TTRPG Community Interview with Tabi, aka. Critsandcrochet

Hey there and welcome to another TTRPG Community interview! These are low key, prewritten interviews which are available to fill out on this page. If you are a part of the TTRPG space in almost any way at all, there should be something for you!

Please introduce yourself and the content you create!

I'm Tabi, also known as Crits and Crochet on Twitter (formerly TabiWritesStuff), and I write fantasy stories, currently with two set in D&D-based worlds. I've also contributed to a couple of books through Daylight Publications.

How did you get started making TTRPG content? What motivated you to begin?

I've been writing since I was four. Of course, those pieces weren't exactly riveting. (I can still tell you my first ever diary entry). I started playing D&D in 2015 and when I got involved in TTRPG Twitter, it just made sense to combine these two passions together. I've been writing fantasy stories since I was 11, so I was already kind of unknowingly heading in that direction.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Many, many sources. Sometimes from strange dreams I have, or a song hits me just the right way, the characters I play, the world my DM has created (shoutout to Harlen Ogni and his amazing games set in his world of Tellus). Other times, it's a vibe from a movie/show, the bonds formed between PCs in our games, or sometimes an entire world, characters, and plot come from a single scene. To date, one of my favourites was a piece that came out of seeing a woman in a trenchcoat, smoking a cigarette outside a convenience store in Downtown Toronto (Queen Street, right near the Rex Jazz lounge for anyone familiar), in the pouring rain. An entire story about a modern-day assassin living in Toronto came from that one little scene I witnessed.

What was the first thing you ever made? Are you still proud of it?

When I was 10, I wrote a novel about two best friends who accidentally stumbled on a gold heist from some cowboys, got captured, and eventually managed to save the day. The chapters were only a few pages each, but I wrote it over the span of a month on my teacher's laptop (those old ones where the screen was blue with yellow text and they printed on that tearaway blue paper). I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere. I'm very proud of it, even if it's terribly written with the worst grammar.

What's your favourite TTRPG system to create content for?

D&D. Largely because it's the system I'm most familiar with.

What motivates you to create content for this system specifically?

It just grabs me in so many ways. I'm sure one day I'll expand, but I'm hyper focused when it comes to my obsessions. I want to learn, discover, an explore everything in that one area before I move on.

What other TTRPG systems do you enjoy playing?

I've only played Pathfinder and Monster of The Week. I enjoyed the latter. Pathfinder was my introduction into "D&D" games. I enjoyed it but the game we were playing wasn't quite as imaginative and RP heavy as the D&D campaigns I played. I'd love to get into the AGE system, and I'm looking forward to trying Starfinder in the future.

AI has proved to have a huge impact on the TTRPG community. As succinctly as possible, what is your general opinion on the use of AI for writing/content creation?

I think using AI for writing and content creation directly is not acceptable. I can understand that it allows greater content output, but it's also not genuine. It lacks the heart that is necessary to go into storytelling and story creation. In my opinion, it's also lazy.

I'm not opposed to using it to help get ideas, as a vague generator -- we've had variations of those kinds of idea generators for years, and sometimes even the most experienced writers and creators need a little bump to get an idea flowing or to get over writer's block, but using the ideas entirely, using the written content entirely, I'm not a fan of. I think it discredits the people who actually put a good deal of work, talent, and skill into it.

If you want to be a writer and a content producer, take the time to learn the art, practice, get better. Don't cheat just to make money. You're doing everyone a disservice.

Are you a part of the LGBTQIA2S+, BIPOC, AAPI, Disabled or any other marginalised community?

Yes and no? I'm pan, but I'm also happily married in a monogamous marriage, and I didn't fully accept this about myself until after I was married. I'm not out publicly aside from Twitter. So I don't really consider myself part of it because I don't have to face the same fight as those who are out and open. I still fight for them, but I don't think I can consider myself a part of it; that would be unfair to those who work every day against the prejudice they face.

If yes, do you reflect this in the content you create? How important do you think it is for folks of all identities to feel recognised within the games they play?

Yes, knowing this about myself has definitely played a role in the content I create. It's a slow-going process -- I come from a very strict Evangelical background in a whitewashed community, so it took a long time for me to realize the work I needed to put in, and then to build the comfort level of trying to do it right. I'm still learning, but I'm getting there.

What's the next project people will see from you?

Completion of either my D&D Murder Mystery or my D&D Romance story. Probably the former. I'm still building up my comfort levels with the romance stuff.

Of all of the things you've created, which one is your personal favourite?

What I've come to call my "magnum opus", a term my Gr. 12 Writer's Craft teacher used to refer to our big projects over the semester. It's a fantasy trilogy I've been working on for 20 years, where the plot/story has gone through several renditions before I finally found the right one. It's my baby, and eventually, it's going to be completed. I always thought it would be my first published works, but I found it was putting too much pressure on myself for it to be amazing. So I paused it to work on other pieces to publish first.

Tell us about your process when creating. Do you have any tips or tricks for other creators in the same space as you?

Finding the right music vibe, getting spaces to focus. Getting inspiration from other creators -- not in the means of taking what they've created, but learning from the work they've done, from their worlds, letting their creations be the muse to get you fired up about your own work. Creators, I think, thrive most when they are oohing and aahing over other creators' work. Art shouldn't be a competition.

Shout out a fellow creator! Who in the TTRPG community inspires you? Why do you admire them/their work? Please provide a link to their website/social media.

@OgniHarlen on Twitter is a big one. I can't even begin to express how much the world he has created has made my own creative process thrive. He didn't just create a setting, he created a thriving, living world and thriving, living stories that brought our characters to life. To the point he's inspired myself and others to start writing our own stories within that world with our characters. The depth of creativity, the intensity of his storytelling, is absolutely mind-blowing.

Are you playing in any TTRPG campaigns at the moment? Tell us about your favourite character!

Oh my gosh, I'm in too fucking many. I currently play in six games and two text-based games. Right now I have two favourites -- Ithanya Ancilar, a high-born half-elf fighter who walked away from the life that disgusted her to become a mercenary, and Alt-Miri (called alt, because she's another version of my character from the Text-based RP into an actual game so I could play the mechanics of her character, but she's very... very different from OG Miri).

Ithanya is 23, very impulsive, and a strong fighter. She has struggled to find a place in the world her whole life, and while her background isn't wildly traumatic, it did cause a lot of challenges for her. She considers the life she lives now as a giant fuck you to the nobles of her city, and found her first real home with the party she fights with now, the Hot Cross Buns. She's recently fallen in love, helped save the world from a possible apocalypse, and has been challenged by her companions to become a better person, to learn to work in a team, and to trust in others beyond herself.

Miri is a 60 year old Eladrin (so basically mid-30s in human years) Rogue/Hex Warlock, who's "patronage" is serving as the ancestral blade for her lineage. Her father, Melandrin, is a right asshole, manipulative, powerful Artificer/Warlock, who is intent on overthrowing the Eladrin Court and the Feywild through a deal made with Asmodeous. His goal has always been to use Miri as a tool for that, and she managed to break away. In the game she is in, she spent some time with the god Thor, fighting by his side, but when her father tracked her down, she left, not wanting to drag Thor into the mess. Melandrin has since teamed up with some other baddies, and she went to Thor for help, who pointed her to a group of adventurers she is now working with. Her biggest challenge is working in a team -- she's been isolated her whole life. She's probably the most fun character I've ever played because she is the least like me. She's brazen, confident, and an all around dramatic badass who loves making powerful entrances... usually from diving off a cliff and landing with catlike grace and superhero poses.

What's your favourite book, TV show, or film?

Book: The Song of the Lionness Quartet

TV Show: Hard to pick, but I often rewatch How I Met Your Mother, Gilmore Girls, and One Tree Hill, so we'll go with those.

Film: Anything Star Wars, Count of Monte Cristo, and more recently added, Honor Among Thieves.

Tell us a fact about yourself that others might struggle to believe.

I'm not sure... I'm pretty open on Twitter about a lot of the things that people might find difficult to believe knowing me now, so off the top of my head, I can't think of anything.

Which subject do you wish you knew more about?

Indigenous History in Canada. I've been working on rectifying this over the years, but I think no matter how much I study and learn, there is still so much more I need to learn.

What is your favourite smell?

Coffee.

If you could listen to only one song for the next 7 days, which one would you choose?

This literally changes day by day. But one that is an always, all the time, for me is easily Blood in the Cut by K Flay.

If you could give the current chapter of your life a name, what would it be?

Villain Era? Haha. No really, I know it's kind of cliche to say now, but this has really been the time of my life where I have been learning to break out of the labels and beliefs that have been pronounced over me my whole life and to start finding who I am and standing firm on that.

What is the worst gift you have ever received?

Stale, moldy muffins.

What is the strangest food combination you enjoy?

I don't think I have one that could be considered strange.

If time, money and skill were no object, what would your ultimate cosplay/Halloween costume be?

Two: One would be Vex from Critical Role. The other would by my Eldritch Knight, Ashryn.

Would you rather own a horse the size of a cat or a cat the size of a horse?

Horse the size of a cat. Then I could keep it at home.

Where should folks go to find out more about you, and/or check out your content?

Currently via my Twitter at https://twitter.com/CritsAndCrochet -- anything I am working on is usually announced there and links are put up through there.

Disclaimer: The information and answers contained in the interview posted above represents the views and opinions of the interviewee only and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of myself (gothHoblin). The appearance of an interview on this website does not constitute an endorsement of the interviewee or their statements.