Anna Prosser Robinson on D&D Paladins, Evelyn, Streaming

Todd Kenreck: I spoke with Anna Prosser Robinson about the Wafflecrew, what she likes about Paladins, and her advice when it comes to streaming on Twitch.

Anna Prosser: I have learned in video games, in role playing and other games that I am not good at being someone who's in the back lines and Paladins make really great tanks and really great instigators, and that's what I love playing. I think D&D especially I love making split-second decisions, or jumping in and starting something and so Paladins, and Paladins like Evelyn are really great at that.

I also really love the story of kind of a devotee, a person of faith, I think that's really fun for me to play and I relate to it on a deep level, and I think I like to explore the concept of kind of walking to the beat of your own drum and letting people think what they will about that. I think that's fun for Paladins because most of the time when you're a Paladin and you're devoted to this deity, not everyone in your party will think that that's cool, or even that it maybe even exists and I like that.

I think that someone who has been in e-sports, and geek culture, and various other things in my life that have maybe been less than mainstream it's fun to play with that idea of just being yourself no matter what.

I like playing Evelyn because unabashed optimism is really fun and really relaxing for me. Being able to just immediately take the positive angle on everything is irresponsible in real life right? Sometimes we have to not think everything is going to turn out okay and we have to kind of put our nose to the grindstone and do something about it, or we have to accept that something is not positive, but it can be really freeing to not have to make a lot of those decisions and just think that everything is going to be okay, and I'm really happy all of the time, and that kind of brightens my day to take that perspective, and it reminds me that sometimes that is the best way to go about life is like "Hey, it is going to be okay and it is okay to be super positive all of the time, and it is okay to love on people."

I think that I would say that that is the impact that Evelyn has made on my life. Role playing being over the top positive, and believing that things are going to be okay, and putting yourself out there and loving other people that people are going to think it's weird, people are going to make fun of you, but the people who accept that love and love you anyway, and even though you're weird and over positive are the ones you want in your life, and so it's kind of empowered me to be more positive and more outwardly positive and I like that. That's why I like it.

I think the characters that I have made that have been the least fun have been characters that have traits that I don't enjoy. So, sometimes it can be tempting to make a character that seems really cool and epic, but that you don't maybe identify with on any level or that you're not interested in exploring.

So, think about the traits that you would like to explore, the things about other humans that you think are interesting, whether by interesting I don't necessarily that you admire, that you want to be, but that you want to learn about, or that you want to pretend. And so I would say for people who are rolling up a first character identify a few things that you would like to either explore or that you would like to be, and then play that instead of trying to make it fit some sort of trope, or some sort of what you think it should be.

When people ask me how you play a Paladin, they're usually asking how do you create devotion to a deity that is believable, and is interesting, and is not one dimensional, and I think it's really important for me to think of Evelyn and her worship of Lathander as more like a relationship. She really feels like she's getting something from him and giving something in return. She feels committed to him, she feels a certain sense of history with him, and so, of course we as humans can't really have a better frame of reference than the relationships that we have in order to think about a deity, so I think about her faith as very much kind of a personal relationship that she has with this god and that informs how she goes about talking about him. It's kind of like she has the biggest respect and the biggest crush in the world on Lathander.

I think the key to a good D&D livestream is two fold. First, making it the most narrative and cinematic that you can. Making it feel like it's a movie that you're watching and somehow get to participate in, and that's the second part is making it as interactive and inclusive as possible. Inclusive from the sense of making sure that a community feels like they can interact or be part of the action, or share with each other in the chat as they celebrate what's going on. And also that it feels accessible and that it feels like everybody is welcome to take part either watching, or commenting, or chatting.

So many little things have surprised me about Evelyn because she has grown so much every single session. Every time we play I learn something new about her. I think the amount of depth that she has even though at first glance she looks a little one dimensional because she has this optimism that she's always clinging to, but the fact that that optimism comes from sometimes insecurity, and comes from a past that I haven't revealed yet, but it has a lot to do with how people told her to think about herself when she was young, and how even when bad things happened to her her beliefs don't necessarily get shaken because they're so deep seated. Those have been surprising, and pleasant, and exciting.

I think that especially some of the things that have happened where she dies and came back as a construct, or she was alone for 50 years, those kinds of things people are like "Oh, that's going to break the Paladin. That's going to break the Paladin." But, as I examined who she is, her beliefs and her positivity are so core to who she is that they are so unshakable that it's fun to figure out how she reacts when nothing can break those.

Well I've been performing, and on camera, and public speaking my whole life. I mean sense I was a baby. My mom used to put me in the center of a room and be like "Look! My one year old can talk. Listen to her." And she was a speech teacher so I have definitely been comfortable being on stage my whole life, but this is different in that it's something that I am creating and that I love so much that sometimes putting myself out there on the show, and even moreso putting myself out there with the extra content I make, like when Holly and I sang a song on the show, or when I did some writing about Evelyn and kind of put it out there for people to read.

I do care about it and love it so much that it does feel scary to put myself out there creatively and I credit the show and our awesome community with reinvigorating that part of me and that confidence of being able to say "I made this. I love this, and I'm putting it out there because I think it might brighten someones day, or somebody else might like it." And even if they don't, it's worthy to me to make it and put it out there in the world because that's important to me as a performer and an artist.