Bardic Inspirations RPGs Interview

Inspitational

Q1: How would you promote your games, and what unique qualities do they possess?

A1: I promote my games mainly by running them, and it works every time! My adventures have everything the GM needs to just sit down and play it. It will have the enemy stats, NPCs’ RP guides, maps, backstory/lore, and loot. I try to make my games a complete start to finish game that can end there or can be continued on. I try to strike a good balance of combat and RP, giving the GM and the players the ability to choose how they want to run it. I tell people, I do all the prep so you don’t have to, you can just play.

Q2: What was your first published game?A2: Treasure Under the Mountain a D&D 5e adventure published with Elite Adventures

Q3: How do you know what games to build and focus on?

A3: Quite honestly I do whatever inspires me and that could be literally anything! I’ve mostly done dark/horror 5e content, because I LOVE horror, it sells well and the company I published under wasn’t keen on doing non-D&D content. Being able to change it up by doing something other than D&D, and the freedom to design something absolutely ridiculous with my own company has been amazing.

Q4: How do you come up with your game systems?

A4: The D&D choice was pretty much a given, I’m a pro-DM that writes all her own content and my superior at the company I work with immediately wanted to publish my content after seeing it. With Bardic Inspirations RPGs I initially chose to make content for systems designed by fellow local designers. Creating a good adventure or module is very different from a good RPG system, but they both need each other to work. There is a whole world of amazing systems out there that need all they need for a good starting adventure to help make it more accessible to new players.

Q5: Do you have any advice for new GMs and Players who want to try out your games?

A5: The book is not the Bible! As much as I try to include as much as I can so the GM can just run it with minimal/no prep, players, and dice rolls are unpredictable. Just enjoy the story, the gameplay, and most importantly the epic fails! Celebrate both the wins and fails because the dice gods are fickle so things will never according to plan

Q6: What would you consider are the special moments in your creative career?

A6: That’s a tough one because there are so many. The feeling of joy I get from seeing people loving my content never fades, and always touches my heart (as corny as it is). I would say my top special moments in my creative career are when I hear from players about how my games, both the campaigns I run and the one shots, have changed their lives for the better. Some of the sweet messages and feedback I’ve gotten have honestly made me cry. To think that my work could impact other people in such a way, I don’t think English has a word for the feelings it brings.

Q7: What’s your favourite aspect of role-playing, and what category of gamer do you associate with?

A7: I am definitely a “Roleplayer”, both as a player and GM. No matter what side of the screen I’m sitting on you can expect some epic RP. I love collaborative storytelling, but if needed I can definitely not only throw the rulebook at you. I’m also very strategic in combat, so I’m a well-rounded player/GM. I’ve never thought to categorize myself as a type of gamer, but I tend to play support/charismatic characters so I’m a Bard a lot.

Q8: How long is the play-testing period for your games?

A8: Honestly it’s generally not very long, I think the longest one was 2 months, and only because it was a longer adventure so getting players to commit to that time was tricky. I have the benefits of running games made from scratch as a profession, so I have a lot of experience, plus I’m writing adventures for existing systems, not the entire system so I don’t have to test nearly as much.

Q9: What’s your favourite die and why?

A9: How can I decide?!?! I love them all! I am 100% a dice dragon. But got damn those d4 are caltrops!

Q10: What’s your first ever RPG session and did you catch the gaming bug straightaway?

A10: The first time I played a TTRPG (D&D 3.5) was almost 20 years ago, and it was a disaster, we didn’t get past the character creation. We tried again later and it was also a disaster but in a fun and hilarious way. I did catch a bit of a bug for it, I was already a huge JRPG fan so it wasn’t hard. I enjoyed playing but I didn’t get hooked until I met my current DM thanks to COVID in 2020. Shout out to Matt! He showed me a new way to play, as a collaboration between PC and DM instead of PC vs DM.

Q11: Whom do you admire the most in the RPG community and why?

A11: I’ve watched the community change and grow for a long time, and a female in the industry seeing those changes has been amazing. Seeing the change from boy’s club to fully inclusive shows that we can continue to grow, to share, and to accept. The community has evolved into a beautiful place that lets people embrace who they are inside, and explore all aspects of themselves through playing.

Q12: What do you like when you’re reading TTRPG content?

A12: This probably sounds really weird but the formatting/organization of it. If I can’t easily find something, or it’s hard to read I just can’t get into it. I do really love lore a lot, I grew up reading a lot of fantasy so good lore will pull me into the setting better than anything else.

Q13: What are your thoughts on A.I. content?

A13: So this is a very tricky question to answer because it’s such a volatile subject. I can say that as primarily a writer I wish people were as militant against using it to do all your writing as they are about art/image generation. I respect that it’s an amazing tool, and should be used as such. Unfortunately it’s being used as the solution and for more than just art. I 100% agree we should not be selling anything primarily AI generated, and that should include writing.