Aya Bailey, the Rebellious Scion - Decolonizing TTRPGs with Quinn (Scion 2e)

Star : 0:00

What is your characters calling? And does your character do what's expected of them? And what have you learned about the world by playing TTRPG? Cheese Hello friends welcome to characters without stories, a TTRPG podcast about the roads not yet traveled. I'm star. This episode I'm joined by Quinn. They are a 41 year old trans woman who is decolonizing their TTRPG tables one at a time they are using TTRPG is to explore decolonization and respecting other cultures without cultural appropriation. I'll give you a chance to plug your projects at the end. But right now, do you want to tell listeners a little bit about yourself?

Quinn: 0:47

Other than my nine year old kid being my focus about 99% of the time I also do love diving into history and anthropology and studying other cultures is kind of what kicked me into high gear on TT RPGs.

Star : 1:03

Right? Did you start with any particular TTRPGs?

Quinn: 1:07

well, when I was in middle school, I guess it was or junior high, whatever they call it here in the States, I got into dungeons and dragons, because that's all that was available. At the time. I was living in Jordan at the time in the Middle East. And from there, it kind of dwindled, because I found it really boring over time. But when I got back to the States, I discovered White Wolf games, the storyteller system vampire, the masquerade, Wraith the oblivion and dug really deep into those the use of real world history as a setting. Is it kind of combined with my love of other cultures and being able to see the world through different eyes really appealed to me.

Star : 1:54

Yeah, I can see that. Some people really like to play fantasy, some people really like to play in our real worlds, you know, with fantasy elements, which which kind of brings me to Scion, which is like that correct.

Quinn: 2:06

Scion is fantastic for it in the respect that it touches on almost any culture that you can think of. That comes with some hiccups and dangers that I'm sure we'll get to. But it's set in the world capital W, which is supposed to be our world. But where myth is very much real. One of my favorite examples from the text is somebody being late to work because a couple of Ogres are fighting and it made the train to derail the train. So they weren't able to get to work on time. And that being just a problem that normal people have to live with. Now, obviously, we don't want to roleplay games where we're trying to get to work on time, we want to do the cool stuff. So Scion is about dealing with those ogres so that they stop breaking stuff. All right. In the game, you are the child of a deity of some sort in the case. In the case of the original book, I think there's five pantheons that they outlined, but you basically choose one of the deities from that pantheon. They have chosen you or they have sired you there your mom, your dad, your patron, and you've got what amounts to mythical magical powers.

Star : 3:23

So tell me, who are you bringing to the table today?

Quinn: 3:26

Today I have I have Aya Bailey, she is an activist because I like to think of myself as a would be activist. She is the chosen of Manannán mac Lir of the Irish pantheon. And I specifically chose that Pantheon to get away from the risk of appropriation of indigenous cultures. They have really good literature available. And I felt that it was the safest place to start. We don't really use classes in Scion. So the closest thing she would have to that would be a wolf warrior, which the books first line for wolf Warriors is you fight for a cause, I should say she doesn't literally turn into a wolf. Wolf warrior has to do with more of the heart of the person being brave and bold and ferocious.

Star : 4:24

So what does it mean to be a wolf Walker? What what kind of abilities or skills or kind of focus does it provide?

Quinn: 4:32

So in Scion, characters don't have races or classes. They have callings and paths. The path is basically your origin and your calling is what it sounds like what you were called to do, who you are called to be and what you choose to do with it. In the case of Aya, being a wolf warrior means that she takes the hard road and gets out amongst Not necessarily the violence but in every game there's there's the risk of that violence, but it means to face down fierce opponents, be it oil companies that are trying to pollute and also remove people from the community. It might be politicians, it could it could even be security forces or police forces depending on where where it takes place to be a wolf warrior is to be a human amongst the divine. Because wolf Warriors don't transcend to become demigods, like other Scions might, they're kind of capped a little bit. So while they had they all start out with the same potential, they can't go quite as far and they don't care. They're going to fight anyway. And they're going to stay toe to toe right with their companions.

Star : 5:50

Interesting, I think, some other games. And I think, you know, of d&d, because I'm very familiar with d&d, have kind of an issue. Sometimes if there's imbalance in the party, if there's one character who may be perceived as weak in comparison to other characters, is that an issue with this kind of limitation?

Quinn: 6:11

Oh, so I haven't had the privilege of playing at the next tier up the demigod tier, we're still at hero level, which is where your patron has come to you or you've experienced a visitation of some sort. And you realize that you are called to this life of adventure. And right now, everybody would be about the same, same tier, same power level, but I imagine it would probably get real, real sticky in later, later levels. Right now, they all have access to what are called knacks. And those those would be like, if you're familiar with exalted, they've got charms, it's a lot like that, or disciplines in vampire, whereas a knack will give you one really cool ability. And then another Knack will give you something that's equally cool, but completely unrelated. And it comes out of what you're called to do, like Aya is a leader and a judge. And in addition to being a wolf warrior, everybody else would have similar powers at this level. But she'll never be able to access the the higher level purviews, which call on concepts like war, or on elements like water, that's where she would fall short compared to the others. But she'd stay right there with him regardless,

Star : 7:38

why did you make this choice to limit your character in this way,

Quinn: 7:42

because Aya is also exploring the idea of leaving behind your heritage that's expected of you, in order to align more with your heritage that's been denied. So whereas she's got this Irish Pantheon expecting her to live up to the stories and the greatness and the glory of this Irish sea god, she is a lot more interested in her indigenous heritage, and kind of aligning with that and fighting for them. And there's not a whole lot out there for her right now, that kind of represents that most people who would run games don't have the education experience or just the life to draw from, and I don't expect them to. So I can't ask them to give me something they don't have. So I won't have that extra backing, I won't have those extra resources. It's all on me to keep up with that. It takes a lot of pressure off of somebody who would be running a game for her. And gives me the opportunity to decide how to bring the information to the storyteller, the story guide to the other players and to the world. In general.

Star : 9:02

Do you identify with that kind of heritage or that that kind of those expectations of what part of yourself you represent

Quinn: 9:13

in some pretty big ways? So my mom's side of the family, we are Cubans, possibly Puerto Rican, about 99% sure that my uncle is telling the truth on that, but it's something that I was denied growing up. I don't have a connection to it beyond what I've been able to establish for myself by myself as an adult in response to what I took to be a sarcastic comment about you know, where do you get that from? The answer being I got it from my mom. I did a lot more digging and I found out that we have ties through both sides, both the Cuban and the Puerto Rican. To the Taino people of the Caribbean. And from there, I managed to network with some brilliant people voices that I love to uplift. And have, I am now enrolled in what's called the yucayeque, which is a, it's a village, more common word would be tribe, but that's not really an accurate word for it. But if you hear people talk about nations, that would be the Taino. I am about as far down that tree as you can get and still be welcomed, and brought in. So I feel very strongly related to this character, who I view as being a detribalized individual.

Star : 10:46

Can you explain what you mean by detriablized?

Quinn: 10:49

So if somebody knows that they have indigenous heritage, or Native Heritage, and ancestry, and they are doing their best to live accordingly, because it's not just about what your ancestry is, it's also about how you choose to live the things that you make important. Do you live up to these very difficult standards? And what road Are you walking, so if you have all of that, but you either cannot identify which nation, or tribe you are related to, or if you're able to, but there's really no presence for you to connect to. That's basically what detribalized means. It's an incredibly difficult place to be. And that is not something I can relate to because I am enrolled. But it is, is something that I want to express through gaming so that other people know it's out there, and how to respectfully interact with with someone that they may meet, that does live that particular life.

Star : 11:55

Would you say that you were detribalized?

Quinn: 11:58

I can't say yes to that. Because it wasn't until I started learning about my connection to the Taino and our heritage there that I understood what it meant to live that kind of life, I lived a very privileged and easy life compared to someone who has been detribalized, I would feel uncomfortable describing myself that way.

Star : 12:19

Is Aya Irish or part Irish?

Quinn: 12:23

Yes, she is of Irish descent. I chose that because I was fascinated when I found out how many Irish people abandoned their English service in the Caribbean and ended up siding as much as possible. With the indigenous and African communities. They're not the huge numbers that we would love to see. But there were enough of them. And that that really stood out to me. And I kind of wanted to lean on that instead of more of the Spanish ancestry. Because that's, that's what I have is a Spanish ancestry. And on my dad's side, we've got Irish and Scottish. So I felt comfortable making that claim in this character.

Star : 13:06

I think it's interesting that you're mentioning the Irish people who went against their British service. You know, Irish people were colonized as well, and in a different way. But I think there's probably some solidarity out there.

Quinn: 13:21

That's a good way to put it solidarity. I'll leave it at that.

Star : 13:24

So why was Aya chosen by this god?

Quinn: 13:29

In Scion, there's a number of ways that you can become what you what you are this hero of myth. One of them has to be chosen literally, or a deity looked down and say, Hey, I like this mortal. I'm going to bless them. That was not the case here. In this particular case, an obligation was made for her in somewhere in her ancestry. Somebody promised her to the Pantheon. And she doesn't really like that she doesn't like the idea of having to serve because of ancestral obligations, that from people that she never even met. And it was it's not uncommon in myth from all over the world to encounter exactly that your child or your child's child, the seventh son of the Seventh Son, that kind of concept is prevalent in almost every culture. And I saw that it's just one of the many expectations that she could shrug off.

Star : 14:31

What other expectations is she looking to shrug off?

Quinn: 14:34

While she doesn't really want to be the big hero, but she doesn't really have a choice there in becoming an activist. She's very much going against the grain she was expected to like be a doctor or a lawyer or go to school and do do all of these great things that our society says that we have to do if we're going to live a happy life. If you're going to be successful. You got to go to college. You got to Get this big job and work all these hours. And she is not about that at all. She likes to get down into the mix, she likes to get dirty. She likes to help, whether it's with Habitat for Humanity building houses, or whether it's going out and camping in a forest to protest, something being built, that would be bad for the community.

Star : 15:23

That sounds familiar.

Quinn: 15:24

Yeah, I might be referencing something going on right now. Good catch, yeah,

Star : 15:31

Maybe I'll post the link to that.

Quinn: 15:33

I wish that I could get out there with. And that's somewhere that she would be as well. And I kind of connect to that idea. Because for much of my life, I thought that there were these expectations on me like I was going to do certain things in school, I was going to have a certain type of job. This is not to say that it was literally put on me. But somehow I got that impression. And I never lived up to it. And I think the reason why is where I wanted to be was active on something that really mattered. And I get to do that with this character with Aya.

Star : 16:10

You say that there were a lot of expectations put on her did that come from her family did that come from her God?

Quinn: 16:16

So it would come from family it like expecting her to go to school expecting her to become either a doctor or a lawyer. I chose those two because they are the stereotypical expectations. Whenever you hear someone talking about, it's always somewhere in there. But you've you've got the gods, the Pantheon behind her expecting that she's going to fight for their glory, she's going to fight for their needs there. They've got games that they're playing with each other. They've got goals and ambitions as well. And they often expect their Scions to serve and perpetuate their their legend and their myth and to fight for them. And whatever war they may have going on inside on the big war that's described in the books is between the gods of the pantheons and the Titans, which are like primordial creatures, and she doesn't want to fight that fight. That's one of the expectations that's on her. And I kind of borrowed that from the idea that the people, whether they're from Africa, or the Caribbean, or from North Central, or South America, wouldn't necessarily have the same relationship with Titans that European pantheons would have.

Star : 17:34

Hmm, interesting.

Quinn: 17:35

In the books, it describes a couple of the pantheons as not having any beef with their Titans, they don't share the same history. And I really wanted to lean into that and have her disappoint the Irish Pantheon even more. But there's also the expectations that are put on her from society. In general, real world expectations will exist to some degree in a real world based role playing game, she's not going to she's not really into the capitalism, live your life based on commercials, you vote with your wallet, do all of that kind of stuff. Obviously, there's the problem of no ethical consumption under capitalism. But you don't have to touch on that problem as much in a role playing game.

Star : 18:23

I will say there's there's a lot about this character where I'm like, God, I wish I could be as involved as somebody like Aya, you know what I mean? Like, I wish I could fight this fight more deeply. But you know, I have a kid, I have a full time job.

Quinn: 18:41

It's hard. And I think that's part of the draw to Scion, for me is that we can be bigger than ourselves in a real world mirror. When we when we sit down at the table with this particular game, even with its flaws, which there are a number of of issues I have with Scion you still can sit down and build based on what you know, to be right what you know, to be good. And you can look at your character as though it's a reflection of those things that you care about. And I'll never be able to do the things that she would be able to do just at a human level. I've got a heart condition, I've got a kid, I don't have the physical stamina to go out to all the places I wish I could. And my nine year old has forbidden he tells me I'm not allowed to go to any of these things anyway. Why is that? He overheard part of an audiobook I was listening to that discuss some of the events at Standing Rock, which were very violent. And I didn't realize he was passing through the room at that particular moment of the book. And he stopped, listened. And then he looked at me and said, I don't want you going to any of those. And I went well. It's a good thing I can't.

Star : 19:52

Yeah, I feel that I definitely feel that. It's, you know, it's like I want to be able to bring my son to protests to be a part of activism. But it's often not very safe.

Quinn: 20:05

It's usually not safe, unfortunately. And there's a lot of money tied up in making sure that's the case. Yeah, definitely, they can't afford for it to be safe for us. So they pay to make sure I'm using a very generally my workaround for not being able to go to those is to bring them to us to bring those protests to us to bring those stories that need to be told to tables that would normally never hear about them.

Star : 20:33

You mentioned that Aya has expectations from her family, what was her life like growing up what's her family like?

Quinn: 20:41

Her family was the TV family that you see with the dad that goes to work and works is eight to five, nine to five job, whatever, whatever hours are our Leave It to Beaver style, her mother stayed at home, I went to school, public school, like a lot of a lot of us are familiar with. And she played sports she did, she did the things that were supposed to make her happy. And I say supposed to make her happy, because they really didn't through whether she was succeeding at gymnastics, or just killing them out there on the soccer field, whether her grades were excelling, it was never enough for her, she would get praise for it. And it felt hollow. And I think that sort of reflects a little bit of why I didn't do as well as I would like. And some of those those areas is, you know, I'd much like me, saw the world a little deeper. And as soon as she was able to break free of anybody, you know, being beholden to your parents having to live up to scholarship expectations. As soon as she was out of that she was finally happy. Because she didn't have the set schedule, she didn't have the soccer games. And then you know, soccer mom bringing you home, she grew up an only child because I can relate to that. I have siblings, but I didn't grow up with them. So I don't know what it's like to have a sibling in the house. That's one of the areas that I don't feel like need to include for her because part of the reason why she can fight so fiercely as she doesn't have siblings or family relying on her.

Star : 22:27

It sounds like you are bringing a lot of yourself into this character. Is that something you usually do?

Quinn: 22:34

Almost always, for as long as I can remember, even before I realized that I am transgender, I would very often come up with excuses to play female characters. Almost all my characters were women. And my favorite excuse for that was, well, I'm a writer, I you know, I have to write women characters too. So I need to practice the voice, right. I wonder how many other people I've used that exact same explanation. This is one of the deepest examples of putting myself into a character. And it's because the issues that I get to introduce to my friends and to the other people that I would be able to play with, if I get her to the table, they're so important to me that I really, really want them there. And in order to bring it truthfully to the table, there's got to be a little bit more of me invested. But I always have at least one interest of mine, whether it's something I'm trying to become educated about, or whether it's just something that I'm really passionate about at the moment that always gets worked into characters that I play some way shape or form and it's it's usually the seed that they grow

Star : 23:50

It sounds like both Aya and Quinn have strong moral out of. compasses. Do you always play characters who have similar kind of beliefs and feelings? I know personally, I cannot play an evil character. So I generally tend to play the same kind of bleeding hearts that I am. I'm curious, since it seems like you have such strong political beliefs.

Quinn: 24:17

I can't say that I always play nice characters. I definitely don't always play kind characters. But I usually regret it when I try to play something. Something darker or more conniving. I used to play Vampire the Masquerade quite frequently. And that's a game all about backstabbing and doing awful, horrible things. Which is why it's probably my least favorite game that I've played. Well, my least favorite game that I still play on occasions. I'll put it that way. I had a character once that had many, many alternative identities that she would hide behind in order to infiltrate and just cause chaos caused problems. Because I didn't want to actually be harming people's goals like player's goals. I wanted to see them reach those goals. I love it when people have fun when they achieve their their interests and ambitions. But in vampire, that's not really welcome so much. You kind of have to be out for yourself to some degrees. So I would put obstacles in their way with the idea of oh, I'm trying to hinder them, I'm trying to block them from their, their goals. But all that ended up happening is the storytellers that were running the games, just let me basically be the antagonist. And as fun as that was, for a while, it made me feel really bad. As a result, I don't really do that so much anymore. I don't always go really political with my characters. Aya is an exception on that, but I wanted her to be exceptional.

Star : 25:56

It sounds like a lot of what you do at your tables is tied to that kind of meta level of enabling certain kinds of discourse at the table or using the play to explore other ideas.

Quinn: 26:10

Oh, I love uh, yeah, there's there's always layers of that woven in. I'm running a Scion game for some friends right now. And the entire premise of the game is what happens when you shirk your responsibilities, not when you choose not to follow expectations. But what happens when you have a responsibility, and you try to get out of it. And it's represented by the daughter of Cronos, the Titan got of time was supposed to take over the mantle and decided that she didn't want to do it. So if nobody is running time, what happens?

Star : 26:49

Interesting, that's an interesting question.

Quinn: 26:52

I have time basically breaking down all around everybody, and the players are having to convince her to do her responsibilities. That's what the game turned into. And they kind of helped me steer it that way. But once I heard them express it, in those words, I just latched on to it because I always want there to be some meaning some message or something even in my role playing games,

Star : 27:16

Manannán mac Lir is a sea God. And what as a sea God, does he expect Aya to do what are kind of her duties for him?

Quinn: 27:28

So the idea that kind of went into the character is that as the scion of a sea God, she would be expected to fight naval battles. But because she's not a divine Scion in the same way that her companions would have been, she would have been leading more of the mortal forces and kind of fighting against whatever sea beasts the Titans would throw out at them. But because she has kind of the sea related heritage on both sides, she would end up being pulled more into the bigger demigod level fights, even though she wasn't really intended for that. So fighting monsters at sea, basically, much like some of the other fostered children of this particular deity.

Star : 28:25

It sounds like she and whatever soldiers she would be leading into battle would be taking on an incredible amount of risk, more so than anybody else that's called to that service. Is there fear as part of this decision? Or is it more just a refusal to fight that fight?

Quinn: 28:44

I would say that there's probably some fear in that. But fear is a very good motivator. And I am of the belief that when you have these emotions, whether it's fear or anger, or whatever we consider the negative emotions, you've got to channel it into something positive. So she's afraid of those big fights. And that's probably why she turned to protests and things like that is because that is on the mortal level that is on the so called real world level that she can fight in. She doesn't realize it yet, but she's going to have no choice but to go up against some of those big monsters. That's, I mean, that's just part of the game. But I think anger too, is a big motivator as to why she turned away from it as she didn't like that somebody else had already made these decisions for her before she was even born.

Star : 29:39

So she's turning away from the Irish pantheon. What is she turning towards?

Quinn: 29:43

I very specifically did not choose another Pantheon, which is why she's a wolf warrior as opposed to the other ways of building characters, because one of the difficulties I see in Scion is the appropriation. As good of a game as it is, and all credit to the people who made this game, it still runs into the problem that they are using content and beliefs from real world existing surviving cultures. And I wanted to kind of step away from that and have her without the backing of a pantheon when all is said and done. The way that that works in the game is through supernatural paths or mortal paths. Instead of being literally a demigod, you can be a centaur, you can be a Kitsune, you can be any of these mortal style creatures that never transcend beyond that. And you don't have to have a patron or parents God.

Star : 30:48

So she's turning away from demigod hood, or are turning away from all gods?

Quinn: 30:55

Yeah, she's basically saying that she's not going to serve the gods. She's going to fight for ideals and not entities.

Star : 31:02

But would you say that she was inspired partially by the Caribbean mythology and Caribbean gods?

Quinn: 31:10

Absolutely. One of the key differences and one of the reasons why I didn't want to Pantheon is with the Taino as the only thing I feel I can talk about at all. They're not gods, their ancestors. So the Taino we don't have a we don't have deity structures, we don't have pantheons. In that, that kind of way. What we have is called zemi which our ancestors from a long time ago that took purview over certain parts of nature, they help guide certain parts of nature and help guide us in how we can best relate to the world that we live in.

Star : 31:52

Where is Aya from?

Quinn: 31:53

Aya is from Texas, not any city in particular. Exactly. But because Texas is a hotbed for a lot of activity right now. And it is somewhere that the games I play often focus in. She travels around to the major cities like Austin and Houston and San Antonio, I'm sure she'll make a stint somewhere else. At some point.

Star : 32:19

Did she grow up in Texas?

Quinn: 32:21

I picture her growing up with like a military family kind of situation, something I can kind of relate to, she she would have lived anywhere she would have been would have been three or four years max, so she doesn't have a home per se. And that's part of the draw of the character for me.

Star : 32:38

Why is that?

Quinn: 32:39

Because I don't really have a home. I don't I don't I mean, I have somewhere that I live with my family. And that's my home now. But there's nowhere that I can say I grew up here. It's always Well, I grew up here, here, here and here. You know, these places like Egypt and Greece and Jordan, and I don't know what it's like to be from somewhere. So I didn't want to mess with that. It kind of frustrates me a little bit.

Star : 33:05

You mean personally, it frustrates you?

Quinn: 33:08

Yeah, it frustrates me to try to portray someone who has those connections, because that's something that I will never have. And I don't like being reminded of it. When I'm playing the game. I kind of see Aya as having started out probably in Florida, just because of the Caribbean ties, and then possibly moving overseas. I hadn't actually defined it because depending on who's running the game, they may want me to be from another country or another city, or something. And that leaves a little bit of room for them to use me as a plot vehicle.

Star : 33:48

Right? Give them an in.

Quinn: 33:50

Exactly.

Star : 33:51

It seems like you hew pretty closely to your own experiences. When designing characters. How do you feel about people portraying characters that don't reflect their own identity, whether that's heritage or culture or gender?

Quinn: 34:07

That's a hard question, because the first thing that I would have to do is ask, why are they doing it? Anybody that does it as a joke, I'm against that. I've seen too many people who have used it as an opportunity to play up stereotypes or they think it's funny. And to me, that's disrespectful. But I've also seen a lot of people who use it as a way to learn or to find a way to relate to usually somebody in their life that's from that heritage or is that gender and I like that, at least if they're open to correction occasionally. I think that it's a safe and a positive opportunity to explore things that you don't get from just watching TV or even just listening to podcasts.

Star : 34:58

Yeah, it's it kind of brings up a question for me, too. You mentioned that they're open to correction, what if there's nobody at the table to correct them?

Quinn: 35:06

Well I would say if there's nobody at the table to correct them, then nobody would realize that correction is needed. And that's sort of sticky, because on the one hand, you're not offending anybody at the table or hurting anybody at the table, which is good. But if you walk away from the table thinking that that's the case everywhere, it can lead to unintended consequences. At that point, I would say, if you don't have somebody that you can kind of lean on, don't dive too deep into real world identities that are not our own, not too deep, maybe like, if you want to start learning about it, and work it in into the character. As long as you're actively trying to grow as a person. I think that that's okay.

Star : 35:49

Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. I think it's also another good reason to really make an effort to diversify your table.

Quinn: 35:57

Oh, it's so important. The best games are told by people who've lived very different stories.

Star : 36:04

What are your tables like?

Quinn: 36:06

My tables are pretty diverse. We have the entire cloud. Welcome at our table. As far as gender identity or sexual spectrum goes, we've got Hispanics usually play at our table, my friend is married to this really cool Hispanic woman that is exploring her own personal heritage through Scion. Funny enough, we have a mix of genders and different walks of life as well, people who, who have lived in one place for their entire life with very homogenous communities. And then we've got people that have lived in more diverse communities coming in and sharing these experiences.

Star : 36:49

It sounds like it can be a learning experience for everyone.

Quinn: 36:52

We try to give that opportunity. And most of the people that I've played with or run games for, seem to feel a little more seen and heard as a result. And I often will try to get their input in writing games, like, what do you want to see present? What do you need to not be there, and then the game ends up sort of flowing through the needs of the players. And because it is such a diverse or we try to be as diverse as possible, the river that we're flowing this story down can get kind of rocky sometimes. And that's where it's important for me as a storyteller, to have the trust of my players, when I say, hey, we need to stop for a minute, I need to think about how this is gonna play out, I need to think about the proper way to do this, or, Hey, I need to talk to this player, because I don't know what to do with this, that is all about handling diversity with responsible care, I think. And it goes back to my love of having games with a message and learning opportunities.

Star : 38:03

Would you say that the other players at the table are also bringing characters that they use to explore ideas like this, or are you kind of the trailblazer?

Quinn: 38:12

We've got a mix, we've got at least one player who only ever just wants to be the really cool person with magic. And there's nothing wrong with that. But we also have somebody that feels very, very strongly about Big Pharma, and is using his character to have his own form of protest. So it kind of runs the gamut a little bit. And I've got another person that wanted to learn more about a particular geographical area. And they've changed the area a couple of times, but they always use the character as a motivation to learn the geography of a place learn the politics of a place learn the actual history of the place, and they tend to walk away with a little bit more appreciation for stuff that they previously didn't even know about.

Star : 39:05

That's interesting. I don't hear it talked about a lot of people using TTRPG as as a learning experience, whether that's through exploring their own interests and research or history, to exploring identities.

Quinn: 39:19

I don't see it as often as I would like, it would make me more comfortable in a lot of games if I wasn't the only person doing it. But I have seen over the past three or four years a an uptick in people trying to at least incorporate respectfully parts of identities that are not their own. And to do that, you've got to learn a little bit. There's no way to respectfully handle something new without a learning process.

Star : 39:49

Yeah, definitely. So tell me a little bit more about Aya. I generally ask some kind of basics. I don't think we covered yet her sexuality.

Quinn: 39:59

I saw her more as probably ace. Just because I don't like working sexual situations into games very often. For me, I don't really care if other people do it as long as it's a safe environment, as long as it's all consensual. But for me, I've had really bad experiences with including sexuality and games. So I tried to stay away from it. And ever since then I've written it out of almost every character I've had.

Star : 40:30

That's unfortunate.

Quinn: 40:32

It is.

Star : 40:33

How old is Aya?

Quinn: 40:35

Aya is in her 30s, I picture her about 37-38 Just a little bit younger than me young enough to still have more energy than I do, but old enough to have learned some of the lessons that I'd like to think that I've learned. I see her as being of parent age, but not having kids. And that's important to me, because that is one of those expectations that both her family and society had placed on her that she chose not to adhere to.

Star : 41:09

I think it's interesting, because a lot of times when people play characters in TTRPGs is like, they don't have kids. They also often don't have parents. So yeah, it's kind of interesting to me, because within our world, and I suppose within the world of Scion, which is our world, but different, there probably is that expectation. But I think that for a lot of you know those kinds of stereotypical adventurers, the expectation is that you are kind of rootless or able to just kind of go off adventuring, without having anybody depend on you.

Quinn: 41:44

I think in most traditional games, the ability to pick up and go is what inspires people to have no kids. In Scion, it depends on your Pantheon and who your parent or patron is. But it's not uncommon to expect the line to be continued. Because that's where they get their fighters from. That's where they get their generals from. That's where they get all these people that carry on their legend, or go out and tell their own, but I almost never see the conscious choice to not have kids because it's what's expected. I've never seen somebody approach it as shirking expectations before.

Star : 42:31

Yeah, that's a good point. I also have not seen that.

Quinn: 42:34

I like to do things a little different sometimes.

Star : 42:38

What does Aya look like?

Quinn: 42:40

I picture it as being probably around five foot one or so in my mind, I have her very obviously white presenting, because I am. And I don't want to try to roleplay and experience that there's there's no way for me to understand. However, where we differ is that Aya has some very noticeable features of both Heritage's like she's got the bright red hair, but it's a little more full curlier tighter curls, probably to the shoulder length, she's got a little bit more of a tan cast to her skin than I do. But she's also out in the sun a lot more than I am. I stay inside more than I should. But she's got really dark earthen brown eyes. And that's one of my favorite things about her is that the eyes sort of evoke that steady sturdiness of of earth or stone. As far as how she would dress. It would be jeans, a t shirt and a denim vest. Absolutely, usually wearing red.

Star : 43:51

Does the denim vest have like a bunch of buttons and patches on it?

Quinn: 43:55

Oh, it has all kinds of buttons on it. But instead of patches covering it up, it's got names written on it. Which the reason I did that is because I have a vest that I frequently wear that has the names of many missing and murdered indigenous women and people on it. And the back is painted much in the same way that my real world vest would be painted. Because I love to paint on on clothes.

Star : 44:20

Cool. And you have a ready made cosplay.

Quinn: 44:23

That's true. I didn't think of that.

Star : 44:26

I think it's interesting that you mentioned the earthen quality in her eyes because you're talking about a scion of a water god.

Quinn: 44:35

Yeah, that's that's one of the things is I didn't want her to have those bright blue eyes that I always see associated with water or water magic or that kind of elemental tie. I almost always see it as blue maybe a sea green or something like that. And that just felt wrong for this character. The Earth aspect of it is it represent that's to me her foundation that she's still building, because she is having to discover it for herself. But those dark eyes, it's almost like the earth right before it meets the sea when it when it's all wet and everything, how sand can get really dark sometimes or even the darkness underneath the sea at night. Like there's a lot of different ways that you can picture that. But for me, picturing it as that, that foundational earthen deep brown just looked right.

Star : 45:34

Yeah, I can see that. It also I feel like it says a little something about her character too.

Quinn: 45:38

iI is partially inspired by the fact that she's turning her back on the sea god, right. Which is ironic, because the people that she is trying to get more in tune with are sea based, like they live on an island. So the sea is integral, but a lot of them ended up in the mountains toward the center of the islands for safety reasons. So it kind of draws on that and pays respect to that need in the history as well.

Star : 46:08

What are Aya's flaws?

Quinn: 46:10

She's very quick tempered, she does not have all of the education that she probably should part of shirking the expectations came with not finishing education. So she doesn't always have all of the details or all of the knowledge that she would need. But that would open up room for like a lore type character in the group to really shine. She's shorter than a lot of the people that she ends up toe to toe with which I often encourage storytellers to capitalize on that, that kind of physical difference there. And she doesn't really start out with a lot of friends in my mind. She she has a lot of people that she's loyal to. And she has a lot of people that are fighting for the same thing. But just by virtue of the fact that she is going to be called to this life of adventure, this this life of legend. She hasn't been able to connect with people very well.

Star : 47:11

Yeah, she's kind of rootless.

Quinn: 47:13

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Without a place to call home. You don't have lifelong friends. You don't know how to make long term friends, which is something I also struggle with. So I see it as one of her primary obstacles to overcome is how do you get to know people when you don't know how to get to know people?

Star : 47:32

Aya, do you like being the center of attention?

Quinn: 47:35

Well, I shouldn't be the center of attention. There's more important stuff out there right now than me. If I needed to be the center of attention, I wouldn't be down here on the ground, with placards and signs and getting hit with rubber bullets. And none of that would be happening right now. If I was supposed to be the focus. No, what you need to be focusing on is what they're doing in that building right there. Then she would go on whatever the the big, bad evil corporation is that that she is focused on, she would kind of bring up their sins and bring up what they're up to. And as quickly as possible, get you talking about them.

Star : 48:15

Quinn, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for bringing Aya and talking about decolonization and identity. It's been a fascinating conversation.

Quinn: 48:26

I've really enjoyed this. Thank you very much for having me.

Star : 48:29

Of course. What would you like to share with my audience?

Quinn: 48:33

I would like to encourage everybody to learn a little bit more about MMIW missing murdered indigenous women also there's MMIWG2S which stands for missing murdered indigenous women girls and two spirits and don't think that you have to find like a national level thing in Texas we've got MMIW Texas rematriate but if you type in just those initials, MMIW. And where you live, you'll find some sort of organization. I almost guarantee it and they need support. They need attention and I think you'll find it fascinating just how much we aren't told about what's going on.

Star : 49:14

Yeah, absolutely. You can find me on Tik Tok at Star mama See, that's s t AR Ma Ma Si. You can also listen on YouTube, just search for characters without stories or follow the link in the description. I'm at nearly 1000 downloads what may not seem like a lot to some means an awful lot to me. I'm immensely grateful to you, my listeners for spreading the word about the podcast. Please help me get to 1000 by sharing the podcast with friends and on social media. And if you write a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, I'll give you a shout out on the show. I'm currently accepting submissions, particularly for non d&d characters. So if you'd like to share your character, you can go to the submission form at characterswithoutstories.com Thanks for listening and may all your characters find their stories