The Artsy Dudes Podcast
Rolling Our Way to Adventure: Dungeons & Dragons and the Art of Community Storytelling
Embark on a quest with Tayler and Ryan, guided by our special guest Brett Sheridan who discovered Dungeons & Dragons as a beacon of hope during tough times. Nurturing a sense of belonging and sparking a fire of creativity that could rival the mightiest dragons. This episode isn't just an adventure through mythical landscapes; it's a celebration of the game's power to bring people together, challenge our problem-solving skills, and provide a canvas for the stories we all yearn to tell. From the trepidation of dense rulebooks to the thrill of crafting entire universes, join us as we shed light on the shared joy and transformative storytelling that make D&D a modern-day gathering at the proverbial round table.
When we gathering around the dice and character sheets it unveils the emotional depth and therapeutic potential woven into the fabric of role-playing games. As our special guest shares, D&D adventures can be much more than mere escapism; they're a conduit for exploring identity, facing fears, and fostering mental wellness. The bonds formed over a shared campaign can be as strong as any forged in steel, with initiatives like Mythic Minds and partnerships with Canopy Art and Wellness exemplifying the profound connections that emerge from the world of D&D. Whether through the laughter of a critical failure or the catharsis of a well-told tale, the game becomes a gateway to deeper understanding and acceptance.
We close our tome on a discussion about the evolution of gaming demographics, challenging outdated stereotypes, and embracing the inclusion of diverse voices at our tables. The narratives spun within D&D reflect an ever-changing tapestry of players and perspectives, illustrating that the heart of the game lies not in the roll of the dice, but in the shared humanity of its players. As we venture into the realms of artificial intelligence in game design, we recognize the blend of technology and artistry that continues to shape our experiences. Ultimately we discover on our quest that the legacy of D&D endures as a testament to human creativity and connection. Join us in this celebration of imagination, community, and the timeless magic of Dungeons & Dragons.
Embark on a quest with Tayler and Ryan, guided by our special guest Brett Sheridan who discovered Dungeons & Dragons as a beacon of hope during tough times. Nurturing a sense of belonging and sparking a fire of creativity that could rival the mightiest dragons. This episode isn't just an adventure through mythical landscapes; it's a celebration of the game's power to bring people together, challenge our problem-solving skills, and provide a canvas for the stories we all yearn to tell. From the trepidation of dense rulebooks to the thrill of crafting entire universes, join us as we shed light on the shared joy and transformative storytelling that make D&D a modern-day gathering at the proverbial round table.
When we gathering around the dice and character sheets it unveils the emotional depth and therapeutic potential woven into the fabric of role-playing games. As our special guest shares, D&D adventures can be much more than mere escapism; they're a conduit for exploring identity, facing fears, and fostering mental wellness. The bonds formed over a shared campaign can be as strong as any forged in steel, with initiatives like Mythic Minds and partnerships with Canopy Art and Wellness exemplifying the profound connections that emerge from the world of D&D. Whether through the laughter of a critical failure or the catharsis of a well-told tale, the game becomes a gateway to deeper understanding and acceptance.
We close our tome on a discussion about the evolution of gaming demographics, challenging outdated stereotypes, and embracing the inclusion of diverse voices at our tables. The narratives spun within D&D reflect an ever-changing tapestry of players and perspectives, illustrating that the heart of the game lies not in the roll of the dice, but in the shared humanity of its players. As we venture into the realms of artificial intelligence in game design, we recognize the blend of technology and artistry that continues to shape our experiences. Ultimately we discover on our quest that the legacy of D&D endures as a testament to human creativity and connection. Join us in this celebration of imagination, community, and the timeless magic of Dungeons & Dragons.
Hi, welcome to the Artsy Dudes. My name is Taylor and, as always, I'm joined here with Hello, I'm Ryan.
Speaker 1:Good to see all of you on podcast and YouTube land.
Speaker 2:So what are?
Speaker 1:we doing today, Ryan.
Speaker 2:Delveon Podcast on YouTube land. So what are we doing today, Ryan?
Speaker 1:So today we're going to delve into the world of D&D Dungeons, dragons. Oh and yeah. What are your experiences with it? Did you grow up with?
Speaker 2:it. I did not grow up with it. Well, I grew up with it like it was around me but did not play Actually didn't start playing until I was an adult. But no, I remember my friends playing it. I remember how it was kind of like this niche little clique that only exclusive people were allowed to be a part of, and I had my friends try to explain it to me when I was younger and I'm like this sounds boring. That was my opinion when I was a kid. Then, as an adult, started playing again and realized this is not boring at all. But yeah, how about you? What's your experience with D&D?
Speaker 1:Okay, outside of pop culture. I mean, I'm sure we've all seen it in pop culture referenced as this type of geekdom, but I've never played it. But honestly, I never thought of it as a geeky thing, Like I remember going to friends' houses and I would see this thick manual of D&D and actually it looked intimidating, it looked like something for older teenagers that I was like, oh, these guys are intense. But yeah, I guess we have a special guest today who's going to demystify us, demystify the beginners, and say some really interesting things for the more advanced players.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So I guess that introduces our guest. Would you like to introduce yourself to the audience table but to also demystify?
Speaker 3:the very thick manuals that are provided for this game and try and make it a little bit more palatable, a little bit more ingestible for those that are curious on many different forms. It's an honor to be here with these two. It is just an amazing thing that D&D can do bring people together that you wouldn't expect, and for us it's just been amazing to find those who didn't know they would become friends with other people based through this, and for me it's an amazing experience.
Speaker 2:Excellent. So, with that in mind, can you explain like why D&D is so important to you?
Speaker 3:Well as many people of my age I am 35 years old we grew up on video games and then, as video games was you know little land centers, you'd have your friends sitting next to you playing some games. You would be, you know, shooting each other in Halo or this or that, and you'd be yelling at each other and James Bond, the man with the golden gun, and things of these natures. But then, as the internet really started to flourish, the concept of sitting next to a friend and enjoying the company of your own friend group, even those you don't know, really became impossible. The internet really brought an idea that you would be yelling at your screen and through a microphone and there was a lot of impersonability between the idea of gaming with your friends.
Speaker 3:I was at the point where I watched it, like many people. I had that experience in seeing Stranger Things and being like wait, that's what D&D is. It's friends sitting at a table using their minds, and for me it was, without a question, something I wanted to be a part of People to take away from the screen and bring people back to the table. Come back and play a game where you can use your collective imagination and creativity to do something well. In my opinion, incredible Mythic Minds has just been something that I did, um because of what I recognized in doing with my own friends and and trying to talk to people, and now it's just created a, a network that I have just seen flourish and grow in such an amazing way just in my own part of the very large pie so did you get into it as a kid, or is this something you found as an adult Like?
Speaker 3:I'm 35 years old and I have been playing D&D for four years, four or five, almost five years now. It was a bit of a dark time for me and I was left with very little in my life and the things that I actually had. I'll give you a little backstory is that I was actually at a homeless shelter in Saskatoon and I had a D&D book. I had the player's manual and the dungeon master's manual and while I was at the Sally Ann in Saskatoon, I put these books out, had my headphones in and I was at a table alone and because I had these books, I was suddenly given the chance to express and actually hear stories of other people saying wait, is that a D&D book? Can I sit down with you? Can we talk about this? I want to talk to you about my character. I want to talk about the one that I played when I was 12. I want to talk this, this. And then the next person sat down and before I knew it, we were sitting at a very large table.
Speaker 3:I was once by myself with my head in my book and I was being blessed with the stories of people's experiences. Um, the creativity, as I've mentioned before that the in a homeless shelter where there are people of many different walks of life. We're all commonly sitting down, not talking about their personal, like their life problems, but being able to rejoice in something connecting and and that was, for me, just one of those points. But D&D was always a thing I'd love to have been able to play as a kid, but I'm just glad it's in my life now.
Speaker 1:Like how these books fall into your possession, like it almost sounds serendipitous. Critical role.
Speaker 3:Critical role, as many people do know, is an incredibly influential provider of content on YouTube and in different ways, they also have their own production sorry publishing company called Darrington Press. But I was watching Critical Role while I was about to dive down into the darkest times of my life and I had these books because I was interested. I'd been watching their podcast, their YouTube videos for some time at this point, but then, when I realized what it was, I was like I need to see the manuals. I'm a very tactile and very kinesthetic human, so I needed to see these things and I happened to have of the 15 minutes. I had to pack my life up and move on. I chose those books and it saved my life in many different kind of ways, and so the way I bought them was through curiosity and then, now that I've seen them and what they do to connect me to others in a very bleak not bleak kind of way, but a very expansive kind of way. For many people, the good book does the same thing. These are my good books.
Speaker 2:Gotcha does the same thing. These are my good books, gotcha. So for novices or people that don't understand anything about dnd, um, like the playing aspect of it, like ryan and much of the audience, um, what, in your opinion? What's the appeal of this game? Like, why has it? Why, when people play it, they get hooked?
Speaker 3:You know that is such a great question. It's similar to myself, as I had noticed it myself seeing oh, it's four friends playing something that is entirely in their mind. For what I've recognized, what I've noticed myself in creating campaigns, in creating friendships with people, to go into a video game, you are given a path that you must follow. With D&D, you create a character of your own volition with its own background story, whether it's reminiscent to your own life, whether it is something just completely unique or improvised on the spot, whether it is something just completely unique or improvised on the spot. For a lot of people, what they don't realize after they've created the character because it can be very daunting to look at the manual and be like I'm supposed to flip through all this and create a character, but then when you have someone digest it for you and kind of make it palatable the thing that people realize is that if they can think it, it is possible, and I think that is really truly the enticing factor of this game. It is not in that aspect, it is not just a game, it is an area to connect with people without necessarily saying I have this problem. I would like to work on this about myself and when people realize that their character. Well, hey, there's a door over there but it looks like it's locked. Can I open it? You can certainly try.
Speaker 3:As Matthew Mercer from Critical Role will say, you can always try to do something. And I think that curiosity, that ability to be curious, really tantalizes the brain of creative people or people who just haven't been able to express themselves in such a way. And for me it's as a game master, someone who sits at the other side of the table watching a group of people in front of me, when you see those aha moments click in someone's brain of the lack of limitations, people you know, fish line and hook kind of thing. Fish line and hook pulls you back and goes I can do this, can't I?
Speaker 1:I'm like, if you want to try, Actually, that's something that really stuck out when I was reading about it last night is just, it sounded very wholesome and, you know, bringing everyone together. They said you know D&D with everyone. It's, you know you're on a quest and adventure together, but more importantly, it's almost like a quest for knowledge together, like self-knowledge, just knowledge of what you're doing. I love really that stood out in my head.
Speaker 3:I 100% agree with that, and I think the fact that you said quest knowledge the knowledge of the storyline into which you are playing, but also self-recognition and the things you didn't know about yourself. I think these are things that I've witnessed and have experienced through players, my own experiences. I am a homebrewer, meaning I do, I like to take influences from pre-written modules, but I really enjoy creating my own worlds. I have done so and I've created two fairly large countries so far. But there is one of the things that I love is that I can create the setting. I can create political histories, but then watching each player come in and create their own part, it becomes a collective program, a collective, a group art project, and but then seeing what people learn about themselves by creating such a character has just always been one of the most admirable things on my end of what I do with Mythic Minds.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 2:I mean, I kind of want to touch a little bit on what you were mentioning before, how it's all in the mind and it really it seems to me what it taps.
Speaker 2:It taps into is that, um, almost like what we talked about in the last podcast, is that um aspect of childhood that's rekindled, where um imagination, um is tied so much into creativity and as adults we kind of forget um to play, basically to be imaginative. And I think maybe that's the reason why I think, especially like us as adults I am, I gravitated more towards D and D as an adult than I ever did as a kid. Like it fascinated me, but I'm like, eh, I'd rather go play outside or build a fort or you know what I mean or go bike ride for 20 kilometers and not tell my parents that I'm actually in another part of the town. But anyways, that was my own adventure as a kid. But now as an adult, I love the aspect of rediscovering that childlike aspect of creativity and imagination and how much that actually influence influences my art, even more so as an adult than it did as a kid. So I don't know if you'd like to just kind of like move on.
Speaker 3:Well, it's kind of. I'm glad that you said that, because for me and my partner, we both agree that creativity is almost knocked out of us. You have to become more of a logistical thinker. You have to be able to solve problems in an efficient and cost-effective way. And what's amazing about what you're saying is going for those bike rides and getting lost is going for those bike rides and getting lost.
Speaker 3:One of the things that I think really ties with this is that sense of creativity, that sense of just I'd like to call it creative belonging, where again, you get to rekindle some of the thought patterns that you had when you were younger. It comes back in this game because one of the things that happens you need to travel between places. Well, what happens during that travel? What things did you pick up? And when you're in this experience of having a world that you don't know, it's similar to being a child, as I explained to you the setting that is around you. You may not know where to go, but you're interested in looking for it. You're interested in just taking that ride. Oh, what's that left path? I don't know. Know, but I'm going to take it. And, and not only that, but having the opportunity to fail at something without it being detrimental to your existence. Maybe that may be a bit of a heavy way of putting it, but without having that knack of failure upon what I think society has really done well at creating an importance behind. We all know that mistakes are a good way to learn, but if there is a creative way you can do it with the character that almost. So.
Speaker 3:One thing about the game I'll say is that it involves dice rolls, and the thing about this game that kind of is annoying but it's also the best part is you might have a very strong character but you can roll a natural one, which, for those that don't know, means that it's a critical failure If you go to try and climb a wall because you need to get over this rock wall before the lava comes and gets your feet. If you roll a natural one, you're unfortunately going to have a rock come loose and you're going to fall back, and it's those critical failures that sometimes are a really big aha moment for people to experience, just like you would have if you went down a certain path on your bike and you skid your knees and what have you, and you don't tell your parents why you have hole in your jeans. But you know very well that that rock is going to be there for the rest of your life. You it's a point of recognition, those memories that you learn from nice um.
Speaker 1:One thing I kind of found interesting when I was reading about it is there was like this massive uptick of D&D by like 50% in specifically 2018, which and it okay, it kind of made me think of full core films, like how there's been a resurgence of that. And there was this full core aficionado who brought this theory forward that, you know, once our modern world becomes a little unstable, everyone wants to drift towards the esoteric and, I guess, anything that's more mystical outside of like modern religions and stuff. And I guess would you agree with that theory? And, um, do you think there's any other reasons, like besides that, that people just drifted towards it on a massive scale in 2018?
Speaker 3:well, undoubtedly, uh. I believe 2018 was when uh stranger things came out, if, if not okay, yeah, that's probably not a big part around the same time.
Speaker 3:But if you were to think of tolkien creating lord of the rings, uh, the man was a brilliant writer, um, with a type of mind that had the ability to kind of see a world outside of his own. Uh, the concept of middle earth has been largely debated of where it is on the planet. Yet many people are like, well, that's not Earth. And if I may just reinforce this, it does say Middle Earth and it's one of these things where someone had the ability to create languages, he was able to create Elven and such like this, where Lord of the Rings was really the brainchild for what we are experiencing now with D&D. It's undeniably a part of it, because the orcs, the dwarves, the hobbits, just the elves, the cultures between them, the disdain between certain cultures.
Speaker 3:If you have read the books, we all know the history between the five armies, the book the Hobbit and then all the different forms of the geopolitical systems that are known throughout the Lord of the Rings books If you are able to recognize your own world and try to digest it in a way, by masking it not necessarily masking it in a negative way, but rebranding it in a way that's more palatable For me it's easy to see why stranger things was so successful, because for me, as I saw the kids at the table, it was like, wait, that's what the game is. But then when people realized that, yes, this science fiction kind of uh show was really a way to look at the perception of reality, to see the, the underdark or I'm sorry, I cannot recall the term but the other side of the world, where it was the upside down.
Speaker 3:Thank you. The upside down, where it was, the other side of the world. And yet when you saw was a mirrored part of the world, but it was darker, it was sullen, it was devoid of color. And a lot of people see the world that way. Our bright, beautiful world, with all its problems, all its issues, is so full of love and all this ability to be amazing. Yet we are, so many of us are, stuck in a place where we see it with darkness.
Speaker 3:And to be able to see a pop culture show of some very young human beings being able to see this demogorgon, and and when the one character brings out the demogorgon, there's fear on the other faces and they're like, oh crap, what are we gonna do? And you see that emotion really tie into the value and kind of to ask your question why is it so enticing for people to play? Because when you are asked to roll initiative, that means to start combat. And when you do that, hands shake because it's like, oh crap, what am I going to do?
Speaker 3:And for me it's just this dynamic of reality and fiction. They're not so irregular, they're not so different. You know so many things. Things, art imitates life and I think that that in itself is just a beautiful way to look at why this took off. Also, again, I would like to call back to critical role. Uh, dimension 20, uh, there are a lot of different massively produced not massively produced, but highly produced um streams and what have you with amazingly skilled people playing these games and it looks. It makes it a lot more attainable, something of a goal that you can reach, rather than, oh my God, the manual is this big, why, how can I even do this?
Speaker 2:And that's kind of one of the goals that I have is to take these massive manuals and make it accessible to those who don't either don't have the time or find it intimidating, because it is, it is intimidating um, one thing I wanted to ask is, um, for the novices out there, or the people who are interested in it, like they know, people in their lives that play dnd and stuff like that, and maybe they wanted to give it a try, but they are outrageously intimidated, like you say, because it is like reading the Lord of the Rings for the first time how do you suggest they go about doing it other than you know? Talking to their friends or loved ones or family members who play the game? Talking to their friends or loved ones or family members who play the game, is there a way that they can approach getting into it without having to just, you know, dive right in? Is there a way they can put their feet in the water and see if it fits?
Speaker 3:So there is definitely. It may not include D&D, but if you've ever played a video game that involves playing a different, excuse me, uh, involves playing a different character um, that's what you're doing automatically. You are playing a character into which is not your own mind and to think as the character. Uh, final fantasy has done a great job. One of my favorites is mass effect. Uh, you got these, these choices of being the paragon, the renegade, whether it was a evil or a good thought, or whether it was a neutral thought. The game itself has a good evil and a neutral kind of alignment, as they call it. And so, to understand that, most of the things that you've been a part of, if you've played a video game, even playing Monopoly, the type of person you want to be at the table, are you just going to try and kick your sister out, your brother out? Are you going to team up with your friend? These are all thoughts that we did not know that we were making.
Speaker 2:Well, you may have known, but these are things that tie into this game, so so, quickly, definitely tried to kick my brother.
Speaker 3:There you go it's. I was the banker for 10 years playing monopoly with my sisters, and not one time was I caught for cheating. Because well, and they were they always wondered oh, we don't want to do math, so you were a great banker. I was a great banker.
Speaker 3:And it's funny because my bank tipped my sisters, because it tipped them the wrong direction, and that would be a deception check in the game. But one thing that I would suggest is that there is a YouTube channel called Dungeon Dudes. They are Canadian gentlemen that are based out of Ontario and they take every small part of that manual and bring it down. Bring it down digestible how to play a wizard, how to do this Critical Role also has amazing tutorial videos that are in bite-sized chunks. Rather than you know. If you've ever seen the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings, those of us who've seen it and love it are like five hours of fun. Let's go. The rest of them are like five hours of what? And so if you can take these bite-sized pieces and start to apply it, start putting it somewhere in your head, plant the seed. As I like to say, there are different ways to do so, but one thing that I would encourage a lot of people to do is just consider the decisions you make in life and realize that that is basically what the game is, the game master themselves. If you two are players, you guys get to play your characters. I have to play the tavern keeper, the person that's too drunk in the corner, the person hawking their wares on the streets. And when you are a new player, don't think about the big picture. Think about what you want to do as a character. If you want to be the big barbarian who's going to smash door down, smash the door down. If you want to be the sneaky rogue, be the sneaky rogue. But also, don't find yourself limited by this. Limitation is your limitation? Any limitation in this game is up to you. If it comes down to discussing a limitation, ask your game master. Hey, am I allowed to do this? Well, give me a reason.
Speaker 3:I had a friend who wanted to play a blood elf from the world of Azeroth, from World of Warcraft, and I asked her why she's like I. Since the blood elves came out in world of warcraft, I've been playing a blood elf in every every character I made, and I was like okay, can you come up with a story as to why you landed on my planet? And she's like yes, I can. I'm like well, then, then you can. And we created a character. Uh, we actually created some spells for her in dnd so that she could play her blood elf, the silencing spell that they have innately in World of Warcraft. We gave it to her in the game and she was like we can do that. I'm like, yeah, if you can think of it, we can do that, and I think that that alone is like, if you can think it, we can make it, and that alone stops people from going oh my God, I don't know how to do this too. Wait, I can do this.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yes, you can, because you can think it oh, when you brought up life decisions, I'm like thinking of all my bad decisions in life. Would this? Would this be good for dnd and I'd be the drunk guy in the corner?
Speaker 3:my friend. I've played a few of those characters and I agree uh, my, my number one character that I've played my uh for the last five years is Theraville Glanadel, a level 11 ranger dark elf ranger because I loved to be not seen. When I was younger, I was also a person that had an innate need to kind of put people in their place and with the laws of reality I couldn't really do that, but Theraville wasn't afraid of that and for me it was one of these moments where I actually, playing this character, got a little bit more of my own voice. Not to say that violence was always an answer, but I found a way to discuss my issues with people because I was able to play this character.
Speaker 3:I'm known for being able to not shut up, but it's amazing how little I had to say of matter At the time. I felt like I was filling the air, but it's amazing how little I had to say of matter at the time. I felt like I was filling the air, but after experiencing D&D, experiencing the creative growth that I've witnessed in people, it's just amazing how much more refined I have become in my own thought patterns and also just in the recognition of what might be going through someone else's mind, in reality, in the game, in a character, in the improvisation that a game master must implement. It's just been an amazing experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to bring up like the first time I actually played was one of your workshops Right here. Right here.
Speaker 2:Sparrow Artspace yeah, and I was very intimidated by it but as, like a writer, I wanted to understand the world-building. Intimidated by it, but, as like a writer, I wanted to understand the world building aspect of it. But I got really into the gameplay and I think the most difficult part for me was to understand the process of how to get started. But once I kind of understood that, all that kind of like trepidation just kind of melted away and like one of the hardest parts for me but yet one of the most rewarding was creating that character at the beginning. It's it's the most time consuming part. It is.
Speaker 2:But once you've created that character and once you start being that character, it's outrageously fun like, because a lot of things that you actually mentioned too is that you would make decisions that you yourself might not necessarily make, where it's like are you making that decision taylor, or is your character making that decision? And and then, once you understand that aspect, it's just let yourself go.
Speaker 1:It's a great ride. That sounds almost tantalizing. The kind of alter ego aspect of it Like oh, who do I want to be? And exercising that part of yourself, these things that we don't usually bring out in ourselves in the real world.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I like that idea. I need to play soon like it's hyping me up. Yeah, okay and like the fact that you only started like four years ago is like really good to hear for someone, uh, like me, who's never played, and probably a lot of people out there like, oh, like you know, I didn't know until recently that like I thought it was ingrained in you from childhood or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not a lifer from the beginning, but I'm a lifer for the rest of it. Yeah. That's for sure. That is for sure so.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like it.
Speaker 3:I do want to say real quick though, the concept of metagaming, so the idea of thinking is it your character making this choice or is it you making this choice? The one thing that I enjoy as a game master is I come to you guys and say, okay, here's the boss fight. You've got three minutes of real time to talk about your strategy. Uh, and that's it. Because some people will say, like, well, I don't know how to combine my forces with my, my friends. Well, you got three minutes, go and to sit back and watch, watch the people go. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. It's amazing, we can do that in reality too. I have this skill. I have this skill. We can, we can work together.
Speaker 2:And again, there is an adjacent and very well, not adjacent a very parallel side to dnd and reality yeah, I kind of wanted to delve into um a little bit more on the history of D&D, just from what generally we all kind of know. Like I said, I know a little bit. You know quite a bit more than we do, Ryan. I'd like to know specifically, Ryan, like what do you know of D&D?
Speaker 1:Okay from a personal standpoint is, you know, it's mostly been pop culture, culture, it's that whole geekdom thing again, like I've seen it referenced on tv shows and movies and yeah, it just seems to have that. But um, did a bit of research, don't remember their names, but I guess it was started in the early 70s and it's kind of sprung of sprung from role-playing games to do with more wars, but then the whole fantasy element came into it.
Speaker 2:Cool. What's your experience like? Within your personal experience, Do you know anybody that plays the game?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, it seemed like lots of friends growing up, even their well, mostly dads I can't think of any moms, I knew that played it. But yeah, it seems I would always hear from friends. Oh, we're doing a D&D campaign and I never partook in it, but I guess I was always slightly curious. But, as I said at the beginning, it just seemed very daunting at the same time. You know, you see that thick instruction manual.
Speaker 3:You know. What's funny, though, is that the first manual for D&D was actually very small. It would have been similar to that of someone boarding a plane and looking at one of those kind of flip through manuals, although the plane ones now are just a, you know, a trifold kind of thing. The first initial manual in 1974, when it was created, if you can remember, those little books you'd get as a notepad as a student. They'd have the staples that were the spine. It was no thicker than those. In fact it might have even been smaller. There was I don't even know I'm sorry if I'm going off a little bit here I don't think it was even an eight and a half by 11 sheet. So it was, you know, of a very small nature. But then, by the time, three and three and a half came along. So each of these numbers refer to different editions evolution of the game itself, evolution of the world around the game, and also the world itself, cognitive ability to receive information, to want to add information, to want to change certain rule sets. We are now playing in the fifth edition.
Speaker 3:There are many different arguments. A lot of people still like three and a half. It is one of the more popular. There was also a version of the game called D&D Advanced where, if you liked math, this was your game. It took the very specific and very scientific approach to casting a spell and and casting that out and and realizing well, it is about this angle on this how much will it affect my numbers? In fact, if a flame bolt were to be launched down this two foot pattern, would it not let do, would it not do less damage the further way it got? And so this is the type of guess exactly that sounds, yeah, very specific specific.
Speaker 3:And if you were already thought the game to be daunting before that, then this is, this is why they called it advance. Now, advance is still based, I I believe, on an earlier version I think it's three or three and a half or, if not, a version of those. But we're sitting at five now, so that it is with the same kind of technical standards but with this ability to still enjoy the role-playing aspect, the idea that if you're a ranger at a certain height or certain of this nature, you get an advantage which means you get to roll twice on your hits. There are certain aspects of the rule systems that are quite they're almost fun to understand when you realize the way your character works, that aha moment.
Speaker 3:But the evolution of the game itself started from the most basic concept of just I swing my sword, do I hit? Yes, no, do I do this? But then it has come to well, why do I have this advantage? You're wearing this type of armor, so does it glance off of you? Does it do this? But the other part of the evolution is, let's say so, your armor class is how hard it is to hit you. If I roll a 14 to hit and your armor class is 15, the DM might say it misses, but the other DMs might say that it glances off the armor and that in itself creates the narrative story. That is a little bit more interesting for people to see in their mind, the theater of mind that is so important in D&D, the theater of the mind.
Speaker 3:I myself, I love to create images through different means that support the world that I'm showing you. But when it comes to this theater of mind, when, for example, matthew Mercer says, well, how do you wanna do this? And that means like, what is the final blow that you're creating? And I, I never got to experience the earlier histories of the game, but to be able to know people who played advanced, uh, some of my friends, fathers, have told me like I really like what you're doing.
Speaker 3:I just wish you would just take a little bit more of the math into this. And I'm like I, I'm. I don't have the time because and nor do we have on the stream, because to do this, it literally starts um, you know, there's the rule of cool. If you take more than three minutes to look up a rule, the dm makes a decision, let's roll with it and then we'll fix it for the next game, so that we all understand that this rule set is is hammered into the wood, but at time it's about understanding that there are enough complexities behind the rule set, the history of the game, that we just have to run with what we have so that we can continue to have fun, and that is the essence of this game. Let's not forget it is a game.
Speaker 1:I mean, that sounds like kind of a natural way to go too, because somebody who is an advanced player of D&D well, how can we make this more interesting? You know like, okay, you swing a sword, blah, blah, blah. Well, let's be more precise about this.
Speaker 3:It's called min-maxing. Yeah, min-maxing. If you want to play a barbarian that runs all strength, then you realize that you build all your strength points into this and you, you, there's something called a dump stat. So a barbarian needs strength and constitution. Constitution is how strong are like, not how strong are you, how many hits can you take, um, and things of that.
Speaker 3:There are basic stats for this, uh, this type of thing constitution, strength, wisdom, intelligence and charisma. Charisma is how well are we talking right now? Intelligence is what do I remember, what do I know about specific bits of information. Wisdom is, as we all know, the soulful version of intelligence. Constitution is how much crap can I take. Strength is how much crap can I lift.
Speaker 3:So if you dump stats, if you take a barbarian who is, I want to swing a big sword and just cut people in half.
Speaker 3:You're going to stack up your sword and just cut people in half. You're going to, you're going to stack up your, your strengths and then dump, stat your charisma, because there's a chance your barbarian doesn't give a crap about being friends with somebody, but then there's no people that bring up their charisma. So, again, you know you get these different angles, but it is amazing when you get into this concept of well, do I make this an advanced character? Do I min maxes? Do I want to just shoot a hundred percent of the time and be accurate every single time, or do I want to miss? And a lot of people don't enjoy min maxers. It is difficult to, as a game master, to have a min maxer at the table, because they tend to try and break the game and breaking the game is the game. They tend to try and break the game and breaking the game is the game, and so it is this weird dynamic from people that I've seen from that have told me the stories of their childhood that are much older than I.
Speaker 2:And it's just, it's amazing the approach of the game now to the in the past. Yeah, I mean, I like how you brought the what do you call them? The mid generation, mid, something or other?
Speaker 2:you just mentioned them at the min maxes min max, so min and then maxing, yeah how, uh, when it comes to like storytelling, um, for me as a writer, the one thing that drew me into dnd was, um, the aspect of like world building and how these characters interact with each other and how you can build upon that idea of like. Okay, here's the universe and we're going to throw these random people into this universe and just see how it goes, which is fine. It makes sense to me. But what I like to understand a bit more of from your aspect of you creating these universes, what are the rules that, specifically, that need to be in place, that don't need to be in place, that could be lax, that could be all that other stuff, because me, coming in as a writer, I'm like, I want to be one of those. I want to destroy your world, um, because I want to push and see how far it's willing to go. So, um, can you explain, maybe dive into a bit more of like, how you would create your worlds?
Speaker 3:So, the way I created Achaea Seer. It was a name I got randomly generated on the internet, but what I had created was Silixia. That was the country that we started. And what I actually did was took Alberta and I twisted it to the side and I took all the major lakes and I placed them in certain spots. I actually named one of the lakes, lake Bodum, because I am a Children of Bodum fan and if you know, the story behind Children of Bodum is that there were some children that went missing and they were found dead in the lake. And the reason why I created that is because Children of Bodum was very close to my heart, towards me finding my confidence. The reason why I twisted Alberta is because if I just made it look like Alberta, my friends from Alberta would have been like that's Alberta, but I twisted it and I shifted the mountains around to work in a certain way.
Speaker 3:But then, when I realized that drawing a map was the easiest thing, for it, I needed to create politics. Well, why is the king in charge? What is the king's goal to being in charge? What is the king's goal in maintaining his charge over his people? What resistances, what rebellions are there? Why is Lake Bodum, I created a town called Talis and it was amazing because it was the trade center of this entire country, yet it was inland because there was a Lake Bodum to its east and that fed into the Reaper Islands and Reaper, once again being a theme of Children of Bodum, I stopped there, I gave enough homage to my favorite metal band, children of Bodom, and then I started creating from there. But then, well, wait, who lives here? Well, okay, well, the Ashen Orc live here. And why are the Ashen? Because, well, they live close to a volcano and they're really well known for their industrial powers. Well, but then, who buys their industrial wares? Well, the dwarves on the other side love making metal. So there's a trade group between these and you can see the way the mind goes like what's your, what's your? And it's not just a cup game. It's not a cup game at all because you're not trying to make any ball disappear, you're trying to make things connect and to have people like yourself who there's there's mid-maxing in a character sheet, but then there's um story integration. It feels like you know you want to break this thing.
Speaker 3:In my new campaign there are two new gods that I created Zairos, koth and Luminea, and the campaign concept behind this one is light and dark. You cannot have light without darkness. You cannot have darkness without light. You need contrast for life to exist, cannot have darkness without light. You need contrast for life to exist. So I created these two gods based on the pantheon that already exists in the book.
Speaker 3:The book applies Celtic. There are Asian cultures in there, ones that I don't know enough about. There are different pantheons from all around the world that are implied to the book, so you can take it up. If you want to do the Viking style with Thor and things like that, you can bring Thor in. But I have chosen the certain ones Baal and Sirik, and certain gods that are very much applied to the book but have been seen in like Baal or Baal, depending on how you pronounce. It is also in Diablo and it's amazing when you can pull on a small little thread of someone's coat and they're like wait, I understand this, I recognize this, I know this from this that you create your own world and to have someone like yourself who wants to come in and try and break my game. It's not breaking it, it's adding to it. You may conceive it as trying to break my game, but you don't understand that or you may not understand.
Speaker 2:It's not. It's not trying to break your game. I want to. I want to push to see how far you've actually created these worlds, because and it's, it's impressive because, like you were explaining it's like, yes, you actually created a whole world. So it's like okay, now that I understand that, like this works, it's like for me as the player, it's like okay, I really want to get involved in this world now because I, like I said, I want to go visit those orcs, I want to go see this. I want to like all this stuff might not be in the campaign that we're playing, but it's like, well, they exist. I want to go see them Like I'm a. I'm an explorer by nature, so it's what I want to do.
Speaker 3:That makes my heart warm. Yeah, that makes my heart warm.
Speaker 1:One of the most intriguing things I found about it is is it's uh, it's based in this world. That's kind of medieval, like you know, probably around the 12th century for us, like in the human world maybe. But I find it very interesting how it is like a medieval world and I loved how you brought up the two gods, because it's like a medieval world without all the religious overtones, without all the Christianity at the time, which I just find very intriguing. But don't forget there could be it's, it's, yeah, but don't forget there could be that overlay, there could, yeah.
Speaker 3:And, in fact, the the first world selection that I created. There were three main gods. They were Moradin, helm and and Sirik, although at the time my players didn't know that. Sirik, because Sirik is the god of lies. He showed up as multiple different gods because he likes to meddle in things. A liar in my world was always just someone that wants to mess around with this, but I know people who have created worlds that have Christianity in it. Again, there are no limitations If you are going to take a module such as the one in front of us. There are pre-written rules, pre-written destinies. There are pre-written rules, pre-written destinies. There are pre-written things of this nature, but when you're a home brewer, you can pull whatever you would like. But what I enjoy is I think what we're saying here is that religion can be a forefront or, you know, afterthought, but either way, it is still an inclusive thing to be a paladin I was just going to mention that because A paladin yeah, he explained this to me.
Speaker 2:It's like a lot of the powers some of these characters have are driven from whatever religion they believe in yes, which is. I thought that was kind of cool as well.
Speaker 3:So there are the paladins, the ones we've all seen, crusaders.
Speaker 1:Oh true, let's think of the crusaders.
Speaker 3:In reality. Here they are technically paladins, although one can argue whether they were given magical abilities or not. But then there's the warlocks. Now, in my mind, the only difference that they have between the two is the light and the dark. You can still be a warlock that does well, but you are still a patron of a darker god, but your ambitions are good. You can still be an oath-breaker paladin whose allegiances are to a good god, but you've broken your oath to that allegiance and now you seek a more evil path, one of seeking power. So once again, we realize how the limitations of this game almost don't exist.
Speaker 3:Because, yes, paladins, as Taylor was saying, is that paladins gain their power based on their belief in a god. So do warlocks. They're just usually the concept of Cthulhu. And there was one thought that said if I am a human being that is able to bring Cthulhu into this world through just thinking about it, then what stops an ant from creating from my creation my existence being a creation of that ant for me to walk past its anthill? And it's one of these really weird thoughts of wait. If I'm a human being and I can have this thought pattern, then what stops the ant from being able to do this. It is a matter if you guys remember the end of Men in Black when it zooms out from the planet and then all of a sudden, it goes through all these things and all of a sudden it's a marble in an alien's hand, it becomes a matter of scale.
Speaker 3:And then, when you start to create these worlds, this is the deep dark hole one can find themselves, when, as a writer, well then, this then this, then this, but I mean those concepts also tie into actual physics and theory words.
Speaker 2:A lot of the aspects of like string theory and quantum mechanics are tied into perspective precisely. So it's like something can happen. A tree can fall in the woods. Does it make it sound? Yes, only if you are there to hear it or see it. Otherwise it just falls. However, if something else sees it or hears it, it does happen, but you might not know that that squirrel saw or even exists, so it's a messy web diagram.
Speaker 1:That makes me wonder about advanced when you're talking about that and specifically when you said creating your own world with these certain rules. I mean, if you really wanted to get specific, could you tamper with? Well, the gravity of this world is different, Quantum tangency yeah, stuff like that.
Speaker 2:That's a good way for one of those creatures to go from one world to another.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, could you jump dimensions even?
Speaker 3:And that was what my friend's story was is that there are plenty of portals. If you remember the dark portal that brought the oh, I can't remember now in the Burning Crusade, there was the expansion, the first expansion to the World of Warcraft series where they had brought the Burning Crusade in. It was a massive portal, an incredibly massive portal, but the reason it was massive so they could walk legions through it. It wasn't one person after another, it was so they could walk legions of fel orcs through the portal to invade the world. Sounds dangerous, sounds dangerous, dangerous, sounds dangerous, doesn't it? But then that's just it. In even um, as you get really late into the game, your powers seem to be almost unstoppable. You know what ends up stopping you is gods. That's where a lot of campaigns end, is that it's a war against the god. Um, and without spoiling too much of my own campaign at the moment, it's called relics of the waking world for a reason, because there's something that has already happened.
Speaker 3:The story of Cilicia actually started 100 years after this, and so Cilicia is the story and this is the precursor for it. How did Cilicia and the chaos here end up being the way it is? It is because of what's happening in this campaign right now, and it was because it becomes a battle of gods and mortals campaign right now. And it was because it becomes a battle of gods and mortals. They don't mortals, don't like being puppet, play things and and and just you know, pawns on the chessboard to be killed off whenever they wanted to. Then they recognized it. I don't want to be this. I want to fight for my own will, my own ability to choose.
Speaker 1:it's like the real world man wanting to play God. Yeah, precisely.
Speaker 2:Hi Ryan hey Tay. So have you ever considered doing a residency in an art studio?
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Excellent. There's a place I want to tell you about. It's called Sparrow Art Space. It's located in Bridgeland, here in the lovely Calgary, and they do a monthly artist in residency. Every month it changes. Go to their website, you can sign up and if you ever want to show your art, whatever forms of art it is, check them out. Would you be interested? Absolutely, perfect, excellent. The great thing about Sparrow that they I love their motto. It's creativity, community and collaboration, kind of like what we do. It's we're all on the same page here. So if you want to be an artist in residency and you want to showcase your artwork, check out Sparrow Art Space. You can check them out at sparrowartspacecom and hopefully one day we'll see your work there.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that ties us in nicely to the next thing I was going to ask, which is basically D&D has had this huge stranglehold on most types of pop culture for I don't know, know, like 40 years now. Um, I think it's influenced everything from, like art um music, movies, video games, books, um, what. What do you think is? Um? What do you think the reasoning for this is and why it's had such a large impact on pop culture?
Speaker 3:Well, I think, as we just discussed, we were just able to see how many different ways it can pull into certain things. The new movie I have found a lot of people were very on the fence about it and a lot of people found it. Tropey D is full of tropes. You know, the rogue's going to steal, the paladin's going to stand up for good and all these amazing kind of characteristics. But when you think about it, the idea of I want to bring up the kind of Viking pantheon you know. Look at what Marvel's doing. It is based on a pantheon of gods. That is all of this nature and the relationship between Thor and his brother. It's all these things that are written in the books, written in this religious kind of context. But we've always seen Thor well, especially since Marvel, but for different reasons that Thor has been the god of thunder and a very stoic character and what have you. And I think that if you look at Aemon Amarth, which is a band based on a lot of Viking kind of concepts, there is a lot of these concepts where it's about raiding and pillaging and things of this nature. If you have ever seen the show Vikings, when they refer to their pantheon, it is. The raping and pillaging of villagers across the sea is theirs for the taking.
Speaker 3:Now, then, that's where I think D&D did such a good job is that it pulls from this mythical world that we've created but applies it to a fantastical world. But there was a time in this planet where it wasn't myth, it was reality. It was the things that they had to do. Like many people who are religious today, they see their actions being a point of good and bad. Again, as I mentioned earlier, mass Effect to this day, that game changed my life.
Speaker 3:The Matrix, for example, the blue and the red pill. Am I going to choose to believe in this or am I going to choose to ignore this? There are so many different paths that this I can't say that it's because of D&D. It is because of our ability to create fiction and or reality and or non-fiction, depending on your perspective on it, but then to believe in it and to choose to base your personality and your choices on a belief system and I don't know so much of it is how dnd has done this itself, or if our beliefs prior to so has created the ability to believe in dnd do you think it's more of an aspect of um, a modern day mythology almost, where it's like um from a writing standpoint it's like all of Shakespeare's stuff is it's not unique, like he rewrote a bunch of stuff that was Roman and Greek and he just put his own flair on it.
Speaker 2:And we still talk about Shakespeare to this day. But if you're, if you know what he was actually writing about and if you have a history of literature, you know that none of his stories were unique, know what he was actually writing about and if you have a history of literature, you know that none of his stories were unique. They were all taken off of stories that have always already previously been told. He just put his own flair onto it.
Speaker 3:100 but I think that is the joy of being an artist is to perceive your own world, to perceive and receive the joy of art around you at the time and to not turn it in a plagiaristic or in a plagiarism kind of way, but to put your own spin on things. One of the things that I used to love saying to my friends is that we can all agree that this pen exists. You can see it from your perspective and we can do this, and I can only pass this to you we're not going to create three pens just because we all want to carry it. But what we can agree is that we will never be able to see this pen the same way. No matter what we do, your eyes are going to be different than mine, your experiences will be different. You might be colorblind, I might not be, but we all agree that this is here, and I think that that is one of the things that is amazing.
Speaker 3:When you create a project that comes with a communal, a community-based art project, is that when it comes to this, we are all adding into this. And when it comes to oh well, wait, my character's not very original because, oh, it ties into this story. Oh man, I'm playing Shepard, I'm playing Kirk, I am playing Anakin Skywalker. Well, don't be upset about your influences, because it is hard to be a human being with the ability to observe, to be curious and to receive information without finding interest.
Speaker 3:I have had a hell of a time writing things and not being like oh crap, this is basically this story. This is David and Goliath, this is this. But then what I also realize is that there's so much flavor to it, based on my own experiences, that while it may be influenced and inspired by it, is not that story To have perception, to have received the beautiful stories, to have received the beautiful stories of our past, of different writings. We see Shakespeare and we see it. If you read it in the old English of his time, it's harder for us to read, but it makes you understand the satire of the time. Then it gives you that glimpse into that time and I think that's important to recognize.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's the same stories, recycled all the time. I mean, yes, since the beginning of time, His writings must have came a lot from mythology. Obviously to the struggle same story, struggle. Where was I going with this? I don't know. Three minutes.
Speaker 2:But no, and I mean that's the great thing and I think that's the reason why we keep gravitating towards these stories again, we keep gravitating towards these ideas that we have is that even though these stories might be cliche at this point, how we've seen it told a hundred times, it's still relevant, I think, to everybody's, because we've all experienced, I think, in one point or another, that same story. So we can all relate and in some way, to those stories. Like I said, it's like I like it would hard be hard for me to compare myself to odysseus, but I mean there's aspects of that story where I'm like you've always been odysseus.
Speaker 2:why, thank you, um? But, like I, I mean there's aspects of the story that I get, and people recycle those stories all the time, but they put their own unique stance on it, which is, I think, that thing that draws everybody into, especially storytelling like D&D, where it's like, yes, we have elves, we have orcs, we have dwarves, we have all of these things that have been in so many things throughout the last 50 years of pop culture, but the way that we're telling the story is one that's unique and different. I think that's what kind of keeps people drawn into this.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's something that's really stuck in my mind is, you know, just when we're talking about this. It got me thinking where do all these mythical creatures come from? Like, I mean, we want to associate them with JRR Tolkien and even mythology, but you know, I'm just thinking were these creatures, did goblins, come from mythology? Like, are they just? Are they in texts around the world? I don't know. I just I'm interested in the origins of it. I'll probably look it up later in depth.
Speaker 3:Think of. If I can leave you with this, think of your group of friends. You've got a goblin, you've got the Aragorn, you've got the Legolas, you've got the dwarf. We've all had this, because that's what diversity is. That is what unique creatures are. We all have our different things. I'm the guy that talks too much in the back corner, you know, and then you see when Frodo is in that point and then Aragorn finds him, it's easy to find the connections between the group of people that we're with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the creature represents us all.
Speaker 2:All creature always represents us. Um so you mentioned before mythic minds. Do you want to explain to the audience what mythic minds is?
Speaker 3:I'd love to it's. It's, um, the reason I named it mythic minds, uh, the ideology of mythics, um, myths themselves, uh, as we just kind of touched into with religions and all that thing, all those things. It's amazing how many different ways that things layer up. The reason why it's also called Minds and Not Mind is I'm not the only one. I have a group of friends that have agreed that the coalition of ambition towards bringing D&D to the masses is something that they're all interested in.
Speaker 3:It initially started with me when I, as I mentioned earlier that when I created the world of Solixia, I had started this concept, where I created this world, these people, the things that filled it, and I realized I was actually getting rid of some of my internal traumas not necessarily getting rid of, but definitely help dealing with it. It was intense for me when I realized the bbeg, which is a term for the big, bad, evil guy, was my father. It was. He was rebranded, remassed. The very emotion this character brought into this world, the very essence this negativity brought, was what I experienced in my life. We, many of us, have experienced trauma and, though that may be a terrible thing, for many of us, it is either going to be something that makes them or it's going to be something that breaks them. When I realized that the BBEG was my father and I had my party come in and crush him, them the character, it was a fantastical idea, it was something of imagination, but the cathartic release that I got, because what I realized is that a lot of the problems, a lot of the puzzles that I created were ones that I didn't deal with well myself Communication, dealing with the world around me changing and not dealing with it well. So I constantly created these little environments where I would create a lack of communication. The ability to not speak, the ability to have your entire world change around you and not know where you're going, were things that I brought to my characters, to my players, to the minds of the players and the characters, because it was important for them to realize that, though their player may know what to do with, this does their character. I then realized, soon after this, that after I started running the workshops, taylor, you were a part of this workshop.
Speaker 3:After this, that after I started running the workshops, taylor, you were a part of this workshop and you actually witnessed my partner's older son, who is 14 years old who I've had a hard time communicating with. There are many different reasons as to why, but with his mother sitting right next to him, as I had him create a character, he realized that well, I don't know if this is possible. I'm like, okay, well, why don't you just explain to me what you want to do with it? Well, I want to be and he's paused for that moment I want to be a scarecrow. That is kind of like those clown dummies that you punch it in the face and it goes and it comes back at you. And I want to do that. But I want to do that for my brother.
Speaker 3:And I watched my partner freeze and her head turned slowly and look at her son, who's 14 years old, who you'd think she knows everything about her son, but she saw you could see it in her eyes that she'd never seen her son explain something like this. And as he continued to explain what he wanted, well, I want my brother to never feel pain, so I would like for it to be possible if I could shield, if there was some sort of ability that I could jump in front of the player next to me and take all the pain. So, and I was like. This is imperfectly possible. There is a spell called shield where, as a reaction, you can cast the shield on somebody. That gives you a bonus to your ac so it makes you more difficult to hit, but then you would also stack up your constitution so you can take more of these hits. He's like I'm up for that.
Speaker 3:And by the time that we were done, I also noticed that he had a piece of paper and he had fully illustrated his character, which was this vibrant purple and pink scarecrow with this oscillated hat that kind of looked like Frank Sinatra. But so there was class. There was class, and with purpose, and after that I have been able to speak with this child. They're just conversations. It opened up an avenue for us to speak, just conversations. It opened up an avenue for us to speak. Then there was a friend of mine who in one of my, in my first campaign, I had created my own tomb. It was the ancient tomb of. Well, I'm not going to spoil it now because it'll come out in Mythic Minds campaign, mythic Minds streaming. It was amazing for me to have this moment where we were just on Discord, so I was watching my screen, but I brought in Betsy.
Speaker 4:She's a very large spider. She loves and, if you can imagine, she knits. Picture her now. Yes, of course, but she knits because that's all she's got to do. She's sitting there and she's knitting. She takes care of a tomb.
Speaker 3:She takes care of a tomb and she knits all the dead bodies different things to wear. She dresses the dead bodies up because they're like dolls for her. She's been in this tomb for 900 years and I watched one of my friends go pale faced. He was unable to speak and I said, friend, what's going on? I'm sorry, I guess I should have mentioned this. I'm arachnophobic and in that moment I didn't realize what I'd done. I didn't think much about bringing what fears people might have towards hey, what are the things that you don't want to see in this? But he actually had to bow out that episode. He was so shocked by this interaction because if someone who's arachnophobic sees a spider run across the floor, you'll see that anxiety hit them, but that spider goes away. You put the idea of a spider in someone's mind who has got such features where Betsy loved to.
Speaker 4:She needed the little spindles that comes off her arms, and they're quite nice colors.
Speaker 3:She hasn't seen these colors in hundreds of years, but she did that because it's what she remembered. He had to leave the episode and, uh, he didn't join us for another episode after this. And then when he came back, he was very apologetic and I felt the same. I felt the same need to apologize to him because I did not consider the fears that people might have in reality applying to a game. And what is funny is that the campaign was soon to finish and this player decided he pulled me aside, said I would like to marry that character, or I'd like to marry, I'd like to. Said I would like to marry that character, or I'd like to marry, I'd like to become one, I would like to have a harmony with this creature. And I asked him on the side, I was like why he's like? Because it terrifies me. I'm like but your character?
Speaker 2:is not Sounds like marriage Right. This woman terrifies.
Speaker 3:I wasn't trying to make that joke or ring him up, but at the same time it was him facing his own fear. After the campaign ended, about four or five weeks later, I got a video from him of a tarantula crawling up his own arm. Holy shit, because he went to a pet store and decided and he said thank you for doing this for me, I. I realize now that I can face this. He doesn't like sweaters, but he doesn't consider himself an arachnophobic anymore Because there was a small little glimpse of something that was forced into his mind.
Speaker 3:And again you try and think. Like they say in Inception don't think about pink elephants, right, pink elephants. But I brought this thought into his mind and it was terrifying for him and it terrified me to hurt somebody. It felt like I was hurting him. But to see that video and you could see his hand was shaking and he was just like rigid, like a skeleton, but it was crawling up his arm and then he took the spider and placed it back in its pen and he went and then. But it was just one of those moments where you realize I can do something with this.
Speaker 3:I can do something with this From my own experience to watching my partner's eldest son, to watching my friend experience his phobia and trying to bypass it, I realized that this has been something that I can maybe share with a lot of people through a medium that they wouldn't think has been something that I can maybe share with a lot of people through a medium that they wouldn't think. One of the reasons why I really wanted to run this is because, as my partner has started her own art gallery at Canopy Art Studios, it has been something that I didn't think the six degrees would happen. But there's art therapists that work above, and as soon as she heard my my point Jenny who runs Blackbird art uh, Blackbird therapy she told me she's like well, this is the reason why we have kids start to draw, start to color in things, start to paint things because their walls break down, they don't and and and it's it's. You know, manipulation can be different things, but it's a positive manipulation. It's this thing where, if you can break down the walls to just have somebody realize that they're already spewing what is bothering them, and that's why we had an aha moment together and this is why I started Mythic Minds.
Speaker 3:The reason that I also started is because I want to play D&D. I want to play with people from different walks of life. I want to play with people who didn't think they'd ever play D&D. I want to play with people from different walks of life. I want to play with people who didn't think they'd ever play D&D. So I've also started a side program that is associated with Mythic Minds called Mercenary DMs, and though the term mercenary might be this or that, but they are dungeon masters or game masters for hire Groups of people like yourselves might know.
Speaker 3:Hey, man, I wanted to play in D&D, oh, but we don't have anyone to run a game. If you've ever played a role-playing game like World of Warcraft, if you're a healer or a tank, you can find a group no problem, because you're the one thing that most groups are missing. Most people want to play this or this or this, and for me it was an easy association to just pile in the things that I found was beneficial for people around me, beneficial for myself, because I get to exude my own things, but beneficial in the idea of communities building where they didn't think communities would build.
Speaker 1:Right? No, I think that might be the longevity of the game too is, you know, it's not just like playing chess or backgammon, like there's such a personal touch on it and it really has to come from within you and that's probably, yeah, I mean, that's probably why the longevity, and just why it's so personal and you can exercise your demons in that way, like just you talking about it. I got thinking about, like my childhood, my relationship with my father, and yeah, those are totally things that would come out. I guess, when you present Mythic Minds and to other people who are getting involved in it, do you kind of say your story as well, like you just told us, so they kind of go down that avenue too, or persuade them to yes.
Speaker 3:And the funny thing is the term persuasion. That's a check in the game, by the way. Okay, persuasion, intimidation or just having a conversation. If you're going to try and persuade me, you're going to try and convince me of something I don't want to do. If you're going to try and intimidate me, it's with the fist, but if you're just having a conversation with somebody, it doesn't require either of those checks. And what's amazing is that, yes, it is definitely because I have my bosses, for example, at my, my job. They're not necessarily people who would ever consider this, but they both said one of them sat me down at one of the tables uh, in the, in the place that I work and they said well, so what is this game about? And I said what is it not about? And they're like what do you mean?
Speaker 3:and just as I've explained, to you already but it really that's the best way to put it to people who don't understand it, because I've already explained to you already. But it really that's the best way to put it to people who don't understand it, cause I've already explained to you guys the way that it's applicable to life. And, as I explain this to somebody who's got 15 years on me, I'd never play D&D. And you see that face. Drop the eyes open and go okay.
Speaker 3:I want to play and it's like good, and it's just one of those moments where, again, you can bring up your past. You can ignore your past, you can play onto your strengths, you can play on your weaknesses. You can do all these things and apply it to something where making a mistake isn't detrimental to your life. It's a growth pattern, it's-.
Speaker 1:I'd almost like to see the stats of how mentally healthy people are who've played it their whole lives, Because I imagine a lot of people have exercised their inner demons subconsciously. Maybe who've played it since childhood, it's probably had an astounding mental health benefit without even realizing it. I'd like to think so.
Speaker 3:I'd like to think so. Yeah, I'd like to think so. In fact I will. I'm not entirely sure who the person was on the internet, but there is a video of a man. It's one of those mean videos like men. What do you? What is it in your minds? What is it in your minds?
Speaker 3:and the gentleman goes what's in my mind is our 25 year campaign 25 year campaign quarter of a century campaign and they rented a um, a cabin out in the woods kind of thing. It was like a mini fortress kind of thing and now they're a community out in the woods, right, but they had it catered. They had this thing because this was about to be the final session and it was um as far as what the person had alluded to on this video it was. I don't know if you've ever seen New Amsterdam. I didn't make it through a single episode of that show without bawling my eyes out.
Speaker 1:That rings a bell. I've never saw it, though.
Speaker 3:Amazing show but it pulls on the heartstrings.
Speaker 1:Is that the?
Speaker 3:medical show yes. It is the. Er and Grey's Anatomy and the whole thing.
Speaker 2:I have notes.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:I watched about six episodes of that.
Speaker 3:It helped that.
Speaker 2:I had my partner beside me Then I moved back to house.
Speaker 3:That's where I went back to after this, funny enough, because I needed some whimsical entertainment to get me away from the heart-wrenching. But the thing was is that why I mention that is because I have seen players who lose a character. There are two different terms. Well, three. There's DM versus players's, dm versus everyone. It's like pv or pvp in video games. And then there's just party. The dm versus players is I'm trying to kill you, you're trying to survive dm, and everyone is like let's work together and let's make a cohesive story. And then there's just everyone do their own thing. Gotcha, if I, when I run certain one shots, I will warn, warn, people, make an extra character, make a backup.
Speaker 3:The Relics of the Waking World. The world is so tenuous. Akaesir and Etheria are in such a tenuous point that I have told them to make two backup characters and we had our first experience of somebody just about losing their life. But thankfully, uh, the rules of the game is you can pour a potion into somebody's mouth and they come back, but everyone at the end of that battle scene. You could see it on discord. You only get a window this big, but you see everyone doing this like stressed and and those, those of us that have drinks? It was, but that is the amazing part of it. It is in your mind and but to be in your mind what is pain? It is a receptor that is our nerves, but really it's in our mind to tell us to stop hurting ourselves.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Right, but so is the pain of losing a character that you worked for a year on. Imagine a 25-year character.
Speaker 1:Oh man, yeah, that would be a total extension of yourself. You're killing a part of me.
Speaker 3:Exactly, but for them it wasn't killing it, it was ending the story.
Speaker 2:Right, right, I was just thinking that all things have to come to an end Exactly. If you're in it for that long you're like. There's a part of you that's probably like oh, thank god, this is almost over okay, that's great, like if it's if you made a character 25 years ago.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's a part of you.
Speaker 2:You want to die, yeah like well, let's all imagine like who we were even 10 years ago. We're completely different people but let's all imagine living forever.
Speaker 3:There's got to be a time in your life where you're like exactly, you're exhausted, you don't want to do this anymore, and it is. It is just a part of life to have a cycle. Yes, and mythic minds is. It is not only to bring new players into a world that they were curious about. It is to bring them connections with people they didn't know. Right, taylor, I wouldn't know you if you didn't sat, sit right here at one of the workshops that I ran here at sparrow art space. It's true, we would not have met, and what I got to know of you right there is you were that. I watched you because I sat right over here and you're right over here and I watched you being the like you were watching the other players. You're doing this, but I saw you doing like. You know, the meme where math and equations are ripping by your face.
Speaker 3:I saw you doing this, but you and Korai had spoken and you guys had created a combo thing about how to get this little piece of something that you guys were trying to steal out of the area, and you supported him by giving him guidance so that he could whip up here and do this. And those are the moments that, as a gm, as a game master or dungeon master, however you want to look at it you go yes, because you see the unity between creative minds. Yeah, and I'm about to have a child in july. Well, I'm not about to my partner's about to oh, congratulations.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. Nova is going to be an amazing child I'm surprised you didn't tell us before.
Speaker 3:It's one of these things, but I'm very proud about it. But it's one of these things where my partner was very shocked that I wasn't shocked that we were having a kid, because she's like you, just don seem intimidated by it and I'm like no, because I love to help shape minds. I spent 21 years in the kitchen and one of the things I was very good at it was training people. Whether I, like I, was good at certain things, but I was really good at training people so that they could go and do their job. This is it feels the same way during the times that I get to do the workshops taking away the stress of creating a character, bringing your story in, and then being able to sit to a table and be like I know what I want to do. Watching that happen for me is it blows my mind.
Speaker 2:I remember that first workshop because it was after everybody got through the initial kind of like idea of like this is, this is going to be difficult, we don't know what we're doing, we're all very awkward and intimidated by the whole situation. But the moment we all kind of like learn those characters and learn what those characters are and what they want to do, I found there's more interaction between the characters than there was. Actually, you, you were kind of more of just like a referee, kind of like uh, saying it's like okay, are you sure you want to do this? Like or should you be doing this? Or it's like I have a suggestion, won't you talk to this person because they have this ability?
Speaker 2:And like right off the bat, because we didn't know that, he just basically explained it and it's like it really, I think us as a group, kind of like we were complete strangers and afterwards, like I told you this before, like I, and made it accessible, I think, to all people. Like I said, there was a 15-year-old kid there, there was people in their 40s and 50s there and we were all there just learning and trying to enjoy something that we've all wanted to learn and have a passion for and he made it very accessible, and I think that's what I wanted to really emphasize is how well I think mythic minds has brought that to the forefront, and there is a story I'd like if you're capable of telling it, if it's okay. I remember you telling us before there was one individual who I mentioned like how Mythic Minds has helped with the queer community. Yes.
Speaker 2:And I was wondering if you could kind of bring that up a little bit. I can.
Speaker 3:If you can tell us. I know I can. I've actually asked for permission um it. Sorry, I kind of got welled up there and so you mentioned that I was thinking about that was pretty emotional, like that actually, yeah and one second here um I'm so and this is another thing is I am so happy to actually feel those emotions.
Speaker 3:Normally, I'm the type of person that I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a metalhead. I don't even mean I feel so happy to actually feel those emotions. Normally I'm the type of person that I don't know what you're talking about, I'm a metalhead, I don't even mean it. I feel so good to feel these emotions, for you to say that, because if I can do anything for anyone around me, it's to make them feel connected to somebody, this human being, whom I respect greatly, because once again, at Sparrow Artspace, this was where I got to know this person.
Speaker 3:And then I invited this person into a workshop and they told me that they are a trans person whose family played D&D. Their uncle provided them a game of D&D when they were six years old, and what was amazing for me was as this person explained to me their experience. He said to me can you imagine being someone you're not being in a family who is open-minded, but having an uncle who allows you to play whoever you want to be, whatever race race, whatever this or that, and and and now in dnd we would like to refer race as more is what background you have, because the term itself has been, as we all know, it's a. It's a tough word to dance around, it's a tough word to use, but as this person explained to me their history, um, they are a farmer, family conservative. And as as they told me their story, that the the concept of going through the journey of transitioning was far more accessible to their mind, to it, to accepting who they truly are, because they got to play this a female elf, a male elf, a female dwarf, a non-binary, this or this because they could create what they wanted to be Right. Well, why can't I be that myself? And as I created these workshops, they explained to me that and I remember they looked at me and kind of did just as I did. They looked me dead in the eyes and chuckled a little bit because they didn't know how to explain.
Speaker 3:I appreciate the fact that you are normalizing through something that has a distinguishing factor of openness. You're normalizing this through a game for people to understand, even though there are people of older generations who are very interested in playing this game, who may not see the world of transitions and the world of of the lgbtq plus world being as open and as acceptable as it should be, but yet there's this game that makes them break down the walls or whatever parameters that they have initially, that keeps them in the world that they're in and just in that, wait, what's this, and then what's this, what's this, and constantly being able to look back inside. And this person has agreed to join Mythic Minds in an interview and maybe with you guys. It would be an awesome opportunity because they have clearly expressed the willingness and the desire to continue conversing about this. Because, as I met his family, who are a very conservative farming family, I said to the father I pulled the father aside and I said I'm sorry. No, no, I'm not sorry. How is it that you are so capable of understanding your child and the transition that they wanted to go through? D&d, we sat at a table. Their family thing to do on Thursdays is a Bob Ross tutorial on YouTube is a Bob Ross tutorial on YouTube. And the reason why that is is because they all realized that their child was so willing to express themselves in art and in drama and in different formats, and yet they had never once considered it was inappropriate. They were open-minded because they were given an opportunity to see outside of the norm.
Speaker 3:I don't necessarily knock people who only read nonfiction, but for those that are shocked that certain people, I actually had an interaction with my partner and her sister where it was wait, you read nonfiction. That's weird and it's like why, because, and and but my partner is not necessarily a nonfiction fan. She's not a fantasy fan Lord of the Rings, what's that, you know, kind of thing and. But at the same time as she's, her and I have gotten so close through the experiences that I just shared. There is no what's that, it is pure understanding and and. For this person to have come up and give me a hug right there on this floor for saying thank you for bringing this to people who don't understand what it is.
Speaker 3:I don't want to get emotional, but I'm getting emotional. It is something I never expected to happen. I, as I've mentioned before positive manipulation, I wanted to see more people come and play games without looking at your screen and playing video games. I want to see people sit next to each other, as we are now. And what are you going to do, friend? What are you going to do, friend? But then I've noticed the community is insanely connected through experience, through life, through memories. Yes, we're playing a game in our imagination, but it is based off our own experiences.
Speaker 2:But that's one of the things I wanted to touch on too, especially just from the initial workshop, is that how a project like Mythic Mind can actually, um, tear down those, those barriers that exist there, and how, I think, uh, for members of the queer community, how it it benefits them because, again it's, you're allowed to openly be whoever you want to be and it's encouraged it's encouraged it's encouraged yeah, and everyone sitting around the table is like yeah of course, and and I will say that one of the things that I am not is a licensed counselor.
Speaker 3:I am not a professional in this, in this, in this world.
Speaker 1:I am a great thing the game does. The counseling, though, and just the communication.
Speaker 3:But I'm actually bringing in professionals. Yeah, yeah, true, I have art therapists, family counselors, I have masters of psychology who are all willing to sit at the table and also do consultations of why did you create this character. Yeah, we're bringing in reality mentality and psychology, though those two things are kind of the same, bringing it in together and and I want to have tables similar to what we did but then also, when you create your character, have a professional, say well, why do you think you did this? And have someone who is licensed to speak about these things. Right, because, although I may pull that heart string from inside your heart which you didn't know was there, you know, similar to that harry potter moment when they pull that memory out, that's super painful for dumbumbledore. I can do that for you, but then there's going to be somebody at the other side of the table that can go and work with you on that.
Speaker 1:I didn't even think that that must be such great research for professionals as well, because I mean, yeah, I don't know if that's been done before, I didn't look it up but there's been research on it.
Speaker 3:There are connections to it, but what I think mythic minds is doing is something a little bit unique. It is definitely something replicable.
Speaker 2:But what I hope is that we can find a good community here in calgary uh, here in alberta to work together and help people, help yourselves and you know what, have a little fun doing it yeah, and I think one of the game changers that mythic minds does is basically um, what you said, uh, when you asked people what they were doing, um, is that something you would do or is that something your character would do?
Speaker 1:because, again, if you're truly going to open up and play that character, that's an interesting thought process because all this talk, I've been thinking well, what kind of character would I make? Would I make it of these traits that I don't like about myself? Would I make it the traits I do like about myself? A mix of both? That's why you're going to come to the table.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, you touched on a bit of the professionals you were working with before, uh, that you're wanting to bring in and incorporate. Uh, can you touch a bit more on that aspect of who these people are, uh, maybe where people can find them? And, if you can, can you go into a bit more depth about Canopy?
Speaker 3:I would love to Uh, it's amazing that the people that I have collected, the people I've met, the people when I say collected, I love to think of friends as being a collection of people that are on the same path. My partner had started something called Canopy Art and Wellness. It is just off 17th Avenue here in Calgary and it is an amazing art space because it is not just a gallery and it's not just an avenue for artists to be able to work. It is also a space where we rent out the venue for different events generally based around mental health initiatives. The second floor is rented out to what is called Blackbird Healing. They are art therapists that do a little bit of talk therapy but a lot of different forms of art therapy, and for me, the people that are involved there are also helping to work with Mythic Minds, which is, of course, a very natural kind of association for what seems to be a concept of the D&D Mythic Minds Avenue, with the writing therapy and then also art therapy, in the way that, to break down one's walls, of wanting to talk about their traumas, the concept of Canopy Art and Wellness or Canopy Gallery is not so dissimilar from here at Sparrow. It is to be able to create a space where artists have a chance to be seen. Kim Webb, who is my partner, who is the founder of Canopy, it does a show, a gathering every year called See Me Hear Me. It allows for people who are not necessarily able to provide art that goes into the higher end galleries to be seen and heard. We run multiple different shows. We'll have music venues or music shows that happen within the art gallery itself, with the art displayed on the walls.
Speaker 3:I myself had put up one of my own art pieces there and it's funny it wasn't up for sale but I'd been given multiple offers on it. It was a piece that I actually did not want to sell. It was a piece that I've never displayed my art before. I used to do graphic design and graphic art and for me that was easy because there was something less tangible with it. I had actually put paint and my own blood, sweat and tears into by having created this and it was very hard for me to let go blood, sweat and tears into by having created this and it was very hard for me to let go, but just to have the opportunity to have somebody offer me money for something that I did was a growth moment. Uncannily, two and a half weeks later, I met this guy.
Speaker 3:I did a workshop for See Me, hear Me, and it was another opportunity for me to express something that I found to be important through this program and through something that Kim has just done, which I find to be beyond her passion project, but to be something I don't know how to to really comment on it. It is something as, as an outside observer, to witness somebody who has the means and the ability to make and create a space for somebody to be seen and heard, for someone like myself who can talk for days but isn't necessarily comfortable with everyone seeing them, and then yet have that opportunity to break that little chain that holds me back, to bring me onto a wall, to bring me into a conversation, to have gatherings with people of different walks of life, to speak about the things that are on the walls, to have the opportunity to converse with other artists. It's just incredible the opportunity that it is and for Mythic Minds, it's just it's been amazing to attain such connections with people who have a like sense, a like ambition, art and wellness and mythic minds. I feel that bringing the concept of being able to speak about your problems, being able to speak about your ambitions, to speak about your benevolence in such a manner.
Speaker 3:That is not talk therapy. While I don't disagree with talk therapy, I am in therapy myself. It has its time and place. But to break down different walls requires different tools. You don't bring a chisel into a rock format. You don't bring a screwdriver to break down walls. You bring the right tools.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, and I agree on that aspect because, like as a kid coming from a single-parent household, father was never part of the life.
Speaker 2:He had issues because he went through residential school system. It was I was a troubled youth, let's say that, and I remember as a very young kid being bounced from school to school to school, and I think it was by the time of grade seven. Finally, I found a school that I could feel like I was accepted at, and it was a fine arts school, and I stayed with fine arts schools up until when I graduated high school. And it was for that reason is that I didn't have that outlet. And then, when I discovered art and music and everything else, it gave me that outlet to finally express what was inside, and I think it's important for people who aren't necessarily feel themselves as artists to understand that everybody is an artist. So for you to go to a place like Canopy and be able to express yourself in any way that seems natural to you, I think is quite a rare thing in this world and I applaud you guys for doing that.
Speaker 1:Well, sorry, but it just makes me think of your relationship with, like, your stepchild and just breaking down that barrier of okay, we can't just like talk, talk, but if we find this kind of thing that we can talk through common ground, right, yeah, common ground like this device. It's so therapeutic and it's just yeah, it's just amazing in our last segment just how emotional it got like it really is quite emotional, it's so therapeutic and it's just yeah, it's just amazing and our last segment just how emotional it got Like. It really is quite emotional and a lot of people just want to play it off as a game, but it's so much more than that.
Speaker 3:Well, I think we're all familiar with. You know the Mad Men style of repressing, taking things back. You know Don Draper's ability to, just, you know, drink his problems away and, as you see, the later seasons of that show the explosive powder keg kind of concept that it becomes. I think we all can relate, whether it's our parents or someone one of your friends, parents or a friend of yours. I myself was that person, I was my, my, my nickname online is Rev it's short for revenge and I'm still known as that, as with my, my hometown folks, and I don't mind that moniker because you know it's. It is a connection between me and my past that brings it to the future or to the present, but it's one that every time I hear, hey, rev, how you doing? There's a bittersweet connection to it, because I am grateful for what.
Speaker 3:Another nickname I got was the Hulk. I am a skinny, pretty small dude and when I got angry I turned into the Hulk and I'm not proud of it. I hurt friends of mine, I hurt family of mine. I went through times of anger and repressed feelings where, to this day, as I think about it, I just my siblings were hurt, my family was hurt, my friends were hurt, I was hurt, and through different forms of art, through, yeah, anger management through but while I'm not dismissing anger management or talk therapy, through the ability to communicate through different forms like art, I found a connection with people that I never would have seen.
Speaker 3:There are people in this room right now that, while we discuss the, the, the exhaustion they may have experienced while they're going through things, there was a connection of being like I got you and whether it's a metaphysical, metaphorical pat on the back or a physical one, one doesn't forget that. And to see that person walk into the room today and be a part of the crew, of the people that we're working with today, was something of a very lighthearted upbringing moment for me today because it was. It's been some time since I see those people and know we all have those people you haven't seen in 20 years, and there are some you don't see in 20 years and you don't want to see them yeah but after 20 years you're willing to talk to them.
Speaker 3:But then there are some friends you have where you haven't seen in 20 years and it's just like you left off from the day before, right, and nothing changed. But we don't all get to experience that. I've just been talking to one of my co-workers who's going through a lot right now and I, at the end of our work day, I have my own management keys and such, and I sat down and I said we're gonna talk, we're gonna talk, and at the end of it we both were crying two 35 year old men, you know, back in the day that would have been not acceptable, but we were very happy to share some tears and when we, you know, released from our embrace, both of us had wet spots on our shoulders and it's like badge of honor but I mean, that's the thing, like the general consensus is, when you think of dnd, you think of a bunch of 35 year old guys in their basement wearing like cloaks and stuff like that, where it's um, I mean, in your experience, is this the actual reality of dnd?
Speaker 2:is it mostly still male or like? I know a lot of uh, female and um family identifying people that play dnd. Actually they're way more into it than I would ever be, but, um, there's always that thing in the back of the head when people think of it. They think, oh, it's 30 year old virgins that are just in their basement playing dnd. But is there that aspect that you were kind of touching on too, where it's of us, as I think we, the three of us, can tell this honestly as being adult men there's always an aspect of being a man where it's like you have to not be truthful to who you actually are. And I think a lot of the aspect of the reason why I got into art when I was so young, and especially music, was that I could express things that I wasn't allowed to express.
Speaker 1:Oh no, exactly. I mean, yeah, it's just not having a father figure around. Growing up, it was always a struggle am I being man enough? Because you know you're raised like. I was raised by my mom and her girlfriends, basically, and it was always a struggle of am I manly enough? Do I seem like I'm gay? Like I mean not that it matters now, but like, but no, I'm glad you said that, because I was actually raised in a house full of women.
Speaker 3:I had a sister that was 10 years older than me. I had a younger sister that was two years younger than me. I was the only man in the house or boy in the house, the only one with a rampant need for testosterone and displays of testosterone, and whenever I got into trouble, it was always based around my anger. It was always based around these things. But one of the things that I'll never forget in my high school and later years was and forgive me for using this, but this is the names that I called oh, you're such a fag because you can talk to women. Oh, you're such this and that, and it's like, I'm sorry, I've been raised around people that care for empathy. I'm oh, by the way, I'm not sorry. It was one of these things that I said unapologetically, to be apologetic, because I was so grateful for being raised the way I was.
Speaker 3:And, yes, I do find that the game itself is predominantly men, but it's not. When I say predominantly, it's funny because the force of let's call it 66% men. The other 33.9% are very strong-minded people of different walks of the earth. Well, yes, the the uh, the trope of being a nerd and doing these things is. Yes, we are all nerds who are um is smelly and this, and that it's not the case. The, the world of creativity, um well, this art, this author, the author of harry potter, has gone under a lot of wraps there. There's a reason why female authors use acronyms or different pseudonyms for their, their writing, so that they can be taken seriously, and I don't feel that's the same one personally use know one person who's a director.
Speaker 2:There you go. She uses a pseudonym still to this day because she can't be taken seriously.
Speaker 3:We're still in a world where there is so much attention to the fact that that is unacceptable, but it is still an old men's club in so many different parts of our world. I am from a town that is full of wealth. I was not one of the wealthy. The reason why I was called the Hulk is because I got tired of being called trailer trash. While I cannot understand the displacement, the issues that many people, many populations, have experienced to be dictated as only being unsuccessful because of my family's wealth, my mother was a woman who was in palliative care for 35 years in Canmore. She took care of people dying of cancer and I didn't understand that.
Speaker 3:As a kid we would get tins of cookies that would come to our house and we would eat them as kids because they're delicious, or cookies.
Speaker 3:Then they'd stop a week, we'd go by and then we'd get a new tin of cookies totally different flavors with a totally different scent to it and everything like that, and then it would stop, and then again and again, and I remember when I was about 15. This is when it dawned on me what my mom does for a living, and she was. She experienced such trauma from my father, from the family that didn't support her, but she supported us. A single mother of three kids in a town which is just so full of wealth that I also got to experience wealth of heart, wealth of empathy, wealth of care and love, that through everything I think mythic minds is. Because the mind, the mythic mind that showed me to the collective, the human collective, the, the, the hive mind of empathy and caring, was the incredible mother I had and I think you can both well here here, right. Yeah, to our mothers, I mean now talking about I'm like daddy issues.
Speaker 2:all was the incredible mother I had and I think you can both hear right To our mothers.
Speaker 1:I mean now talking about it.
Speaker 4:I'm like daddy issues all around here it's okay, but it's unfortunate that so many people have to experience that.
Speaker 3:But, on a side note, there is something as I may have mentioned. I lost my sister 13 years ago and there is something that, no matter what, if there ever is a conversation where someone also is something, as I may have mentioned, I lost my sister 13 years ago and there's something that, no matter what, if, if there ever is a conversation where someone also is like I lost a sibling too, it doesn't matter, I it, it it was. I don't know how this happened in an airport. I think it was a bereave, the bereavement week for me. I had to travel to go to my sister's wake and I was in the airport Saskatoon airport and somebody's like I'm so sorry. I recently lost my sibling as well.
Speaker 3:We talk to this day and it's been 13 years, because pain creates connections. So does strength, but something where you can both feel weird, where we can all feel the daddy issues. It's easy to talk about that amongst us, but those who don't experience it may not know, but they're still interested. Right, and it's amazing that there's this way of pulling in pain and art, I think, is a beautiful way. I still have my sister's art on my walls everywhere. She was an amazing artist and you know as D&D is connected to, like magic of the gathering, uh, magic the gathering. There is art that you can see in the black decks, the white decks, the blue decks of different forms of what the purpose is behind the, the card itself, the art. You see the depth, the contrast of these things pulling in.
Speaker 3:I've I've recently partnered with a company called first av uh sorry, first player card Shop here in Calgary and they're the ones that are bringing us into their card shop and allowing me to run one-shots with Mythic Minds.
Speaker 3:And it's amazing because one of the things we do is, as we get the game going, we all hang out at the card shop and we're all reveling over the art on these things and you get to see those little tags of who the artist was for these cards and some of them.
Speaker 3:There was this one card where you basically got to pull as many cards up as you wanted, so long as you spent your life on casting these cards, and it's a war of attrition. But the character itself is a zombie with a succulent face and it's decrepit and it's a war of attrition. But the the character itself was is a zombie with a succulent face and it's in its decrepit and it's falling apart and instead of hands it had its tibia or it's it's two bones sticking out, because that's how it was. But it was walking on it but it smiled and if you can imagine the artist that created that for that card, what they might have understood about what the card's power was and what the power was with the art behind it, that's a great thought, because you just look at it and think like, oh, it's just a card, but to imagine the work they put into that and, yeah, that's very fascinating.
Speaker 1:Where is it located, this place, the card shop? So?
Speaker 3:First Player is located down in the industrial park just south of Englewood and such like that. I would love to give you an address. Unfortunately it is. It is at the shed. It's at the shed point industrial building, which is such an incredible position because they have turned an industrial building into what is a retail point, a mall, an point. There are not only just positions for mythic minds to be able to go and play, but there's also a studio for you to be able to rent out. There are also offices for you to be able to rent for board meetings of this nature, and Shed Point itself is an incredible place.
Speaker 3:But First Player and I, the owners, steve and Jocelyn, were so amazing to see what I was trying to do and also what they're trying to do and bring this ambition together and along with Canopy. It's amazing the term of six degrees of separation. It feels much smaller right now. It feels like we're at two degrees because, while it might seem like it's not far for doing this, but to see the power of, of attraction, you know the, the mental ability to pull things in just incredible excellent.
Speaker 2:Um, talking about art like especially magic, the gathering, like the artwork that was on some of those cards, was fantastic. It was absolutely epic and uh. One thing I like to talk with most artists that we have on the podcast is AI and the influence of AI. I know you personally use AI with Mythic Minds for a lot of what you do and I just like your general take on AI.
Speaker 3:So the way that I use AI, when I create a rule set, I will use ChatGPT to run through that rule set to kind of scrub it out, if you will. But one thing that I am not ashamed to say is that I am hiring quite a few artists to create very unique art to put into my actual publications. I am never going to bring my AI art and publicize that and call it my own. But I am very proud to say that the theater of the mind for D&D is me describing a bank that you're walking into. But if I can throw up an image on my projector because I walk around with a projector and a screen so that I can bring Well who doesn't.
Speaker 3:Got one right here yeah as a matter of fact, but the concept is that, if I'm running five different campaigns in a single month, I would like to create a map where we, just recently, we had this arcanum, the ethereum arcanum tournament, and it had um resemblances to that of pokemon, in the sense that we were able to befriend some characters. And then there was the Summoner's Circle, where we got to play a card game and do this because what I was doing was making a thematic one-shot based around first player and what they provide their customers. But I was also able to create a coliseum with the aspects that I wanted. Through my own graphic design and photoshopping skills, I, and along with AI, I was able to create a coliseum that was perfectly dilapidated in the way that I needed it to be, because there was scars of the previous decades of battles that have happened there. You could see the one lightning strike rip up the one part of the map and then the crumbling that happens around it. But I, what I also do, is that to create a scene I would love to be able to put behind. I'm also licensed with Bartify, which is a YouTube channel, and one of the things is, if you can, if you're in a forest and you hear and then, if you're also, you can see that forest and the lush, different trees. I can give you so much description, but I use this in such a way to add to my project.
Speaker 3:One of the things that we say in Mythic Minds is that our images are helped with AI, but not our stories. We have four people writing diligently to create unique storylines, to create storylines that are applicable to the country and the world that I've created and also, like you said, the universe with the pantheon. But it is very easy for people to assume give me a plan and create it. But that is something that I'm proud to say, that we don't do. But it is definitely not something that I don't use. It is a tool. It is a tool to refine what it is. I've created One of the things that I wrote.
Speaker 3:I remember I had a day off and I was sick as a dog. It was about four and a half months ago and I sat there, felt like a fever dream, and I sat there on my laptop and I wrote 12 pages. I went back and I was like, what is this? And I ran it through a chat, gpt, and I was like there's two inconsistencies here. You've mentioned this and this and I was like thank you, and then I was able to build on it. So it is for me. I look at AI as something of an assistant yeah, something to fact check me.
Speaker 1:That's probably the best way to look at it too, like yeah, I just sort of thumped back there, but yeah, I mean I've always. The thing is we always hear about it being a creative thing, like oh, it creates an image, it creates speech. But to think of it as an editorial uh device, um yeah, I don't think a lot of people think of that, or at least I haven't.
Speaker 3:But yeah, that's very interesting when, when mythic mind starts to make the money, I at the moment, I'm considering mythic minds to be on the verge of a non-profit. I don't want to be making money off this. I would love to support my friends who are artists. There's a room right now full of artists that I would love to be able to support. I have some of my friends, but I I hired a couple of my friends in my first campaign and it cost me $500 to get three images. Right now, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:That's not cheap, but it's also. I'm so happy when I show those images, you bet your ass, I'm plugging them and I'm going. I'm so proud to put this in front of you, but with a person who has created a world, a world, a world. There's eight billion people on this planet. In a world where you have to create eight billion people, you don't have the resources to create eight billion people what do you do? And so what I've done is that I use the resources accessible to me, and when I am starting to be profitable in that sense, I'm going to be.
Speaker 3:Some of my friends have holding points where, when I am able to pay for we will release your point, and they said that's amazing. Thank you for supporting me, and for some of them, it's a hey. If you give me a hundred views, a hundred views on the internet, it's nothing, but if you give me a hundred views of something you posted that I created for you, I am indebted to you and I me a hundred views of something you posted that I created for you. I am indebted to you and I'm like no, I don't want you to be indebted to me. Yeah, but I need. I'm a man who can speak for a long time I can. I can describe this room to you in so many different ways, but I would also love for you to be able to describe to me what you see, so that I can post this picture and you see it and then I give the floor to you guys. Right? If I need to do theater of the mind, it requires so much time, and AI is something that I think, in a world of disinformation, it is easy to understand or to believe that anything that I'm doing is just purely AI. Yeah, I implore you to understand.
Speaker 3:There is a team of seven people right now that are working on this, whether it's their characters, whether it's a map. I have a friend who is currently our cartographer, who is creating a Therese map, and he's creating it in the style of Tolkien style, with that calligraphy pen Ah, cool. But also my friend is currently mapping out a square 100-mile part of Venus as a part of his university project. So there's going to be maps on venus sorry, mountains on venus that are named after this man because of course, he's going to put his name on a mountain who is also creating the map for our project, and to me, that is a connection that you couldn't pay for if you want to tie the two together.
Speaker 3:I damn well hope so.
Speaker 2:So 20 years from now one nerd will be like wait a minute. Was this on Venus?
Speaker 3:What's this?
Speaker 2:What's this.
Speaker 1:No, but I love how you're actually using it for the benefits of the game, like to give an image so everyone can see. I mean, that's the big thing I find with AI Like you can either go one direction where it's like oh, I'm trying to fool everyone, whereas like this is ai, like this is for the benefit of this and that's the dangerous part I think about ai is where people are going to start using it to fool everyone.
Speaker 2:Whereas it's like if you just let everyone know it's ai, like it's uh, it's just a tool yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know, I uh, I I see it as a tool, like even now. Like you, could I still see the differences in ai versus real imagery, for sure, I mean as a writer I see I see a paragraph or two that's ai written and I'm like that's AI fucking written like it's, it's easy enough to figure out for now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for now, yeah, exactly, teachers have an algorithm basically to look at a piece of writing and be able to see, because the algorithm of writing has certain things and, as as my partner's two young sons have said like how do I use this? I look at them like you go and you write something unique. Well, but then that's not using ai.
Speaker 2:Ai, you got the point yeah I mean, it's like you said, ai is a tool like if you want to do research on something, it'll pull up a bunch of information for you. Great, I don't need to do that research. Don't put that into like a doc, like any sort of a doctorate or yeah no, no, no, no no don't do that, uh, but it's like it'll give you the information you need in order for you to write what you need to write, because, again, like as a writer, the thing that took the longest was the research well and like it takes fucking forever and that's one of the reasons why I'm so grateful to sit down with you two.
Speaker 3:You're there's the musical side, for you especially, and then there's a writing side and production and film production side, and while I sit here between the two of you creating a fantasy world, it is amazing that I get to sit between two creative minds and to be brought on the artsy dudes podcast to discuss something that is of a fantastical world, to, to be able to, to, to talk about creative minds, to talk about how art therapy works, to talk about how I am blessed to sit in this space at sparrow art gallery and to have the blessing to be amongst you guys. So, thank you well, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's like, yeah, you're so great to talk to.
Speaker 2:This has been awesome appreciate you guys very much but yeah, uh, brett, as always, it's a pleasure to hang out with you, it's a pleasure to talk with you, it's a pleasure to just be around a fellow nerd. So thank you, my friend. Um, as always, um, we're the artsy dudes. Uh, you can find this on youtube at the artsy dudes podcast and on all podcast uh streaming platforms. So anything else you'd like to add there, ryan?
Speaker 1:oh no, it no, it's just been such a fun time. I've really enjoyed this one. Fuck Brett, you're just astounding company. Oh, I dropped an F-bomb there.
Speaker 2:Are we allowed to? You got one bleep. This is not for kids. But yeah, no, as always, it was great and yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you again everybody. Mythic Mindstream streaming at instagram is where you can find us and for now, that's where you can find us. Thank you, thank you and thank you everyone else we're the artsy dudes, thank you.