Podcast Episodes – Page 2 – CryinMo’s Tabletop Alchemy

September 11, 2019September 16, 2019

Episode 18 – Endorse Your Make-Believe: an Interview with Kelsey Dionne of the Arcane Library!

This week I interview the awesome Kelsey Dionne of the Arcane Library. The Arcane Library is a publisher for best-selling Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition third-party content and printable card-based gaming aids. Kelsey is the writer of the Arcane Library’s D&D 5e adventures and it’s her writing chops and layout skills as pertaining specifically to D&D adventure modules that made me really want to chat with her about Dungeons and Dragons and her writing process. One of the things that impresses me about her adventures are the way they are graphically laid out and I would recommend downloading at least the free adventure from the website (Temple of the Basilisk Cult) so you can see what I see while we chat. During the interview we talk about her writing of course but we also talk about Dungeons and Dragons the game in general, how she runs it herself and my favorite section is probably when we discuss “why D&D” … air quotes … and a few topics relating to that like dungeon master advice and some D&D tips for low level players.

September 4, 2019September 16, 2019

Episode 17 – DaShinobi Flow: Interview with MalevMinis!

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This week’s episode is a pretty interesting conversation that did not go at all like I thought it was going to. The conversation I have with miniature painter and music producer MalevDaShinobi flows, kinda like music, from one topic to another and back and intertwines different threads and all in all I was totally surprised at the sort of depth we explored on topics that I thought were going to be fairly technical but ended up being more philosophical than anything else, all driven by Malev himself. Some broad highlights from our conversation are: discussing his music and how poetry and music and miniature painting all kind of flow together while trying to produce an emotional response in people; we talk about freelancing and making a living as a commission painter and how that feels relative to working a “9 to 5” type of gig and we talk about the psychological impact of viewing insanely good top-tier miniature painting works of art at contests like the Crystal Brush. All of that in addition to chatting about his paint style and his twitch streaming and tabletop gaming.

August 28, 2019September 16, 2019

Episode 16: Hobby Love – an Interview with BenSquig from Rad_heim!

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This week I’ve gone all the way down under to chat with a gentleman about a table. Not just any table and not just any gentleman. He goes by BenSquig on Instagram and his gaming group is rad_heim – also on Instagram. And rad_heim is how I first discovered these guys and their crazy gaming table which when I encountered it was all about pirates and tropical island plateaus with jagged cliffs, half-submerged buildings, rope bridges everywhere and gibbets, tons of gibbets. Oh and skulls! A skull for every boy and girl I think. I mean, there’s a lot of skulls on this board. The pirate theme really caught my eye and the vast scale of what these guys do was just so inspiring! But once I started talking with Ben it became apparent pretty quickly that there was a lot more to their gaming and terrain and warbands than I initially thought – and even to the spokesman himself! Turns out he worked on White Dwarf for a while, the hobby magazine produced by Games Workshop! There’s lots of surprises in this one!

August 21, 2019September 16, 2019

Episode 15: Mileage – An Interview with Artist Daniel Landerman

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In this episode, I have a very special guest, he’s an artist of extraordinary talent. I met him briefly at San Diego Comic Con a few years ago where he had a pile of his sketch books at his table and I was able to just sort of stand there and flip through actual cracked and worn leather bound volumes of his work, some of it casual, some of it inked, some of it finished, all of it mind-blowingly cool. We have a great conversation about art and about his working habits, how he learned, what he does professionally and even some general stuff about loving the fantasy genre.

August 14, 2019September 16, 2019

Episode 14: Interview with Kari – @Koltti – from Ironsleet.com

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In this episode, I am super stoked to bring you a wonderful interview with a wonderful tabletop artist, this gentleman has perfect Rally English, he dreams in grim darkness and he hails from IronSleet … dot com. Also, he hails from Finland. Kari is his first name, I shall not butcher his last name out of respect for the man and his family. He’s a brutal force of a miniature painter, he’s crazy when it comes to building one-of-a-kind, totally immersive, nightmarish terrain and he’s a self-professed flagellant scourging himself at the alter of Nottingham – he’s a true Warhammer fan boy and we both mean that in the best of all possible ways!

August 7, 2019September 16, 2019

Episode 13: Interview With A Hollywood Movie Model Maker!

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In this episode I interview my very good friend John Hoffman, the guy I went into the Hollywood special effects industry with and who still to this day manages to work in film and television as a model maker. He’s worked on films from James Cameron’s Titanic to the stop-motion Kubo and has even worked for Disney Imagineering! In this podcast episode he talks about various models he worked on in the last 20 years as well as his original Star Wars lightsaber prop and even some tips on how one might get into the commercial craftsmanship trade today.

July 31, 2019July 31, 2019

Episode 12: How Do You Start (or Get Back Into) the Miniatures Hobby?

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In this episode I answer a question from one of my patrons – how do you get started in these hobbies when you are starting fresh, have no materials or resources? I offer simple tips for purchasing miniatures, paints, tools and where to get the best deals. Because it can be pretty daunting to try to get into a role playing game or miniatures skirmish game or tabletop wargame when you are literally brand new to the hobby.

July 24, 2019July 24, 2019

Episode 11: Interview with Commission Miniature Painter HoundstoothMinis!

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In this episode I interview Steven Vu a.k.a. Houndstooth Miniature Painting. We have a long conversation about all kinds of cool and interesting things, from favorite movies to favorite painting techniques. We especially learn a lot about the creative business and work of running a high volume commission painting service.

July 17, 2019July 17, 2019

Episode 10: First-time Dungeon Master Advice from a First-time Dungeon Master

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In this episode I give some un-solicited advice to first-time Dungeon Masters (and Game Masters) to help you get through your first game and make it a success for both you and your players. Being a first-time DM myself, none of my tips are necessarily ones you should listen to, but they might be helpful all the same! I offer six tips to help run games for first-time players, covering topics like what size party you should start with; not sweating the rules; keeping the game moving; keeping description to a minimum; not bothering with player character depth at the beginning; and how you can (and should!) alter your plans for the game on the fly to avoid railroading players.

July 10, 2019July 10, 2019

Episode 09 – My First Interview: Meet Miniature Painter Darcy Bono!

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In this episode, I conduct my first interview with the awesome miniature painter Darcy Bono who I met on Instagram after coming across her amazing Games Workshop Beastmen! We talk shop for almost an hour, finding out how she got into the hobby, painting and commission work.