullshitting. That's the whole game is to just like have nonstop bullshit. Love it. It can be very, very fun.
Snyder’s Return:Ya know, it sounds it sounds it. I guess computer game would be the last category, I guess. Oh,
Linda Codega:I don't really play. I don't play a lot of video games. Honestly, I've been playing Haiti's basically non stop since it came out. But I know that's, you know, two or three or four years old at this point. But yeah, unfortunately, it's one of those things where it's like, I don't have a lot of time for video games, so I don't play a lot of them. Um, oh, I read a lot of books. I do read a lot of books. What are some good books from last year? I don't know. I can't think of any I read a lot of them. One of the ones that I read last year I think was the 1000 eyes which was a sequel to which was the aka Lockwood it was a sequel to her first book, which on the unspoken name was the first book. So the sequel came out and I really really vibed with the sequel. Really loved it. It was just a it's very it's very epic fantasy. A is sort of like the sort of science fantasy and like an orc girl. Assassin is like the main character and there's also like, a horrible goddess and like a terrible like magician precice. And like a really, really like disaster bisexual wizard and then also like, a young man who's like, accidentally becomes a dad. And he's just like, What do I do with a small child, but the small child is like, I wish for murder. Like, but like 40 year old repressed gay man, it's just like, Ah, it's really very funny. I thought it was just like a really great ending to that series.
Snyder’s Return:Sounds sounds good.
Linda Codega:Sorry, just minutes, I'm like, God I've consumed
Snyder’s Return:well, because you, you write about various media, you know, your, your opinion and your criticisms, and your likes and dislikes, you know, they carry weight, your your, your word in both verbal and print have to have substance to them. So, you know, you have to respect the opinions and, and the knowledge which you have. And you have you mentioned, when we were chatting there about films, you have conducted some incredible interviews with very high profile people in the past and more recently, so what's it like being put in front of an across from these icons and, and sort of trendsetters and leaders in their field of the topics you discuss with them, I want to pick out I'll let you pick out the ones that you've enjoyed the most.
Linda Codega:Yeah, it's one of those things where I'm very lucky that I don't really get starstruck. I'm very grateful that that has kind of been banished from my system. Um, but I think it's, it's really cool, I'm not gonna lie, I have a really, there are some like really, really cool parts to my job that I really appreciate. And that I really, I don't take for granted, I don't, I don't necessarily think that my job is would be bad if I didn't get to do some of the cool interviews I got to do. But I think that the fact that I do is like really fun for me, personally. I think that a big example is I got to do like a really long, like 30 minute sit down interview with Matt Mercer Mercer right recently, which was really, really fun for me, because I've never met them. And I don't really watch critical role. So I didn't really know who they were, but they were delightful people. They were very, very nice. And that was really fun. At the same time, when I was trying to be like, I know, you know, something that I know. And I know that you know that I know something. And we both know that we know things. So how much are you going to tell me right now? And how much are you just not going to tell me even though I know. Yeah, and you know, I know. stuff. Like that's really fun. I did an interview with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba last year, for 3000 years of longing. That was really delightful, because they loved my questions and also like, complimented my hair. So it was just like, you know, a double whammy where I'm just like, Oh, no. I've peeked This is it for me. I really did Peak Peak way too soon with that one. But that was a really fun interview. They were just we only got like six or seven minutes together, maybe even five. But they were, you know, very professional, but also very, like, yeah, that is a really great question. And then like went on for like four minutes. So I'm just like Mr. Elba. I have other classes. It's okay. Um, yeah. And then every now and then I get to meet people in person, which is really cool. I got to meet Alan coming. I got to meet Tyler Posey, which was really fun. Because we were like, basically the same age. And we were just like, really vibing like, in our interview, because we were just like joking around and being really silly. And I think that he sometimes doesn't get to do a lot of those interviews. Just like this was really fun. I'm just like, it was really fun. Right? I'm really fun. You liked me a lot. So yeah, there's a lot of those interviews that I really am very, very appreciative of. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's just really nice. I've interviewed Rahul Kohli twice, which was really, which is really fun. He's a very nice dude and very nerdy. And I'm excited for him to continue to be nerdy. Um, yeah, I really like. I really like doing those sorts of interviews. And I really like interviewing the showrunners of the cast and the creators and the writers, there are sometimes overlooked in favour of the the sort of movie stars that are attached to any given project. So when I really like something, I tend to go right for the writers and be like, so you want to do an interview, you want to talk to me. So I'm really lucky that I've been able to I've been given access to a lot of the creators that way, which is really really nice. And and then the The Interview with the Vampire television show, I became like a very loud and active participant in the fandom for that and the do it I did a tonne of interviews for it. And I did a tonne of writing on it just in general. Um, and I was really grateful that I got so much access, because I basically interviewed every single cast member, some of them twice. And I interviewed, and I interviewed like writers that I interviewed a couple of the cast members in person. So it was just really nice. It was really cool to be like a fan of something and also know like, oh, yeah, like if I talk to a cast member, they're going to recognise me, they're gonna like remember being just like, feels good. Very nerdy. And I'm very excited.
Snyder’s Return:It's all good stuff. All good stuff. And some something that has brought you more, more eyes from the TTRPG sphere was was breaking the whole DND Oh, GL kerfuffle debacle. And I mean, you'd have far better words for them than I but
Linda Codega:what was their fourth? Good?
Snyder’s Return:So what was it like? Getting on in on that first and seeing how that has evolved in days, weeks, months, and to where we are now and going into the future?
Linda Codega:Yeah, so I was one of the one of the first people to receive the OTL 1.1 from a source and I believe that I was the first outlet to report on it. And it's been kind of wild to see not only the response from the TTRPG community, but just the interest outside of it. It is really breached containment in a big way. I think once once, you know, they invite people on NPR to talk about a copyright licence, then you know, that like some something's weird, something's gone. Very, very wrong for for Wizards of the Coast. So I think it's, it's been really incredible. It's been kind of mind blowing. I'm very lucky that I, I guess I'm very grateful that I was willing to break it. Because obviously, it's very good for me like my career personally. And I think that there are there are not a lot of outlets that would have been able to understand and deliver the kind of coverage that IO nine was able to deliver. I think that there are I think polygon could have done it. I think dice burger could have done it, I think that maybe CVR comicbook.com could have done it. But even then that's, you know, a handful of outlets. I don't know if, you know, I don't know if like Washington Post would have cared, I don't know if the times would have cared like, I just don't know if those sort of big legacy outlets would have understood what what the OTL was, and like why it was so important. And I don't think any, I don't think any outlets other than sort of like the nerdy, focused outlets, maybe vise would have would have known what to do with it, maybe. But I think that they're, they're just like not a lot of places out there. That would have allowed their journalists or their reporters to sort of pursue to like, immediately pursue this story and like, keep up with it. So I'm very grateful came to me, I'm very grateful. I work at IO nine, and it just sort of happened to be a story that that took off. And that got a lot of attention. I think for a lot of reasons. Besides the fact that like, I was the first this it was the first like traditional outlet to report on it. I think it was the fact that it was confirming a lot of fears that had been brewing for like two to three months. And it was also kind of this weird culmination of a lot of issues that people had with Wizards of the Coast and sort of this was where like, the big camel that broke the big camel.
Snyder’s Return:Camel, the straw that broke the camel's
Linda Codega:the straw that broke the camel's back. More so than it was just like this sort of meteorite that killed came out of nowhere and blew everything up. So yeah, it's been really wild to watch. And I'm really grateful that I was able to report on it and then I'm still able to, to sort of pursue the story, because my editors have recognised how important it is. And they're just like, Go forth, right? Pursue. I'm just like, hell yeah,
Snyder’s Return:well, this the story continues on its own momentum, but it has also spiralled out or offshoots into the other games publishers and the indie games we've mentioned before. So what's it been like sort of seeing other game systems getting the recognition or at least getting mentioned now, alongside where this sort of monolith Titan, however you choose to describe what Wizards is, has faltered in it's sort of steps.
Linda Codega:Yeah, I'm, I think that's the best thing to sort of come out of this whole kerfuffle is that other systems are getting a chance to show up and show off and get new players and that the scene is diversifying? Because really, you know, back in the back in the 90s, even back in like the early 2000s, no one just played Dungeons and Dragons like they do now. It really was fivey, that kind of vaulted it was like a combination of like five e Tazz. Critical Role and like Stranger Things that solidified Dungeons and Dragons is kind of like the role playing game. And so because it the the scene has always been diverse. But it has never really had such a huge cultural impact as it has now. And done to the dragons was just there to sort of take advantage of that cultural currency in a big way. So I'm really grateful that people are realising and recognising and seeing other games and are also curious about other games, and are also willing to branch out into other games. I think that that's probably the best thing that could happen out of this is that it's not necessarily that like, wizards goes on there, like Dungeons, dragons stops or anything like that. It's that people explore new ways to make stories with your friends. And I think new games and new systems are like the perfect way to do that.
Snyder’s Return:Is so you have mentioned science fiction, we've mentioned TTRPG as you mentioned, playing orbital blues. What other science fiction to JRPGs Do you enjoy playing or would you recommend or would you like to play since these sort of ticker several of your four boxes as it were?
Linda Codega:Sure. I'm I'm really interested in playing the Blade Runner RPG from free League. My only reservation is that you have to play a cop. Like the whole game is centred around being like a replicant cop. And I'm like, okay, a choice. But okay, um, there's cyborg, there's Balikbayan there's other good, good sci fi. The sprawl is a really excellent, like sci fi. Set like, dystopia. Gosh, what is what is the word for the Sci Fi this cyberpunk? Yeah, that's a word for the word from the genre that was just totally escaping me. This Brawl is really really great. There's a lot of really good games out there inspired by Star Wars. I know that there's a galactic to EA that I really want to play is a belonging outside belonging game by Riley. ragdoll, what other goods if I can oh my gosh, so there's a lost in space which is another it's not a freely game but it's under there like freely like public like mothership wonderful game. I really really dig the D 100 system and the panic engine. I think it's really clever. Yeah, there's there's a lot of games out there that are sci fi that like either want to play or like have played. I think it's really fun. I love games. I love games.
Snyder’s Return:If you haven't had the chance. I would recommend alien also by free League and death in space. Also under the freely publishing house banner,
Linda Codega:actually yeah, I think death and space was the one that I was I was talking about when I think I might have said lost in space but death and space the one with like the black cover whirly Yes, that one is Jerry. Oh, it's incredible. Oh, Lancer. How can I forget Lancer? I love a Mac. I love anything that is like sad max. So lasers definitely way up there.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, so that's my massive press. But you also recommended another article that you wrote that I've read recently. I've got it written here. Apocalypse frame.
Linda Codega:Oh, yes, Apocalypse frame is like a brand new mech game. It's like a rebellion. Anti capitalist game, where you're playing. Basically like rivals fighting gets like giant corpse and you have like Big Macs. That's a game I have not played but I would love to play my Absolutely.
Snyder’s Return:So we've we've covered games, you would like to play games, you have played games you've written about games, and games, games games. You said you didn't get much spare time you're playing an auto blues game you enjoy a couple of actual play podcasts? And if you other things. Yeah. Do you do much else for your limited spare time? You've worked all this time to get time. And now you have very limited time to what what?
Linda Codega:What do I do in my spare time? Um, I spend a lot of time with my friends. Frankly, I know that's a really boring answer. But we do a lot of potlucks. We do movie dinners we do. All a lot of my friends are artists. So they they like art galleries. And we like you know, we turned our galleries openings into dance parties. So hanging out with my friends is really great. Because we all live, there's like six or seven of us. We all live within like a mile or two of each other. Which I think is kind of rare. I don't live in New York City. I live in kind of like a small town. Kind of like north of New York City. The fact that it's just like there's four or five houses of like friends is pretty wonderful. I really like hiking, I go hiking with my dog a lot. There's a lot of mountains up here again, I live north of New York City. So it's the Hudson Valley mountains everywhere. So I really love mountains. A little dog is like having a little dream. If people hike with my little dog.
Snyder’s Return:What's your dog's name?
Linda Codega:Zigzag. Okay, so her government name is zag Reyes. Her government name is Sagittarius, but I call her zigzag.
Snyder’s Return:But it's amazing. I'm not really great.
Linda Codega:Yeah. People are like government name is she sold drugs. She just gets in trouble. Because, um, I also am a competitive sailor. In the summertime, so that's really fun. I make good, a good sailor. I promise. I'll still I do in my spare time. I write I do a lot of writing. I've written a couple of novels, and a bunch of short stories and games.
Snyder’s Return:So outside of Twitter, then can we find these novels anywhere else? The short stories.
Linda Codega:So the novel, I currently have a literary agent and my novel is being shopped around to editors. So fingers crossed, you know, in a year or two, we'll be able to see that on shelves. But for now the novels are, you know, in in the hands of my agent who is doing doing her best to get those sold. My short stories are kind of older, but I have one coming out in uncharted magazine in March that I need to like check up on. But yeah, yeah, got paid, accepted the whole shebang. So we'll see. We'll see if that if that does end up coming out because like schedules changed for short, short bags. Yeah, that's, that's like the most recent stuff. Everything else is kind of kind of older, like four or five years old. But I have an itch.io page. For my games, if you want to check those out. There are a lot of like really small games, most of them are free or pay what you want. So again, it's I'm lucky that it's just a hobby, and I don't necessarily need to make money on those games for any reason at all. Some of them are paid where I've just like, worked really hard on this. deserve $2
Snyder’s Return:I mean, that's fair. So if you want to support Linda, on her hobby, playing our hobby, which is all of our hobby, that was a sentence. Then scroll down follow the link I will make sure there's a link to your h i o page along with your twitter, instagram because I found you on there thick and I oh nine, Gizmodo and any other actual places you want to mention.
Linda Codega:Sure. I mean I'm I'm pretty basic. I don't have a lot of I don't have a lot of time
Snyder’s Return:learning so oh gosh.
Linda Codega:But so on my walks I listened to interstitial and I'm and that's like a pretty long backlog. So I'm working through that. They also listen to Taz, I listened to the adventure zone. And I think everyone does. But the new the new season steeplechase is really, really good. It's a place in the dark campaign. And it sort of takes place in this kind of horrible cyber future Disneyland, where like everyone is sort of like in the immersive experience, it's terrifying. And it's very good.
Snyder’s Return:That sounds terrifying and extremely good. So I might be checking that one out myself. So, yes, having discussed many things, is there anything you want to bring up at this point in time?
Linda Codega:Um, I don't think so. I think though, we've we've covered a lot, I'd say like the only the only other thing is like, if, if anyone out there listening has a story about something that is fucked up. And they, they want someone to tell that story. You can always email me and we can try and work together. But that's it. I really want to continue to do journalism that serves the tabletop role playing game community, and I want to continue to do journalism that serves the gaming community. And I want to continue to do journalism that uplifts the the other journalists and like the games, criticism and like games reporting, colleagues, like my colleagues, you know, I really want to help further the the respect that people have for games journalism, and I really want to tell people's stories.
Snyder’s Return:And you have told many stories, and we are at why personally, I'm looking forward to reading more of your stories, both literal stories and the articles you write within the various fandoms that be sort of share. And that was
Linda Codega:you. Wait, what are some of your fandoms? What? What fandoms? Do we share? Well,
Snyder’s Return:science fiction TTRPG is movies and sci fi and a few other bits and pieces. So being general because there's we can go down rabbit holes. We don't want to go down that.
Linda Codega:Fine. You don't want to go down rabbit holes. I'm fine to go down rabbit. Wow.
Snyder’s Return:Interesting. Interesting.
Linda Codega:Yeah. Well, I hope to deliver the future I hope to I hope that like my articles making you happy. Yeah,
Snyder’s Return:absolutely. So with the future in mind as sort of as we start closing this out with the future in mind, where do you see the TTRPG? Hobby fandom? Just business? In general, you said everything and watched everything from pre wizards, to now, the piezo coming into sort of the forefront along with indie companies, the orc system being created and things like that, where do you think the HMI is going into the future?
Linda Codega:Um, gosh, I still think it's really hard to say, especially with, we really don't know what's going to happen with one d&d. And I think the fact is that Dungeons and Dragons still has a massive advantage over everyone else in the industry, even with the kerfuffle of January. So we'll have to see what one DND does, we'll have to see what some of the big creators do. I still think that critical role has some tricks up their sleeve. And I think that they're going to Yeah, I think that if they if they do something different than DND, is really going to have to adjust fast. I mean, personally, the only thing that I can say is that I really think that the future of RPGs is going to be more diverse. I think that more voices, more companies, more games. I think that that's kind of the only guarantee that I have is that people are going to continue to make games and they're going to continually and deliberately move away from Dungeons and Dragons. I think that's the the only guarantee right now.
Snyder’s Return:Well, we will watch together and hopefully sort of see some fantastic progress through across the board, as it were. I hope so. Yeah, I hope so to keep that hope. Alive. keep that alive.
Linda Codega:I only need to Yeah, no, I'm sorry. Do I think the only thing that we need to do is or we can look at, you know, zine quest, and how incredible zine quest is every year and grows every single year and has moved far beyond its origins at Kickstarter to where like, it's like people are basing their entire operating by This unlike what they do in February, whether that's on Kickstarter or game founder Indiegogo. So I think that I think that we just sort of have to look at the success of the that sort of indie RPG movement to see that it's possible. And it's happening right now. But I hope that that continues and that more more indie games come out. Yeah.
Snyder’s Return:Looking forward to looking forward to it. Linda, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. And I know we've got a lot more topics to talk about. So I'd love to get you back in the future to see how the hobby develops, how your career developed, how your writing and all those sorts of good things develop. So so we as a group can follow you one last time. Would you like to repeat where we can find you on social media, please?
Linda Codega:Yeah, you can find me being a gremlin on Twitter. My Twitter is LinCodega. I am a disaster and I'm very online. Excellent. Hang out with
Snyder’s Return:you. Sure. Well, it's been a pleasure. As I said, I'd love to get you back in the future if you'd be willing to come back and join me.
Linda Codega:Absolutely. Thank you so much. Daddo.
Snyder’s Return:Thank you, Linda. Thanks 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