Welcome back, weary travelers! Tonight the tavern doors swing open for a true force of nature — the CEO, founder, and chaotic-good soul behind The Crit Awards… Ivy!

That’s right: one of the hardest-working storytellers, community champions, and multi-hat-wearing wizards in the entire TTRPG realm pulls up a chair, and immediately things go off the rails. Just the way we like it.

CJ and Rudy chat with Ivy about everything from award-show ethics to ocean Sasquatches (“Seaquatch,” write that down immediately), mothfolk with emotional-support lamps, and why rumors started by adorable characters are the deadliest form of psychological warfare.

And yes — Dante derails the show with a live report from a haunted brothel, because of course he does.

In This Episode You’ll Hear:

How Ivy created The Crit Awards — a community-driven, fully verified, ethically run celebration of TTRPG creators, performers, DMs, artists, and storytellers.

The insane amount of work behind the scenes:

• 50+ categories
• verification teams
• conflict-of-interest logs
• public criteria
• hundreds of submissions
• SOLD OUT live events

The story of Ivy’s origin as a DM — starting by WRANGLING 12 brand-new players at once, all newbies, all chaos, all vibes.

How the OGL disaster unwittingly sparked one of the most important community initiatives in the TTRPG space.

Upcoming games, including her adorable chaos-filled Halloween “Night of Hollows” one-shot involving mysterious jack-o’-lanterns and kobold-transforming candy.

The absolute menace that is her Mothfolk character Sabella:

• Lamp-obsessed
• Sweet as sugar
• Starts petty rumors like a magical Regina George
• Accidentally becomes a cannibal bear for 10 minutes

The NPC name she regrets to this day and the cursed French blacksmith accent that haunts her soul.

A full round of Magic Items or Malarkey, where CJ snipes another win like the D&D trivia goblin he is.

And finally, Ivy shares one Nat 1 that shattered her heart and one Nat 20 so powerful it literally ripped Avernus open.