Interview: Lyndsay at Dragon Chow Dice Bags

Many bags of holding...dice - Photo: Dragonchow.com

Today we have the opportunity to chat briefly with the owner and creator of Dragon Chow Dice Bags.  Lyndsay makes freestanding dice bags in numerous sizes and a host of cloth options that may well blow your mind into the next century.  Bacon die bag?  Yeah, she’s got that.  Beer die bag?  Got that.  How about pretty little butterflies?  Yup.  And how about Ninjas?  Most likely…but come on who are we kidding, if you had a ninja dice bag you’d never find it…that’s just silly.  Anyhoo, read on and find out a little bit more about her and her company!

• So Lyndsay, what is it exactly that makes you a geek?

I don’t just love science, history, sociology, board & tabletop gaming – I want to share it.  I think that one of the hallmarks we see of geeks in culture is that they want to share their passions.  No matter what kind of geek you are, I think your drive to share it is part of this trait.

Specifically, I am a geek for loving Dungeons and Dragons (3.5 is my favorite edition).  I’m currently in a weekly game with a brand new DM.  I met my husband through D&D, he was my first ever DM.

• Nice, my wife and I came up playing D&D together as well.  What elements of your geeksperience do you want to share and how do you go about doing it?

We share most of our geeky pastimes with each other.  I’m not a fan of war-based games, so usually if my husband is playing one of those I just do something else, same with his like of Starcraft.  We often share ideas on D&D over the dinner table, out on walks, etc.  We also go video game shopping together and he buys me wacky sandbox games that cost like $10.  Last time he did that, it was Viva Piñata, and he ended up liking it just as much as I did.  We’ll usually try each other’s games out.  One day I will get him to love Katamari Damacy as much as I do, I just know it.

• What would your superhero name, identity, and superpowers be?

I actually already have been given a superhero identity.  I am the SCOOTERNAUT and I use a time-space traveling scooter to bring justice to the universe and various planes, given that my physiology can survive on them.

Chompy the slave driver learning to sew - Photo: Dragonchow.com

• What are some of your favorite books and movies?

One of my favourite books is The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry.  I think it captures the feeling of wonder that I really love to get when I’m in the middle of a great D&D session, or reading a book on an unfamiliar topic.  As for movies…well, it’s silly but I love Zoolander.  I don’t really enjoy reading or watching fantasy, I prefer to play through my fantasy tales.

• Are there any other genres you enjoy reading or playing games in (sci-fi, steampunk, modern, historical, etc)?

I don’t really get too picky about my story settings unless they become so in my face.  So when something wants to be so sci-fi and the story/setting gets caught up in trying to be the main element of a story and requires a lot of upkeep, I get turned off pretty quickly.

• What do you do for your day job?

I am a support worker for a young woman around my age with multiple disabilities.  We go out in the community and I fend off the strange people who try to do and say strange things with her.  Also we have a lot of fun, especially if rolling office chairs are involved.

• So holding down a day job, having your own business, and being married, you’re obviously a highly functional geek.  So do you have any advice for people trying to find balance in their schedules for geeky pastimes and hobbies?

One thing I can’t do is hide it.  My boss knows why I leave work early on Fridays… and on Saturdays, she often asks what happened in D&D.  Well, last Saturday she actually asked “And you’re sober while you’re doing this?”  But because she knows that gaming is important to me, she respects that and makes sure that I get the time I want to do my gaming, just like any other employee’s hobbies.

If I tried to keep my geekiness away from my work, I’d be too exhausted to game.  I indulge myself by imagining possible Gamma World stories while we’re in the mall at work.  I don’t get carried away with it, it’s just something to get me thinking.  Once I’ve started thinking about it, I carve out the time in the evening to think about it a little more and talk to my husband about what he thinks.  We’ll often sit down with the d20 SRD going on 2 computers and look up rules, prestige classes and things for the campaign we play in together.

Wee little baggie - Photo: Dragonchow.com

• What are your favorite geeky pastimes?

Well, Dragon Chow Dice Bags would be the big one.  I make dice bags and I sell them.  I get to excuse my twitter addiction by calling it marketing – another favorite geeky pastime.  I also like playing Settlers of Catan, D&D, and the odd video game.  I am terrible for starting video games without finishing them.

• I’m notorious for never finishing games; I for some reason get bored after a while.  I’m the guy with like five Dragon Age: Origins characters that have never finished the game once!  What is the most recent video game that you’ve taken a crack at?  How did it go?

I was playing Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom.  It’s a fun fighting buddies adventure game where you’re a sneaky thief who resurrects a forest spirit to help save the world (that’s Majin).  It’s really cute and Majin is fun to have with you on the adventure.  You get combos for working together.  I really need to pick up my Xbox 360 controller and keep playing it.  When I am playing it, I tweet a lot about what Lyndsay and Majin: Fighting Buddies! are up to.  Like I said before, my geekiness is something I cannot hide.

• How much time do you spend playing games and what kinds?

Well, every Friday I play D&D for a good 6-7 hours.  This is shorter than my old Sunday game, I’m used to 10 or 11 hour sessions.  I only get a couple of hours a month of board gaming in.  I did play a lot of Minecraft over the Christmas holidays.

• That’s an impressive game length! When you board game what do you play?

Mostly Settlers of Catan.  We sometimes play Go.  My husband will very rarely indulge my love of Scrabble.  When we don’t have much time available it is Blokus.  The next game I want to get is ZOMBIES!!!, which I played a few years ago and had an absolute blast with.

Polyhedric dice!! - Photo: Dragonchow.com

• What attracted you to D&D and why do you enjoy it so much?

I originally liked D&D because I was reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  I didn’t make it past the sixth book in the series, but I never put down D&D.  I enjoy it so much because it is truly what you make it.  I love the ability to be creative under pressure and do some very cool things with very limited options.

• How about Minecraft?

Minecraft is like hypnotic, grownup Lego.  It’s fantastic.  One guy, Notch, develops it.  He made such a cool game that it went viral and he’s already made a ton of money off of a game that went into Beta shortly before Christmas.  He could’ve stopped there, but he’s still developing it and if you buy it now you get all the upgrades for life.  It’s a good deal, I promise.

• Have you ever played an MMO? If so what are your thoughts on them versus paper and pen style gaming?

I have played World of Warcraft.  I started because I was sick of being a WoW widow and my husband (then boyfriend) bought it for me and paid my subscription for a few years.  Things got out of hand, and I had to make quite an effort to quit.  I feel a lot of people get flack for having trouble leaving WoW, but I’ll tell anybody: If you want to get into that game, set some limits.

What glued me to WoW is the same thing that glues me to pen and paper: the other people who play with you.  I was in a fabulous guild (shoutout to Ronin Sky on Gorgonnash circa 2005!) and when I’m in a gerat gaming group, I can’t stop thinking about my campaign.  What an MMO lacks is the versatility that pen and paper gaming has.  Combat spells, used correctly, become utilities and can really be a lot of help.  Creative solutions aren’t what MMOs look for, but they are what DMs look for.

Whaaat?!? Star Wars and Dice bag? how much more geek cred could you need? Photo: Dragonchow.com

• What are you currently playing?

Aside from D&D, just Minecraft on PC.  If you’ve thought about getting this game, I highly recommend it.

• Who introduced you to that game?

My husband found a Let’s Play! on YouTube and he is running the server we play on.  He will very soon be turning on mobs and they will destroy my cool building.

• Favorite character class?

BARD!  Hands down.  Bardy bardy bards.  They’re so versatile, and you get a lot of role-playing opportunities.

• So how do you go about building your character?  Do you build a back-story or let your DM handle it?  Any method acting or practicing voices in front of mirrors?  Any special characteristics you like to build in?

First up, I don’t ‘get’ voices.  I find them so awkward and they just make me giggle, so I can’t focus on someone doing a voice in a game.  I’d never be rude to someone and actually laugh at them at the table… I just find it distracting!  When I build a bard, I usually start with one trait and build around that.

My last bard, Kasimir, was a fortuneteller who was supposed to be doomed by falling for his own fortune telling abilities.  My husband wrote it into the game for me.  So he was a little bit gullible, but also overconfident and quite proud – these three traits came out of the fortune telling I planned earlier.  The rest of the flavor I put in around him was all related to his fortune telling.

I usually handle my back-story, and it’s usually the three sentence style: how did you get here, why are you here now, what do you want in life.  My current campaign, my DM wrote everyone’s back-story.  This is tough because I forget it constantly, as it’s written in a way that’s so different from how I approach character building.  It is very interesting, though, and since our DM wrote our back-stories he mines them for story cues that he peppers into our D&D sessions.

• If you could only take 3 things/party members into a dungeon with you what/who would they be?

Well, a Deck of Many Things just for the role-play value.  If we were allowing 3.5 supplement books, I would bring a Chameleon character to imitate any big bad boss with killer powers.  Finally, Chalk. If you must enter a dungeon do so with chalk.

Just what every wizard wanted - Photo: Dragonchow.com

• How did you get involved in the industry building dice bags?

Long story short, I had health troubles in the past few years that meant working at home was the best possible arrangement for me.  I decided that starting in a handmade business would be a good way to spend my time.  I originally made purses and wallets, but moved into making dice bags after trying to shop for one in stores around Calgary.

• How long has Dragon Chow been around?

On February 13 2009, I started the Dragon Chow Dice Bags shop on Etsy.com.  By April I had perfected my flat-bottomed design, and in June 2009 I moved to dragonchow.com, the current home of Dragon Chow Dice Bags.

• So let’s talk about your company and it’s products.  What products/services do you offer?

I make 3 styles of dice bag.  Teeny Tiny bags hold around one set of dice.  Standard Dice Bags hold a generous collection of polyhedrals, and Tall and Strapping Dice Bags are the width of a Standard bag, but roughly twice as tall with a strap inside to hold mechanical pencils.  Just this week I have added polyhedral dice sets from Koplow Games to my website. I’m so excited about that!

My variety of fabrics is sometimes just not right for a certain gamer.  I also am happy to make custom dice bags.  Custom sizes and custom-chosen fabrics are more than welcome.  I also provide wholesale stock to friendly local game stores.

• How can customers find out more info and get in touch with you?

They can go to www.dragonchow.com, and they can email lyndsay@dragonchow.com

• Okay, one last question for you.  We have a running debate (more like a one sided thrashing, but I like to keep my hopes up) PS3 or Xbox, Mac or PC?

Well I don’t have a PS3…

• Lyndsay, thanks so much for taking your time to hang out with us a little and answer some questions for our readers.  Good luck with your business, have a great year, and we hope to hear from you again soon!

The mastermind behind the bags - Photo: Dragonchow.com

For our listeners\readers, if you want to follow Lyndsay you can find her on twitter at @GeekyLyndsay and on FB at facebook.com/dragonchow and of course if you need a super awesome custom bag for your dice, go check Dragon Chow out.