Hey guys and welcome to episode 145 of meatball to meatball.
It is episode 2 of my new content creator series, as
always, building community with everyone across the world.
Today I have joining me for a conversation is an individual
who's not only known as being a phenomenal board game content
creator, but she's probably more known for her powerful
creativity, her crafting skills, and more importantly, her
cosplay. Today I have Rachel from Miss
Kitty cosplay Rachel, how are you?
Hello. I'm doing great.
Thank you for having me on today.
Thanks for joining. I guess I should also mention
that you are the social media community manager extraordinaire
of Queen Games. Yes, I do all of their content
creation and and all that jazz. So you manage your own creation
and Queens that's. That a lot of times they, they
are intertwined. I do share a lot of queen stuff
on my personal page, just because if I'm in it, I might,
yeah. You got it.
You got to put yourself out there, right?
Yeah, yeah. And we needed to put a face on
some of our stuff. You only want to look at board
game pieces for so long. You need to know who you're
talking to. The community wants to like,
feel the human aspect of it and know that they're not true.
Bought response. You know, hey, it's me, please
be nice. That is absolutely true, right?
That that trend happened. I think it was post COVID when
that happened. You'd start people, they would
take a picture with the box and then they would take pictures of
the game components, right? Yeah, I I remember when that
happened. So let me ask you this starting
question. What was the first board game
that you ever played as a child? As a child, that would be the
Pokémon board game that came out in like 2000, 2001.
OK, yeah. And do you still, do you still
play Pokémon stuff regularly? No.
I love Pokémon. I love the whole franchise.
It is near and dear to my heart. I was a Pokémon card collector
in kindergarten. That was my jam.
I've got lots of Pokémon plushies and all the fun stuff,
but no, I don't. I don't play the games.
So what about what was the game that got you into what we call
the modern game hobby, right? Copenhagen, yeah.
So that is a queen game. Yep.
Not a coincidence there. And it's the polyomino tiles and
you're building the facade on the front of the buildings.
It's a it's a really, really lightweight game and that is
what got me into this world. Copenhagen.
So what was it about that particular game in out of all
of, I mean, yeah, of course all board games, but all of Queen's
collection, like how did you get introduced to Copenhagen?
Honestly, Travis Reynolds put it in front of me and told me to
learn it because it was one of the easier ones.
And then I am into cosplay and cosplay is what got me into the
conventions. And then the convention got me
an opportunity. I was asked to demo some games
at the Queen booth. I've never been to Origins Game
Fair before and I had no idea what I was getting into.
And I was like, OK, well give me the easiest game possible
because I'm nervous about teaching other people.
And they put Copenhagen in front of me.
It had just come out. I was obsessed with the
polyomino tiles. I played the deluxe edition with
the acrylic ones. You know, you can hold the
window, it was up and see through them.
It was was gorgeous. It was, it did and it was
addicting. And I was on such a roll.
I mean, it was like I had this like gaming high from explaining
it. I had gotten my my little pitch
together on how to work through it.
I made a script for myself and I could get through that game and
have tables turn in, you know, a couple every couple minutes.
I got really good at it. And then I was like, maybe I
like board games, I want to play more.
And that was really like the first modern like hobby game I
had played. You know, I played some things
growing up like Monopoly and, and even Risk and stuff like
that. But we don't have a gaming
community here. I live in a very rural
Appalachian area where we don't have game stores and that kind
of thing. Lately we have been getting some
trading card shops, which is amazing just to see something,
but there's still nothing actually near me.
I have to drive a couple hours to get to somebody who was
willing to play a game with me and I'll do it.
But Copenhagen was my introduction to this community
and it has really, like changed my life for the better.
So that was origins? What?
What year was that do you recall?
I'm gonna say 2018. OK, OK.
Cuz I was demoing with Queen for a year or two before the
pandemic hit. OK.
Cuz then we had the shutdown. So my question is, so it's 2018,
you have fallen in love with Copenhagen and the concept of
tabletop board gaming. So you go back home, what next?
What like did you just? You got to get on the Internet
and like learn what else is out there.
You've got to meet other people that are into the same thing.
Because I don't just delete Abby with a hobby.
If I'm going to do it, I'm going all the way in all in.
So it is I want to buy all the games I want to play everything
I can get my hands on. And I the first thing I did was
like start looking up board game hashtags on Instagram and
watching YouTube videos and, and following people trying to
figure out like, well, if this is good, what else is out there?
What is similar to this? Maybe I want to go a step
harder. Yeah.
So you didn't just like decide to go through the whole line of
the product line of Queen games. You kind of you embrace the
whole industry. Yeah, and I love Queen games,
but I, I didn't want to lift myself to one thing.
And with Queen, it's not like all of the games in their
catalog are the same, you know, they're very, very drastically
different, different designers and that kind of thing.
So I wanted to just taste a little from every company.
And so I have a really decent sized collection now.
I say decent size because you know, there's there's people out
there with with more in our community.
But I have a lot of games and I've played even more games.
So what kind of challenges were them?
I mean, obviously the fact that there's no one around, like how
did, I'm just trying to wonder how you managed to if you have
no one to play with because you said you're in a rural area
where there's no one around. I mean, are you just driving 2
hours just in all directions where people live as close to
you or are people coming to you? Did you, did you, did you only
play games in person at conventions for a year or two?
How did that look? What did that look like?
Actually started a local board game club.
So there's a, a barcade, a bar arcade here locally that opened
up at Pullman in Huntington, Pullman Square in Huntington, WV
and I started hosting board game nights there.
So I was really into pinball and some of the antique like arcade
cabinets. I was always, always in there
anyways because I love gaming just in general, any kind of
gaming. It's not just board games for
me, but I was in there all the time and I was like, I'm going
to start bringing in board games.
And then people would sit with me and then we made it a thing
where they actually like hired me to host their game nights.
And when I say hired, they just gave me like a free bar tab and
I was like, yeah, I'll bring my friends to play some games so
that we. Absolutely.
On Friday nights for free drinks to play games.
But it got to the point where I was also running Friday night
board games, Tuesday night D&D, where I was teaching different
games of D&D. We had kids playing, we had
adults that were wanting to learn.
And we had like so much going on.
And I did that for several years.
And even through the pandemic, we ended up making a Discord
server and still meeting with some of these people.
Actually, some of them have moved pretty far away.
And we still communicate about the campaign we were in just to
like keep in touch with everything and like check up on
each other's families and that sort of thing.
I didn't want to just play at conventions.
I wanted to get as much gaming in as as physically possible.
Tabletop stimulator's fine, but it's not the same.
I crave that social aspect of sitting at a table with
somebody. No phones, no computers.
We don't text while we're while we're playing a game.
You know, I'm like, let's communicate.
Let's actually sit here and get this game going.
I want to figure it out. I do travel a good bit to play
games. I do drive.
It's usually two hours and but it's worth it because a lot of
us will get together and we'll make a whole day of it, if not a
weekend. Several times this summer I've
actually camped and it's all of my gaming buddies and we will
camp and we will just play games as much as we possibly can.
I love that. So that's really similar to most
of our friends in the UK. They'll do that.
They'll have like one day, but because the UK is so much
smaller, they can all get together for a single day.
Someone will rent a hall like a, a scouting hall or something in
their area and they'll just have like a one day gaming convention
where they all get to hang out. Unfortunately, the United States
is just too big. We can't do that.
You know, You and I are good 15 hour drive apart, you know?
Yeah, it's. Ridiculous how far everything is
and that's what I was trying to explain to someone the other day
when they're like oh but there's a game shop and I'm like just
because it's in my state doesn't mean I can get to it.
Like that's a 2 day trip for me because I'm going to have to
stay the night before I drive back.
Right. Oh yeah, that's crazy.
We're just so spread out and especially around here with all
the mountains, you know, it takes forever to get through
things. Right, So what is your favorite
color that you enjoy playing? Green is my preferred.
OK. If purple is an option, I would
like to take that, but it's not always an option.
OK, you got. Do you have a third one in case
either of those are not available?
Blue Blue. I hate yellow.
I hate it. Like cannot explain it.
I just beef with the yellow. I don't like it.
All right, well, we're we're gonna, we're gonna move on past
yellow guys. So you started off, you fell in
love with the polyamino mechanic.
Is that still your favorite game mechanic?
Probably. I can't even help myself.
Yeah, it just, it's great. It's so cool.
I like that. The tactileness of having actual
tiles in a board game. I want to be able to touch the
pieces. I'm not into like deck building
as much and that sort of thing. I want to touch pieces of
things, even like miniature games.
I'm very into miniatures. I like being able to move my
pieces around, so being able to like lay tiles is a really fun
mechanic. So it's kind of cross between
polyomino and tile, tile laying slash placement.
Yeah, yeah, I get. I get.
It's. Interactive, it's fun and it's
very satisfying because it's like you're instantly getting
that gratification of placing your piece.
I get a point so. I feel this way, I don't know if
you do. So playing a tile, a tile
placement laying game, let's say Carcassonne.
Just a great example. There are more guys I know, but
for for the purposes of my question to you.
So it drives me nuts when there's a vacuum.
I don't like holes in my maps, right?
Like I will sometimes play a tile that's not advantageous to
me just so that I can have the map look filled in.
Do you experience that as well? Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I recently was playing a game where you're laying polyominos
big shock and it was 1 where you're building up actually on
layers on top of each other. And in the rules it states that
you do not have to complete a layer to move up to the next
layer. But I can't do that.
I want to complete them and it's not not always the best option
to complete them because of the higher if you move, the higher
the earlier you score. But that's true.
I can't. I want to.
I'm a completionist. I get that.
I totally understand that. Speaking of Queen games, Daba
Walla's a perfect example. Was that what you were playing?
Yeah. I've just got all these queen
games. Well, sure.
Yeah. But is Copenhagen still your
favorite in the product line from Queen?
Yeah. OK.
All right. I don't.
I don't know that I'm going to be honest.
I have my favorite queen game is not.
It's a great game. I love playing it, but I think
it has more to do with nostalgia that's connected to it.
And that's Aqua Romano. Really.
Yeah, that's an old. Guys, that's a played that one.
That's an old one. So there's two reasons why.
One, when my wife and I got married, she had already owned
it, so she taught it to me. And it's also set in the ancient
Roman world because you're building the aqueducts in the
city of Rome. So that appealed to both my wife
and I as we were studying classics in Roman history.
And it's just like, yeah, I could play Aqua Romana anytime.
It's tile placement because you're laying tiles to get the
water and the aqueducts to go. Yeah.
Aqua Romana is probably my favorite queen game, and it's
more likely about my relationship with my wife than
it is a reflection of how great that theme and mechanic is for
that game. Isn't it wonderful how we can
put these feelings into a game based on like the memories that
we've made around them? You know, there are certain
games that I love, I know I absolutely cherish because of
who I've played them with or where I've played them.
You know, I took this to this game night and this happened
there and now it has a very special place where it is faced
out on my shelf and I get to look at it and have happy
memories. Yes, yes, that is absolutely one
of my favorite things about this hobby and this community.
And, you know, I mean, it's interesting, too.
We're talking about Daba Walla. So I met you at Origins 24.
I had just finished. My wife and I had just finished
up. We had signed up for an event to
learn to play Daba Walla. And we're like, we're buying it.
Like seal delivered. It's done now.
It's a yeah. We lean on Queen games because
it was early in our relationship, right?
So whenever Queen comes out with a new game, we're immediately
like, we must check it out. Now.
This is true any product line, right?
Just it's just the reality of when you make products, not all
Queen games are created equally. Not all of them just hit, you
know, sing touch my soul. But still, whenever Queen comes
out with a game, we gravitate right away, you know?
So, yeah. So thanks, Queen Games.
Thanks for that. You know, it's awesome to hear
that, right? I and I feel the same way about
Queen because it was such an early experience for me in in
the hobby. They gave me this opportunity to
to demo with them and I've never left.
I they can't get rid of me. They might.
Want to? They can try, I've not left yet.
So do you have a favorite game of all time or just a favorite
game right now that you're hitting your table constantly?
I do too and it's a hard question which is why I.
Game that I've not even played yet.
OK, but it's on my table right now.
But it's like, it's a weird one because it's not a traditional
board game. It is.
There's a whole lot of like deduction and stuff to it.
It's very social interaction. It is the mother of
Frankenstein, the the Mary Shelley game by Arcane Wonders.
So I have Volume 1, two and three on my table currently, and
I'm going to be playing it before Halloween with a group of
friends. And we're going to be dressed in
period accurate wear because we are nerds.
And we're going to have us like a little dinner party where we
try to like, find the mysteries. Yeah, I'm like obsessed though,
and I'm making an outfit for the game.
Because that's that is a great segue into the fact that you're
not just a content creator in your own right, as well as
making content for Queen games. You were all so pretty well
known cosplayer and probably magician of all thing crafts.
I recently saw that you got like you bought a bunch of fabric
just recently and posted and it was like, you know, I'm like,
look, anytime you post something I'm like, I show it to my wife.
Rachel just got a whole bunch of fabric.
Look at this. This is great because it's hard
to find since Joanne's closed and Michael's just letting us
down and. It has been really, really
difficult. Joanne's closing has been harder
on me than I thought it would be.
I thought I was prepared. I did stockpile a ton.
I have a room full of bolts of fabric.
Like I I went prepper. Like the world is ending.
We're not going to have Joanne's anymore.
By all the threads that you can. So I buy a bunch and then I get
these crazy ideas where I'm like, I have two weeks to make
this costume based off this game and I wish I could run into
Joann's and just touch the fabric like I used to do.
Ordering online is not the same. I I sit next to my wife and see
her struggle with all that. So how long have you been
cosplaying? Because you were a cosplayer
first. Yes.
So cosplaying was sort of a Segway into gaming for me.
I've been cosplaying about 12 years, 12, but I was super into
costumes before that. Like I was that girl that took
Halloween or like any kind of costume party way too seriously
and. It didn't matter how cold you
was outside. You were not wearing, did not
care, did not care. I'm not going to cover up what I
made. I worked on a costumer, always
see it. I'm going as many places as
possible. What was What was your first
costume like that you made from? Poison.
Ivy. Poison Ivy?
Yeah. Do you still have it?
I do. She's not doing great.
It's not something I would wear without repairing, but I do have
it. I actually saw it a little bit
ago. I've got a costume rack.
I have several costume racks. I also built a closet for some
of my cosplays here in my basement, but I have her hanging
over in my cosplay room. Have you thought about IS?
Having not seen the costume, would it be possible to shadow
box it? Like retire it from your
collection and shadowbox it and put a.
Yeah, I've thought about that. I've thought about that.
So my wife does a lot of shadowboxing of board games,
right? If we if we play a legacy game,
right, because you can never play it again unless you have to
buy a new copy, We'll shadowbox our legacy games or we'll shadow
whenever you upgrade games, right?
So you buy a game and then you upgrade the components later and
then all of a sudden you've got these shadowboxes of wooden
needles all your on your walls. I've been trying to think of
like what to do with it because I'm not going to throw it away,
but I also don't want to just hang here and fall apart.
It needs a home and I would like to display it like it was the
first one I ever made. It's special.
Exactly. It was it was my introduction
into like this crazy obsession that I, I like that same day I
was like, this is it. I am hooked.
I'm going to do this forever. Who taught you to sew?
I have been sewing my whole life.
My mom can sew, my grandma can sew.
I mean, we all just kind of did it.
As far as teaching me, YouTube is my friend.
YouTube has been a mentor for me.
And so you work with because you had, you had a suit that you
were working on prior to Origins this year.
I don't believe that you wore, I don't know the character's name,
but you used a lot of you had a lot of armor.
Did you use? WAR.
Yeah. Did you use Warfol?
Yep. I did.
I used Warbler, I used foam. It was like a really crazy
amount of stuff I used because I was rushing.
I should have started way earlier, but I procrastinated.
I got nervous, but I weren't good under pressure.
So I was like one month to go, was building in entire Battle
Sister, and I'm actually really big into Warhammer, which is
like a random thing that happened because of going to
these conventions. We were across from the Games
Workshop guys and I was like, I like those outfits.
And then I was gifted a starter set for Warhammer and then I was
like, well, I'm obsessed. It's arts and crafts and a game.
I get to put these little people together and then I paint them
like, how could you not want to do that?
I've got some battle technics right here on my desk that I've
been working on. Like, I'm so into the stuff I
can touch, I can play with it. It's not just a video game, It's
not just a card game. I want to play games that are
more tactile and interactive. So.
I got into Warhammer and I decided I was obsessed.
And they're really cool because there's a whole lot of lore
behind it. But they wear white and it's
like lined in red. And that stands for the shroud
that they put over their St. when she passed.
And it has like an imprint of her on it.
So it's really cool and kind of creepy.
That's cool, I'm thinking about the Knights Templar.
You know where their robes were White with the Red Cross on the
front. So and I think that that
connection kind of like did it for me because they did look
very nightly instead of just big and bulky and like bloody or
dirty. You know, some of them are like
scorched with fire cause the flamers and stuff.
This was very like medieval night esque.
It did give me those vibes and how can you not like that?
Right. So at what point did you and I'd
ask this question last week, so I'm really interested in at what
point did you in your mind and your personal identity, you were
like, you know, I'm not just a cosplayer, I'm also a content
creator or did gaming. So which came not first I'd.
Say that content creating came first because I was doing it
with cosplay. OK.
And then I kind of just transitioned and I'm doing like
this weird middle ground where I'm standing on the fence and
I'm doing both at the moment. I would say I do more cosplay
content than I would like. I would like to transition and
do more board game, but it's hard to do when you're not
actively playing with people. And a lot of times when I'm
playing like I'm playing out with people that may not want to
be videoed and that kind of thing.
Sure, sure. I need better friends.
You are all our home is always open, you are always welcome to
come spend a weekend and we'll play games.
You can make as much content as you want.
We need to get together, even if it's just at a convention or
something, and play some games because I'm just, I'm dying to
play with people who are down for that.
Right, but, but to be fair though, at conventions you're
quite busy. Yes, yes.
You know, I wear so many hats at conventions.
I'm doing lots of things. I'm trying to be involved with
different groups and companies and help out everybody and see
everyone and it is it is pretty hectic.
Yeah. So what role do you see content
creation play both in your personal life and what role do
you see content creating content creators, this community in the
gaming industry as a whole? Like, how do you see that?
Yeah, and you could tackle those either way.
Content creation is so important to the gaming industry.
Yeah, this is something that I'm very passionate about.
It is how people know what they want.
It is usually the first look people have at a game.
It is the first time they hear of a game or a type of game.
And being a content creator is important because you you are
getting the word out about a product.
And it's really cool to see all the communication that goes on
with that. You know, if you get on
Instagram, you see an awesome board game picture, you go to
the comments and you read 100 comments like what is this and
how does this work? And it's really cool to see how
it is. It is bringing the community
together. I definitely feel like it has
brought me closer with people. I have so many friends that are
content creators in the board gaming community that like I
couldn't have imagined this would happen.
I had no idea that the world I was even jumping into.
I was just like, I'm going to post about what I love, which is
board gaming. And then I'm following board
gaming accounts and they're following me back and now we're
talking to every to each other. And now I'm on a podcast and
like, it's, it's really interesting to see how that
works. Content creation not only like
tells people what they want to buy, but it tells people like
what is good out there. You're getting reviews and
people are getting sent review copies and you're going to want
to listen to what they have to say.
You know, you're getting to hear opinions on it.
And not just advertisements. I want to hear an actual
opinion, not just an advertisement.
That that personal opinion, I think, and it sounds like what
you're saying. I certainly agree.
If it is, this is what I I I think content creation is set
apart from just advertising because of that.
It's that personal opinion, right?
Yeah, I scroll past advertisements all day long, but
if Grant Lyons makes a YouTube short saying this game is good,
I'm probably gonna buy it. Right, right.
How much of that though, do you attribute to your, your trust in
that like Grant for sure, but any content creator, right?
Like there's a relationship even if it's not a face to face
relationship with these content creators, right?
There's definitely a relationship there.
I do feel like I know a lot about them because of how much
they're posting. And like, obviously it's
interesting to see who and whose gaming interests align with
mine. Like, what do we have in common?
What do we not have in common? What do they like that I don't
like? You know what?
If something doesn't work out for me right then maybe I won't
buy every game they recommend going forward.
So you made the comment that you you wanted to transition more
into content and creation for games and less cosplay.
Not not that you're going to stop cosplaying, but content
creation, but that games aren't hitting your table.
Do you feel for you that you have to play a game in order to
create content? Prefer to OK, I don't feel like
I have to like even on my I have a YouTube channel.
I do have like an unboxing video because I was super, super
excited to get to get a game. So I opened it and I didn't play
it in that video. But I do think that videos where
the game is being played, or at least like gone through, get
better views. I guess that's true.
There's certainly some truth to that.
I know sometimes like I can't, although I think maybe once or
twice I've done, I've staged a photo right and kind of.
Fake doing that. Like I don't want to be that
person who just like sets things up for a photo.
I'm not going to say I haven't done it because that's my job
sometimes, but. Exactly.
But I I definitely like to take more candid shots.
I would love to walk around and get some shots of people
actually enjoying a game. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to work
more on video. I make videos.
I don't like the way they look. I'm like, this is terrible.
Video editing is something I didn't expect to be so hard.
Right. Who you?
Telling I can do it, but it's not pretty.
It's a lot of the editing will take longer than it'll take for
you and I to have this conversation.
It's that's crazy. So you're going to have to
whether your friends want to or not, you're going to have to
create some content and post when you play Mother of
Frankenstein. Yes, Mother of Frankenstein.
So it's a really. You're going to have to.
Where like, Mary Shelley has left documents and a bunch of
stuff to her son on her deathbed, so she passes away and
then he has to figure out what the big secret is.
And so I am cool, pumped and I have been assembling a party and
we have like an investigator. I'm the creator.
We have an, an investigator, I've got an attorney.
I have like somebody who does science stuff for a living.
Like I've been like very selective in who I've picked out
of my friend group. So that way I can have opinions
from like every, every side. You know, I've, I got one shot
at this. I can only do it the once.
That's true. That is true.
I love it. That's.
The downfall to that kind of game.
So I'm not going to put a bunch of losers in the house with me.
We're going to do it right. I love that it's kind of a it's
a dream of mine. My favorite game everyone knows
is Obsession by Dan Halligan and I really would love to host a
night where we play Obsession and we all dress in a Victorian
era clothing. I'm ready.
There you go. Several Victorian outfits
depending on how fancy we want to.
Get well the beauty, the beauty of obsession, if you were to do
that is you could dress fancy like you're in the upper house
and you're the the family. Or you could dress as one of the
servants because there is that upstairs, downstairs, kind of a
Downton Abbey, right? Because you have the servants
and the workers. So you could go either way,
right? I would probably dress as the
cook because that's just my favorite.
I would never be a Lord, OK? If I were born in Victorian
England, I would be a servant. I would have been born into
service. I am a Princess.
I want ball gowns. Fair enough, fair enough.
Do you have a favorite platform that you like to post your
content on? Instagram, I'm so basic.
Instagram's my favorite. I love it because like, it's
simple. I feel like Facebook is for
businesses and old people. Instagram is clips of a picture
or a really short videos and I like that OK and YouTube is
hard. YouTube is having been on
YouTube for a year now, is getting easier.
It's getting easier and you could do the shorts.
Yeah, I like the shorts. I like the shorts a lot.
And that's what I find myself doing is like scrolling the
shorts. And it's getting better every
time I upload a video. It's a little bit smoother but
it still feels so awkward to like converse with myself and
then post it for people to see. Who you talking to?
I mean, right, This, this is part of the reason why I've got
a podcast, because I got to talk to somebody.
It it is so weird just talking to the camera.
It I had to like deal with, I guess it was imposter syndrome
as what I was told where I was like it's just so awkward to
tell people what I do. Like they're not going to
believe me. You make videos about playing a
board game and I'm like, yes, yes, yes, I do.
I do this, I do that. And I'm working for this
company. I'm working with this company.
I'm doing these things with these amazing designers, these
amazing content creators. And then they're like, so like
I, I am here and I do deserve a place at the table, but it took
me a long time to be able to say that.
Right. So what advice do you have for
someone who you know, they're they're a gamer and they don't
think of themselves as content creators, but they're thinking
about becoming more intentional. And I really think that's what
separates when I say a content creator.
I think it's the intentionality. However, though there is kind of
that next step. Do you have any advice for
someone who's thinking about maybe I want to be more
intentional and become a content creator and post with more
regularity. Take a take the.
Step. Take the step.
Put yourself out there. Yeah, it's vulnerable feeling
and kind of uncomfortable, but once you do it, you've done it
and it won't get worse. The first time's the hardest.
It's weird, but just put yourself out there.
Make connections, talk to people, post what you want to
post. Get all your sharing and stuff
out there. Share content from other
creators. Do a collaboration.
If you've got a friend that's a content creator, collaborate.
If you don't friend me, like we'll get together and do
something. Getting out there and being part
of the community is the best thing you can do.
Meet other people who who can help you and you can, you know,
feed off of what they're doing and they can feed off of what
you're doing and just share the experiences and the love of
board gaming. Yeah, and we're not talking
about getting a hotel and going to a convention like Origins or
Gen. Con or Geek Way or Essen or UKGE
and spending all your money. And when we're talking about you
could do this right here through the Internet, that's what the
social, social. Conventions can be very
expensive if you're wanting to go.
A good way to do that is to volunteer with a company that is
going to be giving out hotel rooms and passes and you can try
to get in with a company and not spend $500 on a hotel room.
I mean, I don't know if you've tried to book something for for
Gen. Con, but who it is it's pricey
for Origins. I actually rented an apartment
that was directly above the Barleys.
Yes. So I rented an entire apartment.
Nice. And it was fabulous.
Much more comfortable than rooming with as many people as
we can fit in there. Usually we have a teeny tiny
hotel room and as many people that are going with the company
as possible get shoved in there. And I had a whole apartment to
do whatever I wanted with and lay out my costume pieces, make
food. I just want to go like put my
feet up. And I don't want to
inconvenience my friends. You know, the people that are
going there with the same company, right?
I don't want to be in their way, but I want to be able to string
my stuff out. You know, I had my Battle Sister
cosplay with me and this takes up a lot of space.
I want to be able to just lay around and breathe.
I want to sit at the table and have a meal.
I love to cook. Cooking is like a really big
passion of mine. So I had a whole kitchen there.
I was able to cook. I got some food at the North
Market and brought it back and ate there.
I had a friend over but not cost effective if you're trying to
get into gaming. Like for the first the first bit
like go go with a company. Go with a company or split a
room with your friend. Or go to a smaller regional
that's something closer to you. I'm thinking tantrum con is in
North Carolina, Tennessee game days is in Nashville.
There's what is it Prairie, the great Prairie game festival, But
it's in Lincoln, NE. So it's, you know, there's,
there are some, there are some smaller regional.
I would never miss Charcon in Charleston, WV.
It's small but it is one of the best gaming conventions I have
ever been to. I'm also on staff for it.
Well, lahti da. I, I do their panels and their
cosplay contests and stuff like that, but I, I love it.
It's just, it's home. It's it's small and it's
actually in like a museum, a planetarium that we share a
movie on and it's really cool. That is cool.
So that's in Charleston. Yes.
OK, I might have to check that out.
You absolutely should. It's a lot of fun.
Yeah, that sounds. Cool.
We always have some kind of like live entertainment.
Like this year, we watched Code Names Live performed live on our
stage and Grant Lyons did a comedy bit there.
As he it was his want to do. Yeah, it was.
It was so much fun. And I was thinking like, as a
fan of his, I've seen like probably every video he's ever
posted. Wow.
It was completely new content. I was like, I've never watched
his like shows. I've just seen clips.
Yeah. So that was nice.
Well, be on the lookout because in a few weeks he's coming on as
part of this content creator series.
Bonded. I feel like we're friends now.
So because there's not a whole lot else to do in Charleston.
So if you're at Charcon, you come to Charcon after Dark,
which is a karaoke party, and we all had a really good time.
Is always so bad that it's good. So tell me about because I've
been wanting to, I wanted to ask you this for a couple months
now. So at Origins, you're, you're
working in an official capacity as your communicate community
special social media specialist role at Queen Games.
It'll work the vendor hall and you got all these, all these
duties and Origins. And then on top of it, you're
also going to, you have to devote time for cosplay because
you've got, like you said, you had an apartment.
So you to spread it all out. And I know it didn't take 5
minutes to put all that on. And you probably had it.
I mean, I'm assuming you had a friend that helped you.
Yeah. Yeah.
I had help, actually. I didn't have my blaster
completely like assembled when I got there.
So they were like, I had two people gluing my pack on me as
we were walking into the convention to like line up for
the cosplay contest. They're like gluing my stuff
together. And we actually like, wrapped
gauze from the emergency medical kit that we found in the
bathroom of the Airbnb to hold my blaster's hose on because
like, my epoxy wasn't strong enough and it wasn't gluing.
But yeah, I definitely had help. And it took like like an hour,
maybe 2 hours to get dressed. I mean, it was a lot because I
had to do makeup and a wig and then the undersuit and then the
robes and the armor. They were like putting pieces on
me that were falling off as I was getting in line for the
costume contest. It was interesting.
I'm very happy with the outcome. I actually won second place.
Excellent. For like the whole of Origins,
I, I don't want to sound like a sore loser, but I feel like if
my stuff had been finished on time, maybe I could have won.
We were. We were finishing it as we were
walking in. Yeah, I learned my lesson.
I've already started on next year's.
I'm already already a step ahead of myself.
I won't start in May. I'll do it now.
The other thing too, we and we should talk about this.
I think this is important. I think this is an important, I
think it's an important issue and probably yet another one of
your passions. But you do some considerable
charity work connected with your cosplay, right?
Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, so that's something I've
really been invested in lately. Every week I spend a couple
hours at the Ronald McDonald House here and the local
Children's Hospital. I do a lot of crowd events where
we do like Make a Wish stuff. I just did pass to a Cure, which
is a cancer fundraiser. I do, I do a lot of different
things and I take I take a different costume.
Sometimes it's Star Wars character, sometimes it's a
Princess, sometimes it's a comic book character.
The Princess stuff is the most popular.
This coming week I'll actually be in a Halloween parade and I'm
probably going to be a Princess because that's what the kids
want. But I like, I like being out
there and getting to see the community.
I'm going to be riding on a float with a local dance school
that's asked me to help with them.
So I'll watch the little ones that that can't March and then
I'll be there and like pass out candy and do that kind of thing.
But it's fun to just get to be part of the community and make
all the kids happy. I push a hospitality cart at the
hospital where I'm giving out. Books and crayons and teddy
bears, snacks and juice boxes and that kind of thing.
It's a lot of fun to just be there and make a kid smile when
they need it the most, or be able to hand a parent a snack
when who knows the last time they've left that room.
Right, right. We can't forget about the
parents too, right? Sure.
That we're giving stuff to siblings and parents and just
anybody that's around because that's a hard time for the
entire family, especially when I'm volunteering at the Ronald
McDonald House. A lot of times I am just
cleaning or I am cooking and I'm assembling like welcome baskets.
We do like a welcome bag where we put all kinds of toiletries
and essentials and little activities and just things like
let them know we're thinking of them and we're here for them
during their stay. Because if they're there,
they're there for an extended period of time away from home
and they probably didn't plan it.
It's probably been an emergency situation and they don't have a
toothbrush, they don't have deodorant.
We've got vouchers and stuff to help them get changes of
clothes. We've got all kinds of options
for like helping with transportation and that kind of
thing. I love being able to cook there.
They have 4 kitchens at the Huntington Ronald McDonald
House. Wow, it's cool to be able to
like prep food and stuff and help them out and just make sure
like even if they're just like grabbing a a bagel on their way
back to the hospital, they're able to have that so they can go
be with their family. How long have you been working
with Ronald McDonald House? A little over a year.
OK. Yeah, it's a project that's very
near and dear to my heart. I remember like growing up, we
went and visited a family. It was like my mom's college
best friend had had a baby. Like they weren't in college
anymore, but they're my mom's best friend from college.
She had a baby and he was born with a lot of health issues.
And they ended up staying at the Ronald McDonald House at the
Cincinnati Children's Hospital. And I was like, McDonald's, why
are we going to McDonald's in Cincinnati?
You know, I was a child at the time.
Knowing what they did for that family, you know, knowing that
they gave them a safe place to stay without charging them an
exuberant amount of money. They gave them a place where
they could lay their head down. It was clean, they were fed.
They made sure that they had everything to be comfortable
because they couldn't think about themselves at that point.
They had a baby that was, you know, extremely, extremely in
need of medical care. That was their priority.
They couldn't think about themselves.
So having ready made food, you know, they're just ready to go
and a nice place to sleep if you ever get the chance.
It meant a lot to them. And seeing that at at that young
age, I'm not even sure how old I was.
I was probably still in elementary school, probably 4th
grade. Seeing that and then seeing
throughout the rest of my life how much good they've done in
this community really made me want to help them out.
Yeah. Where can for our listeners,
where can they tribute, donate, whatever?
Do you do you have like a do you have a website, phone number or
anything that you use? If you want to donate directly
to the Ronald McDonald House, it's the Ronald McDonald House
charities.com. I do a lot with Starlight
Foundation as well. So Starlight Foundation, they do
the donating for like all the the children's hospitals, but
they actually are game oriented. So they will donate games or
gaming devices and that kind of thing.
I'm getting ready to post a program where the Ghostbusters
group I'm in is running a thing with Starlight and we're going
to be raising money for for their hospitals, and I'm pretty
excited about that. So you'll, so Rachel's going to
give me all the links. We'll put everything in the in
the comments section for you guys when the episode when is
your listen and you'll see that there and we'll get that to you
so you guys can make contributions.
So I, I really love your Ghostbusters group.
Katie and I, we decorate our house for Halloween.
It's it's very much Ghostbusters themed.
She and I dress as Ghostbusters, although our costumes are our
costumes are nothing like yours, but we got two, we got 2 full
life skeletons that we, you know, we put up in the yard and
dress them as the other two Ghostbusters.
We just recently added two more and we we dress one as Lewis
Tully and Dana Barrett. So you got the.
Gatekeeper and the. Keymaster and they're sitting on
a bench in front the house and we've got a ghost and they got
the little orange lights cause yeah.
My water bottle here has slime hanging on it.
I love that. I'm just it's one of my favorite
movies or movie franchises out there.
Yep, it's it's, I don't know what why it has hold on me, but
it does. And dressing up like a
Ghostbuster. We've done so much fundraising
and so much good and so many people like it.
Kids love it, adults love it. It came out in the 80s, but
there's also they're still coming out with Movies Now.
Exactly. It's one of those things where
every generation can appreciate it and not everybody feels that
way about some of my costumes. So like, we don't know what that
is, but everyone recognizes a Ghostbuster.
Everybody knows Ghostbusters. What do you to your mind?
What do you see that the community of content creators,
gamers, the gamer industry, just overall, what do you see that we
really do well that you're that makes you proud to be a part of
this community? What we do well, having the
community is probably the best thing that we do because in
cosplay it's not like that in my experience.
So I have met tons and tons of content creators from across
both sides of the board here and in the board gaming community.
They're kind, they're nice, they're normal people, They're
willing to talk to you about stuff.
Everybody's super down to earth. Everybody is ready to play a
game, ready to make a video, ready to snap a picture.
Nobody acts like they're better than anyone else, and in cosplay
it's a competition, constantly a competition, and I feel like
with board gaming, the only competition is on the table and
we leave it. So that's the way I like it.
It's much more simple. The social aspect is better
because even if it's a competitive game, then the
game's over and we can all just talk about it and be friends.
Right, right. I've, I've got so many friends
that do content creation now and I think that it's really, we're
friendlier. I don't know what I was
expecting, but I've gone to all different types of conventions
and all different types of hobbies and stuff.
But the board game content creators are just so kind and
welcoming, and it's it's not a scary thing to get into.
See that, guys? We're kind if we just keep being
kind. That's what it's all about.
There's groups for everything but nobody is being pushed out.
There's a space for everyone and I really, really like that.
Yeah. What is one thing that the
community needs to work on to your mind?
What is? We're something where we do fall
short and could do better. Don't love where only the
hottest newest games get the most attention.
I think, and that's not even the best answer to this, but that's
just the first thing that came to mind, I think.
You're talking about the cult of the New.
Right, yes. Just because it's new doesn't
mean it's great. And we there's always this rush,
this pressure to get your content of the newest game out
first as soon as possible. And I feel like there's almost
like this weight of a deadline. Like, if ten other content
creators have this game on their channel first, why post mine?
So there's always this, this, this pressure to get it out
there. And I feel like there there
shouldn't be. I feel like old games, older
games, smaller publishers, that kind of thing are still just as
worth posting about. But there's this weird pressure
of like only posting what's new, what's hot, what's trending.
And I feel like we should be pushing all the gaming content
all the time. There's so many games.
That's why there's so many creators, yeah.
Yeah. So what I'm hearing is that
there is room and there is space for everyone.
Everyone. I think I have this conversation
all the time, right? Wherever we go, we're gamers.
There's a board game for you. Doesn't matter who you are at
all. I was.
So I was in Anaheim, CA at the end of August for Society of
American Archivists convention because I'm an archivist.
So I was at a work convention and I mentioned that I had a
board game podcast. And so someone walked up to me
and was like, you know, can you tell me a little bit more?
And I said the same thing. I was like, no matter who you
are, there's a board game for you.
And I was like, tell me, where do you work?
So this individual is the senior archivist for the San Diego Zoo.
OK Yeah. So she manages all the records
for the zoo in San Diego. And I'm like, let me tell you
about this game called Arc Nova. And I just, I started to talk
when I started talking about, you know, appeal whenever you
play an animal and it generates appeal.
And at the end of the round, that appeal determines how much
money you generate. And there's conservation
efforts. And I'm explaining just kind of
how the scoring works in that game.
Her eyes lit up. And she was like, this is a real
thing. And I'm like, yes ma'am, there
it is. And there it is.
You check it out. I talk more about board games
when I'm at an archives conference than I talk about
archives. I'm just saying right cuz we
need more gamers cuz there's so many games that they need to be
played. There's so many really cool
themes, yes, and I think a theme is a good way to get your toes
into the community. So if you're into quilting,
there's a quilt themed game. Now you like board games and
you're going to play all the other themed games.
There it is. Gets you in.
I love that you brought up quilting and I'm pretty sure the
game you're thinking of is a polyomino tile laying game to.
Do that. So I love that.
Yeah. Yeah.
See, it's all full circle, guys, right.
It's like Cicero said, all the humanities are inherently linked
as if by a common bond. It's all full circle.
That's.
It the bond is board games. Board games are the connections,
right? And the conversations is like
the glue that holds the community together or something
like that. Absolutely.
I'm trying to work on that. I'm working on that that
analogy. Yeah, something I'm toying with.
I don't like the way that came out but y'all know what I'm?
Talking. There's potential there, There's
potential. Yeah.
My my greatest relationships have been built on board gaming.
Some of my best friends, like all a lot, most of my friends
actually are are into board gaming, even if it's just a
little bit because I forced them.
But some of my absolute best friends I've met through being
in this community, and I'm so thankful that I got to meet
everybody and become what we are.
Yeah, I would never have met you if it weren't for gaming.
I'm just saying, you know, I, I will say on a personal note, I'd
love to see more board game content on your page.
All your social media, your cosplay is amazing, but.
Personal goal, I'm definitely going to be pushing more and I
think I want to do more collaboration of like dressing
up with the game because I'm doing that with my my Halloween
1. So I was like, why don't we do
that? I'm loving it so much.
Why don't I do it more often? Sure.
Yep. I would love to collaborate with
you on that. Just note that as someone who
doesn't cosplay, it's not going to look terrific, but you know,
that's that's OK. Yeah, I mean, we do, we get we
dabble a little bit. One of the things that my wife
and I do at Christmas time when we go to see my in laws and
they're in Ohio, there's the I don't know what it's, but
there's a Renaissance festival in Ohio and it's in December.
So it's like a Christmas. So we she's is.
It like the Dickens themed stuff.
Some of it is so she's she's working on both of our costumes
right now. Like stays or OK?
And I'm like, yeah, so. So she's working on that so that
we'll be dressed appropriately for the Renaissance Festival at
Christmas. And you got to dress up before
going. You do, you do.
And it's like, OK, yeah. Like Renaissance clothing,
Renaissance costumes really lends itself to the winter time
because there's a lot of layers and they're heavy and.
Absolutely. There's some cool stuff out
there. I've got a quilted petticoat
that I only wear for like outdoor winter events because it
looks like my regular gown on the outside.
Because my skirt is is, you know, still typical cotton, but
underneath it is a thick quilt all the way around.
So like I'm. But there's a lot of there's a
lot of great opportunities to cosplay a board for a board game
that you're about to play, right?
I mean, with within reason, I'm certainly not going to, you
know, get a bunch of warp and make this huge armor for like
Nemesis on Halloween and we're going to play Nemesis because
that would just be uncomfortable because you have to sit down.
You know all about that. Sure.
But you know, you understand, you've got to be practical
because you want me to sit and play like, I don't think that
that costume that you wore for Origins, you could have sat down
and played a board game in that. Not well, sure.
So I actually had an issue because I needed to sit.
I've been standing for four hours of they, they did not have
a place for any of us to sit or anything.
So we had to stand in lines and then move to another's place and
stand in more lines. And I almost passed out towards
the end. It was just like, I'm going to
sit. But I was worried about bending
my legs because I made the legs kind of flexible and I didn't
want to like chip paint or anything.
And I was like, I just, I'm up on these gigantic shoes.
I had like a little stilts on. I was like, I just, but I wanted
to be tall so. That's crazy.
Yeah. But there's a lot of ways to
marry those two hobbies together.
I can absolutely see that. Like I said, I still want to do
the period piece for obsession. I just think that would be a lot
of fun. There's a couple others I think
that I would be. That would be neat to do.
Right. Yeah.
So anything else on your mind that you want to share about
this beautiful community that we're a part of?
I'm just. I'm so happy to be, to have this
opportunity. You know, I'm, I'm thankful to
be in this beautiful community. I'm thankful that there people
are listening to me and watching me and just putting up with my
shenanigans for the most part. It's, it's wild to feel so
welcome and so included in something that I feel like I'm
sort of new to, you know, it's, it's been a couple years, but I
just jumped in and didn't know what I was doing and everybody
had their arms open and caught me.
It was, it was interesting to see how it went.
And like, now I'm on a podcast. Well, thank you.
I don't know that this podcast is as popular as that, but thank
you for the accolades. It's just.
I'm trying to get more listeners though.
It's really cool to see how this works and like learn more about
all of these people and, and see how they got into it.
So the series you're working on right now I'm bumped for.
I can't wait to hear everybody else's experiences.
I mean, I, I have truly curated A diverse group of individuals
across all the spectrums and across the the world.
I will have guests on all over the US.
I've got a guest from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany,
Australia. I'm really excited.
So be on the lookout for that. Yeah.
Just trying to curate different sexualities and races and just
getting everyone included, right?
I really do believe that our strength is in our diversity.
And if we're going to talk about unity, it has to start with
diversity. We have to embrace our diversity
because if you can't have unity, you cannot have unity.
PJ you cannot have unity without diversity, right?
Absolutely and. That's what makes us stronger,
Absolutely. So where can people find you?
Either you and your cosplay, or your YouTube, or you in an
official capacity with Queen Games?
Where do people find you? OK so if you're looking for me
on like Instagram or Facebook at Miss Kitty Cosplay, my actual
name is Rachel Bolin, but Miss Kitty Cosplay is the easiest way
to find me on YouTube. My channel name is Miss Kitty's
Dice and Disguise Discussion, so I talk about my costuming and
dice related things for gaming and if you're looking for me
with Queen Games, if you've got anything social content related
that you want to get reshared, or if you want to collaborate
with something or get on our press list, that would be
r.mullen@queenhyphengames.com. I spelled that out with my
finger like I'm writing it. It'll be down below.
Yeah, we can link it all. We'll link it.
Up. Yeah, it'll be there, guys.
It's just such an honor to be here.
This is exciting. I've, I, I just got off the 24
hour game jam and I feel like my brain is mush.
I, I wasn't up for 24 hours, but I spent a lot of time thinking
about a game and that just, it was such a fun exercise, but it
was exercise. It was different.
You know, I've been trying to dabble in board game creation.
I want to be a designer as well. I've got these awesome ideas,
got to figure out how to put them out there and go onto a
table. What better way to do that than
a board game jam? Pam Walls hosted 1 and I was
like, this sounds like a great idea.
It was hard, but it was cool, but it was like it was hard
using having parameters to like work around was something I've
never worked with before. Usually it's just like I come up
with whatever I want to, and when it's not cool, it's not
cool. If it's cool, it's fine.
But having set parameters changed it, and I think I liked
it because it gave me a more structured challenge.
Yep, I think that's a. Timeline.
Yeah. Having a timeline really put
pressure on it to where I had. I had to come up with something.
I couldn't think about it for a week.
There was no just cutting back to it in a couple days.
It was. That's your way of doing it.
Like there's no other way around it.
You got to do it. Yep, that's that's fantastic.
I think it's that structure. I think we all need that
structure, some of us more than others.
And that structure helps out. I think it's part of the appeal
of board gaming and why we're passionate about this shared
experience on our tables. Is that structure there?
Well, Rachel, thank you so much. You're.
Very welcome. I am just my gosh, this is a
great second episode of this series.
We got a lot. Think about more things and I'll
come back. No, definitely, definitely come
back as you design more games. We'll have you on in a designer
capacity, yeah. I've got a couple designs that
I'm ready to pitch to publisher. Hopefully that won't be long.
Yeah, who knows, there might be a our Mullen games one day and
you know, you'll be running your own thing and you'll be all
independent you. Never know what's.
Happening over the world. Things change day by day in this
industry. It is true Yep.
Well guys, thank you for listening.
Please, as always, most humbly like and subscribe to the
channel. You know, you can find us on
Instagram, on YouTube, on TikTok, just launched A TikTok,
went ahead and dove into TikTok. Eliminate all the cool things at
Meatball to Meatball. And as always, be kind to one
another and let's play more games.