Interview - Lauren Urban - DM/DnD Beyond Community Manager/Oboe Player

Today I talk with Legendary DM of the Dungeon Drunks Podcast, DnD Beyond Community Manager, Player of popular Characters and Professional Oboe Player about getting into the Hobby, favoured encounters, jumping into fellow shows and getting started as a D&D group. You can find Lauren Urban and Dungeon Drunks Podcast via the links below.

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Guest: Lauren Urban

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Transcript

Snyder’s Return : 0:28

Hello, and welcome to Snyder's return a tabletop role playing podcast. My guest today is he distinguished dungeon master who has guided many humble venture into Dungeons and Dragons. She's a musician, Dungeon Master player, podcaster and d&d beyond Community Manager. She achieves All this and more while enjoying a good drink with good friends. My guest today is the incredible Lauren urban Lauren, welcome to the show.

Lauren Urban : 0:52

Thank you for having me. What a lovely intro. I did not know how I'm going to be able to stand up to that intro Wow.

Snyder’s Return : 1:00

Well, you already live up to most of that is just telling everybody about it. So starting with that, would you like to tell everybody how you got into podcasting and tabletop role playing games, please?

Unknown Speaker : 1:11

Oh, podcasting started before the tabletop role playing Actually, I had a friend who is now one of my players in my d&d podcast, who was doing a podcast for the roosterteeth community, essentially just a fun weekly, mostly inspired by the the people who actually work at roosterteeth. Their podcast, and this was kind of the community part of that he asked me to be on it. JACK NFL from my show, one of my best friends. And I said sure, because I had done some radio in the past because I'm old. So I was kind of interested in getting back into doing that kind of performing without being an oboist. And so for a couple of years, we did that and That morphed into us putting together this d&d group that then became a d&d livestream podcast. Because when fourth edition was morphing into fifth edition that was still kind of the best way to hear live play d&d was podcast format. That's how acquisitions incorporated started. That's how a lot of d&d content was being presented. TWITCH wasn't really a thing YouTube was was just barely starting to be a thing that they would pre record some of the games. So we put out this podcast and it was 100%. We were podcasters who wanted to play d&d. And so it made sense for us to just record it and put it out into the universe. And little did we know that that was going to be a very common thing for a lot of fans of d&d to want to do. And so we joined some distinguished ranks and it kind of folded from there but yeah, I originally did a little bit of radio when I was living to Florida and so when a opportunity to do a podcast came along I signed up and then when a DND podcast was presented I said sure.

Snyder’s Return : 3:10

Well, you've been a part of or the DM for the dungeon junks for a while now and a time of recording you on your 200 and 24th episode I did have to check that I'm a listen to myself and thoroughly enjoy it would you like to expand on dungeon Johnson tell everybody a little bit more and when they can find it.

Unknown Speaker : 3:31

Sure dungeon drunks releases an episode every Monday. We usually put out somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour and a half. I am a firm believer in podcasts being of a reasonable length. And so sometimes our games get cut into multiple episodes. And it's literally my home game. I guess you could say even though it's always been a podcast and always been over the internet because we all live in different parts of the country but it is it is the game. I would run around my table, we just run it over the internet. It's me and four of my best friends and we break the ice a little bit by talking about what we're drinking. I thought the name dungeon drunks, it's not always alcohol, we actually have a player on the show who now has been sober for a year and so doesn't drink any alcohol. Often, one of us is drinking tea, whatever it is that we're drinking, it's just part of the the icebreaker at the beginning to kind of get into chaton. And so what are your drinking, and then we just start to play and it's been a multi year campaign that started many, many years ago. I was intending on actually running tyranny of dragons, I was going to run hoard of the dragon queen. And as often happens when I run a game, I say, okay, everybody's all interested in this, but Oh, let me pull from this and I'll do some homebrew stuff along the way. And then it very quickly just turned into almost 100% homebrew with a few things from that campaign thrown in for good measure. So that's that's where it started. And that's what it continues to be it is. Four of us are my four players and me playing like we would if the cameras and the microphones weren't on.

Snyder’s Return : 5:14

It is really entertaining. I strongly suggest anyone that wants to listen to a d&d podcast, go and listen to the dungeon drunks and you don't just, it's not just your core world, you you've been drawn into some of the significant releases. That was the coaster pile. Most recently you did the a venture, shall we say into theorists?

Unknown Speaker : 5:36

Yeah, so we've been really lucky the last couple of years and being able to partner up with a bunch of different podcasts to do some of the big events that have come out. And while feroze ended up just kind of being on our own a bunch of the other big releases. We've done kind of a collaborative thing, either the the podcast of annihilation, and we did the podcast. And where we would do an episode that was part of a group of shows and podcasts who were all putting a big adventure together. And the that's always fun because as I said, we're excited to join the wider podcast community. And a lot of those podcasts are filled with other awesome people who I always am excited to either play with or adjacent to whenever I can. And we've been able to have a couple guests on and it's it's been an opportunity to jump into a the wider community and have a lot of fun. And then my personal goals always been to have that stuff be in canon, which after 200 episodes is sometimes a bit of a challenge, but I enjoy it because then I like my players to be able to reference those moments as we go forward. So, so far, I've been able to do it although oftentimes I do. I've gone into cliches and has been dream sequences and such The portals, but hey, you know everybody's game for something fun like that. So we've been very lucky.

Snyder’s Return : 7:06

I've really enjoyed those extra adventures you've done and you're not trapped behind the DM screen you have appeared on a or are part of a number of the other podcasts. Could you mention a few of those?

Unknown Speaker : 7:18

Yeah, so my work with d&d beyond has led me not only go and guest on a bunch of awesome shows, but we have our own shows, silver and steel, which is a live stream on Tuesdays that I play on and our our other show that started when I first are working at d&d beyond it was originally called heroes of the veil. And then after two chapters of that it morphed into beyond heroes, and that is coming to a close. That show recently ended and we have a four part miniseries called fire and forge and where a bunch of our characters are, it's we're closing up the storyline and some of those characters are going over to silver and steel because we're just gonna have the one show going forward. So it has been a pleasure to play on those shows and I am it's been nice to play especially when beyond heroes was on because for a very long time I was one of those forever dmws so having a chance between that and a couple of other shows that I've had a chance to be on have given me the chance to be a player in a major campaign and that I think it's useful for any forever dm to to get the chance to play not just because everyone deserves a chance to play but also it gives you a fresh perspective on things it gives you that that other side of the the table joy and sometimes terror depending on the game but but yeah, that's been a lot of fun. And I'm excited to see so my my dragon born cleric is very soon going to be migrating over to silver and steel and continuing her adventures over there.

Snyder’s Return : 8:58

But that is exciting. And you've you've also started or played as rocking the demon plague and you've appeared with the personally I find them excellent the taking initiative podcast as well. Oh, yes. So do you often get the chance to sort of guest spot in the you mentioned sort of playing as part of your cleric. But you often get chances to talk guest spot in other podcasts that are out there as well.

Unknown Speaker : 9:30

Absolutely. It's been less podcast recently just because there's been way more live streams but I tried to say yes to as much as possible, especially other podcasts because that those are my roots and some of those people have been being podcasters and DND podcasters for years now. And so they're often people that I've wanted to play with for forever and anytime that I get the chance to join on in whether it's a one shot or a guest spot or whatever, that has been a lot of fun and I've, I haven't been able to do as much recently in a way because there's just been so much and and I've been really busy in the last couple of months. But what we have been able to do is I've been guest spotting as my that Dragonborn cleric of mine or Kara, she shows up in a couple other shows, and that has been super fun. And we've been working on the same way the podcasts have been sharing a universe and trying to play together as often as possible. A lot of the live streams are doing the same thing. So being able to work with a bunch of other live streams and pull together kind of a larger cinematic universe has been has been great fun, and I would do it all the time, if I could.

Snyder’s Return : 10:50

Which brings us to what your your job really is, as DND Community Manager how how have you found taking on that role and and sort of being apart community from that aspect.

Unknown Speaker : 11:03

It's daunting of it's one thing to just be a fan of everything. And then it's another to be kind of in that official capacity as both a fan and an advocate and also working for a company. And it's opened up a lot of opportunities to help people and support streamers, especially with charity work. I am a huge fan of anyone who is going to raise money for a worthy cause. And I think the d&d community in general has some deep roots in we're in the idea of, we're going to play a silly game on the internet and raise money for charity, or we're going to promote a charity while we play. And so it's been gratifying to now be in a position in where I've got the full backing of d&d beyond behind me in supporting anyone who's doing fundraising For the Red Nose Day or the Trevor Project or game to grow, or you know, any of the so many wonderful initiatives that are out there and to do it while playing d&d, which, you know, has been a lot of fun and to participate in some of those streams as well. But the double edged sword of this community as it has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, you know, there's, there's those moments and where you think back to five or six years ago, when there was no live streaming d&d, there was very little d&d, when fifth edition first started, it was it was coming from a place in where very few people were playing or at least playing publicly, and then it's just grown so large and gone are the days and where you can watch all of the shows. Gone are the days and where I can keep up with all of the podcasts and all the shows because there's there's more going on, you know, just in the 15 minutes that we've been talking of already. He missed so much. And that's, and there's part of me that, you know, feels that that I used to be the person that would watch and listen to all of it, because there wasn't that much. And now, there is that much, which is amazing. But it's also weirdly frustrating to be the person who wants to be in the community and helping and talking to people in the community and not knowing where to go or not having enough time to go because there's just so much so I think it's a it's a weird it's a weird moment for me, but I think it's good for everybody because having that variety out there is amazing, but it's it can be stressful at times when, you know, I'm looking at the five different streams that are going on at the same time and the backlog of podcasts. And knowing that I'm just not going to be able to keep up with it all and trying to hop around places and talk to people and be in discords and know that it's never We're gonna be enough, you know?

Snyder’s Return : 14:02

Yeah, I've restricted myself to I think I'm, I've managed to claw myself back to four podcasts on rotation. And I, you know, I miss out on like the critical role stream and things like that. Because of that time is also time for other podcasts and time for family and time for x, y and other commitments and things like that. So I certainly feel your frustrations there. Absolutely. So you mentioned appearing on and playing as part of either charity games or moving Akira crosta others live streams or podcast? Is there characters that you've created that you've just got sat on the back burner and you're just waiting for that opportunity to use them? Or do you just take what your guests bought, sort of brings to you and build from there? How do you have a create and control your characters in that respect?

Unknown Speaker : 15:00

So most of the time, the joy that I get out of character creation is filling gaps. And I, I don't know if it's because of the fact that I've had this opportunity to jump around and play in a bunch of shows or that I was a DM for so long. But my, when I get asked to either join a one shot or a small campaign or a stream, or whatever, and I'm going to create a different character, my first instinct is to find out, okay, who is already in the game? What are the other characters in the game because I like having a role to fill. And while I completely believe that you can have an entire party of human clerics, and everybody can be a complete different character, like there can be overlap with races and classes and all of that. What I find, however, is that by looking at a party comp, it it's that idea of if you have a blank page, there's nothing to write but if you have some concerns It gives you a place to start. So looking at what the other players are doing, or if they haven't figured it out what they're thinking about doing can help weed out all of the options and give me a place to go, Oh, this party has a lot of magic users, so they could really use someone melee. Oh, this party is very caster focused. But there's no healers of that kind of thing. And so that's usually where I start building my characters is what's missing? what role can I fill? What unique place Can I come in? That's not currently being covered. And then what is the general what's the general world or what's the general adventure and build something from there? And then the other thing that I really like doing that I've mostly ran is the all party comp have one thing I've run in all tabaxi adventure, I've got an all clear adventure in the works I've I've I've ran it all Eric okra adventure. I do love presenting those one shots to people and then watching as people can build an entire party out of the similarities that they have. But me personally when I go in for a game I'm looking for what are they missing? And where can I build from there and that that usually gives me an excellent place to start.

Snyder’s Return : 17:27

Well did you know it's important to sort of support you don't want to step on toes or steal the limelight from someone that's a regular I guess. But with with the way you've spoken about characterization, what has been your biggest influence on the way you you dm and run a game and how you also roleplay characters

Unknown Speaker : 17:50

the as a DM I pull from all sorts of other DMS and and a lot of it has been listening to podcasts and watching street Because everyone who dmws has their own particular style and strengths and weaknesses, and things that they specifically do incredibly well. And so watching, like, watching Matt Mercer is inspirational, but also being able to go Oh, I like this one thing that he does, and I'm gonna I'm going to take that and incorporate that into my playing, watching Jerry from Penny Arcade when he's doing the C team, but watching Todd as I play on on beyond heroes and some of the stuff that he does, watching, you know, any of these dmws everyone does something, at least one thing really well that I wish I could do better. And being inspired by that to incorporate that into my own style. And then as a player, I think one of the best piece of advice I don't remember where I got this piece of advice, but someone you If someone told me or it came out in a conversation that one of the best ways to be a player in a game and to have fun is to be the player that asks the other characters questions, be the player, you know, if you don't know what to do, if you're unsure how to help, or if you're unsure how to be a part of a game without taking over the spotlight, whichever one deserves to do every now and then every once in a while your character is just the one that is getting the the main focus of the story, but when you're not, or when there isn't, and you're working as a team, how would you best go about that? And if you're unsure, ask questions in or out of character, but especially in character being the character that even just asks, okay, what do we do now? Should we go over here we go over there. Ask the question and prompt other people because somebody in the group will have an answer and being that character that sparks other characters to reply, it It's, it feels good. And it doesn't have to mean that you never get to present an idea. But it helps in those moments where you're like, I don't know what to do. And you know, maybe we're spinning our wheels or maybe we don't know how to go forward. Or maybe things are a little awkward right now, because we just started the game or this is a one shot, we're still getting to know each other, be the character that asks questions, be the person that asks other players, what do they think we should do? And and then roll with those answers.

Snyder’s Return : 20:32

Sound Advice and something I'm definitely gonna encourage my players who are who are actually quite good at this label to sort of prompt each other but definitely something that I'll look to incorporate in my games, even from the other side of the screen. Maybe an NPC prompts just a single question and that sort of moves everything forward.

Unknown Speaker : 20:51

Yeah, definitely. That's if most people who play d&d they want to actually do things and we all have that moment of we don't know what to do now. And just having someone Ask your opinion, and knowing in at least in the DND space that you're in, oh, this is a place where I can have a, I can have a bad idea and it's okay. But I'm being asked what my ideas and that's exciting and then and then supporting that idea is that's that's one of my favourite things to do in a d&d game and it almost always helps move the game forward and get the party rolling.

Snyder’s Return : 21:23

Yeah, absolutely. I think that I think is true for most teams that have seen it. The analysis paralysis in front of a locked door seems to grind games to an instant halt as the table looks at each other as if to say, what do we do now? Yeah, so speaking of locked doors, and dungeons and things like that, you run an amazing campaign for dungeon drunks book from the NPCs and monsters you've used which have been your sort of favourites that you've used so far. I don't want to sort of give away too many spoilers, but an encounter is is most memorable to you? The

Unknown Speaker : 22:04

To be honest, it's what the players do is usually as a DM, what makes the encounters memorable. I enjoy throwing encounters. If we're talking about a straight on fight, I enjoy throwing encounters, that the monsters are going to offer a specific challenge. It might just be a specific challenge to one player, it might be a challenge to the entire group, it might be more of a puzzle type of encounter, whatever it is, as it should, it shouldn't just be a throwaway or if it doesn't necessarily have to be a deadly life or death encounter. It can be a fluffy one, it can be one that all right I know my players are going to best this encounter, but it's going to tell it's going to inform them of something or it's going to tell them something that's going to challenge them in some way. And so a lot of the monsters that reason that I pick them is their story related, or they're specifically going to challenge a player who could use a challenge or art is going to let a player shine on. Some of my favourite moments didn't involve very exciting monsters. They just gave my players an opportunity to do something cool. On my podcast, Jonathan, the magic muscular is, for a very long time was so focused on fire. And so all of his magic was was evocation fire wizard stuff, and he poured a lot of time and energy into it. And so sometimes I wanted to reward that by offering stuff he could blow up really easily so it could feel powerful and other times I wanted to challenge him by All right, here's a whole bunch of stuff that's resistant or immune to fire, but you got to be careful because you don't want a player to feel like you're picking on them or ostracised. So it's like Alright, here's two bad news. Guys, one of them is immune to fire, but you can go after the other. And then when he diversified a little bit when he started to grab some other spells, I wanted to reward that thinking I wanted to reward that. You know, not that it would be bad if he'd continue down the fire path, but he very specifically said, Oh, I want to have some other options at my disposal, and I wanted to make him feel like those were the right choices. Um, I got a cleric in the party. And so every once in a while throwing a horde of undead that I know are just going to get decimated is a lot of fun, but then also, including someone dead that can resist what she does. And so she has to do some other things. Throwing monsters who are going to attack in a specific way that some of my players are not going to be very good at defending against. But then, maybe after the fight when they say say, oh, we're really bad at that, when they go about figuring out how to get better at defending against a specific kind of creature, rewarding them and making the next time they come across a similar type of creature or similar type of efforts make it succeed. So for me, it's less about a specific creature, it's picking the right creature at the right time. And which doesn't always work because sometimes my idea is I want it to be this challenging fight that they're going to be able to overcome by the skin of their teeth and feel really powerful. And then my barbarian rolls three natural 20s in a row. Sometimes it doesn't happen. If I have to pick specific creatures just in just out of the blue without context, I gravitate towards those that have that are more than just bags of hitpoints and are more than just a melee attack. And especially creatures that have not just that flexibility but have a story behind them. Recently, flails, nails, To up on silver and steel, and Lauren, the player had to stop herself from jumping up and down in glean because I threw flail snails at my party as soon as they appeared in the book and I had the stats for them. And I think flails, nails are amazing. Because you can do so many things with them. They're, they're just a beast, so they don't have to be aggressive so you can have an encounter with them that's not about fighting. They have a bunch of different abilities that are not ones that you normally see in a monster. So if you do fight them, they've got some pretty nifty reactionary stuff.

Unknown Speaker : 26:38

And then just because of the way they're described, they're one of the few monsters in any of the official lore that come with, you can harvest stuff from them if they're alive, you can harvest the glass behind them. If you kill them, you can harvest the shell and it the book actually goes into. Here's some of the things you can do with the shell, which is Amazing you know that there's not a lot of other monsters in the in any of the books that have anything like that. So they come with all of these really interesting plot hooks. And I love them. I think they're fantastic and they're ridiculous. They're, they're human size snails. I mean, come on. It's It's amazing. So, see I threw them like that the book that they were in came out. I think I threw them at my party like two weeks later. It was I was so excited about them. I've thrown them at several different one shots. I have a short term work game through d&d beyond I threw them at them. I use flail snails all the time. So when they showed up in silver and steel, though, if you watch you can see me on a regular basis just grinning ear to ear and I had to do a lot of tempering down my own innate response to people when they're like, well, what can it do because my character didn't roll very well or nature check so my character didn't know very much. So it was a lot of me just trying to be quiet. Did that I didn't metagame anything but I was super excited about about this well as nails showing up,

Snyder’s Return : 28:06

I can definitely second that fly off. Now I dropped one into Grover and our party went after it relentlessly much To their surprise, we say, but they did an age check and got really well in the artists for artists suffer major sort of harvest the shelf for his defender. Oh, so I allowed him to have the upgrade on on that just to, you know, reward their creativity. So, flail snails, hands down one of my favourites. I have many others but that's one of the ones I've I've enjoyed dropped into my game the most as well. So without only with you mentioning work colleagues and things, what does the future hold for for you, Lauren, professionally or personally as well? Oh,

Unknown Speaker : 28:57

well Personally, I am As we're recording this, we are still in the middle of a pandemic. And my I used to joke last year before the pandemic that my day job was DND. And my night job was oboe playing because I am a professional oboist by trade. And until the pandemic came along, that was my life is during the day and most evenings I would do DND stuff and work for d&d beyond and then on the weekends, or some weeks when I wasn't at a convention or something else going on. I was I play gigs. I play in orchestras. And sadly, until we get this pandemic under control, the orchestra part of my life is gone for a while, because for obvious reasons, not you're not going to want to sit in a room with a couple thousand other people. And those of us on stage have to sit very close and be breathing at each other. So that is not a thing that's going to happen. So personally, it's it's been a lot of me leaning and being very grateful to the DND side, like without d&d beyond. I would be in a lot of trouble because I would have nothing. So, it's, it's been, I've been very grateful to have it. And I've been able to lean into it more and do some other stuff. Um, as far as professionally besides enjoying it, um, it's been an interesting transition once again, because of the pandemic, because a lot of the plans that we initially had, especially for me as a community manager included a lot more conventions, and those have become a not a thing, at least in person, there's been a lot more virtual conventions. And so it's been a game plan, change there in just being able to go and both interact at conventions and then also participate in them. If my job is the community managers to reach out into the community and be around that that's a little easier to do in person when you know I can just be in a place and hang out with people. So I have to Be a little more proactive when everything is online. But it's it's been an opportunity to also play a lot more I run a lot more games on for for people just one shots I run we have a looking for group on the discord and on our forums and I've just put out there that hey, I'm running a one shot in this day anyone want to come? which always surprises me that other people are surprised when that happens, like what is what is a staff member for DDB on doing running games and I'm like playing games and I want to run a game and I want to run a one shot and here we are. So so I've been doing a bit more of that have been doing a lot more just because I've had a little more time. with not having the oboe part I've been able to go and participate a little bit more in supporting other shows and other streams and going forward. Probably because of the Me missing the performing part of my life. I am looking to get more into the creative side of things. I have done a little tiny bit of of game design. Mostly I've done a bunch of magic items and some spells and a subclass. And I've been, you know, just trying out a whole bunch of different things in the DND space and seeing what, what comes next.

Snyder’s Return : 32:27

Alright, well, it sounds like you're definitely keeping yourself busy. And although although you've not been able to go and play you have been playing on or for Twitter, I should say. So if people want to sample some of your fine oboe playing they can find on there. Speaking of which, where can people watch these or find you on the various social media platforms?

Unknown Speaker : 32:51

Twitter is the best place that is for my personal account. have come to its elbow Lauren on Twitter. I I have ins on all of the social media but most of them tend to be me doing things in a professional capacity as DND beyond. So if you're looking for Lauren, that's where the best place you'll find me. And then I do a lot of as I said, I hang on a lot of twitch chats, I'm on a tonne of discord. If you come to d&d beyond calm and come to our forums, I'm, I'm not always able to reply to a lot there. But I do read a tonne of stuff on the forums and on our Discord. And I just hang out there a lot keeping an eye on what people are talking about and thinking about and if you if you call out to me depending on what's going on, I will try to answer whether on Twitter or in the DDB on discord or on the forums. If you send me a private message. I will do my best to get back to on a regular basis. And yeah, but Twitter is the best way to follow me. If you're interested in any Have the stuff both personal and professional, but I'm doing

Snyder’s Return : 34:05

alright. So you've been a podcaster for a long time and almost forever dm, what advice would you give to people who are looking to do either or both.

Unknown Speaker : 34:17

Get yourself the essentials kit or the starter set and do it. Honestly, that's it's, it's so it can be daunting, especially if you're looking into getting into being a DM, but it doesn't have to be. And I do think both of those starter sets are excellent places to start as both a DM or a player there. It comes with everything you need. It comes with some excellent starter adventures that are both friendly for DMS and players. If you're if money is tight, and you don't have the money to spend on either of those sets, take a look at some of the free content that's available all over the place. One of the best things on DND beyond as James hake does Encounters of the week, and not just him, we've had McKenzie do Ross and Celeste sandwich and a whole bunch of other guests come on and write encounters that are hundred percent free. And starting out with something small like that something you couldn't run in two, three hours, that you don't feel like you have to memorise a whole bunch of stuff to be able to run as a DM is fantastic. And so come to the site, poll and encounter that sounds interesting. If you're if you just want to be a player and you're looking for a couple of other players, grab a bunch of people and say, hey, let's do this. Oftentimes, if you're the player who's grabbing other people, you turn into the DM and now you know where to go grab an encounter. But yeah, start small like that. Start with something you're excited about. Do a tiny little session zero. If you don't know what that is. You can look that up online but a session zero literally is just sit down with everybody or you can do it over email or on discord over text and talk through what it is all of you want out of the game. Alright, this is the sometimes it's nuts and bolts things the length of the game who everybody is playing the style of the game. Are we playing a fun wacky adventure? Are we playing a serious fent of high fantasy game? Are we doing something in everon? Is this a horror themed game? Is everybody on board for that kind of thing. talk through the things you want and you don't want you can look at some safety tools like lines and veils or the x card as safety ways in where people can agree to play in a game and feel confident that if something comes up that they're not comfortable with role playing, they can let people know without going into details. And then just do it For the players out there be be mindful of the fact that everybody's new and just try to have fun and try to help everybody. Have fun. And remember your dm is just trying to help have fun. And if you're the DM remember that your players are trying to have fun and trying to help you have fun and that it's okay if you don't know everything and it's okay if you have to look up a rule. And it's okay if you make it up and you get it wrong. As long as everyone's trying to have fun and having fun. That's the most important thing. Yeah, my my biggest suggestion is grab something small, and grab a bunch of people that you like, and go for it.

Snyder’s Return : 37:39

To paraphrase Jeremy Crawford, that is seas of sage advice from an authority in the game. And we haven't had time today to sort of go into adventures including sort of the revamped Curse of stride and the future of sort of the ice icewind Dale adventure so if you have the timeline I'd love for you to come back on the show and speak to me more about how things in the DND beyond community are going DND at large, and and just how you aren't in general. Oh, sure. That'd be great. Well, thank you for your time. today. It's been most appreciated. I've wanted to have this interview for a long time. And I've just been so fortunate that you've been able to find some time. So thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker : 38:23

Well, thank you for having me. This has been fun. And yeah, hopefully in the next time I come back on hopefully, we'll be have more in person games. And I mean, I'll say this, though, you just dropped about the revamped Christmas drive that just got announced. So I'm excited to hear more about that myself and icewind Dale is a few more weeks out. So I'm as excited to hear about all of that as you are.

Snyder’s Return : 38:48

Well, that's great to hear. Right. Thank you very much for your time today.

Lauren Urban : 38:52

Thank you

Snyder’s Return : 39:04

Thanks for listening. If you want to hear more of us or to get in contact with us, you can find us on Twitter at Return Snyder. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and also if you wish to support the channel on patreon@patreon.com slash nice return. music and sound effects provided for this episode are from epidemic sounds.com Transcribed by https://otter.ai