Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - The Love of Legends and Lore w/ Will Stark & Omar Timsah | Quests N’ Answers

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Welcome back to Quests N’ Answers! This week, Dan Casey sits down with the hosts of the D&D Legends and Lore podcast Will Stark & Omar Timsah to break down the densest lore in Dungeons & Dragons, the DM vs Players dynamic, and much more.    New episodes of Quests N’ Answers air every Wednesdays on Geek & Sundry or wherever you get your podcasts: https://lnk.to/goblinmodepod   Learn more and sign up for the Geek & Sundry newsletter at https://www.geekandsundry.com/!   Subscribe to Geek and Sundry: http://goo.gl/B62jl Twitter: http://twitter.com/geekandsundry Facebook: http://facebook.com/geekandsundry Instagram: http://instagram.com/geekandsundry TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@geekandsundry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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turns at AKA.m.S. College PC. Greetings, adventurers, and welcome back to Question Answers, the show where we meet all sorts of awesome people from around the gaming world. I'm Dan Casey, and today joining me in the Conversation Dungeon, we have not one, but two very special guests.

You may have heard their dulcet tones spinning yarns about ancient demons, gruesome hags, mythical monsters, and all other manner of deep magic on the D&D Legends and Lore podcast. Please welcome William Stark and Omar Timsa. William and Omar, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having us.

That's my absolute pleasure. I'm a big fan of the D&D Legends and Lore podcast. I'm a big lore. myself, so very excited to get into all of this with you. But before we get there, I want to go way back to the very beginning and take things back to, when did you both first get into, how did you get sucked into the world of TT RPGs? I didn't actually get into tabletop RPGs until my early 20s, which would have been to age myself, would have been around like 2011, 2012.

It was right in the heart of fourth edition Dungeons of Dragons. And yeah, me and a couple of buddies, we just decided in a conversation one day. We wanted to give TTRBGs a shot, specifically D&D. And I ordered the Monster Manual that day. My buddy ordered the player's handbook. We got together and we just started playing. And from there, I never stopped. Amazing.

Did you start as player or did you start as DM? I started as a player. I started as a player. I think after about six months to a year, I tried DMing for the first time. I was not very, I was not very good at it. I look back and I have memories and I cringe, but I improved greatly over time. Anyone who's instantly good at DMing, I think might secretly be a witch of some sort. Right.

Seriously. There has to be a learning curve. Oh yeah, yeah, there definitely is. Yeah. Omar, how about you? So I started probably actually around the same time in college, maybe 2013-ish, actually started with Pathfinder First Edition. Oh, nice.

Um, then jumped over to Savage Worlds, tried a little bit of Shadow Runner. I kind of bounced across a bunch of different, uh, systems, or Shadow Run, fifth edition, um, bounced across a bunch of different systems. Um, didn't actually land on D&D fifth edition, uh, until just a few years ago, actually. Um, so, yeah, I've just kind of been all over. Um, and I started and am mostly a player. I have attempted DMing. I leave it to the professionals like Will. I'm not equipped for it yet. No, it's a unique skill set to have because you're both, you're both playing.

You're playing with the players, but you also have to keep track of everything else happening at the same time in a way that I can definitely appreciate. You can see the relaxation on a forever DM when they finally get to play for a change. It's just like such a weight off their shoulders. Yeah, yeah. No, I do enjoy playing when I get the chance. Of course. Do you guys remember your earliest characters? My first character was a half-elven ranger, again, in the fourth edition of rule set. He was a dual-wilder. I remember he had a bastard sword in each hand. And this was previous to my exposure to a song of ice and fire or Game of Thrones or anything like that.

So I was struggling coming up with a name, as I do. I struggle with names. and my buddy who was reading a song of ice and fire suggested the name Tyrion. And I was like, oh, that's such a cool name. Yeah, I'll name my guy, Tyrion. He's not like a total like household name in the future that I'm going to regret to name my first character after. But Tyrion Wind Runner, a half-elven ranger. He also had a pet bear.

And yeah, it was a good time. It was fun adventures. I like that it's a classic archetype because I feel like Rangers nowadays don't get enough shine. the pipeline from people that think, wow, Aragorn is cool as hell to what the rule set became. It was definitely a challenge, especially. I guess that's maybe more getting into the power gaming aspect of things. But still a very cool origin. Omar, what was your first character?

My first character was a human paladin sordin board named Gareth about as milk toast as it gets. Ooh, yeah. And I just remember knowing absolutely nothing, having no idea what I was doing kind of just being a lot. long for the ride with all the veteran players kind of holding my hand through it. Partially really glad that I started with a paladin because of how broken they tend to be in pretty much any system that you play them in. So it was a very great first experience feeling that powerful, even though I had no idea what I was doing. And that, as most games do, I think that campaign stuck around for maybe three or four sessions

before people had conflicts and it fell apart. But it was a fun first experience. I mean, that's the true villain of any campaign is just agreeing to sit down for three to four hours together on a recurring basis. I can definitely appreciate that. Do you, now, William, you mentioned naming characters is something that you struggle with. Do you have any, like, tools or, like, pre-gen tables you put in place to help overcome that? Or, like, what's your advice to someone who maybe struggles with that as well? I would say that I'm never happy with random generators when it comes to names.

I'm just never pleased with it. I think that's probably why I have such hard time. I'm very picky about names. One of the things I like to do is if I have a character who's, say, a cleric or a paladin, it doesn't really matter what they are. But if I can attach a theme to a character, whether the theme is as simple as a color or an idea, and then I will mess around with Google Translate.

I will find words that are connected. to the meaning of the theme, and I'll make plays off those words. And I, after a painstaking amount of time, we'll hone in on something that I think is perfect. That's usually my first approach. If that doesn't work, then I will start pouring through a really obscure fantasy literature or fiction that I know no one else will connect to, and I'll start trying to pluck names out of there.

Go on Goodreads, sort by lowest rated. Yeah, there you go. When you folks are making a new character, do you find that you have either tropes or patterns that you fall into? Like you can tell a lot of your characters have this particular trait? For me, definitely, yes. Especially over this last year, as I've made probably more characters this last year than I have it a long time.

I apparently have this fascination with a fallen night or lost night or banished night theme. And I can take almost any class and turn it into this archetype. And I found I was doing it with warlocks. I was doing it with paladins. I was doing it with fighters. I was doing it with everything. And I was like, oh, my God, like I have a running theme here. Or all my characters are these knights who also have some sort of tie to an elemental power or dark power.

And they're in some way fallen. And I'm like, I got to break out of my bubble here. I need a knight who's doing just fine. Yeah. Keep in their chivalric oath with no issue. Just very, a lot of filial piety. Omar, how about you? So the two tropes that often find themselves,

or I guess the two aspects that I end up almost without effort pairing with all of my characters, no matter what campaign I play, I am either the shield of the party, some sort of protector, guardian, And sometimes that jumps into the role play. Sometimes it doesn't. But I'm either the guardian of the party or I'm the charismatic face of the party. And oftentimes I'm the paladin that's both or another type of character, something to that effect.

So even finding a situation in which I'm only one of those things is a miracle, let alone neither. I very rarely play spellcasters, unfortunately, because usually I end up building characters based on what the party needs. I usually end up doing my character creation last and kind of going from there. And obviously, usually people end up picking spellcasters and whatnot. And there's a Marshall hole there. And so. No, I definitely feel you. I'm the same way.

I definitely am always looking to fill whatever gap we need because I want the rest of the – I want everyone else to be as excited about playing as I am. So whatever's going to keep them invested. But I played in a campaign recently. We did a show. And it was very freeing because the DM, I was, falling into this trap in the DMA before. Paul was like, well, you don't need to just be a, we don't need a fighter. You guys don't need a healer. You can just be three glass cannons. And I was like,

yeah, I guess we can. That sounds very dangerous for us, but we did it. And it was a very fun experiment, pushing myself outside my comfort zone. But, you know, it's, when it, when push comes to shove or left to my own devices, I'm definitely sort of, okay, what, what does the rest of the team need. And I just for, I was looking back and I tend to make a lot of characters that are just very acrobatic dwarves. Because I just like the, I like the idea of just like, I always thought about that in Lord of the Rings that, you know, in the movies, when it's like, you know, Gimley getting tossed

and being just so embarrassed by it. What if there was a dwarf who really enjoyed that and did it a lot? So I just like the idea of the stout person just flipping through the air. So I'm curious, William, do you also, you someone who also fills with the party needs or do you have a clear idea of what you want to play when you go into a new campaign it's a little bit of both what i what i usually do um without fail is i will make two maybe three but usually two characters and i know if my my first choice doesn't quite fit i make i ahead of time make my second choice a totally different archetype that will almost definitely

fit if the first one fails that's usually how i go about it like i i just recently joined a fourth edition uh campaign it's going to be like a mini campaign yes i still play four e i love four e I love 5E too. I love all the additions of D&D, but I'm a big 4E stand. But I think I went into it thinking I was going to run a Dragonborn Cleric named Hyperion. And in 4E, all the different classes fill a particular role. So that role is quote-unquote leader, which is a healer buffer class.

But somebody else who's new to the game wanted to run a leader. So I had a backup, a defender, paladin. Aladron, fallen banished night, who serves the winter fay, that whole deal. And he's ready to go. So that's usually how I do it. He's just waiting for his chance. He's fallen and he can get up at any time. Yes, exactly.

Now, this will perhaps be a good segue into something else I want to talk about. But when you folks are sitting out at the table to play in a campaign, are you someone who tends to take a lot of notes? Or do you just kind of fly by the seat of your pants and hope that you'll, will retain it in your short to long-term memory. I do not take notes. I always want to be someone who does, and there are times when I mean to, but I find that trying to take notes while things are happening actually distracts me from what's happening,

and then I'm like, wait, what happened? So luckily, I've been pretty able to rely on my own memory, mostly because I'm pretty invested. Like, as a forever DM, when I'm a player, like, I'm all attention because, like, I'm locked in. So it's been fine for so far. I would say I echo that almost completely. I usually I will force myself to take some type of notes if there isn't anyone else at the table doing it. But more often than not, there is one person who elects themselves as the note taker because they enjoy doing that. And it's like, cool, that's a responsibility off my plate

because I probably wasn't going to do a good job at it anyway. But I, like Will, I am very, like when I'm at the table, I'm very invested in what's going on and to sit there and try to take copious notes on something to then sort of reference my own wiki later usually ends up drawing me out of what I'm trying to experience in the first place. No, I can I can a thousand percent appreciate that. I really at the same time also appreciate those people that elect themselves the group scribe. because that helps me reinvest myself when it's maybe been a couple weeks since our last session. And I really do not remember where we left off.

It's just nice to have, I think it's nice to have both, but I agree that when I'm at the table, I prefer to be in the moment and locked in, just because otherwise, there's so many things vying for your attention that can distract you. Why add one more thing to the pile there?

Yeah. On the flip side, as a dungeon master, I love when I have a player who's taking notes because more often than not, the others aren't. And there have just been countless times where that one player has kind of saved the session and kept it on the rails because they remembered why they're invested in what they're trying to do and reminded everybody else. Yeah, I feel like we need to just make our group take turns taking notes just so everyone

can share that burden. Not a bad idea. Well, we'll see what the notes wind up looking like and the lore becomes very twisted indeed. That's a perfect. You could always threaten them either rotating note take or rotating DM and see what they think. Oh, yeah. We're trying the rotating DM thing after it's more like, we'll see whoever's going to DM the next campaign. We always try to give the previous one a little bit of a break.

Yeah, absolutely. But going from talking about taking copious notes to things to take notes about, let's talk about your podcast, gentlemen. D&D, Legends, and Lore. It's a fantastic show. Thank you. And I really appreciate. the very cinematic style that you imbue into it.

So for those who don't know, can you tell us a little bit about the podcast and sort of the genesis of it? How did this podcast come about? So D&D Legends and Lore is a podcast where Omar and I dive deep into a particular subject of D&D, whether it be like hags, a demon lord, elves, whatever it be. And we pour across every bit of lore that was ever written. for that particular topic from original D&D all the way through now

and try and put together a comprehensive yet immersive I don't want to say documentary that's maybe not the right word but a presentation on the thing and I think one of the things that sets us apart from some other lore shows out there is we really emphasis the immersion whether it's through the music and the images

but also I try and either find a canonical story that I can bring their life and maybe fluff up a little bit with some flowery prose. But keep it as close to quote unquote canon as I can because canon is a mess in D&D. It's pretty light. To kind of highlight like the fascinating stories and takes and things that you can get inspired by that exist in the game. Yeah, I don't know, Omar. I don't know if you want to add anything to that. No, I mean, that more or less is the gist of it, taking, getting as complete of a picture on the informative side

while presenting it in a compellingly narrative way is more or less kind of our goal with every episode. Yeah. Well, I highly encourage our viewers and listeners to check it out because it is definitely super immersive right from the get-go. Thank you. I'm curious, how do you, hone in on which particular topics. Is it just what fascinates you the most?

Is it something you feel is maybe underserved in terms of explanation by the larger community? You know, hags, for example, I thought was, felt very timely. They were, it's a very prominent hag in Baldersgate 3. You know, people are playing cursive strad. There's some hags you may run into. Spoiler alert. But I'm just curious. What's your selection process like?

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episodes? And I can just see, Hags was in our top 20. And which surprised me the first time I noticed that. And so it's easy for me to peruse through there. And then obviously, as the, the core writer of the two of us. I very much have to follow my muse. If I'm not feeling a topic, I've learned to just not do it. I can hold it for another day because if I try and force it, it's not going to be as good as if I do something that I'm feeling in that moment.

How do you keep yourself diligent and focused as a writer? Are there any things that you need to do? Do the conditions need to be perfect for you to sit down and write? I am the princess and the P of writing, for sure. like I need absolute isolation. No one bug me, headphones on. I need very particular kinds of music. No singing has to be instrumental all the way through.

And it does help if it's on theme. So, you know, I'm not going to listen to synth wave while I'm writing about goblins. It's just not going to work for me. But as for staying motivated, I mean, I'm a nerd, man. I love stories. I love fiction. I love fantasy. So like even stuff that I know, you know, through and through,

and I've talked about a couple times, I don't mind revisiting because I love this stuff. You're not going to find anyone who loves dragons and goblins more than me. Well, have you two always been like real lore hounds, like really invested in the world building in like the deeper aspects of fictional worlds? What was your, what would have been your earliest obsessions?

Do you want to go first on this one, Omar? I feel like I'm hogging the mic over here. No, by all means, go ahead. I need to think about this one. To answer your question, yeah, I think I've always been a lore and a world building hound for sure. I was a kid with a million questions, and I wanted to know why Elven Society was the way it was in Lord of the Rings. Why the dwarves were the way they are. I'm one of the people who knows about Eruiluvitar and how the pantheon of Lord of Rings works.

I love that shit. I love diving deep on that. So Lord of the Rings was an early one for me, obviously, The Hobbit. Dragon Lance is a big one for me. of reading those books when I was like seven. And those were some of the first books to make me cry just from different storylines with the characters, Harry Potter and all that. There is a writer named Dennis L. McCurnan that not a lot of people know about it anymore.

But he was doing a lot of his writing in the 70s and 80s. And his fiction is really akin to Lord of the Rings in its feel and its themes, which for me as a child it still felt very fresh because this was all very new to me but if anyone out there is a fan of Lord of the Rings I could not recommend Dennis L. McKeonan's work more he actually started out as a writer

who approached the Tolkien Estate and wanted to continue writing within the world and he had all these different story premises but they rejected his premises so then he turned those into his own world so it's by design similar to Lord of the Rings. But that was another world that I got super, super into.

In terms of starting point, kind of similar, right, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, especially some of the now no longer canon expanded universe stuff. And the Furies of Calderon

by Jim Butcher, that series is one of my favorite series. In general, when the lore is good enough that you're able to almost transport yourself into that world, get that feeling that you have, that it's almost like you're living and breathing in that world.

I'm trying to replicate that feeling every day because it is such a wonderful, not that I love my life. I love being here in this place right now. But I imagine a lot of people if they could choose to live in a fantastical world with magic and nights and whatnot, most people, minus all of the potential lack of medical care and whatnot, most people would probably choose to live in,

in a fantastical world like that. So, and in terms of, uh, in terms of getting really into Lord that didn't happen until, uh, the last few years, obviously again, it kind of,

as I've been reading, reading more in particular with like Furies of Calderon and, uh, Dresden Files and number of other books. Um, a lot of Jim But, uh, it wasn't something that was with me in the beginning.

It was, it was kind of like this spark underneath that was, again, seeing Lord of the Rings and, the original Star Wars as a kid and like, oh, this is really cool. And then that flame kind of got nurtured as I got older.

No, I can definitely, I can definitely appreciate that. I especially resonate with just chasing that feeling of wanting to get immersed in this world when, when a fictional universe sinks its hooks into you in a way where you're just like, I simply have to know more or I will perish. That's how I felt when I first booted up Final Fantasy 7 back in the day.

That's how I felt reading the Red Wall. books as a kid. And that's how I felt recently with things like Scott Lynch's gentleman bastards lies of Lockelamora. I just loved that universe and also even R.F. Kwong's Poppy War trilogy. It's sort of, and also Warhammer 40K painting those minis as a kid. And Mordheim, I'm just like, what is this? Who are these weird little dudes and what is going on?

Why is this world so upsetting? I have to know what's this forever we're all about. Yeah, absolutely. Now, spending so much time thinking about the lore of D&D in particular for this podcast, do you find yourself drawn to particular settings? Or are you more homebrew folks at the end of the day? You like to take bits and pieces here and there to create something that's more of a communal setting with you and your table. So I'm definitely a homebrew guy, which I know might sound surprising,

considering we do like canonical lore primarily on the show. And I think one of the things I love about all the various worlds that I explore, whether it's D&D or another fiction, is just the inspiration I can pull. And that's kind of what I want our show to do. I know that most tables out there aren't running Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms, like by the book. But I want to show people that there is some amazing lore out there across these 50 years from some incredible writers. and you can, you know, choose and pull whatever you want and apply it to your world. I'm going back to fourth edition on this one because the fourth edition,

Nintervale setting is mind-blowingly good, even if it does fly in the face of everything that came before it, which is why a lot of people find it very upsetting. But that's what's cool about D&D is like you can choose to use what you want and not what you don't. But yeah, I think that answers the question. I feel like I might not. Yeah, no, it definitely does. Omar, how about you? Again, I hate to sound super repetitive, but effectively what Will said.

It's, I'm a great guest. No. I very much overall am of the opinion that a lot of the time people end up getting more invested, obviously, with the stuff that they create, right? They have that sort of personal agency and that sort of personal attachment to something. So a lot of the time, it tends to be more compelling is the wrong word, simply because a lot of the official stuff is also incredibly well written and incredibly in-depth. Having that sort of personal attachment, especially if it's, if utilizing tools or utilizing other experiences where you could almost build the setting together, like with your players,

being able to kind of work collaboratively in that respect. I feel like that usually ends up resulting in a truly profound experience at the table for everyone. I don't know if other people are of the same opinion. And obviously, old school DMs may not be in terms of like it's me versus them kind of thing. But I feel like the game in and of itself is at its best when everyone at the table is working collaboratively to tell a story. and whether that story is heavily entrenched in something that's already established and then you're sort of making your own branching

timeline or path to go explore something completely different or whether you're simply picking bits and pieces out of it and making your own thing or going with something entirely original at the end of the day, if everyone is kind of on the same page and really living and breathing that world, I feel like no matter what you're doing, it's going to be awesome. I,000% agree with you.

The thing that really I've always loved about Dungeons and Dragons and Tabletop role-playing games in general is that sense of communal storytelling. It's really unlike anything else that I've experienced. I think the closest I've come in terms of like a video game, for example, is maybe an MMO-R-PG like World of Warcraft, where you're sort of crafting this narrative together. And it's just like, you know, it's like campfire stories writ large, but then there's all of these other bells and whistles, to make different things possible. Collective imagination in a way that I feel like a lot of people don't really stop to participate in. And I'm always thrilled when people sit down to the table or show that new people show an interest in this. Because you can see people that maybe feel daunted by all of the rule sets.

And I need how many dice? Like they're shaped like what? And when they finally sit down and experience it, it's really just, you know, kind of a choose your own adventure story that we're reading together and telling something. to tell a cool story. Anyway, I think that's even possible within that the DM versus player mindset. It is. It might be a more adversarial story, but hey, what's a story without conflict? Sure.

I definitely resonate with that. I want to go back to some of the canon lore that you discuss in the podcast. What have you found so far, or either in current episodes you've produced or future episodes you're working on, is the densest lore or like the hardest to crack in terms of how do you distill that down into something that is communicable and narrative? So hardest to crack in terms of just like how much there is, I think it has to be elves. Elves is going to, when we do our elves episode, it might be a two-parter because it just depends on how like deep I want to go or we want to go. Specifically with forgotten realms because there's just so much elf lore that is so specific. specific to that setting. How much do I want to include? How much do I want to talk about else generally? So that one is daunting to me right now. As for kind of on the other end of that, it's not so much volume. It's reconciling the continuity. It's almost anything that is completely broken by fourth edition or broken by fifth edition because it came from fourth edition. I think right now, just because I just recently did the script,

the subject of the Raven Queen, which is a very popular concept and has been since her inception in fourth edition, trying to approach that in a way that stays immersive is difficult because there was the fourth edition Raven Queen, and then fifth edition is just this totally other thing with completely different lore, is not connected in any way she performed

and trying to reconcile those two things is almost impossible. It's like, how do I tell the story of this entity of this lore without having to break that fourth wall and be like, okay, so that's that Raven Queen. Now let's talk about this Raven Queen. And I think I found a nice happy medium, but those ones are always tough for me to crack. Yeah, with shifting lore as additions change,

I have to imagine that's particularly frustrating, especially if you're more excited about a particular version of it. I mean, that talking about, you know, we, on the nerdest side of things on our network, We cover a lot of things like Star Wars. And Omar, as you mentioned, the Star Wars expanded universe, now they're Star Wars Legends. They're not canon until they suddenly are, because they appear in the background. So it's always a guessing game as to what you should be highlighting.

But I can imagine that's particularly, especially with something as prominent in current D&D lore culture as the Raven Queen. So I'm excited to see how you thread that needle. Omar, has there been any lore for you that's been sort of like, wow, Reading this makes my head hurt. Um. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders, an army scattered like bones in the dust.

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Listen now Wherever you get your podcasts When the Chaotic are on the case. Honestly, the, it was actually one of our first episodes, the, uh, Coralone and Lulth stuff that we had to go through earlier. Oh, yeah. Just all of the, I'm in love with Coralon.

No, I'm, I love Coralon more. No, it's just kind of like this whole weird love triangle, quadrangle thing. And also the, you know, also there's this huge conflict. and also I've tricked you and you've killed, you know, you've attempted to kill your own father and just the, all of like the, the, and this twist and that twist and this twist. It just, I would say that that was probably like, if we're talking about something specifically that I was just like, okay, cool, awesome. More general, Will it already touched on it. It's very much kind of weaving through and navigating the differences in continuity between different editions, especially when, most people were introduced to D&D, I feel like, and please correct me if I'm wrong, most people

were introduced to D&D through Fifth Edition. So that recency, most people are going to have their mind, their frame of reference focused on Fifth Edition and trying to bring in previous lore that might contradict that. It's trying to find a way to navigate all of that while making it coherent and narratively compelling and it, but it's, it's, it's a fun problem to have, so to speak. It's, it's, especially when it all comes together at the end. Yes, I can imagine, uh, annoying at first, but satisfying when all is said and done. And yeah, your, uh, fifth edition is the definitely the biggest driver of new D&D players. I think it also had sort of the benefit of being in

at least the modern era of, uh, D&D, the longest running edition, the longest time. between additions. They're saying it was something like a decade. Yeah. So they definitely had the benefit of that and then just everyone getting really interested in it, in particular in the last few years, having a new resurgence of players in interest. So, hey, whatever edition people want to play, come on in. It's super fun.

It is. Yeah. I started playing with the weird old AD&D box set back in the day that I made my dad by. It was very confusing. I still, my head still hurts thinking about Thaco compared to armor class. So, you know, it was a simpler time. And I know that'll upset some people in the comments. But, hey, I'm sorry, I was a child.

What do you want for me? I do word stuff and make-em-ups, not math. So I want to chat a little bit more about some of the lore. Do you have a favorite weird or terrifying piece of D&D lore? Like a favorite factoid or something that stood out to you, maybe not like, oh, you know, this whole story or maybe it is a whole story, just like something, you know, Vermont, what I'm thinking of is like Abileths being creatures that existed before gods and passing on perfect copies of their memories to all their offspring like some Benny Jesuit nightmare creatures. Yeah, to kind of add on to that, I think I'm correct in this, that they are particularly afraid of, I want to say it's mind flares because according to their memory, mind flares never existed.

So where did this empire in the past come from? like it doesn't compute with their perfect memory. So that is a good one there with the abelis. Oh, that's tough for me. There is a horrifying ritual dedicated to the demon lord of fungus, Zuckmoi. And it is spelled in great detail in a dragon magazine. I don't remember which number.

But I believe that the ritual is called, the, I think it's called the cradle of filth or something like that or the grave of filth. And it is truly horrifying. Like it is legit horror level stuff to read through. I remember I did an episode of my old show a long time ago on Zuckmoi

and I read through the details like step by step process of basically turning these victims into fungal monstrosities. So yeah, if anyone wants to just get squeezed out and grossed out and scared, go find Zuckmois, I believe it's called the cradle or grave of filth ritual. It is spelled out in great detail.

It's horrible. We will talk about it on the show at some point when we do that episode because it's too horrifying to not talk about. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm a sucker for anything with Mike andids and all of the weird fungal stuff instantly makes me think of that one episode of Hannibal on NBC. So definitely worth checking out if you are strong. of intestinal fortitude. For our listeners out there, if you have a fun bit of lore to share,

please let us know in the comments. I'm always looking to learn more weird and horrifying things about the game we love, so I can just drop that on players and DMs alike at the worst possible moment. Well, speaking of DMs, I also want to talk a bit about your approach to running games. I know you mentioned that, William,

you tend to run a fair amount of games. Omar, you run your run. run fewer, but what is your, what's your prep for a session like? Is there any things you do in particular or tips that you would give to people if they want to maybe spice up their home game or things that you find particularly helpful in that regard? When it comes to like a single session, the main thing I do is I write an outline of the different story beats I want to hit in that session. Obviously, things aren't on railroad, so like we might not hit them all, but just a general guideline of what are the major touchstones I want to hit in this next session, right?

And then I will start flushing out each of these different touchstones and then start bridging the gaps and whatnot. Another thing I do is I leave what I call a blank space between each of these touchstones where this is like, allow the players to do whatever the hell they want here, let the adventure breathe, don't just push them forward to the next goalpost. So I create like these little islands that I want the players to get through or get to. But once we get out in the water, I do let them splash around for a bit. And if they go too far afield and I'm really not ready to go that way, I will find a way to bring them back. But that's definitely something I do for every session I brought. Nice. Nice. Now, Omar, you're someone like me who DMs a lot less frequently.

When you do, what is there anything special? you do to prep for a session like that. So Will's take on the outline is gold. Absolutely. Having some sort of structure to the session that you want to run, even if that structure falls apart later with player actions, just having a good starting point at the very least will relieve some of the tension that you have because you at least have that sort of that jumping off point.

I am one contrasting to Will. Because I'm so inexperienced with running games, or I've done it so few times, I do tend to lean more on those tools like random generators, et cetera, at the very least, to kind of get some ideas or to pull very last minute, I didn't think they were going to ask that. Let me just grab a name really quickly or whatever. Or, oh, they decided to break into the village chief's hut instead of helping him, you know, resolve the matter that they had. it's like, okay, well, uh, uh, plot point, plot point. And just real quick, oh, there's a ruby in there. What's, you know, what, what, what's the ruby? Oh, he stole it from a hag for some reason.

And there's like this whole, so having at least having the tools set aside to where if your players are kind of not going off the rails, but if they, if they want to go in a different direction than you were initially planning for them to go, having, the tools for less experienced DMs to be able to kind of either write the ship or kind of steer into the skid and move towards the new direction as, I won't say flawlessly, but as painlessly as possible, while still kind of lending itself to the experience, I think, is really helpful. Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter? Some lighter music here.

Are you a fan of true crime TV shows? What about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jumpstarted all of our love of true crime? I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host I Think Not, a True Crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries. Baby, you will laugh, you will cry. You'll think about true crime in a whole new way, and you'll also ask yourself,

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legacies. I've learned from legends like Les Brown, Damon John, and Robert Irvine. And now, I'm bringing their lessons, along with mine, straight to you. From modern leadership tips to creating unstoppable momentum, this is the podcast that redefines what's possible. Hit play, subscribe, and join the millions who've made Mick Unplugged their go-to source for growth, and greatness because your next breakthrough is just one episode away. This is Mick Unplugged, the voice and face of modern leadership entrepreneur and self-improvement. Let's get started. No, I definitely appreciate that. I think it's ultimately in service of both the outline and even in using things like random generators. They're all in service of reducing friction

for the experience to make it not, and I don't mean in terms of removing conflict. I mean just in terms of making a smoother storytelling experience for everyone because nothing feels worse than having to stop the action or bring things to a screeching halt where you're like, hold on, I have to look this up for five to 25 minutes depending on what appendix it's buried in. If there's a particular rule or something like that or if they do something that you're like, oh, like you mentioned, I thought you guys had moral fiber. You're breaking into his house. Let me figure out what that looks like really quick. Are there any, you know, you mentioned William, that you are someone who enjoys homebrew. for the two of you, are there any homebrew rules that you really enjoy using in your games or ones you've encountered in the world?

You're like, oh, that's pretty cool. I'd like to try that sometime. One of the first ones that stands out to me is I like the changing of the critical hit rules. So a lot of times at my table, I like to rule if you make a critical hit, you do max damage and then you get to roll your weapon die or whatever. else one time on top of it. That way there's no critical hit that's a dud. There's nothing worse than getting a crit and you roll two ones and you're just like, I did six damage or five or three or whatever.

And that's, that sucks. You go from way up here to way down here real fast. So, you know, again, that's an old fourth edition rule that I, they ripped off.

Another rule that I've taken from another system called Tales of the Valiant is called Doom. And it is a, resource that you give to a boss monster of some sort or a monster that you want to you know punch a little bit above its weight for story reasons or or whatever and essentially the way it works is you you tell your players at the beginning of an encounter with this creature that you could flavor how you want you could be upfront and just say this monster has doom and it has three levels of doom that it can use or you can be like there is a

strange and dark aura about this creature and just being in its presence is supernaturally giving you a quiver of dread like in your heart or something like that. And essentially you can use this doom almost like inspiration for a character. You can use it on a re-roll, whether that's a save or an attack role. You can use it. You could if you wanted to use it in place of like a legendary resistance, although I have mixed feelings about legendary resistance. but it has its place, so I wouldn't just completely get rid of it. You can use it to make a critical hit of a player into a regular attack. Basically, you can use Doom as a resource to intensify a fight,

make a fight that would otherwise not be deadly, be truly deadly. Those are the two that jump out to be. It's not from D&D, but it is from another, system that I love two death, Savage Worlds. And the Benny system that's in place in Savage Worlds effectively,

every player starts with two Bennies. Those Bennies, Savage Worlds is very much surrounded around like casinos and gambling and stuff like that. So there's bennies, you use your cards for initiative, like the actual deck of cards for initiative, et cetera, but won't get into that. But the Benny system, every player starts with two. and effectively what you can do with those bennies.

They work very similar to inspiration in D&D. You start with two at the beginning of a session. You can use them to re-roll or to add to your roles if you need to. The other thing that you can do is if you are, if you take a fatal hit, you can burn a bennie permanently. So you'll start with one fewer, but you won't die. You'll instead be incapacitated. So the system lends itself.

Also on top of that, the bennie system is sort of built into where it rewards good gameplay just like with, um, with inspiration can, uh, based on the DM where obviously good role playing, etc. or something really cool can be awarded,

uh, Benny by the, the GM or the DM. Um, it does lend itself to a more epic fan. Like players end up being a lot more survivable and a lot more, uh, grandiose in their actions.

Obviously D&D fifth edition is also very epic and grandiose. Like it's not, I won't say it's difficult, like it's a difficult, like, It's not difficult, but like it, it, it, the players especially as you get to higher levels, it becomes just, uh, chaos. Yeah, without a doubt. Or challenge them even. Yeah.

Yeah. Seriously. I, I, I really enjoy, uh, the Benny system from, from Savage Worlds. That's very cool. That's very cool. I always, I was appreciate also plucking in, uh, elements from other systems and sprinkling them in where they make sense. So that's very cool. Real quick, I found the Dragon Magazine.

The house before I was talking about. It's Dragon Magazine 337. there's a whole article Demon Namakana of Igvv on Zuckmoi and in it there is excruciating detail on a horrible ritual called the final feast

in which the victims are placed within Zuckmois' cradle. So that's where I was getting cradle from. I'm not going to go into details. If you want the details go there, it's horrifying. All right. I will, I'm going to check that out as soon as we finish recording today. I can't wait. As we wrap things up, I want to,

we always like to leave our audience with some recommendations for cool things that they can go out and play. So I want to start by asking you gentlemen, what is one of your favorite TTRPs that you think people are sleeping on or you wish more people would play? That one's easy for me. I'm a big, big fan of Dungeon Crawl Classics, which is a game designed to be the way that old school Grognard's remembered original D&D being.

And that game is weird. And it's full of random chance, which kind of enhances the whole experience. Essentially, everyone including the DM or the judge, really has no idea what they're in for when they sit down at the table. Because things are going to go sideways fast, and everyone at the table has tools to deal with that. And I just love this game so much for how refreshing and off the wall it can feel compared to traditional D&D and how exciting it is for everyone at the table to discover who, their character is, where their character is going to go, where the store is going to go. It's got some incredible modules, which I have here.

It's just a really exciting way to play D&D. You start with level zero characters, you start with four, and you don't know who's going to get out alive. And whoever does get out alive, you then decide what classes are going to take based on whatever stats you ended up rolling at the beginning. And there is this kind of you get what you get and you make it work feeling to it, is so refreshing compared to D&D and lends itself to some really interesting storytelling. I can't recommend DCC enough. So that would be my high recommend try out dungeon crawl classics.

Awesome. Awesome. I feel like there's been an uptick in really well-designed kind of like OSR games of just like hitting that old school vibe in a way. So I'm absolutely going to check this game out. Omar, what is your recommendation for a TTRPG people might be sleeping on? Okay. Well, I just talked about it like two, three minutes ago, maybe, depending on things.

But I love Savage Worlds to Death. It is the system I am probably the next most familiar with, without a doubt. It is a class-less system and utilizes everything but the D20. It is, I feel like, one of the easier systems to jump into, especially if you're a beginner and you aren't starting. D&D 5th edition is very straightforward and is also a great system to start with for people 100%. So if you would like to try

a new system with maybe new mechanics but isn't necessarily overly complicated, Savage Worlds is a great choice. It's also very modular. I have been in full Star Wars campaigns. In there, we've

messed with the sort of deck of card system to sort of emulate the more flashy lightsaber duels from the prequel trilogy. It is a very, very easy to understand system

and I can't recommend it enough. Also, if anyone can make Shadow Run 5th edition work in a way that is not clunky, I salute you. It is a system that I don't recommend to people, even though I love the setting to no end,

and I desperately want to play any and everything, cyberpunk, but the level of crime, in that system is too much for me. Yeah, it's definitely pretty crunchy. So your appetite may vary, but fantastic recommendations across the board. All right, next question for you gentlemen. It's game night.

You can bring any game you want. People will play it regardless of how complex the rules may be. What are you bringing and why? I'll let Omar go first on this one. I already, I do have my answer easily. It is letters from Whitechapel, 100%. You are, basically, you are in a, team. It can be as little as two people to as many as I believe five or six. One person is playing

Jack the Ripper when he's going through his whole killing spree. And everyone else is on a team as the Scotland Yard detectives. And it is a game in which one of the types of games where the killer's movement is obscured. The player doesn't know where he's moving. You're trying to find clues, trying to catch him before he makes it to his hideout. And you're trying to catch him before he completes all of the murders. It is so much fun when I can get people to play it. My wife refuses to play it now because of how complicated and time-consuming it is. But when I can convince people to play it,

it is absolutely a game that I play every game night. So I have in my hands right here my favorite board game in the world, and you guys can't control me. I'm going to try and put it on screen. It's called Summoner Wars. and it is essentially a deck-building war game and I would liken it to a mixture of

chess or Chatego meets maybe Magic the Gathering honestly because you do build up resources for summoning stuff onto the board and essentially though there is movement and damage counters and all this other stuff and there are something like 12 different factions each with their own mechanics and you set up on two sides of the board

the game can be 1 v1 or 2v2 or even 1v2, depending on how you want to set it up. And the goal is to kill the other side summoner so that they can stop summoning units onto the board. And your average game runs about 30 to 45 minutes, and you could customize decks, and I have every expansion there is. Now, this is the first edition.

They don't print it anymore. They did print a second edition rule set. It's very similar, but I think a little bit more, streamlined and simplified. I've heard good things about it, but I can't speak on second edition. I can only speak on first edition.

This game is incredible. My favorite game of all time, board game of all time. Summoner Wars. Not to be confused with the app called Summoner's War. Otherwise, you're in for a very different experience. A very different experience, yeah.

Wow, he spoke so highly of this. Yeah, I guess I'll pay $5.99 for more gems. Amazing suggestions, gentlemen. Thank you both. for joining us today. I really appreciate you spending the time. Where can people find you and find D&D Legends and L lore on the worldwide web? So you can find D.D. Legends and Ler on YouTube at the channel, D&D. Legends and Lerr. Or conversely, you can find it anywhere that you can find your podcast, whether it would be Spotify, Apple Podcasts. I use a podcast addict. That's my app of choice.

But yeah, we're on both platforms. Gentlemen, thank you again. I really appreciate you spending the time and thank you again to everyone who's been listening. You can find question answers right here on Geek and Sundry each and every week on YouTube or wherever fine podcaster served each and every Wednesday. But for now, tell us what games are you playing this week? Where are you most excited to introduce to your table and what's your favorite piece of D&D Legends or lore? Let us know in the comments below and we'll see you folks next time. Bye bye. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership. I'm Mick Hunt, your heart. host, and I'm here to challenge your why and fuel your because.

This is where leaders, entrepreneurs, and go-getters come to level up. Each week, I bring you unfiltered conversations, game-changing strategies, and the kind of motivation that transforms lives and legacies. I've learned from legends like Les Brown, Damon John, and Robert Irvine, and now I'm bringing their lessons, along with mine, straight to you. From modern leadership tips to creating unstoppable momentum, this is the podcast that redefines what's possible. Hit play, subscribe, and join the millions who've made Mick Unplug their go-to source for growth and greatness, because your next breakthrough is just one episode away.

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