Interview - Shannon/Tim - ParadiceRPG

Today I talk with two members of the incredible D&D Twitch Stream ParadiceRPG, Shannon Roby and Tim Rhone. We discuss the Stream, the community surrounding ParadiceRPG, Their characters and getting started as a DM/GM and/or Streamer.
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Yours Sincerely,

Adam 'Cosy' Powell

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CAST & CREW

Host: Adam Powell

Guest: ParadiceRPG - Shannon Roby & Tim Rhone

Sound Design: Adam Powell

Music: Epidemic Sound

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Transcript

Snyder’s Return : 0:28

Hello, and welcome to snows return a tabletop role playing podcast. My guest tonight are part of an amazing DND twitch stream whose story is set in a wondrous world of origin, where they are not making their own way in this world or blazing for vengeance like a wildfire. They are powering through and giving their time for good causes and charities. It is my pleasure to welcome Shannon and Tim to the show and to borrow from a Green Day song. Welcome to paradise RPG. guys. Welcome to the show.

Shannon Roby : 1:00

Thanks so

Tim Rhone : 1:00

much for having us. Thanks so much, Adam.

Snyder’s Return : 1:03

It's an absolute pleasure. So before we get into what paradise RPG is, and things like that, I'd like to get a little bit of background on on each of you if that's all right, maybe starting with you, Shannon, how you got into tabletop role playing game, and how you came to join paradise RPG.

Shannon Roby : 1:24

Yeah, sure. So I've been playing a little over two years now. Our dm Sean introduced the game to me about two and a half years ago. And what else what else what else is not going great so far? My brain is mush. Yeah, so two and a half years ago started playing and just immediately fell in love with the game and I just wanted to play more so after our so Shawn and I and Alex have a home campaign that that was my first campaign and the first campaign that On DMT. So after, after a little bit of playing, playing, it was like two o'clock in the morning after a home campaign session. And we usually like to just talk afterwards and just debrief about the session. And so after a particularly good session, it was like two in the morning and Shawn and I were just like, you know what, let's stream we wanted to we want to play more we want to do is we should stream and paradise RPG was bored.

Snyder’s Return : 2:28

Oh, there you go. A question. Then before I move on to you, Tim, is the home game still going? Is that something you're able to sort of play between your twitch? Sort of commitment?

Shannon Roby : 2:38

Yes. Yes. That one has been going for just over two years now. We just celebrated our, our two year anniversary in June. And yeah, we play that as often as we can in between all of the Twitch streams and podcasts that we do.

Snyder’s Return : 2:52

Oh, well, that's nice to nice to hear that that's still sort of going on in the background. So the same but different question. How did you sort of step into into role playing games initially and what bought or you round to the the paradise RPG?

Tim Rhone : 3:10

So I have been playing apart from a few abortive attempts in middle school and high school, I really started about how old am I now? Oh, I would say coming up on seven years now I've been playing started with 3.5 and some Pathfinder and stuff and then didn't do any of for a and got into five a maybe about maybe four years, three years ago now. And then so I've been playing it was actually an older cousin of mine who was into it back when he was a kid. So he those abortive attempts I was talking about were with him. And then he after I graduated college texted me and was like, Hey, we're getting a group together. I know. I remember a couple years ago you wanted to play with us. Now that you're an adult, you can you can hang with the big guys So he invited me to play there. And I've been with that group for since then. And that was about six or seven years ago now. And then in terms of how I got into paradise RPG well, Shannon mentioned Alex. He's one of our one of our cast members on the show, and he and I have been roommates. We've lived together since we graduate since around the same time since I graduated college about six or seven years ago. Now six years ago now, oh boy, I'm losing track. And he was friends with Shannon Shannon. He got the invite. He knew that I was a frequent player. And when we played together, we like each other styles. So he invited me in.

Snyder’s Return : 4:42

Oh, well, that's that sounds great. And we've mentioned how you you've come into this separately but formed this this great bond. So what is paradise RPG if someone is incredibly unaware of you so far?

Tim Rhone : 4:58

Got it. You already take you out. Shall

Shannon Roby : 5:00

I go for and I'll fill in any blanks if I need to.

Tim Rhone : 5:03

Okay. paradise RPG is the studio name for advantage of Paradise, which is the like the flagship show. And what that is what we are, I guess is a very roleplay centric story heavy narrative based tabletop show tabletop RPG show, set in Sean rdms. homebrew world called our Dune and we use the the fivey system primarily though we are not the we're not sticklers for mechanics. We really do try to focus primarily on character driven narrative and tight, deep roleplay. So if a mechanic we feel gets in the way of that roleplay and like how, how this is going not to the not to just always rule of cool everything, not to just like ignore the mechanics, but we do really, really focus on making To show that our story is good and that our characters are believable, real and still interesting.

Shannon Roby : 6:05

Yeah, that's that was fantastic. Yeah, we, we definitely like Tim said we love the story we love to get into roleplay. We also have two other programmes on our channel. On Thursday nights our dm Sean has a stream called relaxing and paradise where he basically is just he's on Twitch for about three ish hours and he will paint minis that we use in our campaign, he'll build some terrain for us. He will craft little pieces of the terrain and sometimes play some video games and it's just a really, really chill way to to end the day and I moderate for that. So it's a it's a great time, if anybody hasn't checked that out yet. Highly recommend it. And then on Sunday on Sundays, Tim and I run the Tim and Shannon Power Hour where we talk to members of the community about what Recently we've been talking about different topics we've been taking a deep dive into DND topics and just having a deep conversation about it and we also so that's in the second half of the show in the first half of the show we recap what happened in the last advantage and paradise episode and then we speculate on where we think the story is going and Tim has a fantastic track record for for for guessing and speculating correctly and I think that drive shot a little crazy

Snyder’s Return : 7:32

that's interesting not to have and definitely would drive any dm crazy. Before we move on to your characters and and each interesting and and as you say, in depth in their own right. Where can people find paradise RPG and your content and yourselves?

Shannon Roby : 7:52

Yes, so we have a link tree that has all of our links on there. If you go to link tree slash paradise RPG you can find all of it but mostly We're most active on Twitter, we have an Instagram, we stream on Twitch. For all of our streams. We're on podcast locations, and we have a merch shop with T shirts and things for all of our characters as well as our logo. And you can find me at SRB 25 on Twitter and Instagram I am the most active on Twitter Yeah, well not the most out of the group well it is the most out of the group but like between my Twitter and my Instagram

Tim Rhone : 8:32

and they The important thing to note whenever you're because it's easy you can just type in paradise RPG most things will come up somewhere The important thing to note is it's not paradise like living in paradise. It's paradise like dice de ice paradise RPG.

Shannon Roby : 8:48

Yeah, I can't look at the correct way to spell it correctly. Now I struggle

Tim Rhone : 8:51

to now as well.

Snyder’s Return : 8:52

It's a good distinction to make anyway. You've also got a community on discord if I'm if I'm right.

Shannon Roby : 8:59

Yes. Yes that's another place yesterday this yep that and YouTube, we're on YouTube. I knew there was more places.

Snyder’s Return : 9:06

Absolutely well the link tree and as many links as I can find on the internet for you will be in the description below. So moving on to advantage in Paradise and the story in your characters do lighter give us a little bit of background and how your character has developed and sort of had an impact on you as a player individually. So maybe Tim first It's time for Cal storming Yeah, sure.

Tim Rhone : 9:40

Yeah, so Cal are calleth storm rain is for as a primer is a noble youth he's only about 20 who has trained most of his life to be a like a tournament do list for this big tournament that they have in his country. And all we know about him so far the story really is that he he lost the championship duel that he was like training for and kind of out of either we're not sure if it's shame or spite against his parents. He has been fundamentally he's run away from home. And he is now out with the this band of miscreants, well, that's strong this band of friends. And is really just trying to kind of forge his own way in the world. That's kind of sorry if we want to get you know into the meta about it. That's kind of where my initial interest in Cal was, I kind of wanted to be. I kind of wanted to take if you took me as a 20 year old and dropping in a different situation with different skills, like what would happen Hmm. And so he's very he's very emotionally mature. But not in like, he rages and tantrums he's very, like just just closed off. Like, as soon as there's something he feels like he can't cope with. He's just like, oh, that's crazy, and never deals with it. Because he's because he's made. He's made me, you know, seven or eight years ago. And I wanted that to be kind of this way of examining my own, you know, answer to your question, but like, how is it impacted me personally, as a player as a person, I wanted that to be my own examination of kind of who I was and who I now am, you know, in light of that, in addition to, I really like the idea of, I kind of want to, I want him to grow up right over over time. I want him to become more like me now. And do it in a more healthy way that maybe I did throughout the course of that time,

Snyder’s Return : 11:52

but sounds like a whole nother interview.

Tim Rhone : 11:57

I'm not gonna get a free session on your butt. But in terms of like how he affects me as a character, it's very much based around. Let's look at me that in me now and look at the differences and make sure to play into those to kind of illuminate those for not only myself, but I think I think Cal is an interesting character in his own right at this point. So it's fun to stick one up. So we

Snyder’s Return : 12:24

know that and you're right. He is an interesting count. I did a little bit of background research and sort of looking at the the information you guys put up on the cards that come up on your stream. And it is a very interesting character to sort of align with. He's especially how you've

Tim Rhone : 12:48

been Okay, go ahead. Sorry.

Snyder’s Return : 12:51

No, no, no, no, it's it's your character. I'm just interested to get your perspective on, on cow.

Tim Rhone : 12:57

Sure. So I think Think so Shawn actually summed this up really well so I'm going to steal some of his words. He said, I vision I envision cow like a world war two volunteer from like, like a kid is like Yeah, no, okay, like there's things that got to be done and I'm going to do them I've got the skills I've got the the health and the youth and I'll do this and all of a sudden being confronted with things that are way beyond his capability, you know, emotionally and and mentally to cope with. And so it's about him learning to cope with those and he has to go through, you know, a number of trials and tribulations and the way Shawn dmws the hits keep coming. It hasn't really, like we haven't had a time to just like sit and be or like just like decide what to do for ourselves in a while.

Shannon Roby : 13:45

To be fair, we also push the story in that direction. We like to do things. That's true.

Tim Rhone : 13:53

I guess my point is like Carl hasn't had time, because the way I play him is if we're out beyond the wire as as a as a quote, I guess as he hasn't worked. He's very he's in he's in business mode. He's focused he is we're doing this right because every time we've lost focus, something bad has happened. So we have to be on top of this. We have to be serious all the time. And we haven't had a chance to just like be in a safe location in a while, I guess is what I mean. Shannon, it's not necessarily Shawn. Yeah, no. Let's play. Yeah,

Shannon Roby : 14:24

no.

Tim Rhone : 14:26

And so, him, he he's a character who keeps pocketing these things right. He keeps just putting it in the back of his mind in the back of his mind just forcing it down and keeping it back. And I'm interested I think the fun part for me playing cow is how long is it? How long can you keep this guy? How long can he keep all of this bottled up and tight together? Until he just loses it? Or you know, something? Something critical happens any any freezes or something like that?

Snyder’s Return : 14:58

Yeah, how much can you repress To the Pops kind of thing. Exactly. So So what you're saying is Shawn can we have like a shotgun? We

Tim Rhone : 15:07

did an episode I want to say like five 447 yet to have a break,

Shannon Roby : 15:15

like yeah, it was right at

Snyder’s Return : 15:16

the beginning. It would be nice but the story. So, Shannon, Scarlet Ceridian. Tell us more about her, please.

Shannon Roby : 15:28

Absolutely. Oh my goodness. I love my fireball. She is she's just, I love everything about her. I love her story. I love her just everything about her. So she's been through some stuff. I as anyone will tell you, anybody I've played with I really like to write tragic backstories i like i like exploring darker themes and and just tragic things that happen in my characters. So, the first thing that happened in Scarlett's past is that her brother was kidnapped from her twin brother was kidnapped 10 years ago, from where we are in game time. And then and her father is no longer alive, and neither is her mother. So she set out on this journey to get her brother back to find him. And for the past 10 years that has been her sole focus, that is the only thing that she has wanted to do. Along the way, she met a man named Caleb who became her partner in crime, but also they developed a relationship and the two of them they had when they were living on the streets and working together. They had a little bit of a crew like younger, younger kids that they took care of. And then after that they were when they were on a job. One day and the their crew got out but the two of them didn't. And they, they were arrested and then the the Crimson courts came into play. This is the criminal organisation that Scarlett works for or worked for. She doesn't anymore. So the Crimson court broke her and Caleb out of jail and they have been working for they worked for the Crimson court for about two years. Scarlet left, she abandoned abandon them. And that had the reason hasn't come out in story yet. So I'm not going to spoil that. So she So then she, about two months after that she meets timber. And they journey together for a little while. And then the two of them meet the rest of the party in magian set, which is where the story started. And that's where our story the campaign started now. So she was Scarlet has been trying to avoid the Crimson chords because they can track her. There's a mark on her left finger, her left ring finger, it's a it's a scar in the shape of a ring. And that has a scrying magic placed on it so they can track her they know where she is at all times. So she's been trying to avoid them while also still trying to continue looking for her brother and throughout the campaign. She's gotten some information and she's been putting pieces together. And recently, it just came out that her brother has become the head of the organisation that kidnapped him 10 years ago, so he is evil. Now he's twisted a psychopath like he's not the person that Scarlett remembers. And what I loved about that story arc was that the rest of the party found out before Scarlett din and I obviously was there when it happened but Scarlet didn't know it. So for a couple of sessions, I had to you know, Make sure that I didn't, you know, meta and metagame and say something or do something or have Scarlett do something that would indicate that she knew who her brother was. And my favourite moment to date is the episode where the party finally tells her about her brother and Kayla was actually the one that broke the news to her. And what happened in that scene. The next 20 minutes was my one of my favourite moments in playing d&d because there was so much emotion that was in there and so much just heartbreak in her and I just I felt everything she was feeling and everybody played into that scene really well, like Wiz wick was trying to speak comforting words to her Cal offered his shoulder for her to cry on timber, let her through a guided meditation to calm her down. And Karen was just was there as a support and just that entire scene was so beautiful. So not where she is. Now. She's dealing with that It's not really saying much not doing much. Um, and yeah, that's where she's at right now that was a lot

Snyder’s Return : 20:08

valid and really paints the picture of scholar that maybe someone that's, that's joining in later episodes may not have had the benefit of following her through this full arc. So, thank you for bringing that to the table and laying people. So really the same gauge that that's the wrong sort of bond with Scala in in that sense and yeah, thank you, both of you for the way you sort of described it, I can, you know, feel how much you you care about these characters and and the stream and all of the things you do so I you know, I really appreciate you sort of putting that across. So, course where where does the party go next? Where is cuz I think on Twitch I think last episode 46 and Tim

Shannon Roby : 21:06

about two and a half hours so

Snyder’s Return : 21:08

this isn't going to come out for a good while yet so that would have already happened but where is where is the party next and where is paradise RPG going? Okay well

Tim Rhone : 21:21

since I have a good track record of speculating where we're going

Shannon Roby : 21:26

yeah he totally yeah he totally called that my bet Scarlets brother was he from

Tim Rhone : 21:31

like a while ago

Shannon Roby : 21:33

called yeah months ago

Tim Rhone : 21:36

it's it's maybe almost like Shawn and I went to the same university the same training and greater Radek. Right. So we're I think we're gonna go so right now we are in the middle of finding September, played by Alex who we were talking about earlier. He his wife has been missing for several months now. And we are currently on the trail of her And so I think in the next I would call it the next five sessions Hmm, probably, we are going to find her. My current guess is that she will either be she'll be one of two things either a she's be like, under duress being forced to do something and are like has a reason why she can't get away from it. And we'll have to go then solve that problem. Or she's dead or will be will be killed by our actions. So, I think like we will arrive and we will do something unknowingly that ends up killing her in front of us, which would be based on what Alex is doing is his, his emotional kind of arc for timber is is would benefit I think from the introduction of this kind of both in writing confusing emotionally just like this massive spike in a lot of different emotions would be very, very effective I think for his character development and so that's why I think that's why that's why I'm leaning towards she'll either have died or be killed by something we do unknowingly

Snyder’s Return : 23:18

Yep, I was like a consequences ramification kind of are exactly.

Tim Rhone : 23:27

Exactly. And then that in terms of like the long long run I think after that we will have a bit of a we'll finally have that break. I think I think we'll we'll meet it will be lost in the woods deepens in the scary wood elf territory. And so we'll need to be able to like recover from that get back and then and then he'll kind of cut us loose I think for a bit in terms of where he's pushing us to, purposefully like with the idea to go, alright, well now your characters are free. Now so like figure this out like what what is your driver here? What's

Snyder’s Return : 24:03

coalesce? And? Yeah, but to middle as it were, and then sorry, charming. Exactly. Shall I cut you off? Exactly?

Shannon Roby : 24:12

No, no, that's okay. Um, in terms of where we think paradise RPG is going, we just would love to see to keep growing. We've we just started last October and we the amount of growth that we've experienced has just been phenomenal. The DND and ttrpg community is so welcoming and supportive and inviting and we're so lucky to be a part of it. So we we would love to have some more programming. We Yeah, we just wanna we just want to keep growing because we love playing this game. You mentioned

Snyder’s Return : 24:47

another aspect that I don't think we mentioned yet and forgive me if I'm wrong. You also have a line of apparel. Is that the best phrasing? Yeah, yeah.

Shannon Roby : 25:06

Yep, so we have a shop on Teespring and we have a merchandise for that has our logo on it the pot, the D 20, and the palm tree and the bright colours. And then we also have T shirts that each of us designed for our characters. So Scarlets is Scarlett says brood away Miss row because that was a line that Shawn used from like episode, like five or so from a long

Tim Rhone : 25:34

time ago, a lot of times the restaurants would go and talk at like a bar. She'd be like, I'm gonna go brewed in my room. And so that became a bit of a bit of a inject a bit of a meme for us.

Shannon Roby : 25:45

That's exactly right. Yeah. And Shawn just said brewed away Miss Rogen. So that's stuck and I like put that on everything that's like her catchphrase. And I really like kalscheur I like Cal shirt too.

Tim Rhone : 26:00

Took a cow was famous for saying a bunch of things back when the carefree days of 40 episodes ago. Before she got real for him, he had just random claims like he hates he has a hatred of any form of zealotry he felt that was the H being in dungeons he doesn't like dungeons he doesn't know why people have dungeons. It doesn't make any sense to him. And so the shirt is a I hate zealots I hate dungeons. I don't get magic, and I don't get magic but the rest of this is okay. I guess it's not like his his icon and symbol on it. And it's just it was just a collection of stuff that he used to say and it's I don't I don't know how to describe it but i do i do like it because it's it sums up cows opinions pretty well.

Shannon Roby : 26:54

Yeah, I like the I like the the tone of it too. Like it just I can relate Voice yes this is okay I guess Yeah, exactly. And wismec shirt is his full name because his he has he's a deep gnome. Like yeah seven something like that. Yeah I haven't memorised it yet but so we have his first name and his last name are in a different colour and all his middle names are in another colour. It looks really cool. Karen's is hashtag blessed by Lavanya because that is the that is the goddess he worships as a cleric and timbers like timbers. I like them all. But timbers is funny. It just says Who's a good boy and it's spelled boi because he's our he's our resident.

Tim Rhone : 27:39

He's a shapeshifter. Wolf. We did. I was too

Snyder’s Return : 27:43

regimented, because that was gonna be my next question to the purview did we've obviously gone a little bit deeper into your characters. And we've mentioned and touched on the others, but I think you sort of given a bit of flavour of who plays the other characters. So that's really good. You can expand on the myth if you wish.

Tim Rhone : 28:05

Yeah, I can do that quickly. Um, so Alex, my, my roommate, my erstwhile roommate, I suppose. He plays timber who is a monk, Warlock multiclass. And a also shapeshifts into a wolf man. And his story is basically he was a member of this group of there, it seems to me, the easiest way to describe them is like the Assassin's from Assassin's Creed, the less derivative than that, but it's an easy way to get across. He's received retired now He's the oldest, I think out of everyone. He's 40 something I think or 41. And he's got a family and a wife a child. As I said, his wife has been missing for a while and his child is safe somewhere. She was also briefly kidnapped before the show started. And that's all we know is that he's a part of some or was a part of so assassin group. I think the audience knows that I don't think that we as a group, the characters know that yet. Yeah, yeah, we don't winwick played by Clayton hammers is a he's the comic relief character and he is a deep gnome wizard with Kermit the Frog voice kind of. Yeah, and he is he's our he's curious about everything and he always is the one who says guys let's go investigate this thing over here. It's like no seriously to be fun and so like when he does get us to go over there and do that, it usually is pretty fun. He's usually pretty right? So that's that's been a key tension is him going guys? Why don't we investigate this and let's go we've got a job to do. Keep your eye on the prize. And Karen played by Stefan Dan Chuck is a alessian elf which is like, not Dark Elves, but I guess moon elves Shawn is a hungry race. Sean's And they worship a Lavanya who is a goddess that has died she was the moon goddess. I'm probably butchering this stuff. I would be so angry and they have a queen named ala who's definitely up to some spooky stuff that we've been hinted at like all is perhaps not right and Alessia but we have yet to go there and so I will not

Snyder’s Return : 30:20

spoil anymore. Fair enough. That was Thank you very much. That was very informative and entertaining. I have to say your your impressions that are second to none. So stepping outside of the of the game, you mentioned you do sort of the paradise RPGs that sort of the umbrella under which advantage in Paradise and your other shows fall under what is it you guys do for downtime in real, real life, how because obviously streaming And the other shows your commitments to the social media channels and, and all those sorts of things you're professionalised and things like that. So, what do you what do you do for downtime?

Shannon Roby : 31:14

Well, um, I used to have a lot more downtime until school started again today. So I'm coming off of my first day of virtual kindergarten, not kindergarten, first grade, they'd be so mad if I said kindergarten because they're not kindergarteners anymore. They're first graders. That's a big deal. So yep, coming off of that, but so over the summer, I actually had time to dedicate to you know, paradises, socials and work on growing the channel and I was able to interact with the community a lot. There were days where I would just, you know, go sit somewhere and relax and just scroll through Twitter and talk to people on Twitter and on Discord. And that was, it was it was really awesome to get to know so many great people in this community. Like there's people I talk to every day now that I didn't know this time last year. Which is amazing. I also played in a lot of different games and I talked to a lot of different people. But I also when I'm not doing anything d&d related, I love to tap dance. That is my my favourite thing to do. I have a class once a week. I have a top floor in my basement. I just love to put on the music and just come up with some rhythms and just kind of get lost for an hour or so.

Snyder’s Return : 32:27

Wow, Tim, do you tap dance?

Tim Rhone : 32:29

I do not tap dance. I was never trained. I was a professional ballet now. I I couldn't ballerina is the male bat. Is it the male of a ballerina? ballerina? Isn't male ballerina? No, I think it's male ballerina. Okay.

Shannon Roby : 32:49

I don't know I don't

Tim Rhone : 32:52

downtime. I am a prolific gamer. I am a cinephile. And I used to play and sing in a band several and ever since well, ever since the pandemic happened that's been less than thing. What else do I do shadow What else? Oh, I am a hobbyist so did a lot of play like Warhammer 40 K so I do a lot of collecting and painting There you go. I do paint many, many. I am a reader of many books. I am oh I make and film and write short like sketch comedy stuff, though I haven't in eight months or so. But before that we were doing a lot. I feel like there's more there. Now it's gone. There we is. That's that's that's primarily My days are filled. Usually.

Snyder’s Return : 33:54

It sounds like it's it definitely sounds like it. So you You guys have sort of your your home leisure we realise and then your your Twitch and stream lives. So what is it like? Because I've never streamed I got a face for radio, I think was one of those common quotes people use. See you I think you're very handsome. just such a gent so what has it been like sort of putting yourselves out on on stream, whether we watch you on Twitch or YouTube or wherever else we can sort of find your content.

Shannon Roby : 34:36

I really love it. I love having an audience I love to perform. Something else that I used to do before in the before times was community theatre. I love being onstage I love playing characters and just, you know, dressing up and being somebody else. So making the transition into streaming from being offline was actually pretty natural. And our group also just clicked instantly and everybody just we can't we just meshed really well as a table so that really helped. Yeah, I just I'm a performer by nature so I really I dig I dig the tension

Tim Rhone : 35:17

unfortunately, very much the same I think I I know I was raised doing a lot of theatre musical theatre, like I said, I've I write and produce sketch comedy stuff and occasionally that puts me in front of the camera. So it was always that was never my concern for me. My only like, my only caveat there is with I'm a terrible social media person. There's a reason Shannon is the the Twitter person that the Social Media Manager on the team and so engaging there has been the most difficult for me, because I'm just bad at it. I'm bad. I'm bad at engaging with my real life, friends on social So so then getting myself to engage with you know people who I don't know fans or whatever that's been I cry It's not that I gave up but I kind of gave up pretty quickly it was like Shannon just just handle it if you need me I will be here for you but

Snyder’s Return : 36:19

I have decided to try and find you on various platforms and I have yet to track you down. So

Tim Rhone : 36:27

Twitter

Shannon Roby : 36:27

there Yeah, you Twitter and you weren't on my phone. I just made it

Tim Rhone : 36:33

exactly what happened. But ya know, me personally, there is not a lot on and I just, I don't know, I never I never got that much out of it personally. And so I never realised that anyone got into it and I feel like I've missed the boat at this point. So I just kind of hang out and listen to what Shannon tells me and occasionally I post things on like, on the paradise RPG specific one but that's about it.

Snyder’s Return : 36:57

You have you know you have your life and your friends and Not everybody needs to be plugged into social media all the time. So that it's no drawbacks. Thank you, Adam. Yeah, that's fair enough. Um, if so, taking this, your performance background, both of you and sort of offering advice to those who maybe you're looking to stream could be d&d, it could be another tabletop role playing game, it could be games with respect to streaming and role playing games, if you got any advice that you would you would give to people that are considering sort of stepping into the space and not competing with you but wanting to be part of the community with with you and and us.

Tim Rhone : 37:45

So I'll go first I'm sure Shannon has very different advice than I but the first of two two major things The first is a general life advice and allow yourself to screw up. Allow yourself to be bad starting. Yep, yep. first episodes are rough with we're pretty good already on like the roleplay and d&d stuff. But the technical stuff behind it the production quality, the sound audio quality, it's garbage. And even then that's that's always a work in progress. Alex is our technical producer in a lot of cases. And he is he's always just chipping away at it chipping away at it and you build up his repertoire over time, don't look at don't look at other streams that are doing it for a year, two years, three years and say, Well, I'm not at that level yet. So this is I shouldn't be doing this. Or I don't know how to get to that level. So we shouldn't be doing this or whatever. So that's the first piece of advice The second is gone from my head. Oh, the second is

Snyder’s Return : 38:50

what you were trying to say

Tim Rhone : 38:52

is always remember have a perfect memory is what is what was its focus on war. What you want to see make what you want to see not when you think people want to say yes that's a good and that is I mean like I said we're we're so story heavy that some people are like they have they rolled this episode like have you roll the dice? I don't understand and the answer is sometimes there's no we wrote like do yep and and because that's that's what I and Shawn and a lot of us I think are definitely want to see we want to see a good story and a well well not written but well played characters more than people hanging out and playing D and but D and D but some people are really into they just want to see people hanging out playing d&d and that's that's totally fine too. So if that's what you're good at if that's you want to see then make that if you want to see hardcore story make that if you want to see no we're combat heavy. We are very much about the mechanics. Let's like really dig into this then make that and then there'll be there'll be an audience for it.

Snyder’s Return : 39:57

Absolutely young opponent you have opposing opposing I

Tim Rhone : 40:02

think she's just gonna approach it from a different angle.

Shannon Roby : 40:06

I I'm gonna build off of the of the last thing Tim said that is now gone from my head

Tim Rhone : 40:15

was Wow, Shannon It was like three seconds ago.

Shannon Roby : 40:18

Yeah, I know. Okay, I've taught first grade online today, right?

Tim Rhone : 40:22

It was about make what you want to make.

Snyder’s Return : 40:25

Yes,

Shannon Roby : 40:26

thank you. Yes. Okay, about making what you want to make. Um, also behind the scenes, make sure that you talk with your your fellow players and your dm, develop relationships with them. And just talk about what you together want to see it's very, very obvious when people are having fun on stream. And it's also very obvious when they're not. So make sure everybody's on the same page and make sure that you you know, address any safety, things that you need to so that everybody can feel safe and have a good time playing the game. And know that there is going to be especially with streaming remotely, there's going to be some hiccups when like, you're gonna have to learn how to read people's like body language and like know when they're trying to say something so that you don't talk over people, which it's just going to happen when you're remote. And it happens when you're in person too. But that's something I think we're really good at is giving each other the spotlight when it's their turn in the scene. That's something we want to we want to keep growing on to we want to get better at enhancing the scene like playing on each other's strengths.

Tim Rhone : 41:35

So yeah, that's, that's that's the advice that I have.

Snyder’s Return : 41:37

That's incredible advice. And I thank you both for putting that forward. I'm sure a lot of people take heart knowing that it's okay to fail every so often and learn from that. So own your own content, not replicate something else just because that's what you think is is what people want. So no, thank you. Thank you both different different question change of tax lightly. You guys, stream and an exist should we say in a fantasy homebrew world by your dm, Sean. But what about d&d itself? Where do you What's your sort of favourite setting? Or where would you like to see d&d taken or any other tabletop role playing game? Where would you like to see it taken next?

Shannon Roby : 42:31

Well, 90% of my d&d experience has been in Sean's homebrew world because our home campaign is also in our doing just on a different continent and in a different timeline. So I personally really like to play in people's homebrew worlds I really like to to help them build a world that they're that they're building or just you know, help them bring the world to life so that they can see it and tweak it and know what it's like when people are in our in the world.

Snyder’s Return : 42:59

Alright, Tim.

Tim Rhone : 43:01

Okay,

Snyder’s Return : 43:03

so

Tim Rhone : 43:04

I if anyone's ever watched the Tim Shannon power hour I have some. I have some qualms with d&d I think some people actually get angry. I love so preface I love fivey I think it's a really elegant system. I think it's really, really well done. I don't, I don't really have issues with it, but I like to nitpick it and say how would I really if we could perfect perfect this? How can we do it? And so I think people get a little defensive like, Well, those other systems go ahead and play that. I'm like, No, I like d&d. I just have a few suggestions. I like if I were writing 60 or if I was taking it to a different different location or a different time. The first thing I would like to see is expanded combat rules. And maybe this is just the Pathfinder in me, but I think combat While it's elegant and fast, which was the goal and I think they they did that is lacks a certain it lacks a certain house I don't want to phrase this it lacks not complexity but like coherence. I think or maybe maybe nuance is a good way to do it. Yeah. It's very um, do you hit this number? Boom done. Okay. That's that's that's really the question. The primary question is do you hit this number? And then it's just a question of how you make sure you do I would like a little more Yeah, I think nuances the word I'd like a little more likability Oh, well, your AC is higher because of these three things. Oh, you're able to do this last turn that influences what happens this turn. Which I think can happen certain classes have stuff that can do stuff like that. I think I just like to see it a lot more expanded. And I think what it is is with like stuff like that stuff like how the economy's been broken since two a single gold pieces like Yeah, by the way, this whole room there you go get here. Yeah, there's things that I think are cognitively dissonant that don't need to be is is what I would like to see kind of polished. Fix this up make it seem a little more realistic. Oh, you're, you know, like most DNS and this is this is a turn of phrase thing but most DNS if you don't hit the AC Oh, you just miss it's like no, I'm a trained soldier I betrayed warrior I wouldn't miss from five feet away, he may have blocked it or there may have been a thing for that. And like, while they've worked that in and their feats now that they're like kind of do influence that I just think it could be much more expanded on and much, much more polished. And I'm not going to go on forever because I could go on forever, but how to answer to the second part of your question. Yeah, where would I like to see like another setting or another expanded ruleset whatever it is, I really think that DND could do a good job of a modern or semi modern Setting like you know if combat would be guns and and stuff like that and there are a few gun rolls I'm not happy with them and d&d really like a combat system based around range would be a very interesting setting for them to get into like a world war two world war one situation and I would like to see it. But I think that they wouldn't really do that because it gets them out of their out of their bread and butter, which is fantasy. But I really do think that there's there's good ways to apply it to that.

Snyder’s Return : 46:33

potentially a DM DMS guild or drive thru RPG projects rather than a core book.

Tim Rhone : 46:39

Exactly. But I think I think it'd be really cool to say,

Snyder’s Return : 46:43

all right, well, changing tack again, sort of moving on to creations and things that are important to ourselves and others. Shanna, you recently played our or took part in the Justice game day would you like to talk about Talk a little bit.

Shannon Roby : 47:00

Yes. I would love to Yes. Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. This is my first time being involved with Jasper's game day. And I played three games and our damn Shawn played in, played in a game as well. And it was it was incredible. I got to play with so many awesome people. And we I'm actually gonna look it up right now and see how much money they've raised so far. Because the last time I saw it was over $25,000 that they raised for, for teen suicide prevention and awareness and that mental health is really important to me and just to see so much support for this cause is incredible. And just to see all of the games that were happening, people coming together to have a good time and and contribute to this was just absolutely beautiful. So I'm going to look really quick and see where they're at, because it just ended so it's just so amazing.

Snyder’s Return : 47:58

Yeah, I loved it. Well while you're looking at finger up because as you say, it's very important and the the achievement is impressive Tim. paradise RPG has a number of partners that you're we're currently working with, and we haven't touched on them. And I think it's it's only fair we sort of bringing that community in that. That sort of thing. So would you like to tell us a little bit about the partners you guys are working? Certainly

Tim Rhone : 48:23

we have several. The first and foremost is our friends at arcane spectacles. They are creators and purveyors of handpainted and primarily 3d printed though they're expanding into wood and other medium. They make a lot of just varied accessories. They're kind of primary, their flagship product, our spell trackers slash dice vaults. So you can get both the default and your spell tracker in one convenient package and they are actually where We're, we're I think the right way to phrase them is they're our premiere partner. We actually have a number of themed items coming out for them in the near future like one for each character kind of stuff. As we're moving forwards check them out at arcane spectacles they have an Etsy shop as well as a Kickstarter currently running or is charity that no still

Shannon Roby : 49:19

no it hasn't hasn't started a Kickstarter shortly.

Tim Rhone : 49:23

Shannon usually doesn't as part. Yeah, but

Shannon Roby : 49:27

you're doing great. You are doing great. We have

Tim Rhone : 49:29

his talent and claw. They are creators and purveyors of fine wooden d&d accessories. primarily with them it is dice they do a lot of dice and a lot of recently dice vaults. Their stuff is really really nice. Oh as well as dm screen Sorry, it's all handcrafted wood. Their stuff is very nice. We all I think, I don't know if all of us do but I know a lot of us on paradise RPG use their dice mine rolls spectacularly. Everybody else, you know,

Shannon Roby : 49:58

man does too. Well minuses on both ends of the spectrum. I did roll two net 20s on them now those

Tim Rhone : 50:05

Colby would call you when you hit three

Shannon Roby : 50:09

Okay, at the same time I roll double crit at the same time see

Tim Rhone : 50:18

they're easy to find as well and this is all I believe is on our link tree as well. Who else? Oh, underground Oracle, Keith and Jessa underground Oracle they are. They do a tonne of d&d supplement stuff items, stories, settings etc. And they release them on Drive Thru RPG primarily. They we actually use one and our suit according to Shawn, I don't know this but according to Sean getting another item from their stuff soon to use in in advantage of Paradise, Cal's primary so it actually is called problems of the black created by them. And it is a very, very good weapon. And so check them out. Underground oracal Finally, our primary character really our character artist, Eddie York, Edward York. He is a really fantastic artist. And he has a lot of things on his he's a he's all over the place on social media. He's in our Discord. And he's in our like I said in our link tree, he also has a video game actually coming out that he's the art director for on Steam called lawyer or elbow. I've never quite gotten that right. Oh, I are Bo. I believe their demo is still out, I think. So check them out on Steam. That's Eddie York, and the game is barbeau.

Snyder’s Return : 51:40

Alright, well, thanks for taking us through to those. I was lucky enough to speak to Caitlyn of arcane spectacles very recently in fact, and she spoke very highly of you Shannon. So there's a mutual love. That was love UK. So good. Did you find the finger in the end

Shannon Roby : 52:00

I did and holy cow. So their their most recent goal was $25,000 they we ended at $30,000 $30,266. That's incredible,

Snyder’s Return : 52:13

incredible.

Shannon Roby : 52:14

Absolutely amazing. Congratulations to everybody involved to Jasper's game day that's absolutely amazing especially Fenway Jones, the founder of Jasper's game day I got to play with her twice this weekend and it was such a pleasure she's a wonderful young woman and I'm really excited to see where she's gonna go well on that

Snyder’s Return : 52:33

cheery note because of the amount raised not necessarily the subject matter but the support and everything that comes from that and and how that money will be used to support those who needed the most Would you like to remind is where everybody can find you and your content. So that goes to the purview Tim maybe less so. So you can find your link tree and find your your content from there.

Shannon Roby : 53:01

Yeah, absolutely so you can find us our link tree is link tree slash paradise RPG that is spelled pa ra di c e RPG no spaces and if you type that anywhere that you'll find it it'll come up. You can find me on Twitter at s where we 25 I also help Shawn run the paradise Twitter account. And so you can find us on there. You can find us on Instagram discord, YouTube, all podcasts locations. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but we're we're Paradise is everywhere.

Snyder’s Return : 53:33

Well, thank you very much both of you for your time. It has been an absolute pleasure. speaking to you today shall know you've had a long day getting back to the first graders. So and Tim you probably have band practice.

Tim Rhone : 53:51

Technically, I'm still at work.

Snyder’s Return : 53:54

Oh, nice.

Shannon Roby : 53:57

Thank you, Adam for having us on. This was the Just so great.

Snyder’s Return : 54:00

It's been it's been fantastic for me to be able to speak to you guys and and get to know a little bit more about you and and your characters and the whole team. And I'd love to do it again in the future if you'd be willing.

Tim Rhone : 54:13

Certainly. Thank you

Snyder’s Return : 54:15

so much. Well, thank you once again, and I look forward to speaking to you again in the future. Adam. Thank you. Thank you. 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 Snyder. We have a link tree link in the description of this episode. And if you want to support 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 alpha for those who are listening until we until we speak again. Thank you Transcribed by https://otter.ai