So who is the DGP, and what makes us qualified to run a D&D podcast? The truth is, we’re not actually qualified to do anything of the sort. We’re just a bunch of average dudes with varied backgrounds and a shared interest in weaving a great tale. Below you’ll find a smattering of personal tidbits you may not have known about each member of the cast. These are our individual threads – our chance to talk with you and share whatever we want, whether it’s our skill set and how it relates to the show, our deepest thoughts on life, or a discussion of what we do when we’re not podcasting.
Sean Abrams
Hey there listeners, thanks for checking out our little show here. If you’re interested, I’d like to tell you some more factoids about myself that you might not have picked up from the short biography on our home page or bits and pieces from the podcast.
I’ve always been interested in games of all shapes and sizes. Admittedly, I had never actually played a game of D&D until I was approached by the Staudt brothers to become part of The Damage Guild. We did a one-off adventure before beginning recording so that I at least knew the basics, and then off we went!
I’ve liked Wizard’s of the Coast products since I was about 9 years old, but in the form of their popular trading card game, Magic: the Gathering. Also, in middle school I played table top strategy games like Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. I really enjoyed that it was both a game and a hobby / pastime with the aspect of building and painting the models. These days, I do some 3D printing on the side to kinda scratch that itch. There’s a lot of cool D&D stuff out there to download and make if you look for it.
The thing I spent most of my free time on other than soccer, boy scouting and music (I play the drums and have played in several groups over the years) was online gaming. I really enjoyed teaming up with other people, especially friends, to clear missions and other objectives. At my “most hardcore” I was active in World of Warcraft raiding, where I often enjoyed tanking and leading the charge. I would dabble in private servers off and on in college, but ultimately left playing MMORPGs just due to their time-consuming nature. If I had the time, I’d probably enjoy playing them again (WoW is launching their own legacy servers this coming summer, so I may give that a shot).
During my college career in engineering, I also spent a lot of time streaming Magic: the Gathering Online on twitch.tv, building two different channels (because the first one got hacked – definitely enable two-factor authentication whenever possible) and now I stream under “BrewSpytheMagicGuy”, trying my best to be the Bill Nye personality in Magic by experimenting and building decks from scratch.
Something that I’ve really enjoyed about D&D is the theory-crafting behind making and leveling up a character. I have already laid out many different ways I could have taken Tokas, and (perhaps to my party members’ dismay) whenever we come to leveling, I will theory-craft several different ways I could go, but ultimately I appreciate their ideas and feedback when locking in decisions. There really is just so much I still don’t understand when it comes to the game, which keeps things fresh and interesting for me.
Thayne Bohman
I’ve known Bryan since 5th grade, and met his brother Jay around the same time. We didn’t start playing actual D&D together until later, but even so, we’ve been playing in campaigns now for more than 10 years. I didn’t meet Sean until we were getting ready to start this show, so we’re still getting to know each other better each game. It’s always nice to get to play with a new player, both in the sense of playing with someone for the first time and playing with someone who is playing for the first time. When I was approached about participating in the podcast, it sounded like an interesting experience, and I was always up for playing more D&D, as long as I could fit it into my schedule. I knew even then that ours would be different from most shows, as we’ve always had a lot of fun table banter and managed to keep everything clean as far as our language goes. That’s just how we talk. Personally, I’ve never said a curse word. I’ve seen a lot of shows that I stop watching after the first few minutes because of the constant foul language and references, and it had really put me off of trying new shows to begin with. I knew that this would most definitely not be that show.
I remember sitting in and listening to my older brothers and their friends playing D&D when I was little. They didn’t let me join in (after all, the rulebook did say “for intermediate through advanced players, ages 10 and up,” and I must have been… six or seven?), but I always loved hearing the wondrous descriptions of fantastical locations and magic spells as they played. I didn’t really get what was going on, but I sat there as often as they would let me and listened. Eventually, I started my own gaming group with a couple friends sometime in elementary school after my brothers let me borrow their books to read through the rules. I was a DM before I was ever a player, and I’ve always spent more time on that side of the screen than not, having run probably half a dozen or more multi-year campaigns in various systems, from 2nd edition D&D, up to 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5th edition, and even a few campaigns in a ruleset I devised myself that has slowly evolved over the years. I still enjoy working on my own game rules, and when I get some free moments, I’ll often jump in and make some more tweaks to the latest iteration, but so far it’s always been just me and my friends playing.
As far as game design goes, I also work as a video game developer. The game I’ve been working on for the past four years has just been publicly revealed, and should be out sometime this summer. The game is Argonus and the Gods of Stone, from the creators of Shadowgate (I grew up on the classic NES version). And as soon as that one’s out of the way, I’m sure I’ll be working on the next secret project. Hopefully the next game will come out faster, though. My main role is as the lead programmer, but I also offer suggestions on design, and I have plenty of ideas of my own for games I want to make someday. I also enjoy 3D modeling and animation, but none of my work in those regards made its way into this game, as I’ve been focused on programming instead.
Aside from making games, I enjoy playing piano, and have been playing piano and/or organ almost every week for my church for more than 10 years. I also used to play violin, and can still pick it up and play decently if I try, but it’s not something I spend much time with anymore. When I’m at home, most of my piano-playing ends up being music from games and anime. I keep up with the current season of anime, usually watching a few shows concurrently, and my backlog is longer than I’ll probably ever have time for. I tend to enjoy a variety of genres that don’t really seem to go together, like action-adventure high fantasy, moeblob slice-of-life/cute-girls-doing-cute-things, and serious drama. For video games, I usually don’t start playing something until it’s already been out for at least a few years, and tend to play older games in general even when newer ones are available. When I do play, I focus on story-heavy games like RPGs and visual novels, or certain simple platformers or action games.
Mostly thanks to my interest in anime and games, I’ve learned Japanese and visited the country multiple times, including a six-week study abroad/homestay and a few tourism trips. I’m currently using my language skills as a fan translator, working in my free time to re-translate a visual novel that received a terrible official translation. I’m nowhere near fluent in the language, but I know enough to hold a conversation, and Japanese songs feature heavily in my repertoire when I find myself singing as I walk home almost every day.
Bryan Staudt
Hi there! Thanks so much for checking out our bios!
I would best sum myself up by saying that I’m… hard to sum up. That is, I’m what you might call a renaissance man, or in modern terms, a multipotentialite.
My interests and hobbies are so diverse and change so frequently that I often have a hard time keeping up with them myself. I’ve dabbled in lots of different hobbies over the years, including photography, videography, hacky sack, beatboxing, breakdancing, juggling, skateboarding, BMX biking, and speaking Spanish, to name a few.
The blessing of being a Jack of all trades is that, because you pick up new skills and interests so frequently, you become adept at learning quickly. I’ve always been a fast learner. The curse, however, is that you often don’t stick with any one skill long enough to master it (master of none).
Fortunately, other interests have stuck around for much longer for me, like music. I’ve sang and played drums, guitar, and bass in church and different bands for nearly two decades. I continue to apply that love of music to working as a professional wedding and event DJ on the weekends.
Speaking of jobs, I work during the day as a graphic designer. I was actually an English major in college, because I also enjoy writing, but discovered my love of graphic design after graduating. I get to use my degree for writing, editing, and layout projects at work, while also applying my photography and videography skills to the job from time to time. Oh, and I also developed the company’s website using my interest in web development, learning HTML and CSS through some online classes.
Like I said: It’s complicated.
Enter my love of games. Games have always been a huge part of my life, starting with board games and video games in elementary and middle school. When I was around 8 or 10, Jay developed his own fantasy RPG system. We spent hours playing it with friends, along with games like Warhammer Quest.
Not only has playing RPGs, board games, and video games always been a big part of my life, but I recently discovered a passion for game design. About 5 years ago, I started designing my own board games, and it has since turned into an obsession. I’ve dreamed up ideas for dozens and dozens of games, and made significant progress on several of them.
Today, Jay and I continue developing games, both independently and collaboratively. I recently entered one of my designs into a board game design competition and made it into the top 30 (out of 143 entries). While I don’t have anything I can officially announce yet, I plan to bring the DGP community into it as soon as possible (I’ll be looking for play testers in no time…).
In December of 2016, I got married to the love of my life, Emily. The best way to describe her is to say that, during character creation, she maxed out on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. A friend of ours described her like a teacup: She is beautiful, lovely, and delicate, but strong enough to withstand boiling hot liquid. And I couldn’t agree more!
While we don’t have many hobbies in common, we indulge each other from time to time (I in drinking tea, and she in games). Plus, we’re always discovering new shared enjoyments (like The Great British Baking Show), and we find joy in sharing the day-to-day activities of life.
On second thought, here’s my summary: I’m a multi-faceted renaissance man, avid musician, matrimonial DJ, designer of graphics, and board game developer married to my one true love.
Jay Staudt
My name is Jeremicus P. Snigglebottom, and I am a nerd.
That’s how I’d introduce myself if I went to Nerds Anonymous meetings. That way I could be anonymous, since Jeremicus P. Snigglebottom isn’t my real name. I’d go to the meetings every week because they’d probably have stuff like science and cool games. Nerds are always doing science. Just ask one.
In real life, I’m only a nerd in my spare time and for work. I do computer stuff for work and game stuff for fun, like making code and rolling dice. It’s pretty dumb, but I like it. Consider my 5E D&D Initiative Tracker, for example.
What I like most in the world besides pie is my son, who is the cutest baby, and my wife, who used to be a baby but isn’t anymore thank goodness. She’d really be a handful.
My favorite food is bacon. My favorite color is bacon-colored things. My favorite roof color is gray, and my favorite star is the sun ‘cause without it everything would be black and it’s a pretty good color I guess but not the best.
Like my co-hosts Sean and Bryan and not Thayne, I am an avid Magic: The Gathering player, and I make every attempt to get in a few rounds each week at my friendly local gaming store’s Friday Night Magic event (C&G reppin!)
That’s about it, I guess.