Aria Godey, Pirate Captain - Embodying Your Character with SpunkyTaylor (Thirsty Sword Lesbians)

Taylor brings Captain Aria Godey to the table. Captain Aria is a pirate who touched a gold piece that is slowly consuming her and turning her into gold.

Taylor and I discuss belonging as a Black creator in the TTRPG space, learning to accept that plus size bodies can be desired, and how cosplay informs character building.

This character is built for Thirsty Sword Lesbians by April Kit Walsh.

Taylor is a Black variety content creator and TTRPG performer located on the east coast. She loves to cosplay to bring her characters to life.

You can learn more about Taylor at:
https://www.characterswithoutstories.com/guests/taylor

A Haunting, Beloved is a cinematic actual play by Numinous Productions using the system Bluebeard's Bride.

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Mentioned in the episode:
Gloria (glowpinkstah)
thetinytaco

Cover art by The Curiographer
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Thanks for listening, and may all your characters find their stories!

Transcript

Taylor: 0:00

I hate to say it, like it's all about romance and being, looking appealing for people. And I hate that I was self conscious and thinking like, Oh, my plus size body is not going to be appealing to anyone. Me watching a lot of playthroughs and stuff in my life when people describe a lot of people's brain defaults to white. Uh, I am a black content creator and a lot of people judge me a lot about the color of my skin. I don't want to educate. I just want to represent.

Star: 1:07

Hello, friends. Welcome to Characters Without Stories, a TTRPG podcast about the roads not yet traveled. I'm Star. This episode, I'm joined by Taylor, who goes by SpunkyTaylor. Taylor is a black variety content creator and TTRPG performer located on the East Coast. She loves to cosplay to bring her characters to life. Welcome Taylor to the show.

Taylor: 1:31

Yeah. Thank you. Hello, everyone.

Star: 1:34

If you are listening and you're not watching video for this episode, I just want to let you know that Spunky is coming to the podcast in full cosplay and looks amazing. Taylor, uh, do you mind describing your look?

Taylor: 1:50

Yes. So, uh, my look, I'm wearing pirate gear. I have like a trench coat style with three different layers on it. It is lace and then half of my face has gold flakes on it. Glued down by Pros Aide and I tried to do a decaying mouth look and I have a yellow contact in. A pirate hat, so, very pirate themed.

Star: 2:15

It looks fabulous.

Taylor: 2:17

Thank you.

Star: 2:18

How did you get started playing TTRPGs?

Taylor: 2:21

I got started playing TTRPGs. It was, actually started as a, uh, pity thing in high school, when there was a group of guys playing Dungeons & Dragons at a club called Games Club in my school. And I said, I want to play. And they said that my brain would be too small to understand what is going on.

Star: 2:41

Oh yeah.

Taylor: 2:43

So I took that and I appreciate my friend, Orion, who wrote a hunger games campaign for me and we played that. And that got me into it a little bit more. And I just started studying more and more on my own. And then I just fell in love with it.

Star: 2:57

I'm kind of surprised that you kept going after hearing that from the players. I mean, that's. Incredibly sexist.

Taylor: 3:04

Uh, yeah.

Star: 3:07

I, I don't know, honestly, how much race may have been a part of that as well, but it sounded like it was just a big group of guys, or?

Taylor: 3:14

Yeah, it was a big group of guys, and I went to a heavily white school, too, but I think it was mainly towards that I was a, a girl and that I was plus size and stuff. Cause they did let one girl join in, but it's like, I didn't look like her. She got to join in. So I don't know what the intentions, probably each of the guys had their different reasons of why I can't join, but it motivated me. I don't let anything stop me. If anything stopped me, then I'll be boring in my life. I would just be doing nothing really.

Star: 3:46

How did you transition from playing to being a performer?

Taylor: 3:50

I love acting, really. Like, uh, my friends, We, uh, did this game with, uh, a system called, uh, Gooeycube that made a campaign called Red Star. My friends invited me over to play it one day and we was having such a good time and they was like, we should start recording this. And I'm like, okay. So I started recording with them. We had a fun time during COVID trying to play it. We never posted the videos yet. We're going to try to redo it. And then we wanted to do a bigger production value on it. Uh, then one of my friends, Cuttlefish and another person named Taylor, they introduced me to the World of Darkness series and we was playing it on our own. And then I offered, I said, Hey, I'm a, I'm a streamer. I can record our sessions if you want. They said, well, we always wanted to record a session. So we made a series that is up on my YouTube channel. Uh, the first time, um, recording and producing A TWG.

Star: 4:43

That's awesome. So were you streaming before you started streaming TTRPG content?

Taylor: 4:49

Yes. I've been a content creator for 10 years now. Started off on YouTube. Did uh, a lot of gaming videos. Did challenge videos, did vlogging. I used to have a podcast. It's about to be rebooted again. Um, it's here soon. Called The Midnight Grab Podcast. My channel started off with wanted to make a podcast rating conventions, because I felt like there was not enough podcasts about that, just talking about conventions and stuff. And then I was like, well, I don't travel a lot because I'm a college student. So maybe I can't just make a stable podcast like this. I moved over to pop culture, then I moved over to gaming, and then that's how my content creation developed. And then I moved over to TikTok where I blew up on there.

Star: 5:30

Have you been to a ton of conventions?

Taylor: 5:33

Uh, now officially I've been to a lot more conventions after college. I, I took the risk to start going to conventions in college years. I risked going to PAX East as my very first really big convention stuff. Had a great time, started going every year. Um, I networked with a lot of people. Then I went to OMGcon, IndiePopCon was a popular one I went to, MomoCon. And, uh, Anime Expos, I started to travel more and more. My goal is to, like, try to travel out of town once a year to go to a convention that I've never been to out of state.

Star: 6:05

Why is it that you go to so many conventions? What do you like about them?

Taylor: 6:09

I, I love to cosplay, and I guess I love just meeting my online friends. If all my online friends say, like, I love this convention so much, I'd be like, All right, I'll come next year. So I can get to see you, we can cosplay, we can do panels and stuff. Like, I have never been part of, like, I've been a moderator for a panel, but I just never got to like sit down new panels, but I love listening to panels and stuff. And that's like a big goal of mine. Like I, I love community. That's a big thing about me. I love community building and conventions to me is just a big community building.

Star: 6:42

Taylor, who are you bringing to the table today?

Taylor: 6:46

I am bringing Captain Aria Godey, Captain Godey. She is a infamous pirate, uh, who just sails the seven seas with her crew that met the demise of a golden curse that is slowly decaying her body with gold.

Star: 7:06

Describe to me what, uh, Aria looks like.

Taylor: 7:09

Aria before the curse. She is a plus size, ebony skin, her hair is in passion twists. She wears a long black captain hat with roses and ribbons on it, gold trimming. She loves the color black and red a lot. So a lot of her outfits is always like corsets with black and red, with gold trimmings, and trench coats, uh, lots of jewelry on, tattoos up and down her arms. Uh, she's just a real pirate. But like after the curse, it's like her, half her face is golden.

Star: 7:47

Are her tattoos traditional pirate tattoos or does she have any particular style?

Taylor: 7:52

She loves flowers, flowers and bugs. So like moths, because moths is a sign of like change and beauty in the world and being unique. And like, uh, roses, it's just her favorite flower, just to have, sunflowers just brightens up her day more. Really bright flowers gets her.

Star: 8:12

You said this character started as cosplay. So tell me about the beginnings of Aria.

Taylor: 8:18

The beginnings of Aria was, I was scrolling on TikTok. It was Halloween time, and I saw another Black creator did this look. It was a pirate look with gold flakes. And I said, that was so cool! I really want that. I want to do that. And a lot of my characters I do on TikTok, I always give them a backstory because that helps me figure out what audios to do, how the lighting in my room would look like. What do I want to bring to the table to TikTok today? Uh, so I gave her more of like a hopeful, dark look in the videos I created. So I used like a sunset lamp, so it was like my room is dark, it's a sunset, so it just makes it feel like you're on the pirate ship with her. So it just slowly developed on there, cause first on TikTok, I didn't give her a name, I just put Gold Pirate. I didn't know how to name her, I didn't know what to name her, I think I just left it to the imaginations of everyone in my community. It's just like, this just a gold flakes pirate, because I even brought her to [Renaissance] fairs and stuff. People asked me what her name was, and I really did not know. I just, she's just gold flakes pirate. Until more and more, when I got into the TTRPG space, I was like, let me nail down a name for her. And I looked up words that connects with the word gold and Aria popped up. And I really liked that name. And I also love the show Pretty Little Liars. So I just stuck to Aria.

Star: 9:38

Did you invent this character originally just with the intention for cosplay content, or did you think of her as a potential TTRPG character?

Taylor: 9:48

At first she was just a cosplay. I had a backstory and everything in my head for her, but I never thought about actually performing her. Until I saw a show called, uh, Salt & Serpent. It's on, um, Pixel Circus. It's all pirates. I really enjoyed their performances and I was like, wow, I think my character will fit this world a lot. So that's when I started thinking about more and more to fit her in there, but then I realized there's never been any pirate games for me to put her in yet.

Star: 10:14

When we first talked about your character, you obviously had built this character without a specific game in mind. So we talked about a few different games that might work and we settled on Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Can you tell my listeners a little bit about Thirsty Sword Lesbians?

Taylor: 10:30

Well, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, it's all about building relationships. Relationships is a big thing you need to do here. Like, you are trying to find yourself? Are you going to find love? Are you going to accept love? It's all about connecting and being with everyone at your table. And then I also love the system Monster of the Week. They have the same formats of how to do character creations with one another. So that really helped me connect with the system more.

Star: 10:57

So within the system, you choose a playbook that kind of defines the archetype of your character. So which playbook did you end up going with?

Taylor: 11:05

I, I picked the Infamous.

Star: 11:07

Hmm. Okay. So tell me a little bit about that playbook.

Taylor: 11:10

So with the Infamous I connected with it cause like the archetypes kind of connected to is like former villain, escape henchmen and like veteran of dishonor. It's someone that was like so famous, but then like had a hardship somewhere in the middle. And like with Captain Aria, she was the first, she was just a sailor, like a swashbuckler. And then next, you know, about to get a little dark here guys, but like she killed her captain so she can take over. She didn't like the treatment that the crew was having, so she killed her captain and then she just ended up being Captain Aria Godey after that.

Star: 11:46

It sounds a little bit because you're talking about how she killed the captain because she didn't like the treatment of the crew. So it doesn't sound like an entirely self serving reason to commit that murder. Would you say that she is a self serving character or a character that doesn't have the same kind of moral compass or that she really was motivated by helping people?

Taylor: 12:07

Uh, she was really motivated to help others. She always wanted to be a leader and a bit like a big thing with her like connected to also to me is like community, a family, and that's all she wanted is to find her chosen family and that was the crew.

Star: 12:23

So going off the playbook, uh, being a former villain. Is that perception of her as a villain not the perception that people close to her might have?

Taylor: 12:35

Yeah, because like, when people hear the word, like, pirate, they think like, oh, they're about to, like, rob us, steal us and stuff. She might. That's a big thing. But her goal is always to, like, keep her promise to her crew that they will always live with her, like, she will always take care of them, she will always be by their side, have their backs, just gives, gives, gives to them, and hopefully they will give back to her too.

Star: 13:01

So what drew you to the idea of a character that has kind of a reputation that maybe doesn't align with how she is in private? People assume certain things about her based on this reputation.

Taylor: 13:14

I think it's just, it just hit with real life with me. I am a black content creator and a lot of people judge me a lot about the color of my skin. So people just like always assume that the world will always be assuming, and then I think that's why I connect to Captain Aria so much that people just gonna assume by her and her job title that she is a pirate, like pirate equals evil, pirate equals bad. Talk to her, you won't know the real Captain Aria.

Star: 13:41

So is she only presenting this real face to her crew?

Taylor: 13:46

She hasn't really been on to the main lands that's populated when they set sail But like, she does have like a mask and stuff, so she doesn't like freak out towns, the only, the crew knows of her real identity, because she doesn't want the crew to think that she's weak, that she's going to get hurt by this setback of a little curse.

Star: 14:07

So does her crew not see her underneath the mask?

Taylor: 14:09

Her crew does see her without the mask, just like if they go to islands and stuff, if there's anyone that's not on her crew, she hides her face.

Star: 14:18

What is it that made you create a character that, considering that as a cosplayer, obviously your face is a big part of what you do, your makeup, and all of the things that go into that, and it's beautiful, by the way, but what is it about wearing a mask that appealed to you?

Taylor: 14:35

I think it's just the judgment by people that don't know her. She'd rather just skip the awkward phase. This is a decaying person. She's not just gold, like her eye is sucking in. It's not a good sight. Her goal is to find a cure for this curse and the best way to find it is she has to talk to people, but she needs to get that initial shaking the hands and talking to others first. And some people just don't want to talk to almost a half zombie pirate.

Star: 15:06

I could see how that could be a little concerning.

Taylor: 15:10

Yeah.

Star: 15:11

So let's get into this curse. How did it happen?

Taylor: 15:15

Captain Aria got a message from one of like her spies and stuff that they just send out to, to other islands and stuff. And they brought back like a treasure map and they said there's just like a whole giant cave of gold. Aria is like, well, we'll be set for life. There's like just the biggest treasure she ever seen in her time of being a captain. So they went there, they found the cave. The cave is obviously like shaped as a skull. You know, when the cave is shaped as a skull, that means bad news. So she told her crew to like stay behind for a moment. She was going to explore it. And then she looked at it, found all the gold. She didn't like grab like globs and globs of it. She grabbed up like one piece. And that one piece, she didn't know would change her whole life forever, that now she is decaying and because the spirits think she was being greedy for taking the one piece. And now she's off on this mission to show that she's not being greedy and like, um, she just wants to help out the crew and stuff. This is where it kind of like a little bit of the villainous part probably came in. Is that now she is making her crew sail with her forever until this cure is found. Like, nobody can go home and see their families yet or anything like that. Even if they do go home and see their families, it's just because they landed on that island or that land. And then they stay there for a couple days or so. She's just taking the crew along with her, like, we are in this together because "we're a family, right?" energy.

Star: 16:41

Mm hmm.

Taylor: 16:41

And so that's where it's like a little bit of the villainous or like self selfishness is kind of get involved in is right there.

Star: 16:49

You mentioned that this amount of gold would set them up for life. If Aria were to get that kind of treasure, would she retire?

Taylor: 16:57

She probably will be still selling the seas, but she knows that a lot of the crew just, like, does this for money. That would have been the time where she would give them the gold and be like, hey, this is your chance to either you want to leave or you could still sail the seas with me.

Star: 17:11

What does she love about sailing and about being a pirate?

Taylor: 17:14

The freedom of it. The, this, the freedom just to be out on the ocean. Like, quote unquote, no rules, not to get in trouble and stuff. A nice escapism, just traveling around. It's like a vacation 24/7.

Star: 17:29

Let's go a little bit into the playbook and the character sheet. So when you build a character, you have a few choices to make. So tell me what kind of choices you made.

Taylor: 17:40

Yeah, so with the starting stat, like, uh, Daring will always be a plus one cause infamous. Like, she will always be in your face. She's gonna be daring to go on the next adventure. The next part is like, with Grace, like, is she be able to, like, connect with others? I think that's where the mask would come part would come from. So that's why I gave her a minus one because of decaying zombie over here. I really believe that Captain Godey has a heart, but there's like a zero Heart in her stats. But that's the only option I have for it. But I think she only has, like, the hearts for her crew. But she probably won't have no heart for anyone else. Wit, she's very headstrong so she, there's a plus zero on it, and then Spirit. She's not gonna let this curse bring her down. So she has her willpower of basically spite and like determination and everything. And that's why I gave her the plus one in Spirit.

Star: 18:36

She really only has love for her crew. Does she have other relationships, other people that are important to her?

Taylor: 18:42

No, it's just a crew. That's the only ones that, that basically she's just been on pirate ship after pirate ship ever since she was a kid, so she knows nothing of her past or could remember of her past.

Star: 18:54

How did she end up on a pirate ship in the first place?

Taylor: 18:57

Uh, I believe like she was like in an orphanage and then she knows she just saw pirates talking. And then she hid in a crate and just landed on a ship and they're already like too far out in seas to drop her off somewhere. So she just stayed.

Star: 19:12

Mm hmm. Just made herself useful until they wouldn't just leave her.

Taylor: 19:15

Yeah. Just didn't throw her off the side of the ship.

Star: 19:20

So did she have to work her way up a lot, uh, to get to

Taylor: 19:24

Oh, yeah.

Star: 19:25

Yeah. So was she the first mate before she killed the captain?

Taylor: 19:28

Yes. Like, she was the first mate. She climbed up the ranks as far as she can. And the captain that she had was, uh, basically a brand new kind of captain that she didn't really get to work with. Like, the other captain passed away peacefully in their sleep. Like, he was very old and stuff. And then the new captain, I had her, like, she just moved up. Like, almost like a second mate, first mate. So she was a second mate and then moved up a little bit. And she just didn't like the way that they was running it, like, treating nobody like a human being.

Star: 19:58

Speaking of relationships, is Aria interested in romance at all?

Taylor: 20:05

I think Aria really wants it. Like, she is really feeling, uh, the touch starve. Because, like, they never tested it out, but she keeps gloves on her hands because she's afraid that, like, is this contagious? So she hasn't hugged or, or shake hands and stuff with anybody in, like, years like, with her actual hand. Like, everything's always gloved up. Almost like a, like a Frozen Elsa moment.

new: 20:30

Mm hmm. Or Rogue in X-Men.

Taylor: 20:33

Yeah! Like, but there's no proof that this is contagious or not, but she just didn't want to risk it. And so even though like some crew mates volunteered to do it, so, but she's like, she does dumb thinking she will have good conscience to do that to somebody.

Star: 20:48

Yeah. So I think Thirsty Sword Lesbians is an interesting game because a lot of it is about those kinds of relationships. So what do you see as, as her struggle there? Like if you were to play in a game, how do you think that that would impact that part of the game?

Taylor: 21:05

This is something that, like, I had to deeply think about. There's playbook moves, because, uh, some of them really connected with her. Like, there's one playbook move that's called, like, Who's the Monster? That one is, like, uh, when you expose the hypocrisy of somebody who, like, judges her. You can't love someone. I was like, well, love can't, doesn't have to be a physical touch. It can be, like, a verbal thing. Another move that I took is They Can Always Change, Too. Uh, she feels like that she has grown a lot having this curse and stuff, but she still like keeps the crew on the ship. But so she hasn't learned that much, but she knows people can change. She just knows this curse has changed her a lot. Wicked Past is like when you hear about like a villain for the first time that she will always know everyone, which is true. She talks to everyone. She loves to network to everyone. Then the Make It Right. I think Make It Right is like a big thing connected to Aria because she doesn't know if she needs to really find like a physical item or if she needs to write wrongs that she doesn't even know. So she's just basically doing both, like righting her wrongs on this adventure and trying to find a item too.

Game Master Monday: 22:39

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Star: 23:47

So when you're building characters for TTRPGs in general, do you often start with the look or the cosplay?

Taylor: 23:55

I got a picture in my mind and being like, hmm, what haven't I played yet? And then I also, also another thing is this is gonna be an actual play on camera and stuff. I was, I was next up is, can I execute this idea? And then if I can't execute the idea, either I try to tweak it a little bit or I scrap it and figure out somebody that could actually cosplay.

Star: 24:16

Where do you find inspiration for your cosplay?

Taylor: 24:18

I think I just, I really do find it from like, others. Like if I, I just scroll a lot on TikTok. TikTok is, I think it's the biggest inspiration I have. And Spotify, sometimes I listen to a song and I can picture like a whole scene in my head, like a whole music video and then be like, that's what I want. That's what I need. It takes me a long time to find looks since I think about it for a long time. I know when I'm in session zeros with people, they'd be like, wow, you came up with a character pretty fast and I was like, Hmm, you don't know. This character has been in like a locked file somewhere and I'm like, oh, I could fit in this game or like, I've been thinking about it for like months for a system. It's a long step process of me. Like, can I execute the character? Do I get to represent BIPOC on my character? Can I represent me being plus size with this character and show it off? And those are like the main things I like to, as my goals and stuff. I like to challenge myself to do things like, Oh, how's the hair going to look? Uh, I've been doing passion twists for a while. Let's do an Afro this time. Let's her have short hair this time, just like the smallest bits that I know a lot of people don't describe in the games is very important to me to show like, this is what she looks like. This is a representation. I need people to have this in their head. And this is why I like, I describe a lot of that stuff most of the time in all my games. I know a lot of fellow players and stuff tells me that I do describe a lot of tiny details that people don't think about describing. And I was like, yes, it's very, very important to me that those are out there so people can connect and visualize it in their heads.

Star: 25:53

What would be an example of that?

Taylor: 25:55

Hair is always the biggest thing I love to start off with. Me watching a lot of playthroughs and stuff in my life, when people describe and stuff a lot of people's brain defaults to white, white hair, white people, hair and stuff, unless you are sitting down and describing it. And that's because that hair sets the tone for everything before you describe the skin tone. And so I love to say like my character has 4c type hair so that shows that boom it's a natural hair. Uh, sometimes i'd be saying like my character has wears Bantu knots sometimes that'll get people to go in or maybe even google search and was like, what is a Bantu knot? And look, you just learned something new today. And that's the biggest thing I love to do. And then I go down saying like, they have ebony skin. I, I don't like to use the word dark skinned too much, unless I'm trying to do a quick description, like something like typing wise and stuff until I can find the perfect name for it. And to also to avoid, uh, food products too is a big thing. I know a lot of like foundations and stuff is food products like mocha, toffee, and stuff. And there's other words to describe that. And I'd like to try to do it. My default is most of the time is ebony. If I can't really think of it, that's is my skin tone is ebony. And then I go to eye shape and then I move to how tall, cause tall helps me figure out weight too along the way to describe, like, she does have, like, bigger arms, she has stretch marks on her belly, or stretch marks on the arm. Getting those representations out helped me out more.

Star: 27:35

Do you think, in your role as a performer and as a cosplayer, that It's part of your duty to educate?

Taylor: 27:43

That's a really hard question. And like, cause like, I don't want to educate. I just want to represent. I want to represent who I am and what I bring to the table. I don't mind answering simple questions, but also Google is free. And I, and my goal is if something I said, I hope really somebody Google something. And then they educate themselves to be like, oh, and it's, it's good representation. Cause it's been like a, a long, hard battle in the TTRPG space for the past few months, just to bring more representation to the table without also feeling tokenized. I know it's been a big thing that a lot of people, which I am proud of, we're trying to recruit more BIPOC people. That's their goal. BIPOC is the goal. This is what they need and stuff. But also I need people to understand it's like to not tokenize and just don't be like, all right, we got our one Black person now we can breathe and cast whoever we want. That's not how that works. That's not how casting works. That's not how, that's not reality. It's just like working at a business. There's something, there's departments in HR that's like diversity talents to help you know, there's just other representations out there. I guess I'm just tired of people giving excuses of like, hey, uh, I just don't know any BIPOC people. Well, number one, that's concerning that you don't know any BIPOC people. And like, too, uh, I think of most people in this community, DMs are open. And like, I feel like a lot of people have reached out and connected with people a lot. But when it's a BIPOC person, why aren't you giving it the same energy? And I think that's what I'm trying to do, representation of BIPOC people, Black people can do this. And I, I hate to say that we're on a different pedestal, but we are. It's just how the society made us. I've seen it all the time. If one Black person in the TTRPG space does something wrong, then we all get hated for it and that's something that's goes on and, and I hate that that's what life is, but that's what happens with us, and it stings. But so that's why I say my job, I feel like I need to represent more than educate.

Star: 29:56

So you mentioned HR and one thing I always think about is, you know, the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in HR and things like that. But one of the things they're adding now is belonging. So do you feel that you belong, that you have a place of belonging?

Taylor: 30:13

Yes, there's been a lot of tables that I connected with that like, oh yeah, I belong in a table and I'm so grateful to be here. And I'm so grateful that I got casted here. I like, I didn't question one time that I'm here just because of my, the color of my skin. Like, I just felt like. They're here for me. Like, I think the biggest example I like to shout them out is a Game Master Monday. They created a game called Camp Meadowview. I love our table. The table's great. I never felt so out of place on there. Even one time our game landed on Juneteenth and I reached out to them and said, Hey, Juneteenth is landed on one of our games. Like what's the game plan there? And they said, hey, we was going to make it a charity stream and we worked together on that. To make it a charity stream because I was either going to suggest either A, we was going to make it as a charity stream or B, skip that Wednesday to let other Black representation go out that day. But since we made it a charity stream, we rose some, we rose a lot of money for the Marsha P. Johnson Foundation. It was an amazing day. It spoke volumes to me that they did that, that it was on their mind, that I didn't have to be the person really to like poke them and be like, Hey, we should do this. They already was in the works of it. They already knew it. And that speaks value to me. And that's why I will always work with Game Master Monday and that whole table with this love and support that it gave me.

Star: 31:36

Yeah. Grant, by the way, of Game Master Monday is a former guest on the show. And I think a lot of people who have played on Game Master Monday have also, uh, been guests on my podcast. So I, I love that. Grant is fantastic.

Taylor: 31:49

Yes.

Star: 31:50

I've also been on Game Master Monday.

Taylor: 31:53

Yeah.

Star: 31:54

Yeah. He's got everyone.

Taylor: 31:57

I think Castleton really brought a lot of us together.

Star: 32:02

So I want to ask too, do you think that the needle has moved? Do you think that since you started in the TTRPG community that there has been progress?

Taylor: 32:13

Yes, I've been seeing the progress slowly happening in others. Like I've, I've been seeing casting call changes. I've been seeing people actually hiring diversity counsel. And I know a lot of people don't even think about even doing that for their games and stuff to hire somebody to do that. Uh, people are asking more questions, people are doing more research and stuff. I know there's some companies out there that has setbacks and stuff. I made videos on those companies and stuff and hopefully they'll learn their lesson. I'm very proud that a lot of people in the Black community, in the BIPOC community, are speaking up more and more about this. But I also, I guess right now I'd be like sitting here. So what is appealing to see just a table of all white people? What is appealing of all white men? And it's very discouraging seeing that on Twitch. If you go on the Dungeons and Dragons or tabletop section of Twitch, it's all white men tables, and they have like 500 viewership. And I do not connect with these men at these tables at all. I don't understand what they're doing 24/7. And then when I go lower down there and I see a good diverse group and stuff, I'm in the story. I get the passion, the connection, the friendship that they all have. I see that. And I wish that would give more love and stuff. And the only way that stuff can be boosted is we all have to be a community. We boost each other up. We recognize that we need to push BIPOC people more. We need help. And the only people that the big voices right now in this community is white voices, and we need help in that aspect to keep on putting us on these shows. Keep on giving us a platform and helping us boost us up more.

Star: 33:53

You also talked about being plus size, and I know that being in a fat body has a lot of the same. There are a lot of the same struggles. I think, you know, obviously, I am a bigger person. I have dealt with fat phobia, and I think that that's something that a lot of people don't even consider. You're obviously in the cosplay space and that is something where your body is more forward. Do you struggle with that? Is that something that you've encountered a lot?

Taylor: 34:22

Yeah, especially like I mainly encounter more. If I do more full body content and stuff, which I don't do a lot. Cause like right now, like I'm just a top half. So people don't know my sizes until I tell them. It's like, y'all know, I'm like over 200 pounds, right? I am five, nine and over 200 pounds. That's a lot. And I have PCOS too. So it's really hard to lose weight. If I even tried it, so it's like, until I started posting like full body pictures of me and stuff. That's when I, people be like, Whoa, I like, I posted the cosplay of me cosplaying Spider Byte from Marvel. The first comment I got under there was "sit down Tubbs." And I was like, dang.

Star: 35:05

Yeah.

Taylor: 35:05

Number one, Spider Byte is also plus size in the latest movie. They made her plus size, which I really. I like that a lot. It's just like, why is that the first comment? And like, also you don't follow me. What is going on? So it just always throws me off when people just decide to just, they have to leave that comment. I'm like, do you feel good about yourself? And I just hit the delete and move on. I'm glad you got that off your chest, but okay, have a great day, bye.

Star: 35:34

Well, what do you think about representation for people in bigger bodies in TTRPGs in general?

Taylor: 35:40

There's not a lot. And it's just like, there's not a lot. I wish there was more, or at least like, people describe it more. Because sometimes we don't have pictures. We don't have the artwork. I just, I want people to describe it more, like, on character sheets. I bet you if you look at people's character sheets, I don't think people put weight down. Most of the time people skip that. Or they do the basis of, I think, 125 most people do as their characters and something like that. But like, why do we skip that part? Yo, we all pictured the weight in our head. I think that needs to be described. It's nothing to be ashamed of, or anything. I think people only describe the weight of the character if they're all muscle. Like, I'm a orc. I'm a big orc. I don't know if it's just people are afraid that the character's gonna get, like, fat shamed or something like that. I tell the people out there, don't be afraid. And if you are getting fat shamed, then the GM, your table's not for you. And then that means you need to leave. Not, that's not good. That's not a good table at all. So I'm hoping that more and more, uh, people do describe. I have a specific template now where I do mood boards for, for, I have an artist that does all my characters art unless the table already provides one. Her name is thetinytaco, and I always make sure the picture is always like of a plus size black woman of different types of size. Sometimes they're more rounded, sometimes they're hourglass. It's sometimes more top heavy, sometimes more bottom heavy, and stuff like that. I like to just explore it all to give that representation.

Star: 37:17

Yeah, I think for me, as I've started to become more conscious of, you know, kind of the way that I internalize it too, is that I was tending to play characters who were skinny, or who were normal, I'm putting that in air quotes for anybody listening, who, who were more straight sized. And as I started to become more conscious about it and look for imagery to look, you know, online for images for inspiration, it is so hard to find images, you know, for example, on Pinterest of fantasy art that is of plus size people.

Taylor: 37:52

I would love to give a shout out to us, like to Gloria [glowpinkstah]. I know Gloria made a post about more plus size representation in the TRPG space and it like, it hit hard. I want to get better at it too. So I made sure that like, y'all know my character's big or I have artwork for it as much as I can plus size. I try my best to add that as much as I can in games. Because like, uh, I love their character in Castleton. Cause technically my character Florence in Castleton is technically plus size. But I guess I got really nervous and self conscious. This is a big project, there's a lot of new people in there, and it's all about, I hate to say it, but it's all about romance and looking appealing for people, and I hate that I was self conscious and thinking like, oh, my plus size body is not going to be appealing to anyone. And I was heavy, so my character is drawn very skinny, because I didn't write the description down. In my notes, I wrote it down, but then I deleted that part when I submitted what my character looked like. And then the pictures I use, I didn't use a plus size person, but I saw that Gloria did that. Gloria made sure you guys know"my character is plus size" and the artwork is just beautiful. And it's like, it brought me to tears just reading their threads about it. And I said, I wish I had the strength that day to do so, but it was like literally going to be like my fourth AP with strangers, especially 150 strangers. And you're just trying to make a good impression and you just don't know what to do. I'm already coming into space as Black. But now I'm Black and neurodivergent, and I'm also plus sized, like, in my brain, I was like, pick a struggle, pick one thing, and then we roll with it. But, like, so it's just one of those moments of that, and I just wish I had the strength and courage like Gloria did to do that.

Star: 39:43

Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting to me, Castleton, it seems partially inspired by Bridgerton, right?

Taylor: 39:50

Bridgerton and Hunger Games, yes.

Star: 39:51

Yeah, so hearing about your struggle at the same time as there was this recent controversy about having a plus size woman centered in a romance plot in Bridgerton.

Taylor: 40:02

Mm hmm. I think Casselton came out before that, if that season came out before Castleton, I think that would have also gave me more strength to be more plus size or say it out loud more there. I guess it's just one of the moments, like, it's like, I, I'm going to be honest, and when I started Castleton, I knew no one there out of 150 people. That's crazy to not know, not like I barely. Like I knew Grant and that was like, it, it's very like when those moments of like, I hate to say, but like code switching, like, uh, it's like, it's still myself, but also like, you have your guard up cause you don't know who you're going to talk to, who you're going to interact with, these are people that you idolize and you just got to hope that they're nice and great. I haven't had any bad issues. In Castleton, nobody has ever, like, fat shamed me or was racist or anything like that ever in Castleton. This is all just me just being paranoid and just, just having my guard up. Just, like, I'd rather just pick a struggle and it was just like, my character was gonna be Black was the main thing I wanted to make sure to come across.

Star: 41:04

Yeah, I think it's interesting you talking about how you would have been braver if what happened with Bridgerton had happened before, and I think that really speaks to the power of representation like you were talking about earlier. Seeing somebody like you gives you courage to portray that and to be open about that part of yourself.

Taylor: 41:24

Yeah, like seeing representation, like more and more, I've been like, all right, cool. I can come out better and more to do this. I talked to on a different podcast where somebody talked to me about did Black people revive cosplaying? And I said that like, you know, back in the day when I was like, when I was a little kid in elementary school and stuff, it was wrong for you to be liking nerd things. It was very like frowned upon. And if you did like nerd things, people will call you an Oreo or a white Black person. Like you could not just be a Black person who loved nerdy things. You could not, it was just like horrifying. It was like, well, unheard of. And I think now with the generation growing and like, I think like during COVID time, I think people just started like, okay, I like this too. So anyone can like it. I think seeing the more representation, like Megan Thee Stallion and just more like my Straw Hat Goofy, just seeing more and more Black people coming out and saying, I am a nerd and I am proud and seeing that representation even motivated me more and more to show that representation. All the time on TikTok. I've been cosplaying and content creating for a very long time, but a lot of people will notice I don't post on Instagram as much. I don't post about my cosplays and stuff on Facebook as much and stuff because I was so afraid of judgment for people in my IRL life. I didn't care about strangers, I just cared about people near me who used to call me an Oreo or a white Black person

Star: 42:57

Going to Captain Aria and you talked about her being on this quest to find a cure. What is it about that quest that inspires you or what is it you're hoping to see in her eventual arc? If you do get to play her,

Taylor: 43:12

Her like falling in love with strangers again, I highly doubt that I will be in a campaign where it's like I'm already like the leader of a whole ship and stuff. I think I like to see some people like on equal playing fields and stuff a lot in the campaigns, but I see like maybe just like other people was like traveling and then snuck on to her boat and then having that interaction and then Aria has to learn of like do I trust a stranger, or do I gotta throw the stranger off, and then she will remember herself as a younger years, when she was a kid, that somebody else made the same decision on her, it's like the history repeat herself, kind of thing, so I'm hoping to see more growth in that aspect, and probably at the end, doing her first touch, even if it's like a hug, or a handshake, or anything without the gloves.

Star: 44:04

That sounds like it would be a powerful moment. When you're playing TTRPGs, is that something that you try to do is set up these kind of emotional moments? Is being emotional important to you in games?

Taylor: 44:16

I haven't done like a big monologue yet at all in a game and stuff. I do want to try to do that one day and I want to make sure I pre plan it because like I'm good at improv-ing but I'm not good at improv-ing like a monologue that some people can just do on the fly and I'm like, whoa, I'm like, I wish I can be at that level, but I know myself. I know myself. I'm a, I'm a very hardcore."Yes, and" person, but I cannot be a "yes, and plus five minute monologue" person. Um, and like, if it was like a planned moment, like with this character, I would love to have a more dramatic and sad moment and stuff. I think I did my first ever, like, really big, sad moment was in Camp Meadowview. Was with Ross from Blades of Mayari. My character finally admitted to Ross's character saying that, hey, I did a whole ritual. And my character is turning into a demon slowly. And it's crazy, like, that that is happening, and it, I'm just, I'm tearing up myself, talking about, like, I was really feeling the hard emotions, like, it's like the relief of telling your old time best friend this big secret that you've been carrying in this weight for a long time, and asking for help.

Star: 45:33

Aria and the other character that you were just talking about are both characters that are slowly transitioning into something monstrous. What is it about that story that is compelling to you?

Taylor: 45:45

I was like, I think it's because I love werewolves. Like, I think it really, really started off with my demon girl, uh, Imani. Like, I just thought that was like, wow, this girl did a ritual just to like, get a second puberty, so she can like not have acne, look hot and stuff, but she didn't know the repercussions was to turn into a demon basically. But she can go back and forth into a demon and looking normal again. It just seems like a good story arc to me. And like, are you a monster in, in the monster form or have you just been growing up as a monster your whole life? And I think I love going through those paths and seeing like where the character go off with it. Like, if you are cursed, what are you going to do with that curse? Are you just going to sit down and cry about it, or are you just going to embrace it and keep going?

Star: 46:37

It's interesting also in both instances that there seems to be a character flaw that prompted or, or was the impetus for this change that happened. So you're talking about Imani and talking about how vanity was the motivation for this ritual and then became the reason why she was cursed. And in Captain Aria's case, we have greed as a motivator that caused this curse. So I see in both a chance to kind of redeem themselves and learn to grow past. These flaws that they have, is that a redemption arc, something that you are motivated by or interested in particularly?

Taylor: 47:20

Yeah, I love redemption arcs. Um, that's like a really big thing, and like with Imani, Imani really didn't have like, uh, redemption arcs, it was like a mini series. I think she had closure with the characters, but with herself, she is still on her own, trying to find this cure, so she's just like hanging there on the mini series. Yeah. And I really like the redemption. I really, I think with me as a person IRL, I think I just see a little good in everyone and just hopefully that everyone can like learn about themselves. I'm not saying that we would be besties and stuff like that, but I think that people will be, able to learn from their, their situation and problems, if you had beef and stuff, I always wish them the best and hopefully they just grow.

Star: 48:08

Tell me about what it was like performing Captain Aria in cosplay. What do you do when you perform in cosplay? Do you create scenes or what kind of content do you create?

Taylor: 48:20

With, uh, my characters and stuff, I love to do, like, a slow reveal with my characters. Like, there's a there's an effect on TikTok where you can do slow reveals, they can see the outfit and stuff. So, like, I love to post those first so people could be like, Oh, what is this character? Or, like, in their brain, they already made up something in their mind what this character is all about. And then once I finish that, then I look up audios that would tell a storyline, an open ended storyline, because, you know, TikTok is all about duets and stuff, like, so people could easily just hop in with their own characters and duet to connect with her, like, so most of the content I create, it's like having a conversation with her, it's like her either, like, intensely listening or cracking a joke like you would do, like, you know, locker room talk energy. And that's how I think about it, that's like how the videos would look like and be performing. So it's just a lot of mini scenes in my head. And I try to keep the captions as vague as possible, because again, I don't want to lose that room that people have creative freedom to do at the video however they see fit.

Star: 49:20

In a way, that is a form of role play, essentially, you're creating a scene and building off what other people are saying to you, creating situations that other people can build off. It's very collaborative, just like playing TTRPGs, is that kind of exercising the same muscles for you?

Taylor: 49:35

I just will always love storytelling. Storytelling in a collaborative way, like, I just love to see, like, what will we do next? Like, I did all the different types of role playing. Forums and Discord servers talking and now like acting and stuff like that. I really want to be part of my first ever LARP. I haven't even done LARPing yet, really, to be honest. Um, there's not a lot in my area that's not just sword fighting. I'm not a combat girlie. I love to sit down and I want to talk it out and roleplay it out. I think I'd fit really good in a Game of Thrones LARP, if I needed. To talk my way out of the situation. I think I need a Game of Thrones LARP and see where it goes there. Um, but that's what I connect to the best. Like, I think that it's just also the easiest way for me to be, I guess, a GM for a story without being an actual GM, because I'm a forever player. Only I can be easily run up a whole campaign and run up like an actual play as I don't think I think a lot of people's way for me is like, all right, it's about to make her debut as a GM. I was like, probably not.

Star: 50:38

So you mentioned that sometimes you find inspiration from songs and we're also talking about creating these kind of collaborative TikToks. How much of that is you building your character as you're going or how much of it is? kind of predetermined by a backstory that you created?

Taylor: 50:55

It's all about players at the table. Um, a big example is with Imani, it was a video show with Camp Meadowview, but on episode one, you will see that I look like a normal teenage girl. And then as the, every episode slowly went, one episode I had pointy ears, another episode, I had red eyes. And then the last episode, I'm completely red with horns. Everyone's like, how did we get here? Just seeing that slow transition and I, it was my table and my table didn't know what was going on. Everybody at my table did not know that my character was a demon. They knew that I was playing the monstrous playbook, but that was it. But they didn't know what kind of monster I was gonna be. There was some events that happened during the table where my character used her powers too much and her eyes started to turn red. So I made a note that next game I have to make sure my eyes are red. There was one game where the GM said your skin started to look a little bit more red. So I gave myself more blush because I wasn't, I wanted to save myself being all red to the finale episode, but I made myself a little bit more red. I gave myself pointy ears. It all, it depends on what the table did to discover a piece of my character. And it was a nice collaborative effort to push that narrative.

Star: 52:10

I mean, that sounds incredible. This physical transformation going along with the character transformation. I mean, obviously you're a cosplayer and that's, that's an area of interest and expertise for you, but I think that's amazing when I see actual play content where people change over the course of it. She is slowly you mentioned that it's not just gold. Her face is also kind of rotting. Is she scared? How scared is she of, of what the end result's going to be?

Taylor: 52:39

Oh, she's scared like every night. Um, because it's, it's a slow process, like. Cause it used to just, it was just a small patch on her cheek, almost like a a gold-like mole. She's just like, oh, I just got a piece of gold mole in here. And then as the day gone by, it just keeps on growing and growing and growing. And then it didn't really settle into her when her eyes just started sinking in. And uh, so she's like, she doesn't show it to people, but at night she's crying, she's upset. She's afraid of death. Like it is just gonna be, her legacy is like a big question that always stays in her head.

Star: 53:11

So she's concerned about her legacy then.

Taylor: 53:14

Yeah, she feels like she hasn't done the good that she wants to do. She just has more plans, like, Oh, if she did get this gold, uh, this gold, she could've been a Robin Hood. Like, toss a couple gold sacks to kids and say, take that back to your parents, you'll be fine. Like, help out this poor family, and just like, she's able to give. Then she can stop taking as much.

Star: 53:40

Does she have any quirks?

Taylor: 53:42

Quirks, uh That's a good question. The mask. Uh, she tries her best to do puns and stuff, but just never lands. It's not good. She tried to have that riz. She felt like that's like, Oh, romance is how you connect to people. Everybody loves a good flirt. And then people listen.

Star: 54:02

Do you have a character voice for her?

Taylor: 54:05

Not really. I'm not good at character voices at all. That's something I really want to work on more, but I just picture her as more like, like strong and powerful. Like if I take a deep breath in, and I straighten out my back, and then like more power, more leadership energy like that.

Star: 54:46

Captain Aria. Do you have a strong sense of style?

Taylor: 54:50

I think I have the best style across the seven seas. Do you see these lace? These accoutrements? You just can't find these anywhere just on the streets.

Star: 55:02

How would you describe your style if you were going to tell somebody in a few words?

Taylor: 55:06

Rich and dark. Mysterious. I think that's what all the ladies like, too.

Star: 55:17

Taylor, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for sharing Captain Aria with me and my audience.

Taylor: 55:24

Thank you so much for letting me be here. It's so cool. I always check out your podcast and stuff and I was like, do I have a character in my story? I do! This character has always been number one on my list to play at a game. Put me in, anyone who wants Captain Aria.

Star: 55:41

Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna boost that. Please let Captain Aria come to life in a game. I would love to see it. Do you have anything that you want to share with my listeners?

Taylor: 55:50

You guys can check me out at SpunkyTaylorGames on Twitch. I'll be playing a lot more story games. If you love like scary games that has heavy story types, like choice based games, you can check me out there. I don't have a set schedule there, but I'm trying to stream more there. But I always post the VODs on my YouTube channel, which is still SpunkyTaylor. Please check out, uh, Girls Run These Worlds, where I'm the marketing director over there. There's gonna be so many playthroughs on there, you can check out, uh, Roll for Luck, which is an all Black cast, uh, they're, they have officially switched, uh, systems. So, like, that's gonna be great, but I can't announce yet what the system is, so you guys gotta just check it out them yourself.

Star: 56:33

For my recommendation this episode, I'd like to introduce you to an actual play by Numinous Productions called, A Haunting, Beloved. They use the game system Bluebeard's Bride. This actual play features a disabled main character and players represent different aspects of her interior world. It's a fascinating game and a beautifully made production. It's available on YouTube, link in description. Please share the podcast with a friend. Word of mouth is the best way to find new listeners. Your recommendations help me immensely. Thank you to all my listeners spreading the word. I'm so grateful. I started a newsletter! As our social media landscape is forever changing, this is one way to make sure we can always stay in touch. If you'd like to get a behind the scenes peek at the podcast, follow my other projects, and be notified when a new episode drops, you can find the sign up form in the show notes or on my website. One of the things that any creator wants to know is what people think of their work. For podcasters, it can be especially difficult to get feedback. Reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify are a great way to let me and others know that you love the podcast. I read every single one and I treasure them. Did you know that you can now leave comments on individual episodes on Spotify? If you're listening there, I encourage you to leave a comment and let me know what you think about an episode. You may have also noticed a link in my show notes that says "send us a text message." If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future episode, or just want to leave a comment, send me a message. You can find me on BlueSky, Threads, Instagram, and Facebook as Characters Without Stories. You can also listen on YouTube at Characters Without Stories. Or just follow the link in the description. I'm currently accepting submissions for non D&D characters with a strong preference for creators from marginalized communities. If you'd like to share your character, you can go to characterswithoutstories.com and click submit in the navigation menu. Thanks for listening and may all your characters find their stories.