D&D Druid and Character Advice with Amy Falcone

Amy Falcone plays Walnut on Penny Arcade Acquisitions Incorporated's "The C Team." I talked to her about druids, character creation and what makes a great dungeon master.

Amy Falcone: So I play Walnut Dankgrass. She is a wood elf druid with a dark secret and she started off the campaign very selfishly and now she's sorta starting to come out of her shell. She has a love interest and she's really starting to bond with the other members of the team. So I'm getting somewhere character wise.

Todd Kenreck: What Circle do you play?

Oh, Circle of the Moon, definitely. All about that wild shape. Gotta turn into crazy stuff and I don't think I've used my scimitar once. So it's like if I could just keep it all beasts, all the time. If anyone else is playing a druid play Circle of the Land cause you just get so many more spells and I think you get so many more ... especially if you're RP focused, focusing on spells and creative use of outside of combat I think you give more utility to your team. If you want to be very selfish like I was, you'd choose Circle of the Moon and then it's just really all about those beast shapes and if your DM doesn't work that into your campaign it's kind of just like a one trick pony.

Todd Kenreck: So how is some of the ways Jerry has worked that into the campaign?

Amy Falcone: So it's like right off the bat he understood that I want talk to every animal. There are certain situations where my character is gonna just get really emotionally worked up and just almost sporadically turn into, say, a giant wolf. But then he plays into that and he has the NPC's interact with them and he has story beats that happen. My character would be the only one that could smell something that's happening. So him just being very versatile and rolling with the punches makes me look like a better player. So I really owe a lot to him being so versatile.

Amy Falcone: I forget that there is an audience. I forget that there are cameras and I get really involved in the story and I get made fun of sometimes. Like by the audience for being too into it but when I do sit down at the table I really do. The cloak of fantasy comes over me and I'm in this other place. I'm getting to be this other person and be with other people. That's why I play so I try not to let being in front of people mess with that too much.

Todd Kenreck: What is your overall impression with Jerry as a DM now?

Amy Falcone: So I've known Jerry for a while and the impression I get is that if he has a story to tell and he doesn't get to tell it he will actually explode. I'm pretty sure we're all here because he needs someone to listen to him and to play along. He, I don't think writes the story. I think he finds it somewhere and then just channels it. There's no other way to explain what he does.

Amy Falcone: I would say in my ten years playing Dungeons and Dragons the best advice I would say about what makes good DM is listening to what your characters want and being able to roll with those punches. When you come to the table with a meticulously crafted dungeon and you're just trying to force them through it, to have the interaction that you've already planned out in your head, that's you puppeteering your players rather than collaboratively telling a story. I think that's what makes it fun for most people.

Todd Kenreck: What should everyone keep in mind when building a character?

Amy Falcone: Personally, I know it's really fun to make a character that's just very self centered and you know, they're the lone wolf. But at a certain point you have to really take into account that they're gonna be in a party, you know? And they're gonna have to interact with other people. And they're gonna be attacking alongside other people. And so giving yourself and your character room to grow so that there is some utility in their kit that they can, I don't know, collaborate in combat, is just gonna make it more fun later down the line when you're kinda over those basic character tropes and you're really getting into character growth. And the campaign is moving on. And everything is building.

Amy Falcone: I mean, live streaming every single week, it's been a huge time commitment with these folks. I see them, guaranteed, four hours a week. And I liked them before but I think now were bordering on dangerously close to me loving them. Which is really great. I don't know, it's like every week I crave it and if we have a week off it's very upsetting. I love them.

Amy Falcone: Getting to play someone else and be something different, it's the ultimate escapism but hopefully I learn something. My character learns something. I take something away from that and hopefully the people I'm playing with take something away from that. And that's what makes these long form, collaborative story telling sessions so fun.