Interview - Connie Chang - Transplanar RPG GM / Game Designer

Today I talk with GM/DM of Transplanar RPG Podcast, Twitch Streamer and Game Designer - Connie Chang.

We discuss Transplanar RPG, Podcasting, Community, Twitch Streaming, God Killer and much more.

You can find Connie and all of Transplanar RPG content via the links below.

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/byConnieChang
https://twitter.com/TransplanarRPG
https://twitter.com/godkillerrpg

Website:
https://byconniechang.itch.io/
https://transplanarrpg.carrd.co/
https://www.patreon.com/byconniechang

Twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/transplanarrpg

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/c/TransplanarRPG

Please leave reviews on ITunes to help us to learn and grow as a Podcast

Yours Sincerely,

Adam 'Cosy' Powell

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CAST & CREW

Host: Adam Powell

Guest: Connie Chang

Sound Design: Adam Powell

Edited by: Adam Powell

Music: Epidemic Sound

Cover Art: Tim Cunningham - www.Wix.com

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Website:
https://linktr.ee/snydersreturn
http://snydersreturn.squarespace.com

Buy us a TTRPG Source Book: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SnydersReturn

Support the podcast by joining our Patreon community where you'll gain access several hours of bonus episodes. At the "Celestial” tier you have the opportunity to submit NPC names and items to be used in the game!

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Are you on DISCORD? Come hang out in our server! https://discord.gg/QgU5UNf Join us in the Snyder’s Return Facebook Group!

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Social Media:

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Instagram -  Snyder's Return (@snyders_return)

Email - snydersreturn@gmail.com

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Transcript

Snyders Return: 0:27

Hello, and welcome to snows return a tabletop roleplay podcast. My guest today knows how to navigate across time, space and places of even greater design, what power they wield to take on Titans facedown giants and spare an entire pantheon of their whim. No stranger to the tabletop role playing game community. Their star shines brightest, as though they have made all others disappear before our eyes. Going to the end of the world to bring us closer to each other is GamesMaster podcast, a game designer streamer and community champion, Connie Chang. Connie, welcome to the show.

Connie Chang: 1:06

An Introduction. That's Wow, I feel like I can't even live up to what you're putting down. Hi, I'm so happy to be here. Thanks so much for having me, Adam.

Snyders Return: 1:14

It's an absolute pleasure. And that's all your work reworded. That is That is none of my effort. I've just put it in sentences. Stepping into and and as a stepping off point for some of the things I mentioned in the intro. Connie, how did you get into tabletop role playing games, please? Huh?

Connie Chang: 1:30

I love it whenever I'm asked this question, because I always say the same thing, but were to kind of differently. And I feel like I'm always discovering new things about myself whenever I answered this question from someone else. So the cold, hard, dry, ugly fact of the matter is I got into TTRPG through dungeons and dragons fifth edition. Specifically, I jammed a home game for my high school friends back in I want to say like 2015 2016 Maybe I remember it was a year out of high school. And I just remember thinking like, hey, this d&d thing starting to get popular. Like we're all nerds, we like video games, we're into roleplay. Like, why not give this a shot. So I started a home game and it went as disastrously chaotic as you might imagine, for my baby's first ever d&d game, right, that I was also the DM for. And that was a lot of fun. And I just kept playing d&d, after getting into college. I had a pretty consistent home campaign in college that went on for I want to say like two years, junior and senior years of undergrad. And that was a lot of fun, got to sort of see players through level one through like 12, which was really, really awesome. And after that, after college after graduation started to transition into a more I think, like, serious hobbyists relationship with TTRPG is expanding into different kinds of systems, not just d&d. And yeah, really putting myself out there and meeting new and awesome folks through Twitter, and through other online spaces such as yourself, Adam,

Snyders Return: 3:00

thank you very much. And thank you for everything you're doing in the community at the moment. How I want to backtrack just a little bit that the home game this the sort of epic game you had running for two years and the experiences you had before using published setting materials or was this sort of homebrew home game?

Connie Chang: 3:18

That's a good question. It was a completely homebrew campaign, which is part of the reason why it was so chaotic. I remember like sitting down with like, you know, the source books and being like, ooh, like, what monsters do I want to use? Like what plot hooks do I want to throw in there? And I decided, You know what, I'm going to homebrew it. I'm going to come up with my own and the first ever home campaign I ran for my friends in high school. The hook was this magical like corruptive mist right had like settled over this like homebrew fantasy bro and had settled over this round for like, dozens of years. Right and like humanity and ELF kind Dorf kind whatever was completely wiped out. So the last bastion of peoplehood have resided in the peak of this mountain rage called siren song, right very peak that used to be this remote in you know, hospitable place. But due to the magical corruptive mist has become you know the last bastion of humanity and civilizations like last hope right? And the hook for the beginning of the campaign is over the months, the mists have been slowly rising and will surely take over siren song unless four intrepid adventurers are sent into the mist with gas masks on a flying ship. This was pre COVID So I was like, oh, we can't breathe the air. That's not That's fine. That's a fine plot point to throw up my pliers without warning, right? And yeah, they got to me all sorts of really messed up monsters. I threw like really like, in retrospect, I shouldn't have done that. At the time. I had no idea what safety tools were right. Like I didn't do lines or videos. I didn't have any safety tools on the table. And my players honestly they were just like, we wanted to make more any bar jokes. We wanted to meme. We wanted to have like a silly campaign with like tavern wenches. Instead, I was like, here is a borrow garage and it's going to rip you live. Right and it's gonna spawn out of the mist and be a reflection of your greatest nightmares. like have fun. Right? So that was a really interesting first DMing experience for me and I think it was a lot about me as a person.

Snyders Return: 5:10

Wow. Yeah, definitely and siren song clearly lolling some to their doom and others, yes to recover for others. How much of that inspired what into into what has become trans planar and the the world that that he's inhabited in your show? Hmm,

Connie Chang: 5:31

that's a great question. So, you did such an amazing introduction for my work in what I do. Again, thank you, Adam. But for any listeners who might be unaware or new to what trans planer is, it's the actual play show that IgM and produce indirect for. In a nutshell, we're an all transgender, POC, lead, d&d, actual play stream, we stream Saturdays at 3pm US Central Time. And the world is in decay, which is a completely homebrew, non colonial anti Orientalist world, right. All of the cultures that I like base, a lot of these like fantasy nations off of are taken from like, various AAPI cultures of which I belong to as well. And it was very important to me and is important to me that the world building reflects the diversity of cultures that there are in the actual world, and that those cultures are represented with a lot of sensitivity, and a lot of thought and care. So with that, out of the way our campaign is currently it's I describe it as grim, dark and gritty fantasy because it is and the premise of it is episode one, right? The the world ends right the stars wink out the gods disappear, like clerics lose their power, right? Some Warlocks lose their power as well, Paladin to draw their oath from divinity also lose their power. And the strange chittering aberrations begin to spawn in this new darkness, right, they begin to attack people. So that's just like the basic hook of episode one. And I think, you know, you can sort of chart a progression of like Connie's interested in gritty stuff to Connie still interested in gritty stuff, right? So that for me, like, hasn't changed at all. I'm someone who's, as a GM. And as a storyteller, I'm really interested in stories about like, grief, and tragedy and loss. And grittiness, right. But I'm interested in them because of the hope that can emerge, right? In the in the aftermath of tragedy, right? Like, after something horrible happens, so much. incredible beauty is possible, right? And I'm also really interested in asking and exploring what it means to have power both in terms of like magic power actualized, and fantasy settings, but also in terms of like, you know, social and situational power, right, and what power reveals of us. I think there's like a very common, I would say, misconception when it comes to world building that some, you know, folks might have that power in and of itself is corruptive, right? Like, you give someone power and it corrupts them and they get greedy with it. They do terrible things with it, right? But I think power is more revelatory than corruptive. Right? Because once you have power, I think it reveals it doesn't corrupt. And I'm interested in exploring a lot of these through transplanter. And I think I was kind of subconsciously exploring some of these themes and topics through my first ever homebrew, like home campaign. But now I've like grown a lot. As a GM I've gotten to, like, meet so many different people and learn from them. And I think that I'm a lot more intentional with my world building and with my like encounter design and with like the hooks I throw at my players.

Snyders Return: 8:28

Yeah, absolutely. The the shows into the fourth arc 15 episodes per arc. Yes. I'll touch on a plot point for the current arc in a moment. But how far from that grit and darkness? Have we gone into light and back? Or we stayed in that darkness with a little bit of levity? How have the characters dealt with the world that you've created for them? Ah,

Connie Chang: 8:57

well, first of all, Adam, honestly, kudos to you for doing your research, because I feel like you know more about my show than I do what you've said, and I'm kind of intimidated, like, Oh, am I gonna get quizzed on my own show? But that's, I mean, I'm down because me anytime you want. But to answer your question, it's a great one. You're full of great, great questions and great zingers Adam. The characters are really the heart of it, right? Because everything I set up, it's important to me that the narrative of translator has a satisfying conclusion and a satisfying outcome. Because unlike a home game, where I can just sort of throw things at my players and be like, alright, figure out what happens for an actual play where that difference is, for me as a GM is I kind of I prep things a little bit more. And it's important that like things make sense, dramaturgical II and also like things that I set up pay off right so it's not like I set this you know, interesting NPC up for three sessions and they never come back. Right. Whereas whereas in a home game that might happen like all the time, right, but I make sure everything pays off in one way, shape or form. So, with that aside, moments of levity, I think, are mostly found through the characters because my PCs will like crack jokes or like their characters will responded really realistic ways to like terrible things happening. I'll describe like a horrible, salivating slobbering monster. And my piece will be like, well, that's great. You know, like, they'll have like, we'll have like banter at the table that when they get out, you know, fun. And I think that's just an organic and organic part of performing with people that you like, and people that you are really comfortable with. Right, but I would say three exploiters, mostly Dramatic Series Not gonna lie. It's it's pretty serious. But there are moments of levity for sure.

Snyders Return: 10:39

So sticking with this a little bit longer during the series, as you are presented it and all the payoffs you put through, has there been a time in from episode one to where we are now? chronologic? There has there have been a moment in particular that has touched you personally, emotionally, where you've, you've you've bought into the character's story in a deeper way, or there has been a revelation from them that you weren't expecting? Maybe?

Connie Chang: 11:07

Yeah, my PCs Oh, my goodness, my players always bring the fire. They bring the thunder, right. Like I give them the sky and they give me a storm and it's beautiful to witness. The most recent example I can think of is one of my characters Venus shares is played by Erika flowerland. V is a elven sorcerer. She's a con woman. That's her backstory, right? She's travelled all events, aka just calling people left and right swindling them of their money and get us given down when you know, when the guards come. And I really wanted Wiis backstory and like her past exploits to kind of you know, bite her in the bud especially in this arc right. The premise of this arc is my players are currently in too long which is the kingdom of too long and after the cataclysm after the apocalypse occurs basically, the Emperor have too long set up this like magical Ward around the borders of her kingdom called the dream shield. So anyone who tries to enter and hurt too long or too long interests get trapped in the dream shield which is the sort of like never ending like sleepwalking slumber right? So players had to get through the Dream Dream shield they eventually got into doco which is the Capitol too long and Erica has DM to me before this arc started being like V is you know, has a lot of history and DOKO like she's definitely calling people there before and outside of arc four we actually played a one shot with some guest players that we were able to bring in through this awesome event called shoot your one shot that I'll get into in a minute if we have time where we play through some of these backstory in doco where we learned that via had a fiance like a girlfriend that she was like really in love with and we're going to get married right but at the end of the one shot like this girlfriend is called Lotus, the Borg and away her memory of Lotus to achieve a treasure because her whole thing is she's like driven by treasurer right but she thought okay, I'll just bargain away like a memory of like a single kiss with a lotus right but what I ended up doing was like I told her well you forget her completely like you feel like this memory of your girlfriend just like vanished from your mind right? And he was like great. I'm excited for art for now because Lotus is still there right so yeah, Lotus is still there V met Lotus again and I I threw those memories back at V it was really fun couple of episodes review was like looking at this tiefling bartender who's like glowering daggers at her because Lotus thought V just like left her skip town right but no called no showed her right. So there was like this like reunion. And I remember one moment in this reunion where Erica describes v as pacing around the floor, like pacing around the floor of this tavern that Lotus owns. The memories come flooding back and she just sort of improvised off the cuff like this squeaky floorboard, I remember it now it's still squeaks, doesn't it? And here like where I etched my name on the stool. I remember it. And I was just like blown away with the little details that Erica had V say, right, like these little things of like, because that's what really matters in a relationship, right? It's the little things that you care about, like the the way they laugh or like how you know, their smile only really happens on one side of their face or like their favourite drink right where this like silly little inside joke you had. So that was really devastating scene to play out. And also a very warm, fuzzy scene to play out. And also a complicated one because V who was dating someone else at the time and her girlfriend at the time was also there. So there was all sorts of drama as well.

Snyders Return: 14:32

Many days of things going on in that scene. Absolutely. For sure. For sure. Definitely. You've got me hooked and while we have hopefully other listeners hooked, where can we find your good self and everything you're associated with trans planar on social media on the Internet so we can get people down to those links in the description below to go and support you and everything you do.

Connie Chang: 14:54

Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me personally on Twitter H Patreon at by Connie Chong by CEO and IE CH, A and G, and you can find trans planar at trans planar which is trans as in transgender t ra NS and then planar as in like interplanar travel write p l a n A R, and then the letters RPG. We're most active on Twitter in terms of social media and we also stream Saturdays on Twitch.

Snyders Return: 15:20

Yeah. So scroll down support, Connie and transplanter using the links below this podcast. Connie, with the stream, the podcast, the producing, and sort of everything. How do you find time to do other projects?

Connie Chang: 15:37

I don't really, but I do. I don't know how it's some sort of like techno wizardry. Maybe I've forged a pact with a dark patron. And that's how I find extra hours in the day. Um, but yeah, it's a constant, I think renegotiation of my schedule on a constant assembly assemblage of my priorities, and making sure that, you know, I'm investing the time in the places that I want, first of all want to invest the time in, which is TTRPG stuff, because it's my passion, it's what I love to do, and also the stuff I'm able to write and the stuff that pays. So it's like those three things that I have to constantly sort of juggle, and they vary on like, a month to month basis. Right. So in terms of just like how I juggle things, logistically, I guess that's that's sort of a little peek into my brain. Yeah.

Snyders Return: 16:25

Well, you've you know, you've appeared in some fantastic streams, into the mists, I was scrolling through your Twitter full of fantastic content again, link in the description below. But you you've done streams with a Aabria, Gabe, and Megan Jones, and yeah, many fantastic sort of celebrities, as they are within our community. What's it been like to sort of come into it and share the stage and be on par? If not, you know, stood on stood, you can stand on a pedestal, if you wish, up on this pedestal, people want to be as successful, they want to be as creative, they want to be as free flowing. So how is it being sort of being part of this community? Or teaching? Oh, gosh,

Connie Chang: 17:12

oh, hi. It's it. Hi, I wouldn't even consider myself to be you know, like, it's always so odd. And it feels odd and interesting. And I think it's very humbling. I whenever folks, you know, come up to me, and are interested in interviewing me and are interested in picking my brain like you and I always feel very like honoured when folks reach out to me and want to talk with me. And I definitely don't see myself as like on a pedestal at all. Like, I just a nerd here, like running nerd games with my friends who are also nerds, right. And that is still very much the heart of what I do. I feel very privileged and very lucky to have been given the opportunities to get to, you know, be on those stages with those folks, like, getting to play with and also GM Aabria. Ayengar has been amazing. Like, she's awesome, like, Aabria if you're listening to this, you're great. You're awesome. I hope to one day meet you in person that is both a promise of a threat. And you know, like games, games, games, Hicks and Omega Jones critical Bard. They're both wonderful, incredible, very talented performers and they just shine a light wherever they go. Gabe is also such a talented game designer and he's always like tweeting about like, he comes up with these like campaign ideas and these like item ideas. And I'm just like, where do you have the time to come up with this stuff and I just know that it's organic. That's just how Gabe is like, they're just a naturally creative person and like a naturally very warm person. Very talented, right? And like CBS the same way like such a talented streamer, like an incredible cosplayer and a very, very talented vocalist and singer and musician as well. Um, and yeah, like getting to GM Christina otter yo was also amazing, like, she just like the thoughtfulness that she you know, brings to her work and I just had admired her for such a long time that it was a dream come true to get to GM her in that way. And I'm not really answering your question I'm just sort of gushing about people that I like in the space

Snyders Return: 19:09

of is answering the question to be fair.

Connie Chang: 19:12

Yeah, there's just so many amazing bright and talented stars in the TTRPG community that I just want to get to play MGM all of them you know, I want to get to play with and share a table and space with you know, all the amazing talented people out there. And I'm very grateful for the opportunities that I've I've been able to have in that regard so far. Well,

Snyders Return: 19:34

you've you've also created products for for people like my myself and other DMS GMs to bring to our own tables available through through H and you've also got God killers. Oh God killer. Yes. What can you tell us about some of your some of your works ready for release? I mentioned there some some things on on edge and the future forthcoming. Exciting cuz I like the way it sounds God killer RPG.

Connie Chang: 20:05

Okay, let's talk about the stuff that's already out before getting into God killer because killer so thank you for bringing up my chat I'm on Twitch, I currently have three things out, which is which I know like compared to some other game designers is like nothing. But my creative process is I think very slow and very methodical, right? Like I'm always like, got to sit down and think about something for a long time before putting it out because having something out that's reflects, I think my own standards and my own like approach to quality is really important to me. So it takes me a while to turn stuff out that out of the way. I have two modules out. One of them is called foul play, I believe. And it's basically like a role playing module. It's system agnostic, you can sort of throw it in, like, if you're running d&d, or Pathfinder or masks or anything, if you have any sort of like downtime, or like a travel montage, or like it's a new table and like or like the characters are new, but the players aren't new to each other, whatever, you throw that in there, and it basically is like a series of prompts and some loose rules to help guide the role, you know, the scene that comes out of those prompts. Right? I was inspired by starcrossed, which is a system that uses Jenga blocks to tell a story of two starcrossed lovers with two players, right, and you pull blocks from the Jenga tower until it you know collapses, and that's when the game ends, right. But instead of utilising a Jenga tower, I just sort of have like a series of you roll a d 100 on and you land on like a pocket table, right? And you two characters get to have a scene with each other around that particular prompt. And it you know, helps encourage role playing right and world building and characters getting to know each other. You can even do this with NPCs. Right? You don't have to pick another PC to play with. And this is yeah, I have found it useful. I developed it during arc one of transplanter when my players were getting started to get to know each other and we were doing some like travel montage is that I was like, we should learn how to feel the time here. Right? That isn't just like travel and then you get there right? Because I'm personally not a fan of random encounters. So this was my response to that. Yeah.

Snyders Return: 22:09

You've also got on there uh, you mentioned your, your process, your design process, being slow, methodical, and ironically have released accelerated combat. Which one take us through that? Because I know from personally, I I love the end, but the bit that is a sticking point for me is initiative and combat. I love combat, but it can accelerate your combat please. From the expert.

Connie Chang: 22:38

Well, thank you for bringing that up. Because accelerated combat is a module specifically for d&d Fifth Edition. It's a way to do combat if you're if you feel like Adam sometimes and you're like this combat is taking forever, we have spent two like sessions which is like three in real world months, right? Fighting a single troll like a series of trolls, can we please just finished fighting these roles? Right? So accelerated combat is my response to I think non boss encounters right like fights that aren't like built up to a certain way either like random encounters, or non random encounters that makes sense like bandits guarding like a bandit, like outposts, right. But there's like 20 bandits, and seven players, that's gonna take forever. If you run combat like rules as written that will take forever, especially if you track each band individually and don't group them together, you swarm mechanics or minion mechanics or something, right? So accelerated combat is my response to that it's for combat on the road, new way to handle random encounters or a way to just speed up, you know, regular combat. Three main roles and boom, that's it. you narrate what happens together as a group, you figure out consequences based on how the roles go. And it just, it helps you like focus on the cinematic side of combat, you know, like players can feel really badass with like, just one or two roles, right? Yeah, and it speeds things up. And it makes it feel a lot more narratively driven. It's been, it's been a hot minute, since I've released accelerated combat and I have I'm, I kind of want to release like an addendum to it, or like a second version. That might be like combat for actual play or something. Because something I've also noticed as an actual player, again, watching other actual plays of Dungeons and Dragons is combat and slow stuff down, like immensely, right, the rolling of the dice, like the arbitration of rules, like counting the squares for using a battle map, or like going through reading the texts of like how spells work, that stuff can really slow down, I think, an actual play campaign in a way that isn't necessarily very interesting for the audience to watch. And I've got like a lot of thoughts and a lot of ideas about how to run combat in a way that's a lot faster and a lot more gripping, both for the players and for the audience. So that's, that's currently in the works as well.

Snyders Return: 24:49

Yeah. I think with respect to sort of actual plays and streams and things like that you mentioned for audience engagement. I think that's where, and again, this isn't put down on d&d. But like the power by the apocalypse system where has a flowing narrative style can really keep that engagement and be easy and definitely accelerated rules. A friend of mine fellow podcaster, Nicky, Beholder to no one has run run us through using using the system so I have become more familiar with it, which is why I wanted to make sure I mentioned it because it is a fantastic please scroll down each page for the link and pick this off your table. halos and Horde, we might as well do the trifecta of

Connie Chang: 25:33

the third one.

Snyders Return: 25:35

halos and horns, please.

Connie Chang: 25:38

Yes, that's a one page RPG Halo and horns halos and horns, however you slice it doesn't really matter to me. It's it's a one pager kind of like honey heist. And the premise is that it's a game for one G to GMs and angel and a devil, each trying to coax one player a mortal to their side, right. And it's adapted from an improv game that I used to play all the time. Back when I was in an active troupe that I had a lot of fun with right, Angel and Angel devil doubleheader is what we call it in my college room. And it's a super fast game, it could take anywhere from like 30 minutes, I think, to an hour to 10 minutes, if you just play it like the improv game that it's based off of, honestly, maybe even sub 10. But it's, it's super wacky, you've got like two opposing GMs that are like playing this tug of war, right, and like using all the GM tools at their disposal to push the player in the direction that they want to be pushed in. And it's really interesting, because the times I've played it, and I've gotten to watch it, the player actually has a lot of power, even though the GMs are like literal gods, right? Like it's the player that decides who wins essentially, right. And I think at the heart of it, it's a guessing game, because each GM has a different objective that they want the mortal to accomplish. And the objectives usually have nothing to do with each other. Right? The angel GM might want the mortal to adopt an entire clinic of puppies right at a shelter. And the devil GM might want the mortal to booty call all of their exes and hook up with them. Right? It's completely like opposing and like that's the fun of it, right? You can like Timescape, you can paint the scene, you can introduce NPCs you can change the weather, right? Like all the GM tools at your disposal to nudge player that direction. And that's basically if that sounds interesting to you, if it sounds fun, chaotic to you, I recommend picking it up. It's like three bucks or something I think I have a tonne of community copies. This is true for all of my games or community copies available for all of them. If you don't know what that means. It's basically free copies of my stuff that the community has donated by buying copies of my stuff. So please don't ever feel bad for just taking free PDFs of my work. Like I'm never going to shame or blame at please just go for it. It makes me feel happy when people get to play my stuff and interact with it so

Snyders Return: 27:50

well bunch, but they can play now, what they play. I say next year, I'm recording this the end of 2021. So next year with respect to 2022 and God killer RPG,

Connie Chang: 28:03

God killer my baby Ah, okay, so God, the God killer RPG is a holy punk powered by the apocalypse game for one player, that God killer and one GM God. And it's set in this like, post apocalyptic, magically irradiated realm where gods have fallen from the fallen from heaven and walk amongst mortals. Right? And they can't be killed except by each other. So Gods go around killing other gods eating other gods. You know, you know, how can we swear on this podcast? I just want to Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to make sure before I went on fucking other gods, right? for power, for pleasure, for survival, right? It's sort of like in the muck of all of this with like, mortal sort of toiling under the thumb of either oppressive gods or slightly less oppressive gods, or gods who just sort of like dig around and like, don't really help people out rises to God killer, who is the first and only mortal in the entire realm capable of killing a god. And that's the that's the premise of the game. And I'm currently really like, I'm working on it. I'm excited for the core rules to be done. We're looking at maybe like, late January, early February 2022, is when the core rules will be done, but it won't be like there won't be a public release probably until spring or summer of 2022. Okay, but yeah, I'm

Snyders Return: 29:34

I'm hooked. I'm there. I mean, I'm buying it. You may one sale. One of me yes. No doubt, I'm all over. So not just producing shows producing work, but you're also offering yourself it's it sounds a very strange way of saying it but GM tips and things through your Patreon. So would you mind tell us a little about how people can come and support you not just a follow on social media or subscribe to the podcast or the Twitch stream, but how they can support you as an individual and a GM a content creator.

Connie Chang: 30:13

Absolutely. So I do thank you for bringing that up. Adam, I do have a patreon. It's at the same handle that I use for everything which is by Connie Chung. Basically, what I offer on Patreon are GM tips and tools for other GMs. And for people looking to I guess, just support me in general, right. So putting like GM tips up on Patreon i o also have like a monthly patron only live stream of just like GM advice. That's a different topic every time that I call Professor Sean's tabletop workshop. We're currently on like lecture 13 or 14 or something. And I always put lectures up publicly on YouTube. Like maybe like a couple like a week or two after they're streamed live to my patrons and patrons also get to ask me questions live, which like shapes obviously shapes the direction of the lecture, but every lecture has a different topic I've like talked about oh my god. Death player death like how to handle PC death I think was my was my most recent lecture as well as like stuff like improv,

Snyders Return: 31:12

just to clarify this PC deaf play a character? Oh, yes.

Connie Chang: 31:15

Yes. Not like going out of your way to kill your actual player. That would be hilarious. Maybe an April Fool's promo, Sean's like, sure. Yeah, here's how you actually kill your player. No, yeah, PC desk. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. Stuff like that. I've also like, way back I think at this point over a year ago released a series on if you're also interested in building worlds that are non colonial and anti orientalist, I have like a five part series on specifically on intaki, which is the world for trans planar that I released through Professor songs. That's all available on YouTube transplanter, RPGs, YouTube, I'm very careful about organising all of our videos into playlists. So just head over to our playlists tab and click the one that makes sense to you. Yeah, so from Professor tongs, and like GM articles and tips. Patrons get like sneak peeks of my games. Depending on the tier you pledge out, you get like free PDFs of my games when they come out, or like discounted PDFs. At the very least, you also get like a peek, like into working progresses of like longer games I've done so I've put several whips of God killer onto my Patreon already, you get to vote on the next topic of my GM article or professor songs if and when that comes out. And all patrons also get access to my Discord where I have a monthly patron gaming night. We have recently I've recently decided to make this monthly gaming night, specifically a tournament with like fun facts about like Dungeons and Dragons, or like CRPGs, or like weightlifting or like various random interests of mine that vary from month to month. And I do have prizes. So you might get some cool like, you know, miniatures, or like, a little dice or like stickers or iron on patches or whatever. So come join the Connie Chung patron community tears start at three bucks a month. And I think like the highest is 200 or something. But that's like a one person what someone's already taken it and I've only have one of those available. That's for like a bi monthly game. If you want to play in one that IgM for you and up to three other friends of your choice. But other than that the next highest tier, I think it's like 25 bucks. And you get like everything you also get like a monthly postcard for me, it's, you know, like stuff like that. So check it out, if that's interesting to you at all. And it's important to me that for 2022 I really start like, I think like giving my Patreon a nice kick in the butt in the tush. Getting some nice good content up there, I think is on my to do list is on my resolutions for 2022. Because I've got some good stuff up there already. But I want to really I think like refocus, and really invest more in my in my Patreon, I think.

Snyders Return: 33:47

Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned that and I can I can see it. Unfortunately other people can't see it. But I can hear it in your voice for sure. The enthusiasm you have for communities, what's it like to have this community and give back to community? And your thoughts on where our community is going?

Connie Chang: 34:06

To you're so good with the good, the good ask questions. And I'm coming in with the BAP BAP, the one two. So community to me is everything straight up, like I would not be here I would not have you know, accomplished the things that I've accomplished without the support of literally everyone around me who believes in me. And my Patreon is like, I guess a direct reflection of that. It's like literally people who give me money every month so I can keep doing stuff, right? That's a pretty that's a pretty one to one I think conversion of like, support to, you know, resources. And I you know, for that reason, I'm very grateful to specifically my patrons, all of y'all like, like, seriously, like, I literally can't do this without you. And it means so much to me that you're willing to like give me money every month to like, keep doing me and keep doing the things that I care about. Right. And it's important to me to be able to like pay that back because I don't take that As granted at all like I don't like that's, it's vital to me to be able to pay that back with gratitude and also pay it forward. Right. And, you know, Speaking more broadly speaking of paying it forward, like the trans planar communities that we have the people who tune in every week to watch our streams, as well as our everyone in our Discord server, which we very recently made public. So you can come join our Discord server, I believe, like find the post on our Twitter page. And, you know, folks who interact with us on Twitter, like the various other like podcasts and actual play networks, we're a part of like other streams, other you know, pods that we've become friends with, and have gotten to know like, Nick, he's really cool, Nick, he's a really cool person, I'm really glad to have you know, met you through this interview framework, Adam. And you know, everyone else who I've been interviewed by slash that I've gotten taught to talk to or play shirt tables at has just been so positive and so amazing, right. And it's been truly incredible and so humbling to see the reception to trans planar from the community, as well as to my own personal work, right. And I'm so excited to be sharing these spaces with folks that I really like and appreciate and respect. In terms of where I think the hobby, the industry, the communities of TTRPG is going. I think we Okay, I think there have always been the marginalised people in these spaces always right, like ever since the conception of d&d in the Midwest, which is where I currently am living right in like the 70s. I want to say, don't quote me on that, because I'm not I'm not actually a historian, would you say? Okay, thank you. Yeah, just smile and nod boys smile nod. There have always been, you know, people of colour, there have always been queer people. There have always been women. There's always been trans people, you know, international folks, folks, not in the United States playing tabletop games, board games, always. But I think the Wii, I want to say that because I have part of those groups, right? Have been getting more and more visibility, and there have been more, it's become more and more accessible for us as well, because I wasn't aware of d&d as a thing that I could do and play until like 2015 2016, which comes on the heels of fifth edition, right? Which kind of you know, also comes on the heels of like, actual bigger actual plays that have made the hobby more accessible. I would argue that you know, shows like critical role, adventure zone, dimension 20 nad pod, you know, dungeons and daddies like they make the hobby more visible to more people and introduce more people to the hobby, whether that's through the show, or through d&d as the gateway game that they explore other games through or other games in the d&d or whatever, right. And I think that it's just going to get more and more diverse. I think our hobby is going to have more visibility on more marginalised creators. I think, more non d&d games, like non d&d shows, more international shows, I hope, are going to, you know, come to the top and get some more visibility, because there's like a truly vibrant, like, TTRPG community in like Southeast Asia, like, that's huge. Like, that's, I've learned that recently, you know, like the past, like, maybe a year or half a year. And that's been amazing to see you to like, see the games and the communities come out of that as well. Right. So I think it's gonna get more diverse. And I hope that I hope that we're gonna see, I think, a sea change on an industry wide level when it comes to actual plays as well, in terms of more equitable rates for performers, and with that, bigger and more sponsorship involvement as well. And higher production value and quality just across the board is what I think is going to happen, and also what I hope will happen, so I'm kind of like marrying the two together, right?

Snyders Return: 38:42

Yeah, definitely. When you mentioned, sort of Southeast Asia, the the fourth culture from Singapore is a fantastic show ranches. So definitely want to check out there. I will also put a link to them in the description below this podcast as well as I presume you mentioned that other systems outside of sort of this amazing platform that the DND has, I won't say creative but definitely supported and help generate and regenerate for each sort of new crop of players that come through and DMS and GMs. what systems do you enjoy? That are not Dungeons Dragons, what you'd like to play that is outside of the D 20. System.

Connie Chang: 39:24

You mentioned, powered by the apocalypse games. And I love I love the system of moves. Right? which I think are like for me at the heart of power by the apocalypse games. It's instead of like resolving things through like skill checks, right, or saving throws or whatever we're at the 20 rule moves right to literally move the fiction forward in a certain direction on and typically those games the systems have led to D six plus that you know core resolution mechanic but that's not always true. I am also I tried There was there was like a hot second, where I did some research into savage worlds. And then I was like, maybe maybe, like, okay, maybe I'll, I'll look into this later. And like Nikki, if you're listening to this yes, that is exactly what you're thinking of. It was when I was attempting to do a little bit of character creation with you. And I was, I was like, this is really cool. I love that you can sort of just like build a character without class, right? We're like, without, like, prescriptive ideas of what you can or can't do, and just sort of like, make a character piecemeal. That's really interesting and appealing to me. I also enjoy what different systems within pbta have done like belong si belong games, which were river evolution out of like PVTA games, with the token economy, like weak move, strong moves, you know? No, no dice, no masters, right? are also really interesting to me those games. And I as a game designer, and as a GM always looking to sort of like, focus on the narrative side of of a show focus on the characters focus on the emotions first, right? I'm always looking at, like other systems and like thinking to myself, Okay, what can I take from this system? And like either putting my game or like putting my in my campaigns, right? And how can I like sort of, like piece together sort of Frankenstein together like a system and engine, a campaign that works for me, right through all the lessons and rules and mechanics that I've learned from other places? Yeah, yeah.

Snyders Return: 41:25

You mentioned that sort of pulling from other systems, a system that I've enjoyed recently is city of mist, which is sort of propolis base, but the part I like about it the most is the the spotlighting the way, it actually has that ingrained into the system. So a character, a play a character takes that spotlight for a period of time, and embodies it and then it moves on. And, and, as you mentioned, they with the moves, everything keeps moving, the narrative is always changing and evolving, and everybody has their moments to join in. And take part. So that's, that's one of the systems I've enjoyed playing recently. So I'm just going to recap everything you do for a minute, just amazing. So streamer, podcaster, producer, game designer, and sort of community Patreon. supporting other people, and somehow you find time to appear on other streams, which do you have time for you? Do you get downtime to relax?

Connie Chang: 42:32

Oh, oh, boy. So outside of all of this, I also have a job. Yeah, well, it's, I've my hours are really low on that job, because I make time for TTRPG stuff. So between my TTRPG work and my freelance work, doing narrative narrative design for video games, I, I, with one little free time I have I like to spend it working out I'm actually gonna work out after this. After this recording. It's part of how I like me time, right? Like for me, like working out is a way to be, get connected with my body, you know, be a little bit more mindful behind move, and also just get swole right. So I spend my time working out I also spend my time playing video games. That's how I decompress. I like to play first person shooters. I'm actually in the middle of doing some I'm on an ame training regimen because even with my like my off duty time I have to be good at what I do. I guess just as an Aries. Yeah, yeah, I guess I'm never truly truly relaxing, even watching shows. I'm always thinking about the story of the show. Yeah, I know. I'm like my game can I make from this show? Like, how can I put these plot points into my game or? Yeah.

Snyders Return: 43:53

Well, Trump's planar is going to continue to be a fantastic success. I have this I have no doubt as well as God killer when it comes out. As I told you, I'm already I'm already on that bandwagon that train. My wallet is already crying over Where'd it

Connie Chang: 44:11

kill those gods? And

Snyders Return: 44:13

to give you a bit more free time. And just as we just as we bring this this interview, this chapter closes, is there anything because we've covered a lot, mainly because you you do so much and do so much so well? Is there anything we haven't spoken about yet? You would like to sort of just bring up before we close?

Connie Chang: 44:32

I'm just gonna I'm just gonna put this in here, just in case. You know who you are. If you're interested. If you're down transplant RPG we Yes, we are seeking sponsors. Yes, we are seeking collaborators, co conspirators for 2022 and beyond. So that's interesting to you. Shoot us a DM our DMS are open on Twitter. Give us an email at transplant rpg@gmail.com That's it. That's all I want to say. Just put that energy out

Snyders Return: 44:57

there. Yeah to write it interests me. Bye. I unfortunately don't have the financial backing to sponsor you or support you.

Connie Chang: 45:03

You're You're good. I'm just like putting putting the energy out in the airwaves. And what one last thing? Because I think this is a because if this episode is going to be coming out pre 2022 Question mark just about Yeah, or just about okay, perfect, then the announcement has already come out, but I'm still writing the Hi. So very excited translator for the longest time it's been me jamming and for awesome players, right, but we're adding four new cast members to arcs 567 and eight, which will be the end of our first main campaign. And we're also we've also named our main campaign, it's not just me campaign anymore, it is officially named our show is called the second stranger. We've got eight incredible players we are all of us are transgender, and most of us are people of colour, we have to what we like to call our token white people are talking to white voters at our table, who are our quote unquote, allies. They're our allies, that the rest of us were people of colour, right? We're black or Latino or Asian. And we are. I'm so excited to be welcoming Austin and dare and Hamina and Quinn to the table as fellow main campaign cast members and players give them all a follow. All of our info is in our pinned tweet on Twitter. And I'm so excited for 2022 and the second half of the second stranger. And that's it pretty good pass things back to you, Adam.

Snyders Return: 46:22

Well, before you pass them out to me a quick bit of table tennis, I'm going to ask you to once again tell us where we can find your good self. Everything you're associated with on social media and the interwebs please call me

Connie Chang: 46:34

absolutely you can find me personally Connie at a by Connie Chang that's by isn't the authorial sign off be why not the sexuality though I am both on pretty much every social media platform, you can think of Twitter, Twitch, not Twitch, actually, I don't have a personal Twitch just Twitter, Instagram, Patreon and Twitch because I always think like Tumblr and Twitch, but that's not true for my personal stuff. And for trans planar. It's trans planar RPG on Twitter, Twitch, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, wherever you might have pod your casts as well. And that's it. Thank you so much for having me on.

Snyders Return: 47:07

Adam has been a great pleasure. You bring so much energy and so much inspiration that I've made some notes to take away and some future purchases as well. So I'd love to have you back on the show for an interview either wing Gokula gets released, or just in general when when the timing in the mood is good. And we get another chance.

Connie Chang: 47:29

Yeah, absolutely. Or one shot. Yeah, yes. I mean, this was a total joy. It was so great to meet you, Adam. I can't wait for this episode and to listen to everyone. Listen to I guess if you're already here, you're listening. But yeah, keep listening. Keep keep downloading, keep listening, keep sharing the show with your friends and your family and everyone else in the TTRPG community because, yeah, it's the creators that make this community great. So support your creators, Adam included.

Snyders Return: 47:55

Thank you. If you did happen to find this podcast by accident. Thank you for sticking with this interview. Please. support both shows, and creators. Until we get to speak again. Connie has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Connie Chang: 48:08

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

Snyders Return: 48:11

Thank you for listening. If you'd like to learn more about the show, then go to www dot Snyder's return.squarespace.com. Alternatively, you can find us over on Twitter. At return Snyder, you have a link tree link in the description of this episode. And if you want to support us, come and join us over on Patreon. And we also have a Discord server. Please leave us a review because we'd love to learn how to improve the channel and provide better content alpha for those who are listening until we until we speak again. Thank you