Hello and welcome to the anniversary of Pokemon! Adventures in the Millennium!
When we last talk to these podcasters, it was their first anniversary. Now we are back with them on their second anniversary with plenty of things happening in the story that their campaign that is their podcast! Today we have an interview with the podcasters that make up the Game Master and players for…Pokemon: Adventures in the Millennium.
Join us as we talk to Tanner the Game Master! Lindsay as Belle! Duncan as the role of Gabriel! And Ryan playing Julian. Together this group of friends talk about their experience about being on the roads of Sinnoh fighting disastrous battles! The origins of the group coming together to podcast! Their favorite characters! And surprising plot twists! All of this and more as these role players gather around the table to play a tabletop game and putting it on the podcasting airwaves!
We here at PXR have one of our biggest interviews ever when it comes to having so many people answering questions! We invite you to join us in this adventure as we talk to the cast of Pokemon: Adventures in the Millennium. With that said, please enjoy this interview with this bunch of amazing tabletop role players!
Pokemon Crossroads: Pokemon: Adventures in the Millennium started two years ago, what made you decide to start a Pokemon podcast? Especially a tabletop podcast?
| Tanner: I invited a bunch of my friends to a Facebook group so that we could play some tabletop games. We ended up picking Pokemon, and then literally minutes before our first session I said “I think I have a cool story and I’d like to share it. We should make this a podcast!” That lack of pre-planning is one of the reasons we’re a little slapdash right at the start, but it certainly worked out well for us! |
PXR: How did you decided on calling the podcast “Pokemon: Adventures in the Millennium”?
| Tanner: I wanted my campaign to take place during the thousandth year of Sinnoh being founded, because my ideas were based on it’s past and future (time and space, gen IV, you know the drill). Since a millennium is a thousand years, it fit pretty well. |
PXR: What is the origin story for your group of tabletop roleplayers?
 Lindsay: Ryan and I are brother and sister, I met Tanner in high school English class, but didn’t really start hanging out until University. Duncan was met through the University of Regina Anime club. So we had all been hanging out for some time before we started this game, and had some TTRPG experience (mostly D&D) going in. I think the big impetus was a bunch of us were either between games or wanted to play something different and someone came across PTU, we made the Facebook group, and the ball got rolling from there. |
PXR: What is the thought process in the creation of your characters? Such as Belle, Julian and Gabe? What about notable NPCs?
| Lindsay: When I create characters, I usually think of 1) how to make them interesting, and 2) how they will help the party and move the plot forward. A very early incarnation of Belle was going to use a ninja build, but something about the idea of an ex-evil team grunt got me. The interest in the magic/occult side of Pokémon is more me, though. |
 Ryan: Julian is probably the first character I took the time to properly craft. It was a little before we started floating the idea of doing a campaign that I got some great character creation advice from a friend, since a lot of my previous TTRPG characters had little to no backstory. So I built his backstory first to give a reason as to why he’s in Sinnoh in the first place: parents are archaeologists and have gone missing. From there, I’d simply added some elements here and there, like the DJ background that lead him to being classified as a musician, giving him his sisters, etc. |
 Duncan: I wanted to play a character that wanted to rescue Pokemon and decided with having a background with Pokemon Rangers. I wanted a character quirk which led to Gabe’s fascination with wrestling. |
| Tanner: Several major NPCs are characters I made directly to serve the plot, or at least would be interesting to see how they react to the plot unfolding. I think the most interesting one so far is the gym leader Indie. Originally she wasn’t going to be a major character, but then the players spent a good chunk of team in and around Oreburgh, and then we saw ways she could fit into the history of the region and even Julian’s backstory with regards to his parents’ disappearance, and she just started growing and developing more. |
PXR: Now, I have noticed that there is a small nod to anime/manga series, My Hero Academia in the early twenties.
From the GM (Game Master) perspective, how much of an influence do you get from anime/manga/pop culture in making stories for the campaign?
| Tanner: There are a lot of elements that pop up for quick jokes just because it’s what I’m in to at the time. I personally can’t recall the MHA joke but I did get into it during the campaign, so I wouldn’t be shocked! I do know that the part where Cool Rods Guy does the True Pokerap was recorded a few days after BDG did it himself. I had also started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race around the same time the campaign started (I don’t much now because Ru is the dirt worst :P), but that directly played into me creating the Queens of Jubilife City. |
PXR: Going back to the episodes 21 through 23 (Daniel Julian Fowler: Arrival, Belle Reed: Memories, and Gabriel Charleston: Rising). These were some of the first episodes where we saw major push in each character.
From the GM perspective, where was your thought process in crafting these stories? From the player’s perspective, how did it feel for you and your character during their individual moments?
| Tanner: So the only thing I had planned for certain was Belle reuniting with Cassidy during this part of the story. But a series of other decisions leading up to it – Ryan leaning into Julian’s music background during the festival, Duncan wanting to try out contests – meant there was an opportunity for each character to have a distinct and unique focus episode. |
| Ryan: Tanner crafted a great rival in scrtK1t1 that is a just straight up menace that feels great to beat at their own game. It helps legitimize Julian’s DJ background, and was just straight up fun to do. |
PXR: Your tabletop campaign is traveling through Sinnoh in the future. What are some things you think about when creating a world that not only has the latest Pokemon mechanics and creatures but also show some growth in the region since the time period that Diamond, Pearl and Platinum was originally set?
| Tanner: So it would probably make more sense to try and think of how the region would develop naturally after the events of the games, but I kind of work backwards? Rather, I think of stuff that would be cool to see, then step back and observe where it would make the most sense to place. A big complex like Logos HQ really only fits on a refurbished Iron Island. Alolan elements work well in Sandgem because it’s mostly beaches. It helps that Sinnoh has history as part of its backstory, but leaves a lot of gaps open for interpretation that I can use to insert my own twists and turns into. |
PXR: Speaking of Generation 4, we keep hearing fans saying they want DPPt remakes, what is the GM and player’s stance on this? How would this affect the story?
| Tanner: None of the Galarian variants are gen IV Pokemon, therefore #SinnohConfirmed! Just…don’t be a jerk about it, y’all. The workers need rest! |
| Lindsay: Good things come to those who wait. Gen IV remakes will probably happen, but they don’t need to be on the shelves this Christmas. As for how they might affect the story, we tend to go with the flow anyway. |
| Ryan: They’re coming, and I’ll probably be in line for when they drop. I personally wish that the Pokemon Company would put more money into the development teams and expand to alleviate the pressure on Game Freak. The game can be a whole lot more than what they are right now and maybe just growing the development side could achieve that goal. |
| Duncan: I agree with the others. I don’t see it coming right away but I’m sure it’s on paper somewhere at Nintendo. |
PXR: Do any of the other members of the podcast talk or listen to other Pokemon or non-Pokemon Tabletop podcasts? If so, what are some of your favorites?
| Lindsay: I can say that we are acquaintances with a few other Pokémon tabletop podcasts, but Ryan’s more of the social butterfly when it comes to that. Shout out to Pokémon World Tour United, who inspired us, Critical Ditto, Cool Kids Table, and Jemjammer. |
| Ryan: I’m a regular on the Critical Ditto discord, from there I’ve gotten to know members from Not a Scratch, 2’s Company, Reckless Rollers, and Jonah from Quest Co. Jr., And through PokeCasters, we are affiliated with everyone through there. Also shout out to PokeMoms and The Roaring Trainers, welcome back to the ‘castin game! |
| Duncan: I haven’t had a chance to yet but I’ve got a list of stuff to listen to. Just gotta make the time for it. |
| Tanner: I’m lucky enough to be friends with the Pokemon World Tour United crew, so that’s great. I’m slowly starting to venture into other Pokemon podcasts now that I have some time and I among the others listed here I wanna shout out Not a Scratch (a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon-style show) and Ctrl Group (an anthology with multiple games and campaigns) for being really fun to listen to. |
PXR: What are your opinions of the podcast’s first ten episodes? Do you like them? Anything you wish could have come out differently?
| Tanner: Like I said, we kind of jumped right into this without thinking too much and there’s a lot of stuff thrown together – the main one being Lindsay recording with a really awkward setup from a different location. We’ve talked about potentially remastering the episodes, re-recording from a script to capture the spirit but with better audio. |
| Ryan: God we sound terrible lol. Like story and character-wise they are fine, but from how we sound now, they are TERRIBLE. It kills me seeing how many people listen to the first episode and have to put up with our bad audio for the first 25 episodes. |
| Duncan: I haven’t gone back to listen cause I am uncomfortable listening to myself but I’ve heard bits and like the evolution we’ve made since the beginning. |
PXR: What are some of your favorite Pokemon that your characters have?
| Lindsay: I love them all, though Cassidy (Eevee) and Sigurd (Honedge) are probably the standouts due to their backstories. Sadie and Dilinger had instantly memorable characters. Sundance was a surprise because I had never played with a Lileep in any game and she’s a really good mon. And Wyatt has really come into his own. I’m going to have to work on the other guys. |
| Ryan: The best part of PTU is that you really get a chance to give your Pokemon character, and even have the chance of using Pokemon you might have never used before! I’ve never used a Sableye or a Chatot until I met Pearl and Melody and they have been some of the standouts in terms of being fun jokey characters. Grim also joins that pantheon of as he comes across as a prankster and will join in on Julian’s antics, Cait Sith being team mom, Ashley being like an older sister to Ibuki, and Erik being the leader of the bunch makes from a great cast in Julian’s team. We should be getting more of April, Lee, Daisy, and Jade soon as they are all due to evolve soon! |
| Duncan: It’s hard to choose a favorite. Claw was the one I designed from the start and was chosen to be very close to me but all the others have grown on me as they developed character and charm. Before this group I wasn’t much of a Bug type fan but now I have found some new favorite Pokemon and have had fun Catching these Pokemon in my copy of Sword and putting them in my team lol. |
| Tanner: The NPC’s Pokemon usually don’t get a lot of focus in comparison to the players. Can I just say all birds? I quite enjoy siccing them on Julian. |
PXR: Now that you mention using Pokemon that you never use in the video games, it has me thinking about something. After all, everybody here has experienced Pokemon via the video games and a tabletop campaign sounds similar to playing the video games. How does playing Pokemon via a Tabletop campaign differ from playing in the video games. What do you think are the similarities?
| Tanner: In the games you can power through any bare bones plot and easily switch out any Pokemon you desire if it’s not strong enough. But because there’s more downtime and moments explicitly devoted to character development and relationships in a tabletop roleplay, you’re going to end up feeling closer to your Pokemon as characters and you won’t want to swap any out necessarily. Fortunately, while the tabletop is a little overstuffed in trying to bring every video game element into itself, it also provides plenty of opportunities to balance things out so that, if you so desired, you really could steamroll every opponent with a properly cared-for Dunsparce so long as it’s also your best friend. |
PXR: How do you go about naming an episode? Is it a group decision or individual?
| Tanner: It’s almost always Ryan, but sometimes I weigh in if I have an idea or he’s stuck. |
| Ryan: Yeah, because I’m the one who edits and uploads the episodes, I end up also naming them. I try to make them memorable, but some episodes are tougher to name than others. Example: an episode like “On the Road Again”, or “Route 202”, you know we are probably going to be mostly traveling in the episode. “The Battle of ___” episodes can easily tell you we are in for a big fight. So there is a bit of a formula to naming these things. I do like to throw in a reference or two sometime, as you pointed out with the MHA references with the Barbrochella arc. Hell, I threw in a Dune reference with “Fear is the Mind-Killer”! |
PXR: What is your favorite thing about the Pokemon fandom? What about the Pokemon Tabletop Fandom?
| Lindsay: I like the passion the fandom in general has for the franchise and the lack of any shaming for how or when someone got into Pokémon. I haven’t really looked into Pokémon TTRPG forums, but at least on Twitter the tabletop fandom are so accepting of how people play the game and tell their story. |
| Duncan: I love the art for the fandom. There are many high spirited artists out there with unique styles and ideas |
| Ryan: I haven’t interacted much with the Tabletop fandom outside of those who have podcasts, but it seems like a great sub-fandom of the Pokemon fandom. As for my favourite thing about the Pokemon fandom? Has to be some of the amazing art I see. I love the creativity and passion artists in the fandom have for the series. |
| Tanner: I agree with all of the above. The art is fantastic and really shows the passion people have for these critters. |
PXR: What do you enjoy about the podcast’s fans?
| Lindsay: I am still surprised that we have as many fans as we do. So thanks for listening and I hope you’re having a good time. |
| Duncan: I’m overjoyed that people have enjoyed our podcast. It feels good to know that there are people out there who sit back and listen to us good around. |
| Tanner: That we have them? It’s wild that people like us so much but I’m glad they’re here! |
| Ryan: Pretty much echo the previous statements, anytime I see someone talk about the show, or check out numbers I’m always blown away that people really are listening to us. |
PXR: What kind of advice would you give to any of the podcast’s fans who may be interested in podcasting? Either Pokemon, tabletop or another subject.
| Tanner: If you’re podcasting, make sure you have all the tech, programs, and music setup beforehand. Otherwise you’ll be scrambling to put things together while steadily building up a backlog of recordings. For tabletop, jumping into systems you don’t know very well is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can be fun listening to people stumble through the first few sessions. But in reality there’s a lot of dead air and flipping through rules and going “uh…I don’t know what to do”. Remember that actual plays are audio mediums and you need to keep a level of energy up through the whole thing – complicated game mechanics like battles (especially in this system!) can be a huge time suck if you aren’t ready and you aren’t willing to bend the rules a little. Even two years in we’re still learning the ropes for this system and figuring out different ways of dealing with it – some rules we straight up ignore, other stuff we pare down to make more sense. I know I’ve even started looking into other systems for the future. |
| Ryan: Learn how to use your editing program of choice. I use Premiere Pro CS6 cause it’s the one I’m most familiar with (I used it in High School). From an acting perspective, you are playing the game first, making a podcast second. Don’t even think about an audience, you are playing a game with friends so go all out, scream, shout, get hyped when you roll a crit, you can get the audio levels in post. Really let yourself be the character for those hours you spend in sessions. Have fun! |
PXR: Speaking about tabletop systems and mechanics, has there ever been a time when you look at how the system describe an attack or action to be but you are sitting there questioning it? Especially compare to how it is done in the video games. How do you handle that? How do you handle that as players?
| Tanner: Oh gosh, well for one thing I think we continuously go back and forth on how type effectiveness works – whether to double damage before or after defense is applied, how much something is increased or reduced if it’s doubly effective or resistant. There have also been plenty of times where I just decide things are going to be “theatre of the mind” and focus more on how the narrative is unfolding than any actual stat stuff. For the most part though, I think the system covers most things fairly well and it’s just up to us to make it sound fun. |
PXR: How do you think the podcast has grown since the beginning?
| Ryan: We have gotten a whole lot better, sound wise it’s tolerable lol. I’ve gotten better as an editor, and even then I think we are still growing as a podcast. There are plenty of things we could be doing better, and we will continue to get better. Campaign 2 is going to sound amazing in 2 years! |
| Tanner: This is my first outing as a GM so the entire thing has been a learning process for me. I feel like I’ve gotten better at both planning things out and thinking on my feet. I also feel like story beats are starting to be defined by the characters choices instead of the other way around, which is the dream for any game like this, and I can’t wait to see what happens by the time we get to the end. |
PXR: Where do you think the podcast will be in another three years?
| Tanner: Judging by how long this one’s been going, we’ll probably just be a little bit into our second campaign? Who knows, maybe the rest of my plans will get torn through really quickly, but we’re about halfway through so I’d say that’s a safe estimate. |
| Lindsay: I’d say that we’re at the half-way point, so we might have moved to a new campaign in three years. We’ve been tossing some ideas around, but that’s not for here. |
| Ryan: Starting in Campaign 2 at that point. Consensus is I’m probably running the next one? Unless Lindsay or Duncan have anything they want to do before me, then yeah, we’re doing my Campaign next. |
| Duncan: Likely will be working one the second campaign. Lot of fun ideas have been bounced around. |
PXR: What is your favorite podcast memory?
| Tanner: T H E G H O S T Z O N E. That and the big reveal about the true villains in the latest episodes – I’d been sitting on that since the beginning and was so glad to finally let the players in on it! |
| Lindsay: The holiday specials for sure. |
| Ryan: Episodes 44 and 45, real high stakes in those episodes, Jade hitting a critical hit with Dig on the Astro Admin was unforgettable, after everything she put up with, all the missed Rock Slides. She needed that. |
| Duncan: I loved the triple battle in the battle theater. The lead up to gathering everyone and arranging it and the costumes we all designed were amazing. |
PXR: Speaking of the latest episodes (Eterna City Arc), how did that feel during and/or after everything concluded? That was an amazing set of episodes that left me at the edge of my seat wanting to see how it would end.
| Ryan: You and me both, Mikey! Tanner dropped a bomb on us with the Astro attack, and two really fun gym battles that showed that never give up attitude our characters have. I felt almost wiped out after those episodes. |
PXR: Which podcast episode from the last year would you like to recommend to new listeners and why?
| Ryan: I’d actually recommend the whole Eterna City mini-arc (episodes 54, 55, 56 and 57). It’s legit our best work yet, I am proud of how it came out. |
| Tanner: I’d say the Barboachella episodes (20, 21, 22, 23 and 24) are a good place to hop on. Our sound is pretty decent and that’s when the stakes started getting raised. It kind of ended up being a test-run for the Eterna arc in terms of gravity. |
PXR: Lastly, what would you like to tell to fans of the podcasts?
| Tanner: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Every time Ryan gives me a numbers update I’m floored that people actually like our mess of a show. I’m driven to be a better DM and better podcaster because of y’all. |
| Lindsay: I can’t begin to tell you how much it astonishes me that we got to this point. I can only thank you guys and I can only hope that we can live up to your expectations. |
| Ryan: Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you! This show has blown up way more than we could have ever imagined and it blows me away. Shout out to @LyssaLittleBear for being the #1 fan of the show! Also please leave us a rating and review, there is nothing more that makes us happy than seeing people talk about the show, guaranteed makes our days 1000% better! |
| Duncan: Thank you! It makes me feel proud to be a part of this. I’m glad you have enjoyed us and I hope we continue to. |
A huge thanks to Duncan, Lindsay, Ryan and Tanner for agreeing to this interview! Without them this wouldn’t have been possible! We hope that you love this interview! It was maybe one of the best ones I have done and there was so much information in it! Once again, happy anniversary to Pokemon: Adventures into the Millennium and the cast!
Make sure to wish these players and GM a happy anniversary on Twitter! You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @PKMN_Millennium. You can follow Tanner at @SparkyUpstart, Lindsay at @lindsaym476, Ryan at @VagabondHaunted, and Duncan at @cloudheadduncan. The icons used for this interview were made by Rose at @savehut.
May there be plenty more adventures as you start your next arc with plenty of anniversaries to come!
