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
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:you, and believe it or not stickers!
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.