Skyler Gorsett
Skyler is the original mastermind behind Session Zero Heroes and the various shows and one-shots encompassed within it. Although he has memories of creating pen & paper RPGs with his nephew way back when he was a kid, he originally discovered a more official concept of TTRPGs in college, where he started playing Dungeons & Dragons with some of the members of the Anime & Gaming Club that he started. After graduating from Buena Vista University with a Bachelor of Arts focusing on Digital Media and Graphic Design, he decided to use those talents towards starting a podcast. Originally, he collaborated with a friend to create the Apocalypse Bros podcast during the COVID pandemic, and after they closed that chapter, he felt the hunger to continue creating and now has the practice to move things forward. From there, SZH was born.
Characters Played: Kendrick "Kenny" Whitlock (Hunter's Haven: Music Mayhem), James (Hunter's Haven: Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee).
Game Master/Creator/Writer: Benders & Brews, Criminals of Island Numus, Dilly Dunker's Ice Cream Satisfactory, Escape from Dino Island, Black Friday of the Dead.
Editor: Benders & Brews, Criminals of Island Numus, Dilly Dunker's Ice Cream Satisfactory, Hunter's Haven: Music Mayhem, Session Zero University (Series), Hunter's Haven: Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee, Escape from Dino Island, Black Friday of the Dead.
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Cameron Hoogendyk
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Makala Mastbergen
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David Mastbergen
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Makala has humored the rest of the gang by dipping her toes in the world of TTRPGs, originally as part of an unrecorded Dungeons & Dragons campaign the group was running. After going through three characters by the end of that experience, we managed to convince her to try her hand in the Benders & Brews Avatar Legends series. As an avid fan of Avatar The Last Airbender, she jumped at the chance and quickly became a fan favorite with her character "Meeka." |
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David has been playing TTRPGs with the gang since the beginning and always adds a hilarious character and tone to any story with his quick quips and clever solutions. His primary source of TTRPG experience, much like most of the crew, stems from Dungeons & Dragons, but that's not to say he hasn't been a part of almost every campaign/one-shot from every system we've tried out, be it Masks and Monster of the Week to Fiasco. He is legendary for his character: "Nicholas Mage," a play on one of his favorite actors: Nicholas Cage. |
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Characters Played: Bill Door (Benders & Brews), Rorick/Fizzlefingers (Criminals of Island Numus), Julian Pardner (Dilly Dunker's Ice Cream Satisfactory), Himself (Black Friday of the Dead), Alex (Hunter's Haven: Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee), Dr. Lazurus (Escape from Dino Island).
Game Master/Creator/Writer: Hunter's Haven: Music Mayhem.
SZU Professor: Intramural One-Shots
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Characters Played: Meeka (Benders & Brews), Dr. Mackenzie Sattler (Escape from Dino Island), Maya (Hunter's Haven: Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee). |
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Characters Played: Guo Han (Benders & Brews), Maki/Quill Smith (Criminals of Isla Numus), Himself (Black Friday of the Dead), Dennis Rogers (Hunter's Haven: Music Mayhem). |
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Connor Trett
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Jackson "Jack" Young
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Fatty Lumpkins
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A newer member of our crew, Connor, came from California to represent the West Coast in our channel! He had little to know TTRPG experience when we met him, and although his tabletop gaming experience has gone up significantly, he's still really only gotten to experience the magic of TTRPGs through the Benders & Brews series, which uses the Avatar Legends system. We'll see if we can score his attendance in other TTRPGs moving forward, but for now, we'll just continue to get a hearty chuckle out of his character Brock Lee.
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Jackson's primary source of TTRPG knowledge stems from Dungeons & Dragons, but don't let that fool you into thinking he's inexperienced. Jackson has done his research and knows the races and classes within D&D like the back of his hand, with his trusty character sheet app close at hand, he's an expert in making clever, interesting characters. When he's not gaming with the crew, he's making fake teeth and spending time with his family.
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A bit shy, our mystery member chose to go by the pseudonym offered by one of his favorite Lord of the Rings characters: Fatty Lumpkins - one of Tom Bombadil's ponies. As you may have guessed, Fatty is an avid fan of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, and none of us could ever dream of beating him in a trivia contest for either. It took a lot of coaxing and prodding to get him to play a character in our Dungeons & Dragons series, Criminals of Isla Numus, but we're so glad we did! |
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Characters Played: Brock Lee (Benders & Brews), Himself (Black Friday of the Dead), Ella (Hunter's Haven: Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee).
Voice Acting: Various NPCs (Criminals of Isla Numus)
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Characters Played: Dez/Wingbert Featherbottom (Criminals of Island Numus), Himself (Black Friday of the Dead).
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Characters Played: Keto/Ichthyo "Theo" Glycerskin (Criminals of Island Numus), Himself (Black Friday of the Dead).
Game Master/Creator/Writer: Ghost Writer (Benders & Brews). |
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Nate Vajgrt
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Doug Grosser
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Quinn Newton
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Nate joined the crew as a special guest on our Escape from Dino Island one-shot. Afterwards, he told Skyler about how much he loved the Monster of the Week system, and that sparked an idea. A few months later, he was running our 2024 MOTW one-shot Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee, and we LOVED IT!
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Doug has been playing TTRPGs for a while and joined the group long ago, bringing all sorts of cultural and intellectual knowledge to his characters he's played. Additionally, he's adamant about writing TTRPGs and has created several that we hope, sometime soon, to be able to run one-shots of on the podcast! Doug brings his technical knowledge to Session Zero Heroes and has been helping to edit episodes of the various shows. He also joined us as a professor for our Session Zero University series, teaching the techniques he uses when Worldbuilding! |
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Quinn's primary area of gaming has always been video games, but ever since Skyler came back from college and convinced him to try out a homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign he had written Quinn has been hooked. It was high time he not only got on the podcast but finally got to play D&D once again when he joined the cast of our Criminals of Isla Numus series and became a central character in the show. |
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Characters Played: Jimmy the Jet (Escape from Dino Island).
Game Master/Creator/Writer: Hunter's Haven: Trick or Treat, Fight or Flee.
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Editor: Benders & Brews.
SZU Professor: Worldbuilding 101
Voice Acting: Old Man Gunja & Councilman Huan (Benders & Brews)
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Characters Played: Feather McGregor/Lil' Sauce (Criminals of Island Numus), Himself (Black Friday of the Dead). |
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Emily Williams-Gorsett
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Morgan Ruthardt
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Aaron Pluym
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We're not sure if Emily joined the cast of our 2023 Monster of the Week campaign because she wanted to or because her husband (Skyler) roped her into it, but we like to think she had a great time! She has some background in acting classes and did a phenomenal job as her character "Bob-E," so we hope she joins us for future series and one-shots!
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Morgan Ruthardt was introduced to TTRPG by his then-girlfriend, now wife, with a game of Pathfinder. After a couple of years, a few different games, and primarily playing D&D now, he first tried his hand at GM-ing through a story set in the world of Toy Story! He currently enjoys leading a party of family and friends through his full D&D-style homebrew world, where the quite-young planet is flat, the Underdark doesn't exist (yet), and where the "Undergods" are being encouraged (by ...someone...) to manifest an era-ending uprising. When he found so, so many great D&D podcasts to enjoy, he realized he could put his Bachelor's degree in Audio Technology to ... interesting use, by looking for podcasts to edit and produce. He is eager to help out around Session Zero Heroes, all while bingeing the previous content, so as to be caught up with the story and characters. |
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A close friend of Skyler's from college, the two entered their TTRPG journey back in their university years. Now, they saw an opportunity to reunite and tell the epic tale of Skyler's Escape from Dino Island one-shot where Aaron joined as Sgt. McMahan! It was an incredible time with loads of laughs. Aaron has always had a creative mind with unexpected twists and turns that keep the GM guessing, making him a phenomenal player to have at the table. Hopefully, we'll get to see him on SZH again soon! |
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Characters Played: Bobbi "Bob-E" Eastwood (Hunter's Haven: Music Mayhem).
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Editor: Criminals of Isla Numus. |
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Characters Played: Sgt. McMahan (Escape from Dino Island).
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Bart Miller
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Ben Scaturro
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Skyler approached Bart, the President of the Sioux City Tabletop Gamers - a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that has been organizing the Sioux City Geek Convention since 2021, and his convention experience has spanned decades prior. Bart was the perfect candidate to join in on the show and play (technically) two characters in our Dilly Dunker's Ice Cream Satisfactory one-shot. Perhaps, we'll be able to get him to join again!
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One of Skyler's coworkers, who has mentioned his love for TTRPGs, Skyler knew Ben was the perfect candidate to join in for one of their shows. Ben brought a whole new perspective to the Dilly Dunker's one-shot, and we couldn't have asked for better. We hope Ben will have time to jump in on another campaign or one-shot in the near future! |
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Characters Played: Philip Dipple & Hogan Dose (Dilly Dunker's Ice Cream Satisfactory).
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Characters Played: Kieran O'Mulligan (Dilly Dunker's Ice Cream Satisfactory). |
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SPECIAL GUESTS AND TALENT
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Justin Nitta
Dustfire Media
Johnny Button
Dustfire Media
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D&D vs Avatar Legends
Join us for a sit-down conversation about the key similarities and differences between D20-based TTRPG systems like Dungeons and Dragons versus the Powered by the Apocalypse Avatar Legends system that we at Benders & Brews use to play. If you're someone transitioning away from D&D or simply looking to try out a new system and are looking at Avatar Legends as an option, then this is a perfect episode for you!
Joining Skyler (DM) and Cameron (Bill Door) are Justin Nitta (DM) and Johnny Button (Osa Tenguin) from Dustfire Media's The Flying Bison Podcast, sharing their experiences within the TTRPG systems. It's going to be a fun discussion and to top it off we'll be asking some of the AL community's biggest questions of game mechanics and how they work along the way! You won't want to miss out on this awesome opportunity!
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Madame Yang
Kasandra Georgi
General Wang Long
Hitoshura
Mak-Tuk
Neilson Brown (VanStein)
Chang Sanani
FM Voice Acting
Sora
Farewell Asthetic - Katherine Storm
Mayor Yu
Adam Powell from Snyder's Return
Mayor Wu
Danielle "Ella Hoshi" Gates
Lei
Josh Osborne
Councilman Young
AustinM3
Weigh
QuailSpinch
Niah
Patrick Macke (CCC, Voices.com, Web)
Guru Tapik
Huscari
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Benders & Brews
Jasmine, Oolong, Green, and White. Long ago, these four teas were skillfully brewed at the Blissful Brew. Then, everything changed when the shop's popularity threatened its existence. All Mr. Okuran, the shop's owner and tea-master, could do was recruit four teenage orphans to learn his trade and staff his shop. A year has passed since the orphans were hired, and although their skills have progressed, they still have a lot to learn before they can brew anything. But I believe that they have the potential to make the Blissful Brew the greatest teashop in the world.
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Jasper Burtney
Chazz-Ravenelle
Margret Burtney
Umifusion
Ship Captain
FestiveVA
Blaze Burtney
FM Voice Acting
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Benders & Brews: Bill Door Prequel
Today we're going to get a little bit of insight into Bill Door and where he came from, how he met Mr. Okuran, and how he got to the Blissful Brew! It's a wild ride involving villainous generals, pirates, and hopefully a successful (but narrow) escape! You won't want to miss this, or any of our other upcoming prequel episodes coming soon!
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Kallik
GantuDubs
Guo Han's Father
GantuDubs
Maribel
Emily Williams-Gorsett
Guo Han's Mother
LateNightOJ
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Benders & Brews: Guo Han Prequel
Today, we're going to get a little bit of insight into Guo Han and where he came from, how he met Mr. Okuran, and how he got to the Blissful Brew! It's a crazy carnival ride as the leader of Guo Han's festive home reveals some dark secrets after receiving a visit from a questionable individual. You won't want to miss this, or any of our other upcoming prequel episodes coming soon!
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Child Meeka & the Water Tribe Woman
Danielle "Ella Hoshi" Gates
Innera
Savvy is Happy
Shaman
(CCC, Web, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram)
Chief Tutanka
Scythious1 (CCC, Twitch)
Water Tribe Man
Patrick Macke (CCC, Voices.com, Web)
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Benders & Brews: Meeka Prequel
Meeka has always been quiet and recluse, but now is the time when we get to step into her life and see what sort of story has led to who she is now! Find out about the mysterious Meeka, her tragic loss, and the culture that drove her away in this special prequel episode of Benders & Brews!
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Mr. Gumor
Chazz-Ravenelle
Delivery Station Employee
Silver Solfege
Rescue Team Squadron Member
AustinM3
Ginger Lee
Danielle "Ella Hoshi" Gates
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Benders & Brews: Brock Lee Prequel
It's time for the big fight as Brock Lee steps into the spotlight and gets his backstory illuminated for all to see! Find out a little more about your favorite 6ft 3in Earthbender as we take a peek into the life of the vegetably-named hero!
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Thad Thunderjaw
Mike Reid
Tiffani Terracotta
Porcha Gore (YouTube, TikTok)
Ken Phillips (Scientist)
Nolan Evans | IMDB | YouTube
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Escape From Dino Island One-Shot
In the aftermath of the DinoQuest Park Catastrophe, a mysterious message found its way to four individuals each a specialist in their field. This message outlined a dangerous mission of unimaginable reward which would send each of these agents to the abandoned island overrun with the ancient reptiles for which it got its name.
Their goal? Reach the DinoQuest headquarters at the center of the island and safely abscond with the coveted Dinosaur DNA from its forsaken laboratory. Not to mention the allure of seeing a real-life dinosaur before their very eyes. As the echoes of this journey reverberate through our intrepid team, one fact remains true. We are all, about to take our first steps, onto Dino Island!
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Creator of the Nightbringer TTRPG
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Session Zero University: Breaking Free from D&D
Players and GMs, are you trapped with a constant stream of the traditional Medieval High Fantasy? Have you attempted to convert the Dungeons and Dragons rules in such a way as to play new themes, only to be met with days of work and poor results? Perhaps it's because you need a new system. Join Hartly Llosa, creator of the Nightbringer system, to talk to us about breaking free of the D&D-only mindset and teach us how we can explore new systems, worlds, themes, and more!
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ART & MUSIC CREDITS
- Benders & Brews - An Avatar Legends Actual Play
- Criminals of Isla Numus - A D&D 5e Actual Play
- Dilly Dunker's Ice Cream Satis-Factory - A Kids on Bikes Actual Play
- Escape from Dino Island One-Shot
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