Melody [0:00]
Welcome back to the Game Master Certification Organization’s interview excerpt podcast series - featuring our guest Charles the Sinister Storyteller! This is the last podcast episode based on our interview with Charles, so we thought we’d touch on a couple of historical tropes before wrapping up with final comments from Charles. I’m your host Melody Rainelle.

So Charles, noting your military background as a Marine, how would you respond to the stereotype that TTRPG players are cloistered computer nerds somewhere? Is table top role playing games just for the quote-unquote nerds?

Charles [0:38]
Well, yes. Bill Gates was a nerd and he's like the one of the richest people in the entire world so that's a really high school kind of mentality I think. I feel like a lot of younger people probably view it that way, and older people, like, I think the stigma lies more in like my parents' generation and above, and people who are, you know, in their late teens and early 20s. Right? But... I mean I turned 38 this year; what do I care if I'm a nerd. You know, like you don't like nerdy stuff? Okay - then enjoy football, there's nothing wrong with that. Like why do you care that I like reading fantasy books and playing, you know, make believe with strangers online. I mean that makes it sound really weird but that's, I mean, that's really all it is like we're just playing interactive movies and I get to kind of direct that. I'm never gonna be able to direct a real movie, so this is kind of my outlet to do that really dramatic storytelling that I really enjoy, in a way that I can actually do it. A lot of the people I've played with have been stereotypical nerds. But then again, you know, I ran it for some of my Marine buddies and I... granted, we were nerds, but like, we're just normal people! Feels bad to relegate enjoying collaborative storytelling to, you have to be a nerd, to like playing games. Like that feels bad.

Melody [2:12]
Thank you, Charles. And, as a journalistic snapshot of where we are with these historical tropes, here's my next question: In the past, associated with table top role playing games, there was this satanic scare. How would you respond to the older generation who may be concerned about that?

Charles [2:30]
Well, I actually have a first hand experience with that funnily enough. So when I was growing up- well, even still... growing up, my family was very religious. My dad was a deacon in our church. My mom was the music minister. So odds are if we weren't at school, we were probably at church. That's just where we spent a lot of time with. Now, going back a little bit in our conversation I started playing with my buddy Cory and his friends. Cory was my youth minister, and he is the one that got me into role playing with Brian, who was the guy that taught the high school Sunday School class; David, who was the guy that I co-taught a Sunday School class with, Matt who was our children's minister and Cory's friend, Jim, who he just knew from high school. So like, I was playing this game with people that I went to church with. So, there was a time when my mom made a comment saying that you know your dad, like you're just kind of flaunting it and your dad doesn't really like it, and it's evil and I just straight up told her, like, I'm playing with- like, everyone that I play with goes to our church and is like church leadership. It's math. All these games are is math to help randomize the dramatic parts of storytelling. And if you strip down any role playing game - that's literally all it is. "Hey, you want to tell a story in the Alien RPG? Cool. You can tell whatever kind of story you want. But the things that should be random to create suspense, we have some math to help you figure out how that would work..." You know? That's every single role playing game. It's just randomizing dramatic parts of storytelling - that's it. And I told her that. And I said: "You can play a Bible game in D&D if you want, or you can play like the most Satanic thing ever in D&D if you wanted. But like, do you really think that I'm doing that with these dudes that I teach Sunday school with and our youth minister and our children's minister - like you know these guys. They're not going to get me into things that are bad." And pretty much after that she just kind of dropped it. I mean, there was that incident in the 80's where those dudes got like hopped up on drugs or something and murdered someone? ...If I'm remembering right - it was something like that... Granted, that looked bad, but that was... that was more because of drugs than anything. So yeah, I mean, fortunately I think that stigma has completely dropped away. And also the people that hold on to that stigma, literally know nothing about role playing games. Like, literally nothing. Case in point, my parents, and that was one of the only times I ever really kind of put my mom in her place was when I told her, like, you obviously don't know what you're talking about, because this is what it is. So yeah, fortunately, now I just don't think those people care anymore. But, by "people" I mean that generation - they just don't care anymore. And all that stuff is so mainstream I think you can pretty clearly see, like, "Oh, they're not just summoning demons... stuff like that..." like - that's not what it is. It's Lord of the Rings. Good grief! You think Tolkien was a Satanist? You think... you think Tolkien whose best friend was C. S. Lewis, one of the more prolific Christian apologists of their era were Satanists? Almost certainly not. So... that's kind of where I go with it.

Melody [6:04]
Thank you. So, what question do you wish we had asked during this interview?

Charles [6:09]
Can I get you a beverage? ... No, um... What question do I wish you asked? Honestly, I don't know. I knew nothing coming into this. So, with no preconceived notions I don't feel like anything was left out, really.

Melody [6:29]
Okay, were there any other aspects of your craft that we neglected to discuss?

Charles [6:34]
I don't think really anything was neglected really. I mean, we went over, you know, the kinds of stories that I like to tell, the unique way that I tell them in, how I handle mistakes and stuff, and how I handle problem players. I mean that pretty much covers everything, you know? Like: "Do you know the game you want to run? Can you tell it in a compelling way? Do you know how to make sure that you're running the game consistently - even if it's not by the rules, if you're changing rules that's fine, but are you staying consistent to the changes that you made? And do you know how to handle people that are disrupting the game?" I mean that's pretty much it.

Melody [7:13]
Awesome. Well, Charles, you’ve been a great guest, and it’s been a privilege to interview you. We really appreciate your taking the time to talk with us and for helping us gain more insight into the game master’s realm of table top role playing games.

To our listeners - As we said at the outset, this is the last podcast episode for our interview with Charles the Sinister Storyteller. Please check the podcast description for details on how you can find more information about Charles! Also, if you missed any of the other podcast episodes from this interview, please check those out as well!

We have more interviews and information related to tabletop role playing games coming up, so stay tuned! Follow us to receive notifications when new podcasts are released. For more podcasts and information, check out our website https://www.gamemastercertification.org/. If you liked what you’ve heard here, hit that share button and help us spread the word! Thank you for listening!