My First Dungeon’s Newest Season
Plus, Character Creation with the One and Only Drakoniques
Shenuque’s Character Corner: Drakoniques
Exploring Themes and Leaning Into Consequences
[Blank] from Orbital Blues, Amelie from Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, Enoch from DIE—Drakoniques has played some of the most beloved characters in all of My First Dungeon history. An incredibly talented performer, Drak is perennially on our short list of people we want to play with (and will undoubtedly return for future seasons) due in large part to their skill in crafting captivating characters. So to kick off my new “Shenuque’s Character Corner” column, I sat down for an interview with Drak to glean insights from their expertise to inform both my chaotic choices and yours.
For those who don’t know Drakoniques’s background, they’ve been active in the TTRPG community for about 6-7 years, starting as a fan. It all began with Kolok 1991, which they followed religiously, until joining their university’s D&D club. It was love at first roll—immediately after rolling their first dice, Drak purchased their own set.
Drak’s debut character was a human cavalier, one of the most basic characters one could play, but the choices were chaotic from the outset. Their first roll was a nat 20, and they chose to kill a prison guard, only to feel immediate guilt upon realizing the consequences. This incident highlights the first rule that Drak taught us: Let your character feel the consequences of their actions.
Below, some interview highlights and significant takeaways from my conversation with Drak.
On the Need for Comedy Experience to be an AP Performer
Shenuque: Do you have any acting or comedy training?
Drakoniques: No, I have absolutely no theater experience. Even in school, I’m a STEM student through and through. I think actually I’m the only one in my family who hasn’t been great at public speaking. Acting, all of that stuff, just wasn’t really my forte. I actually first got into streaming, but then I was kind of tired of that. I got very sick of the fact that I was so anxious about these kinds of things. So I thought, I’m just going to throw myself in front of a camera and force myself to get used to it. But yeah, other than actual plays, I have no acting or theater adjacent experience.
On Preparing Characters in the Earliest Stages
S: Walk me through what your process was in creating Enoch. What prep did you do ahead of the actual character creation in session zero?
D: Yeah, so this is part of the prep I do for many of the games I’m in. It depends on how much time I have before the first session. One main aspect is selecting a theme or trope that I want to explore. For Enoch in DIE, I focused on the theme of escapism and being the best version of oneself. Dictator seemed fitting as it allowed shaping reality with words, appealing to someone whose words often go unheard. From there, I built Enoch’s backstory around struggles at home, feeling overshadowed by his peers, yet unrecognized for his own achievements.
On Creating [Blank] and Playing Characters with Disabilities
S: Let’s talk about your character [Blank] from our Orbital Blues season. What was the process in building that character?
D: I watch a lot of actual plays. There was one on D&D Beyond featuring an all-disabled cast. The use of spells like minor illusion for accessibility struck me. When invited to play in Orbital Blues, I saw it as an opportunity to explore disability in this setting. I chose mutism for [Blank], drawing from my own experience with speech delay. The character's disability isn't the focus, but rather an aspect that shapes their journey.
S: Playing a character who can’t speak in an audio medium must have presented challenges. What advice do you have for others considering similar roles?
D: Be mindful not to make the disability itself a joke or parody, especially if you don’t have that disability. Disability should inform the character, not define them. Only those living with the disability can reclaim jokes about it.
— Shenuque
Announcing: 9 Lives to Valhalla!
Viking Cats Seek Glorious Death
This season on My First Dungeon we will be playing Death Metal Viking cats seeking glorious Death in a game where something will die EVERY TIME YOU ROLL THE DICE! That’s right, we’re playing 9 Lives to Valhalla!
We’ve assembled a merry band of ferocious felines including:
and Brian Flaherty as DEATH
Join our Patreon today to hear even more from the stellar cast of 9 Lives to Valhalla
Right now you can listen to our interview with Kali Lawrie and Dan Phipps of Gem Room Games where they teach Brian how to take on the mantle of Death and how to make each and every death (and there are many) as epic as possible. They also discuss what to do when a player decides they’d like to try and kill Death itself (yes, that’s absolutely something thing that players can, and likely will, do).
And you won’t want to miss BE/HOLD’s theme song for this season featuring vocals from our very own cast of kitties.
Go to gemroomgames.com and use the promo code “myfirstdungeon” at checkout to receive 10% off 9 Lives to Valhalla and the adventure supplement The Wreck of the Murderous.
Talk of the Table Celebrates Zine Month 2024
8 New Interviews with Indie Game Designers
February is Zine Month so to celebrate we are doing a month of weekly interviews on Talk of the Table with indie designers who are releasing a new game.
Zine Month is a great time to support unique games and brand-new designers and we'd strongly encourage all of our readers to check out all the projects we discuss in this series and many many more. We will likely be covering some of our favorite projects in future issues of this newsletter–including Elliot's latest game Rom Com Drama Bomb which begins funding on February 14th on Kickstarter.
Upcoming Schedule
Meow meow, motherfuckers
1/31 - My First Dungeon’s January Patreon exclusive
2/6 - 9 Lives to Valhalla Session Zero
2/20 - 9 Lives to Valhalla Actual Play Episode One