We discuss with Katie streaming DnD, her dice collection, streaming for charities, and great causes plus her thoughts on Leadership, Mindfulness, and Awesomeness.
You can find Katie Downey at:
Some great causes to support:
Jaspersgameday.com – Charity promoting suicide awareness and prevention
Takethis.org – Charity promoting mental health resources and support that is tailored for the unique needs of the gaming community.
Link to my FREE ebook: 5 Heroic Leadership Skills
Music by: Joey the Mad Scientist
Hit subscribe/follow and be sure to check out: https://pressstartleadership.com/
Link to my FREE ebook: 5 Heroic Leadership Skills
Music by: Joey the Mad Scientist
Hit subscribe/follow and be sure to check out: https://pressstartleadership.com/
We discuss with Katie streaming DnD, her dice collection, streaming for charities, and great causes plus her thoughts on Leadership, Mindfulness, and Awesomeness.
You can find Katie Downey at:
Some great causes to support:
Jaspersgameday.com – Charity promoting suicide awareness and prevention
Takethis.org – Charity promoting mental health resources and support that is tailored for the unique needs of the gaming community.
Link to my FREE ebook: 5 Heroic Leadership Skills
Music by: Joey the Mad Scientist
Hit subscribe/follow and be sure to check out: https://pressstartleadership.com/
Link to my FREE ebook: 5 Heroic Leadership Skills
Music by: Joey the Mad Scientist
Hit subscribe/follow and be sure to check out: https://pressstartleadership.com/
Hey there press starters and welcome to the press Start leadership podcast, the podcast about game changing leadership teaching you how to get the most out of your product and development team and become the leader you were meant to be leadership coaching and training for the International game industry professional. Now, let me introduce you to your host, the man the myth, the legend, Christopher Mifsud.
Christopher Mifsud:Hey there, press starters. And welcome back to another special edition of press star leadership podcast conversation, Christopher. On this week's awesome edition of press star leadership podcast. We have the most amazing guests I have yet to bring on a longtime friend Katie Downey, also known as Goblin. Katie. Now, let's meet the Goblin Katie.
Katie Downey:Hello, hello. Hey, welcome. Thank you. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I've had a great morning and pretty good week leading up to it. So it's a good day. Excellent. Good days are better than bad days, that's for sure. Especially after the year we've had so.
Christopher Mifsud:So Katie, I've known you for a really long time. And you know, I don't I don't need any introductions. But those listeners and viewers, probably there probably be a few folks who do know you in some ways. But how would you give us a little bit of your origin story where where does Kay daddy come from? And what is she doing? Well,
Katie Downey:I am a streamer and podcaster for tabletop RPGs and a larper. And the Georgia area. I've been doing geek stuff since high school. So a very long time. bouncing between tabletop and LARPing. I love all things geeky. I am theatrical. And you can catch me on a variety of shows. But mainly I'm just doing the geek stuff. Sure.
Christopher Mifsud:Well let's let's talk a little bit more about the shows because that's more recent thing and then maybe we'll go backwards a little bit from there. But yeah, what's the what's going on with the show is what are you doing? Like what's what is this because some people might not be aware that like shows what what geeky shows exist. This is so yes. Want to know more about tell us?
Katie Downey:I am I play Dungeons and Dragons every Sunday at 7pm eastern standard time on twitch.tv slash rock punch ATL and that is the D for stream. It's a fifth edition. Dungeons and Dragons campaign. We just finished playing waterdeep and we are now in full homebrew mode. So we've had outside the city and we're adventuring into the star mounts and it is an absolute blast of a game. And that's that's a lot of fun. I also appear on the stellar kanem podcast. And that releases every other Monday on all the major podcasting networks. That one is a fifth edition. Also Dungeons and Dragons. Classic d&d characters find a spaceship and wind up in deep space. And it is an absolute blast of a game. It's it's very different from a lot of the other shows that you'll find out there. It's a very non traditional d&d game. And I do charity one shots down there.
Christopher Mifsud:Oh, no, keep, go keep going and we'll get back to it.
Katie Downey:Okay, I do a bunch of charity one shots here and there, especially for organizations like Jasper's game day, which is a organization that benefits suicide awareness and prevention. I've begun interacting with a couple other charities. I've done extra life for years. I love the fact that I can play a game and raise money and benefit causes that genuinely matter in the world. And then let's see what else Oh and I LARP um, I play a game in Atlanta called calamity. And it is a weird West game. alternate history weird West game and oh my god, it's a delight. Sounds delightful.
Christopher Mifsud:deliciously delightful. Um, so let's let's step back for a moment. Let's go back to so How long did you get started doing the online d&d? I mean, you play d&d for four years, right. But online DVDs fairly, fairly new. I mean, it's kind of been doing for for a while, yourself, how long have you been doing it? How did you how did you stumble upon it?
Katie Downey:I actually had a LARP with a gentleman named Dustin Fletcher. He's one of the two DMS we have on D four, we run two dm simultaneously, they run the game together, and it's brilliant to watch them play back and forth. But Dustin got ahold of me and in 2018, and asked if I would be interested in streaming a Dungeons and Dragons game, and honestly, I just wanted to play a Dungeons and Dragons game. So I was like, Yeah, sure. That sounds like fun. What streaming. And, like two days later, I got a call from Adam Jones, who's the DM for stellar or kanem. And he asked if I'd be interested in being on a podcast and for a d&d game, and I said, Absolutely, I would love to. So I completely lucked out and knew both of them from LARPing have played with them for years. And since then, just getting to know people in the d&d community. I've I've fallen in with different groups. I've done short campaigns with some other groups. And it's, it's been an absolute delight.
Christopher Mifsud:It sounds kind of like a geek dream, if you will,
Katie Downey:it really is like, especially the the occasions where you you get paid as and you become a professional streamer. It's it just blows my mind that this is possible.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, that's incredible. Yeah, the so maybe tell us a little bit about the experience of how that's grown. Right. Like you had your first stream experience. You did some recordings for the podcast and, and then like, you know, there's, it's not just showing up and, and playing right, there's a lot more to it, right, you're on? You're on Twitter, you're you're out there promoting, and you're, you're building your community, and people are meeting you and you're so maybe walk people through like, what that's been like. Yeah, sure. Sure. They would love to hear because, like, you know, I mean, you're a real, real person doing real things. You have a real life outside of this. And then you got this awesome side thing that's going on. It's super cool.
Katie Downey:I like to call it my side hustle. Yeah, um, I A lot of what I do is having an online presence. The you do prep during the week, like for D for the the DMS will ask the Monday following our game, they'll say what do you want to do this week. And we come up with a list of things that we want to attempt or accomplish, and we send that into them. And they kind of build where the story goes based on what we're wanting to do. So there's there's a lot of off camera thought and effort that goes into it. We also have puzzles and stuff that I'll I'll sit down between games and look over my notes. I take copious notes during the sessions. And so I'll sit down. Oh, yeah, I'll sit down between games and study my notes just to make sure I remember the stuff and see if any pieces fall into place. While I'm I'm able to focus a little more on them. Because streaming you do have to be on an active listening and it's it's not just playing the game. You have to you have to perform while you're playing. Um,
Christopher Mifsud:but it's click off. People are just like, Yeah, I don't want it. I don't anymore that Yeah, looking at their sheets. That's not fun.
Katie Downey:Right. Exactly. Exactly. White animated. I
Christopher Mifsud:mean, that's some of the clips that come from, for me. Sure. Hilarious. I think. All the outtakes are not there. I guess they're not outtakes. They're just there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're just some brief moments. Yeah, they're fantastic. So we have
Katie Downey:we have one from D for the rash pants story. And that one, every episode before we come back, because we go on a break for about 20 minutes. It's a four hour show. So we play for four hours, and we have a 20 minute break in there. And every time we're about to come back from the break, we played the rash pants story, which is just one of the funniest things that that's happened on the show. It's it's an absolute blast. But the the same with stellar kanem. I don't I don't take the best notes for stellar or kanem. But one of the other cast members, one of the other players will take notes and she'll share them with us. So I'll go over them just to make sure I know what's going on and have a vague idea of my characters, not much of a planner for that show. So I don't have to worry about it as much Very nice.
Christopher Mifsud:Well that's super cool. So you build your your build your personality, build your online presence, you get you get, you know, you guys I remember when the show was first starting out you were getting a lot of traction pretty quickly, like getting learning attention from you know watse and some other stuff right there is the and the actual official donor dragons and making appearances and then this build up to meeting other folks in the community and so forth. And you've been doing some of these, like you said, these charity groups, so maybe talk about some of these charity games and stuff you've done and where that's gone, cuz it's pretty cool who you've met and then you know,
Katie Downey:sure, um, I've I've been incredibly fortunate in the community I've I've met some of the most amazing people just and it's amazing to me that I have had the opportunities that I've had Dustin and Devin did a lot of work up front getting defore recognition we've got we're sponsored by some of the major brands d&d beyond beetle and grim pandemonium warehouse, eldritch foundry,
Christopher Mifsud:those guys are insane. They do the crazy boxes, and
Katie Downey:I love them to death. They're amazing. I'm an official Goblin of beetle and grim. I have a union card and everything. I got to do a commercial for them. And as part of it, I had a union card and I kept it as a souvenir. So but but Matt and the whole gang, they're just absolutely amazing. So yeah, Matthew Lillard. I've met Chris Perkins, who is just a lovely person, as kind and gracious as he could be. I met some of the cast of the critical role of Matt Mercer is exactly as kind of lovely a person as you hope he would be. He was gracious. I met him at the DND, beyond party for critical role when they were doing the election between Liam and Sam for who was going to be President of d&d beyond and that was an amazing night. I felt like just a starry eyed kid in a room full of important people. And it it was, it was a wonderful experience that I'm going to treasure for a long time. But I've I've come to be involved in amazing causes, like Jasper's game day. I met Fenway Jones through that She's the founder of Jasper's game day. The the story behind it is Fenway was best friends with a young man named Jasper and he lost his life to suicide. And so every year on his birthday, she would get together with his family and they would play a game of d&d and his honor, and sateen Phoenix. found out about this, and because Fenway was trying to make something more of it, and she got in touch with the team Phoenix, and soutine helped her evolve it into a genuine charity. And she helped her with arranging the first Jasper's game day charity event. And Fenway is a remarkable young woman. just incredibly impressive. She's got drive, she's, she's going to be a massive force for good in this world. And she has taken it it's this year, we're doing Jasper's game week, which is coming up I'm it will have already happened by the time this comes out. But I'm very excited I get to play in one of the the premier games we're actually going to have Lee Goldberg doing pancake art. As we play he takes different colors of batter and draws these amazing works of art. And using pancake batter. It's it's mind blowing he's he's gonna
Christopher Mifsud:eat it still, though.
Unknown:Yeah. The other day he posted a picture.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah.
Katie Downey:Um, so there's Jasper's game day I run a event in October called critical tits. And it is a breast cancer research fundraising event
Christopher Mifsud:for explaining that a little bit more. Yeah.
Katie Downey:It evolved from a conversation at a bar. And I realized we were joking around about it and I realized that the funny name could actually become something really good and and so it's it amuses me to watch people struggle with saying the name but I genuinely enjoy this. We did it for the first time this past year and we had just wonderful participation. I think we had nine different streams that participated. And these were folks From the community, I just asked for volunteers, and people signed up and they were brilliant. We had a lot of fun. We raised a lot of money. And it was it was a banner occasion. Awesome. And then I
Christopher Mifsud:probably would be just as successful, if not more. So this year. So
Katie Downey:I hope so. Yeah, we're really excited about this year, I've talked to a couple of my friends in the industry. And we've got some some folks who are going to be helping out that are well known in the industry. So until everything's official, and all the i's are dotted and T's crossed, I can't really name droughts.
Christopher Mifsud:No, no, no, no, no, yeah, do that. But it sounds tantalizing enough.
Unknown:Yes tantalizing?
Christopher Mifsud:Well, I think I think if enough people just for the stories already told and if you if you check out Goblin, Katie's Twitter, you will see many of the folks that she knows within the industry that interact with her on a number of occasions,
Katie Downey:they are lovely people, they are they are
Christopher Mifsud:you actually have a you do have a fantastic base of folks that interact with you and discuss I won't say fan base, because a lot of them are friends and so forth. So yeah, the good community will go Yeah,
Katie Downey:exactly. It's and that's the way I prefer to think of everything is community rather, to me saying fan puts sort of a barrier there that I'm not comfortable with. Because I wouldn't get to do the things I get to do without support. And the people who have the people who surround me and support me are amazing folks that I am very grateful to know. And so I prefer to save viewers, listeners or community.
Christopher Mifsud:You have a great community I interact with them on occasion as well. They're quite friendly.
Katie Downey:Yeah.
Christopher Mifsud:So just this segue a little bit off. Gaming gaming is one of my my my pillars, but I do like to touch on all the other pillars and folks, folks here you know, tend to tend to come from a leadership background or want to be leaders right so a lot of the folks that I do talk with and and support and help and work with our new to leadership and so I like to teach them leadership in what I can do the same way I would want to teach someone art right you don't show people bad art that teaches them art you teach them you show them good art right? You show the best so I like to ask my guests What do you consider good leadership?
Katie Downey:To me good leadership is somebody who leads through example showing that what you're asking of others is something that you are aware of the steps involved you are willing to take them yourselves that you are not going to ask something of others that you're not willing to do yourself I'm very much a lead by example kind of person
Christopher Mifsud:in the trenches right side by side with the person yeah we're leading right like Yeah, yeah either way by doing Yeah, I totally agree with you on that.
Katie Downey:Yeah, and not I have I really don't like when folks do what I say but I'm going to do this other thing Do what I say but not what I do is is not not I apologize if you can hear my dog barking.
Christopher Mifsud:We could bring still on to the show I would but yeah, she gets to be on the podcast with by bark alone is fine. Yes. herself.
Katie Downey:She is she is a she's a I'm pretty sure Great Dane. Staffordshire bully max so she's 100 pounds of I'm going to do what I want.
Christopher Mifsud:It's true. Yeah, if you follow if you follow Katie a girl and Katie on on Twitter, you'll you'll also get to see the occasional stellar photo which Oh, yeah, just for that alone is worth the follow. They're usually
Katie Downey:her laying in bed sleeping, but they're they're sweet pictures. I love her to death. But now I think that to be to be a good leader. You have to prove your own worth and not just ask the people who are following you to prove their
Christopher Mifsud:very true. Very true. All right, onto another serious question. What's your favorite donut?
Katie Downey:chocolate covered with sprinkles? Or or lemon filled? I'm kind of tied between the two of them. That depends on my mood. Really? If I'm feeling like I need a good Sugar Rush, I want that chocolate covered with sprinkles if I want something a little less sugary. I mean, it's covered in powdered sugar but in my head it's less sugary. I'm gonna go with the lemon felt
Christopher Mifsud:a bright brand.
Katie Downey:I like dunkin donuts.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, me too. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. I've never had Never had the lemon field.
Unknown:They're so good.
Christopher Mifsud:They're so good that I think it cuz usually like the filled donuts is really dug into and sometimes it's a crapshoot like Yeah, sure. Yeah. Cuz they're all powder covered. And so you're like, is it chocolate? Well, Boston crunchy chocolate covered so it wouldn't be.
Unknown:Yeah. Yeah.
Christopher Mifsud:I don't think I've ever maybe have I don't know, if you if you get the
Katie Downey:chance next time you have the opportunity if you're at a Dunkin ask for a lemon filled, it's filled with like lemon pudding.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah. And it's like neon yellow. Right? Yeah, yeah, it could be classified as radioactive.
Katie Downey:I'm pretty sure it is. But it's worth it.
Christopher Mifsud:That's fine. That's fine. Definitely worth worth a try. I'll give it a shot. All right. So going back to some notoriety on on Twitter and in the DND scene. Goblin Katie or even Goblin cave for long before that. But goblins like clickety clacks. And I you are quite the clickety clack, dice collector. In fact, a lot of the sponsors and so forth that exists on the show I think might come from your I won't say a session that might not obsession with nice obsession works. Yeah, I think so. So tell us like, what, what got you because you remember I, if I remember correctly, you're starting off in this streaming DVD. And you've played d&d for years and tabletop, but you didn't actually have like a ton of dice To start off with, right. And then he just started to pick them up again. And then it just like, just what, what happened, Katie? Why did
Katie Downey:it started out because I had stopped playing tabletop games for about 10 to 15 years. I was just LARPing. And when the guys asked me if I wanted to play in the games, I said, Yeah, sure. and realized I needed to pick up a set of dice because I didn't have any anymore. So I bought a set. And they were a silver metal set with turquoise inlay. And that was like, Oh, these are really pretty. Okay. And I played a session with them, and they didn't roll real well. So it's like, Okay, I need another shot.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah. Yeah, I'm lucky.
Katie Downey:Yeah, yeah. So I bought another set. And then, um, I saw set that was really pretty. And I was like, Oh, I want those. But oh, look at this website. It's full of pretty dice. And I started buying dice. I started collecting in January of 2019. And as of today, April of 2021, I have over 600 sets of dice.
Christopher Mifsud:That's that's to be clear. It's that 600 dice. I think we need to point this out and for, for the listeners out there who don't know how many dice are in a set, it's like roughly what 8687 to 11, typically through 11. So do the math because like I won't Polish calculator. That's a lot of dice.
Katie Downey:It's a lot of dice. I have two shelves. I'm actually looking at them right now. I have two shelves that are full of dice. I've got all of my metal wood and precious stone sets are in dice vaults. And I want to make sure they're, they're safe. Yeah, I acrylic and resin sets are in 32. slot craft organizers. I highly recommend them for storing your dice. If you're looking for an option. They work beautifully.
Christopher Mifsud:If you have more than two sets. Yes,
Katie Downey:yeah. If you have if you have more than two sets, then the good craft organizers. They're great. If you have I'd say if you have under 10 sets, splurge and get some vaults for them. Hit me up on Twitter. I'll recommend some companies too.
Christopher Mifsud:Long gone are the Crown Royal bags.
Katie Downey:Yes, I actually I'm trying to find one. I need to get a Crown Royal bag. They did a special bag for coming to America. That is Oh, it's beautiful. It's so cool. And I'm trying to get my hands on one. So that's that's the next purchase. I'm looking to make splurge. A little splurge. Yeah,
Christopher Mifsud:like I mean, that's super cool. Like, when I first started tabletop role playing when I was a kid, many many moons ago. We had dice we're cool looking dice, you know it residen dice. Yeah, there is metal dice. But I mean, I think what's really interesting is, you know, now there's it's like, couture.
Katie Downey:Yes, right. I have switched. I primarily buy handmade dice. Now, a lot of custom dice where I send a design idea to the maker and they create the dice based on what I want. And I've I've bought most of the standard sets that I like at this point. So I've and I was spending a lot on dice. So I've switched over primarily to handmade There are a couple companies that I absolutely love and I buy metal dice and standard dice through them. But for the most part I focus on I they're like works of art. They really are. The handmade dice and the custom dice are next level, I have one set that has cherry blossoms hand painted on them. And they're they're just absolutely beautiful.
Christopher Mifsud:They actually had like cherry blossoms like captured in the resin like
Katie Downey:yeah, I've got so much
Christopher Mifsud:they knock the tree and the blossoms fell. captured them in the moment this perfectly.
Katie Downey:Oh, they're beautiful. They're absolutely beautiful. So it's, it's a passion.
Christopher Mifsud:Yes, that is a passion. But it's a good time to be a geek. I mean, oh, yeah. Again, you got so many options. There's people out there that have a company and a career making custom dice just for Katie. And but like probably could just for Katie and stuff out there. And that's amazing. And then you talked you talked about the the bar I won't say the name correctly, because I bartling grim, correct beetling grim, Beto Gramsci Yes. Below grim. And they and they make these phenomenal sets that are not like, you're you're not gonna like you're gonna save up for these.
Katie Downey:You're not cheap.
Christopher Mifsud:You're not for the high level. I mean, if you got one coming in for ravenloft if it isn't already, it they've
Katie Downey:they've done a reissue on it. They did a first round and it was so popular. They're doing a second round. That's the curse of strahd. Legendary box.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah. And that bad boy is.
Katie Downey:I think it's like 499. Oh, I'm
Christopher Mifsud:sorry.
Katie Downey:I'm trying to be exact. I think that one 499. I know the Platinum boxes are typically going to run about$500.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, and it's not. We're not saying$4.99.
Katie Downey:Yeah.
Christopher Mifsud:When we say that, so yeah, that's I mean, that's awesome. It's like, but I mean, that that's where we're at now, right? Like, this is these are the people who had disposable incomes.
Katie Downey:I'm sorry. It's 399 $399. So
Christopher Mifsud:it's okay. I just checked it real quick. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair rise. We'll be as accurate as possible. Yeah, we can get those extra sales in just in case. Yeah. The But yeah, I mean, they're incredible. I mean, they're incredible pieces. I mean, if you really want to run like a top of the line, top notch, and you don't want to, you know, you don't want to make it yourself. They they put together the
Katie Downey:like, they've got battle maps in there. They've got Canvas maps, and they've got all sorts of stuff.
Christopher Mifsud:Like, sometimes, right?
Katie Downey:They've got physical props, coins, necklaces. This the curse of strahd box has finger puppets in it.
Christopher Mifsud:Okay.
Katie Downey:Yeah. I mean, it's worth it for the finger puppets.
Christopher Mifsud:I think it'd be worth it for the finger puppets. Yeah. That says a lot. You might you might need to force. Yeah, force when your campaigns overdo the ravenloft. Yeah.
Katie Downey:But they do also sell a lot of the props and shirts and stuff on their website. Alec Hart. So you can't get everything. But you get the finger puppets? No. I wish. Yeah. I think that's the selling point of the curse of strahd. Box.
Christopher Mifsud:They're smart. Yeah, smart.
Unknown:Genius.
Christopher Mifsud:hold back your good stuff. Yeah. But I mean, we talked about it. So you know, managers used to be the thing that 3d printers that people are printing out their own miniatures, and so forth. Now, you've got these tables that some people like they're so expensive, but if you're gonna buy a nice table anyway, and you have your friends to play by as well set it up. So we can actually have a good utility more than just you know, eating your dinner set. Or
Katie Downey:the The good thing that I've noticed with the high ticket items in the geek sphere is you get what you pay for.
Christopher Mifsud:Its quality, right? Yeah, yeah.
Katie Downey:Yeah, you get you get really good quality for your money on a lot of the geek products. And
Christopher Mifsud:there's a reason for that though. I guarantee you. Oh, yeah. It's weird. Not a quiet community. No. So
Katie Downey:we will make our opinions known.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah. forbid, yeah.
Katie Downey:There's there's a couple companies in the dice world that that discovered that in the last couple years. So yeah,
Christopher Mifsud:lessons learned. Well, that's cool. So I'm gonna divert over for a moment from Geekdom for that, but we're gonna come back because yes, that's what I know well, as well, quite a bit to another pill. Another thing important to me is mindfulness, meditation and so forth. And I like to ask my guests What is your Zen? How do you find mindfulness and it's been a crazy year and not everyone's the people's hands have been all over the place. So finding Zen's was very difficult. So I'd love to know what your any tips and tricks that you might have or how you how you get by. With all that
Katie Downey:I'm getting into nature is really big for me, I love going out. We've got a bunch of parks in my area, and I love going out to them and just walking through the woods. Sometimes I'll take Stella with me, but when I do that I don't get very far because she has to smell everything. So I leave her at home sometimes when I really need to clear my head and I just go out to these trails through the woods and walk them and just the the quiet. And the the the sounds of nature rather than the hustle and bustle really helped me kind of ground and center. I've found that some games like Minecraft, I can just play mindlessly and zone out. And when I need to get away from the things that are weighing on my mind. I will play some Minecraft and just lose myself in the digging.
Christopher Mifsud:Digging and avoiding the creeps.
Katie Downey:Yeah, dig digging and avoiding creepers and I'm good. I also have a friend who every Wednesday we get together on zoom. And we we call it clinking we do like a happy hour clink. And we just hang out and talk about our last week and make each other laugh.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, I was gonna ask for more explanation on the
Katie Downey:Yes, the foundation of the the name is that we would each get a drink. Each of us would have an adult beverage. And we would reach up and clink at the camera. Yes,
Unknown:yes.
Katie Downey:So that that has been a major mental health promoter for me. Um, I think that that's pretty much where I get the majority of my my centering and peace of mind from I have a wonderful support network around me. So
Christopher Mifsud:well. That's that's important, too. Yeah. And I think that goes calls back to your community a little bit too, right? Yeah, sometimes if you're having bad days, and you give you give and receive both ways. So your, as much as you're sometimes asking occasionally, it's actually much occasionally asking for like, Hey, I had a bad day. And everyone's like, hey, how can we be there for you? I love the positivity you put out into the community as well. I just tell them people like things that they just need to hear or listen to. Yeah, maybe maybe they don't. But if they are that person, I think it's it's always nice to kind of see that message out there that like hey, you know, you're, you're, you're awesome. Or, like, you know, you're you're you know, you're who you are doing great. Whatever you're doing today, you know, and I
Katie Downey:made it this far, I'm proud of you. And, and a lot of times it's stuff that that I think to say because it's things I need to hear to and acknowledging that you're not alone and your struggles. And you're not the only one who is having a difficult time facing the this last year has been just a garbage fire of the year. And acknowledging that we're in it together, I think really helps. And I'm so grateful for the people around me the way they even just the silly things like posting a meme that made me giggle. That is, that's a positive impact on my life. And that's something that I'm grateful for. So I try to extend that same support into the rest of the community. And I love on Sunday mornings I get together with my friend Jordan and we stream classic World of Warcraft and it's us just goofing around on a stream. And the the regular folks who come in and hang out with us on that stream. I I love them to death. They are just a bright ray of sunshine. It's the best possible way to start off my week. And I love it. There are mornings where I'm dragging to get to the computer and I'm on there for five minutes and they have me just smiling and laughing and having a good time. So it's it's a very supportive community.
Christopher Mifsud:And that's that's a that's a separate Twitch streamer. That's your own personal
Katie Downey:my personal channel. Yeah, that's twitch.tv slash Goblin Katie. And we've we've toyed around this past week we actually started me and some of my friends started playing Minecraft on stream and I think We're gonna keep doing that we had an absolute ball. Bunch of wonderful people turned out and hung out with us in chat. And it was it was very entertaining. That's scheduled as well or is that just random? VR? It was random. This week, we're actually looking at what day everybody's free. It was myself, Adam Jones and strike redkite. And we and Jordan was moderating the channel, but she was in our zoom call as well, talking and joking around with us, and we had a blast, the folks watching had a blast. So we're looking at making that a regular thing. Nice.
Christopher Mifsud:I want to just go back to something you mentioned, because I'm curious. So you're a Sunday is the start of the week. Not Monday started the week. Yes. person. Okay. Yes. I'm always curious. Because that's, that's very different wherever you go. Oh, yeah. And it's so different, that they actually give you the option in most calendars to decide whether or not you start your week on Sunday or Monday.
Katie Downey:Typically, if it's a work related thing, I start my week on Monday. Sure. Um, but in general, and overall, I consider Sunday the start of the week. Okay.
Christopher Mifsud:Sure. trivia fact.
Katie Downey:little fact about me. Yeah.
Christopher Mifsud:So I think I think I've already touched this, just the way you've talked, but I like to ask people about their if they if they aren't chronic gamers, and they're their leaders or meditation Guru is which I haven't had on yet. But so this would be the next set of questions that go into it. But what's what's your favorite tabletop system? which I assume is d&d fifth edition.
Katie Downey:It is d&d. Fifth Edition is my favorite. closely followed by fate core. Okay.
Christopher Mifsud:And you've had a you've had some good a good session. And I mean, I know you've done plenty of sessions and d&d fifth edition. And, you know, but it's fake. So maybe tell, maybe tell the eyes a little bit about more about fake cork is, it's one that I know a little, a little bit about, but I'm sure people love to hear.
Katie Downey:I think Corps is a very Hmm,
Unknown:why you like it so much.
Katie Downey:I like it. Primarily, because it's a very open system. It's very collaborative. There's not a whole lot of rules that structure how you play it, instead of using the the standard polyhedral dice, set, the seven to 11 piece dice set, you use fudge dice, and they are six sided dice that have pluses, minuses or blanks on them. And when you want to do something, you you describe what you want to do. And you roll those dice, and you either you get successes, or nothing. I wouldn't say failure, because that's not really yeah.
Christopher Mifsud:I mean, it's like, yeah, mishaps and so forth.
Katie Downey:Yeah, yeah. And based on based on what you get the the game master sets, like a target for it. And based on what you get, you typically will succeed. But there'll be a complication if you didn't roll well. Yeah, yeah. And it is it's you build advantages, that reflects later in combat, like, I may flip a table over to provide cover, and somebody else could use that as cover to pop up and shoot over. And since they can kind of get a view around the table, they can get an advantage because they have a moment to aim before they fire, things like that. And it allows everybody at the table to really build and shape the narrative in a team oriented way. And I love that about the system.
Christopher Mifsud:That sounds I mean, it's actually has a really great fun game. I played it in the past while I think spirit of centuries on the fate system, if I remember correctly. It's pretty, pretty fun game as well. Yeah, but I gotta be honest, I kind of feel like the reason you like this game is just an excuse to buy a different set of dice.
Katie Downey:If you're not wrong.
Christopher Mifsud:Like, is like well, I only have two sets of fudge dice.
Katie Downey:So you have to get more and I had to see ones
Christopher Mifsud:that didn't make fancy fudge dice.
Katie Downey:They do. I've got some metal sets. And I've got um, there was a set I got that is that it was a Kickstarter and they're these really pretty acrylic but the the pluses on them are stars, and the minuses are lines that came off the stars. And they're so pretty. I love them. They're beautiful dice. So those are a little different. I've got some metal sets but Most of and then I've got some blood splattered sets because you got to have blood spot or dice. Yeah. But I think I've gotten maybe a dozen sets. fudge dice aren't as common they're a little harder to
Christopher Mifsud:to find and I'll be honest, I didn't know if they were common enough for doesn't learn something something new every day on the video game site again, I think you've touched on it a bit but you've been a longtime world Warcraft player, I think you playing it back before they came like backward. Videla was vanilla right? before it came back around.
Unknown:Yeah,
Christopher Mifsud:what's old is new again, for some reason.
Unknown:Yes.
Christopher Mifsud:So would you say would you say well, the Warcraft is your favorite game? Maybe with Minecraft? I guess being a close second or is there? Yeah, video games out there that? You know really, really good. get you going.
Katie Downey:Um, I also like to area. That's a really fun game. By I like sandbox type games a lot. I like building stuff. I recently started playing Val home. And I'm
Christopher Mifsud:not one right.
Katie Downey:Yes, yes. And I'm not good at it. But I'm enjoying building. So I got that going for.
Christopher Mifsud:So that's that's good. You enjoy the building part of it. I played together. I played a game that was similar to those because I love dinosaurs. Yeah. And oh, yeah. Yeah, I couldn't it. I'm not good at those games.
Katie Downey:I looked at it. I didn't pick it up. But I looked at it.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, anytime other people can just lock up to you and punch you in the face and take your stuff and you're dinosaurs.
Katie Downey:I don't like that. Yeah. Yeah. Not I played well initially on a PvP server. And the thing I liked about PvP and well is they didn't take your stuff. I don't like games where they take your stuff. That's, that's not my bag. I do enjoy pvp. I think it offers a different sort of challenge, because you're not just playing against an AI pattern based element. So I like the challenge of it. But for the most part, I tend to prefer just crafting and building and that kind of stuff. I like creation and games. Fun, fun, fun.
Christopher Mifsud:Nice.
Katie Downey:For those of you on the podcast, I wish you could see Chris's face, right.
Christopher Mifsud:So another serious question. What's your favorite? What's your favorite thing to put on? hotdog?
Katie Downey:Ketchup.
Christopher Mifsud:Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's it.
Katie Downey:I know. I'm a monster.
Christopher Mifsud:Now. Sorry. I think I I had this question. And I asked a lot of people it and I didn't expect catch up to come up as often as it does.
Katie Downey:It is non condiment?
Christopher Mifsud:No mustard is but it's, I consider to be the antithesis of. But But I realized that I might be the outlier for this. Because So, so many people have said, but I heard I heard an interesting fact about this recently, because I had somebody else's question that didn't come up. Actually, I didn't bring it up again, when we followed up on it, but they've said that actually, there's kind of a catch up shortage not in a sense that there's like a bottle ketchup shortage like yeah, plenty of that. But because Corona packets are.
Katie Downey:There's a ketchup packet shortage right now. That's
Christopher Mifsud:fascinating. What happens to the world when certain things yeah, lifestyles changing? Yeah.
Katie Downey:People how many people have started dining from takeout restaurants and drive through that the demand on ketchup packets has increased and they can't keep up with it.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, they should visit all my old departments.
Katie Downey:Just go to everybody's junk drawer.
Christopher Mifsud:I'm sure you will find plenty plenty of ketchup packets there for sure. Aziz, I'm not even not even questioning it.
Katie Downey:Go look in the junk slash sauce drawer and you'll find what you need right there next to all the soy sauce I
Christopher Mifsud:that's not can come in. Sorry, I had a yeah for those that were like what was that long pause before the hot dog wash. It was me. Me blanking out what to ask next.
Katie Downey:He got this delightful
Christopher Mifsud:wide eyed smile that was great. Before I go to to defense mechanism It's, it's it's like puts in boots and like other cute animals you just go to try and dissuade the predators from taking me out.
Katie Downey:It works.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, it does does. So thing I guess for folks that I and I find this interesting. So every guest that I've had on they all do something special or different or followed some, some, they follow their dreams and they kind of have done something that's interesting as we touched on early on. You're playing d&d streaming. You know, it's, it's, it's not your career you have, but it is something that you are pursuing pretty passionately, pretty regularly, like to a point where like, you're doing something with it, it's it has momentum and has the potential ality for, for more more cool things, and if anything, at least, it's something that's filling your life with joy, and you're getting a lot out of it. And it's for somebody out there who like is like, I like I like doing d&d, and you know, I like getting on streams, or I think I might, you know, what, what can you What can you recommend for people who want to get into this or try it or start, like some basic steps to like, I mean, there's no guarantees in life. Right, right. That's for sure. But, you know, what would you recommend? At least for someone who wants to get get started in this what they would, what would you suggest they do?
Katie Downey:Um, honestly, one of my biggest suggestions is get on Twitter and get into the d&d community, or the tabletop RPG community, there are people who are looking for folks to join their streams all the time, you can usually find, they'll call them casting calls or player searches, and you can find them on there. The other option is put a table together yourself. Everything right now is with the the streaming content is open to anybody who wants to, and you can reach out and contact companies, and discuss once you've gotten established, you can discuss with them the possibility of sponsorships, you're probably not going to get in with with watse, or one of the big companies right off the bat, they're going to want to see that you've got an audience that they can benefit from a relationship in. But when when you get into it yourself, you have full control over what you put out. And that can give you the advantage of doing something unique that nobody else is doing. Watch other streams, see what works, what doesn't and incorporate that into your own work. It makes a difference. If you get a feel for what people like, and what people what isn't working, what people don't necessarily care for. Do not Do not Do not expect to be critical role. They are the anomaly. They are the outlier. They're the people who like mustard, it seems they are the horseradish on. Nothing in the day had to catch up. But anyway, go, you're weird. They had the advantage of already having an established fan base before they started. And what they put out is so incredible, they were able to snowball, basically, you're not going to have that starting out as a new stream. So don't compare yourself to them. You can take the things that that appeal to you about them and try to adapt that into your own game. But don't expect to beat them. Find what makes you unique, what makes you great. And bring that to your game. It will make all the difference and it will engage people don't get frustrated.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, I
Katie Downey:mean, cuz Remember, you're playing a game, have fun with it.
Christopher Mifsud:Fun. And it's it's a marathon, not a sprint. Yes. Like it's, it's it's not, you know, I think a lot of people get confused on what they consider overnight successes. And I think you hit it well with say, you know, pointing out that critical role already had like,
Katie Downey:yeah, they were all professional voice actors from popular properties.
Christopher Mifsud:Yeah, that came together and made another kick ass product. Right. Yeah. And yeah, and they've improved over the years as well. Right. Like they do. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, I mean, they still actually had a pretty good show and beginning.
Katie Downey:Yeah, but they've grown.
Christopher Mifsud:They've grown and production values increase, right. It's Yeah, the production
Katie Downey:value their comfort with what they're doing. And they, they managed to play characters while letting their own personality shine through. And that's I think one of the things that has really endeared them to the community is you've gotten to see who they are to a to a degree. And if you can bring that sort of energy allow you're like with defore. We do sponsor shout outs at the beginning of our show. They're fun, and they are fun. We have a blast doing them. One of the other cast members, Patrick Logan, handles the sponsor shout outs for d&d beyond. And he has me dying every week, and he does his sponsor shout out right before mine. So I'm usually just sitting there staring at the camera going. I don't know how to follow that. I have no clue what to do.
Christopher Mifsud:Um, well, obviously, you pull out a sock puppet.
Katie Downey:Yes, I have pulled out sock puppets. I have done sea shanties. Um, I have. I have the little the wardrobe of our. But it's, it's a lot of fun, we have a really good time with it. And we have great relationships with our sponsors as a result. So it's, it's good stuff, but just fine. Make sure you're having fun with it. Because if you're if you're not having fun, people will know and it will translate and they're not going to want to connect with what you're doing. So that's, that's probably my best advice.
Christopher Mifsud:That's great advice. I think it's great advice. And I think it rings rings true to to, you know, building community and finding love of what you do. And if you have passion for it besides dice, you know, you can you can achieve really fun stuff. Yeah, for yourself.
Katie Downey:And that that does bring up another good point, um, engage with your community. Yeah, these are the people who are letting you do what you want to do who are supporting you and you owe what you have to them to a degree. I mean, you're putting in your own work. And and because it is work, it's not just showing up and playing a game, there's work behind it. But these are the people who support you. And without them you just be playing in a void. So what's what's the point of streaming and avoid? Like you, you need to show them that you appreciate them as much as they appreciate you.
Christopher Mifsud:It's great, have fun. Enjoy your community build that community. I think like Nike says Just do it. Yep. You know, yeah. So Katie, as we as we come towards the end of this wonderful conversation, dice and DND and leadership and walking in nature and still a barking What? How can the listeners and the viewers depending on where we're catching this? How can they How can they get more hanging to get more Goblin Katie? Katie, Danny, I'm assuming you know, that's the first step is just putting Goblin Katie but
Katie Downey:yes, it's probably at as far as I know. I'm the only one who's really using that name, so you can find me through that. I'm on Twitch at Goblin Katie. I'm on Instagram at Goblin Katie. And I've got a goblin Katie page on Facebook. I'm on Twitter at Goblin Katie and Twitter's where I'm most active. You can also go to link tree that's Li nk tr.ie slash Goblin Katie and it's geobee li n k t. And if you go to the link tree, it's got links to all my stuff. From my Twitter to I've got lists for dice on Amazon and stuff like that. So that's that's a really good way to get to where I'm at everywhere you go,
Christopher Mifsud:the liner notes. It'll be Oh,
Katie Downey:yeah, there you go. Like I said, you can catch me every Sunday at 11am. eastern standard time at twitch TV slash Goblin. Katie for classic brunch, where I play classic World of Warcraft with the wonderful and delightful DND Jordan Lee. And we play that till about two o'clock at 7pm. Eastern Standard Time, you can catch me on D four@twitch.tv. Slash rock punch ATL. And that is an absolute blast of a game. We have a lot of fun playing that we just had our 100th Episode A couple weeks ago. So there's a lot of content there you can catch up on. But we have people who join in.
Christopher Mifsud:Okay. Yeah,
Katie Downey:we have people who join them. And actually, right now isn't a bad time because we just left the city of waterdeep. So we're starting out on chapter two of the the campaign basically, we took a long time to get through waterdeep Dragon heist. We play dragon heist for about two years. So that's it. That's the level of roleplay and depth because we went on side quests and stuff like that. So I love side quests. I'm a side quest junkie. Like I said you can catch the stellar arcane and podcast on any major streaming service or podcasting service Excuse me. And we are hopefully going to be releasing new content in the near future because of the world catching on fire. We had to go on hiatus from recording but we've we've started getting back into the studio now that people are getting vaccinated and all that um, and then just keep an eye on my my Twitch and Twitter because I'll do charity games, which all announced through Twitter, and you can catch them there.
Christopher Mifsud:Excellent. Anything else? Anything else you'd like to promote or talk about? Shout out. Oh, let's
Katie Downey:see. It was Can I can I shout out a couple friends. Of course. Please do awesome. on people. Yes. Yes, I know. I know some wonderful people and I'm a firm believer that a rising tide lifts all ships, so I'm gonna shout them out real quick. DND Jordan Lee. You can find her on Twitter at DND Jordan lane she streams Dead by Daylight does a lot of tabletop streaming, and is one of the kindest, warmest, most wonderful people you will find. She calls her community The Haven and it is well named. You can find the crafting Muse v on Twitch and Twitter or on Twitter rather. She is a representative for wizkids and does a lot of miniature painting and product reveals for them. Then there's dm jazzy Hans, who is also a twitch streamer. He plays Dragon Age and a few other games and he is also just a wonderful, phenomenal role player. He plays on a few different games that you can catch motherland's RPG, and rivals of waterdeep, who just went on hiatus. Both shows are absolutely amazing if you get the chance. motherland's is about to start their second season. And that is an all PLC stream. So everybody involved in it is a person of color and they are phenomenal. Definitely go check them out.
Christopher Mifsud:We'll make sure to add those to the set of notes as well. So everybody can Thanks. Yeah. That's so great. And what's so great is thank you again so much for joining us and sharing your awesome experience doing what you do and being you so I'm pretty sure all the viewers and all listeners will will love you as much as we do. And I'm positive once you check out Galvin, Katie, wherever all the billion places that she's at, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll you'll find out just how much more wonderful she is and just what she was able to talk about here in this hour. So thank you so much again, Katie, for joining us.
Katie Downey:Thank you for having me. It was a wonderful experience. And everybody out there, be kind to yourself. You're doing great. Perfect.
Christopher Mifsud:That's this week's episode of press Start leadership podcast. As always, thanks for being awesome. If you haven't yet, make sure to give us a follow. Till next time. If you haven't downloaded my free ebook, five heroic leadership skills, click on the link in the description. Tune in next week for your next episode of press star leadership podcast. Thank you