Hello, and welcome to Snyder's return a tabletop role playing podcast. Today my guest has taken on game design challenges with both hands enjoys a good bubble, and we're not displaying her art wares on Instagram can be found in amongst the petals from geek spective arriving faster than any large oceanic dolphin has the right to do so is the incredibly talented rocket Orca. Amber Seger Amber, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's an absolute pleasure. You're incredibly busy. But before we touch on everything you're doing now and what you have planned for the future. Would you mind letting us know how you got into both tabletop role playing games? And podcasting, please?
Amber Seger:Oh, yeah, sure. So, funny story. I loved sharing this so much. I had a friend who wanted me to play role playing games. He wanted me to play Dungeons and Dragons, my friend Josh. And I looked him in the eye and was like, No, I'll never I'll never play d&d. But he wore me down. And I ended up playing in a d&d campaign d&d. 3.5 actually campaign with him and some other friends of ours for seven straight years. So I went from never, I'll never do this to I all I do now. Um, and so getting into the actual podcasting stuff. It's actually really Josh, Josh is the the friend who got me into d&d and then also brought me into the podcasting world with geek spective. And so he and I think he's the one who started Yes, he started his first show, which was that that campaign we played in that 3.5 we It was called evil is as evil does, where we're playing all evil characters. And then we start to branch out from there. So there's Tales from mocs fairy, which is a game that Josh runs. And I play in, we have two seasons out right now. It's the first season was blades in the dark. The second season, we're using God bound and we're returning to our 3.5 evil characters, and we converted them to God bound. And then stuff just kind of kept snowballing from there. I started my I want to, I wanted to GM had never done it before. I've been playing for years and years. But I was always kind of anxious about becoming a Game Master. And so if you're anxious, and you're nervous, what better way to get over it by recording yourself doing it all and having to listen to yourself over and over again. Hour after hour. I wouldn't recommend a week apart. Um, but I did it. And that was shapeshift. That's my my actual play podcast was also part of Geek spective. All right, well,
Snyders Return:you mentioned a few shows there. And a lot of points I'd love to dig into. But before we move on, where can people find you and your your content? So I can put some links in the description and really sort of signpost people in your direction?
Amber Seger:Oh, sure. So geek spective.com gkspctiv.com is where all of the podcasts I do that's my the podcast network, I co own with Josh and our friend Dave. And basically, I live on Twitter. So if you go to Twitter at rocket Orca, I mean, you can find everything from there. And then also my website rocket orca.com, which is my professional website with my graphic design and layout stuff.
Snyders Return:I will make sure those links are in the description below. And I have to come back to the evil characters evil is evil does. Is that the side of the game that you enjoy playing the most, or was that just what you fell into and are happy to go back to? Well,
Amber Seger:I think so. I think it was it was this is Joshua's baby, right? So he wanted to play evil characters. I think at the time, there's a lot of shows out there like Dexter, I think was one where they were showing more of the evil characters have a side of stuff. And I think Josh realised that there was no actual place at the time of that focus on evil characters and actually playing d&d with evil aligned characters that kind of has a sort of like, I'm not sure what you would say like it's hard, hard to do. Because people think that evil is can be just like your murder constant, like how do you prevent infighting, essentially. But we did it. We did it for seven years straight. And we still play those same characters to this day. But I don't know if I would say it's my favourite. It's definitely interesting. And since it was like my first campaign, I kind of have nostalgia for it. So I don't mind going back to that character. So yeah, so I would just say it's because my friend Josh wants to play this game with us. I enjoy playing that game with him in the table.
Snyders Return:Fair enough. And you mentioned that a couple of different systems blades in the dark and God bound What is it about those systems that you've enjoyed it and other other systems that you have enjoyed playing that you would love to either do an actual play or move through and play more often?
Amber Seger:So yeah, so blades in the dark again, Tales from Oxford evil isn't evil does as Josh is, those are his shows. And he was running d&d 3.5 for seven years and he at year seven, he was like, Oh, boy, I want to try something different. The indie scene is exploding with a bunch of new games and new ideas. There's more than just Dungeons and Dragons now and I think for him what he was interested in about blades in the part of his me blades in the bark blades in the dark, is that it runs kind of like a heist and he was interested in trying that it was like the new hotness at the time, right? Um, I liked it because it was it. I'll just say this going from Dungeons and Dragons mindset to power by the apocalypse blades in the dark. There was definitely a learning curve like we It was difficult for our group to to get used to it like all of us have been playing d&d for so long to switch from a Dungeons and Dragons game to that. We had a hard time with like fiction first narrative and then not trying to min max our characters, or like trying to make the best of our characters in a mechanic's way. And so there was a few sessions where it was very tense, I would say, I think at one point in time, I think we cut it from the podcast, but I was getting really sassy, Josh about stuff in the game. Just because of I wasn't used to it. But I really like it now and especially when my favourite things about blades in the dark is the whole stress and flashback mechanic. That to me is like so well done for telling narrative, you know, telling a story to be able to mechanically say I pay to stress or whatever stress the facilitator God says is worth the amount you want to do to go back into the past and have a flashback scene kind of like in a movie. I mean, I've tried I tried to apply that to every game I run now. So that's blades in the dark for for God bound. I it's we chose it because we're going back to our 3.5 characters. And in dungeons and dragons once you get to like once you become like a level 10 wizard you're basically a demigod at that point it feels like and what one of the things about podcasting, an actual play and recording it is sometimes those combat scenes can be one horrible to edit and to sometimes not the most engaging for listener and so we were looking for a system where we could still feel like demigods without having the bogged down mechanics of that is Dungeons and Dragons combat system. And I really like in God bound that you can pick these words that represent what your demigod character is. And that to me is really fun and interesting we we've been playing it for about a year now and I really liked that aspect of like getting to pick and choose these words and things that go with with your God to craft this really really fun guy like I made one for a one shot that was like madness drugs I can't remember the other one but it was a really silly character I played it up pretty silly not as dark as as those words could be But yeah, so that's what I like about God bam.
Snyders Return:And any in the future that you'd be be looking to play that have caught your eye.
Amber Seger:Oh man, there's so many games out there. Now. A lot of the ones I haven't even the ones I haven't come out yet, right like I'm really looking forward to J Dragon's wander home. That kind of game is more my style. What I tend to like to create my Myself, I don't mind playing in a lot of a lot of different types of moods and genres and stuff. But for me pastorale happy, solo contemplate of kinds of games are more or more my jam. And so I'm looking really forward to that. Another game that's coming out soon is Andrew Gillis, his girl by moonlight, which is a blades in the dark hack game that is magical girls but with like a darker side to it. And that's a genre I really like something I would like to probably run for podcast one day. And then also, quest quest is another RPG that I've been really looking forward to play into an or run.
Snyders Return:Yeah, and lots of interesting ones are the quest I've started to hurt here a lot more about and seems to be capturing the imagination. So definitely one to look out for. And you mentioned there, the more pastoral so I'm gonna use a tenuous link to go on to petal Grove and and talk in your appearances in those. Those games. What's it been like sort of playing with the other members of the community in games such as those?
Amber Seger:So yeah, so the warn of hillgrove, which you just mentioned, is a actual play that I started running because there is a game out there that's powered by the apocalypse, called the worn by Marshall Miller. And it's probably one of my favourite games to run for one shots. I've run it several times, at conventions or big friend groups when we could back when we had big friend groups, parties and stuff. And it is a game about rabbits. So you all the PCs are rabbits, and I just I just really enjoy nature games and then playing from different perspectives. And I've always liked, like shows that are like I'm getting into red wall right now. Those kinds of books, really, I really enjoy. And so when I started doing the Warner Pel Grove, I really wanted to one, play with a bunch of new people that I haven't really got to play with or play with them again. And then also make this story within a story. As you get to talk with me, we get deeper into things you're gonna notice I like like layers of stuff. So, so I have in my mic, my podcast shapeshift, which has, basically 70% of every game I've ever run is captured in that podcast, right? It's me learning how to GM. And so in it on top of like a bunch of one shots like I ran monster hearts casket land. There's a bunch of other stuff in there. But I also captured my first campaign, which is using the system retama which I like to I not just me, I think everybody in the community has heard about retama they get told it's basically Oregon Trail plus Studio Ghibli film like Princess Mononoke, a or Spirited Away or something like that. And so I in my first campaign, I made a world with my my players. It's called mohm. And so when I made the warn of pedal Grove, I took these this rabbit world and I just like, put it into my world loan. So it's like this tiny story inside of a bigger story kind of deal. And then I also wanted to do it as an anthology. So I was like, okay, it'd be really fun to run a one shot that is, you know, usually four ish hours long, spread out over four sessions with four different players, because I got these nesting layers. What have I done to myself? Um, and so yeah, so it, it. Yeah, I just, I just really liked that concept. And it was really fun. So I actually I reached out to people I had played with before, because if you're running a one shot and you're streaming it live or doing as a podcast, you don't really have that time with the group to really build that comfort level with each other like that play style back and forth. So what I will what I picked Warner pedal Grove that I was picking the cast members, I wanted them to be people who had already worked with each other before or that I had worked with, so that at least somebody knew somebody at the table. And I think that worked really well. And it was really fun. To see one group do a story inside this one more than have a certain tone to it. The next group had a completely different tone. And the ongoing show which I think by the time this comes out, we'll probably be over it another completely different tone but all set in the same world and they Might have like little tenuous notes of what they know what happened before. But they're rabbits and gossip happens and stuff gets morphed around. But they all interact with the same NPCs NPCs. They've all been interacting. So if you're watcher, a viewer of the show or listener of the show, you will hear the same NPCs and it's kinda like easter eggs. I like that stuff for myself when I listened to podcast, so I wanted to do that, too. So I've really enjoyed working with the people or it's just funny to say working, playing with the people that that I've invited on the show and getting to play with them again.
Snyders Return:Yeah, and someone who you play with and work with is Rudy basso, which is tied to a the the role of tabletop Bible you stepped into from James injure castle. Would you mind tell us a little bit more about that?
Amber Seger:Yes. So Rudy basso is great person. I really love working with Rudy. Rudy has been editing shapeshift, my show for probably a year, year and a half no longer than a year, almost probably almost two years. Now, how does time work? So he's been editing my podcast for about two years now. And that's kind of how I met him, and, and James. So James, and I have played in some games together met each other at Gen cons and stuff. And we I've been on tabletop babble. When James was hosting it probably three or four times, I can't remember how many times. Um, and so one day, I just find myself scrolling through Twitter, I get a DM from James, basically saying, hey, loving, you know, Rudy and I are dissolving dsbn at the end of the year. And I would like to know if you'd be interested in on taking the host. As for tabletop babble. And I was super surprised, because that's just not something I would have considered myself for. But I think as humans, we're pretty bad at seeing, like, what our strengths are, and how we can fit into things just because we don't look at Yeah, we don't have that perspective, the outside perspective, of course. So he asked me that, and I kind of was like, Oh, no,
Snyders Return:yes. But
Amber Seger:also, would I? Would I be good at this? I don't know. But if James is asking me, he must see something in me, that would be good for this, okay. Just say yes, this would be good. Just do it, you you, you would have fun doing it. Um, so I just sort of talk myself into it over the span of like, probably two hours, because it wasn't really that hard of a decision. Um, if I had never done an interview show before, I mean, I spent a lot of time playing role playing games with people, and I've been jamming for several years, but I had never thought Oh, I would be good at doing interviews, per se. Um, especially cuz like, I'm pretty open to the fact that I'm a very socially anxious person. It's been something I've been overcoming or like working with more like, for the last couple of well, for my entire life, really. But only in the last like five or so years, I've been working on trying to be a little bit more social and working with that, those feelings of anxiety. And so I was really nervous when James asked me to take on tabletop babble. And I wanted to I wanted to do it.
Snyders Return:Yeah. And you've been, absolutely knock it out of the park. I imagine that James is exceptionally proud of the choice he made. I can imagine nothing less. Having spoken to James previously. I'm sure of it. 100%. And you're, again, tenuous link, maybe of working with James hasn't ended there, though, indirectly, as you have worked on these by hand or based flames of freedom, which has his input upon it. Would you mind sort of let us know how you got into that and your involvement with that, please?
Amber Seger:Oh, yeah, sure. So again, funny thing, you know, working with my social anxiety stuff. I had Gen Con, which is a this huge convention up in Indianapolis, Indiana, here in the United States. I pushed myself to do some social networking. And that's how I met Daniel Fox has at this random like, Oh, yeah, I'll go to this party. And then I found a nerd. I could, like we connected and we started talking about stuff and I didn't know that it could potentially lead to work. Which it's like, that's what networking is for, right. So for the listeners, I in my professional life well up, you know, day job, hobby job. So my day job I do graphic design and layout design. I have been doing it for 10 years professionally, um, do page layout for instruction manuals, right instruction, males do technical illustrations. But I also have a graphic design background in my education and in my freelance work. And I had mentioned that to Daniel, and he remembered and so there I think are also at that point in time. I think that Gen Con I did a panel about designing better character sheets, and like how to structure information and like making visual choices and stuff like that. And I had made it as a blog post and Daniel had read that and so my first connection to Daniel working with him and and why hydor stuff was he asked me to redesign the character sheet for his winder, which I streamed live as design hander was the show. And then from there, you do one work with one person then he was like, Well, hey, I have this other game coming out. I'm helping its publishing through Andrews mcmeel would you be interested in doing some work for it? I was like, Oh, well, of course, I'm trying to I'm trying to do more of this in the ttrpg space because instruction manuals are fine, but they're pretty mind numbing at times. So let's do something fun. And so we he asked me to do work on funds for freedom. So what I did for for that game was I built the page layout design for the book and created the style guide for it as well as I did the character sheet stuff. And I also did some like iconography for like page chapters of the book on and it's been great. I mean, I really appreciate that Daniel gave me that opportunity and working with Daniel has been wonderful, very clear, good feedback, super supportive. So it's been a very good experience overall.
Snyders Return:And just to just to boost you a little bit more, I should say, I watched some of the design hander stuff you did and it was it was informative and entertaining, which I think was what you were going for. But I enjoyed it anyway
Amber Seger:yes. I really I did I was like I was surprised like so much I'm used to just like working kind of by myself. I'm kind of in my own little corner of the world and so I didn't know if I would enjoy streaming design stuff of live but it was super fun to do and yeah, I like I also like kind of peeling back the design curtain of like how stuff gets made and how finicky and and silly and frustrating it can be at times and I think that was Yeah, it was the purpose be entertaining but also informative. Hmm, definitely.
Snyders Return:And using the word design there and silliness and you have your own line of enamel pins and other designs should we say available? Please Please give me a sales pitch.
Amber Seger:Okay, so I saw boy getting talked about your own work as hard right? Um, so but I'd love to started in Sure Sure. I need to seize this opportunity. Come on and talk about yourself and your work. So for me I started drawing little goblins I love goblins. goblins are like my favourite creature I love playing them. I think they're funny. I love them and Magic the Gathering and my favourite tribe and Magic the Gathering cuz I play a lot of magic. While I can play more I honestly haven't really But anyway, I used to play a lot of magic. But I love goblins and so I started drawing like little goblins to entertain myself is it more of like a like I love to draw but I don't have a lot of time to do that. So I made it a point on my lunch breaks to draw a little Goblin eating some food, maybe my lunch or some other food that I wish I was eating. And that became just an art project for myself just to keep me from going stale and drawing. And then I start putting it out there then somebody wanted the A got themselves drawn like a goblin and then all of a sudden I opened up commissions to draw people as goblins. And then my style kind of progressed over time to the point where I was like Oh, these are really cute as enamel pins and I had already previously started to design enamel pins. And I was like okay, let's do this. I'm gonna open up a pin Patreon which is rocket Orca is my patreon so patreon.com forward slash rocket Orca, and I started pin club where I have two different pin tears where it's one is more cutesy. Those are where my goblins go and then I have a more darker kind of tone pins which are more geometric and more design early. I guess I don't know how to words you would use for it but they're for more like anime inspired stuff and I started making them and then I guess people like them and they're cute and they make me happy and I'm glad other people like them too. And I started at Etsy as well and so they're up on Etsy I'm going to be doing this big shop update in March to put these enamel pins up there and I I have a plan the pins out for another year and I have another pin Kickstarter I would like to do for for the goblins haven't I'm gonna do a dice goblins Kickstarter I think like goblins holding different different dice dice
Snyders Return:sounds good and something really fun. Yeah. So when that Kickstarter comes on I'm sure we will retreat and support where we can absolutely. So you mentioned there some of the some of the influences the Magic the Gathering and the anime. So away from work away from streaming podcasting and things like that. Why is it you do for for downtime? Is it more focused on the drawing Do you watch shows films, where do your influences come from?
Amber Seger:Okay, so yeah, I watch a lot of YouTube and I watch a tonne of media analysis. Review. So like I really love Lindsey Ellis's analysis of videos. Gosh, I watch a lot of cosmonaut Marcus and RED LETTER MEDIA even though there can be sometimes a little bit problematic. They still do some amazing film analysis, I'm really into movies. I'm anime, I don't watch as much. It's like I have rotating interest, right? Like right now I'm hyper fixated on media analysis of Lord of the Rings. So I've been listening to this new this podcast called newcomers, which has two comedians who aren't into like our genre at all, like fantasies genre at all, and have no like, background in or whatever. And they're watching Lord of the Rings. And it's so funny to hear people who don't have that knowledge, listening to the first time and then trying to figure out the difference between Sauron and Saruman. It's hilarious. And it's cracking me up right now. And usually when things make me laugh, or I have a good time with it, that is usually where my inspiration ends up coming from. And then from there, that becomes something creative, either it's going to be maybe I make a funny pins design that makes me laugh. It's poking fun at Lord of the Rings and how I love it. But it is silly. And if you're from the outside and outsider's perspective of hearing it, it's got to sound ridiculous. So that might inspire something or like right now I'm really I just finished all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. So previously, I had not watched I've watched like, maybe three or four of them total. And then I said, No, what, I have a Christmas break is coming up, I'm gonna have time. Let's just go through these movies. And I did. And I'm like, What? Why did I wait this? Why did I wait this long. And so now I'm like, super into Marvel Cinematic Universe. And I'm like, okay, I want to draw it. Like I really want to draw vision right now. But I have all these other things to do. But it'll sit in the back of my mind. And that's kind of where that inspiration comes from. And like I was mentioned red wall earlier, I started reading the red wall series. And it's because I'm running games like the Warren of pelo Grove or my retama campaign, where there's a lot of little nature adventures with animals or animal people and that kind of stuff. And I love that pastoral kind of setting. And so that is going to inform a lot of the stuff that I put into the world.
Snyders Return:No, it sounds it all sounds really good and really exciting and really entertaining. Some of the things you share with us I appreciate, appreciate that peek behind the curtain, I guess. So I'll challenge you slightly. Since you have just watched the entire Marvel Cinematic catalogue in weeks, shall we say? What's your top three films out of the entire back catalogue?
Amber Seger:Okay, okay, that's actually pretty, pretty easy for me. So I loved Infinity War. Mmm hmm. The risk they took with that ending was amazing. I love it. It was so good. It's so bleak. And I think I really, really enjoy when not everything is all fun and games like there are real consequences. And failure is a thing that can happen with people of course in in superhero stuff and also in our campaigns, right, or d&d and actual play. I like stuff like that. So Infinity War is one of those ones where I kind of wish I had experience in a movie theatre with a bunch of people at the time it happened because I think it would have been, like doubly chilled, chilling. But it was still on its own, like, Holy moly, and I didn't feel bored. Like, I felt like the whole movie, even though it wasn't really long was like super well paced. And just like I had so many characters, but they did a good job with like scene framing, which is all like, every time I watch movies, now, it's all related to like tabletop stuff. I'm like, I could do this in the tabletop game, this is great. I could I could try and do this as well. So I loved Infinity War. I think that would be my number one. After that. I know people don't like it. But it's along the same vein of being bleak and like dealing with consequences. And I can forgive some of like the movie, like editing errors and pacing and stuff. It was Civil War. I, for me, that was just a really good character driven movie where you got to see Tony Stark's PTSD, like really start to form like, what his character choice is. And his character, you could see the where the character arc was going with with with Tony, right. And then also the conflict between Captain Merck. And you could just see, like, if you're talking about like d&d alignment, like, I think, you know, they're very good representations of just how fixated and how aligned they are, and their character stuff, Tony and and Captain America, and then you go see Spider Man, which is pretty cool. Um, and then my third favourite movie of that was I want to instal Ragnarok which is a total shift, complete shift from the other two, but it's what I love. I love fun. It was colourful, it was fun. It was new place. It was exploration. It was interesting. backstories It was fun to see Hulk as the Hulk. And so for me, those were my three favourite. I'm just gonna say footnote, but spider man's exists in a different world for me. And so spider man's have a different love. And they exist differently. But I love those two movies as well.
Snyders Return:Oh, absolutely. And even in Thor Ragnarok it gets a bit bleak and dark.
Amber Seger:Yes, yeah, there was there were moments of it. But definitely, Jeff Goldblum was so I could just Jeff Goldblum character. The Grand Master whatever he was, is an NPC I would love to like to stick in a game would be great.
Snyders Return:Yes, they are a rich resource for taking not only into d&d, but but so many other systems. And you've drawn out a couple of points, I'd love to sort of move forward with if if that makes any kind of sense. A point of failure can be fun. Do you think that gets underutilised in, in certain game systems in certain tables?
Amber Seger:Sure, I think and it could just be older mindset. I don't know. Like, I feel like when I first started playing d&d, it didn't feel good to fail. There wasn't really a fail forward, it was either you cast your spell, or you don't, or you don't, and then it blows up in your face. Um, and in a lot of these games that were coming out, like apocalypse worlds and and anything that's powered by the apocalypse that use you fail forward is such a more fun thing than I then you just don't do it. Right. And so I really liked that change. So from going from DND, which was my only experience of role playing games prior except, I mean, I have played other old games because part of the expected we have a one of our friends. Actually one of the co co hosts of tabletop babble, john, he's been playing RPGs before I was born. And so he has lots of old games that we get to we get to try out every once in a while, like as a non content, play, try it out kind of situation. Um, those games really didn't do a lot of fiction stuff I can like, some of the games I've experienced are like Boot Hill, for instance, which has like no role playing in it whatsoever. It's literally just your account, cow boy or a towns person or whatever. And it's all just about rolling to see if you shoot things and move around on a map. Or we played the the palladiums Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was fun character character character generation was hilarious, but again, not a lot of incentive incentivizing to, to roleplay and I think because of that, that no incentive to roleplay And then you just roll a die and either do it or don't. It's kind of like not very fun. But to have that that bargaining piece in, like powered by the apocalypse games where Yeah, you You didn't succeed, or you got a middle result. What's a fun thing that can that can happen? Like what can happen? And I think some games like quest, which I've recently read, there's things where you can get drawbacks or flaws or stuff if you fail, or like these really cool things, if you like super succeed, and I think sometimes the failing stuff is way more interesting for like character development than it is just to be like, okay, I just went all the time, and I'm a superhero.
Snyders Return:Yeah, definitely. I've relatively recently sort of learned to play city demist, which is powered by the apocalypse based, I think it's a fair description. And that mind shift from doing don't, these sort of analogue D, D and D to Okay, you wrote a mess, this is going to happen, but your character still is able to do X at the cost of y. has been such an eye opener, dive missed from games, and have tried to work back into d&d with with my group. So yeah, I'm totally with you on that sort of stuff. Yeah.
Amber Seger:Cuz like, I think it's more engaging, when you give your player hard choices than just saying x happens. You know, like, x happens, great. I just sit there and it kind of almost sometimes takes away character agency to a little bit player agency over their character when just x happens, or no happens. Whereas we give people choices, they can make those bargains, I think bargaining and making choices as a player is just super engaging and keeps people more invested in the game.
Snyders Return:Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Speaking of investing, and investment in a game, that sounds like a money question, and it's not gonna be we've mentioned a couple of times evil characters and alignment charts. So where do you sort of stand on the the alignment spectrum, both as a person and its use as a mechanic?
Amber Seger:I think it's so difficult, like I really as a person. Man, I'm probably chaotic neutral. Um, I don't know. I say that because if you listen to me, the podcasts that I'm on and one of them being read majorly made, which is my magic, the gathering, podcast, I, I co host with the CO hosts of tabletop, Kenny volt from here, we have a dynamic that I am so contrarian, and I'm so like chaotic, but also at the same time, I'm just like neutral on a lot of stuff. And I think it's because I, I see, I can I don't want to say I can see every perspective or every viewpoint, right? Like, that's impossible. But I like to think I'm pretty like, you know, like, I don't get to pass passionate or like, quite broad and yeah, I feel like that's kind of more it. I don't know if that really fits with chaotic, neutral, but whatever. I don't really know like I even when we played evil wind characters, it was, it was difficult because sometimes the things we did as evil characters ended up being good for somebody else, you know, we did something bad, but it actually helped somebody else out and we're like, Wait, did we just do something good for somebody by accident, because we thought we were doing evil, which is a recurring theme in all of our Evil games, like we, we do something that we think is, is bad because we're bad characters, and it's gonna progress our selfish goals. And then it's like, oh, wait, but we just helped out the infrastructure of the city and we just helped, what have we done? or whatever, like,
Snyders Return:you are the worst kind of evil people.
Amber Seger:Um, and so so I don't know. Like, for me mechanics, it's, it's, personally I don't buy into it cuz I think people can be too versatile. And it really is context dependent. So I think it's fun to try to play to in alignment, but I don't think you should be punished if your character slides out because there was definitely an instance in our campaign when we were first started playing the evil one in d&d 3.5 we had a player who was lawful evil. And then it was they did something that was not a part of their alignment and our GM Josh, kind of like quote unquote struck them down, but with From their deity that they were worshipping. And it was very punishing. But the same time it was like so hard. But I think I don't know. I, I'm open to the idea of alignment. I don't have any strong feelings about it.
Snyders Return:That's that's a fair response. Definitely chaotic neutral. Well, we've spoken about shore power by the apocalypse and other systems and the Titan of the hobby, which is d&d. So focusing on that for a moment, where do you want to see d&d go next, be it setting or more. So cultural community development.
Amber Seger:I haven't so far removed from d&d for so long now that it's hard for me to really speak on what I want to see from d&d. So going back to tabletop babble, and d&d and stuff, I actually had, Brennan Lee Mulligan, came on to talk about, you know, his stuff going on and what he's doing in the d&d world. And for me, it was so funny cuz I asked him, I was like, I've never run d&d, like I have played lots of Dungeons and Dragons. But I have not really run it. And he was like, Oh, you've been jamming for four years, like, I have never run to them. Like it's just not spoken to me as a game for a really long time. I think that's kind of where I don't know how to speak on it. Because by the time I started interacting with a ttrpg space, and like being online and all that, I hadn't played Dungeons and Dragons for like, three years, four years. And even prior to that, we weren't my group. We played d&d, it was all homebrew. It was all our own setting. We made up our own worlds. We sometimes referenced d&d gods and some d&d lore, and of course, lots of the monsters and character classes and all that, but we really just made our own world. So I have a hard time trying to like talk about like Dungeons and Dragons. I'm just not, like immersed in it right now. Although I will say for setting wise because I am an MTG nerd. I was really excited to see a theros come out. And they were doing MTG stuff. I was like, whoo, maybe I should play d&d again, because this is a Magic the Gathering setting. So if I was to say what I would like to see or what could potentially get me to play Dungeons and Dragons, is if there was more like, magic, the gathering cross, like I really liked the eldraine set that came out of there was a Dungeons and Dragons eldraine world, I would be like, I'm in it. I want to play that game.
Snyders Return:Yeah. No, that's, that's fair enough. And so with respect to TT, RPGs as a whole, and as a community, what would you like to see in the future? Oh, my goodness. I think more that's incredibly broad.
Amber Seger:No, no, no, no, I think it's a good question. Because like, for me, it's kind of what I've been doing with tabletop babble. Right, like right now. What I would like to see more is diversity. Like the guests I've been having on tabletop babble. A lot of them are indie creators. Not saying that James didn't house will have indie creators on and stuff. But for me specifically, it's been kind of personal in the last year or so seeing more and more creators. From RPG c s EA, so people, like for instance, the Philippines. It's been like, oh, they're Filipino lore. That's really cool to see in games and stuff now. I would love more of that more, more diversity, more worlds, more creators, making things that we get to experience and enjoy and see their culture. Essentially. I'm really excited for that. I have an interview coming out. Or it's out right now. On tabletop babylove. I interviewed Jamie, who has written things like bollock Byeon. And Gosh, apocalypse keys, and they're a Filipino designer, and it's just like, oh, wow, I had no idea you were here. Let's put you on a little more people need to hear your games and stuff. So that's kind of what I would like to see more of.
Snyders Return:Hmm. Nice. It's good that you have the perfect platform to open up. new players, new podcaster streamers and all that. All those good things, new communities, discord servers, and all that sort of stuff could come and do stem from from your show, which is Such a boon to the community.
Amber Seger:Yeah, so I'm, I'm super excited like James, giving the show over to me passing on the reins, I did have a lot of ideas that I wanted to be able to do with it. Because I feel like there are so many voices and so many things being made that, you know, either you're not very online or you're not active in the community, but you listen to a podcast, maybe this is a way that I can help expose people to new things and new experiences. And so one of the things I'm actually going to be doing for tabletop babble, which as of this recording, it's not out yet, but it will be hopefully, whenever this comes out, we're doing a show within a show. Remember how I said I like layers of so yet, again, I am, I'm doing a show, within a show, we are going to be doing a spotlight of a game. So this came about because I tend to buy RPGs that I'm really interested in really excited about and then they sit on my shelf or sit in my PDF folder. And I don't read them unless I'm going to play the game, like run the game, right? And I thought, Okay,
Snyders Return:what guilty is charged?
Amber Seger:Yep. Yes, I think a lot of people are like that. So I thought, Okay, what can I do for the community and also, at the same time help other games get noticed that may get passed by or just not seen. And so what I started was a show type of topic spotlight, a subsidiary of tabletop babble. To put in that same feed, where we take a book something right now that like, I'm excited about right, and we are going to go through it and review it, it's very structured. And we are going to read the whole book, and then we're gonna talk about it, and then bake it, stream it. So it will be streamed on twitch.tv, forward slash geek spective. So we expect this twitch channel, it'll be up on YouTube. And it will come out as a podcast. And it's a thing where I actually made slides, because I love making work for myself. Something I'm very good at. I made a slide slideshow, like basically a quick guide to go through the show. And the four, there's like a look at this, I have it here notes, there's 123456. There are six different sections for the show where we do the game introduction, our first impressions, a game overview. So to go over the mechanics and stuff will actually do the character creation as well. Then there's a game master section and review. And then because my background is in user experience, and layout design, I'm going to talk about the layout and the UX of the book as well. And I'm really excited. I hope people love it.
Snyders Return:Because I love doing it. I'm sure they will. So if we really peeled all that back using the laser analogy. So you've got the tabletop Bible, then you've got this spotlight, which is going to focus on which then has the sub layer or third layer of playing in the game.
Amber Seger:Yeah. Oh, my gosh, yeah. And then I have to make another podcast to play that. Inside of tabletop babble, no, I can't do that. I have to rein myself in. Where Where do you find all
Snyders Return:this time? I don't have time on I'm just going to encourage you now. Okay, so
Amber Seger:the Where do I find time question is actually a really good, good thing I would like to discuss, because I think if people were to truly witness the amount of things that I do, it would be it's kind of a lot. I mean, I've heard people say you do a lot and Okay, so the secret is, I have no life outside of me, okay, for being really real. I'm super privileged in that. One, I don't have any kids. Okay. I have a partner who is super into all of the same things I'm into and in fact, is involved in a lot of the stuff that I do. So they're actually in shape shift a lot, and they play in my campaign. And they're also just super understanding super supportive and very encouraging of this hobby work that I do. Um, my brother lives with me, and the way that he pays rent is that he does basically all the chores, so I don't have to do chores. It's great setup. And then I just have, I just have a dog who she's a old baby, so she's very low maintenance and I really Don't like all my friends, all my friends, like, we get spective. They're my friends. They're the people I spend the most time with. They're the people I enjoy spending my time with. And so we're just tabletop content creators together. And it's really fun. And so that's why I have time, because it's all I do. Also, it helps now to beat a pandemic, so helps to be at a pandemic.
Snyders Return:Yeah, a strange bonus to, to the way things currently are, I guess. But there's nothing wrong with that, you know, you work hard. And you put out fantastic content, I have to say, with respect to time, content, and running games. If I may ask you for some advice for say, a new podcast or a new GM dm game runner. What advice would you handle?
Amber Seger:So I actually I don't I think I have two things that can kind of be rolled into maybe one over I overarching idea is that you have to make sure that you're having fun for yourself and to pace yourself. Don't get into podcasting, and running games, or force yourself to do this stuff. If you yourself, the person making it, the person show running it aren't enjoying it. You just don't push yourself to do it. Because then it's why why why are you doing it right? For for, I don't know, likes, retweets, I mean potential business stuff. But the longevity of it really comes from, do you enjoy it. And then if you're enjoying it, and you're having a really good time with you, yourself, if you're just the one putting it out there, or if you're with a group of friends, and you're doing it, I think other people start to notice that. And they like people like people having fun. I mean, it's why people listen to actual play podcasts or live streams or whatever, because it's just fun to do that. So I think that there's this really big, external pressure on content creators. So you always be creating, you always have to be putting something out, you always have to, to get something out there, right. And that doesn't help that social media algorithms really kind of punish you. If you're not, it sucks. I can talk about that a lot, too. But whatever, we're not going to go there. But the core of it is I just really hope if you're first starting to get into it, one, please, please have fun. That's that's just please be having fun doing it. And there's nothing wrong with you're doing it. Same thing. If you play a game, right? If you play a game for a few sessions, like you're not enjoying yourself, or you're running a game that you're not in, you're not and you're not enjoying running it don't don't run it, I've learned that over the course of doing my shapeshift show, like trying all these indie games of there are some games that I probably won't go back to because I didn't enjoy running them. That's, that's fine. Um, so I think I think it's okay to not do something if you're not enjoying it, and don't give into sunk cost fallacy. And then also, of course, pace yourself.
Snyders Return:Potentially, I won't say more important, but a very big statement to make. About pacing and, and health, physical, mental, and emotional as well. It can be I'm sure that you've had many an hour, as you say, listening to yourself, hours on end editing, going back and checking and then it's levels, sound effect background music, a lot of things to consider. So if if you need to take a break, and there's a little bit from personal experience, if you need to take a break. Just save the profile, Steve the project and step away from the computer. So
Amber Seger:important that is so so important, because I can tell you firsthand, I'm the kind of person that really pushes themselves. I'm sure that is very indicative in the way that I've been talking about stuff and like the mental stuff I put out. And there have been times where, you know, I've cried, because I'm exhausted and I pushed myself too hard or I didn't like how I sounded and I got really frustrated or even in the middle of a game one time. I just broke down because it was just too many times. I mean, that's why I say why I said what I said about make sure you're having fun because at one point I was having fun, and I had to step back and there was a time where a shape shift I I took a month, two month break. I didn't have anything come out because it was just like, Nope, I need to refresh. have to find the fun again. Otherwise, I can't keep doing this. So I think your your your right to you can walk away Take a break.
Snyders Return:Absolutely. Building on that, but not necessarily in the same vein. Is there anything that we haven't touched on that you would like to discuss? We've spoken about different systems and content creation and the amazing work that you do put out and in its many layers and forms and platforms, we can find it on boozer, anything we haven't touched on would like to mention,
Amber Seger:I don't think so. I mean, gosh, I have. There's so much in my head. I don't know what I don't know what I said or what I didn't say at this point. I don't think there is anything I think we we got pretty much everything that's going on. Yeah, I think so. All right. Well, I would like to, I would like to invite you to remind everybody where they can find you your content, your enamel pins, everything. Please give us that that link dump, again. Sure. And I will also mention other shows like expected network too, because I think I forgot to talk about that. So with that being said, so yeah, you can find me primarily on twitter at rocket Orca where there is a pin tweet that has a link to my link tree that can take you to all those places. Primarily my podcast work is all on geek spective. So geek spective is my podcast network I co own so go to expect.com to find shows I've talked about like tails remarks fairy shapeshift, the Warner pelo Grove red major plumage. There's also a comedy talk show called bring Alice Athens which I do with the other geek spective. co owner, Dave, that's just us being silly. And then we also have tabletop babble, of course. And dames and dragons just joined our network as well, which is a d&d, d&d podcast, actual play podcast. They're great. They're hilarious as well. Um, my work if you want to see like my portfolio, or like my layout or podcast, I've guest on our shows I've guest on, you can go to rocket orca.com. That's all my other stuff. And then there, like I said, that pin tweet can take you to my Etsy and my patreon if you're interested. And then of course, there's Instagram rocket, Orca, or rocket corca, underscore art to see all my art stuff. I think that's everything. Got it, nailed it. There was there was a lot of things going on. All of it have the highest quality. So ama is been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. I'd love to have you back in the future if you'd be willing to join me again. Sure. I would love to I love to talk. And so thank you so much for having me on and giving me the space to talk about myself.
Snyders Return:Nice. It's been an absolute pleasure, and we will speak again soon. Great, awesome. Thanks for listening. If you'd like to learn more about the show, then go to WWW dot Snow's return.squarespace.com Alternatively, you can find us over on Twitter. At Return Snyder, you 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 out for for those who are listening until we until we speak again. Thank you