This is the latest in a series of interviews of our EN World Columnists. In this installment I interview our star Dungeons & Dragons beat reporter, Beth Rimmels!
Michael Tresca (MT): Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
Beth Rimmels (BR): I was a geek before geek was cool. Sometimes it's hard to believe that gaming, science fiction, and comic books have gone mainstream, but I love it. I started my career in newspaper publishing, but switched to content marketing as publishing has shrunk. Along the way I've written a column about comic books, been an Eisner Award judge, a movie critic, and have been a contributing writer on several RPG projects. Before COVID, I was a frequent guest speaker and panelist at conventions like METATOPIA, Gen Con, and I-CON, several of which ended up in the RPG Game Design PanelCast Podcast and the YouTube channels for the conventions. As a game designer, I have a multi-genre, universal RPG mostly designed, but need to finish it and work on settings for it (I want to launch with at least two settings). I also have a movie-themed card game in progress. Play testing takes time, though, and life and day jobs get in the way.
MT: What's next for your column?
BR: Well, 2024 is going to be a big year for my beat with the revised versions of the D&D core trinity. First I'll be reviewing the novel Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin, which introduces a new group of intrepid adventurers.
MT: Are there any interviews or product reviews you're looking forward to covering?
BR: I'm eager to see the final versions of the revised D&D core books, especially the DMG. Chris Perkins has promised a better organization, which is desperately needed, in my opinion, and lots of tools for DMs, especially new DMs. I've enjoyed their anthologies so I'm excited to read Quests from the Infinite Staircase, and while I'm not a Vecna fan I am curious to see what they do with Vecna: Eve of Ruin.
MT: What games are you planning to play this year?
BR: With so many games and not enough time, I'm not sure how many of these I'll actually get to but on my list is Daggerheart (It'll be interesting to see what Critical Role does in its own fantasy RPG), Shadow of the Weird Wizard (Rob Schwalb makes great games. I took a peak at its initiative method, and it's interesting), and Eat the Reich (who doesn't want to play vampire commandos taking down Nazis during an alternate WWII?). Plus I still want to try Coyote & Crow and Good Society, but don't have groups for them yet.
MT: If your work is published anywhere else, where can we find you?
BR: The archive of my EN World articles can be found here. I'm in the process of setting up a website to consolidate some of my other writing. It'll be at BethRimmels.com when it's ready. And among other things, I've contributed to Kids on Bikes: Strange Adventures Volume 2, which won the Silver ENnie Award for Best Family Game, and the core book for The Vampire Codex. I wrote the section on how to role-play.
MT: What is your relevant social media and where can fans follow you?
BR: Like many people, I'm moving away from Twitter so I just made a Bluesky account and I share game info on Facebook here and publishing, writing, science fiction, etc. here.
MT: Anything else you'd like to add?
BR: I have a lot of cool projects in the works, but am not sure when they'll be released. One is a cozy mystery series set in a game store. I'm also putting together a class that will teach people how to be better writers, create more engaging, believable characters, etc. Everyone has a story – or many stories – inside them, and I want to empower people to tell those stories.
Michael Tresca (MT): Tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
Beth Rimmels (BR): I was a geek before geek was cool. Sometimes it's hard to believe that gaming, science fiction, and comic books have gone mainstream, but I love it. I started my career in newspaper publishing, but switched to content marketing as publishing has shrunk. Along the way I've written a column about comic books, been an Eisner Award judge, a movie critic, and have been a contributing writer on several RPG projects. Before COVID, I was a frequent guest speaker and panelist at conventions like METATOPIA, Gen Con, and I-CON, several of which ended up in the RPG Game Design PanelCast Podcast and the YouTube channels for the conventions. As a game designer, I have a multi-genre, universal RPG mostly designed, but need to finish it and work on settings for it (I want to launch with at least two settings). I also have a movie-themed card game in progress. Play testing takes time, though, and life and day jobs get in the way.
MT: What's next for your column?
BR: Well, 2024 is going to be a big year for my beat with the revised versions of the D&D core trinity. First I'll be reviewing the novel Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin, which introduces a new group of intrepid adventurers.
MT: Are there any interviews or product reviews you're looking forward to covering?
BR: I'm eager to see the final versions of the revised D&D core books, especially the DMG. Chris Perkins has promised a better organization, which is desperately needed, in my opinion, and lots of tools for DMs, especially new DMs. I've enjoyed their anthologies so I'm excited to read Quests from the Infinite Staircase, and while I'm not a Vecna fan I am curious to see what they do with Vecna: Eve of Ruin.
MT: What games are you planning to play this year?
BR: With so many games and not enough time, I'm not sure how many of these I'll actually get to but on my list is Daggerheart (It'll be interesting to see what Critical Role does in its own fantasy RPG), Shadow of the Weird Wizard (Rob Schwalb makes great games. I took a peak at its initiative method, and it's interesting), and Eat the Reich (who doesn't want to play vampire commandos taking down Nazis during an alternate WWII?). Plus I still want to try Coyote & Crow and Good Society, but don't have groups for them yet.
MT: If your work is published anywhere else, where can we find you?
BR: The archive of my EN World articles can be found here. I'm in the process of setting up a website to consolidate some of my other writing. It'll be at BethRimmels.com when it's ready. And among other things, I've contributed to Kids on Bikes: Strange Adventures Volume 2, which won the Silver ENnie Award for Best Family Game, and the core book for The Vampire Codex. I wrote the section on how to role-play.
MT: What is your relevant social media and where can fans follow you?
BR: Like many people, I'm moving away from Twitter so I just made a Bluesky account and I share game info on Facebook here and publishing, writing, science fiction, etc. here.
MT: Anything else you'd like to add?
BR: I have a lot of cool projects in the works, but am not sure when they'll be released. One is a cozy mystery series set in a game store. I'm also putting together a class that will teach people how to be better writers, create more engaging, believable characters, etc. Everyone has a story – or many stories – inside them, and I want to empower people to tell those stories.
