After delving into some actual play last week, this time Olivia's joined by Jodie of Jodie's Dice Farm. Along with creating some gorgeous homeware, Jodie raises eco-friendly dice made out of jesmonite at her 'farm' in Dorset, UK.
This episode was recorded a while back, when a lot of the #TTRPG family were considering moving away from Twitter. They also discuss how Olivia basically directed the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons movie, and alternatives to fighting Goblins. Important questions such 'Why is there always a horny bard?" are covered, plus some dice ASMR and more solo TTRPG recommendations.
It's a packed one!
Thanks for listening to dNoPE! To learn more about who we are and what we're doing, join our Discord and follow our social media by using the links below. Have questions, comments, or ideas? Shoot us an email!
Join our Discord: http://discord.gg/dNoDice
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok (@dNoDice)
Email us at: social@magicave.io
After delving into some actual play last week, this time Olivia's joined by Jodie of Jodie's Dice Farm. Along with creating some gorgeous homeware, Jodie raises eco-friendly dice made out of jesmonite at her 'farm' in Dorset, UK.
This episode was recorded a while back, when a lot of the #TTRPG family were considering moving away from Twitter. They also discuss how Olivia basically directed the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons movie, and alternatives to fighting Goblins. Important questions such 'Why is there always a horny bard?" are covered, plus some dice ASMR and more solo TTRPG recommendations.
It's a packed one!
Thanks for listening to dNoPE! To learn more about who we are and what we're doing, join our Discord and follow our social media by using the links below. Have questions, comments, or ideas? Shoot us an email!
Join our Discord: http://discord.gg/dNoDice
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok (@dNoDice)
Email us at: social@magicave.io
Olivia Serio
Hi, and welcome to dNope, the podcast expansion for the dNo universe. I’m your host, Olivia Serio, the community manager here at dNo and I am joined here today by Jodie of Jodie’s Dice Farm and we’re just going to chat today.
Jodie
Hi, it’s good to be here.
Olivia Serio
Hi. So happy to have you back. We did a great YouTube Interview that is much longer form, much more focused on dice. This is going to be a bit more of a casual conversation but if you want to listen to that interview. It is on our YouTube and it’s great. We go off-topic multiple times, so I feel like this is a very natural progression of that.
Jodie
Yeah. You’ll learn all about how I make my dice and things like scrapbooking and candles.
Olivia Serio
I actually, there’s a moment where, because the video was so long I had to trim down 10 minutes of us just talking about junk journaling. And I was, how do I cut this? And I just removed it, it’s bonus content. So if you want bonus content, just let me know and you can just listen to us talking about ephemera for 10 minutes.
So, OK. First things first. So I saw on your Twitter that, well I mean, Twitter is burning. It’s on fire, it’s a hellscape of smoke and lawlessness and a whole bunch of people have started moving to, like, they are looking for the new Twitter and a bunch of people are going to Mastodon and now it’s Hive. And will that even last? And I saw you joined Mastodon and then was like ‘No, now everyone’s joining Hive. I can’t join another social network”. I joined Hive because I didn’t like Mastodon so I’m curious to hear what it is…was like over there, in the rush of…
Jodie
It definitely. It took like a little while to get used to. When I first set up and logged in I was just staring at it going “What, what is this? What are these pages?” But I ended up really liking it. So I’m a bit gutted that everyone has gone over to Hive. Mastodon it seemed to be like, I think the way I’ve been describing it is as a cross between Discord and Tumblr. So it’s like you’re in the sort of server but then you also interact with everyone on site.
Olivia Serio
Yeah. That makes sense. It sounds kinda cool. It’s just, looking for a Twitter alternative that doesn’t seem like Twitter at all.
Jodie
That’s the thing. It wasn’t just, you can go on here and post little updates. I think that’s probably where Hive is really gaining momentum. Whereas Mastodon came in but it’s definitely its own thing, it’s not just another Twitter. But I’ve basically gone and grabbed my username on Hive but I’ve not done anything else yet. So I haven’t followed anyone or even set up my account.
Olivia Serio
That’s basically me too. I mean I put my profile picture on and I claimed my username but I..whenever…it takes so long to curate a good dashboard or feed of people and not like… I don’t want to go through all of my people, and you have to manually do it. I wish you could just import Twitter followers, following.
It’s also really funny as I think, it’s funny you mention Tumblr as I think a lot of people are returning to Tumblr. Which is hilarious, I never left Tumblr. I’ve been on Tumblr since 2009 I think.
Jodie
Have you seen the Scorsese film they’re all talking about?
Olivia Serio
Yes. Yes. The one that doesn’t exist? It’s incredible.
Jodie
That kind of thing is one of my favorite sort of internet phenomenons, where people just collectively.
Olivia Serio
Decide something happens?
Jodie
Yeah!
Oivia Serio
I also really liked their…I don’t know if you read Dracula Daily?
Jodie
I didn’t but I meant to look at it, someone was talking about the Scorsese thing and said it “It’s the best thing that’s happen there since Dracula Dailies”.
Olivia Serio
Yeah. So it will start back up again. Dracula Daily is basically you get an email and it’s chronological Dracula. So it breaks the book down, and it’s just… but you get it on the day cos it’s an epistolary sort of book. So whatever the date is in the book you get whatever the chunk of text is from that day.
Jodie
That’s incredible.
Olivia Serio
So there’s some days where you get nothing and there’s some days where it’s huge amounts of stuff.
Jodie
It’s like you’re living through the story in real time.
Olivia Serio
Exactly! And it inspired Dracula Retold, or ReDracula I think is what it might be. Which is done by Rusty Quill, who did the Magnus Archives. I don’t think it’s done by Rusty Quill. I think it’s done by just the people who, some of the people who were part of the Magnus Archives. And it’s the same thing, so it’s going to be a podcast version but done chronologically.
Jodie
That’s awesome.
Olivia Serio
With voice actors doing all of the different roles and things like that.
Jodie
I’ve got a really beautiful copy of Dracula that I’ve still got to read. It’s red and black, gilded with gold.
Olivia Serio
Ooooooh. I think I have that one. I have, I mean, I have a ton of vampire…. I have so many copies of Dracula. I have so many vampire books. I have an entire double-stacked bookshelf of just vampire books because that’s what my dissertation was on.
Jodie
Oh really? Did it not all start with Twilight?
Olivia Serio
I mean, I actually mention Twilight in my dissertation. Because my dissertation was on science and vampires, which is one of the reasons why I really, really want to play Vampire the Masquerade and I just cannot find people to play with. I want to play it so bad. Speaking of TTRPGs and things like that, there’s also a new Dungeons and Dragons movie that is coming out in March. And I’m like, I was really skeptical when they announced it because I’m like how are you going to do a movie? Like every campaign is different, like how are you going to do it? And I still don’t know how they are going to do it. It’s but it’s like, I’m actually kind of hyped for it. They had a bunch of stuff at ComicCon, hyping it up obviously. Including a 10-minute intro to DnD.
Jodie
Yeah, I think I saw you said did like. You were the only person, other than the director of the movie, to choose a certain route through the story.
Olivia Serio
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean.
Jodie
You basically directed that film.
Olivia Serio
I basically directed the Dungeons and Dragons Movie, obviously. All I can say is, given the route we chose. No spoilers because it’s part of the new starter set, the new DnD starter set. No spoilers but, like, it gives me good vibes. It gives me good vibes.
Jodie
Is the new starter set DragonLance? No, no, that’s the new setting. What’s the starter set called?
Olivia Serio
It’s like, so ‘cause there’s the Lost Mines of Phandelver, which doesn’t work great as a starter set any more because so many people have done it.
Jodie
I’ve literally just finished a play through of Lost Mines and I think Lost Mines was actually the first DnD game I ever played. Like 6 years ago but it only got two sessions in. So recently, about a year ago, started doing an online game because we’ve not managed to get a tabletop in-person game going again. But we started with Lost Mines and it’s only now progressed into we’ve finished the Lost Mines arc and it’s now gone in to homebrew. But I think, it’s annoying me that I can’t remember the name of it but I think the benefit of the new starter set that’s coming out is that it’s set on an island. Which means you can just place that within your world if you are doing homebrew.
Olivia Serio
Yeah, because of the new, Lost Mines definitely has its own lore and things like that.
Jodie
Yeah, absolutely. It’s like set in neverwinter, it’s in the forgotten realms. It’d be quite hard to just take that and shove it in to a homebrew world.
Olivia Serio
I mean people have done it pretty effectively. I mean I never really got to play Lost Mines of Phandelver because the thing that got me into Dungeons and Dragons in the first place was the Adventure Zone. And they start with the Lost Mines of Phandelver.
Jodie
So you knew everything that was going to happen?
Olivia Serio
Yeah, well, he skips like the whole middle bit. So it’s like he does the first part and then he does the end part in the cave, with the black spider. But then there was another bonus episode where they did a podcast swap, and they did the middle piece of Lost Mines. So, I like, the only way to do it for me was to run it. But then the problem is as a DM is, I’m like wait, they’re doing it differently then how I listened to it. That’s why I’m a terrible DM. I’m so bad at DMing because I’m like, when players get creative, which is half the fun of any TTRPG. I have no idea what to do. There’s no words, there’s no text for that.
Jodie
That’s exactly my issue, is that I like to be prepared. Even as a character. As a player, I really have to do my homework to be able to turn up in session and be the character so that I can improv a bit because that’s what I struggle with. Improve is, basically, it’s half of DnD. So as a DM, yeah. If someone was like “Ah well, I’m going to go this way.” And I didn’t have that prepped, I’d be like “Well, OK, right. Bye!”
Olivia Serio
I was running Lost Mines and one of my friends decided that her Dragonborn Barbarian character, so the Tank, was going to not kill things. Which is a great, like a really cool character choice, especially for a Barbarian. It is incredibly difficult for a new DM who has a thing that says ‘when they kill the goblins’, this is what you can give them, and tell them, and show them. I’m like neurodivergent, so when the book tells me that this is what they are supposed to. A lot of source books give you a…here’s other examples and things like that, if they chose to do this, or chose to that or go this way or that way, or whatever. But how do you prepare for…also all the other characters were dying in combat. I was like “Erin, you need to kill them. Because these Goblins are murdering your friends”.
Jodie
We actually didn’t kill any of the Goblins either. We caused an uprising for the Goblins to go and take down their leader.
Olivia Serio
Even like the first ones at the very beginning on the road and stuff, where they attack the wagon?
Jodie
Yeah. I think that’s how it all started. I’m trying to, like, make sure I’m not really spoiling anything other than there are Goblins. But yeah, we were attacked by Goblins and we ended up talking to them and found out that the reason they were attacking us was because they had a leader who would punish them if they didn’t bring stuff back. And then so we went with this Goblin uprising.
Olivia Serio
We did something similar in this new, like, in the group of people that I did the 10 minute session with. We did something similar with the…you know what…now that I think about it a lot of DnD hooks are pretty formulaic. Who knew? I bet I’m the first person to make that discovery.
Jodie
I think that’s why the movie could be good because it doesn’t have to represent all campaigns. It can hit the key points that pretty much everyone experiences in a campaign. Everyone has played with a horny Bard, everyone has done it. Everyone has played at a table with a horny Bard.
Olivia Serio
I don’t think I have.
Jodie
Or an annoying Bard.
Olivia Serio
I think that I’ve only played with one, like, Bard-like character. And he wasn’t, he was like a Bard-Paladin.
Jodie
Oooooh
Olivia Serio
Like 2 levels of Paladin and the rest was Bard. But in all fairness, normally I’m the horny Rogue, which is very similar.
Jodie
Just less singing involved.
Olivia Serio
My character, cos I’m the Rogue, my character like, and I normally do swashbuckler Rogue, like seduction all the time. It doesn’t matter. Pansexual, swashbuckler Rogue all the way.
Jodie
Yeah, just wants to hit on anything.
Olivia Serio
Yeah. What’s your current character like?
Jodie
I’m currently, this is in the campaign that is now following up homebrew from the Lost Mines of Phandelver. It’s Phandalin but the campaign is called Phandelver because you’re delving the mines. That always confuses me for some reason.
I’m currently playing a fallen Sasimar Hexblade Warlock. So I got a bit weird with it and she…
Olivia Serio
Paladin-Bard is a Fallen Aasimar.
Jodie
Yeah, really fun. I’m used to playing like a full utility caster because my character for two years before this campaign was a Druid. So I’m like, it’s a bit of a struggle going from “I have a spell for that” to “Oh well, I guess I can eldritch blast”. It’s a great spell.
Olivia Serio
Yeah, combat spell casting.
Jodie
Yeah, she’s called Ranzeal and she, her patron is essential Bistek and so when she became a Warlock she got three claw marks down her face as a symbol of Bistek power. She’s just a cool ass cat lady.
Olivia Serio
I love it. I love it. What color is her dice, is the big question.
Jodie
I go for blues because she wears all blue and she has a black sort of bob with one really long streak of blue hair. So her character color is ultimately just straight up blue and all her magic power comes through as blue as well. So I have, my most recent ones I bought are a Chessex set that are really dark blue on one side and sort of fade out to a shimmery blue on the other side. And I have other ones where the d6 is just a little cat face on the top.
Olivia Serio
Awwwww. Have you made dice for her?
Jodie
I haven’t, no. I’ve made sets for my other half who is in the same campaign and he plays a Sorcerer and I’ve made two sets for him. It’s based on sunrise and then sunset. So using blues and oranges but I’ve not made…I don’t know I’ve never really make my own dice. I don’t know why. But they’d probably just be straight up blue and gold. They’d be blue with gold inking, just simple.
Olivia Serio
Mmmmmm. That’s sounds like…I’m thinking like a bright blue for some reason. Like the blue of the thing on the wall behind you.
Jodie
Probably more like, this is a spin down but that kind of blue with gold inking.
Olivia Serio
Mmmmm, yeah, yeah. That’s like a …how would you describe that blue? Play-Doh blue?
Jodie
That’s not a bad descriptor. Yeah, Play-Doh blue.
Olivia Serio
Right, it’s not like super, it’s not like royal blue, it’s not…it’s like a pretty standard blue tone but it’s not….
Jodie
Yeah, just primary color blue.
Olivia Serio
…it’s like softer somehow.Yeah, but it’s like slightly lighter. Just slightly. It’s Play-Doh blue. Yeah, what else did I want to ask you? I had like this amazing question, that I was like “Oh My God” this is a perfect question to ask Jodie, and then I completely forgot.
Jodie
I’m actually currently working on a new character because we’re hoping to get an in-person game going at some point, again. And you’ll like it because they are, they were a Drow, and they are now a Damphir. So it’s a “Ah yeah, Damphir man!”
Olivia Serio
Love it. Love me, love me a DnD vampire. Actually in my last campaign we had space vampires.
Jodie
Space vampires!
Olivia Serio
Yeah, so like our campaign was kind of future. It was a homebrew setting and in the setting it was kind of like sci-fi DnD. So it still had DnD vibes but then colored with sci-fi. Steampunk feels like the wrong word but like…
Jodie
But leaning that way?
Olivia Serio
Like, steampunk in the way that steampunk blends the Victorian era with machinery. And this blended technology with magic vibes. It was, apparently, very heavily influenced by Destiny.
Jodie
Oh yeah.
Olivia Serio
Maybe. I don’t know. It was inspired by a video game that Jeremy told me multiple times and has immediately left my brain. But we got like a spaceship basically. And we went into outer space and there was a ship that was vampires.
Jodie
Like vampire space pirates?
Olivia Serio
No, because nobody’s been in space. So they would come down, they would come down from space to earth and steal people and eat them and turn them into vampires. But nobody knew what they were because they were in space and nobody’s been to space in like thousands and thousands of years. And also no-one knew what vampires were so his name was Vamderse or whatever. But that was where the name vampires came from. And so all the mythology that we had to go off of was based off, like, local legends and stuff.
Jodie
That’s awesome.
Olivia Serio
So when we were in space, we like fucking destroyed them. We mostly destroyed them but we were on a separate mission. So we’re like, we’ll come back and destroy you worse.
Jodie
“We’ll come back for yoooooooouu!”
Olivia Serio
Yes. I think part of it had to do with they took one of our, one of my friends. They took his ex-wife and turned her into a vampire. And we had to figure out how to turn her back.
Jodie
I think that’s what I’m like quite interested in playing with a Damphir is that I’ve this backstory where I think it will be set in Exandria. And so the basis is, he’s gone and ran away, and gone and moved to the Menagerie Coast, where there is more shady people. And he left his wife and family when he got turned. When he was turned into the vampire, he just ran away and now he’s living in the shadows of the busy city and the Menagerie Coast. I think it’s going to be very interesting to play with the conflict of, he’s, he doesn’t want to be a vampire. And it also made for some really awesome, when I was designing what he looked like. Because he’s a Drow he’s got the Tiefling Drow shade of purple skin but then really long sleek white hair. But then when he was turned in to a Dhampire he got one bit of red hair that grew through. Little character touches, like does he try to hide that when he’s out and about?
Olivia Serio
Spooky, Spooky.
Jodie
I considered going full Vampire Hunter with him. So he would be this Vampire Hunting Vampire but then I was like that’s a little too cliche.
Olivia Serio
Yeah. It’s a little Blade.
Jodie
I’m not going to do that but I’m currently split between…he was written originally to be a Rogue but now I’m feeling like playing a Druid. So I might just turn him into a Druid for fun.
Olivia Serio
He turns into a bat a lot.
Jodie
You’re seen ‘What We Do in the Shadows’, right?
Olivia Serio
Yes.
Jodie
Bat! Yeah, that’s it. I’m going to base it on Laszlo.
Olivia Serio
Incredible. I remembered the other question I had for you. ‘Cause we were talking a little bit about TTRPGs and stuff, and you mention Solo TTRPGs. Which I’m going to be doing a little bit of research in to over the next few weeks, and stuff, to talk about on the podcast. And I was wondering if you had played any yet?
Jodie
I haven’t played any yet but ever since….
Olivia Serio
Are you excited to play?
Jodie
Pardon.
Olivia Serio
Are there any you are excited to play?
Jodie
Yes. So there’s the one I just backed on Kickstarter, which I think it finished a week or so ago. And it’s massively got, like, some Ghibli vibes to it. Koriko by….. I’ll have to check that. It’s essentially…you’re like a Witch or Wizard in a small little town, and you journal your way through the story with different characters.
Olivia Serio
That sort of sounds like one I’ve been looking at which is, what’s it called? I think it might just be called, like, the ‘Witch’s Diary’ or something. I’ve seen a lot of those - really cute, potiony, witchy ones.
Jodie
Anything witchy, I’m sold in on. Oh it’s by Mousehole Press, Koriko A Magical Year, and it runs with Tarot cards. So you get a little deck of Tarot cards with it, and that sort of. I think that’s rather than rolling the dice, you sort of draw a Tarot card. But yeah, very cutesy, you’re a little Witch and you can play it without other people. Which is great when you can’t get a game going. Ever since Covid, it’s been really hard to find a group of people to play in person. It’s just online now.
Olivia Serio
The Witches Almanac. That’s the one. It’s on Itch.Io, it’s like $4.
Jodie
What, the Witches…?
Olivia Serio
But, so yeah, you’re a Witch practising potion making.
Jodie
Oh that’s amazing. I love anything potion making.
Olivia Serio
Yeah. I’m excited. I’m planning on trying, there’s a triptych of Solo TTRPGs Delve, Rise and Umbra and they’re like map making ones.
Jodie
That’s awesome.
Olivia Serio
The other one that I really want to play is called Neck Romance, like Neck Romance. It’s about a Witch trying to bring back their dead lover through Necromancy.
Jodie
The name alone? Sold! I’m sold on this. There’s a pun in the name, that’s all I need to know.
Olivia Serio
Ok, so we’re getting close to the end of our time. Before we go into our ‘Yes or Nope’ questions. Would you like to do a little bit of dice ASMR with me?
Jodie
I’m ready.
Olivia Serio
OK. So you have both resin and jesmonite and I have, I think, acrylic. So we can see if people can tell the difference between acrylic, resin and jesmonite. These are mine. I’m keeping them in the velvet bag. Oh wait. Am I supposed to whisper?
Whispering dice ASMR.
Ok, so that’s one.
Jodie
I won’t say which one I’m doing.
Olivia Serio
Fancy, fancy, fancy dice ASMR.
Jodie
Now I’ll do this other set.
Olivia Serio
Ooooo, I don’t know if I can tell the difference. That one sounds like jesmonite.
Jodie
Other way round.
Olivia
Serio What?! Argh!
Jodie
To me the second is like a touch a higher pitch.
Olivia Serio
Mmmm, yeah.
Jodie
So that was the resin. Now I can’t tell the difference.
Olivia Serio
Oh yes. Can shake them a bit. Yeah. That’s some good dice ASMR. That’s some good stuff.
Jodie
What happens if I….oooo?
Olivia Serio
Oooo, shaking, yeah that definitely sounds like the jesmonite ones.
Jodie
Big, big boys.
Olivia Serio
Chonky. Oh I love that.
Jodie
They’re so heavy.
Olivia Serio
I love the black one, with the red. Beautiful.
Jodie
I’ve got a few…some experiments going on but they’re very loud. That’s a third dice sound from me.
Olivia Serio
OK, I have some quick fire Yes or Nope questions for you.
Jodie
Hit me.
Olivia Serio
Can dice be cursed?
Jodie
Yes.
Olivia Serio
Can dice be uncursed?
Jodie
Nope.
Olivia Serio
Snacking at the table?
Jodie
Yep.
Olivia Serio
Session Zero?
Jodie
Yep.
Olivia Serio
Can you have too many dice?
Jodie
Nope.
Olivia Serio
Would you let other people use your dice?
Jodie
Yup.
Olivia Serio
You can pick whatever character you want in your head, or tell us which character for the next two questions. So we’ll go with your current character, not your.
Jodie
Yes, we’ll go with Ranzier the Warlock.
Olivia Serio
Would you party with your character?
Jodie
Yes.
Olivia Serio
Would you trust your character to guard your drink?
Jodie
Yes.
Olivia Serio
Would you be an Adventurer?
Jodie
In real life?
Olivia Serio
Like, you are dropped into the world of DnD. Would you be an Adventurer?
Jodie
No.
Olivia Serio
Would you use digital dice?
Jodie
Yes.
Olivia Serio
What about digital characters?
Jodie
Yes.
Olivia Serio
And tile sets?
Jodie
Yes.
Olivia Serio
Cool! OK we have to come up with this week’s ‘Nope’. I think this week’s ‘Nope’ is having to join new social media channels.
Jodie
Nope.
Olivia Serio
I think that’s the fixed nope. Nope, I don’t want to do it and yet, it is my job.
Jodie
I, yeah, one of my good friends is a social media coordinator, and she’s just like “What is happening?”
Olivia Serio
Yeah, that’s pretty much my life right now.
Jodie
Nope to any more social media platforms. It’s the end, we’ve got to call it somewhere.
Olivia Serio
Yup. Nope. Nope. We’re done. Nope, we’re done. No more new social media. Thank you so much for joining me today Jodie. I always have so much fun chatting with you and hopefully, we’ll have you back on again. Maybe we can do a duo TTRPG together or talk about our Solo experiences and stuff like that. I definitely want to hear more about this Dhampiric character that you have brewing.
Thank you so much for talking to me and this has been dNope.
Olivia Serio
Thank you so much for listening to dNope, the podcast expansion for the dNo Universe. If you want to learn more about who we are and what we’re doing. Go follow our social media at @dNoDice. That’s D N O D I C E on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. For the latest updates and to join in on the community we’re building, you can also join our Discord. By going to Discord.gg/dNoDice or following the link in our episode description. Thanks again for listening and we hope to see you around soon.