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Fizban's Treasury of Dragons with Amy Vorpahl
Episode 818th October 2021 • Making a Monster • Lucas Zellers
00:00:00 00:33:23

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Amy Vorpahl is the voice of Fizban, multiverse-spanning god of dragons, in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. We discuss this character's view of the world, how to write for D&D, and whether Fizban is fun to hang out with. Spoiler alert: he is.

Read the transcript and get more from the show: https://scintilla.studio/monster-fizbans-treasury-of-dragons-with-amy-vorpahl

Get stat blocks, bonus content, and other monstrous perks: www.patreon.com/scintillastudio

Join the conversation: www.twitter.com/SparkOtter

Meet my guest Amy Vorpahl:

https://www.twitter.com/VorpahlSword

https://www.amyvorpahl.com/


Music by Audionautix:www.audionautix.com

Transcripts

Amy Vorpahl:

Fizban would definitely at least try to get along with

Amy Vorpahl:

everybody, but he would be, I think, most similar to Volo just because Volo

Amy Vorpahl:

is also delighted and a little goofy.

Amy Vorpahl:

I do feel like those are qualities that Fizban has.

Amy Vorpahl:

The difference is, Volo has Elminster to kind

Amy Vorpahl:

of reign him in and Fizban

Amy Vorpahl:

has literally nobody.

Amy Vorpahl:

So, you know, there, there's this kind of, because he's a freaking god,

Amy Vorpahl:

he made the world, like, what are you even going to do to this person

Amy Vorpahl:

who wants to, you know, cast this spell that maybe he just made up?

Amy Vorpahl:

Like, you can't do anything.

Amy Vorpahl:

He's going to do what he's going to do.

Lucas:

Welcome back to Making a Monster.

Lucas:

I'm here with Amy Vorpahl, who is an actor writer, dungeon master

Lucas:

singer songwriter, and contributing writer for Fizban's Treasury of

Lucas:

Dragons, Amy, welcome to the show!

Amy Vorpahl:

Yay.

Amy Vorpahl:

Thank you.

Amy Vorpahl:

That was very good.

Amy Vorpahl:

You got through all of those.

Amy Vorpahl:

Hyphenates like a pro

Lucas:

I wanted to talk to Amy because of the work that you've

Lucas:

done on Fizban's Treasury.

Lucas:

And if you don't know, you should by now, if you're listening to this, Fizban's

Lucas:

Treasury of Dragons is a comprehensive source book for dragons in D and D,

Lucas:

including gem dragons, lair and hoard mechanics, and dragon-themed subclasses

Lucas:

we first saw in Unearthed Arcana.

Amy Vorpahl:

I contributed probably the least helpful situation for the

Amy Vorpahl:

book, as far as if you want to play a dragon or look into the lore of dragons,

Amy Vorpahl:

my contributions will not help you.

Amy Vorpahl:

But I, I did contribute as the voice of Fizban himself.

Amy Vorpahl:

In the same way that Volo's Guide to Monsters has Volo "back-and-forth-ing"

Amy Vorpahl:

with Elminster and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has Tasha quipping

Amy Vorpahl:

in from time to time, I played the Fizban kind of flavor text, or what

Amy Vorpahl:

I called, when my boyfriend was asking me what I was doing, I was

Amy Vorpahl:

like, "I'm writing my wizard tweets!"

Amy Vorpahl:

So just the things like as if Fizban were attaching post-it

Amy Vorpahl:

notes to the actual crunchy texts and the how-to's in the treasury.

Lucas:

I've asked like two dozen people about monsters and I've, I've also asked

Lucas:

them how they got into tabletop RPGs.

Lucas:

And there are some common threads, but it has been two dozen

Lucas:

unique and interesting stories.

Lucas:

So, this has been a hobby since 1974, you get into it?

Amy Vorpahl:

I got into it when I was 18, a freshman in college, uh,

Amy Vorpahl:

on my very first day at school.

Amy Vorpahl:

My cousin was a sophomore at University of Oklahoma and she came to greet

Amy Vorpahl:

me and see my dorm room that was decorated with nine Lord of the

Amy Vorpahl:

Rings posters and one Yoda poster.

Amy Vorpahl:

And she brought a friend who kind of took one look around, knew that

Amy Vorpahl:

I was a BFA acting major and was like, "Have I got the game for you!"

Amy Vorpahl:

And just sort of did the math for me and invited me to play D and D.

Amy Vorpahl:

And my cousin was like, oh, it's this nerd thing.

Amy Vorpahl:

I don't play with them, but you, you, you can.

Amy Vorpahl:

And I was like, yeah, let's what else am I doing?

Amy Vorpahl:

So I, I started playing, I can't, I really can't remember if it was

Amy Vorpahl:

that night or the night after.

Amy Vorpahl:

And we just played for that entire afternoon, evening night.

Amy Vorpahl:

And it was like a no brainer.

Amy Vorpahl:

I was deep in already.

Amy Vorpahl:

And, uh, and we played all four years of college together and the summers too.

Amy Vorpahl:

It was great.

Amy Vorpahl:

So that's how I got into it.

Amy Vorpahl:

It was pretty much at the best time of my life, because you know, it's

Amy Vorpahl:

college, you're kind of setting your own rules, especially for the weekends.

Amy Vorpahl:

And, and yeah, I was able to make a lot of friends.

Amy Vorpahl:

You're kind of, you're kind of assigned to be friends with the theater

Amy Vorpahl:

people because you're a theater major and you're with them all the time.

Amy Vorpahl:

And this was an immediate way to have meteorology friends and

Amy Vorpahl:

literary majors and English majors and, and, uh, film majors, which was

Amy Vorpahl:

different from the theater department.

Amy Vorpahl:

So it was like a good way to, yeah, it wasn't forced, but it was a fun

Amy Vorpahl:

way to have, extra bonus friends outside of the theater department.

Lucas:

Yeah.

Lucas:

And to explode that a bit, uh, even doing this podcast.

Lucas:

One of the things that I love about this game is that it's a bizarre cross

Lucas:

section of humanity and there's no

Amy Vorpahl:

Well said!

Amy Vorpahl:

Bizarre being the operative word here.

Lucas:

It's like, really?

Lucas:

You?

Lucas:

And yeah, we all have a common vocabulary and some common ground to build from.

Lucas:

So, so that's fantastic.

Lucas:

Uh, but as an actor, I mean, this must have been a really interesting

Lucas:

confluence for you because, 2013 to 2018, I think, was when this all began

Lucas:

to explode into the mainstream and it became, uh, uh, don't want to say like

Lucas:

a viable profession because I don't want to reduce the magic of it, but, it

Lucas:

became like a thing that you could do

Amy Vorpahl:

Yes you, I mean, viable profession is, yeah, again,

Amy Vorpahl:

the caveat is not for everybody, but, uh, for me, for sure.

Amy Vorpahl:

There was one time I went through, you know, doing taxes and I was like, okay,

Amy Vorpahl:

well, it would be interesting to see if I categorize where my income came from,

Amy Vorpahl:

, which again, as a freelancer is kind of everywhere, 60 to 70% for a few years

Amy Vorpahl:

was D and D slash livestreaming RPGs.

Amy Vorpahl:

And it, so yes, viable, viable income, viable thing that you have

Amy Vorpahl:

to put on the resume at this point.

Amy Vorpahl:

Yeah, it did explode and it surprised the hell out of me and never

Amy Vorpahl:

in a million years would I have thought that I would need to track

Amy Vorpahl:

my experience playing this game?

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, and yet here we are.

Amy Vorpahl:

And, I didn't even have to try to exploit my hobby.

Amy Vorpahl:

D and D came for me and exploited it for me.

Lucas:

So it sounds like it wasn't necessarily intentional.

Lucas:

Is there like a line that you can trace from, from now back

Lucas:

through Dimension 20 to first

Amy Vorpahl:

Right?

Amy Vorpahl:

Yes.

Amy Vorpahl:

So the, the first thing I played in college and then moved out here, it was

Amy Vorpahl:

trickier to find people to play with.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then.

Amy Vorpahl:

someone wanted me to be a dungeon master and, and after a panic

Amy Vorpahl:

attack, I just couldn't do it.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, so that, all of that kind of kerfuffle was crazy.

Amy Vorpahl:

I always float by that, but yes, my first time dungeon, mastering

Amy Vorpahl:

resulted in a panic attack in which I couldn't read a single word and

Amy Vorpahl:

couldn't dungeon master at all.

Amy Vorpahl:

We, they wound up going, wow.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, it was just for two friends and I couldn't do it.

Amy Vorpahl:

Like it, it was not happening at all.

Amy Vorpahl:

I couldn't say words, I couldn't read.

Amy Vorpahl:

And, and we had to like, just kind of call it because panic attacks.

Amy Vorpahl:

So for all of those out there who think that boy, Amy is a great, confident,

Amy Vorpahl:

successful dungeon master, uh, N not always, and it did take a long time

Amy Vorpahl:

and and that, Nope, you know, like give yourself permission to have a few

Amy Vorpahl:

panic attacks before you get it right.

Amy Vorpahl:

I guess is my advice.

Amy Vorpahl:

But then it all came to culmination when Saving Throw Show got started and

Amy Vorpahl:

Saving Throw Show is a Twitch stream, still going today, and they actually had

Amy Vorpahl:

auditions because they wanted to do a "how to play a Pathfinder" web series.

Amy Vorpahl:

And that was a very successful Kickstarter and they got it funded and I wound

Amy Vorpahl:

up actually auditioning for them, uh, which turned into making the series

Amy Vorpahl:

and also becoming friends with them.

Amy Vorpahl:

And that's where I, if you know, Ivan van Norman, that's where he and I met.

Amy Vorpahl:

Dom Zook, who runs Saving Throw Show, that's where we met.

Amy Vorpahl:

Tyler Rhodes.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, anybody from Saving Throw Show, who you might know now, I that's where

Amy Vorpahl:

it's really, really where I spent like my formative livestreaming years

Amy Vorpahl:

before I got hired to, as a writer actually for Nerdist and Geek and

Amy Vorpahl:

Sundry's live-streaming platform Alpha.

Amy Vorpahl:

So, uh that would be the line.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then from there, after, you know, working at the, this internet

Amy Vorpahl:

company as a writer, most people were like, well, Amy's around.

Amy Vorpahl:

And any time there was any need for an on-camera fill-in that was me.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then it turned into, me being kind of prominent on, on those streams as well.

Amy Vorpahl:

So it was just, I loved working there cause I was, I was what

Amy Vorpahl:

we call using the whole Buffalo,

Lucas:

Let's talk about how you got to writing for games.

Lucas:

Writing for D and D is, is less narrative design than people think and

Lucas:

more, almost technical writing, like you're writing an instructional manual.

Amy Vorpahl:

dang.

Amy Vorpahl:

That is well said and correct.

Amy Vorpahl:

I don't know if I need to go any further than that.

Lucas:

Did you have to develop that skill on purpose or was that something

Lucas:

else that you kind of discovered as you moved toward Candlekeep?

Amy Vorpahl:

I didn't know that it wasn't narrative until I did it.

Amy Vorpahl:

And the way I even got started, I had dungeon mastered and all that before,

Amy Vorpahl:

but my friend, uh, David Cronin built a company called Dungeon in a Box, which

Amy Vorpahl:

is a subscription service that provides adventures once a month, complete with

Amy Vorpahl:

maps and minis and other fun, little accoutrement that you might want to

Amy Vorpahl:

play, uh, use in your play sessions.

Amy Vorpahl:

And he was kind of getting buried under the writing a new adventure every month

Lucas:

It's a lot.

Amy Vorpahl:

it's a lot.

Amy Vorpahl:

And he was, and so he just asked his friends, like, does

Amy Vorpahl:

anyone want to write for this?

Amy Vorpahl:

And he had all of us submit a, an 8,000 word adventure, and he chose

Amy Vorpahl:

me as the writer and my adventure.

Amy Vorpahl:

I wouldn't say it's necessarily it's definitely not perfect.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's it's also not correct, I guess, but.

Amy Vorpahl:

But he saw it was definitely it's me.

Amy Vorpahl:

Right?

Amy Vorpahl:

So there's, there's intrigue and silliness and fun stuff and like a cool concept.

Amy Vorpahl:

And what he saw was like a fully developed idea and thought, well,

Amy Vorpahl:

I can at least work with this.

Amy Vorpahl:

So he chose me and I worked with him to write a few adventures for Dungeon in

Amy Vorpahl:

a Box before I couldn't do it anymore.

Amy Vorpahl:

Cause yeah, it is, it is a lot.

Amy Vorpahl:

So I did that for that for a few times.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then Chris Perkins tweeted out one fateful day, "does anybody write

Amy Vorpahl:

TT RPGs that I might not know about?"

Amy Vorpahl:

And I was, and so I replied to the tweet and I had played games

Amy Vorpahl:

with him at Gen Con and in other like live stream things before.

Amy Vorpahl:

So I knew he knew who I was, but.

Amy Vorpahl:

I just replied to him.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then basically a year later I got the email that was like, Hey, would you like

Amy Vorpahl:

to, you know, contribute an adventure to this Candlekeep Mysteries situation?

Amy Vorpahl:

And I was like, oh, wrong Amy, it's fine, uh, but you might want

Amy Vorpahl:

to get their right email address.

Amy Vorpahl:

And they were like, no, no.

Amy Vorpahl:

Apparently every writer said that.

Amy Vorpahl:

Everyone was like, oh, I don't think you mean me.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then, then Bill who was running, the project had to go.

Amy Vorpahl:

Yes, I do.

Amy Vorpahl:

I mean you but yeah, that was, and of course I said, yes.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then we were off to the races.

Amy Vorpahl:

But it was that, that was kind of the game writing journey.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then writing for D&D is very different from writing Dungeon in a

Amy Vorpahl:

Box, because the writing for that is a little bit more, we know you're not

Amy Vorpahl:

going to play this exactly as written.

Amy Vorpahl:

So here are some ideas.

Amy Vorpahl:

D and D however, is, is written as if you might be playing this exactly as written.

Amy Vorpahl:

I need to give you every single- exactly how it's lit, exactly the stats for

Amy Vorpahl:

everything, including this door, you know, like it's, it's very, yeah, like

Amy Vorpahl:

you said, it's like writing an Ikea manual and you've got to be really

Amy Vorpahl:

specific and, and not only like, I guess, visual as well as, you have to

Amy Vorpahl:

be the dungeon master and the player.

Amy Vorpahl:

In the actual adventure, you can't write or plan what the players are going to do.

Amy Vorpahl:

You can just build the Ikea playground and hope for the best.

Amy Vorpahl:

So yeah,

Lucas:

And for Fizban and you've had to pivot again, out of very technical work.

Lucas:

I think you might've been the perfect choice because of the intrigue

Lucas:

and the silliness and the whimsy that are embodied by Fizban and,

Amy Vorpahl:

Thank you.

Lucas:

Yeah, absolutely.

Lucas:

Uh, It's he's a great character to write for.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's definitely an honor.

Amy Vorpahl:

It is.

Amy Vorpahl:

And also to be a woman and considered for the voice?

Amy Vorpahl:

It's it's just quite, I don't, I don't know.

Amy Vorpahl:

I w I, I also think when they gave me the job, and once I

Amy Vorpahl:

started doing some research, I was like, oh yeah, definitely me.

Amy Vorpahl:

I don't know who else would be suited for this.

Amy Vorpahl:

Not to say that someone else couldn't do it, but I felt very much like

Amy Vorpahl:

they had hired the right person.

Amy Vorpahl:

And I felt like, oh, I can do a good job on this.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, so that did feel good.

Lucas:

When you were approaching the character of Fizban and doing this kind

Lucas:

of writing, what are some of the things that you had to do to get this right that

Lucas:

we might not expect from the outside?

Amy Vorpahl:

I'll paint a little bit of a picture.

Amy Vorpahl:

So my adventure in Candlekeep Mysteries is arguably the silliest adventure

Amy Vorpahl:

in the book and they buried it right in the middle of the 17 mysteries.

Amy Vorpahl:

I think it is, I think it is smack dab number nine.

Amy Vorpahl:

So that, that being said, Chris Perkins led that project.

Amy Vorpahl:

He was the project lead and James Wyatt is the project director

Amy Vorpahl:

for Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.

Amy Vorpahl:

And James asked Chris if he knew anyone who might be able

Amy Vorpahl:

to get Fizban's voice right.

Amy Vorpahl:

And Chris was like, Amy!

Amy Vorpahl:

Just Amy.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, and I think he, he knew from having played with me before, but

Amy Vorpahl:

also, yeah, the, the silliness and the whimsy of my own adventure.

Amy Vorpahl:

Not to mention my background is actually a lot of acting and a lot

Amy Vorpahl:

of sketch comedy and improv, not to mention songwriting, but I have a lot

Amy Vorpahl:

of training in comedy, specifically comedic characters, specifically

Amy Vorpahl:

comedic characters who wear wigs.

Amy Vorpahl:

So, so, you know, putting on a beard and a hat is kind of like, okay, no

Amy Vorpahl:

big deal, we'll just do this character.

Amy Vorpahl:

But the acting part of it and the quips and the one-liners,

Amy Vorpahl:

I just have that experience.

Amy Vorpahl:

I don't know if I'm the best one, but I can, , I think I can get that voice right.

Amy Vorpahl:

Once I was hired and onboard, James Wyatt came back to me and was like, okay,

Amy Vorpahl:

we have to, I have to just be honest, like Fizban is notably a forgetful

Amy Vorpahl:

character, uh, to the point of, I think, killing himself trying to cast

Amy Vorpahl:

featherfall because instead of casting featherfall, he actually just summons

Amy Vorpahl:

feathers and it's, and that's how he dies?

Amy Vorpahl:

But he, so he's, he's the guy who's like, oh, what is a dragon?

Amy Vorpahl:

And like, his human form is so messy.

Amy Vorpahl:

And, and how do you write quips in a book that who's supposed to be kind

Amy Vorpahl:

of knowledgeable about dragons with someone who can't remember maybe what

Amy Vorpahl:

a dragon is or how to cast any of these spells or who this person even is?

Amy Vorpahl:

So Fizban, when I say human form, Fizban is also canonically Bahamut.

Amy Vorpahl:

He's the dragon who created dragons.

Amy Vorpahl:

He's the father of all dragons along with Tiamat.

Amy Vorpahl:

So he's a deity basically, but he also has so many other, forms, which they get

Amy Vorpahl:

into and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's really fun.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's like dragons are basically, they're not lizard, they're not

Amy Vorpahl:

animal, they're not beast, they're not monster, they're magic.

Amy Vorpahl:

They're manifestations of magic, which means there's also ways as you

Amy Vorpahl:

pass through the realms where there is a version of that dragon, humanoid

Amy Vorpahl:

or otherwise, that exists in every plane and they're all linked and also

Amy Vorpahl:

simultaneously not really linked.

Amy Vorpahl:

So you do with that what you will.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, but, but he's got this list of people who he is humanoids to, monks, bards,

Amy Vorpahl:

uh, obviously Fizban, uh, he's been dragons he's, he's all over the place.

Amy Vorpahl:

So he's got many manifestations, which we have to deal with.

Amy Vorpahl:

He's also in the form that we know him, the Fizban name he's forgetful.

Amy Vorpahl:

So how do we combine kind of everything without, without

Amy Vorpahl:

putting too much of a stamp on it?

Amy Vorpahl:

Like we want the voice to kind of transcend a, an old white male.

Amy Vorpahl:

So that's fun.

Amy Vorpahl:

Wrapping, wrapping your head around that.

Amy Vorpahl:

And what I came to was like, well, I can't, that's so much information.

Amy Vorpahl:

I just need a specific voice that I can write to and write

Amy Vorpahl:

kind of jokey quippy stuff for.

Amy Vorpahl:

And so what it came to for myself was he had mentioned doddering professor, which

Amy Vorpahl:

I liked, and I kind of qualified that even closer and made him a little bit similar

Amy Vorpahl:

to the musical theater dean at my college, who is an old white male extremely queer,

Amy Vorpahl:

uh, very, very into plaid and sugar treats and, he loves musicals, but when

Amy Vorpahl:

you talk to him, it's always more about like, he's just trying to get ya, I guess?

Amy Vorpahl:

Like, he's always, he's not, he doesn't want to necessarily talk about the latest

Amy Vorpahl:

show or whatever he wants to play tricks.

Amy Vorpahl:

And I'm like, that, that seems like, like a fun grandfather, a little

Amy Vorpahl:

doddering, doesn't say what you expect.

Amy Vorpahl:

And so simultaneously I wanted the character to, when it comes to important

Amy Vorpahl:

things like creating the world, I wanted him to be flippant about that, but then

Amy Vorpahl:

when it came to something maybe not so important, like, uh, whose square, literal

Amy Vorpahl:

square foot of land, whose layer is this?

Amy Vorpahl:

Because lairs can be anything from a cave to a town, an entire town to

Amy Vorpahl:

a country, to a, yeah, like a tiny, one square foot of patch of grass,

Amy Vorpahl:

whatever the dragon freaking decides.

Amy Vorpahl:

So when it comes to the one square foot, patch of grass, Fizban would

Amy Vorpahl:

care very much about that, but not so much about the creating of the world.

Amy Vorpahl:

There is this quip that I have that I believe I can share.

Amy Vorpahl:

So this is about the creation of the world.

Amy Vorpahl:

"Bards do have a way of editing and exaggerating.

Amy Vorpahl:

I remember that time as one big, boring, patience-trying, dilly-dalliance,

Amy Vorpahl:

a lot of hurry up and wait!"

Amy Vorpahl:

So in his mind, bards are like telling the story of the creation of the world.

Amy Vorpahl:

And in his mind it's just taking like centuries and forever.

Amy Vorpahl:

And he's just like deciding what to eat throughout all of that.

Lucas:

I have to ask at this point, does, does that Dean know that he's Fizban now?

Amy Vorpahl:

No, he doesn't, I don't know that I, cause it is loosely based on him.

Amy Vorpahl:

I, he doesn't necessarily talk about dragons or world creations or fantasy

Amy Vorpahl:

at all, but, but I just get an image of him and that, that always tends to help.

Amy Vorpahl:

And I even do, you know, when I was writing the quips, doing the voice

Amy Vorpahl:

back and forth, uh, to my boyfriend and then just sometimes to myself

Amy Vorpahl:

to see if, to see if it would work.

Lucas:

Yeah.

Lucas:

And so much as any inspiration is ever the entire character that,

Lucas:

you know, there's some, some play

Amy Vorpahl:

Yeah.

Amy Vorpahl:

There's also a lot of Amy Vorpahl in It's also like some of the

Amy Vorpahl:

quips I know I submitted are basically like adventure pitches.

Amy Vorpahl:

So it's like, okay.

Amy Vorpahl:

Yes, y'all are introducing this monster or the way that this, this

Amy Vorpahl:

kind of gem dragon works, that's fine.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then it's me going, but what if?

Amy Vorpahl:

And then just kind of naming it and being like, I remember this dragon

Amy Vorpahl:

who did this and it's like, oh yeah.

Amy Vorpahl:

If you want to take that and use that in your campaign, go for it.

Amy Vorpahl:

But it's kind of, it's also yeah, like adventure pitches just from

Amy Vorpahl:

the point of view of it absolutely did happen in Fizbans' memory.

Amy Vorpahl:

the way I wrote Fizban was different from other writing, same as adventure writing

Amy Vorpahl:

is different because, with narrative writing, you kind of are allowed to type

Amy Vorpahl:

and go and where your mind takes you.

Amy Vorpahl:

You're like answering questions as you go, like, okay, so the

Amy Vorpahl:

character enters the room.

Amy Vorpahl:

What are they wearing?

Amy Vorpahl:

Answer that in prose.

Amy Vorpahl:

What does it look like?

Amy Vorpahl:

Answer that in prose.

Amy Vorpahl:

What do they say?

Amy Vorpahl:

Answer that in prose and adventure writing is again, just kind of technical.

Amy Vorpahl:

Like what would the player's questions be?

Amy Vorpahl:

So you're answering those questions.

Amy Vorpahl:

For Fizban, there's no real question.

Amy Vorpahl:

There's like, what would Fizban say?

Amy Vorpahl:

And, and that's, that's almost, I don't want to say it's a more difficult.

Amy Vorpahl:

But, but it's different.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's more like when you're making a table and you're like, okay, here are some

Amy Vorpahl:

personality traits and you're making a bulleted list and you're answering

Amy Vorpahl:

the same question just multiple times.

Amy Vorpahl:

It takes a different part of your brain muscle.

Amy Vorpahl:

So the way I tracked it, the way I tracked writing Fizban was I had a bullet

Amy Vorpahl:

journal where I think it was for every five quips, I wrote, I would, I got to

Amy Vorpahl:

color in a square and I had a timer and I would just see how many or sorry, an

Amy Vorpahl:

hourglass, because I don't like timers cause they beep I like to pretend like, I

Amy Vorpahl:

don't know how much time it actually took by the time I look over at the hourglass.

Amy Vorpahl:

So I flipped the hourglass and I tried to see how many quips I could, come up with

Amy Vorpahl:

in that time, because it's infinite right?

Amy Vorpahl:

Fizban could say anything.

Amy Vorpahl:

But to have a very specific take, it takes a little bit of like sitting in

Amy Vorpahl:

the character, thinking of the voice, thinking of actually how it sounds

Amy Vorpahl:

and like, oh, I'm Fizban so that kind of thing, uh, it is, it requires,

Amy Vorpahl:

it requires a truncated period of time for me to just be in that zone.

Amy Vorpahl:

And so I got to color in, and I got to a point where I did about six

Amy Vorpahl:

or seven quips for every half hour.

Amy Vorpahl:

And that felt good because I was, I was also focused on, you know,

Amy Vorpahl:

ending at the punchline and making the word efficiency very good.

Amy Vorpahl:

And as short as possible, because you only have this much post-it

Amy Vorpahl:

notes and if you can make the quip three to five words even better.

Amy Vorpahl:

And then every once in a while, like I said, I would indulge, but

Amy Vorpahl:

by the end of it, I don't know why, but I am a rewards-based person.

Amy Vorpahl:

Maybe we all are and coloring in the different colors was how I got through it.

Amy Vorpahl:

And by the end of it, I had a stack of like lots of different colored squares.

Amy Vorpahl:

And that made me very happy.

Amy Vorpahl:

And I think when you're creating, if you can do anything that makes

Amy Vorpahl:

you happy, uh, you should do that

Lucas:

A

Lucas:

friend of mine, uh, in my D and D game he plays a wizard and his idea was also like

Lucas:

the smartest person in the room who can absolutely can't remember what's going on.

Lucas:

And his, like the voice that he does for his wizard, Laust, is

Lucas:

almost exactly the same as the voice that you do for Fizban and

Amy Vorpahl:

Oh my God.

Amy Vorpahl:

We all have an old doddering man in our, in our vocal range.

Lucas:

Exactly that's the way he described it to me.

Lucas:

He's like, there's a little bit of Laust in, in everybody.

Lucas:

I had what I thought was a very clever question whenever

Lucas:

I wrote like, what's his deal?

Lucas:

I think we got it.

Amy Vorpahl:

I know, it's sorry.

Amy Vorpahl:

I gave you a, I gave you a long-winded answer, but I have a lot of thoughts

Amy Vorpahl:

about obviously, Fizban and.

Amy Vorpahl:

I guess switching the voice from, from really a character who doesn't, who at

Amy Vorpahl:

least pretends not to know, like you get a sense in the book that, oh, he,

Amy Vorpahl:

he knows what he's doing all along, but in a non-narrative sense, you

Amy Vorpahl:

can't have that character pretend to not know anything and then by the end

Amy Vorpahl:

of the book of this Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, now he knows everything.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's not that sort of book.

Amy Vorpahl:

So he has to know everything in a way that's different than you expect

Amy Vorpahl:

someone to know everything to be.

Amy Vorpahl:

And that, that switch was it, I guess once I got it, I got it, but it was a,

Amy Vorpahl:

it took a little bit of trial and error, but James, James seemed really on board

Amy Vorpahl:

with everything I submitted and I just had a lot of ding dang fun with it.

Lucas:

Fizban stands alongside this whole roster of other characters

Lucas:

that have their names at the top of sourcebooks now: Tasha, the Xanathar,

Lucas:

Mordenkainen, et cetera, et cetera.

Lucas:

And you've talked about him being very different from those.

Lucas:

So, I want to work from general to specific here.

Lucas:

Why, why is it that you think we have guides through these source books?

Lucas:

Why do we need a Tasha or a Xanathar and a Mordenkainen?

Amy Vorpahl:

well, I guess I, my answer is twofold.

Amy Vorpahl:

In planning a D and D adventure, my main, like once you have this, you

Amy Vorpahl:

have everything, and it's environment.

Amy Vorpahl:

If it's a mossy swamp or it's a, a city sewer or a city apartment, like

Amy Vorpahl:

now you have a visual and whatever the players do, you can pull from,

Amy Vorpahl:

and it's all thematically appropriate.

Amy Vorpahl:

And also they can suggest something like, if you're in an apartment,

Amy Vorpahl:

they're like, oh, is there an end table I can hide behind?

Amy Vorpahl:

Versus if I'm in a mossy swamp, is there a, a pile of swamp I can hide behind

Amy Vorpahl:

or moss or a tree like they can do.

Amy Vorpahl:

Everyone can do the work for each other in storytelling once the environment's set.

Amy Vorpahl:

And I feel the same about these books.

Amy Vorpahl:

Like they have to come from somewhere, right?

Amy Vorpahl:

Like you can't just be like uh, spells!

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, because the spells already exist, right?

Amy Vorpahl:

So if you're going to to make something an agendum, you want it to have yeah.

Amy Vorpahl:

Some flavor or a theme, and the environment and the situation would

Amy Vorpahl:

be like, uh, from the point of view of someone's brain of a character

Amy Vorpahl:

that we all know and love, like Tasha.

Amy Vorpahl:

Specifically, I was told Tasha is sardonic and, and a little bit caustic

Amy Vorpahl:

and sarcastic where, and she gets her kind of humor and kind of, uh, fun

Amy Vorpahl:

stuff from, from that personality.

Amy Vorpahl:

And they definitely wanted to lean away from that because Fizban is not sarcastic.

Amy Vorpahl:

He's like very delighted, I guess by pretty much everything.

Amy Vorpahl:

Except the things that he should be delighted by like

Amy Vorpahl:

the creating of the world.

Amy Vorpahl:

But he,

Amy Vorpahl:

But I also think it's important just logistically.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's important in the source books to have a frame of reference of what kind

Amy Vorpahl:

of spells and what kind of monsters and what kind of stuff we're even

Amy Vorpahl:

doing here in the book with the rules and the lore, but then also for the

Amy Vorpahl:

reader, you might not want to give them like an AP bio textbook D and D lore.

Amy Vorpahl:

You might want to, uh, yeah.

Amy Vorpahl:

Punch it up I guess, and, and add some flavor and color to some pretty what's

Amy Vorpahl:

going to arguably be pretty crunchy pages.

Amy Vorpahl:

And the crunchy pages are for very specific people.

Amy Vorpahl:

And I think the flavor and the color is kind of for everyone.

Lucas:

Because now I know Fizban, and I feel like I know Tasha and Xanathar and

Lucas:

Mordenkainen, maybe I think the best way to ask this question to you would be

Lucas:

if Fizban met one of these other or any of these other, uh, guides, we'll call

Lucas:

them, do you think that there's one who would he get along with and who would he

Amy Vorpahl:

yes.

Lucas:

along with?

Amy Vorpahl:

I think, well, Fizban would definitely at least try to get along

Amy Vorpahl:

with everybody, but he would be, I think, most similar to Volo just because Volo

Amy Vorpahl:

is also delighted and a little goofy.

Amy Vorpahl:

I do feel like those are, those are qualities that Fizban has.

Amy Vorpahl:

The difference is, Volo has Elminster to kind of reign them in

Amy Vorpahl:

and Fizban has literally nobody.

Amy Vorpahl:

So, you know, there, there's this kind of, because he's a freaking god,

Amy Vorpahl:

he made the world, like, what are you even going to do to this person

Amy Vorpahl:

who wants to, you know, cast this spell that maybe he just made up?

Amy Vorpahl:

Like, you can't do anything.

Amy Vorpahl:

He's going to do what he's going to do.

Amy Vorpahl:

But Volo is a human and, has his own flaws.

Amy Vorpahl:

So I think he would definitely hang out and get along with, and they would,

Amy Vorpahl:

uh, they would have long, late night chats with full of salted caramels Volo.

Amy Vorpahl:

And, who would he not get along with?

Amy Vorpahl:

I, I think Fizban has an acceptance for everyone and even the trickery

Amy Vorpahl:

of Xanathar and the like, uh, causticness and sardonic tone of Tasha.

Amy Vorpahl:

He would just still be delighted and intrigued.

Amy Vorpahl:

Maybe not friends, but yeah, I think he'd be delighted and intrigued.

Amy Vorpahl:

He could probably learn something from Xanathar.

Lucas:

paged through all of Fizban's guide, uh, is there a stat block or a

Lucas:

creature with a stat block that you saw that you would qualify as your favorite?

Lucas:

Like the thing that makes you most excited about this book and how much

Lucas:

me about it?

Amy Vorpahl:

I probably can't say anything specifically, but if you

Amy Vorpahl:

look at Volos Guide to Monsters, beholder-kin are freaking cool.

Amy Vorpahl:

This is the way, beholders have babies through dreaming of them.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's also the title of my album, Behold Her Dreams.

Amy Vorpahl:

The pun came first, Behold Her Dreams came first, and then I was

Amy Vorpahl:

like, oh, also I could just name my album, behold, her dreams.

Amy Vorpahl:

And anything that comes into my mind that manifests into reality

Amy Vorpahl:

is technically a beholder dream.

Amy Vorpahl:

If I'm the beholder.

Amy Vorpahl:

So beholder-kin are a real messed up, screwed up monsters that come

Amy Vorpahl:

directly from a beholder's brain while the beholder is sleeping.

Amy Vorpahl:

So if a beholder is like dreaming of looking at himself in the mirror,

Amy Vorpahl:

there, now you have pretty much a version of this beholder, a little

Amy Vorpahl:

bit messed up because of the dream.

Amy Vorpahl:

But other than that, you have a new beholder, and he has just had a baby.

Amy Vorpahl:

If the beholder is dreaming of a room full of mirrors and the beholder

Amy Vorpahl:

is in that room full of mirrors.

Amy Vorpahl:

You might get just a lot of beholder babies.

Amy Vorpahl:

Now, if you're, let's just like extend that into what if the

Amy Vorpahl:

beholder is dreaming of a dragon, you might get a beholder-kin dragon.

Amy Vorpahl:

You might, who's to say?

Amy Vorpahl:

And maybe that beholder-kin dragon has a stat block.

Amy Vorpahl:

And he has just had a baby of a real messed up weirdo, dragon that may or may

Amy Vorpahl:

not have like extra limbs or something

Lucas:

Jeez,

Amy Vorpahl:

Or extra eye stalks for that matter.

Lucas:

ah, Amy, this was supposed to be whimsical.

Amy Vorpahl:

Woopsies!

Amy Vorpahl:

Who's say that dreaming and having like nonconsensual babies, isn't whimsical?

Lucas:

Amy Vorpahl, thank you again for being so generous with

Lucas:

your time and your enthusiasm.

Lucas:

How can people get involved with, the next steps, the next things that you're doing?

Amy Vorpahl:

I am coming off of a really successful Kickstarter

Amy Vorpahl:

launch for my new solo music album.

Amy Vorpahl:

And at this point if you're listening to this, you missed it, but you can

Amy Vorpahl:

still you can still PR sorry guys.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, you can't give me money in that specific way, but you

Amy Vorpahl:

can give me money other ways.

Amy Vorpahl:

I have, uh, I have all my albums up on Bandcamp.

Amy Vorpahl:

Behold Her Dreams is the newest album.

Amy Vorpahl:

It's not there yet, but you can get Songs in the Key of

Amy Vorpahl:

D&D, which is my first album.

Amy Vorpahl:

That includes The DM's Lament, which you may or may not have heard.

Amy Vorpahl:

Uh, and that'll be on my band camp.

Amy Vorpahl:

If you're just curious about anything I'm doing, you can go to AmyVorpahl.com

Amy Vorpahl:

and for more up to date things, and like, kind of in the now and going

Amy Vorpahl:

live on Twitch, that kind of thing.

Amy Vorpahl:

You can follow me at Twitter and Instagram at VorpahlSword.

Amy Vorpahl:

So, uh, I, I guess my next step is making a music video because.

Amy Vorpahl:

I can tell you now that I have reached that goal the stretch

Amy Vorpahl:

goal for that Kickstarter.

Amy Vorpahl:

So thanks to the audience for helping me make that happen.

Amy Vorpahl:

yeah, I'm just, I'm having a great year.

Amy Vorpahl:

Candlekeep Mysteries came out, Fizban's Treasury of Dragons came out.

Amy Vorpahl:

If I guess what I would ask is if you ever play my adventure or enjoy

Amy Vorpahl:

Fizban's voice, just throw me a tweet.

Amy Vorpahl:

It really, it really makes my day.

Amy Vorpahl:

There's no royalties on these books.

Amy Vorpahl:

So, uh, I consider those, the royalties is like, if I have brought joy to someone

Amy Vorpahl:

through working for wizards of the coast, that, that, that is payment enough.

Amy Vorpahl:

And, and that's what I really, really, really, like.

Amy Vorpahl:

I just love it when people are like, I played your adventure and

Amy Vorpahl:

my character is my player characters were like, what is going on?

Amy Vorpahl:

I'm like, yay.

Amy Vorpahl:

I did it.

Amy Vorpahl:

So just toss me a tweet that that will make my day and I do, read them all.

Lucas:

Thanks for sticking with this episode all the way to

Lucas:

the end for listeners like you.

Lucas:

I have some free TTR RPG extras to level up your games, including stat blocks

Lucas:

for monsters on the show, discount codes for top selling DMS Guild products, even

Lucas:

short stories and artwork from my guests.

Lucas:

Just go to scintilla.studio/monster that's S C I N T I L L A dot studio slash

Lucas:

monster and click on Yes, I want those!"

Lucas:

Email subscribers will also be the first to know about my upcoming D

Lucas:

and D releases, including something frankly incredible I'm working on

Lucas:

with Mage Hand Press, you know, the D'vati / Dark Matter / Wizmos guys?

Lucas:

It's going to make you believe D and D can be more than you ever thought it could.

Lucas:

And I'm so excited to share it with you.

Lucas:

If you really like what I'm doing, consider supporting the show on Patreon.

Lucas:

Patrons get bonus content like music I recorded for the show, extra conversations

Lucas:

with my guests, live episode premieres with other podcasting friends and

Lucas:

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Lucas:

This show takes hours every week to produce and edit and Patreon support

Lucas:

helps offset the value of that time, as well as allowing me to upgrade equipment

Lucas:

and license new music for the show.

Lucas:

If supporting the show, monetarily, isn't an option for you.

Lucas:

Please share it with the people who play games with you.

Lucas:

There's a monster for everyone and your recommendation lets people know they can

Lucas:

trust me with their time and attention.

Lucas:

It's a real gift to me and the creators I feature.

Lucas:

You can also rate and review the show on iTunes, Google Podcasts,

Lucas:

or your podcast app of choice.

Lucas:

I haven't mentioned that in a while, but even three dozen episodes in

Lucas:

five stars and a few words helps new listeners take the leap and join

Lucas:

the conversation with this show.

Lucas:

So again, thank you for listening.

Lucas:

I will see you next week for an episode from the prehistoric past.

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