Wyrmworks Publishing In a world with elves, gnomes and dragon people, infinite possibilities, does it ever feel like more of the same? Welcome to Gaining Advantage! Wyrmworks Publishing Welcome to Gaining Advantage. We are using role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons to help you make lives better. If you missed our Kickstarter, Limitless Heroics, including characters with disabilities, mental illness and neurodivergence in fifth edition, you can still preorder it while we finish working on it. Limitless Heroics will include D&D Fifth Edition game mechanics for over 450 traits. It will include over 200 new assistive magic items, over 50 different characters, all kinds of extra help and information about accessibility. And an entire section on service animals, including classes for the different kinds of animals that very much like character classes or sidekicks kind of use some of that mechanics to make it really cool. And so I hope that you'll check it out. You can go to inclusiverpg.com to get the preorder sale price, it's over a third off right now and so not much longer will it be available for that price. Check that out now inclusiverpg.com And so with that said, let's get to our interview. Wyrmworks Publishing We live in the golden age of geekery, where science fiction and fantasy have become mainstream. But after a while it can all start to look the same, which is strange given the variety of peoples in the real world and the limitless possibilities of fiction. I am honored to have with me today someone who offers an alternative to those traditional tropes and settings. Award winning writer and Game Designer Collette Quach who has a passion for mythology and folklore through non traditional forms of storytelling. Welcome, Collette. Collette Quach Hi. Yeah, I'm very happy to be here and thank you for having me on. It's really an honor. Wyrmworks Publishing So what would you like to tell us about you personally, specifically speaking to the tabletop role playing game crowd. Collette Quach Ah, well, I guess I can easily just introduce myself. That's the easiest way for me is like you said, Dale, I'm Colette, I use they or she pronouns. I am a tabletop RPG writer, as you know. And I'm also Chinese Cambodian, which is very, is the reason why I have like a really big passion for mythology and folklore, it's because of the stories my parents told me and kind of like my own personal research about, you know, how myths, and basically, a lot of this time, my parents would tell me stories, and they would just give me stories, like, you know, through orally about just our families, like the things they do that they're as a kid, which is, like very different, you know, in my, basically traditional schooling where everything's written down, a lot of my stories were told, like, you know, through just stories just sitting there, and they'll just randomly be like, "Hey, let me tell you about this." And I'm like, but yeah, that's how it really inspired how I write into game design. One of my first RPGs that I wrote was for the Uncaged Anthology by Ashley Warren, which was something I did right after I graduated undergrad, I really was just like, let me see what I can do. And I got accepted, it it really just grew my passion more and kind of like launched my, like tabletop RPG writing till this day. And it's been like, a couple years now. So yeah. Wyrmworks Publishing So tell us more about your work as a designer, advocate and consultant. Collette Quach Okay. Well, so for me, as I know, as I am, I mentioned a little bit about doing as a designer, I always have a focus for me, when I design on what stories do I want to tell that haven't been told before, really hitting through like themes and like, specific questions that I want the players to address. Obviously, I mentioned Uncaged, where I just wanted to talk about the Naga which are a Southeast Asian mythological creature that everyone that has been misconstrued through a lot of games, obviously, Dungeons & Dragons, and then on video of the video game, and which is, you know, like World of Warcraft, as one of them. And I wanted to kind of, like, reclaim that for myself and retell the true or like the original story of what the Naga were, and also kind of tackle the traditional, essentially narrative of like Dungeons and Dragons, which is about going into dungeons and taking stuff, but I want to do it where you actually have to return a treasure that you accidentally took, or like you took for someone and then didn't realize the effects that had on other people. So that was something that you know, I really like to turn, as pretentious as this sounds, I really like to like want to turn like narratives and traditional things on its head. And it's what I do recently for like my, like current and and like the future work past Uncaged in my current work. Now, as a designer, obviously I've mentioned I do tabletop RPG, but I'm also doing like digital video games, which is what I'm in my I'm in a master's program right now where I've just focused mostly on digital work. But that doesn't have that hasn't changed how I think about it, I my design in my writing is still very similar from tabletop to this one where I wanted to turn things on its head and focus a lot on themes. Which once again, also puts into my advocacy and consultant work. I occasionally I do sensitivity reading for specifically Chinese and Cambodian content as well as Chinese to like Asian diaspora I'm, I'm from America. So I just do a lot of reading for that. And it's been interesting because like people have been so gracious to like learn more and just having read stuff and it's been great. And it's really because I started off as actually I used to work. In my undergraduate I used to work for a kind of like a Diversity Center on my campus for like my entire undergraduate career for like so like my first year in college when I graduated, I worked for an Asian American Pacific Islander resource center. So we actually, so we did go really in depth about, you know, Asian American Studies and how Asian diaspora and like the issues that, you know, went through, or that Asian Americans went through, specifically. And when I transitioned out of like doing like school stuff, that's the stuff I learned has has been still been a really big part of who I am. Because my identity is really important to me, I, I went, I was going through a lot of identity crisis when I was like growing up as every, every teenager growing up. Wyrmworks Publishing Yup Collette Quach I'm realizing who I like, ethnically who I was, that was more than just like, you know, American, I have a background. I am, I'm a child of immigrants. My mom is from China, and my dad is from Cambodia. And he escaped Cambodia during the killing fields, the Cambodian genocide. So realizing all of that, and realizing the importance of those of identity and how that sticks through even though I'm not from or born in those countries, has really been a big part of who I was. And like, kind of like that really transitioned to me doing all of my work is really just realizing who I was like, in terms of identity has been, yeah, has been a really big shift to what I do now. Wyrmworks Publishing Alright, so you're the sort of person that when Indiana Jones says it belongs in a museum, you're kind of more the opposite, like no, like, let's give it back to the people that it actually does belong to? Collette Quach Yeah, it's a Yeah, it's a it's something super like, Yeah, super strong, because there's a lot of, you know, obviously, cultural background that goes into them. Probably not, in terms of magic, in the sense that oh, yeah, you stole this. And now, there are droughts and an angry monster's coming after you all. Maybe that should happen, but who knows. But yeah, I agree that like, you know, go to returning those artists, like, you know, those cultural pieces back to where they belong is a very big part of like, you know, their own countries like reclaiming and preservation of their own history and their own culture. Wyrmworks Publishing So how have you seen lives changed because of your work? Collette Quach Oh, my God, this is a big question. I think I have, especially with Uncaged. And I talk about Uncaged a lot because, you know, it was my first work and it's really changed a lot. And obviously, if on Twitter Uncaged Goddesses, kind of, like the follow up to the original anthology recently came out, so prepping that for them. So, uh, but anyways, back to the original thing, when I first released a uncaged with my project, and then made a couple months later, the Unbreakable Anthology, which is a anthology of, by, by in, in extension for Asian creators, and people who, like want to see Asian cultures, representative tabletop, releasing those and seeing kind of the feedback people get about being like, Yeah, this is great. This is like, perfect. This is something I wanted to see in, like, in tabletop, I want to run this because like, it's my culture, like my identity, or like, I feel so strongly with the story has been like, super, super, like, great. Like, it just made me feel really good. Because, you know, that's the impact I want people to have. And honestly, in general, I just really, I am so appreciative when people just say like, oh, I looked at your stuff. And it made me think it made me like feel some kind of emotion. Because that's my, as my main point of, like, a writer and a designer is like, I just want someone to feel something, which sounds really weird, but it's really just like, I really want people to, you know, be driven, like to feel something to make people think because I feel like that's the success of a designer or a writer is. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, it's been said, I can't remember who said this, but people won't remember what you did. They'll remember how you made them feel. I mean, like, that's how, ultimately, you know, you can you can try to convey information. Alright, but where it actually connects with people's feelings, with their emotions, like that's where you actually make the connection. And so yeah, it sounds like that's exactly what you're doing. And yeah, that's phenomenal. Collette Quach It's been it's it's such an honor just to get positive feedback, just be like, Oh, this is so great. It warms my little heart. Wyrmworks Publishing Alright, so you just rescued a djinn from the hands of an efreet, and it offers you three wishes to achieve your goals to make the world better. What do you wish for? Collette Quach Me, this is just me currently in the state of as, as I mentioned, a second year graduate student is please give me a job, please give me a full time job. Um as selfish as it is. It's a it's a struggle for as you know, maybe every college student university student in the history of forever, is that, which is also like I said, self serving. So that's one wish, sorry. Wyrmworks Publishing The thing is, it's not though. Because if you're planning to use your education, to help people to make people's lives better using the skills and things that you're acquiring, like actually having the opportunity to use those things. That's not selfish. Collette Quach Yeah. That's true. Yeah, it's just like something that's like, you know, it's, yeah, it's the weird thing about like, feeling, it's not selfish, but then in a sense itself, it feels selfish, but then you like, we just think about hard enough, you're like, No, I want to, I want to do this for a reason. Another thing, so the other two wishes that I want to achieve is kind of like this access, I think I want to it, um, you know, access to a lot of basic needs, which is the, which is something that I've always, you know, especially in like, the time currently, with a lot of like, things happening in the world, people are essentially struggling for various reasons. Having people not have to worry about, like, money, or like food, or like, where they're gonna live, I think needs to be something that needs to be addressed. Because I feel like, you know, having to struggle that and having, you know, me personally having, like, feel having that struggle of like, having to like, essentially worry about all those things really step into people's like, drive to, like actually achieve what they want to do, or like, well, they're gonna be, like I said, personally, like, you know, I work I do freelance now, as a graduate student, and it's a struggle. I'm tired all the time. But so like having and like, I know a lot of other people having to like, struggle and be like, I need to just take jobs or like, if you do all this, because I need to live before I can do anything else, is something that I want the the djinn to finish to wish for, to make that wish happen. And the third thing is this was just about third thing for me. This is one another personal thing, but obviously not selfish. Is this wish of like being able to figure out my family history past two generations. I actually had this interesting conversation with my roommate about ancestry and stuff, and the access to like, being able to see where you come from past a couple generations, and figuring out what's going on. Even though like my parents told me a lot of stories, a lot of it's secretive or like not sure. And I'm like, wondering if it's true or not, not anything like though I'm just like, I don't know. Um, and especially, you know, on my specifically, you know, on my dad's side, you have to go through the Cambodian genocide, and we lost, like, I lost my grandparents there. So I've never met my grandparents on my dad's side, as well as like 2 relatives that I've ever met. And just in Cambodia, in general, a lot of history and a lot of culture was like wiped out. So a lot of people either lost it or they're trying to, like, find it and like reclaim it for their own. And as well as a lot of like, west and northwest, like Asian countries, a lot of their stories well, obviously recorded now. In the past, a lot of it's told through oral storytelling so and if no one tells that story, it's gone. So yeah, I feel like that wish is just have the access to figure out my own history and being able to just be like, alright, this is what's going on past two generations of my family? Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Alright, so what one message would you like to give gamers who are members of marginalized communities? Collette Quach This one message I give to gamers, in the end, who are members of marginalized communities is, like, be be vocal and be, like, open to what you want and what you want in games. Because I think, obviously, I wanted to make the change of, you know, I want to see non western non European cultures in tabletop RPGs. So I'll just make it myself. Not everyone can do that. Or not everyone wants to do that. So saying that they want like, you know, being vocal about like, hey, I want this in, in my tabletop RPGs. Or, like, you know, talking about it in spaces is, I think, really important and also like, analyzing past work and be like, not and both critique and also just have a discussion around them. Obviously, like, one of the footnote is Oriental Adventures, which I know, some of my, the people I worked with, did that. And just talk about that adventure, or like that series and break it down. Which I think might have been like a subtle, a subtle way that turned into Unbreakable because people were like, Oriental Adventures is essentially wack. So let's try to do that, but actually put Asian people on the on the, in the design team. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, how novel! Collette Quach I know. Right? It's, it's, Wyrmworks Publishing What a great idea! Collette Quach It's, it's wild, right? It's what a novel concept. So yeah, being voicing that and like having the discussions. So, you know, that's, that's something I think I want them to hear. Wyrmworks Publishing Okay, so what message would you like to give gamers who are not members of those marginalized communities? Collette Quach Um, I think as everyone has, you know, lots of people say, you know, listen to them, advocate for those voices of those marginalized communities, and don't speak over them. It's, you know, we can for those communities, they can just speak speak up for them in the sense that like, you know, hey, these people have critiques and opinions and have been having discussions around these topics around these games, you should listen to them. And because that's, it's something that's super important is to not have, you know, it's not just being allies to those communities as being like, from like, my former work as doing like activism and advocacy is being an accomplice, it's being actively doing stuff, actively putting action into that, whatever you however you can. Because you have that privilege to do so. And also, if, for example, someone wants to, I think, have has an idea of like, oh, I want to make something that's like not part of my community, but to part a part of another marginalized community that you can do that. Just obviously, make sure you have people on that team on the team, designers, writers, and, you know, active creatives on that on the team specifically, but also, you know, if worst, like, if worse comes to worse, have them look at it, have them, read it and give feedback is super important. Because obviously not you're not barred from doing work that's not your own, but making sure it's delivered authentically. And, you know, honestly, and without problems, essentially. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah. Right. So what projects? I mean, you're, you're busy with school, right? But what projects are you working on now that is there anything that you can talk about? Collette Quach Yeah, I have a couple. Uh, so don't worry. Like I said, I took I am the worst person possible of doing freelance work at the same time. I'm about to start my thesis as a graduate student. But in terms of, you know, my freelance tabletop RPG work. A couple months back, I actually produced and released a book of my own, which is called Creepy Monster Compendium. It's is just a fifth edition, compendium of basically horror or creepy monsters, all originally designed, you know, by creators. And specifically, it's following the kind of concept of the monster theory, which is the, you know, theory of like, monsters have essentially some kind of cultural or societal horror or fear. And just having that as the guiding principle. And like, as those designing monsters, definitely check it out, it's on DMs Guild. And also it is the art is amazing. A lot of people put their heart and soul into creating these creepy horror monsters. So it's been Yeah, so it's been out for a bit. I'm also working on as should be that's coming out I'm currently writing is a queers tabletop RPG, it was funded on Kickstarter a couple months back, I'm currently writing that. But yeah, it's a tabletop RPG with by by Son of Oak, which is the creators of City of Mist. And it's about this basically a Super Sentai RPG about you know, fighting ignorance and just basically destroying, you know, not normative thinking. Can't say much, but it's essentially, you know, sometimes like Power Rangers and like, such a Power Rangers I grew up on Power Rangers, that's all I think about. It's very fun. It's exciting. So definitely check it out when it comes out. It's currently still on obviously Kickstarter, if you want to, like fund it. It's great. It's exciting. But um, so I'm doing a couple other things like that. I, for my thesis, actually, I'm actually working on. So a thesis is a little bit different in our program, I'm making a game, which is exciting. So I get to talk, I get to pitch my game. And that not here. But just like I get to make a game, which is it's digital. So it's not it is not a tabletop RPG. But it is a game. Simple. Simply put, it is a 3d narrative adventure game about a radio host at the end of the world. Which were I back to like my original design philosophies of it's tackling questions of existentialism, the end of the world and like, what do you want to do? What do you want to do when like the inevitable happens? And how do you want to be remembered? It's very academic at the sense at the same time, you know, making a game so that's what I'm also working on. And I most likely will be working on my next year as my final year as a grad student. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, a lot of people are thinking about the end of the world right now. And so hopefully you get that done before we get there. So Collette Quach Yeah, I every Yeah, everyone. A lot of my professors when I like we started initially designing, designing the concept, they're, like, very topical, not in a weird way. They're just like, you know, yeah. It tracks, fits really well right now. So I'm like, Yep, that was a Wyrmworks Publishing At the same time, I mean, the things that you're you're talking about, it's it's things that people are thinking about, not just the end of the world, but you know, kind of how we think about ourselves and, you know, legacies and all that kind of stuff that I mean, that's all really important. So that sounds really exciting. Collette Quach Yeah, I'm super excited to like work on that, and build the team for that. So that's exciting. Wyrmworks Publishing Alright, so we will have all your contact information in our show notes, including links to those products you're talking about. So where's the one best place that you'd like people to start to learn more about you or to contact you? Collette Quach Twitter is where I'm usually at is obviously it'll be in the notes but is my first name and last name because the one that I usually use for my username has been taken. So it's @collettequach, that's it. You'll find me there and then I should have a linktree that will take you to my website as well as a direct link to my DMs Guild work. And yeah, you can usually contact me there which is very exciting. You should do that for any particular reason. So yeah. Wyrmworks Publishing OK, well Collette, thanks for coming on the show, and everyone check out those links in the show notes. Wyrmworks Publishing So when we have people available we also like to include a segment on the show called Playing the Other where people with disabilities, neurodiversity, and mental illness come and talk about their experiences, and how that relates to gaming. So it's also a chance if you happen to be a content creator to tell us about some of the cool stuff that you've made, or if there's just anything that you want to plug, we let you do that. And if you'd like to be a guest for that segment, you can just go to our website WyrmworksPublishing.com, click on the contact button and and just send us a note. Wyrmworks Publishing So I want to let you know that while this started out as a biweekly show, you may have noticed it hasn't been quite as regular lately. We want to get it more regular, but we've been busy on so many things and there's so many things that we want to do we're going to make this a monthly show going forward. And this can allow us to make it better, make it a little more regular, but also produce more regular content as articles and supplements on our website. And so if you want to be able to catch all that, you don't want to miss any of it, the easiest thing to do is to go to our website WyrmworksPublishing.com and sign up for our newsletter. Just go right now. There's just for signing up you get dozens and dozens of 4k combat maps, all them free. You get a subclass also free. You get discounts, other specials, you get the latest news and blog posts, all kinds of stuff that we couldn't include in the book because of licensing news about our future products, all of that WyrmworksPublishing.com. Also, we have a patreon if you'd like to support our ongoing work, and I've already posted an article there recently about more plans for after this project. And you can just go to our Patreon. There's a link in the show notes for that. And we really appreciate the support that we get, and speaking of. We have a bunch of new patrons since our last shout out and so a huge thank you to David, Echo, Mickey, Brian, Sylvan and Ian, thank you so much for your support. Boy, it's just you don't know how much that means. And so if you see this show being helpful, I encourage you if you're watching this on YouTube, hit that like button. If you'd like to see more of this kind of thing, please subscribe. And if you know people that need to hear this, pass it on to them, let them know that this is available. And if you think that man everybody needs to hear this, this is just something different. This is something new. This is something fresh, then pass it on to your social media friends. And don't forget those podcast ratings. It really makes a difference. So thank you all for your time. Wyrmworks Publishing And we'll close with this question. What diversity would you like to see more of in RPGs?