Just heard the intro on this one. Derek, THANK YOU so much for choosing our library to support in this year’s charity! I’m humbled and honored by your choice! We will make good use of every penny raised!

And, yes, Wayne, this whole thing has been surreal and a bit uncomfortable, but I’m getting quickly better at doing the public stuff (reporters, public speaking) that I unexpectedly needed to learn to do.

I think Chad touched on something really important early on in this episode when introducing Derek. One thing I’ve noticed on Fear The Boot is that is sometimes sounds like you guys assume the audience knows what you’re talking about. Granted, people who are avid gamers are probably going to know, but it’s not very easy for new listeners or people who are new to the RPG hobby to pick up on things. I’m not talking about not knowing the ins and outs of the intricacies of different RPG games and systems as much as I mean the basics of roleplaying terms.

For example, I listened to FtB for about 6 months before I found out what “PC” & “NPC” stood for, and another 6 months before I found out what a GMPC was. I had gleaned that PC meant “player character” from conversations, but I had to look up NPC and GMPC on Google because it hadn’t been explained on the episodes I had been listening to (to this day, I think I know what min-maxing is, but only because I haven’t looked it up). When I began listening to Fear The Boot, the show was about 6 years old, and my first thought wasn’t to go back and listen to all the podcasts from the very beginning. Also, if I want to listen to a podcast, my first thought isn’t to jump on forums and start talking people up. You have to really want to be a part of an online community in order to connect that way. In fact, I only started really interacting with people on the forums after I attended Fear The Con for the first time in 2014.

In the last week, I’ve downloaded and listened to several of the first episodes because I’m organizing a gaming group filled with people who haven’t played RPGs before, and I’m writing some RPGs of my own. So I wanted some decent advice on how to create combat situations, how to plan a campaign, working with a group template, etc. But I only found out that those episodes covered those topics because I deliberately searched the early episodes on your website to see what was on them.

Please don’t get me wrong — I’m not complaining, by any means. I absolutely love this podcast, and it’s been my gateway into a hobby that is not only a ton of fun, but allows me to be social with people I like and tap into my creativity. I love the hosts and think you’re all fantastic people, and a couple of you guys have personally given me some great ideas and advice on playing in and running RPG sessions. I just think it can’t hurt to remember that your listeners may not have the same kind of experience and knowledge that you do. Just my opinion.