During the Guinness World Record event, Dax and the team at Geek Together collaborated with local actress and LARP performer, Janie Eastman. Together, they brought the goddess of peace, Eldath, to life to face off against Vecna. Learn about the local acting scene in Utah and get to know Janie, who is awesome! Support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/dungeonsanddax Hire a Professional Dungeon Master: https://dungeonmasterdirect.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:36):
Welcome back to Dungeons andDax, the podcast where I talk
about how cool my friends are.
I may be a professional dungeonmaster, but I've got friends in all
sorts of awesome creative fields,and we're gonna talk about the ways
we can tell better stories together.
I'm here with Janie.
Janie is awesome.
We had a very cool project justa few weeks ago, and we met in
(00:59):
person the day before the project.
We hit it off.
And it was awesome.
How you doing, Jane?
I am doing great.
Dax, how have you beensince our big project?
I was writing the high for a few days.
Well, I guess the day after I had tostay home and go into my introvert
(01:19):
bubble before I recharged my smell slots.
But I, I'm working, I'mrunning D&D games again.
Finished a D&D game about an hour ago.
Always working, always goingon to the next big thing.
But enough about me.
Let's talk about you.
You're the star of this show.
Before we get into our big awesome projectwe did a few weeks ago, who is Jane?
(01:43):
I have been asking myself thatfor 21 years now, but long
answer short, I am a Utah native.
Who has been performingand acting my whole life.
I'm a big fantasy fan.
I've been playing D&D for years,and when I was about 16, I got into
LARPing professionally, and I'vebeen doing it ever since, so about
(02:07):
five years now, and I've loved it.
Every part of it.
Now, every nerd listening to thisknows what LARP stands for, but for
those of you non nerds or familymembers of nerds who don't know
what LARPing is tell us about Laing.
So
LARPing is live action, role play,and it's basically, in my opinion,
(02:28):
the nerdiest thing you can do.
In most instances, it'speople getting together to.
Have a live action role play all atDungeons and Dragons or other role playing
games generally, people will dress up,there'll be a story and a plot, and you
just sort of acted out how you wouldplay a D&D character, but with yourself.
(02:48):
Yeah.
So instead of playing around the tableand rolling dice, you're out in the
woods or at a, like a cool venue andit's, the goal is to be as immersive
as possible, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, it is a full immersive experiencefrom, you know, running around and
getting sweaty, eating Turkey legs.
(03:10):
It's so fun.
I highly recommendeverybody go and do it once.
Turkey legs is like anew level of immersion.
I have never eaten Turkey legwhile playing D&D, so I guess you
are officially nerdier than I am.
But that's cool and that's awesome.
But you used the word professional.
What is a prof?
What makes a, someone, aprofessional lier as opposed to
(03:32):
someone who does that as a hobby?
Well, by definition, right, professionalmeans I have been paid for it.
I got really lucky.
I got into it as like a baby LARPer beingpaid because up until that point, I had
been so involved in acting and improv and.
So, yeah, I've had all these opportunitieswhere most people when they LA are going
(03:55):
and they're playing a character thatthey wrote that they created, and they're
following their own character storyline.
Whereas in most instances, I've shownup and told you are X, Y, and z.
Basically a professional npc, butas a person, professional npc.
I love that.
I love that we, yeah.
You need to change this little title.
(04:16):
I can, I'm gonna do that right now.
Those of you who are listeningand not watching, we have our,
our titles up on the screen.
Professional NP C.
Love it.
Alright.
And it's very fun and very fulfilling.
For people who, who get to playand you get to elevate that
(04:37):
experience, help them get immersed.
Yes.
Now, those of you who live inUtah, even if you're not a hardcore
LARPer, Might have gotten a littletaste of the LARPing experience if
you've ever been to Evermore Park.
Evermore isn't exactly a LARPing Park,but it's larp adjacent, I would say.
There are definitely some similar elementsand themes and you, you sort at Evermore
(05:00):
Park I did, I worked at Evermore fromthe day they opened as Evermore Park.
To July of last year and it, itwas a very rewarding experience.
What is evermore part for our listenerswho may be overseas who have never
even been to the mountains of Utah?
(05:22):
What's evermore, what makes it special
evermore is geek heaven.
It is this beautiful plot of land wherethey have built these antique looking.
Victorian England houses, right?
And it looks like a villagestraight out of Europe.
(05:42):
And when you enter, you're greeted by avariety of characters and creatures and
they are all in character greeting youas the hero of the story that's going on.
And nevermore.
I love that.
I'm sorry if I'm not lookingat the camera right now.
I got distracted becauseI have all of my loot.
(06:04):
I, every time I go to evermore,I see if they have a new coin.
And so I've got a collectionthat I've been growing over
the last couple of years.
I'm gonna put that on screen.
But yeah, it, it's great.
You get to be the heroes as you go.
And my wife and I have gone quitea bit, not so much since we've
had kids, but before we had kids,you better believe we were there.
(06:24):
Why does that, I believe it and it'sfun being the protagonist going around
and doing, doing fetch quests for allof the professional NPCs that are there
because you know, they're not gonnaput a, put a sword in your hand and
go tell you to kill all the goblins.
You know, some, the goblinsare some of the nicest.
NPCs I've found.
Yeah.
They have the most fun.
(06:45):
Yeah, it's fun and it's wholesomeand it's spooky in Halloween time.
I love it when it gets spooky.
It's, it's a lot of fun going to it.
So yeah, you're involvedin awesome things.
You've been an actress, professionalLARPer, and eventually our paths crossed.
I, I mean, we probably met at evermore.
(07:06):
At one point, right.
But our mm-hmm.
Path officially crossed through amutual friend, our friend Andrew
Ashby introduced us, who was on thelast episode of the podcast, and
Andrew owns the Geek Together Tavern.
And I was working with him andwith Johnny Jensen to put together
the Guinness World Record Eventfor the largest game of D&D ever.
(07:30):
And as Johnny and I were going throughwhat he had written and the ideas that
I was bringing to it and the adjustmentsthat I was making, we, we wanted some sort
of emotional through line in the story.
We wanted to have a hero that theaudience could really root for.
And.
I thought about using like theKing of Kingdom Grand or like
(07:52):
Lost Prince, but there was alreadysomeone there in the story and that
was Elda, the Goddess of Peace.
And I thought, okay, I'm the dm.
I gotta play lda, Igotta play Vena and lda.
How about we go one step further?
How about we bring someone in toplay l a, someone who can match my
energy on stage as I am Vena and wecan do a few scenes for the audience.
(08:16):
Oh, that's a little bit ambitious,we thought and we went back and
forth and I don't know anyone.
I got a friend who might do it.
We asked we asked Andrew.
He's like, I know someone.
Let me text her right now.
And before I even left the tavern thatday you were, you were on board, Hey,
Janie's in so what was, what was goingthrough your mind as you got that call
(08:39):
and you were like, Hey, two weeks from nowyou're going to be doing this massive role
in front of a thousand or more people.
What went through your mind?
So, I, I do not mean tosound like conceited.
But for so many people, this would be liketheir worst nightmare is someone hitting
them up and being like, last minute.
(09:00):
You need to prepare to be infront of thousands of people.
But for me, that's something that,again, working at evermore, I just got
so used to doing every single weekend.
And so when Andy hit me up, by theway, Andy's text was so nonchalant.
He basically texted me and was like, Hey,can you come LARP at this event I'm doing?
(09:23):
I didn't know that.
That's great.
So nonchalant.
I was like, yep, be there.
He didn't say, Hey, weneed you to be the star.
We need you to be theemotional heart of this story.
We need you to be the one personthat everyone latches onto
and looks to for inspiration.
He didn't say any of those things?
And that came a little bit later, I think.
(09:43):
Then later he sent me a text andhe was like, oh, by the way, you're
gonna be the main character atthe Guinness World Record event.
And I think then I was like, oh.
This is, you know, a little moreimportant than I thought it was.
You thought you weregonna be a Quest giver.
No.
You got to be the mentor.
You got to be the hero.
You got to be the paragon.
You got to be so many great things.
(10:05):
Exactly.
So with busy schedules and everything,we weren't able to officially
I'll, at least Johnny and I weren'table to officially meet you until
the day before the big event andwe'd heard great things about you.
So we're excited to work with you.
And we were playing around withthe, with the idea of L Dash.
Cuz at first in the earlierdrafts of the story, she was this
(10:28):
Princess Zelda type character.
Not very proactive, just lovedand hoped so much and gave people
inspiration and we, we didn't want that.
More we looked at it, we wanted Eldeath to be have more of an active role,
someone who would lead people into battle.
So instead of Princess Zeldawe're like, she is Gandolph
(10:51):
and Aragorn rolled into one.
And we used the Goddess Athenaas a major influence as well.
And so when we met with you, that's whenwe had finalized those ideas and we.
We gave them to you and what did youdo with the information that we gave?
So it was definitely a lot to show upand be like, here are these two guys and
(11:18):
they have spent months preparing all ofthis information and you have to learn
it all tonight for this event tomorrow.
And it was, honestly, it was soamazing to watch you and Johnny.
Be so excited to tell me aboutthis character, and I could tell
how much you both loved whatwas put into this character.
(11:42):
And I guess it's sort of dawnedon me the importance of the role
that you had given me, right?
And that you wanted somebody to belike the physical embodiment of the
good in this story, whereas, FNA isobviously the embodiment of evil.
(12:05):
Yeah.
And we gave you a lot of notesand the notes that I that I gave
you kept changing on the day of.
Mm-hmm.
Because we were, I mean, like any goodD&D session, you have to fill in gaps
and make up things as you go along.
And we had an idea of thedirection we were going, but.
A lot of it was listening to the crowdfeeling their energy, seeing them get
(12:28):
attached to lda, and then you and I would,would meet backstage isn't the right term.
We'd meet offstage and I'd belike, Hey, what about this?
What about that?
And it was so cool to see youimplement those changes and just
amplify the ideas that I have.
I could tell you did improv becauseyou know how to accept and amplify.
That's, that's rule number one.
And rule number two, improv.
(12:49):
So thanks for being soawesome to work with.
What, what was the energy like whenyou, you came into the Guinness
event, there's thousands of peopleplaying, you are in costume.
What was going through your mind?
What were you feeling?
This event was so fun.
There was an amazing, amazingenergy, and I have done a lot of
(13:12):
LARP events before, obviously.
However, I don't think I've ever donean event where so many people were
gathered together who were taking it.
So seriously.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that's what made it so funis that everybody was fully invested in
the story and there were so many momentswhere there was just magic in the air.
(13:34):
It was amazing to walk through the crowd.
And at first I could tell people were.
A little confused.
I think some people didn't catch on thatlike I was gonna be coming to their table.
And I definitely got a couplelooks from people who were like,
why is this crazy lady in anoutfit coming and talking to us?
We're trying to play D&D.
But all those
(13:54):
d and d nerds who don't larp, whothink they're too cool for LARPing,
they're like, why is LARPer here?
No one's too cool for Laring.
Okay.
But it was fun.
And I remember there was this momentwhere, You and I had come together
backstage and you were like, I'm gonnarip your arm off and poke your eye
(14:18):
out and we're gonna do it on stageand this is gonna, how it's gonna go.
And it, it came togetherso perfectly on stage.
Yeah.
I I, every time we tried blockingit, we kept making little changes,
trying to see what felt naturaland what what hand goes where.
(14:38):
Cuz those of you who are familiar withBena, he's known for two main things.
His eye and his hand, his eye and hishand have been removed from his body.
And are these legendary objects ofgreat evil in the d n d multiverse.
There are lots of stories out thereof people searching for the hand
(15:00):
and attaching it to their bodies orsearching for his eye and using it to
gain unholy insight and Eldridge energy.
And so I figured the fact now thatI'm playing is gonna be missing
his hand is be missing his eye.
What is the most evil thing thathe can do to the goddess of peace?
Short of killing her?
Right?
In fact, something evil.
(15:20):
What if he disfigures her?
What if he takes her hand andtakes her eye for himself and
takes some of her power and someof her energy and corrupts it?
And thi wa That was one of the possiblescenarios for the story that we wrote.
We had four different endings planned,depending on if the wall fell or if
the wall stood, and then dependingon if Vena was eventually defeated.
(15:44):
Out of the, and I remember we wereexplaining these four different
endings and these branching paths toyou, and you were just overwhelmed.
Cause you're like, oh, this is tomorrow.
And so I had to steal a piece of paperfrom Johnny and just draw out a diagram.
Luckily a little punt square.
Yeah, little punt square.
That's a good way of putting it.
A little a little table, a littlepunt square, which is what I use
to, to understand the branching pathand then that help you out at all.
(16:11):
It definitely helped me because whenI first sat down, I, I had just met
you and Johnny, which by the way,Johnny Jensen is such a perfect name.
For Johnny.
He's like a little cartoon character.
I love him.
He is such a joy.
He, he like should be on a Saturdaymorning cartoon as the protector.
(16:31):
Exactly.
Jensen, Timmy Turner, PeterParker, Johnny Jensen, Johnny
Jensen.
And I was sitting with you too, and Johnnywent first and Johnny handed me one of the
DM packets, which is like an inch thick.
40 pages.
40 pages.
And I'm looking at it.
(16:52):
Thinking, okay, so you want meto like get ready for tomorrow
and read all of this by tomorrow?
And I was starting tofreak out a little bit.
And then you were likeno, no, no, no, no, no.
Let me just like draw this out for you.
And it really did help me out that dayto be like, okay, did the wall fail fall?
Yes.
Okay.
(17:12):
So it's one of these two endings and ithelped me just like sort out my brain
because I think otherwise I would've been.
Totally frazzled.
I mean, I was already a littlebit all over the place, you know,
trying to find like, okay, who knowswhat, where am I supposed to be?
Who's where?
Mm-hmm.
Where is what?
(17:33):
But yeah, you did, you did so well.
I didn't get to see a lot ofyour interactions with the tables
because if people saw us together,they expected crap to go down.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
They're like, oh no, they'regonna, they're gonna fight.
And so I had to give you a little bitof distance while you were going out
doing your goddess thing and giving,giving hope and light to these tables.
(17:53):
What were some of theexperiences you had going around?
I.
It was really fun to visit the differenttables and they all had varying reactions.
They, I could definitely tell whowas more a role player and who was
maybe a little bit more shy, but Iapproached a table and they decided
(18:14):
to role play it as the goddessherself appeared right then and there.
The second I had approached thetable, which was opportune for them
because that was the moment theywere being chased by the city guard.
And so it was a perfect role play moment.
Totally serendipitous, and Ijust, I loved interacting with
(18:34):
all these different people.
There was a little table upstairs.
And it was a group of, I think they weremaybe 13 year old boys, and they had all
come together and one of their moms cameover and asked me to go say hi to them.
And it was so fun to visit the differentpeople and just, you know, in character,
(18:55):
give them some inspiration and try toreally immerse them in this amazing story
that you and Johnny had pulled together
and then you helped bring it to life.
I have some There were peoplewho recorded the finale.
And I have those videosup from the second floor.
I'm gonna have to show them to you.
But we did it, we pulled it off.
(19:15):
It was pretty cool.
And it was pretty electric to have all1200 people in attendance crowd around
the stage for that final confrontationbetween Bena and Elda because El a not
only was the embodiment of all that wasgood and holy and worth fighting for but
you were also a stand-in for the audience.
Because we couldn't have all1200 people there on stage.
(19:38):
So Everybo, I wanted everybodyto see themselves in your shoes.
You were there representing them.
And we had some mechanicstied to that as well.
You had given out these holy symbolsthat transformed into these spears
in the, in the second and third act.
With, with everybody attacking withthese spears at once on these vessels
of Vena all that energy would betransferred in this arcane holy lightning
(20:04):
to your spear so that you would hitVena with one final mighty blow.
And my goal was to make thatfeel as energetic as possible.
Get everybody excited,get everybody chanting.
Knowing.
That a bit of their damage thatthey dealt to Vena in that final
round was there in your spear.
(20:24):
How did you feel in that moment withall that pressure on your shoulders?
It,
it was intense.
It, I mean, that was a momentwhere it really was just like all
eyes on me and I was like, oh man.
Like it was crazy because it was this.
Moment where everybody was, I think,crossing their fingers and holding
(20:46):
their breath, hoping that they haddone enough damage to kill Vena,
just waiting because you know, theycouldn't tell from their own table.
And it was this huge moment.
And I remember when you had announcedthat Vena died, just this sigh of
relief through the crowd and excitementthat, you know, not only had they
(21:07):
come together, won the GuinnessWorld Record, but they had also.
Defeated the evil in this game,and it was so satisfying for all
of the players and for me to sortof be their proxy in that moment.
Mm-hmm.
There my favorite moment.
I mean, everything was good.
Everything that happened in the finalewas great, but you did something amazing
(21:29):
and I don't even know if you realizewhat you did but it was right after
the scene, after the second act or.
After whatever act the wall fell.
The wall had fallen.
Bena was looking for l death andwanted to take her power for himself.
And our, our original plan washe's going to capture l death
(21:49):
and, you know, fight her there.
But we wanted, no we decidedLDA going to confront him.
She's sick of him messing with the city.
She, so you, you charge the stagewith your spear in hand, you start
yelling at me and we start we had thisconfrontation, almost like a wrestling
match because we were playing to the crowdand we had to wait for their applause.
(22:11):
But we have this confrontation, butit was it wasn't the maiden going
to be sacrificed, it was the warriorstaring down with agency with power.
And we do the scene because the wall fell.
The where Vena bites off yourhand and plucks out your eye.
Which I kind of made silly because Iforgot I was wearing glasses and I went
to go put the eye in, and then I took myglasses off to put the eye in and people
(22:35):
laughed and so I just had to play off.
Anyway, I almost ruined aperfect scene, but you saved it.
You saved it because you hadjust collapsed into a heap on the
stage, holding your stump, holdingyour eye, just shoulders sobbing.
And then I walk off stage.
(22:56):
But you lingered there.
You stayed there for a while and peoplewere still watching to see what you
were going to do, and it was very quiet.
And I'm off stage and I look around, I'mtrying to see what's what's happening,
and then slowly, very slowly, you startstanding up and you don't say anything.
(23:19):
You're quiet, you're solemn.
You stand, you bring yourshoulders back, you pick up
your spear with your good hand.
And when you stand up fully,everyone starts cheering.
That gave me chills.
I'm getting chills just remembering itand being so proud of that moment landing.
And then you walk off stage and everyone'swondering, what's Alda going to do next?
(23:43):
And then I got to go to some of theother tables who didn't get to see
that battle, and I got to announceto them as a town crier, LDA lives.
And I got to tell that story of you being.
Their hero of defying bena and comingup rising again, just like so many
(24:03):
of them had died and been resurrectedby your power to keep fighting.
That was, I think, the most emotionalmoment for me and you hold it off so well.
So thank you.
Thank you for that.
I know the finale was cool, but I thinkthe finale was cool cuz everyone still
remembered that sacrifice at the darkest
(24:24):
point.
Mm-hmm.
I totally agree.
That was my favorite moment too.
And I remember being on the ground afterthe big scene and people were chanting
for l d A to get back up, and I stayedon the ground for a good couple of
(24:45):
minutes and the chanting did not stop.
And it was, it was a really powerfuland emotional moment that you know.
I, I love to perform, and one thing Ireally love is storytelling is such a
powerful medium for people, and I thinkit can really resonate in their lives.
(25:06):
And, you know, at the moment where la, she was literally knocked down, and
that l a represents all of the players.
And so I wanted to just give everybodya moment to just like sit in the feeling
of like, bad things are happening.
But I wanna keep fighting, right?
Yes.
(25:27):
Because I think that's such apowerful thing that so many people
can feel in their own real lives, too.
And when you came back on stage withthe, the golden's eye patch and the
red and gold blood dripping fromyour hand, oh, that looks so cool.
Because they could see you and there wasa visual representation of you being hurt,
(25:48):
of you being injured, of all of them beinginjured and losing and making sacrifices.
And let's talk about your costume.
Let's talk about your costume.
I mean, we gave you Imean, I'm not a costumer.
All right.
I had some ideas on what Iwanted this character to be.
But you already had somethingin mind when you came in.
We rated the store looking for likearmor pieces we could give you.
(26:11):
But let's, let's talk about yourprocess in deciding the look for L ath.
And you know what it symbolized.
So before I met with either you orJohnny, I met with Andy at his store
a couple weeks prior to the event.
Actually, no, just aweek prior to the event.
And I was like, okay, sowhat do you want me to wear?
(26:33):
And he gave me this pitch oflike, you know, the princess, the
thing is you guys were thinkingElvin, goddess, ethereal, and.
You, he didn't really have muchelse to say as far as costuming.
Right.
And so I, one thing I didwanna say is that base costume,
(26:54):
I made that in two days.
Cause I was Congratulationsoutta town that week.
So I was like, oh crap Andy, you'vegiven me one weekend to make this.
But I think it came together okay.
He had a lot going on.
He wasn't too worried about, you know,if I was gonna wear an updo or not.
So it's okay.
It's okay.
(27:15):
But it was really fun to walk aroundthe store and you know, I love Andy
and I love his store and I loveeverything they've got going on.
And I thought it was just a nicetouch to wear some of the things
from their store tie back to them.
We geek together.
Shameless plug for them, but.
(27:36):
I loved that we took this costume thatwas really just like, you know, feminine
and pretty and goddessy and we added theselike Warrior Athena touches to it, the
braces and the leather belt and the spear.
That big old spear.
Yes.
I'm so glad I've got a spear for it.
It, it was just amazing becauseI think a lot of the time people.
(28:01):
Put characters in boxes, especiallyfemale characters, right?
Yeah.
You're either the pretty fair maidenand you're this magical, the healer
woman, or you're like the bad awarrior, and I think it's, why can't
we have our cake and eat it too, right?
You can.
You can be pretty, you can wear somethingbeautiful and fun, but still be, you know.
(28:26):
A tough
woman, and I love that there were layersto the costume that showed that side.
Like, this is the goddess of peace.
And if the goddess of peace is goingto war, you know, things are serious.
You know that there's no otheralternative, there's no other choice.
The other gods have forsakenthese people, but no death won't.
Yeah, you did such a good job.
So fun.
Ah, I'm so happy.
(28:47):
What else went into your costume,your makeup everything else you did?
Let's bring this character to life.
So I love, I had the incredibleopportunity to be an apprentice
under my friend Christie, whois the lead customer, evermore.
She's fabulous.
Incredible.
And a lot of the things we talk aboutare how much storytelling can come from
(29:12):
a character's design or costume, and.
I really put a lot of thoughtand love into it, right?
And I loved that it almostlooked out of place, right?
That a goddess of peacewould be on the battlefield.
And so she probably wouldn't have a fullsuit of armor as the goddess of peace.
(29:35):
And I think it really drovehome that this was the absolute.
Last resort.
And on the note of the gold eye patch,you and I had a discussion the day
before when we finally met about how torepresent that I had lost my arm and I
in the instance of that ending, but wedidn't want to, you know, gore me out.
(29:58):
Yeah, because there,there were kids at the
mall.
I know there were 13 year old boysthat would've been mortified if you,
they would've been left everywhere.
I, I think there was like a six yearold girl wearing like a jojo Siwa shirt
romping around the mall with her mom.
I think she was already traumatized.
We didn't need to do anythingmore to that poor little girl.
So we were talking about itand we, we kinda had this idea
(30:22):
that as a, as a goddess, whywouldn't she have golden blood?
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And I was digging around in my littlecostume stash and I found this really
pretty gold ribbon and I took it andI did in fact that night, grind up an
old makeup palette that I had of all ofthe reds and gold and mix them together
(30:44):
to make like this gold red powder.
And I, I
look so cool.
I can't believe you made that yourself.
That's great.
You
know, you gotta get crafty.
You gotta make do, especially inthis world, you never know what
people are gonna want, right?
One event, you might be a prettyfairy covered in sparkles.
(31:07):
Another you might be areally funky looking ogre.
So I've got quite the stash.
Yeah, I bet you'd make a great ogre.
Absolute great ogre.
I
don't mean to brag.
Oh yeah.
Cuz I wasn't sure what you weregoing to look like when you had
the eye and the hand removed.
I didn't get to see it beforehand untilyou came back on stage and started
(31:31):
chanting and getting people excited again.
And so I got to experience seeing LDAin her wounded form for the first time
when everyone else did and I loved that.
That was cool.
That
was so great.
I thought it was a really fun way to doit symbolically and have it make sense
(31:53):
from far away in the nosebleeds, whichwas, you know, most of them all, but
I thought it came together really fun.
Yeah, and I love that there wasstill some red in that golden
blood, so we knew it was blood.
We just weren't like hitin the face with the blood.
It wasn't overwhelming.
It was clear that there was a change.
It was clear that something happened.
I think having like a little bit ofblood told a better story than if
(32:16):
we'd have just drenched you and read.
Yes.
I think it, it.
Made you think more Right.
About maybe the storytellingelements of what that loss
meant rather than, oh my gosh.
She got her arm chopped off.
Right.
Bitten off.
Bitten off.
(32:36):
Bitten off.
Because as we were blocking it, Irealized, how am I going to grab
her hand and chop chopper handoff if I don't have a second hand?
Ah,
we did it.
You just, no off like that Turkeylike we were talking about earlier.
I should have eaten a Turkey legto like really get in character.
And as you were on the ground andI was walking around you, I was
(32:57):
like acting like I was screwing iton like it was fucking know, know.
Yeah.
Well, what are some of your otherbig thoughts from the event?
And then I wanna talk more about theother cool things you're involved with.
My big takeaway was just, How much thiscommunity is so supportive of each other.
(33:17):
We really all came together, all1200 of us plus, and it was just fun.
And you could tell that there wasthis amazing energy among the people
where at the different tables,they were all, you know, maybe
amongst friends, amongst strangers.
(33:38):
But they still felt connectedto each other, and I thought
that that was so amazing and Icannot wait to do it next year.
I hope Andy has me back again ifI've gotta come back as an i'll.
Whatever.
Next year comes Queen of theogre, queen of the, you know,
you should send that to Johnny.
He needs to get star on that writing.
(33:59):
Johnny.
Now
I'll text him right now.
Queen of the Ogres.
I'm not gonna give him any context.
I'm just gonna say thatand just watch what magic
get the gears turning.
Right.
But it was, it wasamazing to work with you.
It was amazing to work with Johnny again.
The We Geek together crew wasamazing at getting a lot of.
(34:21):
The operations of it together.
And I think with a little bit ofPolish, they could do another event
like this so much bigger, right?
And I'm just excited to see what thefuture holds for them and for this world
record, I wanna see who tries to beat it.
(34:42):
I hope somebody does beat it, becauseif they beat it, that gives us an
excuse to come back even stronger.
And take it back.
I love that sort of conflict.
So yeah, those of you out therelistening who are sad that you missed
out, start your own, figure up that.
See if you can stand on our shoulders.
(35:03):
It was tough.
We learned a lot on the way, but ifyou beat us, rest assured we will come
after you and we will take it back.
That is my promise and mychallenge to all of you.
So yeah, I would loveto work with you again.
Janie, you're awesome.
It was super fun.
We connected so fast on the daybefore the event and mm-hmm.
(35:26):
Maybe it was through that sharedstress and that shared trauma of
having so many eyes on us and havingto perform in, in front of all of them.
Mm-hmm.
But you are awesome.
So what can people do ifthey want to see more of you?
Are you in any other shows,any other productions?
Are there any other cool actingcreds you want to talk about?
(35:49):
Well, right now I am not doing alot of acting, which is unfortunate.
I ended up be doing a stintas a runway model last week.
So, I don't know.
That was pretty cool.
You can text me for my bookingfee for $20 and a slice of pizza.
I will show up at yourD&D game and be at nbc.
(36:12):
Not actually, but I, I'll,
I'll tell all my players.
I'll tell all my players.
They're already paying me a lot.
We can, we can edit, add another
I, I'll be at the Utah Renaissance Fair.
I'm not entirely sure what I'llbe doing there, but I will.
Be there.
Oh, good.
Queen.
Oh, good Queen.
Oh, you're a queen.
You know what?
(36:32):
I know the coordinatorof the fair, miss Erin.
I'll get something in the worksright now, but if you wanna find
me, I'm on all the social medias.
If you have any.
Creative projects that youneed an NPC for, let me know
because I love this industry.
And also if anyone has anyquestions about how to get into
(36:55):
the professional large spear.
Spear
spears on the brain,Spears on the brain, oh,
sphere and things of this nature.
And making money by being a nerd.
You can ask me.
I.
I have a good amount of experience, butI mean, I, I did have one funny anecdote
(37:17):
from the day of that I wanted to share.
Yes, I'm here for, there was one fabulousyoung man who approached me afterwards.
I had changed.
I was on my way out and he came up and helike tapped me on the shoulder and he was
like, you did a, such a wonderful job.
And then he said, So was ithard, like when they had to
teach you like what D&D was,
(37:38):
you just assumed that you weren't a nerd?
How dare he?
That was very, it, it definitelycracked me up and it got me laughing.
I was like, what?
Oh.
A weird thing for me to just be somerandom actor and show up and do this
whole event and have to receive like10 years of D&D history in order
(38:02):
to like be funny and relatable.
Oh man.
I'm just, it's hilarious.
I'm sorry that happened, but alsolaughing because it happened.
I'm
It's 99% funny.
Well, let's talk about like how thegaming space in this community has
changed over the years and we'vegot more people like you playing.
(38:22):
Like what, what, what does itlook like from your perspective?
From my perspective, you andI had a chat about this before
we started recording about how.
I was a young girl and I have beenin game stores for a long time.
I started being the littletag along Sister to Magic, the
gathering tournaments when I was 10.
And so I have been in the game storesand in the nerd scene forever, and
(38:46):
it has been really amazing to see.
How much more accepting and loving thiscommunity has become for women because
10 year old Janie would go to thesetournaments and be the only girl in the
room, and it was, you know, A littleintimidating, and I can understand
(39:09):
why so many people would feel nervousabout getting into D&D or doing all
of these things when they don't seepeople like themselves at these stores.
And now when you go into like WeGeek together or any game store, it's
wonderful to see people there of all.
Genders backgrounds.
(39:30):
It's amazing to see women showing up tothese events and I saw a table at this
event of all girls playing togetherand I was like, you rock on girls.
You do it.
And
extra inspiration foryou, extra inspiration
for you.
You all get inspiration.
Can I slide you guys like10 bucks under the table?
(39:52):
I thought it was awesomeand I think this community.
It has more growing to do obviously.
I saw someone in the comments say, howare their attractive women playing?
D&D was a remark that they've heard,and how are women girls playing D&D?
But you know, we play D&D Who's gonnainteract with the unicorns in your game?
(40:14):
Us.
I've had male charactersinteract with unicorns, and
that is against the DD rules.
That's against the rules.
It's Well,
We don't always do rules right now.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Boys like unicorns too.
Rule of
Cool.
Okay.
Okay.
Rule of cool.
Rule of cool.
But no, that's awesome.
And I love seeing more peoplecoming into the hobby and I love
(40:36):
seeing it more of Bay Place.
I'm, you know, a scary looking guy.
All right.
I, I don't have to get nervouswhen I go to these events.
I've got that privilege going for me.
I'm bald.
People already think I'm gonna bein authority figure or a villain,
so I've got that going for me.
What I've noticed a difference in thegames that I run that are dominated
(40:58):
by all males and ones that have,you know more of a female presence.
When there's a bunch of males playing,it's kind of a competition to see who
can be funnier, who could be tougher,who can do the wildest thing, and when
you introduce at least one girl intothe com into the conversation or two
(41:19):
ideally, or 50 50 split, even better.
Mm-hmm.
I've seen the entire parties be alot more emotionally intelligent.
It's not just the female players,it's like even the, the male players
are on better behavior because thewomen are playing and they gotta,
they gotta work together as a team.
So I, mm-hmm.
(41:39):
Yeah.
Every time I'm doing a game withall dudes, I'm like, oh man.
I shouldn't say that.
I did a game with all dudes todayand they were great and I loved them.
You know, they're not the mostemotionally intelligent party.
We have fun, but it's a different type
of fun.
It is a different type of fun, and Idefinitely think there is room for.
Everybody in Dungeons and Dragonsand just be who you wanna be
(42:04):
and do what you're gonna do.
And I, I definitely agree.
I mean, I have only ever played gameswhere there's been a female presence.
At least one.
At least one.
But it, there's definitelya different dynamic.
I think, you know, a lot of us youngladies aren't expected to be into
(42:24):
Dungeons and Dragons aren't raised on.
Things like video games andother things because it's not
what society expects of us.
And so I think by having women andgirls in your D&D game, you get
this entirely different perspective.
And I mean, in my opinion,it makes it more fun.
(42:46):
So
I'll agree with you there.
Thanks for being such like a great.
Role model, like I'm sure that six yearold girl who was running around the mall
saw you, thought you were awesome andwants to grow up to be just like you.
Do you have any more advice for, forthose little girls, little boys, little
anybody who wants to grow up and be nerdy?
(43:09):
The rules rule.
I think the biggest rule ofanything in the world is if you
want to do something, Go for it.
If just be yourself.
Go to these nerdy events andbe the one who dresses up.
Who cares if you're theonly one in costume?
(43:29):
Who cares if you're the onlyone doing a silly accent?
If you wanna play D&D,get your friends together.
Get your family together.
Force 'em to play, trap them.
That's what I do.
And just get together.
Have fun, and who cares what otherpeople are thinking because if.
People are worriedabout what you're doing.
(43:52):
They just don't have a lot going on intheir lives, and how boring for them.
You've got five differentlives in five different worlds
that you're living your best
life, living your best life, spokenlike a true professional NPC.
Thank you so much again, Janie.
It was awesome.
I look forward to our next collaboration,hopefully sooner rather than later.
(44:14):
I mean, there's always next day.
Maybe we should dosomething cool before then.
So yeah, any final thoughtsbefore we close out?
Well, thank you so muchfor having me, Dax.
This was so fun.
You're a fabulous host, everybody.
Book Dax for all of your D&Dgames for when you trap your
family and friends to play.
Hire Dax to be your DM
(44:36):
and for an extra 20bucks, Janie will show up.
I will show up in costume.
That's the bonus package.
Go play at We geek together.
Go support all of the nerdyawesome businesses in the community
because they are doing wonderful,wonderful things in the world.
And always be who you wanna be.
All right.
See you all.
Next episode.
Welcome back to Dungeons andDax, the podcast where I talk
about how cool my friends are.
I may be a professional dungeonmaster, but I've got friends in all
sorts of awesome creative fields,and we're gonna talk about the ways
we can tell better stories together.
I'm here with Janie.
Janie is awesome.
We had a very cool project justa few weeks ago, and we met in
(00:59):
person the day before the project.
We hit it off.
And it was awesome.
How you doing, Jane?
I am doing great.
Dax, how have you beensince our big project?
I was writing the high for a few days.
Well, I guess the day after I had tostay home and go into my introvert
(01:19):
bubble before I recharged my smell slots.
But I, I'm working, I'mrunning D&D games again.
Finished a D&D game about an hour ago.
Always working, always goingon to the next big thing.
But enough about me.
Let's talk about you.
You're the star of this show.
Before we get into our big awesome projectwe did a few weeks ago, who is Jane?
(01:43):
I have been asking myself thatfor 21 years now, but long
answer short, I am a Utah native.
Who has been performingand acting my whole life.
I'm a big fantasy fan.
I've been playing D&D for years,and when I was about 16, I got into
LARPing professionally, and I'vebeen doing it ever since, so about
(02:07):
five years now, and I've loved it.
Every part of it.
Now, every nerd listening to thisknows what LARP stands for, but for
those of you non nerds or familymembers of nerds who don't know
what LARPing is tell us about Laing.
So
LARPing is live action, role play,and it's basically, in my opinion,
(02:28):
the nerdiest thing you can do.
In most instances, it'speople getting together to.
Have a live action role play all atDungeons and Dragons or other role playing
games generally, people will dress up,there'll be a story and a plot, and you
just sort of acted out how you wouldplay a D&D character, but with yourself.
(02:48):
Yeah.
So instead of playing around the tableand rolling dice, you're out in the
woods or at a, like a cool venue andit's, the goal is to be as immersive
as possible, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, it is a full immersive experiencefrom, you know, running around and
getting sweaty, eating Turkey legs.
(03:10):
It's so fun.
I highly recommendeverybody go and do it once.
Turkey legs is like anew level of immersion.
I have never eaten Turkey legwhile playing D&D, so I guess you
are officially nerdier than I am.
But that's cool and that's awesome.
But you used the word professional.
What is a prof?
What makes a, someone, aprofessional lier as opposed to
(03:32):
someone who does that as a hobby?
Well, by definition, right, professionalmeans I have been paid for it.
I got really lucky.
I got into it as like a baby LARPer beingpaid because up until that point, I had
been so involved in acting and improv and.
So, yeah, I've had all these opportunitieswhere most people when they LA are going
(03:55):
and they're playing a character thatthey wrote that they created, and they're
following their own character storyline.
Whereas in most instances, I've shownup and told you are X, Y, and z.
Basically a professional npc, butas a person, professional npc.
I love that.
I love that we, yeah.
You need to change this little title.
(04:16):
I can, I'm gonna do that right now.
Those of you who are listeningand not watching, we have our,
our titles up on the screen.
Professional NP C.
Love it.
Alright.
And it's very fun and very fulfilling.
For people who, who get to playand you get to elevate that
(04:37):
experience, help them get immersed.
Yes.
Now, those of you who live inUtah, even if you're not a hardcore
LARPer, Might have gotten a littletaste of the LARPing experience if
you've ever been to Evermore Park.
Evermore isn't exactly a LARPing Park,but it's larp adjacent, I would say.
There are definitely some similar elementsand themes and you, you sort at Evermore
(05:00):
Park I did, I worked at Evermore fromthe day they opened as Evermore Park.
To July of last year and it, itwas a very rewarding experience.
What is evermore part for our listenerswho may be overseas who have never
even been to the mountains of Utah?
(05:22):
What's evermore, what makes it special
evermore is geek heaven.
It is this beautiful plot of land wherethey have built these antique looking.
Victorian England houses, right?
And it looks like a villagestraight out of Europe.
(05:42):
And when you enter, you're greeted by avariety of characters and creatures and
they are all in character greeting youas the hero of the story that's going on.
And nevermore.
I love that.
I'm sorry if I'm not lookingat the camera right now.
I got distracted becauseI have all of my loot.
(06:04):
I, every time I go to evermore,I see if they have a new coin.
And so I've got a collectionthat I've been growing over
the last couple of years.
I'm gonna put that on screen.
But yeah, it, it's great.
You get to be the heroes as you go.
And my wife and I have gone quitea bit, not so much since we've
had kids, but before we had kids,you better believe we were there.
(06:24):
Why does that, I believe it and it'sfun being the protagonist going around
and doing, doing fetch quests for allof the professional NPCs that are there
because you know, they're not gonnaput a, put a sword in your hand and
go tell you to kill all the goblins.
You know, some, the goblinsare some of the nicest.
NPCs I've found.
Yeah.
They have the most fun.
(06:45):
Yeah, it's fun and it's wholesomeand it's spooky in Halloween time.
I love it when it gets spooky.
It's, it's a lot of fun going to it.
So yeah, you're involvedin awesome things.
You've been an actress, professionalLARPer, and eventually our paths crossed.
I, I mean, we probably met at evermore.
(07:06):
At one point, right.
But our mm-hmm.
Path officially crossed through amutual friend, our friend Andrew
Ashby introduced us, who was on thelast episode of the podcast, and
Andrew owns the Geek Together Tavern.
And I was working with him andwith Johnny Jensen to put together
the Guinness World Record Eventfor the largest game of D&D ever.
(07:30):
And as Johnny and I were going throughwhat he had written and the ideas that
I was bringing to it and the adjustmentsthat I was making, we, we wanted some sort
of emotional through line in the story.
We wanted to have a hero that theaudience could really root for.
And.
I thought about using like theKing of Kingdom Grand or like
(07:52):
Lost Prince, but there was alreadysomeone there in the story and that
was Elda, the Goddess of Peace.
And I thought, okay, I'm the dm.
I gotta play lda, Igotta play Vena and lda.
How about we go one step further?
How about we bring someone in toplay l a, someone who can match my
energy on stage as I am Vena and wecan do a few scenes for the audience.
(08:16):
Oh, that's a little bit ambitious,we thought and we went back and
forth and I don't know anyone.
I got a friend who might do it.
We asked we asked Andrew.
He's like, I know someone.
Let me text her right now.
And before I even left the tavern thatday you were, you were on board, Hey,
Janie's in so what was, what was goingthrough your mind as you got that call
(08:39):
and you were like, Hey, two weeks from nowyou're going to be doing this massive role
in front of a thousand or more people.
What went through your mind?
So, I, I do not mean tosound like conceited.
But for so many people, this would be liketheir worst nightmare is someone hitting
them up and being like, last minute.
(09:00):
You need to prepare to be infront of thousands of people.
But for me, that's something that,again, working at evermore, I just got
so used to doing every single weekend.
And so when Andy hit me up, by theway, Andy's text was so nonchalant.
He basically texted me and was like, Hey,can you come LARP at this event I'm doing?
(09:23):
I didn't know that.
That's great.
So nonchalant.
I was like, yep, be there.
He didn't say, Hey, weneed you to be the star.
We need you to be theemotional heart of this story.
We need you to be the one personthat everyone latches onto
and looks to for inspiration.
He didn't say any of those things?
And that came a little bit later, I think.
(09:43):
Then later he sent me a text andhe was like, oh, by the way, you're
gonna be the main character atthe Guinness World Record event.
And I think then I was like, oh.
This is, you know, a little moreimportant than I thought it was.
You thought you weregonna be a Quest giver.
No.
You got to be the mentor.
You got to be the hero.
You got to be the paragon.
You got to be so many great things.
(10:05):
Exactly.
So with busy schedules and everything,we weren't able to officially
I'll, at least Johnny and I weren'table to officially meet you until
the day before the big event andwe'd heard great things about you.
So we're excited to work with you.
And we were playing around withthe, with the idea of L Dash.
Cuz at first in the earlierdrafts of the story, she was this
(10:28):
Princess Zelda type character.
Not very proactive, just lovedand hoped so much and gave people
inspiration and we, we didn't want that.
More we looked at it, we wanted Eldeath to be have more of an active role,
someone who would lead people into battle.
So instead of Princess Zeldawe're like, she is Gandolph
(10:51):
and Aragorn rolled into one.
And we used the Goddess Athenaas a major influence as well.
And so when we met with you, that's whenwe had finalized those ideas and we.
We gave them to you and what did youdo with the information that we gave?
So it was definitely a lot to show upand be like, here are these two guys and
(11:18):
they have spent months preparing all ofthis information and you have to learn
it all tonight for this event tomorrow.
And it was, honestly, it was soamazing to watch you and Johnny.
Be so excited to tell me aboutthis character, and I could tell
how much you both loved whatwas put into this character.
(11:42):
And I guess it's sort of dawnedon me the importance of the role
that you had given me, right?
And that you wanted somebody to belike the physical embodiment of the
good in this story, whereas, FNA isobviously the embodiment of evil.
(12:05):
Yeah.
And we gave you a lot of notesand the notes that I that I gave
you kept changing on the day of.
Mm-hmm.
Because we were, I mean, like any goodD&D session, you have to fill in gaps
and make up things as you go along.
And we had an idea of thedirection we were going, but.
A lot of it was listening to the crowdfeeling their energy, seeing them get
(12:28):
attached to lda, and then you and I would,would meet backstage isn't the right term.
We'd meet offstage and I'd belike, Hey, what about this?
What about that?
And it was so cool to see youimplement those changes and just
amplify the ideas that I have.
I could tell you did improv becauseyou know how to accept and amplify.
That's, that's rule number one.
And rule number two, improv.
(12:49):
So thanks for being soawesome to work with.
What, what was the energy like whenyou, you came into the Guinness
event, there's thousands of peopleplaying, you are in costume.
What was going through your mind?
What were you feeling?
This event was so fun.
There was an amazing, amazingenergy, and I have done a lot of
(13:12):
LARP events before, obviously.
However, I don't think I've ever donean event where so many people were
gathered together who were taking it.
So seriously.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that's what made it so funis that everybody was fully invested in
the story and there were so many momentswhere there was just magic in the air.
(13:34):
It was amazing to walk through the crowd.
And at first I could tell people were.
A little confused.
I think some people didn't catch on thatlike I was gonna be coming to their table.
And I definitely got a couplelooks from people who were like,
why is this crazy lady in anoutfit coming and talking to us?
We're trying to play D&D.
But all those
(13:54):
d and d nerds who don't larp, whothink they're too cool for LARPing,
they're like, why is LARPer here?
No one's too cool for Laring.
Okay.
But it was fun.
And I remember there was this momentwhere, You and I had come together
backstage and you were like, I'm gonnarip your arm off and poke your eye
(14:18):
out and we're gonna do it on stageand this is gonna, how it's gonna go.
And it, it came togetherso perfectly on stage.
Yeah.
I I, every time we tried blockingit, we kept making little changes,
trying to see what felt naturaland what what hand goes where.
(14:38):
Cuz those of you who are familiar withBena, he's known for two main things.
His eye and his hand, his eye and hishand have been removed from his body.
And are these legendary objects ofgreat evil in the d n d multiverse.
There are lots of stories out thereof people searching for the hand
(15:00):
and attaching it to their bodies orsearching for his eye and using it to
gain unholy insight and Eldridge energy.
And so I figured the fact now thatI'm playing is gonna be missing
his hand is be missing his eye.
What is the most evil thing thathe can do to the goddess of peace?
Short of killing her?
Right?
In fact, something evil.
(15:20):
What if he disfigures her?
What if he takes her hand andtakes her eye for himself and
takes some of her power and someof her energy and corrupts it?
And thi wa That was one of the possiblescenarios for the story that we wrote.
We had four different endings planned,depending on if the wall fell or if
the wall stood, and then dependingon if Vena was eventually defeated.
(15:44):
Out of the, and I remember we wereexplaining these four different
endings and these branching paths toyou, and you were just overwhelmed.
Cause you're like, oh, this is tomorrow.
And so I had to steal a piece of paperfrom Johnny and just draw out a diagram.
Luckily a little punt square.
Yeah, little punt square.
That's a good way of putting it.
A little a little table, a littlepunt square, which is what I use
to, to understand the branching pathand then that help you out at all.
(16:11):
It definitely helped me because whenI first sat down, I, I had just met
you and Johnny, which by the way,Johnny Jensen is such a perfect name.
For Johnny.
He's like a little cartoon character.
I love him.
He is such a joy.
He, he like should be on a Saturdaymorning cartoon as the protector.
(16:31):
Exactly.
Jensen, Timmy Turner, PeterParker, Johnny Jensen, Johnny
Jensen.
And I was sitting with you too, and Johnnywent first and Johnny handed me one of the
DM packets, which is like an inch thick.
40 pages.
40 pages.
And I'm looking at it.
(16:52):
Thinking, okay, so you want meto like get ready for tomorrow
and read all of this by tomorrow?
And I was starting tofreak out a little bit.
And then you were likeno, no, no, no, no, no.
Let me just like draw this out for you.
And it really did help me out that dayto be like, okay, did the wall fail fall?
Yes.
Okay.
(17:12):
So it's one of these two endings and ithelped me just like sort out my brain
because I think otherwise I would've been.
Totally frazzled.
I mean, I was already a littlebit all over the place, you know,
trying to find like, okay, who knowswhat, where am I supposed to be?
Who's where?
Mm-hmm.
Where is what?
(17:33):
But yeah, you did, you did so well.
I didn't get to see a lot ofyour interactions with the tables
because if people saw us together,they expected crap to go down.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
They're like, oh no, they'regonna, they're gonna fight.
And so I had to give you a little bitof distance while you were going out
doing your goddess thing and giving,giving hope and light to these tables.
(17:53):
What were some of theexperiences you had going around?
I.
It was really fun to visit the differenttables and they all had varying reactions.
They, I could definitely tell whowas more a role player and who was
maybe a little bit more shy, but Iapproached a table and they decided
(18:14):
to role play it as the goddessherself appeared right then and there.
The second I had approached thetable, which was opportune for them
because that was the moment theywere being chased by the city guard.
And so it was a perfect role play moment.
Totally serendipitous, and Ijust, I loved interacting with
(18:34):
all these different people.
There was a little table upstairs.
And it was a group of, I think they weremaybe 13 year old boys, and they had all
come together and one of their moms cameover and asked me to go say hi to them.
And it was so fun to visit the differentpeople and just, you know, in character,
(18:55):
give them some inspiration and try toreally immerse them in this amazing story
that you and Johnny had pulled together
and then you helped bring it to life.
I have some There were peoplewho recorded the finale.
And I have those videosup from the second floor.
I'm gonna have to show them to you.
But we did it, we pulled it off.
(19:15):
It was pretty cool.
And it was pretty electric to have all1200 people in attendance crowd around
the stage for that final confrontationbetween Bena and Elda because El a not
only was the embodiment of all that wasgood and holy and worth fighting for but
you were also a stand-in for the audience.
Because we couldn't have all1200 people there on stage.
(19:38):
So Everybo, I wanted everybodyto see themselves in your shoes.
You were there representing them.
And we had some mechanicstied to that as well.
You had given out these holy symbolsthat transformed into these spears
in the, in the second and third act.
With, with everybody attacking withthese spears at once on these vessels
of Vena all that energy would betransferred in this arcane holy lightning
(20:04):
to your spear so that you would hitVena with one final mighty blow.
And my goal was to make thatfeel as energetic as possible.
Get everybody excited,get everybody chanting.
Knowing.
That a bit of their damage thatthey dealt to Vena in that final
round was there in your spear.
(20:24):
How did you feel in that moment withall that pressure on your shoulders?
It,
it was intense.
It, I mean, that was a momentwhere it really was just like all
eyes on me and I was like, oh man.
Like it was crazy because it was this.
Moment where everybody was, I think,crossing their fingers and holding
(20:46):
their breath, hoping that they haddone enough damage to kill Vena,
just waiting because you know, theycouldn't tell from their own table.
And it was this huge moment.
And I remember when you had announcedthat Vena died, just this sigh of
relief through the crowd and excitementthat, you know, not only had they
(21:07):
come together, won the GuinnessWorld Record, but they had also.
Defeated the evil in this game,and it was so satisfying for all
of the players and for me to sortof be their proxy in that moment.
Mm-hmm.
There my favorite moment.
I mean, everything was good.
Everything that happened in the finalewas great, but you did something amazing
(21:29):
and I don't even know if you realizewhat you did but it was right after
the scene, after the second act or.
After whatever act the wall fell.
The wall had fallen.
Bena was looking for l death andwanted to take her power for himself.
And our, our original plan washe's going to capture l death
(21:49):
and, you know, fight her there.
But we wanted, no we decidedLDA going to confront him.
She's sick of him messing with the city.
She, so you, you charge the stagewith your spear in hand, you start
yelling at me and we start we had thisconfrontation, almost like a wrestling
match because we were playing to the crowdand we had to wait for their applause.
(22:11):
But we have this confrontation, butit was it wasn't the maiden going
to be sacrificed, it was the warriorstaring down with agency with power.
And we do the scene because the wall fell.
The where Vena bites off yourhand and plucks out your eye.
Which I kind of made silly because Iforgot I was wearing glasses and I went
to go put the eye in, and then I took myglasses off to put the eye in and people
(22:35):
laughed and so I just had to play off.
Anyway, I almost ruined aperfect scene, but you saved it.
You saved it because you hadjust collapsed into a heap on the
stage, holding your stump, holdingyour eye, just shoulders sobbing.
And then I walk off stage.
(22:56):
But you lingered there.
You stayed there for a while and peoplewere still watching to see what you
were going to do, and it was very quiet.
And I'm off stage and I look around, I'mtrying to see what's what's happening,
and then slowly, very slowly, you startstanding up and you don't say anything.
(23:19):
You're quiet, you're solemn.
You stand, you bring yourshoulders back, you pick up
your spear with your good hand.
And when you stand up fully,everyone starts cheering.
That gave me chills.
I'm getting chills just remembering itand being so proud of that moment landing.
And then you walk off stage and everyone'swondering, what's Alda going to do next?
(23:43):
And then I got to go to some of theother tables who didn't get to see
that battle, and I got to announceto them as a town crier, LDA lives.
And I got to tell that story of you being.
Their hero of defying bena and comingup rising again, just like so many
(24:03):
of them had died and been resurrectedby your power to keep fighting.
That was, I think, the most emotionalmoment for me and you hold it off so well.
So thank you.
Thank you for that.
I know the finale was cool, but I thinkthe finale was cool cuz everyone still
remembered that sacrifice at the darkest
(24:24):
point.
Mm-hmm.
I totally agree.
That was my favorite moment too.
And I remember being on the ground afterthe big scene and people were chanting
for l d A to get back up, and I stayedon the ground for a good couple of
(24:45):
minutes and the chanting did not stop.
And it was, it was a really powerfuland emotional moment that you know.
I, I love to perform, and one thing Ireally love is storytelling is such a
powerful medium for people, and I thinkit can really resonate in their lives.
(25:06):
And, you know, at the moment where la, she was literally knocked down, and
that l a represents all of the players.
And so I wanted to just give everybodya moment to just like sit in the feeling
of like, bad things are happening.
But I wanna keep fighting, right?
Yes.
(25:27):
Because I think that's such apowerful thing that so many people
can feel in their own real lives, too.
And when you came back on stage withthe, the golden's eye patch and the
red and gold blood dripping fromyour hand, oh, that looks so cool.
Because they could see you and there wasa visual representation of you being hurt,
(25:48):
of you being injured, of all of them beinginjured and losing and making sacrifices.
And let's talk about your costume.
Let's talk about your costume.
I mean, we gave you Imean, I'm not a costumer.
All right.
I had some ideas on what Iwanted this character to be.
But you already had somethingin mind when you came in.
We rated the store looking for likearmor pieces we could give you.
(26:11):
But let's, let's talk about yourprocess in deciding the look for L ath.
And you know what it symbolized.
So before I met with either you orJohnny, I met with Andy at his store
a couple weeks prior to the event.
Actually, no, just aweek prior to the event.
And I was like, okay, sowhat do you want me to wear?
(26:33):
And he gave me this pitch oflike, you know, the princess, the
thing is you guys were thinkingElvin, goddess, ethereal, and.
You, he didn't really have muchelse to say as far as costuming.
Right.
And so I, one thing I didwanna say is that base costume,
(26:54):
I made that in two days.
Cause I was Congratulationsoutta town that week.
So I was like, oh crap Andy, you'vegiven me one weekend to make this.
But I think it came together okay.
He had a lot going on.
He wasn't too worried about, you know,if I was gonna wear an updo or not.
So it's okay.
It's okay.
(27:15):
But it was really fun to walk aroundthe store and you know, I love Andy
and I love his store and I loveeverything they've got going on.
And I thought it was just a nicetouch to wear some of the things
from their store tie back to them.
We geek together.
Shameless plug for them, but.
(27:36):
I loved that we took this costume thatwas really just like, you know, feminine
and pretty and goddessy and we added theselike Warrior Athena touches to it, the
braces and the leather belt and the spear.
That big old spear.
Yes.
I'm so glad I've got a spear for it.
It, it was just amazing becauseI think a lot of the time people.
(28:01):
Put characters in boxes, especiallyfemale characters, right?
Yeah.
You're either the pretty fair maidenand you're this magical, the healer
woman, or you're like the bad awarrior, and I think it's, why can't
we have our cake and eat it too, right?
You can.
You can be pretty, you can wear somethingbeautiful and fun, but still be, you know.
(28:26):
A tough
woman, and I love that there were layersto the costume that showed that side.
Like, this is the goddess of peace.
And if the goddess of peace is goingto war, you know, things are serious.
You know that there's no otheralternative, there's no other choice.
The other gods have forsakenthese people, but no death won't.
Yeah, you did such a good job.
So fun.
Ah, I'm so happy.
(28:47):
What else went into your costume,your makeup everything else you did?
Let's bring this character to life.
So I love, I had the incredibleopportunity to be an apprentice
under my friend Christie, whois the lead customer, evermore.
She's fabulous.
Incredible.
And a lot of the things we talk aboutare how much storytelling can come from
(29:12):
a character's design or costume, and.
I really put a lot of thoughtand love into it, right?
And I loved that it almostlooked out of place, right?
That a goddess of peacewould be on the battlefield.
And so she probably wouldn't have a fullsuit of armor as the goddess of peace.
(29:35):
And I think it really drovehome that this was the absolute.
Last resort.
And on the note of the gold eye patch,you and I had a discussion the day
before when we finally met about how torepresent that I had lost my arm and I
in the instance of that ending, but wedidn't want to, you know, gore me out.
(29:58):
Yeah, because there,there were kids at the
mall.
I know there were 13 year old boysthat would've been mortified if you,
they would've been left everywhere.
I, I think there was like a six yearold girl wearing like a jojo Siwa shirt
romping around the mall with her mom.
I think she was already traumatized.
We didn't need to do anythingmore to that poor little girl.
So we were talking about itand we, we kinda had this idea
(30:22):
that as a, as a goddess, whywouldn't she have golden blood?
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And I was digging around in my littlecostume stash and I found this really
pretty gold ribbon and I took it andI did in fact that night, grind up an
old makeup palette that I had of all ofthe reds and gold and mix them together
(30:44):
to make like this gold red powder.
And I, I
look so cool.
I can't believe you made that yourself.
That's great.
You
know, you gotta get crafty.
You gotta make do, especially inthis world, you never know what
people are gonna want, right?
One event, you might be a prettyfairy covered in sparkles.
(31:07):
Another you might be areally funky looking ogre.
So I've got quite the stash.
Yeah, I bet you'd make a great ogre.
Absolute great ogre.
I
don't mean to brag.
Oh yeah.
Cuz I wasn't sure what you weregoing to look like when you had
the eye and the hand removed.
I didn't get to see it beforehand untilyou came back on stage and started
(31:31):
chanting and getting people excited again.
And so I got to experience seeing LDAin her wounded form for the first time
when everyone else did and I loved that.
That was cool.
That
was so great.
I thought it was a really fun way to doit symbolically and have it make sense
(31:53):
from far away in the nosebleeds, whichwas, you know, most of them all, but
I thought it came together really fun.
Yeah, and I love that there wasstill some red in that golden
blood, so we knew it was blood.
We just weren't like hitin the face with the blood.
It wasn't overwhelming.
It was clear that there was a change.
It was clear that something happened.
I think having like a little bit ofblood told a better story than if
(32:16):
we'd have just drenched you and read.
Yes.
I think it, it.
Made you think more Right.
About maybe the storytellingelements of what that loss
meant rather than, oh my gosh.
She got her arm chopped off.
Right.
Bitten off.
Bitten off.
(32:36):
Bitten off.
Because as we were blocking it, Irealized, how am I going to grab
her hand and chop chopper handoff if I don't have a second hand?
Ah,
we did it.
You just, no off like that Turkeylike we were talking about earlier.
I should have eaten a Turkey legto like really get in character.
And as you were on the ground andI was walking around you, I was
(32:57):
like acting like I was screwing iton like it was fucking know, know.
Yeah.
Well, what are some of your otherbig thoughts from the event?
And then I wanna talk more about theother cool things you're involved with.
My big takeaway was just, How much thiscommunity is so supportive of each other.
(33:17):
We really all came together, all1200 of us plus, and it was just fun.
And you could tell that there wasthis amazing energy among the people
where at the different tables,they were all, you know, maybe
amongst friends, amongst strangers.
(33:38):
But they still felt connectedto each other, and I thought
that that was so amazing and Icannot wait to do it next year.
I hope Andy has me back again ifI've gotta come back as an i'll.
Whatever.
Next year comes Queen of theogre, queen of the, you know,
you should send that to Johnny.
He needs to get star on that writing.
(33:59):
Johnny.
Now
I'll text him right now.
Queen of the Ogres.
I'm not gonna give him any context.
I'm just gonna say thatand just watch what magic
get the gears turning.
Right.
But it was, it wasamazing to work with you.
It was amazing to work with Johnny again.
The We Geek together crew wasamazing at getting a lot of.
(34:21):
The operations of it together.
And I think with a little bit ofPolish, they could do another event
like this so much bigger, right?
And I'm just excited to see what thefuture holds for them and for this world
record, I wanna see who tries to beat it.
(34:42):
I hope somebody does beat it, becauseif they beat it, that gives us an
excuse to come back even stronger.
And take it back.
I love that sort of conflict.
So yeah, those of you out therelistening who are sad that you missed
out, start your own, figure up that.
See if you can stand on our shoulders.
(35:03):
It was tough.
We learned a lot on the way, but ifyou beat us, rest assured we will come
after you and we will take it back.
That is my promise and mychallenge to all of you.
So yeah, I would loveto work with you again.
Janie, you're awesome.
It was super fun.
We connected so fast on the daybefore the event and mm-hmm.
(35:26):
Maybe it was through that sharedstress and that shared trauma of
having so many eyes on us and havingto perform in, in front of all of them.
Mm-hmm.
But you are awesome.
So what can people do ifthey want to see more of you?
Are you in any other shows,any other productions?
Are there any other cool actingcreds you want to talk about?
(35:49):
Well, right now I am not doing alot of acting, which is unfortunate.
I ended up be doing a stintas a runway model last week.
So, I don't know.
That was pretty cool.
You can text me for my bookingfee for $20 and a slice of pizza.
I will show up at yourD&D game and be at nbc.
(36:12):
Not actually, but I, I'll,
I'll tell all my players.
I'll tell all my players.
They're already paying me a lot.
We can, we can edit, add another
I, I'll be at the Utah Renaissance Fair.
I'm not entirely sure what I'llbe doing there, but I will.
Be there.
Oh, good.
Queen.
Oh, good Queen.
Oh, you're a queen.
You know what?
(36:32):
I know the coordinatorof the fair, miss Erin.
I'll get something in the worksright now, but if you wanna find
me, I'm on all the social medias.
If you have any.
Creative projects that youneed an NPC for, let me know
because I love this industry.
And also if anyone has anyquestions about how to get into
(36:55):
the professional large spear.
Spear
spears on the brain,Spears on the brain, oh,
sphere and things of this nature.
And making money by being a nerd.
You can ask me.
I.
I have a good amount of experience, butI mean, I, I did have one funny anecdote
(37:17):
from the day of that I wanted to share.
Yes, I'm here for, there was one fabulousyoung man who approached me afterwards.
I had changed.
I was on my way out and he came up and helike tapped me on the shoulder and he was
like, you did a, such a wonderful job.
And then he said, So was ithard, like when they had to
teach you like what D&D was,
(37:38):
you just assumed that you weren't a nerd?
How dare he?
That was very, it, it definitelycracked me up and it got me laughing.
I was like, what?
Oh.
A weird thing for me to just be somerandom actor and show up and do this
whole event and have to receive like10 years of D&D history in order
(38:02):
to like be funny and relatable.
Oh man.
I'm just, it's hilarious.
I'm sorry that happened, but alsolaughing because it happened.
I'm
It's 99% funny.
Well, let's talk about like how thegaming space in this community has
changed over the years and we'vegot more people like you playing.
(38:22):
Like what, what, what does itlook like from your perspective?
From my perspective, you andI had a chat about this before
we started recording about how.
I was a young girl and I have beenin game stores for a long time.
I started being the littletag along Sister to Magic, the
gathering tournaments when I was 10.
And so I have been in the game storesand in the nerd scene forever, and
(38:46):
it has been really amazing to see.
How much more accepting and loving thiscommunity has become for women because
10 year old Janie would go to thesetournaments and be the only girl in the
room, and it was, you know, A littleintimidating, and I can understand
(39:09):
why so many people would feel nervousabout getting into D&D or doing all
of these things when they don't seepeople like themselves at these stores.
And now when you go into like WeGeek together or any game store, it's
wonderful to see people there of all.
Genders backgrounds.
(39:30):
It's amazing to see women showing up tothese events and I saw a table at this
event of all girls playing togetherand I was like, you rock on girls.
You do it.
And
extra inspiration foryou, extra inspiration
for you.
You all get inspiration.
Can I slide you guys like10 bucks under the table?
(39:52):
I thought it was awesomeand I think this community.
It has more growing to do obviously.
I saw someone in the comments say, howare their attractive women playing?
D&D was a remark that they've heard,and how are women girls playing D&D?
But you know, we play D&D Who's gonnainteract with the unicorns in your game?
(40:14):
Us.
I've had male charactersinteract with unicorns, and
that is against the DD rules.
That's against the rules.
It's Well,
We don't always do rules right now.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Boys like unicorns too.
Rule of
Cool.
Okay.
Okay.
Rule of cool.
Rule of cool.
But no, that's awesome.
And I love seeing more peoplecoming into the hobby and I love
(40:36):
seeing it more of Bay Place.
I'm, you know, a scary looking guy.
All right.
I, I don't have to get nervouswhen I go to these events.
I've got that privilege going for me.
I'm bald.
People already think I'm gonna bein authority figure or a villain,
so I've got that going for me.
What I've noticed a difference in thegames that I run that are dominated
(40:58):
by all males and ones that have,you know more of a female presence.
When there's a bunch of males playing,it's kind of a competition to see who
can be funnier, who could be tougher,who can do the wildest thing, and when
you introduce at least one girl intothe com into the conversation or two
(41:19):
ideally, or 50 50 split, even better.
Mm-hmm.
I've seen the entire parties be alot more emotionally intelligent.
It's not just the female players,it's like even the, the male players
are on better behavior because thewomen are playing and they gotta,
they gotta work together as a team.
So I, mm-hmm.
(41:39):
Yeah.
Every time I'm doing a game withall dudes, I'm like, oh man.
I shouldn't say that.
I did a game with all dudes todayand they were great and I loved them.
You know, they're not the mostemotionally intelligent party.
We have fun, but it's a different type
of fun.
It is a different type of fun, and Idefinitely think there is room for.
Everybody in Dungeons and Dragonsand just be who you wanna be
(42:04):
and do what you're gonna do.
And I, I definitely agree.
I mean, I have only ever played gameswhere there's been a female presence.
At least one.
At least one.
But it, there's definitelya different dynamic.
I think, you know, a lot of us youngladies aren't expected to be into
(42:24):
Dungeons and Dragons aren't raised on.
Things like video games andother things because it's not
what society expects of us.
And so I think by having women andgirls in your D&D game, you get
this entirely different perspective.
And I mean, in my opinion,it makes it more fun.
(42:46):
So
I'll agree with you there.
Thanks for being such like a great.
Role model, like I'm sure that six yearold girl who was running around the mall
saw you, thought you were awesome andwants to grow up to be just like you.
Do you have any more advice for, forthose little girls, little boys, little
anybody who wants to grow up and be nerdy?
(43:09):
The rules rule.
I think the biggest rule ofanything in the world is if you
want to do something, Go for it.
If just be yourself.
Go to these nerdy events andbe the one who dresses up.
Who cares if you're theonly one in costume?
(43:29):
Who cares if you're the onlyone doing a silly accent?
If you wanna play D&D,get your friends together.
Get your family together.
Force 'em to play, trap them.
That's what I do.
And just get together.
Have fun, and who cares what otherpeople are thinking because if.
People are worriedabout what you're doing.
(43:52):
They just don't have a lot going on intheir lives, and how boring for them.
You've got five differentlives in five different worlds
that you're living your best
life, living your best life, spokenlike a true professional NPC.
Thank you so much again, Janie.
It was awesome.
I look forward to our next collaboration,hopefully sooner rather than later.
(44:14):
I mean, there's always next day.
Maybe we should dosomething cool before then.
So yeah, any final thoughtsbefore we close out?
Well, thank you so muchfor having me, Dax.
This was so fun.
You're a fabulous host, everybody.
Book Dax for all of your D&Dgames for when you trap your
family and friends to play.
Hire Dax to be your DM
(44:36):
and for an extra 20bucks, Janie will show up.
I will show up in costume.
That's the bonus package.
Go play at We geek together.
Go support all of the nerdyawesome businesses in the community
because they are doing wonderful,wonderful things in the world.
And always be who you wanna be.
All right.
See you all.
Next episode.
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