Exandria Unlimited's Anjali Bhimani on the Magic of D&D and Creating Fy'ra Rai

Anjali Bhimani — known for portraying fire genasi Fy’ra Rai on Exandria Unlimited and Symmetra in the first-person shooter Overwatch — joined D&D Beyond’s Amy Dallen on stream for a far-reaching conversation about Dungeons & Dragons. Together, the pair compared roleplaying games with improv, discussed strategies for developing characters, and delved into how D&D can teach players more than a few things about life.

You can watch the interview and catch transcribed highlights below:

Roleplaying = improv + teamwork

Bhimani began playing D&D’s classic Basic Set at the tender age of 8 thanks to her brother’s influence, and she enjoyed the game’s second edition throughout junior high and high school. As she grew older, Bhimani drifted away from roleplaying games, but now reflects that her return to the hobby is remarkably appropriate, considering her acting career.

“All RPGs are just long-form improv, except instead of asking the audience for a suggestion, you’re getting your suggestions from the Dungeon Master and the world that you created,” Bhimani said. “If you’re all committed to these characters that you’ve created and to the world that’s been created by your Game Master, then the story writes itself — and usually, at least I’ve found, always in a way that I never would have dreamed up.”

Teamwork is a crucial element of birthing this story, Bhimani added, pointing out that the best roleplaying tales — and the best improv performances — emerge when all participants collaborate instead of attempting to outshine each other. This advice also extends to the DM. When grappling with the age-old question of whether the person with the monster statistics should try to kill their players, Bhimani said that it was perfectly OK to create a deadly world. She added, however, that DMs should strive to help their players succeed despite this deadliness.

“When you feel like your DM is playing with you instead of against you, even when there are rivals and even when there are enemies that you’re fighting against, it feels like you’re all on the same team telling the story,” Bhimani said.

On crafting a compelling, accented character

Creating a character, infusing them with personality, and figuring out how to demonstrate those ideals, bonds, and flaws is one of the greatest challenges of D&D. When it comes to building her own avatars, Bhimani said that she tends to infuse them with an “aspirational” quality. In the case of Exandria Unlimited’s Fy’ra Rai, Bhimani hoped to give the fire genasi monk a personality akin to an older sister, presenting her as “a protector, a caretaker, and someone who used a very bad experience that she had as fuel for the rest of her life.”

In order to portray these traits, Bhimani used a method she recommends for all players and DMs: Zero in on the crucial foundations of a character, and let those foundations guide all of your actions at the gaming table. In the case of Fy’ra, her loss of a family member — and her desire to prevent future loss — permeated everything she did.

“You think less about what the traits are than the intention behind the trait,” Bhimani stressed. “What is the passion that drives her to be that way? What is the thing she’s scared of that drives her to be that way?”

Once they’ve figured out the core foundation of their character, D&D players and DMs can assess any existing lore related to the character’s lineage, incorporating that into their portrayal. “For Fy’ra, it was definitely the pride of being born from the Elemental Plane of Fire,” Bhimani reflected, highlighting the genasi’s unwavering confidence. “There is no hiding if you’re her, so you don’t hide. You might turn yourself off, where you stop paying attention to other people, but there is no shrinking.”

Using accents respectfully

Fy’ra’s unique accent was another aspect that Bhimani deliberately chose, hoping to give her a “regal otherness but not put her in any one place.” Using accents in roleplaying games can be a touchy subject, particularly for those hoping to avoid offensive stereotypes. From her perspective, Bhimani said that as long as players and DMs remain respectful of the cultures and traditions behind accents, utilizing them can be a valid way of stepping into a character’s shoes.

“Playing with voices and playing with accents is my job,” Bhimani said. “As long as someone is doing it with respect, and if there are other people around who might be able to educate you on a particular tradition, then I highly recommend having those conversations with them.”

Self-worth in both life and gaming

Respectful interactions at the gaming table were a concept that Bhimani grappled with early in life as the only girl in her childhood D&D group. Learning to navigate a space full of male peers and feeling the need to constantly create strong female characters — who were ironically all dressed like Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi — was challenging, but Bhimani credits the experience as one that developed her sense of self-worth.

“[It was like] growing up Indian in a predominantly Caucasian part of the world,” Bhimani said. “The same way I dealt with being ‘othered’ there is what served me when being ‘othered’ as the female in the group. If I don’t make a big deal of it, and I just treat myself as, ‘I am as worthy as these people, I am as strong as these people, I am as intelligent…’ then nobody else seems to mind.”

In that sense, D&D players can learn quite a bit from the brave adventurers that they develop on their character sheets, guide into combat, and use to surmount great obstacles. Or, to quote Bhimani one last time: “When you stand in your power and you know your worth, that’s how you teach other people how to respond to you.”

Fun size adventures

Those interested in learning more about Anjali Bhimani’s ideas on self-worth can check out her book I Am Fun Size, And So Are You!: Thoughts from a Tiny Human on Living a Giant Life! Just launched on Kickstarter, the project was inspired by Bhimani’s long-running YouTube channel and comes packed with her deliberations on staying positive and dealing with life’s challenges.

The project has several pledge tiers on Kickstarter. At the Adventurer tier, supporters can join Bhimani in a remote D&D one-shot DMed by roleplaying maestro B. Dave Walters. The Champion tier goes one step further, letting backers play alongside Bhimani and Walters with the party of their choosing!

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Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.

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