Skips the Silent Bard - Challenging Yourself as a Player with Joseph Speak (D&D 5e)

Star : 0:00

How do you roleplay a character without a voice? How would you react if you saw a dragon in real life? And are mimes creepy? 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 Joseph speak a chronic DM that desperately wants to play Dungeons and Dragons, but is stuck as the storyteller. He also makes Pokemon into Dungeons and Dragons characters on tick tock, Joe, I will 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?

Joseph: 0:48

Yeah, sure. So I'm from Liverpool in England, and I've been a DM for maybe 10 years now. I don't get to play very often. So I have a big ol backlog of characters that I want to use that I don't quite get chance. I'm actually in a game at the moment playing goblin spell singer wizard. But other than that, I don't get much chance. During the day I work as an electrical engineer. And at night I make Pokemon miniatures for TikTok as well as d&d, and Warhammer and all that other stuff.

Star : 1:17

Yeah, your miniatures are so cool.

Joseph: 1:18

I love that. Thank you so much.

Star : 1:22

So you're bringing character today for d&d? Five E, correct?

Joseph: 1:27

Yep, that's right.

Star : 1:28

So who are you bringing to the table?

Joseph: 1:31

Okay, so we have got a skips he is a no monk slash bod. multiclass, which is a bit of a strange one. But there is a very reasonable reason for it. We'll get to later on, I'm sure.

Star : 1:44

With multiclassing obviously, he's not level one. What level are you building him for?

Joseph: 1:49

I kind of built him in mind to fit into whatever game it depends on the DM and the game that he's in. But he's taken three levels in monk specifically way of the long death. And then he is moving into college of whispers Bard after that. So any level after three will go straight into Bard.

Star : 2:06

Now, did you say way of the long death?

Joseph: 2:09

I did? Yeah. I feel like he's a character that's taken an oath of silence. And I feel like that's sort of the multiclass that fits into that whole thing best. I don't think there's a specific sort of oath of silence kind of monk in d&d at the moment. So I just like that multiclass quite a bit. I like that subclass, sorry, quite a bit.

Star : 2:29

Is that a standard subclass? Or is that some sort of homebrew? I haven't heard of it.

Joseph: 2:34

I think it's from maybe Tasha's cauldron of everything or something like that. Okay. Yeah. I'll look into that. It's not in the player's handbook. Either way.

Star : 2:43

Okay, so you mentioned that he is multiclassing in the College of whispers, and you have this whole vow of silence thing? Maybe if you could go into that a little bit? Why? This particular multiclass?

Joseph: 2:57

Yeah, so the way I build characters is a very strange concept first, and then find a way to make it work. And I really wanted a mime bard. So I kind of looked into ways to make it so that he had to be a mime, so that it was kind of like to stay in character and do all the mime and things. So that's going to be quite difficult for the in character question. Now I think about it. Yeah, I thought the best way was a monastic oath of silence. So he kind of started off as a monk, his monastery was destroyed by a dragon as long along with his sort of master. And then he had to make his own way in the world because there was no one to train him. He went into a major city, we I don't know which one because I like to build character in a way that he fits into any game. So I'd discuss this with the DM before and but eventually, he sort of started to have to learn to sign and do actions rather than vocalizing stuff. And people found it quite funny became a bald part of traveling entertainers, caravan, and all that kind of stuff. And that's how we ended up becoming a mime bard.

Star : 4:07

So you mentioned that you build characters, starting with a concept and then work the mechanics around that. What was the concept that started here? What was the spark?

Joseph: 4:18

I get quite bored of the whole bard trope of charismatic walks around playing a guitar and picking up women or men or whoever. And I was looking into it one day trying to think about the sort of Bardic talents that you could have. So I went through rap battle bard that was one that I toyed with for a little bit. We went to stand up comedian, and sort of Impressionist Bard, and then eventually I got some mime. And I thought that it might have been quite a challenge to play a character that didn't actually vocalize things and had to do things through actions and stuff like that. I thought it'd be quite an interesting challenge to get all those ideas across to the rest of the party without actually speaking. Mm.

Star : 5:00

Do you primarily play in person? Or do you play online?

Joseph: 5:04

A little bit of both. I play in person once a week, and I play online twice a week. So either or, yeah, this would preferably be an in person character because it'd be quite difficult on the internet, if they can't know actually face to face with you, it'd be quite a difficult one, I was gonna say that would be a challenge.

Star : 5:23

So that's an interesting concept. It's something that I've thought about as well as what makes someone a bard. What is it about being a bard that you think applies here?

Joseph: 5:35

It's just the entertainment aspect more than anything, I guess they can tell stories in a different way. Whereas somebody tell stories through songs or poems, it's a different way to sort of entertain and tell stories, I suppose you could say the same thing about sort of a clown bard or something like that. But I just think the mime is not something that's traditionally associated with a bard, but I think it'd be quite a cool thing to explore with them.

Star : 6:00

I know that mimes have kind of a bad rap, at least here in the States. I don't know what that's like in Liverpool. But there's, there's no, I guess they're kind of seen as as outdated and kind of annoying in pop culture. Do you think that that same conception applies where you are?

Joseph: 6:20

Kind of they're not something that's seen so much, but they're also something that is associated with bits being sort of really creepy because of things like American Horror Story and stuff like that. So I feel like that's another thing that we could explore with the character. But yeah, the concept of a mime is quite an outdated font to be honest. Yeah. Yeah.

Star : 6:39

Is that part of why you decided to go with that concept?

Joseph: 6:43

Yeah, it's I think it's part of the charm. I think it's I think it's not something that a lot of people would think of, when they first think of a bard, because it's so outdated. And I think it'd be an interesting avenue to explore. And obviously, with the whole Pokemon thing, there's Mr. Mime, who is a mime, that isn't a mime because he speaks but that was another sort of Spark behind it. If I ever get to play a Pokemon campaign, I couldn't use Mr. Mime as that character that was kind of something that I thought about as well.

Star : 7:11

Oh, that's funny. I like that. Bringing your interests together.

Joseph: 7:15

Yeah, that'd be the goal.

Star : 7:17

I know some people when they're making a character really want to emphasize making something completely original. They want to be like, I'm making somebody who's never been seen before in the world. And then there are other people who are like, I want to make an elf Ranger. I want to make Legolas. What is it for you? Do you feel like you want to make somebody completely and entirely unique? Or do you kind of approach it on a case by case basis?

Joseph: 7:46

Yeah, it totally depends. Honestly, I'll play absolutely anything. A lot of the time, I'll play the character that fits the campaign, I'll find myself because I'm used to being the DM, I'll be the person that does the thing that no one else is doing. So it's kind of Yeah, a little bit of both. It depends. I tried to make it unique and sort of put a little bit of an extra a different spin on it. But that's not always possible. When you build an a cleric you pretty much always built in a cleric, I think, right? There are certain things that are pretty standard.

Star : 8:17

I do think that bards are a little bit more flexible. Because the idea of performance or creativity is a very multifaceted idea. There are so many ways to be creative or to perform.

Joseph: 8:31

Yeah, absolutely. I think bard genuinely might be the class that can do anything from Dungeons and Dragons. If you want to play a fighter type role. You go college of swords. If you want to play you can play pretty much anything that you want between the board sub classes that we've got, I think, I think you can it's one of the most versatile classes definitely.

Star : 8:52

So let's talk a little bit more about skips. Skips is an interesting name. Where did you come up with that?

Joseph: 8:59

It was just kind of something that popped into my head one day I was like, that'd be quite a good gnome name one day, and then this is the character that landed on I When I was making my first gnome character, I looked at the lore guess. for gnomes and saw that it said that gnomes all go by nicknames and they have multiple nicknames. And I just loved that little bit of lore and I totally ran with it. So I am now DMing a campaign I had this whole city with lots of gnomes and they all had nicknames my my gnome characters have all had multiple nicknames. Is that something that also you kind of latched on to? Yeah, I kind of liked the concept of being able to have sort of multiple names but the strange thing is not a lot of people are going to know his name because he can't actually vocalize it. So I kind of see it as him trying to do the action for skipping maybe and as a result, he gets multiple different names depending on who views it and who sort of interprets in what way that person interprets what he's doing.

Star : 10:04

I love that that can be very confusing when you have a group of people. Who are you talking to? Oh, yeah, jumps? No, no that skips.

Joseph: 10:14

Yeah, certainly, hopefully someone gets it right. But I will be correct, and then put it that way.

Star : 10:21

So how old is Skips?

Joseph: 10:24

Well, he's been through some years of monastic training, he never never got to finish it. So I kind of see him maybe being late teens to early 20s, maybe, what is skips look like? He's sort of a very traditional sort of gnome character, he wears the traditional sort of monk garb, but sort of cuts that with mime makeup. He's dyed his hair black to fit in with the mime look, and his monk sort of, I'm not sure the actual name of it. But like the little bit of cloth, they always wear around their waist, like the piccolo from Dragon Ball type thing is also white. He's got very little color on him for painting, sort of white paint for being in a mime on himself, and all that kind of stuff. He's very sort of monotone from top to bottom. Does he wear the traditional black and white striped shirt? He will when he's performing, but not when he's just sort of out and about, he tends to prefer to feel the wind on his back when he's out and about.

Star : 11:26

So there's going to be a difference, not just as appearance, but I guess also what he does when he is performing versus when he's adventuring. How does his persona change, for example, when he's in combat?

Joseph: 11:41

Yeah, I think like he still would use some of this skills that he gained from being a mime. So maybe confused people, like maybe if someone's trying to attack him, they'll pretend to put an invisible wall up as a distraction or something like that. But I think overall, he'll switch into full blown so of Bruce Lee, John Claude Van Damme martial artists style in combat with maybe it may be a few of those sort of Mind Tricks thrown in there for good measure.

Star : 12:10

What are the abilities that he has as a way of the long death monk?

Joseph: 12:15

Okay, so when you choose a third level, he gets when he reduces a creature to zero hit points, he gets a temporary hit points equal to his wisdom modifier plus monk level. And that's about all he gets other than the other monk stuff. Later on. When he gets to level six, he gets some more stuff. But at level three, that's pretty much all he gets the sort of Warlock when you kill something, you get hit temporary hit points.

Star : 12:40

Why did you choose this subclass? What was it about that particular ability that made sense to you for this character?

Joseph: 12:48

It was not so much the ability it was more sort of the the name of the subclass and the flavor. I feel like that's one that kind of works with an oath of silence fairly well. It wasn't a mechanical choice by any stretch of the imagination. Not many things that I do are honestly.

Star : 13:05

And you're a college of whispers bard? Or I guess you would be because if you were to multiple levels, so that seems kind of I get the choice based on the name. But is there anything else about that college that appeal to you?

Joseph: 13:21

From when I read first read what the college of whispers bard does the whole psychic blade stuff and sort of being able to just creep people out with the abilities that they've got? I really liked it. And like I said before, mimes strike me as potentially being very creepy to some people. So that kind of fits the flavor as well, I think.

Star : 13:41

Let's talk about Skips' backstory, you said they grew up in a monastery, and they had kind of a mentor or a teacher.

Joseph: 13:50

They had a teacher that taught them the way of the long death, as it were, obviously, before they took that sort of sub class, if you will, they were just learning this standard monk stuff is mother and father were part of the same monastery. And as a result, they were lost at the sort of dragon attack that took out his mentor as well. But a lot of his life was lived in a monastery, he hadn't really seen a lot of the outside world, which may potentially be part of why when he went out into the world, he wasn't sure what to do, or how to interact with people. He grew up learning the ways of the monk, obviously, to start with the traditional martial arts fighting style, and then eventually started to learn the way of the long death. And then the tragedy that was part of the early part of his life happened, and he had to move on and didn't get to do much else, unfortunately.

Star : 14:44

Why did he take the vow of silence in response to that event and that trauma?

Joseph: 14:51

That wasn't in response. It's part of the tradition of the monastery that he's part of everyone in there sort of takes a vow of silence and it's just part of their tradition of that particular monastery? Okay, I see how long had he been living his life in silence. It would have been when he started his training, I guess I assume that he will have made sounds and stuff as a child when he didn't really know better. But eventually he sort of because his mother and father have taken the same vow of silence, he sort of learned that they didn't speak. So there was no point speaking to them, and he just sort of fell in. So I'd envisioned it just sort of being easy to him when it came to time to start his training. And he gets shown that he can't speak anymore. And you just sort of slip straight into it, I guess.

Star : 15:37

I mean, I imagine that if you grew up in a community that was completely silent speech wouldn't necessarily even come to you. Right? That you, you don't have anybody teaching you.

Joseph: 15:50

Yeah, this is probably not a character that I'd be taking languages for other than sort of words that he'd pick up. But even then he wouldn't be able to speak them. So it's kind of pointless. But yeah, I feel like before he moved into the outside world, he won't have learned that many words other than what he's maybe read, but even then probably wouldn't know how to vocalize them. That's really hard to kind of put yourself into that headspace of someone that's never really heard words, it's a really strange thing to think about, for me, to be honest.

Star : 16:22

Did you do any research? Or are you familiar, like maybe have a friend or family member who's deaf?

Joseph: 16:28

I did look into monks that take vows of silence, but generally they only happen sort of late into life. Not many of them are born into it. So I'm not really sure Honestly, how that would affect someone's sort of development as a person or Yeah, it's a really strange concept to think about, I guess it's something that I have thought about, but it's not something I've ever come up with an answer to. Yeah, I mean, they're going to have to communicate some way in the monastery.

Star : 16:55

So did they use a sign language to communicate? Did they use primarily written communication?

Joseph: 17:01

Yeah, I'd say probably primarily written, but for sort of immediate things, they'll have a system of signing. But even then it's a challenge to figure out how someone would learn to do that, without knowing what the words are, I guess they just know that some actions means that you stop doing some things. But wow, these are new questions I never really thought about honestly.

Star : 17:24

I mean, it brings up a lot of questions. For me the idea of somebody who's, you know, gone most of their life, or really all of their life under a vow of silence and not not being born with anything that would keep them from speaking, but never learning to vocalize and instead having to communicate in other ways. It's curious to me how that character would interact when they have never picked up those skills.

Joseph: 17:53

I guess in I want to say the real well, but our world, it's good that people who are nonverbal have a system that they can communicate with, it's strange to think about how that would translate to a fantasy setting or a steampunk setting or whatever, because I'd imagine there's not really a system of signing or a universally used sign language in place that they'd use. So I guess they'd have to communicate with our actions rather than a system of hand signals. When I got around to playing this character. It's something that I'm looking forward to exploring honestly.

Star : 18:27

Yeah, I think it's interesting, too, because d&d characters are often multilingual. I don't think I've ever played a character who only knew one language.

Joseph: 18:36

Yeah, it's always sort of common and whatever, your racial languages or whatever. Yeah, a character that knows no language is kind of a new role playing challenge, isn't it? It's kind of something that I'd like to explore. When I get the chance, I'll get around to exploring it, hopefully.

Star : 18:53

Yeah. Another question that comes up is some spells of verbal components. How would you deal with that? Would would Skip's only take spells that had somatic components?

Joseph: 19:06

I think somatic and material components of the spells I'd have to limit myself to. So that's another challenge to overcome, unless he can find some other ways of making noise, but usually, they're verbal commands. So yeah, I'd have to limit my spell list. I think it's not like barred short of spell options. So I guess so. It shouldn't be such a big problem.

Star : 19:31

I imagine it's something you could work out with a DM as well as they don't have a verbal options. So what's another way that we could communicate that maybe their verbal option is more like a somatic component?

Joseph: 19:45

Yeah, I kind of like the idea of him doing certain actions to manifest the spells that sort of strikes me as being a very monk like thing as well. You always see like the monks that are doing their exercises and there's like swirling leaves around them and stuff. So it's kind of evocative of that. Yeah, I quite like that idea. Actually, that also isn't something that I thought of. So I'm getting some ideas for this character out of this podcast as well, too. So that's nice.

Star : 20:11

Happy to help. Skips' adventures started when the monastery was attacked by a dragon. And that was a devastating attack destroyed the monastery.

Joseph: 20:23

Yeah, most of the people some of the people managed to escape him included, but a lot of the people he was sort of mentored by or parental figures when the people that made it out, unfortunately.

Star : 20:35

And does he still maintain contact with any of the other survivors?

Joseph: 20:40

There's a few of the survivors that he'll write letters to there is a goblin that was part of the same monastery that he writes letters to as well.

Star : 20:49

He was kind of forced on his adventuring journey.

Joseph: 20:53

Yeah, pretty much he didn't really have much of a choice he had his home for most of his life was no longer there. So he kind of had to make it on his own, I guess.

Star : 21:02

So an accidental adventurer, you could say?

Joseph: 21:05

Yes, the best kind of adventurer.

Star : 21:10

Now that they are out and adventuring, what are they hoping to find or to accomplish?

Joseph: 21:16

I guess they're just looking to experience things that they haven't experienced before. There's a lot of things that they haven't really seen. There's a lot of different races that they haven't interacted with. So I guess he's just looking to learn, mostly learn about other people that are out in the world, or the cultures how life is outside of the monastery as well. I think he just wants knowledge, honestly, he's been deprived of quite a lot for most of his life. I think he just wants to find out what else is out there.

Star : 21:45

I imagine it would be very overwhelming to come from a very sheltered experience, to entering a great wide world with all kinds of monsters and people.

Joseph: 21:56

Absolutely, I think he probably was very cautious at first. And then once he joined his traveling circus, and he started meeting more people, the people around him sort of got used to the way that he is and the way that he communicates, I think he sort of came into his own. He's still not seeing everything. And he's still not quite sure in some situations. But I think for the most part, he gets by, I think when he first started out, he would have probably been quite overwhelmed, because there's a lot of sound mostly. And he's used to coming from somewhere where there's not a great deal of sound. But I think once he gets over that he'll probably be okay. But I'll probably still maintain a fear of dragons. That's something that I really want to play in. And so so he'll try and avoid them at all costs, I think, yeah, definitely.

Star : 22:45

How did he get involved in this, you said, a circus troupe?

Joseph: 22:50

He went to a town was staying at a tavern in the town. And the way that he communicated some of the patrons maybe found it funny, he started off maybe mocking Him for it, unfortunately. But eventually, they come to find it sort of endearing or even humorous at some point. And he sort of thinks to himself, Hey, maybe I can make a living out of this. And I can use this to entertain people. And then I envisioned it all going on. From there, he finds employment with a troupe of traveling bards, and that's his act on this sort of traveling circus of bards.

Star : 23:27

You're talking about his miming career kind of starting from, I'd say, it's kind of a painful place is starting as being mocked, and then turning into kind of a source of power.

Joseph: 23:40

I like the idea of characters sort of taking on people in the real world as well. I like the idea of people taking the things that people mock them for, bully them for and turning it into something that's kind of like, Hey, if you can't use this against me anymore, I like that concept. Because it's something that I've been through myself in my own life. And I'm sure many people who play Dungeons and Dragons also have and I think that's a really sort of empowering thing for people. And for characters, I guess.

Star : 24:12

Yeah. You say that that hits you in a personal way? Is there something in your experience that you really connected with with that story?

Joseph: 24:22

When I went through school, I was quite large to the point where I'd get bullied for it relentlessly join my high school. And eventually, it just got to a point where it was like, Well, yeah, I am a little bit larger. So what and eventually I got to that point, and so a switch flipped where it was like, Well, if I accept it, and that's the way I am, then if I know then you can't use that against me and I think it sort of goes hand in hand with being a so called nerd as well. I think that's something that a lot of us have probably experienced bullying for whether it be comics, Warhammer, or Dungeons and Dragons. And I think once you reach the point where you stop caring about what other people think that's the point where people like that no longer have power over you. And I think that's an extremely powerful sort of step to take on your own personal growth.

Star : 25:16

Yeah, absolutely. Is it something that you usually do in building a character is trying to find kind of a personal connection with that character story?

Joseph: 25:26

Not always. But sometimes I find that when I make a character that or just maybe happen, it's just something that happens occasionally when I build a character, not all the time, but sometimes it just sort of slips its way in there. And I'll be like, Oh, maybe that's me projecting a little bit. But yeah, it's not something I aim for certainly.

Star : 25:46

Yeah, I find that I do that all the time accidentally. Not trying to do that.

Joseph: 25:52

But we may all be guilty of it to some extent, I think whether we admit it or not.

Star : 25:57

So what are Skips' flaws?

Joseph: 26:00

The fear of dragons First off, maybe just the fact that he can't speak and the fact that occasionally comes across something that he's never seen before, and he's either maybe overwhelmed by it, or he just doesn't know what to do about it. I can't imagine living in a monastery, there'll be a lot of creatures and a lot of animals that he hasn't seen before. And I think that would probably confuse him quite a bit. social situations, obviously would be a big deal for him where that first interaction with someone where he tries to kind of get across that he doesn't speak to a new person that he's just met. That could probably be a big role playing disadvantage, but also a big role playing advantage in terms of flavor, I guess. But I think that they're the biggest flaws that he's got.

Star : 26:47

Yeah, I kind of see that as more of a disadvantage, right. It's not really his fault that those kind of situations may be overwhelming.

Joseph: 26:54

No, absolutely not. Yeah, I guess in that case, then the fear of dragons would probably be the, the floor. I'm not sure how much that would extend to anything that's even remotely draconic. But definitely anything bigger than a Wyvern? It'll be absolutely terrified.

Star : 27:11

I can imagine most people would be absolutely terrified of dragons.

Joseph: 27:16

Yeah, but usually when you get a d&d adventure, they'll be like, Okay, well, we have to fight this. So this has kind of been something that maybe I can work out with the DM maybe he has to roll a check to see if he's frightened or something like that. I see this as being more paralyzing fear than sort of just your normal. Oh, that's a dragon. Maybe we should try not to die.

Star : 27:39

Right. Obviously, when you're playing an adventuring character, they're made of a little bit sterner stuff, you know, they're not going to run in fear from every encounter. But when I put myself into a fantasy world, I got to think, No way. I'm looking at a dragon and thinking, Yeah, I'm gonna fight that.

Joseph: 27:56

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'd probably be the same about something like a giant rats as well, one of your low level monsters, I'd probably be baffled that a rat had grown to that size, and probably quite fearful as well.

Star : 28:08

It's true, it's true, most most monsters would be pretty scary. I don't know how far you've gotten in the mechanical build process. But is there anything any particular mechanics that you want to exploit with this character,

Joseph: 28:23

I don't tend to build for rules, but the College of whispers psychic blades rule is crazy stupid. You can expend a bardic inspiration to do decent psychic damage when you hit with a weapon attack. And it's not like a bonus action or anything like that. It's just you spend the Bardic inspiration it happens. And you can do it multiple times a turn, obviously, with key points and stuff like that monks are hitting many times a turn. So I feel like for a big fight, I'd probably burn through my Bardic inspiration pretty quickly doing extra psychic damage to them.

Star : 28:55

Does that count for unarmed attacks?

Joseph: 28:59

As far as I remember, an unarmed attack for monk counts as a weapon attack, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I will have to check that one.

Star : 29:07

Yeah, I'm not sure either.

Joseph: 29:09

No doubt someone will correct it.

Star : 29:11

So put the question to my listeners.

Joseph: 29:14

Let them tell you tell me I'm wrong. Go.

Star : 29:17

Yeah, hit me up on tick tock and tell me whether or not that would count.

Joseph: 29:22

I'll make a video about it real quick.

Star : 29:25

So what is it about this character that makes you really excited to play them someday?

Joseph: 29:30

It's just a role playing challenge more than anything. I guess a lot of the characters that I play tend to stray to rogue or Warlock which are they're quite role playing focused. And I think a different way of role playing is a challenge that I really want. I've spent a lot of time telling God's that we're here to meet with someone who doesn't really exist and I just want a different way of interacting with the world around me, I think

Star : 30:00

So this is a pretty novel approach to you, or do you often try and do something new with a new character? No, this is a completely new thing for me. I've never had tried to anything even remotely as challenging as this before. What kind of story do you think skips would need?

Joseph: 30:19

I think it's less a story, then I feel like it'd have to be the right party. For him. It have to be a party that had sort of take him on with all of his quirks and his differences and treat him like a new family. I think that's one of the driving goals is to find his kind of place in the world and find a new family and a new place where he fits in because he lost that quite early on. So I don't think it's so much an adventure that he needs. It's less the sort of adventure experience. It's more the people around him who surround him whilst he's on the adventure.

Star : 30:53

Honestly, that's a pretty common quest for d&d characters, I think is finding that found family.

Joseph: 31:01

Yeah, I think so. A lot of the groups we're in we're kind of in that spot where we focus on the role playing element a lot more than the just sort of combat and dungeon crawling. And I think that creeps in in our games quite a bit as well. Honestly. Yeah.

Star : 31:15

Skips. Do you want to grow up to be like your parents?

Joseph: 31:19

I think he'd probably just give you a thumbs up on that one. Because he's taken this vow he's sure that that's a path he eventually wants to re follow. But he's not sure how so he probably just give you a good ol thumbs up on that one.

Star : 31:36

Do you think that he wants to maintain this vow?

Joseph: 31:39

Yeah, I think it takes something pretty special for him to break it. I feel like it's maybe the last link to his family and to the the mentor that he lost. I think he's gonna try pretty hard to keep it going.

Star : 31:52

That's poignant, and important part of his character to maintain that connection in that way.

Joseph: 31:58

Yeah, it's kind of the last thing that he's clinging on to from his past life, I guess.

Star : 32:03

Yeah. Thank you so much for talking to me about skips.

Joseph: 32:08

No problem. I've really enjoyed having a chat about d&d card so that I'll never get to play.

Star : 32:14

Well, I hope you do someday.

Joseph: 32:16

If I ever do, I'll certainly let you know.

Star : 32:20

Yeah, please tell me all about it.

Joseph: 32:22

I certainly will.

Star : 32:23

How can people find you What would you like to tell people about

Joseph: 32:28

I'm at dungeonsxdragonites all one word on TikTok. I make pokemon into Dungeons and Dragons characters. Eventually I'll be releasing some rules so that people can play those for their selves. That's about it. Really. You can find everything else all my other social media through TikTok, but I think TikTok's my main one for the time being.

Star : 32:47

I'll be putting some links in the description for this episode. So feel free to hit those up. If you want more information. You can find me on TikTok at sta our Ma Ma see that star mama see. You can also listen on YouTube. Just search for characters without stories. Please Like Subscribe rate review, tell your mom every little bit helps. 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 characters without stories.com. Thanks for listening and may all of your characters find their stories.