0:04

Welcome to Dragon Talk!

0:07

Yay! Yahoo!

0:12

We got the official Dungeons and Dragons podcast

0:15

coming at ya. We're super hot. Yep.

0:18

We are flaming. Super hot. Yeah,

0:20

we're flaming hot Cheetos. That's right. That's right. We're

0:25

dropping brand names all over the place on this

0:27

episode. I'm

0:31

Greg Tito. That's Shelly Mazinoba. Yeah!

0:34

I forgot what we were doing for a minute there. I was like just

0:36

so caught up in being called super hot. It's

0:39

a super hot podcast today. It

0:42

really is. It is. It's a

0:44

giant super hot podcast.

0:47

Super hot because we have the

0:49

amazing giant talent

0:52

of Emmy Tanji coming to talk

0:54

to us. One of the greatest wizards.

0:57

She also, like Bigby,

1:00

one of the greatest wizards of all time. It's

1:02

true. Yeah. And one

1:04

of the most diminutive in size. Also

1:07

like Bigby. But not talent. Yes.

1:10

Right. Also like Bigby. I

1:12

love that. You'll hear all about that in our interview with art director

1:14

Emmy Tanji, who's been at Wizards for 16 years.

1:17

What? Not

1:19

impressive. Yeah. Shelly's

1:21

like, talk to me when you get to 45. Yeah,

1:25

that's what happens. Your voice changes

1:27

at year 45.

1:32

Clearly I must be approaching year 45

1:34

because I've been talking in that

1:37

voice a lot lately. You've

1:38

been really going into your lower register. I

1:42

saw that acting training. I

1:46

don't know why that was so funny. I've

1:49

noticed that you've really been digging into that lower

1:51

register. Oh

1:53

my God. These

1:55

hands. Oh no, it's coming back. French

1:58

fried potatoes.

2:01

It's like a sling blade

2:03

reference. Oh,

2:11

Billy Bob. He was on a reality show,

2:13

wasn't he? No, I don't know.

2:15

Oh, I know he should be. Probably a big brother

2:17

or something. Big brother.

2:23

Well, I think we have something

2:27

beyond us crying, laughing on this podcast. We

2:29

have to talk about Shelley. Okay. We

2:33

are traveling a bunch this summer

2:36

as well as having a lot of work

2:38

to do. And so we are going to take a little bit of a break

2:41

from Dragon Talk, publishing new episodes over

2:44

August and July of 2023. We

2:49

hope to be back with our

2:51

two episodes, at least

2:53

that will bring us tonight. 400 episodes. We're going

2:55

to give you 400 episodes very soon. Yeah. Yeah.

2:59

So hiatus, come

3:02

back strong. That's right. Rusted,

3:04

relaxed with our like tans

3:08

and I don't know, what do people do over the

3:10

summer if they're really on a hiatus? Which we're

3:12

not. It's

3:14

a hot orc summer I've heard

3:16

from our friends at Can Trip Candles. So we'll be doing

3:18

that as well as getting, you know, all

3:22

the celebratory things around for 400 episodes

3:24

because we had so much fun around

3:26

our 300th episode. And

3:28

so I feel like that

3:29

was like a few months ago. How

3:32

is this even possible? It's time

3:34

is a flat circle. It really is. It

3:37

keeps going. So yeah,

3:40

we don't, we won't have any new episodes published

3:42

on our feeds for July or August,

3:45

but we will be back in September and

3:47

can't wait to check you out there. So enjoy your, your,

3:50

your amazing break. Play

3:53

as much D and D and other games as you possibly

3:55

can. And yeah, we'll hit the ground

3:57

running in September.

3:59

And. Maybe if you haven't already,

4:01

dig into 398 other episodes. Maybe

4:05

you haven't gone that far back into our library,

4:07

our very extensive library. Go

4:10

back and listen to some of the older

4:12

episodes, because I think there's a lot of

4:14

really good ones

4:15

in there. There is. A lot of great segments.

4:17

We're going to talk about what segments we

4:19

will be returning with in

4:21

the fall. And there's

4:24

a, like, yeah, like she said, there's a wealth of stuff out

4:26

there. Maybe since we talked about Storm King's Thunder

4:28

a bunch, go back in time to 2016 and

4:31

learn about what we were talking about when we were

4:33

making Storm King's Thunder. There is a lot there. Of

4:36

course, like and subscribe and get everybody to

4:38

listen to Dragon Talk. It's always a great

4:41

tool for meeting new people in

4:43

the D&D community, as well as all

4:45

of the, you know, design

4:47

and artwork that goes into making

4:50

this amazing game happen for you all out there. So jump

4:53

in, make it all happen. We

4:56

have an amazing interview, as we said, with

4:59

Emi Tanji, so let's get to it. Let's

5:03

welcome Emi Tanji back

5:05

to Dragon Talk! Yay!

5:07

Yay! Emi! Emi! Emi!

5:11

Emi! Emi! Emi! Emi!

5:14

Emi! Emi! Hello!

5:17

Hello! Thank you for having me. Any

5:19

time. It's so good to see you

5:21

and hear you and get to talk to you. Oh,

5:24

thank you. Same here. I am seeing you

5:26

folks.

5:28

I know, we were just saying that we're all West Seattle,

5:30

but we don't get to see each other as much. This

5:32

is the only way, is through the technology

5:35

and showmanship of Dragon

5:37

Talk.

5:38

Thanks goodness for that. Probably not

5:40

the only way. Fair play. We

5:42

could actually, let's make a plan. Let's

5:45

meet at that really cute, let's

5:49

go to Safeway together. I'll meet at Safeway.

5:52

I'll meet at 30 p.m. I was gonna

5:54

say the Good Society Brewing

5:56

Company, but Safeway's

5:59

great too.

5:59

Both are exceptional.

6:02

Both are good options. Not

6:06

the game store, not Meeples, but we'll do

6:08

a... Emmy is very

6:10

practical. She's like, I want to see you, but I also

6:12

am very busy. So you can help

6:15

me get my... Walk the aisles with me. Get

6:17

my things. It will be air conditioned.

6:20

Multitask. Exactly. We

6:22

can get snacks. It'll be great. Oh

6:25

my goodness. That's a plan. And I love

6:27

bagging groceries. I love it. Please.

6:31

All right. This is a plan. I am very

6:34

thoughtful about...

6:36

I've studied. I have studied the

6:38

baggers for years. Like, how do they do

6:41

that? They fit a lot into

6:43

a bag. Much the way I've studied

6:45

art directors for years. Oh,

6:48

segue. Usually it's Greg's

6:50

job to segue, but I am feeling inspired

6:53

today. But, Emmy,

6:55

you are an art director at Wizards

6:58

of the Coast working on the D&D team, and

7:00

I will speak for absolutely

7:02

everybody when I say we are so lucky

7:04

to have you on

7:05

our team. I am so lucky to be

7:08

here. But

7:10

you know what? I think we should start with

7:12

a really basic question before

7:15

we get into the hard hitting

7:17

questions. But I think for

7:20

a lot of people, maybe they don't understand what the role of an art

7:22

director really is. And it's

7:24

probably different at different companies

7:27

and different industries, but maybe as it pertains

7:30

to Dungeons and Dragons, what

7:33

is the role of an art director? Oh,

7:35

my goodness. I would say the role of

7:37

an art director, like you said, it can be many

7:39

things. Specifically for

7:42

our team, the D&D imaginative

7:45

team, the studio, creating

7:47

stuff for the TRPG space. It

7:49

is kind of thing that bridge

7:51

between the game

7:54

designers and our artists. So

7:56

we get all of this amazing content, you

7:58

know, created by these teams.

7:59

who are just incredible. The

8:02

words. Yeah, just not only smart, but

8:04

also like just so talented

8:07

in crafting the words. Like you

8:09

say, the story, the adventure, making sure

8:11

it all mechanically works. And they

8:13

have this vision. And of course

8:16

I can't draw. So I can't draw this book.

8:18

So I have to find amazing artists who

8:20

do. And thankfully we have

8:23

a whole lot of them. So being

8:25

that art director is making sure that the

8:28

artists can receive these directions

8:29

and these orders and

8:32

descriptions in order to create the art

8:34

that you see so beautifully painted in our books.

8:37

And then there's also a lot of stuff. Like conversing

8:40

with them as amazing marketing teams,

8:42

the other internal teams, like outside

8:45

teams, giving them advice on

8:48

what our creatures look like. You know, like

8:50

when they're making minis, you know, whose kids

8:52

are incredible partners or

8:54

folks that, you know, want to make licensed

8:57

goods. It's like all of those things, everything

8:59

that touches D&D and needs

9:01

some visual support is something art

9:03

director has the ability to

9:06

influence wonderfully. So

9:08

a lot of different things we can do.

9:11

Yeah. And it is a lot of like the

9:14

illustrations and getting those in the books looking awesome.

9:18

And the

9:20

secondary part of that being like the visual

9:22

guide for

9:25

the brand and all of our creatures, that's

9:28

just interesting to me because it's such a all

9:32

encompassing thing, right? It's like, oh yeah,

9:34

I mean, there was a point where we were standardizing

9:36

like what the different dragons look like

9:39

in Dungeons and Dragons. And you're like, that's so, you

9:41

know, big,

9:42

it's huge sweeping. And then you

9:44

saw some of that work in, you know, Dungeons

9:47

and Dragons, Honor Among Thieves. Like how

9:49

crazy was that to see some of that?

9:50

Oh my God, it is so, even

9:53

still the movie, I'm being such a

9:55

good movie as it was. Like

9:57

seeing all of that come to life.

9:59

and huge props to the franchise

10:02

team for handling that so beautifully.

10:05

But just seeing our world translated to

10:07

the movie screen was incredible.

10:10

I think our Red Dragon correct and correctly

10:12

adorably round. There

10:15

are so many fantasy

10:17

worlds out there with great dragons. To

10:20

see that our Red Dragon was portrayed

10:23

correctly, and I think vision is so satisfying.

10:28

There might be the word director

10:29

in my name, but

10:33

a lot of my experience

10:36

and the things I tell other people are things

10:38

I've learned from all the folks on our

10:40

team. I'm not the end all beyond

10:42

knowledge and everything. Things are always

10:44

evolving, changing. I'm constantly learning

10:46

about what D&D is

10:49

and what it could be. I really,

10:51

really love that part of my job.

10:53

Yeah,

10:56

it's super cool. Just to

10:59

see these imaginative,

11:01

fantastical worlds brought to

11:03

life. I think the art has always been one

11:05

of my favorite parts about this game.

11:08

Even though it's in our heads, I love

11:11

to see it come to life as

11:13

a spellcaster. To see

11:15

a spell being cast visually,

11:18

or in the movie too, that was super cool. I'm

11:20

like, oh my God, that's what I

11:22

look like when I cast burning hands.

11:25

That's so cool. You

11:27

say this really cool partnership between

11:30

you and the design, you're

11:32

both design, but game design versus graphic

11:35

and art design.

11:37

When they're writing it, they

11:40

are also writing those art orders that

11:42

then get turned over to you.

11:44

Who is it that's deciding what

11:48

parts of the book will

11:50

be visually brought to life? Certainly,

11:53

there's not every single scene,

11:55

every single encounter. How

11:58

is it determined?

11:59

this character doing this particular

12:02

thing is what we're going to hire

12:04

an artist to do. Yeah, the majority

12:06

of that I would say does come from like the

12:08

writers and the game leads because I

12:11

mean, the book is in their head. The book

12:13

is in their hands, you know? So they

12:15

know exactly what it is. But there's

12:17

a really, really great partnership where we'll sit down

12:19

together and line by

12:22

line, word by word, we will go through these

12:24

art descriptions and, you know, like

12:26

review it like what is this? What are the folks?

12:29

What are the characters

12:29

depicted in the scene? What is the scene

12:32

itself? What is the creature? How is this

12:34

described? Because my job will be to

12:37

tell this to the artist and I need to make

12:39

sure that everything is very clear. Everything is

12:41

very straightforward because

12:43

it needs to make sense. It can't be totally

12:46

fluffy and you know, like, like a

12:48

long lengthy sentence and paragraph

12:50

about what this is. But I'm like,

12:52

but does it make sense for an artist to draw? Is

12:54

this something? Overall the things or does it just

12:57

sound fluffy? So it is getting

12:59

to that conversation with the

13:02

game lead is so much fun to me because

13:04

it's like sitting in a room for hours and just

13:06

talking about art and what's in the book

13:09

and getting familiar with all the content.

13:11

And it is it's

13:14

it's really it's really fun

13:16

and knowledgeable. Like it's yeah, it's a

13:18

great thing. And you got to do that with James

13:20

Wyatt for for glory

13:23

of the Giants coming out. How

13:25

was that experience? What was it like working with him?

13:28

Oh my goodness. Working with James is like

13:31

going to like a

13:33

peaceful yoga retreat or something. Yes.

13:37

He is. He's the

13:39

most zen, wonderful,

13:41

kind, gentle human being.

13:44

I know. And he's just so knowledgeable

13:46

about D&D and so much like other

13:48

knowledge to about more history, like

13:51

real world religion. There's

13:54

just so much thoughtfulness and he's so

13:56

easy going and he's so like open

13:59

to ideas and such.

13:59

So he'll be like, this is an idea. And

14:02

I'll be like, what about this? And he said, yes, of course.

14:04

And I'm such a

14:06

wonderful partner to get to work with.

14:09

He really is. Yes, we

14:11

talked to him last week on this

14:13

here podcast. I listened. Oh. Thanks.

14:19

I do feel like I was very relaxed

14:21

after that episode. Why

14:23

do I just feel so chill and

14:26

zen? Oh, because I talked to James Wyatt. Yeah.

14:29

Who was

14:29

by a pond in a lake. Oh my

14:31

god, with the swan. Oh, I know. He's

14:33

just like, oh, there's just like these

14:36

birds that are, hang on. Let me just identify

14:38

what bird this is, like, perch stock on

14:40

my railing right now. It's amazing.

14:44

But giants are also amazing. What

14:47

a cool, awesome book that,

14:49

again, has some of the most beautiful

14:51

art that I have ever seen in any book. Oh, thank you.

14:54

They just really keep getting better. But this

14:56

is a, I mean, we're

14:58

talking giants. Like, it's not a

15:01

typical

15:01

adventure book where it's like

15:03

just an adventuring party that you get to see having

15:06

experiences that you and your adventuring party may

15:08

or may not have as well, or like some NPCs

15:10

or a cool location. Like, we're actually talking

15:13

about the

15:13

reinvention of these

15:17

magnificent creatures. A

15:19

whole book of it. A whole entire book of it.

15:22

And like, forgive the pun,

15:24

but a giant bestiary. Oh my

15:26

god, it's so big. There's

15:29

so many monsters in this book. But

15:32

for the giants in particular, like,

15:34

that's, oh my god, the puns just write

15:36

themselves. That's no small task. You love

15:39

it. To like reinvent giants.

15:41

So I got it. Is it different to

15:44

work on a book like giants

15:46

versus a book like Planescape, which

15:48

you're also working on, but you probably can't tell us too

15:50

much about that. Too much yet. But

15:53

yeah, totally different. Like, one is like

15:56

a whole world setting, you know, adventure.

15:58

And the other

15:59

is like... Oh, a whole book?

16:01

Like you want to put the whole book about giants?

16:04

You don't want to put it in? And so like, you

16:06

know, when I first heard that, I was curious as well. I'm

16:09

like, okay,

16:10

okay, with giants, big people, and

16:12

a whole book. And

16:14

yeah, we did a whole book and it's fantastic.

16:17

And like to go back a little bit, my

16:20

first real big brush with

16:22

giants was back in the sky. Thanks.

16:26

Nice. Can't help it. Can't stop, won't

16:28

stop. 2016 with the Storm Kings

16:30

Thunder, the adventure campaign, you know,

16:33

which was an adventure, so it was different. There

16:35

was a story, so we filled the whole book and it was

16:37

great. And this one, like you

16:39

said, Shelly, like this one focuses on giants

16:42

and

16:43

more. Like it's, you know, you

16:45

kind of had mentioned that we animate

16:47

re-imagination, isn't

16:49

that words? And that is

16:52

truly what James did with this.

16:54

Like he emphasizes like the magical

16:57

and elemental nature of these

16:59

big people, which to me initially,

17:01

you know, I was like, oh, big people, great. You know, I would rather

17:04

see critters and things that crawl and

17:06

things that are creepy or something. But

17:08

no, this is like, in this, there's

17:10

exploration on the giants' cultures.

17:13

There are societies, you know, like they're not

17:15

just big old angry

17:17

big people. There's

17:20

so much more. Like me and Greg. There's

17:24

spider fights. It's getting worse.

17:26

It is getting worse, by the way. It

17:28

is getting bumpier. We're gonna keep audio. My

17:31

God. I know. Sorry,

17:33

Greg. I keep trying. It's like

17:35

I got necrosis of

17:37

the arm. Okay, sorry. That was like very red

17:39

and very bumpy. But anyway, sorry. It's

17:46

all funny until someone passes out

17:48

because he's been poisoned. Or super powered.

17:50

Yeah. That's true. For

17:53

those of you listening, I think I got a spider bite like right before I

17:55

started recording this interview.

17:59

So if I do pass out in the middle of it, blame

18:02

Loth. Then a good one. Two spider

18:04

bites. Two spider bites, that's right. Two spider

18:06

bites. That we know of now. Yeah,

18:09

that's true. Well, so

18:11

at least they weren't tick bites because

18:13

there's a giant tick in this book. That

18:16

would have been bad.

18:17

There's a giant tick in this book? There's a giant tick

18:19

in the book. The creative segues. I

18:22

can't wait till you see the illustration. It's

18:24

on a giant's back, so let your

18:26

minds imagine what that looks

18:29

like.

18:29

Is it engorged? It's

18:31

engorged. And it's the most amazing

18:34

thing. The giant has his arms trying

18:36

to get at it. Oh, it's so frustrating.

18:39

Right at that center part, yes. Oh no.

18:42

It's amazing. Do giant ticks poison,

18:44

Giant?

18:46

You know, I'd have to look at the

18:48

step block. But

18:50

all I could do is focus on the art itself.

18:54

Okay, excellent example. Was

18:56

this in the art order where somebody was like,

18:59

what did James Wyatt say? Make sure the tick's

19:01

in a spot where he can't itch it. No,

19:04

so that's the, it's, I

19:06

think I've said on a giant or

19:08

on a giant's back maybe. But the way the

19:10

artist made the hands just not long

19:13

enough to reach the giant

19:15

thing was just chef's

19:16

kiss. Yes. And

19:18

that tells a story right there. Yes. It's,

19:22

yeah, it's giving the artist

19:24

just these descriptions. And I, in

19:26

my head, it becomes one thing. And then when

19:28

I see it, I'm like, oh, they took it there.

19:31

Or, you know, it went, oh my goodness.

19:33

Like that's amazing. And just the

19:35

joy of getting to work with these artists. Like they're

19:37

incredible. They are so talented

19:40

and they are so amazing. Like there is this one

19:42

piece of art of a flesh colossus.

19:45

So use again, use imagination.

19:47

Also sounds like something Greg has going on right

19:49

now. There's it's right,

19:51

yeah. It's just

19:53

amazing. I don't know what that means exactly, but it sounds gross.

19:57

Yeah. Yeah, there's some very,

19:59

very. Flush. Oh, and colossals. Yeah.

20:02

Okay. I think

20:05

I might've distracted you from when

20:07

you were talking about your first big project.

20:10

Oh. Because I got, I'm sorry.

20:12

I was just, your bite is

20:14

getting worse, Greg. It's true, it's true. It's

20:17

true. So I didn't mean to distract. Storm King's Thunder is not

20:19

getting worse. It's getting better over time. It

20:21

is. It is. Giants only continue

20:24

to get better. Yeah,

20:26

we're, what is the point?

20:27

Right, so you were the art director on that. No,

20:30

I was the graphic designer. I

20:32

was a graphic designer back then, and

20:35

the wonderful Kate Irwin and Sean

20:37

and Arcee. So we're the art directors. Oh.

20:40

I know. It's been a journey. Also

20:43

greats in the D&D world. Yeah,

20:45

so this time I get to try my art director

20:47

hands on this and the amazingly

20:51

talented, wonderful Trish Yocum was

20:54

my principal graphic designer, extraordinary

20:57

on this. And it was really cool because she

20:59

picked up some

20:59

things from the Storm King's Thunder

21:02

book, layout, color, palette and such.

21:04

But then she took it to the next, next,

21:07

next, next level as she does. That's

21:09

awesome. So it's pretty gorgeous. It's

21:12

a beautiful book.

21:13

I, just to segue a little

21:16

to Trish, because you brought it up. Oh

21:18

yeah. But I know we've talked to her too on Dragon

21:20

Talk, but she's one of the most

21:22

talented designers ever.

21:25

I've actually gotten to see her work and

21:27

I'm sure she wasn't like thrilled that I was standing behind

21:30

her, but we were like out of time

21:32

crunch. I think we were working on Dungeon Mayhem

21:34

and it was like, not

21:37

enough time to like print stuff out

21:39

and review it. She was just like, okay, just come

21:41

here and I'll show you what I'm working on.

21:43

I'm

21:43

like, oh, she's just like clicky, clicky, click, click, click,

21:46

click, click, click, click, click. And it's like, oh my God, you

21:49

literally just laid out these cards and they're gorgeous.

21:51

Like she did all of that graphic design on

21:53

Dungeon Mayhem that created the icons

21:56

for the cards, but just like,

21:57

it is a very, very, very, very, very,

22:00

very talented skill to

22:02

be able to like look at a page in a book

22:04

and see like a little bit of like

22:07

an ink blot here or like the

22:09

framing around a piece. I like she's, it's

22:12

so cool. It's just,

22:13

I think it's the scrapbooker in her that she's

22:15

just so able to like make every page

22:18

come alive. So. Yeah, she balances

22:21

things so perfectly. Like these,

22:23

these book layouts, like we have a whole team of amazing

22:26

graphic designers and they have

22:28

to work that line of not

22:31

making a page overly designed, right?

22:33

Yeah. Because the purpose of these books

22:35

is that they're, they're ultimately, they

22:37

are to be informative.

22:39

People are supposed to learn from these books, their books, there's

22:42

words, there's beautiful pictures and

22:44

the graphic designer's job is to make it all sing

22:47

together, right? So it's not about

22:49

just slapping a whole bunch of stuff on the

22:51

page, like legibility needs to be

22:53

huge. It needs to also be beautiful. So

22:57

they're, you know, the way that they design

22:59

these books are wonderful and it is,

23:01

it is a talent. It really

23:04

is. And the way that you all work together

23:06

to make that, that happen, it's a

23:08

beautiful symphony. And there

23:10

is, if you haven't seen a graphic

23:13

designer on the level of Tricia and Emmy

23:15

work, it is a little bit like watching

23:18

the, a movie

23:20

that is showing like a hacker. Like when you

23:22

see like a hacker who's like, I'm going to hack the system and

23:25

they're clicking all the things and pushing all the buttons

23:27

and doing all the things. That's what it is like

23:29

watching

23:30

someone at the level of Emmy and Trish,

23:32

right? Where they're like, I can't believe, I mean, you have

23:34

all of the keystrokes

23:36

memorized in such a way and I'm walking at the screen

23:39

and I can't even follow what you're

23:41

doing and the speed that you're doing it. And

23:43

it is fantastic. And I

23:45

love that we get to see that, you know, in

23:48

the office when we are in the office, making

23:51

it all happen. It's glorious. And

23:54

yeah, so kudos to you and Emmy, you did

23:57

such amazing stuff on Storm King Thunder.

23:59

This going forward, forward, like it just seems

24:02

so cool to be able to take these ideas of giants and kind

24:04

of level them up a little bit here in

24:07

the visuals.

24:08

It's your glory

24:11

of the giants yourself because

24:13

you're that big and spectacular

24:16

in the art director world. And your

24:18

work is glorious. Oh, thank

24:20

you. God glory. If we wrote a book

24:22

about Emmy, it would be glorious work

24:25

of the giants.

24:26

Well, in some ways, this

24:28

book does have an

24:31

inspiration of a the

24:33

the presenter of this book is Big B,

24:36

who used to be a human and is

24:38

no longer. Can you talk a little bit about that?

24:41

Yes. So I'm going to reel it

24:43

back a little bit and a little peek behind. So

24:45

Big B used to be a human wizard

24:47

originated from Greyhawk under Gary

24:50

Gijgax. And so, you

24:52

know, we have a lot of great iconic

24:55

wizards and characters in the D&D

24:57

multiverse. And we thought, hey,

24:59

history has a lot of really great human

25:02

wizards. And D&D

25:04

has such a deep, flavorful

25:06

cauldron to draw inspiration

25:08

from. So what if one of our iconic

25:11

wizards became not a human?

25:14

And there we can, you know,

25:16

like we have just so many wonderful things to

25:18

showcase, like so many different flavors.

25:21

Like, as you can see from all of the different

25:23

characters, like our players create. So

25:25

why not make one of

25:27

the really iconic voices not

25:29

a human? You know, someone really cool. So that's

25:31

where we began exploring what could what

25:34

kind of character could Big B be. And,

25:36

you know, he's got these amazing giant hands,

25:39

his magical spell, right, that are really iconic.

25:42

So we explored looking into maybe a smaller

25:45

character and, you know, through

25:47

some really amazing concept art by

25:49

John Grello. We

25:51

turned him into this fabulous

25:53

gnome who makes his

25:55

transformation in this book. So

25:58

the very opening page, the.

25:59

which is one of my favorite pieces of art, you'll

26:02

see

26:03

Bigby meeting his demise. His

26:06

human Bigby meeting his demise. And

26:09

what follows is all the other visual

26:11

representations of Bigby throughout the book

26:13

is his in known form. Okay,

26:16

I have to admit, I didn't realize that

26:19

that was happening in this book. I

26:21

thought that was already part of his history. Oh no,

26:24

it entries. It's a really fun, it's

26:26

so D&D. Yeah, it

26:28

is. It's such a D&D moment. And I,

26:31

when James described this scene

26:33

to me, I was like, yes,

26:33

we're going to open with this. That is

26:36

fun. So, yeah,

26:38

it's this, it's a great piece of

26:40

Bigby, human Bigby,

26:43

underneath a rock. So we don't really originally

26:45

see, you know, a boulder, what he looks like.

26:48

But Mordecai and his friend is

26:50

there just kind of looking and, oh my goodness, what

26:52

just happened? And behind them is this giant

26:55

frost giant towering over

26:57

who is grabbing a piece of the mountain because

26:59

apparently that was

27:01

what just crushed our dear Bigby, right? So

27:05

it's almost like a cartoonish

27:08

scene because you see the trail in the

27:10

snow where the boulder had gone. And then

27:13

his shoes sticking out

27:15

of the bottom. But it is

27:17

just,

27:17

it feels like such a D&D moment.

27:20

It does. I love that it gets

27:22

reincarnated as a gnome in a book about

27:24

giants. Like, that's so funny

27:26

to me. It is.

27:27

I love

27:29

the fact that it's like this little diminutive

27:32

gnomey, powerful gnome, you

27:34

know, it has these powerful spells

27:37

and a powerful spellcaster who

27:39

has to now wrestle with this challenge of

27:41

being a little person compared to what

27:43

he was as well as some of the new friends that he's making along

27:45

the way. And I can't

27:48

help but think, you know, Amy, you are not

27:50

an extremely tall person. I am not.

27:51

I know the

27:53

challenges of a gnome. Right. Did

27:56

that come into play at all as you were art directing this? Oh, I

27:58

mean, I am. always

28:00

an advocate for showing our haplings,

28:03

our gnomes, you know, our dwarves. Like,

28:05

I love seeing more of that in our

28:07

art. So the idea when they were pitching it,

28:11

oh, could be a different, you know, like species.

28:13

I was like, oh, yes, let's do

28:16

this. And plus our gnomes, our dandy

28:18

gnomes, their design is that

28:20

they are the characters with larger

28:22

hands, you know, and larger feet, you know, even

28:24

though they're a little shorter. So that plays perfectly.

28:27

These are just small tiny little details, but

28:29

that

28:29

plays perfectly into the overall design.

28:32

Yeah. When James talked

28:34

about this, I didn't really, like, it was like,

28:37

I thought it was just like Big B's history. Like,

28:39

it happened. Like, you guys were like basically

28:41

like

28:42

DMing for Mordecain

28:44

and Big B, and Big B just rolled really low.

28:47

Yeah.

28:47

Oh, really high. A few. More really high. Love

28:50

gnomes. Yeah. And I mean, that's true. I didn't

28:52

mean to imply that that's you. Yes.

28:55

But wow. Yes. Okay. Amazing.

28:59

I love it. What a cool story. And

29:01

just what like history is now happening.

29:03

Like now you have literally changed D&D history.

29:07

It's evolving and I love it. Just

29:09

love it too. Like 50 years from now, people

29:12

are gonna still be playing D&D, obviously.

29:14

Okay. There'll be a new crop of

29:16

art directors and game

29:17

designers, and they're gonna be like, so 50

29:20

years ago, a boulder

29:22

fell on Big B. He

29:25

died. Mordecain resurrected him

29:27

and he became a gnome. And now a new

29:29

boulder is gonna fall on him. Oh, what's

29:31

the role? What could happen? For every employee.

29:35

It's

29:35

so cool. I mean, I would have voted for Tabaxi,

29:37

but that's just me. That would

29:40

be amazing. And could

29:42

you describe Big B as a Tabaxi? He's

29:45

very short. He's very small. With the little short-says.

29:47

A little short-saxi. Combine

29:50

both the gnome and the Tabaxi into

29:52

one. The gnome Tabaxi. Oh.

29:57

What? Let's make history again here. Let's

30:00

throw another bowl there. You could draw that. Oh,

30:04

so cool. Speaking of adorable

30:06

gnome tabaxis, our newest

30:10

creature that we've just created right here on the

30:12

spot, let's talk about some of

30:15

the real creatures that are actually

30:17

in this book. Right. You

30:20

must have some

30:23

favorites.

30:24

Oh, well, the tick. We

30:27

know what the tick and the flesh colossal. Speaking

30:29

of which, can we get a flesh check on you? Yeah,

30:31

yeah. Those are

30:33

good. Still red. Bulbas. I

30:36

feel like it's expanding. It's expanding

30:38

and there's like a. Oh

30:40

yeah, that's like a red dot in the middle of it. One

30:44

giant tick. One of those is definitely

30:46

like bigger than a quarter

30:48

and it's gotten

30:50

bigger. We're now in like half dollar

30:53

size, I'd say. I just want to give our listeners

30:55

a visual. Oh, I see.

30:57

Describe my wounds. And

30:59

maybe if you had to write an art order for

31:02

Greg's colossal flesh wounds. It's

31:07

basically like mountains, Cascade

31:09

Mountains growing as long as

31:10

I can turn into a drider by the end of this, I think I'll

31:13

be happy. That would be cool. Oh, that'd be nice.

31:15

A drider with cool hair. Carry

31:18

the kids around and save on gas.

31:21

You could carry all the groceries from

31:23

the car. You don't have to ever make

31:25

two dris. Which I actually

31:28

refuse to make two trips no matter how

31:30

many bags I have in my trunk. So I

31:32

do transform into a drider when I

31:34

carry those.

31:35

You and Rachel Ray. I love you. That's

31:39

not the first time somebody has said you

31:41

and Rachel Ray about something I said.

31:42

They probably could speak to. We joke about it all the time.

31:46

In her cooking show, she always would take like

31:48

everything out of the refrigerator

31:50

and we're like, just make two. It's right behind you. You

31:52

don't have to like load up every single

31:54

time. Anyway,

31:57

we were going to talk about giant ticks. Let's,

31:59

let's go.

31:59

back to the giant, amazing

32:03

creatures we got here. Sure. Yes. And

32:05

we do have some. Just a

32:08

few. We can cover all. No,

32:10

we don't. We can't. It's a huge

32:12

big story. Over 70. Over 70. 70, 70, 70. Yeah.

32:14

So there

32:20

was some really,

32:21

again, reel it back a little bit. There was some really

32:24

cool concept art that the amazing

32:26

Sean Wood had started that I got to kind

32:28

of follow, follow us and continue

32:31

on. And that those

32:33

were things like giants that

32:35

had even more elemental things to them. They were

32:37

giant dinosaurs, which dinosaurs

32:39

already feel pretty giant to us. Right. But

32:42

they were giants to giant

32:44

to giant. So even giants.

32:48

They were like things they were described to me as

32:51

would, you know, if a giant needed

32:53

amount he would get on to this giant

32:56

dinosaur.

32:58

Yeah. So kind of big,

33:00

big boys. But they

33:02

were really cool. And April Prime

33:04

did these really awesome

33:07

concept pieces. And she used this. She

33:09

was kind of inspired by that Kintsugi, like

33:12

broken

33:13

ceramic, you know, kind of, yeah,

33:16

raft where they would be fused back together by

33:18

gold and, you know, material.

33:20

So like, it was really cool to lean

33:22

into the elemental aspect of the dinosaurs.

33:25

Like she brought in these amazing cracks

33:27

of like glowing red on like the registrar

33:29

or like blue on the aerosaur,

33:32

like which is a flying kind of paradoxical

33:34

sort of thing. And

33:36

it was it's really beautiful because they feel

33:39

so much more than just

33:41

a big dinosaur. Like there are some

33:43

slight differences that are just

33:45

slightly stranger and slightly more wild,

33:49

which I'm really excited for everybody to see. And

33:51

then Ilya Shkipin kind of took

33:53

it to the final in our books. So

33:56

they're really beautiful pieces of art.

33:58

And I'm curious. to hear how

34:00

they're going to appear in folks' campaigns. Like,

34:03

because it's one thing to encounter a dinosaur

34:05

and then you encounter these giant size

34:08

gargantuan dinosaurs, which

34:10

are going to be really, really cool. I

34:13

can't even imagine. So take

34:15

a

34:16

D&D human

34:18

to scale. What

34:21

how big would a giant,

34:24

not just a regular dinosaur, but a giant dinosaur

34:26

appear? Like, what would that I'm

34:28

trying to figure out? In my head, how

34:31

big that really is. It's big. Yeah.

34:35

Like a like a department

34:37

store. Yeah. Like

34:40

a good sized Sears. Like

34:42

a right. Like a like a

34:45

like a Sierra, like an anchor store

34:47

at the end of a mall. Big. Yeah,

34:50

probably a good size. Maybe a two star

34:52

department store. Wow.

34:56

That's OK. Yeah.

34:57

Big enough for a giant amount. Like that's you're like,

34:59

OK, that's the thing. Yeah.

35:02

Yeah. I mean, we've got big we've got big things.

35:04

We've got we've got

35:07

big giants that were influenced

35:10

by, you know, like devilish or demonic

35:12

kind of powers. So there's

35:14

like this one really great one of the Ettin Ceramorf,

35:18

which is

35:20

which is Ettin, obviously,

35:22

who is infected. I suppose is that the correct

35:25

way to say it by the mind flayer

35:27

tadpoles. So processes

35:30

are the ceramic.

35:32

You know, more forces, Sarah

35:34

more forces. OK, seriously.

35:36

I don't know. Mo he's got spider

35:38

bite. It's

35:42

giving him like grammar, nerd

35:45

powers. It's actually so

35:47

my fault. So.

35:48

This

35:52

is a little thing for me. He corrected

35:54

me. I welcome it, Greg. But this creature,

35:57

so, you know.

35:59

Ettins got two heads, right? And

36:02

then so because of the tadpoles, two tadpoles

36:04

infused into them. And then so you see this

36:07

great, you know, like kind of mind flare

36:09

head here. And in their chest is this other

36:11

mind flare kind of like head that's

36:14

like imbued in there. And it is

36:16

just incredible. Eww. I

36:18

know, actually. Ettins

36:20

have two heads, so they only need two tadpoles.

36:22

That makes sense. Two tadpoles, yeah. And giants were

36:24

too big, I believe, for one tadpole. So

36:27

Ettins are a great little

36:29

home. There's two brains there, two tadpoles,

36:32

you know? Yeah, two for. Mm-hmm. It's

36:34

a bogo. It's a bogo.

36:37

So look forward to a great

36:39

bogo in our v-scary. So

36:43

those are some really great big things I

36:45

like. There's smaller things, like

36:47

I believe James talked about his goose. The

36:50

goose. The goose, we've got the

36:52

tick. We've got some other really

36:55

wonderful,

36:56

fantastical creatures that harken

36:58

back to like fairy tale sort of stories.

37:02

And then we've got this great thing that I

37:04

really like called a bag jelly. And

37:07

it is this ooze

37:09

that's found in bags carried by giants.

37:12

Ew.

37:12

Why? How does it get there? Well,

37:16

it feeds on things that are organic materials. When

37:18

you've got a really dirty bag, a giant bag,

37:21

this ooze will start to live

37:23

in it. And it's resistant to

37:25

squishing. And I believe some

37:27

giants will not like it because it's an

37:29

ooze. Or some giants will use it kind

37:32

of as a trap if small folk

37:34

adventurers try to come and steal their giant

37:36

treasures. So funny. So that is,

37:38

bag jelly is, just its name alone, is very,

37:41

very intriguing. 100% little

37:42

kid giants have that

37:45

in their lunch boxes. So

37:48

much bag jelly. Yeah. That's exactly

37:50

probably where it begins. It's like Aaron's

37:53

smart putty, but for D&D

37:56

form. It's all the slime that we've

37:58

got. Oh my God. You could

38:00

see little giant kids throwing it at each

38:02

other in the cafeteria. So

38:05

I would love that. New

38:08

canon right there. The form factor

38:11

of this book is not any different than

38:13

any other D&D book out there. So how

38:15

do you show the

38:17

size, the scope of all

38:19

these creatures that we're talking about

38:21

here, right? Because if everything is giant

38:23

in the book, there's no frame of reference, right?

38:26

So that helps by having

38:28

big BB so tiny and he gets to be in here. So

38:31

yeah, how else do you really show that scale? It's got

38:33

to be a hard challenge for artists. It is.

38:36

And I commend all of our artists

38:38

for doing the amazing job that they did. Because

38:41

I can say, make them look big,

38:43

you know? Make them look

38:45

big. They did. Yeah,

38:48

exactly. When we first were

38:50

talking about giants, you know, Tricia and I were like, Oh, what

38:52

if the pages, you know, like fold it out

38:54

and we could expand and, you know, dream in

38:56

big. But budgets are still budgets.

38:59

So we couldn't quite do that. Dream

39:02

big. Dream big. Yeah. Get

39:05

your head out of the clouds. Oh,

39:08

I want to talk about a cloud piece later. That's a

39:10

thinker. Okay. But

39:13

yeah, essentially show small people or

39:15

make the environment really speak to, you know, the

39:18

giants and the placement

39:21

of them in that setting. So

39:24

there's a really great scene of like some,

39:26

and this also talks more about, you know, giants, not being just beasts

39:28

that you have to fight all the time.

39:31

There's a great scene of like giants

39:34

in these ruins and you see these small folk adventurers

39:36

kind of assisting them, you

39:38

know, like in their, in

39:40

their adventure or their, whatever they're doing,

39:43

scouting out for treasure, perhaps. So

39:46

integrating like small folk and showing just

39:48

a massive environments around

39:51

or creatures. I'm not sure if we've shown some

39:54

creatures, but yeah, bringing in

39:56

that perspective

39:56

to fit everything in

39:58

our standard size book.

39:59

challenge and I think the artist pulled it off wonderful.

40:03

And one piece I think is

40:05

just really, really beautiful was

40:07

an incredible piece by Andrew Marr

40:09

which showcases one of the scions

40:12

which we haven't talked about yet, James talked

40:14

about. It's a scion of

40:16

Memnor and it's in like this beautiful cloud

40:19

scene of pinks and purples and there's this

40:21

airship but then you see this giant

40:23

almost made out of clouds and it's just

40:26

kind of like peacefully walking or

40:28

floating through the

40:29

scene and then you start to think

40:32

about oh my goodness this airship is so high in the sky

40:34

and this thing is practically

40:36

filling up the whole scene, you know this

40:38

creature and if you could just imagine that in an adventure

40:41

that you're in it's like it

40:43

would be this moment of calm and awe

40:45

and beauty and then you realize oh my goodness

40:48

that's a creature like something

40:50

of that scale. So I think Andrew

40:53

captured that really well.

40:54

That's a dude walking by. Yeah. Oh

40:58

hello there. In

41:01

that voice. Yeah in that voice totally.

41:04

If they're nice, if it's a nice cloud giant. It

41:06

is yeah. Hello there. I

41:09

do feel like that really captures

41:12

the essence

41:13

of this book so well just hearing that story

41:16

because it's like there like you said there's so much more

41:18

to giants than just like big angry

41:20

people but

41:23

like to see something as

41:25

a dungeon master to get to describe

41:27

that scene to your players and like even

41:29

if it's just like it's just passing

41:31

by like it's not you're not

41:34

interacting you're no it's not fighting

41:36

you it doesn't want or need anything

41:38

from you you just haven't noticed you it doesn't

41:40

even notice you're just in the same space

41:43

with that that's that's pretty incredible.

41:45

Yeah there's there's a lot of things like I

41:48

would say that I'm a new DM but I mean

41:51

I haven't done any gaming in so long

41:53

it is a tragedy but there are

41:55

like so many tables

41:57

so I love tables as somebody

41:59

think of things on the fly.

42:02

And there are some really awesome tables

42:04

in here. Like they are things that talk

42:06

about like giant

42:08

behavior, you know, like starry hooks,

42:10

things that are in their bags. More

42:14

than ooze? More than jelly?

42:16

More than jelly. There's like...

42:18

More

42:18

than words? Good

42:25

one. Yeah, I love tables too. So yeah, what are

42:27

some of the things that you can find in a giant's bag?

42:29

Giant bags. So they were in one of things

42:31

like poetry, art, treasure,

42:35

you know, like sandals, I think

42:37

was one of them. Sandals! Oh, can

42:39

you just picture like giant

42:41

sandals? We would call them

42:43

barges or racks. I know.

42:46

Yes. A fairy

42:48

bow. Yes. I mean, if you two

42:51

could

42:51

put something in a giant's bag for your adventures,

42:54

what would you put in there? Oh, that's

42:56

a good question. So, I'm gonna think

42:58

how big we're talking. I would think it would be...

43:01

I think it was a chicken in one of the illustrations.

43:03

Like an actual chicken? Yeah,

43:06

it can be practical. It could

43:07

be a pig and a chicken. I think

43:09

it would be a tree. I would describe someone like a tree

43:11

for someone that's been like

43:14

kind of

43:15

gotten sharpened to a point. I

43:17

would describe it like that way and then I would have a giant

43:20

take it out and use it as a toothpick at

43:22

one point. Oh my god, I love that.

43:24

In my bag,

43:26

I think this giant has just come from the

43:28

farmer's market and I'm just picturing like

43:30

a bag full of giant blueberries because

43:32

I think they'd be really fun to climb on. And

43:35

delicious. And delicious just to like gnaw

43:37

on. It's always been kind of like a

43:39

childhood fantasy to like be alive

43:41

in candy land and just be like, you know, like

43:43

there's just like a tree and I can just lick

43:45

it and like the grass

43:48

is actually like just candy and I can

43:50

eat it. I just feel like a big,

43:53

just like

43:54

a giant fruit salad and you

43:56

can just crawl around on it and take

43:58

a bite. I love, I'm just thinking

44:00

how economical that is. I

44:03

just need one blueberry. One blueberry, you can feed

44:05

an entire village for an entire year.

44:07

This has been a last so many smoothies.

44:10

Wait, so we have giant

44:13

beasts in here that are bigger than normal beasts.

44:15

And we have giant people, we're bigger than normal people.

44:18

Is there such a thing as giant

44:20

vegetation? Like that is

44:23

giant blueberries? Like I don't

44:25

know that was the thing that exists, but now I want it to exist

44:28

in D&D. Is their food bigger too? Their

44:31

carrots are bigger. Just

44:33

their fall squashes actually.

44:38

That's it, they just have one type

44:40

of thing. There is like so much cannon

44:42

in this one up, I love it. Just

44:45

the fall squashes are the only thing

44:47

that grow big. You know, giant

44:48

in the world. Created by the wizard

44:51

named Monsanto. Oh.

44:55

Oh, good. I'm

44:58

just fired by Tito. I don't

45:01

know. Being

45:04

sued. Is

45:06

that your hair or are there horns growing

45:09

now? No, there's definitely horns.

45:12

I've got powers now.

45:14

So

45:17

Emi, what are some

45:19

of your favorite

45:21

pieces to commission? Like do you

45:23

love environments?

45:25

Do you love creatures or different

45:28

D&D characters? Or even what

45:30

are some of your just like, oh yes, I'm gonna

45:33

sink my teeth into this. This is my favorite thing. Creatures.

45:38

I love a good critter. I mean, I think the

45:40

fun part, and it could be,

45:42

because to me it feels easier. The

45:44

fun part is that these creatures come

45:46

with a step block. They come with all

45:49

of this information. They come with all of this inspiration

45:51

that are like, you can look at their attacks.

45:54

You can look at what are they, like

45:57

what are they immune to? All of those things

45:59

are gonna.

45:59

influence what the creature should design

46:02

and what it should look like, right? Like where does it

46:04

live? What is its environment? What

46:06

is its challenge rating? So

46:09

that to me, like there's so much more ammunition to

46:11

that. And plus I just love creatures too. And

46:15

we just have such great artists that do creatures.

46:18

So I really enjoy getting

46:20

a good critter made. And

46:23

getting it right. Like if, you know, it's having

46:25

them submit something and be like, well, that tail

46:28

can't look like that because for

46:29

these reasons, or it's not that important

46:32

that we can't make this quite as prominent because there's

46:34

no special tail attack or something.

46:36

Like all of those little details, you know,

46:38

like they mean stuff and we want our,

46:41

you know, our players to

46:43

see these creatures and get to visualize

46:45

it, put it in their game and have it make

46:47

sense. So yeah, like

46:49

making a good creature. Those are some of my

46:52

favorite conversations to listen to is

46:54

when that like

46:55

to talk about a Tiefling's tail

46:58

and like the exact shape of it, all good that, nope,

47:00

they're not that thick. I'm like, I

47:02

need to come to more of a point. Or like the,

47:04

is it the Tiefling's tail that splits? It's

47:07

a barbed tail. It's a barbed tail. Tieflings

47:09

have a barbed tail, yeah. I remember a conversation where

47:11

like it wasn't barbed enough or it was too barbed or the

47:13

barbed wasn't there. And like, what is happening?

47:16

This isn't a Tiefling. I'm like, this is fascinating.

47:19

Because it's like you said it matters. It does.

47:22

It does. And because like we have so many creatures,

47:25

we have so many

47:25

humanoids, we have so many things with two

47:27

legs, like all of those things, it does

47:30

really matter to take into consideration the

47:32

design and kind of the rules

47:34

of what these things are. Otherwise if they start to get

47:36

kind of wild and all over the place, there's gonna

47:38

be all this gray area and overlap and someone's gonna

47:41

go, is that a dragonborn or is that a lizard

47:43

folk or, you know, like, I don't

47:45

know. So, you know, we wanna do

47:47

our very best to make it as clear as possible

47:50

what

47:51

our D&D creatures are. And then once

47:53

it goes out into the world, by all means, let

47:55

the players go wild. Let them make the

47:57

changes. Let them get, you know, really creative.

47:59

that we love to see, but as long as we

48:02

can give them that strong foundation to start with,

48:05

that's what we just hope to do.

48:07

Not that too, that's such an inspiration. And

48:10

seeing the work that you

48:12

did on the misplaced monsters. Oh,

48:16

I can't take no credit

48:18

for that. Right? I just feel

48:20

like what you're talking about here is like totally exhibited

48:23

in this supplement that we're doing

48:25

for Extra Life, where

48:28

six kids basically drew and designed

48:30

these monsters. And then we got to make them real stat

48:32

block. Not that the others weren't real, but

48:35

as if they went through the D&D studio real. And

48:38

Art directed that too. Like, what was that like?

48:40

Oh, a gift? I agree. It

48:44

was amazing. So I mean, I'll have to give

48:46

credit where credit is due. You may know this

48:48

fellow Bart Carroll. Nope.

48:53

We kicked this off in 2021, if not slightly

48:55

earlier and

48:59

started this conversation with Seattle Children's

49:01

Hospital about, hey,

49:04

let's do this great partnership.

49:06

And are any of your kids interested in

49:08

D&D? Yes. Or are they

49:10

interested in maybe perhaps creating

49:13

a creature for us? And yes. And

49:16

with the sign off of their guardians

49:18

and their incredible talents,

49:21

we got a bunch of really cool submissions

49:25

and they came with not only the

49:27

illustration, they also came with these

49:29

really fantastical descriptions of

49:32

what the creature is about. You know, like, what is

49:34

their backstory? What are their powers? And

49:37

it just, it made me yearn

49:39

for that imagination. I have probably

49:42

so since lost from childhood.

49:45

And just, it was such

49:47

an honor to get to do this and

49:50

work with the team, work with Mackenzie

49:54

and work with Hinchel, our

49:56

artist, our artist

49:57

who like...

49:59

He translated all of them so

50:02

wonderful. And he was so excited to get to work on this

50:04

project as well. Um, I

50:06

think

50:07

it, it's incredible. And just

50:09

the stat box themselves to the flavor

50:11

of them and the attacks and everything is

50:13

just, it

50:14

really works. Yeah. I could just, I could

50:16

just read through that. It

50:18

is one of the best things we've ever done

50:21

here. And like you could, there couldn't have

50:23

been a more perfect person than you to work on

50:25

this. But if you ever just

50:27

need, like you said, just some inspiration

50:30

or just to like, remember what it was like

50:32

to be a kid and just imagine things and

50:35

how cool is it to see it come to life,

50:37

but

50:38

it is, I just, it like makes

50:40

me almost cry. Like when I look at that book

50:42

and I'm like, I'm really just like, they're

50:44

just so cool. They're

50:46

just so

50:47

touching. I mean, these, and

50:49

the kids themselves are incredible. Like

50:51

they're, you know, they're all patients of the Seattle Children's

50:54

Hospital and all of the proceeds go

50:56

to, you know, to this foundation,

50:59

the Extra Life Foundation to support Seattle

51:01

Children's Hospital. This will go on

51:03

to November of this year. So, you know, get

51:05

it. But like they,

51:08

you know, they've been through so much. They are

51:10

just so resilient. Kids are so resilient.

51:13

They're so incredible. And I,

51:15

I just, it makes me so happy

51:17

that, you know, we can do this with them. And we

51:20

are, we are really the lucky ones in all

51:22

of these. It's

51:22

true, right? And some of the creatures they came up with are

51:24

just adorable, right? Yes. And

51:27

clever. And powerful. The

51:30

Shake Shifting Dragon looks

51:32

really cool. I love Sheldon the

51:34

Blueberry Dragon. Sheldon the Blueberry

51:36

Dragon.

51:36

Blueberries.

51:39

He could definitely fit into your glory

51:41

of the giant scampi. But

51:44

my favorite has to be the dandy lion. I

51:46

was just looking at him right now too. Because

51:48

it's such a great pun. I love a pun.

51:51

I love a kids pun probably more than an adults

51:53

pun. Oh, yeah. It's adorable.

51:55

Also, I have to say that the

51:57

kids version of the dandy.

52:00

is actually really good. Oh,

52:02

it's really good. Definitely keep an eye on Jones

52:04

D. Because I get to draw.

52:06

Right, so for those of you who haven't

52:08

checked out this supplement yet, it's called Misplaced

52:11

Monsters, volume one, so maybe there'll be a volume two

52:13

one day. I hope so, that was fast. But the kids

52:15

got to submit their idea for the

52:17

monster with a visual representation. So

52:19

they got to draw it, and then we

52:21

took that drawing. Did you do

52:23

any other work with them? Did you work with them on any other kind

52:26

of stuff? Or was it just from their submission and the

52:29

submitted drawing that they were able to kind of

52:31

create the final piece from?

52:33

Just that, they knew what they were doing. Oh

52:35

yeah. They knew what they were doing, right? Like they submitted it,

52:37

and we were like, well, here we go, we

52:39

don't have to work that hard. Yeah,

52:42

right, it's all right there. It's amazing.

52:44

Yeah, yeah, and yeah, just

52:46

the fine details and the backstory for some

52:48

of these was just so like, like good

52:51

nature. Like this one's, you know, vegetarian.

52:53

This one does not, you know, it will protect.

52:56

It is very cool, yes. The

52:59

rain, the kitty cat. The

53:02

little kitty. That drawing, the kid

53:04

drawing, is like

53:05

warms my heart. It's like the epitome

53:08

of a child's drawing. But

53:11

yeah, really good. So good. I mean,

53:13

that's what I mean, like, it's so good. It's

53:16

so good.

53:17

Shout out to Kenzie C for making rain.

53:19

Yeah, making it rain. Brr,

53:22

brr, brr. Scrapper, also

53:24

amazing. Yes. And

53:27

like, this is like scrappers.

53:30

Like this kid created an entirely

53:32

new race of monsters. Yeah,

53:35

yeah, yeah, yeah. There

53:38

you go. Put it in a game. Put it

53:40

in a game. Put it all on a game. Put it on a table,

53:42

yeah. Have your giants come and

53:44

eat some of these creatures. Good luck, giants.

53:48

I wonder if Sheldon the blueberry dragon

53:51

also has ooze in the bottom of his

53:53

back. A little bit of blueberry ooze? Yeah,

53:56

blueberry jam.

53:57

That's what he sells at the farmer's market.

54:00

It all comes together. And

54:05

blueberries. If

54:10

you haven't checked this out, it's on D&D Beyond. All

54:15

the proceeds go to the Children's Miracle

54:17

Network. And

54:20

our affiliate for that is the Seattle Children's Hospital, where

54:25

we got these donations from. And

54:28

thanks for working on this, Emmy.

54:30

As

54:33

well as Big B's, I guess. Oh,

54:36

and Big B's. It

54:38

was a joy for both. Aw,

54:41

the best. You're the best, Emmy.

54:44

Aw, you guys were the best. Thank you so

54:46

much. And thanks for coming on and

54:47

talking about all this fun stuff. I

54:50

feel like we, you know, I wish we were going

54:52

to go meet at Safeway right after this.

54:54

Or to stay? Why

54:57

would you just go to the grocery store? We

55:00

should probably get a cream for that. Yeah. I

55:03

think they'll have it at Safeway. I'm a

55:05

healing salve. We'll push you in the

55:07

shopping cart. We'll get some frozen blueberries

55:10

for the ice it down a little. Nice.

55:13

That actually probably would feel

55:14

really good. Yeah,

55:16

actually, please do keep an eye on it. Aw,

55:21

well that's your motherly instincts

55:23

coming in there now. You're like, you should take care

55:25

of that.

55:26

We're going to have to get a cream for that. We're going to have

55:28

to get a cream for that. Put a little aquifer on

55:30

that. Everybody

55:33

out there, stay hydrated and pick up

55:35

Big B's, presents, Glory

55:37

of the Giants and Misplaced Monsters,

55:39

Volume 1. And everything that Emmy

55:42

has touched and created over the years for

55:44

Dungeons and Dragons, because it's all fantastic.

55:47

Well, thanks everyone. Yes, thanks for, thanks

55:49

for joining. And I hope everybody stays

55:51

well. Thanks, Emmy the Gnome. I

55:56

love Emmy so much. Love

55:58

up. Everything she works

56:00

on is amazing. And she really is

56:02

just one of the nicest people. Great team. I

56:05

feel like I said that the entire time because I was like, agree 100%. She

56:08

has made so many amazing things that

56:10

most of the people may not even know. I mean,

56:13

she did a lot of the marketing graphic design work.

56:15

She was the marketing

56:18

design for our time there for Dungeons

56:20

and Dragons, where we didn't have any other body else who

56:22

was working on it. She did T-shirts.

56:23

The Extra Life T-shirts, those are always Emmy.

56:26

Those are always been Emmy, as well as the amazing

56:28

Extra Life work we were talking about in this interview.

56:31

She is, yeah, you're right. Always making those in

56:34

her distinct style. And I think I even have a few

56:36

of the things that you did for the Wizard Makers

56:39

Fair around the holidays. She made

56:41

stuffed animals that my kids still love

56:43

and hold onto to this day.

56:45

Oh my gosh, Quinn has some of those too. You're

56:47

right. Creative person.

56:50

And you should all be thankful

56:53

of her influence on the D&D team

56:55

doing great stuff. Agree, agree. Well, as

56:57

you said in the opening, we are going on a brief

56:59

hiatus. We'll be back in September. Don't

57:02

look for any new episodes up until then,

57:05

but feel free to go back into our backlog

57:07

and see what is there. And let

57:11

us know what you think about Dragon Talk. We

57:13

are very active on the

57:15

socials. I am at Greg Tito on

57:18

Twitter, as well as that same

57:20

handle on Mastodon and

57:23

Blue Sky now, as well as

57:25

a few others. But yeah, we'd

57:27

love to chat with you all about what

57:29

is going on with your D&D game over the summer.

57:33

And what about you, Shelley Moo?

57:34

I am at Shelley Moo, Twitter and Instagram.

57:36

So yes, hit me up, lots of chat.

57:39

That's right. We all have our respective websites.

57:41

You can also sign up for our respective

57:43

newsletters there and

57:46

get up to the date information about

57:48

what we're doing professionally as well. Yes,

57:50

that is a great place

57:53

to catch up. So many great places to

57:55

catch up. In the meantime, we have to catch

57:57

up with Drunky Two Shoes and... Her

58:00

brother, Daryl, who are

58:03

reunited. Once again,

58:05

Daryl was performing live in

58:08

the city of Sagarpur in front of

58:11

thousands of people when a large

58:13

wave,

58:14

tidal wave from the river

58:17

collapsed on the crowd.

58:19

Drunkie Two Shoes had a bit of a altercation

58:22

with some poisonous snakes, as well as

58:25

burning up her friends and

58:27

comrades with a burning hands spell. I'll

58:29

talk about that. But then as

58:32

that started to get cleaned up, you

58:34

saw the amazing coiffed,

58:37

un besmirched visage of

58:40

Daryl Two Shoes is coming up to

58:42

Drunkie and saying, oh, it's you.

58:44

His like flowy little mane

58:47

of hair. Yeah, he looks very,

58:49

very good. And actually a little

58:51

bit more mature than you've seen him. Yeah,

58:53

because he hasn't been going through what I've gone

58:55

through trying to find him. Didn't

58:58

Drunkie charge him or something?

59:00

I think he did, she did. Yeah, I'm

59:03

just gonna pounce. I'm gonna pounce on him

59:05

like a kitty. You are pouncing like

59:07

a Hobbs pounce on your

59:10

brother, Daryl. And he's like, whoa, whoa, he

59:12

doesn't give any resistance at all, he lets

59:14

you just kind of jump on top

59:17

of him. There's water splashing all around

59:19

him. So now he is in the dirty,

59:23

tidal water that's all around him. He's

59:25

like, oh, come on, I just had this cleaned.

59:28

No, where have you been? I've

59:30

been here. Why? Why do

59:32

you keep leaving without telling me? We were

59:34

in water deep and then you were gone.

59:37

I didn't do that on purpose, I don't know. Something

59:39

happened. Do you never even care?

59:42

I care, of course I care. I'm so excited to

59:44

see you, you're alive. Have you tried to find me?

59:47

I have. I punch him. Ow,

59:50

why are you punching me? I

59:52

have spent, I don't even know how many

59:54

hours trying to find

59:56

you. Days could be years. I

59:59

assembled this adventure.

59:59

an adventuring party trying to find

1:00:02

you. Oh, you did? Yeah.

1:00:05

Who are these people? Samson, it's good to see you. You're

1:00:07

alive. Don't say hi to him, Samson. Samson

1:00:10

puts his hands up and he's actually busy kind

1:00:13

of killing the last of the poisonous snakes that

1:00:15

are attacking still the people around here. I was

1:00:17

like, you do this on your own. And Daryl

1:00:20

says that it's been so long.

1:00:23

I lost hope. I didn't think I would ever

1:00:25

see you or Samson again.

1:00:27

Don't give me that. You ran

1:00:29

away. You ran away without me. Like

1:00:31

you do every time. How did I run away? I was in the middle

1:00:33

of fighting that huge giant

1:00:37

thing. And then the last thing I knew, I was here.

1:00:39

How did you run away? I didn't run

1:00:41

away. Well, how did you go away? Someone

1:00:43

cast a spell on me. And you just ended up here

1:00:46

performing? Well, it's been decades.

1:00:49

Has it? And you look at him and you see his

1:00:51

face has got

1:00:54

more gray hairs than you have coming

1:00:57

out of his mane.

1:01:00

Even though it looks coiffed and amazing, it is

1:01:02

more salt and pepper at this

1:01:03

stage.

1:01:05

And you see the creases around his eyes. Like you really, yeah,

1:01:07

if you want to make a, you don't need to make a perception

1:01:09

check because you're a pouncing and you're on top of him. You're seeing him all.

1:01:11

He looks a lot older. Do I look like

1:01:13

you look? No, you look great. Why

1:01:16

are you older? You look super hot.

1:01:18

Wait, I am your literate

1:01:21

dude. Not in a, you

1:01:23

know, that type of way. I'm just saying that you look good. Blaming

1:01:26

hot, would you say? It

1:01:28

was a callback, yes. Okay, this

1:01:31

is weird. Blade of grass,

1:01:34

blade of grass, come here. Yes,

1:01:36

and she strides up. She's got her sword

1:01:38

drawn. What do you need? This is my brother. We're

1:01:41

litter mates. And yet he looks like

1:01:43

dog ass and I look hot and fresh.

1:01:46

What's going

1:01:46

on? Is

1:01:48

there something you want me to kill with this sword? No,

1:01:52

stand down. I just find it off. You

1:01:54

knew anything about like why some Tabaxis

1:01:56

age a lot faster than others.

1:01:58

Well, I know. And you actually

1:02:00

see Jonathan kind of

1:02:04

muscle his way in. And he says, I don't know

1:02:06

exactly what's happening, but perhaps there's some type of

1:02:09

temporal change here when

1:02:11

you travel through the portals

1:02:14

to get to this place

1:02:17

from your world. Time can change. I appreciate

1:02:19

you, Jonathan. And Darraghla

1:02:21

says, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't

1:02:23

matter. What matters though is that you're here, you have a party,

1:02:26

you have people. This world is where

1:02:29

we come from, where the tavaxi come from,

1:02:31

but they've all been wiped out. We need to go to the

1:02:34

ancient city where we used to live. I've been trying

1:02:36

to get the resources needed to be

1:02:38

able to find out about what's happened, where this

1:02:40

cat lord came from.

1:02:42

Well, it just so happens we

1:02:44

were heading there anyway.

1:02:47

Let's go. Let's

1:02:50

go. We'll talk about all these temporal whatever's

1:02:53

another time. And we're off. All right,

1:02:55

let's do it. Thank you. We'll see you when we

1:02:57

post in September the conclusion,

1:03:00

perhaps. Maybe. Of this

1:03:02

quest. Bye.

1:03:04

Miss you, have a good summer, stay sweet.

1:03:08

You're gonna write in my yearbook. I will. Yeah,

1:03:10

call me the summer.