Tag: Adventure Queers

Dana Ebert (she/her) is an openly bisexual and transgender author, game designer, and voice actor, best known for her contributions to Pathfinder 2e and Starfinder. Dana created Pathfinder’s first canonical in-world gender affirmation clinic (also boutique and day spa!), and some of her other works include OGL 5e-compatible content. You can find more information and links to her website, social media, and upcoming projects on her LinkTree.

Dana, when did you first start playing D&D and TTRPGs?  What do you enjoy the most about the game?

My first TTRPG was the Tom Moldvay edition of Basic D&D, which I played for the first time with my older brother and his friends when I was ten. That was a huge turning point for me, because I instantly fell in love with the medium. The part I enjoy most is the shared storytelling—those moments of surprise and triumph that lead to stories that get re-told around the table for years to come. As a player, I also enjoy the catharsis that comes from fully inhabiting another character for a few hours.

As a queer person, have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity and/or sexual orientation?

Oh, jeez. Let’s just say that the character I played nearly every week in high school was named Mavis. She was 6′ tall, with olive-green hair and shoulders for days. But the best part about playing her, the part I wouldn’t admit back then, was that during our sessions, everyone at the table referred to me in-character and used she/her pronouns. As Mavis, I also explored in other ways, such as near the end of the campaign when she married one of the party NPCs (a goblin who polymorphed himself into an excruciatingly handsome human to get her attention). So yes, that was very much my experience, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.

You are a professional DM. What is your style of DMing and what kinds of players would most enjoy playing with you?

My style can be very writerly, and I almost exclusively run original content. Past players have told me that the things they enjoyed most were my worldbuilding, my willingness to improvise and take their story in unexpected directions, and how I let them alter and impact my campaign settings. The “rule of cool” and roleplay-heavy scenes are two things that I enjoy utilizing immensely, and while I can also adhere to other styles of play, I think the players who strongly prefer my style tend to like those same things.

You are bringing your love of TTRPGs into an exciting new project.  What can you tell readers about TPK Brewing Co., a TTRPG-themed brewery in Portland, Oregon?

TPK Brewing Co. is a craft brewery where, in addition to world-class food and original brews, our guests will be able to book games with full-time Game Masters. We’re going to offer a variety of titles, but our flagship experience will be an OGL 5e-compatible campaign called the “Leyfarer’s Chronicle.” It takes place in an original post-cataclysmic fantasy world called Val’Ruvina, which groups of player characters will simultaneously explore while contending with broken magical fields, warped creatures, and regular storyline events. I explain much more in our upcoming promos, so please sign up for our newsletter at tpkbrewing.com!

TPK Brewing Co. is majority-owned by queer women of color. In what ways do you anticipate that this ownership model will be an asset to the company and to future visitors and guests?

Part of our company’s mission is to create space for marginalized groups in the craft beer and gaming communities, and that begins with ensuring that our own spaces are as safe and inclusive as possible. On the gaming side, this means that safety tools will be part of our culture, we’ll always strive to keep our content inclusive and anti-racist, and we won’t hesitate to remove guests who can’t adhere to our community guidelines. In this way, we hope to build a durable and welcoming community for ourselves and our guests.

When should people (myself included!) plan to come to TPK Brewing Co.?

We plan to open our doors in the spring of 2023! We would love to see you there!

Finally, do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like to share with readers?

I’ve had the pleasure lately of getting to work with several Portland-based artists, and I’d love to highlight a couple of them from the LGBTQ community!

• Spyder Dee is simply a phenomenal creature artist—they always manage to exceed my expectations with their wonderfully terrifying blend of the fantastical and the grotesque.
• Alejandra Gutiérrez is a powerhouse. At Image Comics she has contributed to titles including Twisted Romance and SFSX, and was the one who created our promotional splash page featured above.
• Brie Golden has been up-and-coming for some time, producing stunning battle maps for AP podcasts and livestreams. We should all expect to hear her name more in the future.
• Elodie Kahler has a whimsical illustration style that never fails to make me smile. She recently finished an illustration of our building that we all absolutely adore.

For more from Dana, check out her LinkTree!

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Bonnie Hammond (she/her) is the queer, disabled, neurodivergent feminist your parents warned you about. Not quite nerdy and not quite popular growing up, Battlestar Galactica was the series that saw her transition from sleeping with geeks to actually being one. She went to school for math and tourism, spent a while as a labour activist, and then accidentally started making jewellery for a living. She started with keys and now collects flatware, keychains, old watch bits, tiny teacups, broken jewellery, and dice (drilling holes through the 1 out of spite). She’s a Whovian, a Browncoat, a Supernatural fangirl, and the most extroverted nerd you will find. Bonnie thinks consent is sexy (when it’s clearly and freely communicated), has been twice hired to sit in the back at comedy shows due to the volume and infectious nature of her laugh, and is probably allergic to whatever you’re eating right now.

Bits & Keys makes jewellery from bits and pieces of upcycled and recycled other stuff. Old keys, single earrings, gaming dice, pocket watches, and flatware (for example) are brought back to life in new and creative ways. We carry a variety of unique, interesting, often nerdy, wearable art which we can customize to match the pieces to the person.

Bonnie, you are the owner of Bits & Keys where you sell upcycled bits and pieces of things that you’ve transformed into beautiful and unique jewellery. What was your inspiration to start this business?

In 2012 I visited San Francisco for Pride, and while I was there I happened upon a little farmers market/craft fair. I fell in love with a necklace that featured some chain maille and an antique key. When I got back, I was working with a group of people who were fundraising to send a bunch of us to a socialist convention in Ecuador. We decided to hold a craft fair of our own, and I realised I could perhaps do something inspired by my new favourite piece. So I ran off to a flea market, spent WAY too much money, and stayed awake for many days. I sold out of pieces at the event, and six months later it was my full-time job.

You work alongside a community of diverse creatives. What is the benefit of being connected to other crafters?  

Honestly, the benefits are so enormous it’s actually a little hard to accurately qualify. My community supports me, inspires me, and drives me by sharing their struggles. They pull me through when times are tough, they give me space to unapologetically be me, and they teach me new things. Practical making techniques are shared, and also what it’s like to be a crafter with different life circumstances, in different bodies, with different identities. Crafting (for a living) is often a solo activity, especially during these unprecedented times, so it’s really important to me to stay connected and rooted in a non-homogeneous community. If I only talk to people who look like and live life like me, I’m not going to be able to align my business and my life with my moral choices. Forming a community and support systems underpins a lot of my values and motivations, as it does for many struggling millennials. For me, it’s less about building business contacts and networking, and more about establishing vulnerable, trusting, symbiotic relationships.

You identify as both queer and disabled. Have these identities affected the way you create? The way you do business?

Absolutely! Creating a physical space that is as safe and as accessible to as broad a base of people as possible is really important to me. A few other creators and I have a soft-running competition to see who can make their booth and their products the most visibly queer. There is nothing I love better than attending an event that is NOT particularly or intentionally inclusive and by the end having all the lgbtq+ people feel welcome in my space. I want my booth and products to be a way for people to challenge gender norms, or explore personal identity. 

As for accessibility, I actively work to accommodate a variety of needs. For instance, having the booth be wheelchair accessible sounds basic, but it’s unfortunately uncommon. I’m mindful when accommodating for allergies, sensitivities, and tactile sensory issues. Especially at events that are large or multiple days (like music festivals), I try to incorporate a space away from most of the people, that has a variety of seating options if people need to rest, or need less stimulation to make choices. I am personally really loud and have what’s politely referred to as A LOT of personality, so if I notice people are having trouble with eye contact or are struggling to communicate, my goal is to hold space for those needs and meet people where they’re at. Much of my jewellery is designed with different physical needs in mind. I can offer counter-weighted necklace attachments to move the weight of things off the back of the neck to the shoulders. Many pieces are actually compartments for water or pills for people who struggle with purses or whose clothes don’t have pockets. I also try really hard to accommodate different body shapes, I alter necklace lengths for no charge (within some reason) so everyone can have it sit where their body finds it the most comfortable. Designing jewellery for people with larger necks, longer torsos, or larger busts is something I’m happy to work around in a judgement-free environment.

The personal is political, and I would add that business is political as well. Tell me about your motivation to sell crafted items made by marginalized people.

The truth is that I and many of my closest friends live in abject poverty simply because we are disabled or intersectionality marginalized. The only real power I have is to continue to try to help my community to sell their wares. I worked for a long time attempting to influence policy change politically, and while I still participate in many of those circles, the truth is I no longer have the physical ability to BE there. So this is a small way I can help. It’s mutually beneficial to have different products in the booth. When possible, I hire people at a fair and livable wage; this way I can give back a little bit and it creates a space where my friends and I can survive late-stage capitalism without letting it eat our morals. There are a lot of organizations and businesses out there who frame their whole objective through a lens of top-down charity. What I personally want to foster with my business comes from a place of mutual support and equality.

Your support extends beyond artists to your customers. What sort of experience do you hope people have when they work with you?

It sort of rolls back into the same philosophy. I have a business, I sell things, and I participate in capitalism (because I have too). Because of the nature of my products, I am often selling to people who have lower than ‘average’ privilege, so it’s important to make that experience as least exploitative as possible. I want people to fall in love with the pieces they buy from me. I offer discounts or trade situations when I can with a variety of payment options, and I work with people virtually if that’s easier. Consent isn’t just about intimate or personal situations for me, I want to communicate fully with my customers to make sure that people feel valued. Some of my closest friendships started as customers. I never want my business to feel purely transactional. There is also a dollop of self-interest worked into this: nothing beats down my self-doubt or imposter syndrome down like people being genuinely excited to interact about my pieces. Having them send photos, remember me at later events, or share the happy moments of their loved ones receiving the perfect gift that I made is the best feeling I’ve ever had. I couldn’t give it up for anything and building a strong community with my customers makes that possible.

I’ve heard that you try to have the “gayest, nerdiest booth at every event.” That’s catnip for us at Roar Cat Reads (pun intended). What does that look like?

Many many rainbows. Like absurd amounts of rainbows. It means when I make things with representation in mind, I’m mindful to include as many different flags as possible and that I will work on requests for new flags as I can. It means having visible pronouns on my business cards and making name tags with pronouns on them, especially in spaces where that’s not considered. Music festivals, Christmas markets, nerd events; I want people to know that my space is a safer space. It also means being the biggest nerd I can be, embracing lots of different fandoms, listening to people get excited about stuff they’re excited about. Researching new cosplay requests and pieces, and exploring fandoms that usually don’t peak my personal interest, but that others are excited about. It also means making sure our nerdy fandoms don’t make space for racist, sexist, ableist, and anti-lgbtq+ themes. Acknowledging that we sometimes have to let books, shows, and fandoms go because the actors, directors, writers, or creators’ behaviour no longer aligns with our morals and they’ve refused to change. It always breaks my heart, but you have to be intolerant of intolerance or the space is no longer a safer space.

Business aside, what queer and nerdy content would you like to recommend to readers?

Well, if I’m putting My business aside, one of my favourite crafters is Miss Stitched (Facebook or Instagram). She has an amazing line of sassy and nerdy cross-stitch wall art and catnip pillows and transforms an ancient feminine art medium into a modern feminist nerd platform.  

In non-businessy recommendations, I always highly recommend any and all books by Terry Pratchett, who of course is a super popular writer, but is unparalleled in mixing fantasy with social justice themes (don’t start with the first Discworld novel, start somewhere in the middle and work your way out).

I also unabashedly love Wil Wheaton, The Good Place, The She-ra reboot, @dez.thelez (tiktok), @mercurystardust (tiktok), and @thatb1tchkarma (tiktok)

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Em (She/Her) goes by Skald or Skald of Shenanigans and is an avid player, content creator and Game Master for TTRPGS. She is co-owner of Awfully Queer Heroes with Kel, which runs a live play podcast in addition to creating Dungeons and Dragons content, all of which promotes LGBTQA+ representation. When she’s not playing games, Skald currently spends time in pursuit of her PhD in mythological studies while balancing work and outdoor hobbies in the mix. She loves a good story, a hike in the woods, or a game session. She currently works on her own small supplemental content in addition to working with Awfully Queer Heroes, and is a player on their latest “Tower of the Soul” podcast.

https://www.awfullyqueerheroes.com/

What were your first experiences playing D&D like?  What has kept you interested in the game?

My experiences with D&D took some time to build momentum. When I had only just learned to read, one of my school friends had an older brother who had the original Monster Manuals, which I used to spend hours poring over despite barely being able to read a word. The first game I played didn’t come until high school when I joined a mini-campaign with yet another school friend, whose father happened to be a professional DM. Being able to take on a different persona – to build and play a unique character – and to work our way through an adventure of endless possibilities was absolutely captivating in the best way possible. I knew from then that not only did I want to continue to play, but to run campaigns of my own.

Having some form of creative expression has always been important to me, and D&D is a critical part of that. Beyond just the creative elements, the social connections that can be made and strengthened through a good group can be wonderful. TTRPGs in general have since been a huge part of my life because of this. D&D was the creative outlet through which I was able to pull myself out of some rough spots in my past. Additionally, some of my most important friendships and human connections have been made in, and through, D&D. There is an endless potential for creative expression, collaboration, and human connection.

You run the liveplay podcast Awfully Queer Heroes, which you’ve described as “pure queer chaos.”  Why do you think our readers should listen?  

First of all, it’s a ton of fun. The group has excellent chemistry, the Dungeon Master is fantastic, and there is no shortage of laughs and ridiculous shenanigans thrown in with the more dramatic aspects of the adventure. Part of what makes this podcast unique is the emphasis on queer elements, especially inclusion and representation. This is reflected not only in the identity and orientation of the characters but of the players as well. Some of the topics that have also naturally emerged as elements of the campaign include things like found family, chosen names, acceptance, and more.

This particular campaign uses a module (Tower of the Soul) previously published by Awfully Queer Heroes. It is unique in that the players are aligned with the forces of “chaos”, playing races that are typically vilified in D&D and fighting against those who wish to bring order. It’s a good mix of fun and seriousness in the way it addresses the repeated issues of queer repression and ostracization. It’s a fun mix of advocacy and representation, mixed in with the kind of chaos that can ensue in any D&D session with no limit to crazy ideas, encounters, and unexpected yet hilarious outcomes.

What episode do you recommend new listeners start with?

Anyone who wants to dive in can’t go wrong with episode one. It sets the scene for the rest of the campaign, as well as giving listeners an introduction to the players in the podcast. However, for those wanting a bit more action and a straight-shot to the tower itself, episode two has a bit more combat and excitement. There are some small details that might be missed, however, so I would say the best place to begin, is quite simply at the beginning.

How do you think queer storytelling makes a difference to D&D?

I think it’s absolutely critical to get more queer representation into D&D. Firstly, because as in many other areas there is a not insignificant lack of it. Not only having content that contains and promotes queer elements but also viewing storylines from that perspective is important not only for combating prejudice but also for increasing the amount of representation that can be found in these games. It’s additionally important for the experience of the players. Increasing the amount of queer storytelling in and behind these games is important when it comes to players being comfortable and able to explore and express their own unique identities. To not only feel like they have the freedom to play in a setting that is welcoming to them, but to also feel comfortable in their own identity in
the play environment.

As a queer person, have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity?

Absolutely. At the time I started playing, I hadn’t actually identified myself as a sapphic. I frequently played male characters, mostly because I played in games with people who at the time identified as cisgender heterosexual, and I discovered that in playing a male I wasn’t underestimated in the same way I often was if I played a female character. Additionally, I found myself drawn to other female characters and playing a male made that acceptable.

Exploring different gendered roles and norms, being able to take on a different persona and explore those things in an environment where it was ‘socially acceptable’ for me to do so, were some of the steps on my own journey to coming out as a sapphic. Even presently, playing characters of different identities is a way of exploring my own persona, and expressing different aspects of myself.

You also make queer content on Kickstarter.  What can you tell us about your creations?

There are a number of different projects up on Kickstarter, including the “Tower of the Soul” which is a level 1-20 adventure geared towards queer representation. Additionally, there is the “Sun Blades” spells and subclasses. The adventures, spells and subclasses all contain elements of queer representation (spells such as “Rainbow Bridge” and “Summon a Protective Lesbian”) or structure (such as in the “Tower of the Soul”) that is made specifically around increased queer representation and storytelling. Digital copies of previous Kickstarter content is also available on the Awfully Queer Heroes website.

What are you currently working on/selling?

We are extremely excited for our next project, which is “Adventures in ADHD”. The Kickstarter went live on Tuesday, March 23, and it is the largest we have done yet. The adventure is designed for levels 5-6, and is set in the Feywild. The party will adventure through a serious of quests to help an overwhelmed member of the Fey who quite literally ‘borrows’ their attention, giving them certain ADHD traits in return. In this adventure the sub-classes, spells, and quests are all designed to help educate players about the wide spectrum of ADHD symptoms while having fun along the way. There has been a lot of input on the project, as it is a topic that we want to do in a way that is respectful and accurate. The response from reviewers and play testers alike has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s been additionally exciting to work on as it has a lot of content, including amazing artwork, STL files, token, maps, and more.

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like people to know about?

The TTRPG sphere on Twitter is a surprisingly (for social media) positive space for creators and players alike. The number of projects people are working on and content that is being created is absolutely mind blowing. I would highly recommend the live play Pathfinder podcast from Bad Heroes (@BadHeroesCast), they are a fantastic crew and really fun to listen to.

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Hi, my name is Nicole (She/Her). I am a multipotentialite, world-traveler, podcaster, aspiring comedian, and nerd just trying to make the best of life in this mortal realm. One of my favorite pastimes is getting together with friends and playing board games or D&D, it’s a great way to connect with others and disconnect from everything else. You can find me on social media as @itswafflebitz.

Nicole, you have said that you enjoy playing D&D “with the right crowd.” I can definitely relate!  What does that mean to you?  

Those rare times I play D&D, I love for the energy in the room to just be sort of… chaotic. I really enjoy being able to just be silly and do absurd things in-game and enjoy it even more when the people playing with me can match that energy. Feeling this “vibe” in the group creates a judgment-free, safe space to just let go and have fun for a few hours.

As a queer person, have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity?

When I first started playing games like D&D, I experimented with my different character’s gender expression & identity. I was still trying to figure myself out in real life, so playing those characters and seeing how supportive the people around me were of that helped me become more comfortable in real life. 

We love a gamer at Roar Cat Reads, and you are into both board games and video games!  What are some of your favorites, and why?

I have played 100’s of board games so it’s hard to name just a few, but some of the games I keep coming back to are: Parks, Betrayal at House on the Hill, and Codenames. These have a lot of replayability and are easy to teach. As for video games, I enjoy a game with a well-written story. One of my favorite games is the Walking Dead series from Telltale Games and a great co-op game I played recently is “It Takes Two”. 

I hear you’ve got a podcast in the works.  What can you tell us about it?  When can we expect it to be released?

My friend Allonté and I are in the process of creating our podcast, The Imperfect Matters. In our podcast, we talk about societal issues that are far from perfect but really matter. The tone is a healthy balance of informative, comedy, and satire. There is no release date yet, but we have a few episodes already recorded and aiming to release this year (2022).

In addition to your nerdy interests, you’re a frequent solo traveler.  What are some of your favorite travel destinations?  Do you find that you travel differently when you’re on your own?

On my first solo trip, I spent 2 months traveling around parts of SE Asia. It was so nerve-wracking leaving the comfort of my country and having to figure things out in a completely new environment. That trip holds a special place in my heart because I literally consider it life-changing. I now love and prefer traveling solo because not only is it easier to meet wonderful people along the way, but also it feels so empowering, especially as a female. Traveling with others can be fun, but there’s always the issue of managing multiple itineraries and schedules, and it’s more difficult to be spontaneous and take as long as you want to do certain activities. Meeting new people can also be difficult when traveling with others because you’re more likely to stick together. I have solo traveled to Mexico, Germany, and Sweden since that trip and have many more to come. 

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like people to know about?

YES. I’m a huge fan of the Avatar the Last Airbender & Legend of Korra universe. There is a TTRPG from Magpie Games coming out very soon that I backed on Kickstarter set in this universe. I’m really looking forward to playing it. 

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My name is Jade, I go by She/Her Pronouns as a Transwoman Of Color. I am a part of my LGBTQ Metal Band “Fallen Stars“.

Jade, when did you first start playing D&D?  What do you enjoy the most about the game?

I only started a few years ago. A friend invited me to a session, and it was a homebrew campaign that has spanned over 4 years and multiple parties. I found it the most boring thing ever. All my friends spoke to old NPC’s who I had no clue who they were, and was very confused as we spent over an hour of playtime in the starting town. I didn’t even roll dice until 3 hours later. But months later there was a dropin DnD at Metrotown, and it was a life-changing experience. It was all oneshots that existed within this small world. The DM was amazing and went with anything, no matter how crazy. We had pie eating contests, talent shows, epic dungeon quests, and so much more. I learned how much fun it was playing with people who just played for fun. I later explored Adventure League and other drop ins, but the Metrotown drop in will always have a special place in my heart.
The game, to me, is pure imagination. I used to read all these build your own adventure books, and I loved novels and films that sucked you into their world. And here you have a chance to create your own. 

As a queer person, have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity?

When playing games in the past, I was always nervous about playing a female character even though that’s what I wanted to be. But upon moving to Vancouver, I was able to just be myself and enjoy it with like minded people. Even in non-queer Roleplaying groups I have been able to express myself and my characters however I wish. My characters are often Bi-sexual, but I just let it happen naturally and want to have depth as a character, just as they would as a real person.

More broadly, how have your nerdy and geeky interests helped you discover and understand yourself in different or deeper ways?

In highschool, the “geeks and nerds” always looked like they were having the most fun. Playing Magic, dressing up as wizards at lunch, or just generally being silly. I quickly was drawn to them and immersed myself in the culture and found things that resonated with me such as anime, sci-fi and so much more. Surprisingly, there was a connection between the metal heads of my school that were just huge nerds so we would often play games and listen to symphonic metal or power metal. Those were the days.

If you had to choose, what would you say are your top three science fiction movies and why?

Aliens, StarShip Troopers, and SpaceBalls. Sigourney Weaver was such a powerful role model to me without me even knowing it. The story telling and message behind StarShip Troopers was always so amazing, and the giant war scenes made my imagination explode. SpaceBalls because it takes everything I love about the genre and has so much fun with it. I would watch it on repeat and always wished I found someone who appreciated it as much as I.

What nerdy hobby are you most into at the moment?

DnD is my main at this moment. I’m tempted to start DMing as I keep having all these fun ideas. I listen to Dungeons and Daddies which I highly recommend to ANYONE, as it combines improv, story telling, DnD and amazing character development all in one podcast. I long for the days where I can have friends over again and turn down the lights, crank up the creepy dungeon music and dive into our imagination.

Jade, you started the LGBTQ metal band “Fallen Stars.” What can you tell readers about it?

I started Fallen Stars by writing a bunch of songs near and dear to me. Originally wanting to collaborate with many accomplished musicians in Vancouver, it didn’t work out that way. Rose (my partner at the time) suggested that I sing overtop of the instrumentals I created. After doing so and putting it online on my Youtube channel, it quickly had over 1,000 views and tons of comments saying that they loved the sound. I wanted to then make this an actual band and there was only one person I trusted to bring the fire and energy to these songs… Rose (my then Ex-Wife). We set upon re-recording the songs with Rose at the helm. Our first single got radio play in the UK, Australia, Austria, Germany, and the USA. We quickly gathered more members and it’s been a journey ever since. 

We just celebrated our 4 year anniversary of the formation of the band. We’ve played most venues around town that allow bands, as well as many local festivals and even being the first heavy metal band to perform at East Side Pride. 

To me, the band is a place where I can create musical magic with friends who are much better musicians than myself. They take all my ideas, bring them to life and make them 100 times better than my original idea. Ive been able to write about Trans Issues, Love, Loss, Joy, everything that makes me… me. 

I could not be prouder of what we do. We are playing the Rio Theatre on Feb 5th with a night of Burlesque, Drag, and Circus Performances.

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like people to know about?

Please listen to Dungeons and Daddies if you haven’t already. And so many local groups doing all this amazing stuff, such as yourself (Roar Cat Reads), Geekenders, and a huge shoutout to everyone who hosts a game night at their store, so that those kids who were like me, longing to find a group to be accepted, will finally find a home.

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I’m Tarren (they/them), and I’m an agender singer/songwriter and voice actor who’s been an avid gamer in various ways for more years than I can remember. I am working on developing my Soundcloud page which at this point has the “pocket songs” I’ve written so far. You can find the games I’ve played in here, and for info on things coming up that I can’t talk about yet, follow me on Twitter as @LandrasGembar. 

Tarren, what were your first experiences playing D&D like?  What has kept you interested in the game?

My experience with D&D goes back far before I ever played the game. I grew up in a D&D-playing household, and on occasion would sit listening to my brothers and their friends playing at the dining room table. I was intrigued, but I was also way younger than anyone in the group, and accessible materials for D&D didn’t exist. That was in the 80’s.

Fast forward to the early 2000s, when an intrepid blind GM got his hands on the *ONE* Braille copy of the original D&D rulebook and some way he could read his dice rolls and started a game on one of the various audio chat services that existed way before Discord or Zoom were even envisioned. I was hooked in…until that group ended up disbanding for whatever reason. I’d be without a D&D outlet until the late ’00s, when a job teaching assistive technology landed me right across the street from Bosco’s, a gaming store that turned out to be running D&D encounters. In those days, ebook versions of the rules were just starting to be a thing, and I would use magnification, as taxing as it was, to read the tables and get the information I needed to build my character.

I knew, once I had that character built, I had the chance to be more than I ever could be normally. I could face down any foe, I could conquer any obstacle, and it didn’t matter that in reality pretty much any physical stat was a dump stat for me. And I’ve kept on playing for those reasons, along with the excitement of visiting fascinating places not possible in reality.

As a queer person, have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity?

Definitely! D&D was a safe space where I could leave my assigned gender at the door. The fact that most of the characters I played were men aided my decision to transition from female to male, opening the door for me to eventually embrace my genderlessness.

You have participated in charity events for Everyone Games, an organization that promotes accessibility in nerdy spaces.  What do you think are the biggest obstacles that disabled people experience in traditionally nerdy spaces?

As to the biggest obstacle we face, I think there’s a bit of an assumption out there that a disabled person coming to a nerdy space probably has all their accomodations figured out, that their tools/adaptations/etc. will take care of everything, or the opposite end, trying to compensate for disabilities without conferring with the person in question. It’s a good idea, even if you think you know what a person might or might not need, to check in with them on what accommodations might or might not be needed.

What are some examples of issues that disabled people find themselves working around that other people take for granted?

I’ve read, over the years, of people in wheelchairs having trouble in public gaming events because things were spaced too close together. An average person may well be able to slip into narrower spaces, but a person using a wheelchair or other mobility aid might not be able to. Another thing we sometimes struggle with is not knowing when our energy might suddenly deplete, and we have to discard plans at the last second.

What is one thing that you wish sighted players would do when playing with partially sighted or blind gamers?

If you’re going to use an image, map, or other visual aid, describe it. This will keep us on the same page as the rest of the table. For those who do audio podcasting, if your podcast listeners would be left out, so would we. In chat spaces, if you share a GIF or meme, please add a description so that those who can’t see it well, if at all, know what people are talking about. Also know that not all text can be read by screen readers, and when it can, it’s sometimes skewed because of OCR flukes and/or typographical quirks. So if you’re sharing text, please share it outside of images where screen readers can find it accurately.

Do you have any examples of people or organizations that are doing accessibility well in nerdy circles?  What are they doing right?

Knights of the Braille is one of the hosting organizations of the Everyone Games event mentioned above, and they are actively working to promote accessible gaming opportunities and adapting gaming materials as needed. Possum Creek Games, creators of Wanderhome have done an amazing job making sure that their PDF is easy to read and has excellent descriptions for the various illustrations throughout the book.

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like people to know about?

Multiclass Theater is an amazing actual play podcast with a stellar GM and a talented cast of characters. Diana and her crew weave a gripping tale of magical adventure and companionship, with a good measure of humor in the mix. And along the way they nerd out about everything from Tolkien to music, oh yeah and lots of science. They can be found at @mctpod on Twitter.

Tracy Barnett is an awesome author and game designer who developed the Iron Eda setting and has their games over at itch.io/theothertracy.

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Shannon Campbell (they/them) is a writer, editor, and game developer from Vancouver, BC.

Website

You have been editor for two books of D&D 5e supplemental material, Faerie Fire and Witch + Craft. When did you begin playing D&D?  Do you play or GM (or both)? What do you love most about the game?

I was a big fan of Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 when I was a kid, but I didn’t play my first table game until 4th edition, when I played a halfling chicken farmer-turned-rogue. I’m a very, very lazy GM with a very, very short attention span, so I love improvising one-shots but tend to get too much executive dysfunction to GM a longer campaign. So just by a metric of hours spent, I’m definitely a player first and a GM second.

What gaps (in the system / in the D&D culture) are you trying to fill when you create supplemental material?

I think it’s hard to say any of Astrolago’s projects start with trying to fulfill a need–first and foremost, the impetus for each project is what we would find fun to work on. I tend to get my inspiration from a mood or setting–with Witch+Craft, for example, I was watching Kiki’s Delivery Service and wondering, “Could we play this as a campaign if we wanted to? What would be missing?” and from that an entire crafting system sprung up. The adventure I wrote for that book attempts to tap into that, too: it’s slower-paced, with recurring familiar faces, and it’s possible to play through the entire adventure (which should take several sessions IRL) without engaging in combat even once, if that’s your jam (though obviously there’s no shame, and plenty of opportunities for roughhousing, if it is). All the designers involved have full-time jobs (most of us in video games) and while I always have the bottom line bookmarked for budget considerations, mostly we just make what we want to make and don’t even worry about whether anyone will actually want the content. Fortunately, that’s worked out pretty well so far! 

How do you choose contributors for something like Faerie Fire?

Because of the way the books are made, I like to have as much of the written content done as possible before we bring artists in, but the first step once a theme has been decided is to generate a long list of artists whose style and sensibilities match the aesthetic we’re going for, and then I invite the book’s design team to pick their favourites. When available, I also make note of any self-identifiers the artist might use–queer, BIPOC, disabled, neurodivergent, etc–because I find that the best book gets made when the artists are all coming from different perspectives. The artists get a lot of free rein on what they draw (we often provide loose guidelines and try to make sure that we don’t get too much doubling-up if multiple artists have the same idea for a subject) and the best part of getting the art back is seeing something I never expected to get in the book. 

You also contributed to the magazine Rolled & Told. Can you tell us a little about the project? Do you think the magazine format offers a unique platform for roleplaying material?

Rolled & Told was such a great magazine. As far as I know it’s currently on hiatus–I wrote an adventure for one issue that never got out into the world–but I really hope it comes back. There was a lot of love and enthusiasm in its pages that I think made it really accessible to a wide range of players. It managed to straddle that line of being both inviting enough to welcome in new players, but with enough depth to give even seasoned GMs something new to play with. 

Are there any other projects you are working on or have worked on that you would like to plug?

If you’d asked me this question in early 2020 I would’ve had a list of books that we planned to publish over the next year, but the pandemic has really derailed a lot of creative steam. There are currently three books that are still in pre-production, but until I know my designers are feeling good and ready to tackle something without pushing themselves too hard, we’re effectively also on hiatus. But I will say hearing more and more people get into our books, and share their experiences with the content, the easier it is to get excited about what we’ll do next–spoons allowing, of course. But I suppose, unrelated to D&D, the video game I’ve been writing for the past few years finally came out during the summer! It’s called Griftlands AND, if you think you see queer subtext in it, I can confirm that yes, you do. My personal ships are Sal/Oolo and Sal/Kalandra, Smith/Moreef, and Rook/his lost leg.

As a queer person, have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity?

YES. It was a combination of D&D (and VR, actually) that helped me realize I was nonbinary. Roleplay is a perfect opportunity for you to stretch out your skin and flex different aspects of your personality you didn’t necessarily realize were there. My heart honestly breaks when I consider players who might be having these quiet realizations about themselves at an unsafe or bigoted table. Not to get too hokey, but we forget that so much of the function of play of any kind–no matter our age, no matter the game–is about trying on different hats and seeing what clicks. Kids look for slots they can fit themselves into, but we all keep changing and developing as we get older, and tabletop RPGs are just another avenue through which we can get that benefit. Sometimes I’ll meet someone who says they could “never play X” as that would exceed the limits of their imagination–where “X” is a different body type or a different gender or sexuality than their own–but they’ll be playing an Aasimar paladin as if they weren’t IRL a pretty normal human. I think you’ll very, very much surprise yourself with what you can play, and what you learn about yourself when you do. 

Other than D&D or comics, what nerdy interests are you most excited about right now?

I’ve actually gone back to school part-time recently! I have a master’s degree in writing so I’m no stranger to academia, but during the pandemic I started learning about carbon sequestering agriculture, and that was a real emotional balm for me. So I decided to reward myself with a bachelor’s degree in sustainable agriculture, and I remembered that school… is very fun. It’s like a video game except instead of stalking the vaguely historical illuminati pope, you’re doing homework, and instead of achievements, you get grades. And that is extremely satisfying to my reward-motivated brain. Oh also I spent the past four months hyperfixating on Ace Attorney, Good Omens, and Hades so come at me with your 120k-word slowburn friends-to-lovers fanfic recs. 

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like people to know about?

Because my brain is moving at a snail’s pace lately, I feel like the stuff I absorbed at the start of 2020 is still the stuff that’s at the front of my mind, so these might be old recs but I stand by them: This is How you Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is a gorgeous, hilarious, magical queer romance and The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez was the best sci-fi I read all of last year, and is also a queer love story at its heart. 

Cheryl Stone (she/her) is one of the hosts of Spice Invaders and is generally into science fiction and how we navigate nostalgia.

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Listen to the podcast here.

Cheryl, you co-host the podcast Spice Invaders. What can you tell us about the show?

Spice Invaders is an obsessive history of the Spice Girls told by the people who were impacted by it. We’re discovering things we didn’t know as kids, some of which is really great as well as some serious drawbacks. We just released episode 6 [at time of interview], and in it we talk about sponsorships, merch deals, and how girl power got mixed up with capitalism.

We plan to cover Spice Girls history until 2000. Our last episode is planned for December 6th, although we will do some reflection episodes after that point.

Who was your favorite Spice Girl as a kid and has your choice changed now that you’re an adult?

I definitely wanted to be Geri growing up – she looked like she was having so much fun! I think as we’ve made this podcast, Mel B. stands out to me as someone who did a lot for the group and went unsung for it. I’ve grown into a bit of a Victoria, like in having a very clean front to the world and keeping the funny, wry side of myself hidden. I’ve also been really inspired by Mel C. and learning about the mental health issues she overcame. And Emma benefits from a deeper perspective…looking back, she was 18 and living with her mom when she started with the band. She was so young! Really though, it’s deepened my love for all of them as a whole as I’ve discovered some of the really big challenges they were going through.

As a queer woman, do you feel like you bring a unique perspective to the podcast?

Yeah, it comes up in a couple different ways. Looking at the particular historical moment, Mel B. was openly bisexual, but it was very hidden from fans. This fact is not in any official books until her biography years later. Looking back, it’s sad to realize there was a bisexual hero right in front of us, but young girls didn’t get to know that.

I think the writing and rewriting of girl power also benefits from a queer perspective. The Spice Girls were an introduction to the feminine as inherently performative. They had five distinct feminine looks that you could literally put on as a Halloween costume. I came out later in life, but I had always indirectly chased performative feminine acts (Lady Gaga was huge for me after the Spice Girls). There were times when, looking back, I realize I was performing gender and obsessing over performing gender in ways that should have made me realize there was something deeper going on!

I have to admit – I didn’t grow up a fan of the Spice Girls. How do you think your podcast can appeal to people like me who are coming in late?

One of the members of our team is not a super-fan, and she offers great insight to our conversations by asking, “What does that mean?” and filling in gaps for people who might not have the ready knowledge that a long time fan has.

Even if you’re not a fan of the Spice Girls, our podcast is a great snap shot of the mid-90s and of a group that changed the game in a lot of ways. If you think celebrity culture is fascinating, you have to study the Spice Girls. It’s fun!

Will Spice Invaders do a livewatch of Spice World?

If there’s enough listener interest, we will!

[Editor’s note: Rachel really wants this to happen, so help make her dreams come true by requesting a Spice World live watch!]

Is there anything else about you’d like us to know about your podcast?

I think it’s important to engage with things from our childhood and teen years that we loved then, and evaluate what we’ve learned from them. We should take a moment and evaluate the values that created these things, because they usually become our own values subconsciously. I hope our podcast helps people do that.

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content?

• This Ends at Prom is a podcast about the hosts watching teen girl movies. What makes it unique is that one of the hosts is a diehard fan and the other comes to the movies fresh and with a trans perspective, having missed a lot of the movies at the time because they were raised as a teen boy.
• Fierce Femmes and the Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom is a book about a group of young trans people who come together to defend their community as imaginary magical realism superheroes.
• The Murderbot series is obviously so good.
• Emily Carroll’s webcomics are spooky and amazing. I particularly love the 50-page “When I Arrived at the Castle.”
• Sarah Gailey’s work is always great, especially Upright Women Wanted and their American Hippo duology.
• I love Fonda Lee’s The Green Bone saga. It’s The Godfather in the Game of Thrones universe with magic and technology and gangs and the mob.

Other than pop culture podcasts and books, what nerdy interests are you most excited about right now?

I’m very excited for the return of Doctor Who. In particular, I love anything with Missy! I just want to watch her wreak havoc across the galaxy.

I’m Alina Pete (they/them). I’m nehiyaw (Cree), from Little Pine First Nations in Saskatchewan, though I currently live on unceded Kwantlen land in Surrey, BC. You can check out my portfolio at alina-pete.com, my webcomic at weregeek.com, my Instagram at @alinapete_art, and my twitter is @alinapete.

Alina, you currently play an orc with fabulous pink hair in the Twitch stream Trash Heroes. When did you begin playing D&D and what is it about the game that keeps you playing?

I started playing D&D twice, actually. Once, when I was a teenager, I tried playing with a group of guys in their mom’s basement and it was AWFUL. Every stereotype you can think of about male gamers picking on a femme-gamer who was new to the hobby… It turned me off of trying tabletop gaming again for years, though I continued with my first roleplaying method – MUSHes and forum-based RP sites. These were “safe”, since they had the advantage of being something I could do in my own home, and were largely femme-centric spaces.

It wasn’t until university that I got the nerve to try tabletop gaming again. I saw posters up for a campus club called “The Gamer’s Club”, and they had a meeting that night. I went, and was invited to try a LARP that weekend. I tried it and LOVED it, and it was only after I’d been LARPing for several months that I tried out a tabletop game – Shadowrun, not D&D! It was several more years of TTRPGs and LARPing before I gave D&D another try. Now, I run my own 5e campaign and play in two regular stream games – Trash Heroes (twitch.tv/weregeekcomics), which you’ve mentioned, and Something Wicked (twitch.tv/something5e). So I came around on it eventually!

As a queer person, have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity?

OMG have they ever!! I’m bi/pan, and though I’ve played a few straight characters over the years, they were mostly guys. I also started experimenting with genderqueer characters even before I was really aware what my vague feelings of gender dysphoria meant. In my teens, I played a lot of male characters (mostly because, as I’ve mentioned, I was in a lot of femme-centric RP spaces and they needed more guys…), but maleness never really “fit”. I also played several genderfluid or non-binary LARP characters. One was a Beast in a Changeling: The Lost game who changed personality, gender, and species every season – for example, she was a deer in the spring, a genderfluid bird in the summer, and a male wolf in the winter. There was also Valentine, another Changeling character who was non-binary before they were abducted by the Red Queen of Wonderland and magicked so that whatever they wore would turn into dresses and other feminine clothing items. 

Looking back, that maybe should have clued me into the fact that I wasn’t exactly cis… 

Although changes have been made, D&D hasn’t always had the best track record of being an inclusive space for non-cishet players. How do you think safe spaces can be created, both individually and systemically?

I think that making safe spaces at the table shouldn’t just be encouraged during TTRPGs – it’s a must. You need to feel safe with everyone at the table, because some of the things that you explore through your characters are really personal or intimate. The only way to have that kind of comfort at the table is to discuss it from day one, before you even start making your characters, and to acknowledge the responsibility you each have to be kind and considerate to one another.

The book Your Best Game Ever has a great section on responsibility – of players to each other, of players to the DM, and the DMs responsibility to everyone at the table. It’s really great, and a much healthier place than the adversarial relationship between players and DMs that is often the norm in old-school D&D. Safety tools like the ok-check-in system and others that have been developed for LARPs are also great tools to bring to your gaming table!

On a systemic basis, change needs to come from gamers being LOUD and refusing to stand for games that aren’t inclusive. Gamers sharing their stories of bad experiences with one another means that a) you know you’re not alone if you’ve had a bad experience with gaming and that it can get better and b) so that there’s more awareness in the industry of how some things that may seem innocuous, like gendered rules/language, can exclude players. We also need to push for more diversity on writing teams, not just as consultants!

You created the online comic Weregeek for over 14 years. What did you learn about yourself as an artist through that project?

Phew, what DIDN’T I learn during that time? I was a wee baby, fresh out of animation school, when I started Weregeek. I started the comic mostly as a way to force me to keep practicing my art until I got an animation job, but it quickly turned into so much more than art practice. I learned about how to structure a joke, how to do backgrounds, how to write interesting dialogue and characters… I really don’t think I’d be the artist OR writer I am today without Weregeek.

The fifth edition of Cautionary Fables and Fairytales called The Woman in the Woods and Other North American Stories has raised over $300,000 on Kickstarter. You worked as an editor for this graphic novel anthology of North American fables. How do you think your Cree identity affects your artwork and/or projects?

I think it’d be impossible for it to NOT influence my projects! Even in Weregeek, the character Abbie has a lot of my worldview – she’s mixed race and from a background similar to mine, and allowed me to show how being from a marginalized group in gaming can give you a radically different viewpoint from the folks you share a table with.

Recently, though, I’ve been doing stories where I’ve been asked to explore my identity in a really thoughtful and deliberate way. For the anthology Moonshot, Vol.2, I was asked to tell a traditional Cree story set in modern times. In this story, I chose to take a story from the Qu’Appelle Valley, where I spent summers growing up, about how voices from the lake sometimes call out to people to try and lure them beneath the dark waters. I then reinterpreted it through the lens of the MMIWG crisis. In this story, a man who has left the reserve to work in the oil and gas fields comes back home when his girlfriend goes missing, only to hear her calling out to him from the lake. Should he listen? Should he not? I think that comics can make really heavy topics like this a little more approachable and yet more REAL for people who don’t necessarily know how to engage with numbers and statistics in a newspaper article. 

Other than D&D or comics, what nerdy interests are you most excited about right now?

God, SO many things… I think the biggest one though is costuming. I’m really interested in costumes, and there’s such amazing stuff coming from the cosplay and furry communities right now. LED-everything, monster masks airbrushed so they look frighteningly real, 3d printed masks with moving parts or glowing eyes all run via Raspberry PI, stilts, giant wings that actually move! I really love that kind of merging of art and technology, and I’ve definitely been known to leap out from behind my booth at a convention to go and talk to a cosplayer about how they made a particular piece or what kind of paint/finish they used!

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like people to know about?

SO much. It might be easiest to break it into categories.

• Animation: She-Ra is the obvious answer and I still HIGHLY recommend it, but I’ve got to shout out Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts for a) being a really fun show and b) having the first and cutest meet-cute between two guys I’ve seen on a non-anime animated series.
• Sci fi: Becky Chamber’s Wayfarers series is a must-read, but I especially love the first book. No spoilers, but Sissix is the best. (Dr. Chef is ALSO the best. And Kizzy. And all of them really.)
• Fantasy: Anything by Aliette de Bodard, but especially In The Vanisher’s Palace, which is a queer retelling of Beauty and the Beast in a really amazing setting grounded in Vietnamese folklore.
• Webcomic: There’s a really cute comic on Webtoons called Blades of Furry. The only way I can describe it is if you mashed up Beastars and Yuri on Ice. I love it!

Are you an Adventure Queer?
Email us at roarcatreads@gmail.com for the chance to share your story on our blog!

I’m Rachel (she/they), an ace and genderqueer book nerd. I’m a librarian by education, working for a library software company. In my free time, I read and talk about books, including co-hosting a Tolkien podcast (@toreadtolkien), and I watch lots of sports. You can find me on Twitter over at @sir_rachel!

How long have you been playing D&D?  What has your experience in the TTRPG world been like?

I’m a bit of a latecomer to D&D. It’s something I’ve always known I’d enjoy, but it wasn’t until four years ago that I started playing regularly with a group of friends.

The group members have shifted slightly, but I’m now in my fourth campaign with the same DM. That’s been a lot of fun, since the more we play together, the more both DM and player are able to develop a rapport that makes for a better adventure. We also all love frustrating our DM by continually refusing to actually get on with the plot.

You identify as ace and gender-wobbly. Have roleplaying games helped you explore or express your queer identity? 

D&D has been a fun way to “play” with gender. My relationship with gender has always been tentative at best, especially in terms of outward presentation. I’m still not certain whether I identify as nonbinary or agender, or just some variety of genderqueer. How I feel about gender is continually evolving, so I love getting to pick up different genders and put them on for a while in a fictional world. Of the four main campaigns I’ve played to date, two of my characters have been female and two have been male. Each of these characters has let me showcase a bit of a different side of me, both in terms of gender and in terms of personality. I can’t always change how people perceive me in reality, but I can definitely spend a few hours being a burly dwarf or a half-orc with a personality that is basically just Geralt of Rivia. Or I can go the other direction, playing a human noble, presenting extremely feminine for a while. Each character fits a bit differently, but they all contain a piece of me.

We’ve also made sure the campaigns are a safe space, and there’s no pressure or emphasis placed on sexual or romantic relationships. It’s entirely up to the players, and in general our campaigns have had very little to that effect (we’re usually too busy shopping, refusing to get on with the plot, or taking way too long to solve puzzles). So often we can be bombarded with sexual content in the media, and it’s nice to have a space where I don’t have to focus on my asexuality.

You are one of the co-hosts of So You Want to Read Tolkien.  Lord of the Rings is my most enduring fandom, so I was really excited to jump into your podcast.  Did this project shape your opinions of LotR in any way? Did you learn anything as a result of digging into the books with your co-hosts?    

Yes! I got into Lord of the Rings when I was young, reading the books right before the movies came out. Lord of the Rings has been a huge part of my life for, well, a very long time, but I hadn’t fully reread the books until we started the podcast.

This was a hugely different reading experience for a number of reasons. The first is that we started out reading The Silmarillion, which I had never read before. While bits of it can be a slog, I’m so glad to have read it. There’s so much cool lore, and so many interesting stories tucked in there! It also then becomes fun getting to play “spot the reference” when reading the other books.

The other fascinating part was how different the experience was reading at a slow pace, only one or two chapters a week. Most of us know that Tolkien’s pacing is a bit (ahem) adventurous, and he loves talking about geography way too much. This can be hard to appreciate when reading the books at a faster pace, and it’s easy to skim through those sections. Getting to slow down and focus on those sections was wonderful, because there are some very beautiful passages that I’d otherwise not have appreciated.

Do you have any queer thoughts or headcanons about Lord of the Rings?

Legolas and Gimli were definitely the first couple I ever shipped, before I even realized that’s what I was doing. That said, my co-host Caitlin on So You Want to Read Tolkien brought Aragorn/Frodo to my attention. While it’s still not my preferred ship, I have to admit, there are some pretty great lines toward that effect.

Also, we already knew this, but jeez does Tolkien not know how to write women.

Rachel, you have also been participating in Project Shakespeare.  I see pictures of your group on Twitter, but I don’t actually know much about it!  Can you tell me a little about the project, and in particular, whether costuming yourself as various characters has helped you explore your gender?

Project Shakespeare is the wonderful brainchild of Abby and Rachel. At the start of lockdown, Abby had the idea to do a readthrough of Shakespeare on Zoom. Each Saturday night, a group of us would meet and read a play. We did almost all of his plays (twice!), which of course means some masterpieces and some… uh… weird ones.

I’ve always loved wearing costumes, so of course I showed up to my first play (The Tempest, where I played Sebastian) with a drawn-on villain mustache. Most of us are either women or non-binary, so naturally we had to play characters of all genders. From a theatrical perspective, this was fun because it meant getting to play roles that we wouldn’t normally ever be cast on stage (or would only be cast in an intentionally gender-diverse production). While I appreciate gender-diverse productions, there was something special about getting to play male characters as male.

I got to draw on beards and wear suits and ties; I bought my first binder. I played villains and ghosts; I died a lot of times and used a lot of stage blood. I got to play some of Shaksepeare’s most iconic leading men: Prince Hal/Henry V, Julius Caesar, Richard II, Coriolanus. I felt my most powerful playing some of these roles and getting to inhabit their masculinity (well, we could have an argument about Richard II here, but that’d take several thousand words).

But at the same time, I also played some of my favorite female roles. It had long been a dream of mine to play Lady Macbeth and one of the witches, and I got to check both of those off the bucket list. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and played one of Shakespeare’s most overtly feminine characters, Ophelia. I wore my prettiest dress and wore a flower in my hair. After spending so much time embodying Shakespeare’s male characters, it was a reminder that “Oh, this is me too.”

More than anything, getting to explore gender by way of so many characters helped me embrace being outside of the binary, both in my head and how I present myself.

What nerdy interests are you most excited about right now?

I’ve gotten into playing video games over the past several years, and let me just say how wonderful it is to have so many opportunities to choose the PC’s gender, and how many games let you romance queer ships. I’m working my way through Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey right now, and the only character choice I’ve made for my Kassandra is that she’s a huge lesbian. Also gotta give a shoutout to Zagreus and Thanatos in Hades!

Do you have any recommendations of queer nerdy content that you would like people to know about?

• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan: queer historical fantasy I absolutely loved.
• Books by E.K. Johnston: I love all of E.K. Johnston’s books, but I especially want to mention her newest, Aetherbound, which is Arthurian in space, as well as The Afterward, which is a direct response to classic male fantasy. Lady knights!!!
• I also want to shout out all the queer sportswriters out there, but especially Meg Linehan of The Athletic, who does incredible and necessary reporting on women’s soccer

Thank you, Rachel!

If you’re an Adventure Queer and would like to be interviewed, reach out to us at roarcatreads@gmail.com.

Tricia McGarrah (she/her) is one half of Roar Cat Reads (along with Rachel). She writes the book reviews and tv recaps, and her favorite part running this site is hearing and telling the stories of fellow Adventure Queers.

Tricia, what made you want to start playing D&D?

I have always been a pretty big nerd, but D&D felt like it wasn’t for me for most of my life. Partly that was the conservative Christian message that it was satanic, but it was also because it seemed to be dominated by boys who wanted to micromanage fun times. It wasn’t until five years ago or so that I started to be intrigued by the game. I was a fan of the McElroy family, and their version of D&D in The Adventure Zone was silly and inviting. When I saw a tweet about a group of young girls turning feral wolves into a friendly wolf army, I knew I wanted that. When I moved to Vancouver, I thought finding a group to play with would help me make friends, so I reached out in a Nerdy Ladies of Vancouver Meetup group. You (Rachel) were the person who responded, so I’d say it worked out pretty well for me.

I’ve been lucky that all of my D&D experiences have been exactly the vibe that I hoped for. I know there are some queer nerds who are rules lawyers, but everyone I’ve played with has been primarily invested in having a good time and telling a good story.

What has been your most fun D&D experience?

There are so many to choose from, but one of my favorite sessions was infiltrating Governor Patricio Cabello’s soiree in our pirate campaign. I was playing my favorite character Bahasha, a nonbinary hadozee whose high charisma stats mostly involve bulldozing people with dumb charm. There were Beauty and the Beast-esque makeovers, bonding over mispronounced aperitifs, and gunshots in the bathroom.

It was the perfect balance of player hijinks and actually advancing the plot, which is an almost impossible scenario!

What games or systems do you hope to play in the future?

We bought Thirsty Sword Lesbians a few months back, and the system seems exactly designed for me. It’s all furtive looks over crossed swords, experience based on character growth, and advantage based on relationship strength. However, my brain is the antithesis of a rules lawyer, which unfortunately means that I feel entirely unable to learn/teach a new system. If anyone reading this has the book and wants to talk about the mechanics or GM a game, I would love to be included!

This blog launched in March 2021. What inspired you to start Roar Cat Reads?

I have always dreamed of owning a bookstore, and when I met you, that dream morphed into a book/game store. We were snowshoeing last winter, and at the time I happened to be feeling really stuck in my job. But I also had no real idea how (or if) my career dream could ever turn into a reality. You challenged me to find a way to take a step toward being a part of the Vancouver nerdy scene, and a blog seemed like my best bet. I was a daily blogger for almost a decade starting in high school, so churning out content didn’t intimidate me.

Although I dabbled in some non-queer nerdy media at first with the blog, it quickly became clear that queer and nerdy should be our niche. I’ve really loved focusing in on this specific subset of nerd culture – it’s encouraged me to read books that might have slipped my radar, and it gave me an excuse to talk about Black Sails again. Most importantly, it has connected me to so many interesting people through the Adventure Queer series and our Discord community. Whether we stay a website or someday live out my shopfront dreams, I always want to create a space that is first and foremost welcoming to “women, femmes, and thems” (a phrase my friend taught me). There are plenty of spaces for cis white heterosexual nerds; I hope Roar Cat Reads is the space for everyone else.

If you were stuck on a desert island, what three nerdy books would you take?

1. Thank you for not specifying “queer,” because I would absolutely have to take Lord of the Rings. It is my earliest and deepest fandom, and the themes of that book are endlessly revelatory and inspiring to me. It would definitely help wile away the time (you’ve got to take at least one brick of a book to a desert island), and it stands up to rereads super well.
2. I would also take The Unspoken Name, a perfect fantasy book about a lesbian orc mercenary. I’ve been itching to reread it anyway!
3. My third book would be Nimona, Noelle Stevenson’s graphic novel about a shapeshifter. It’s lighthearted until it’s gut-wrenching, which is my favorite kind of story. It will also balance out the word heavy books for those times when I don’t want to invest a ton of hours in a book.

You recently got into a new podcast – talk about it!

Oh, you mean We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle? Readers, you should know that this is a very clever move on Rachel’s part. I’ve been bugging her with anecdotes from podcast episodes for the last week, and she’s found a way for me to purge my feelings! Some of you might know that Glennon wrote Untamed, the late-in-life-lesbian’s bible. I loved her books back when she was a progressive Christian, and it has been incredibly convenient that she has written about her life evolving in basically the same way mine has (assumed we were straight but in a mostly uninterested way until we met a woman who turned our world upside down).

The fact that Glennon’s partner, Abby Wambach, is a lifelong lesbian and sports queen, has caused me to entirely relate my relationship with Rachel to theirs. This is maybe not the healthiest practice, but I am LOVING the episodes in which they discuss sexuality, gender, sex, conflict, and just about everything else. They’re passionate, funny, and really honest. I highly recommend the podcast to everyone!

What is in store for the future of Roar Cat Reads?

So many things! Our charity event raising money for Rainbow Refugee is this Saturday, October 16th. I hope everyone will watch the full day of D&D that is GMed and played by queer people on Twitch, and if you’re able, you can donate or bid in our silent auction.

We’ve been talking to the Vancouver Pride Society about potentially coordinating some events for Winter Pride. It’s not confirmed, and whether we get to be involved or not, I hope everyone keep them on your radar! They have some great plans in the works.

We also hope to expand into some pop up shop experiences in the next year. It would be a chance to sell Rachel’s Mini Monstrosities and dice bags as well as books, but more importantly, we could play D&D and board games with the community we’ve developed. It’s wonderful how much can be done online, but there’s something special about playing together in person.

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Rachel Adams (she/her) is one half of Roar Cat Reads. We’ve been creating content and community for six months now, so we figured it was time that you got to know the women behind the blog!

Rachel, you help run a website with the tagline Queer and Nerdy in Vancouver. Have you always identified as queer and nerdy?

No, I don’t think so. I have known for a very long time that I’m queer (20 years), but I’ve only really embraced my nerdiness in the last 3-4 years. I push very hard against the queer thing as I despise labels but acknowledge their usefulness. Because I have known that I’m gay and have lived openly for 20 years, I do want to wave a flag and say I’m here, but it feels weird for my sexuality to be one of the things I should introduce myself as. I’m excited for a time when that is not the case. I want to put the flag down and just be me; possibly the younger generation are getting to that point.

As much as I hate labels that are applied to me, I understand that it’s a way to identify people who are like you and into the same things. As a community-building aspect, it’s a good thing. I like being labeled a nerd more than I like being labeled queer. Being “queer” feels necessary; being a “nerd” feels like I’m going to attract more nerds, which makes me happy.

I had a significant life change a few years ago, and I became closer to more friends who were nerdy at that time. I started playing a lot of board games, and shortly after that I started playing D&D. I embraced the ability to be outside of myself for a little while (particularly with D&D though I will try to role-play literally anything). It was a sad time for me, but some of the best times I had were playing Carcassone and Castles of the Mad King Ludwig and Machi Koro with this small group of people.

Now I am a nerd and I am proud of it. I was a nerd in denial, a secret nerd, a stealth nerd. I had these interests, but I didn’t think I was allowed to be into them. The acceptable way to do that was with sports; you can be as nerdy as you want with sports, and people accept this.

Where are you from originally? When did you move to Vancouver and why did you choose to stay?

I’m from England, and I originally came to Vancouver during the financial crisis of 2008. The place I was working in Bangor, North Wales, downsized and offered voluntary redundancy. I spent the money to come to Canada for 2.5 months to visit a friend who had moved out here. I absolutely loved it and applied for a working visa to come for another year. I loved the city and was lucky to get to know locals. It felt much more like a forever place than if I’d kept my friend group with transient people. I came into my career, which has been a nice, stable influence for me as well. When I came to Vancouver, it felt like things fell into place.

When did you first start playing D&D and when did you know it was going to become a big part of your life?

I started playing about three years ago. It was something I talked about with a couple friends who were interested, but it was that conversation where they say, “We should work out how to do this!” but no one would pull the trigger on it. I got the Starter Set and read through it. Pretty soon, I was DMing for a couple of my gay friends, and at the same time, I started DMing with a nerdy ladies group that I met through Meetup.

I really enjoyed the creative aspect of putting the story together. All the enjoyment I got out of board games predisposed me to going through the rules to figure out how they allow the game to happen. The two groups were very different, which made me realize how diverse D&D can be. The gay men group was very much “kick the door down, where’s the loot,” whereas the ladies group was much more challenging to DM. They were unpredictable and would befriend things rather than kill them. I lucked out having these two really great groups of people at just the right time. It filled a creative need for me and a social need as well.

What are some of your favorite queer books?

• Ash by Malinda Lo. It’s a retelling of the Cinderella story, and it’s just so cute. It’s a really nice read, and I appreciated it because I will often draw inspiration for my D&D campaigns from fairy tales or stories that I’ve read.
• Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst. It’s not a good book necessarily, but it was exactly the book I needed to read when I read it. It was wonderful.
• Seven Eves by Neal Stephenson. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s an absolute log of a book – easily 800 pages. It’s sci fi, and the world is slowly destroyed over a period of three years. Humanity survives by various means, but there’s a particularly awesome relationship between a Russian cosmonaut and a scientist working on the International Space Station.

You have started a new weekly series chronicling our fantasy football league. Why did you push for it to be included under the “queer and nerdy” umbrella?

It has been brought to my attention that there is a lot of crossover between nerds and sports fans. Nerds like to be the holders of all knowledge about a certain thing by sheer consumption of that thing. The same can be said about sports fans (I watched seven hours of football on Sunday). There is no difference between knowing all of the rules of D&D or where to find it in the Player’s Handbook and having an encyclopedic knowledge of the wins and losses of a football team or stats for an individual player. The more I think about it, I’d actually like you to find a difference between those groups of people.

You’re the creative heart of Roar Cat Reads. What crafting projects are you most excited about?

I’ve got a number of them on the go at the moment. One of the first things I enjoyed making was the monstrosities. I made them on a whim. I was trying to make terrarium ornaments, but I don’t actually know anything about terrariums. However, I made a little thing that I would want to exist in a terrarium if someone would like to gift me one. We have a bunch of them in our plant pots at the moment, and I think they look great. At my upcoming Eldtrich Horror birthday party, I expect one or two of them will adorn the cake. If this sounds excellent to anyone, let me know because we have a bunch cluttering our house!

I’m learning to make dice bags at the moment. It’s been a fun project, because I love collecting dice (we get a set every month through our Adventure Dice subscription). I need a place to put them, so dice bags are perfect!

I’m attempting to make my own dice with resin, which so far has been with mixed results. But it’s fun to play around with it and see what’s possible. Any time I see something artsy that I think I can work out how it’s done, I want to give it a try. That’s how I got into making maps for D&D sessions as well. It’s also cool because I can see that skill progressing. If only I would put in the boring practice to really hone that skill! It’s nice being around artistic people like Nick. He taught me how to sew. Being in a creative community is so valuable.

Is there anything else you think readers should know about you?

I’m running a charity event in 9 days. The part I have taken on is wrangling the technology. Tricia is the face because she is the greatest (editor’s note: Rachel really said this, but I (Tricia) did choose to keep it), but I’ve been learning how to use OBS and other various bits and pieces. It’s been a fun process to learn it, and I’m excited to stream more content in the future. If anyone reading wants to ask questions about that process or help me learn more about it, let me know!

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