Todd Kenreck: A few months ago, I caught up with Scott Kurtz to talk about his character Binwin, how that character came about, and also, what it's like to see him now in a video game. Tell me a little bit about Binwin. How did Binwin come about as a character for you?

Scott Kurtz: Boy, I wish I could say I had some like amazing backstory to Binwin, but what happened was about 10 years ago, Wizards of the Coast was promoting at the time fourth edition of D&D, and they really wanted to find a creative way to promote it, so they went to the guys at Penny Arcade and said, "We could buy advertising on the website, but we really want to do something fun."

Scott Kurtz: Those guys had the idea to do a podcast where we just played D&D, which at the time was a novel idea. Now, everyone's doing it. Mike Krahulik had never played, so it would be his introduction to D&D, and we made characters on the spot. Binwin is a name that I've always used in D&D, so there's been, throughout my D&D career, 20, 30 characters that were Binwin, all different classes and races. I decided, since I like the literation, just to call him Binwin Bronzebottom because there was a double B there. Then, Binwin became forever the Dwarven fighter that charged first and thought later.

Todd Kenreck: How much of your personality is blood into Binwin?

Scott Kurtz: Very much a lot of my personality when it comes to especially my D&D personality because I get very bored at the table. I was that guy that spent all of his time drawing characters and not paying attention to the DM. I would get very excited about character creation, gets very excited about the beginning of the story, and then I just want to make comics of my character. Binwin has no patience. Binwin doesn't have time for rules. Binwin doesn't really know all of his own abilities, so yeah, there's a lot of me in the character. Yeah.

Todd Kenreck: Is Binwin change due at all in any way, or has it just been just fun games?

Scott Kurtz: I think the most interesting thing that's affected my real life by being Binwin is that I've spent the last 20 years working very, very hard to be an exceptional cartoonist and to gain traction in that world as a an exceptional cartoonist and being known for that. Now, I'll go to conventions that I … I've been doing conventions for 20 years selling my comics, and people come up, and they're very excited to see me. They're so thrilled I'm there. They can't wait to tell me how much they love my work, and they have no idea I make comics. They only know me as Binwin. I'm the guy that plays the dwarf.

Scott Kurtz: Accepting that, like I don't really like being on camera, I don't like being on stage. It's always fun when I'm there, but I wouldn't necessarily choose to do it. I don't like a lot of people looking at me. I'm very self-conscious, so Binwin has changed that about me. I'm a lot more comfortable on stage now. I'm a lot more comfortable being in front of a camera now because I just gave up.

Todd Kenreck: Now, you're in this very weird position where you're going to be in a video game.

Scott Kurtz: Yes, finally.

Todd Kenreck: You're going to feel like you're almost like canon.

Scott Kurtz: Yeah.

Todd Kenreck: Now, you're amongst all these other luminaries of D&D.

Scott Kurtz: Yeah, it's weird. It's going to be weird to build a formation where Binwin and Minsc are in the same party.

Todd Kenreck: Right.

Scott Kurtz: Yes, and I'm just going to put Binwin right in front of Minsc whether it makes sense formation wise or not.

Todd Kenreck: That's a very Binwin thing to do.

Scott Kurtz: It is, yes.

Todd Kenreck: Yeah. You have to play your character.

Scott Kurtz: I've been amazed at how quickly they've went from talking to us conceptually about it to having just finished art. It's made me feel incredibly honored because I know Adam at the company was like, "No, I get to do Binwin. I'm drawing. He's my character." He's a big fan, so that was really exciting here. Those guys are so clever, and they're so on the mark, and they were very, very open and receptive to asking me, "What is it about your character that you want to see in the game? What can we turn into an ability? What can we turn it to a magic item? What do you want to see from your backstory, your canon that is 100% Binwin that we can put in the game in a creative way?"

Scott Kurtz: That's just a dream to work with people that cares so much about it and want to do fun stuff, and they have the opportunity. It's effortless. A lot of times, when you work on license property and stuff like that, there's a lot of back and forth and a lot of rules, but always working with WOTC and working with these guys has just been really good. Yeah. There's one ability where he will take one of the Bronzebottom ale kegs from his brewery and get on it and barrel-roll walk on it. I was afraid to suggest it, but they're like, "Yeah, that's great," and it's got the logo on the back, so the logo's inside of it.

Todd Kenreck: Always be branding.

Scott Kurtz: Yeah, always be branding, so not only is it, is the brewery in there and the keg is in there and this outrageous stunt, but the branding is on there. I just like can't ask for more.