Interview – Jessie "Aki" Lo
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Our interview this week is with actual play performer, artist, producer and ENNIE nominated writer, Jessie 'Aki' Lo!
Aki gives us an insight into her characters, along with a behind the scenes look at her podcast 'An Unwavering Force: A Star Wars Story'. We also hear about the important role safety tools play at Aki's tables and the vital benefits they bring to a game.
1. Your Vampire The Masquerade show, Last Of Eden's Vices has such a dramatic atmosphere and mood carrying through it. We'd love to hear the inspirations behind your character, Faline Quinn.
Faline is my first long-term Vampire The Masquerade character and Banu Haqim. She is a Roman Catholic, French-Chinese Assassin living in Providence (US) with big plans and even bigger enemies. As a character, Faline has more clear ties with her religion and while she no longer truly practices, it still has very clear effects on her such as believing in Heaven. Faline holds a lot of symbolism w/ the fall from the Garden of Eden, being essentially a witch with a snake familiar who uses a lot of planet based magic. She is also someone who has assimilated into Western/Euro-centric society so much so that she doesn't consider herself American despite being born in the US. For an even more in depth exploration of Faline, I do an annual OC deep dive every during AAPI month about how my culture informs my characters:
2. We're also excited to dive into your newest show, Tyrant of the Dark Star. What can listeners expect from this Pathfinder show?
Tyrant of the Dark Star takes place in the original world of Noxlight. Almost 100 years ago, the Tyrant appeared and caused the world to fall into an eternal eclipse. As the world hurdles to some sort of crescendo, fate will unite a group that has the chance to set things right before it's too late. It stars 3 nobles who all happen to be vegetarian, white-hair anime venom, poor woman batman, and a rat. Follow us as we travel through the perils of starting a rebellion to stop the ascension of a Tyrant God in a gothic fantasy world. If you're looking for a fun, diverse cast jumping head first into Pathfinder 2e Remastered, then ToDS might be for you.
3. We'd love to hear about An Unwavering Force: A Star Wars Story. What has this podcast meant to you?
When I started An Unwavering Force, I wasn’t a Star Wars fan. I knew barely anything about the franchise besides negative things, memes, or popular media moments like “Luke, I am your father.” I mostly said yes because I wanted to play more games with the rest of the cast. However, my GM Dusty had a vision to tell stories that amplified BIPOC and LGBTQ+ voices within the Star Wars universe that, while would be affected by in-universe events, would still be about lives moving forward. Hence, well, an unwavering force. I can learn about Star Wars whenever I want, but I know I can tell a really good immigrant story with lived-in experience. If you like Andor, The Mandalorian and The Acolyte, I really think you’ll love our podcast.
4. Championing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ voices throughout your amazing projects, how has representation in the TTRPG space changed since you first discovered this industry, and what would you like to see improve?
Well for starters, there are more spaces opened for BIPOC voices. A big reason why I didn’t want to get into the public TTRPG space was because of the lack of representation. It's scary to start on your own and even in an all Queer space, you as the token POC will feel very singled out. I think we’re getting better, we are most definitely improving. But there are still all white tables with all the fun opportunities and all the same, boring-ass excuses. We can’t keep letting this slide and I’m glad more and more people are calling stunts like this out faster.
5. What safety tools do you use at your tables, and what has their inclusion meant to your games?
We use a variety of safety tools such as session 0s, stars and wishes, X/N/O, living lines and veils, after game decompression talks and anonymous feedback. Safety tools and check ins have become such an important part of ALL my games. Personally, I won’t play in a game without basic safety tools. This is also not to say I don’t play “darker” games, most of my games (including the ones I run) are all gothic/cosmic/body horror. Rather, I want to always be playing games where everyone feels safe and comfortable. Games are supposed to be fun even if they deal with hard shit, it's why people swear by Soulsborne games. If you aren’t using safety tools, stop being weird and start doing that. If you don’t know where to start, there are plenty of resources you can find online. I started with making a small spreadsheet for Lines and Veils that I shared with my group. It's super easy to start and you’ll be enjoying your games 20% more, I guarantee it.
Thank you so much to Aki for taking the time to speak to us! Make sure you give her a follow to keep up to date with all these amazing shows and check out her other projects too.