Pesto_Mystic is a mellow concoction of streamer, actor, and impromptu hobbyist. Her years of experience in front of the camera includes hosting a local travel show on PBS, appearing in commercials, performing in independent features, and spontaneous variety streaming on her twitch channel. In between the lights, camera, and action Pesto can be found testing out different crafts (like resin art) or cuddling with the latest foster cat while listening to a TTRPG podcast.
Bunny (she/her) has always had gaming play a big role of her life and it’s one of her Major Intimacies. She was raised by a sales rep. for a variety of game companies and thus grew up surrounded by all manner of games, an upbringing based on how gaming brings people together and how important it can be for communities. She’s been roleplaying for most of her life and used to be a professional storyteller for a decade. She dreams of having her own TTRPG archive with as many games as possible preserved in it, currently with a combined physical and digital library of approximately 400 individual TTRPGs and their additional resources. World of Darkness and Call of Cthulhu were her first two roleplaying games, years before she’d end up trying games like Dungeons & Dragons. She has always been a horror fan to her core so it made her happy those were the games her friends started me with. Those interactions mixed with her upbringing inspired multiple projects of hers where she worked teaching players about different roleplaying games for a living and teaching children using roleplaying games, in addition to starting a charitable publicly available low-income group to provide people with community by gaming together – a group where she and the other community leaders would act as the storytellers for all games held there as well as providing the books, dice, accessories, and so on, in order to making gaming and community as available as possible to all members.
The Old Ways Podcast is Bunny’s first adventure into the world of podcasting and she’s very much looking forward to exploring many worlds together with everyone, crew and listeners alike. Outside of gaming Bunny’s life largely consists of making art, reading and reviewing comic books, tarot and other occultism, reading, science, history, traveling and seeking adventures with friends, doing advocacy work and volunteering in her community, spending time with her children and partner, seeing to the whims of her cat Ocelittle, creating content on the internet, reminding people “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome”, and being the cryptid she’d like to see in the world.
Meredith McKee is an actor, director, and educator based out of North Carolina. When not teaching middle and high school Drama, Film and History classes or directing local theatre productions, she is involved in a number of online creative performance projects, including various tabletop actual play streams and podcasts (Onyx Path, Vorpal Tales, Part-Time Heroes), scripted audio dramas (Breathing Space Anthology, Law of Names Media), and casual gameplay and Just Chatting streams on her own channel, OhHelloMere. Mere has over 15 years of experience as a director, producer, and actor within community theatre and film.
Tiffanie has been playing games (video or pen and paper) since the young age of 15. She enjoys many game worlds, though this is her first Cthulhu game. She is a traditional artist and loves most things art related. Favorite Artist is Salvador Dali, what that says about her, one can only speculate. Tiffanie also has a huge heart for animals.
Morgan found the joy in role-playing games a little later in life than others, at the young age of 31, and has continued to not age for the last several years being immortal and all. Morgan immensely enjoys the never-ending journey of improving her role-playing skills and increasing her RPG knowledge. Like most things she does in life, she takes gaming and characters she plays with unabashed enthusiasm. One of her favorite parts of role playing is being able to sprinkle a little of herself into each character, so you’ll find most of her characters are a little sassy and love to laugh. Outside of the podcast she enjoys spending time with her family which consists of a husband, three kids, and a dog. She’s pretty sure that at least some or all of them are Cylons, so she is waiting for inevitable invasion to happen.
Heather (better known as ValyGirl_Heather) is a multi-faceted creator with 25+ years of experience in TTRPG and Live Action mechanics and story design, narrative writing, playtesting, game mastering, and organizational management. In 2023, she added streaming & video content creator, and multi-system RPG freelancer to her list.
She is the co-owner and a creative at Pick Up & Go Games, one-half of the streaming duo Geeks Unplugged, an Actual Play actor through multiple streamed productions (The Old Ways Podcast, Symphony Entertainment, Onyx Path, and Troll Lord Games), an award-winning roleplayer, and a professional GM through multiple organized play groups. Heather is a former theater kid, lifelong geek & gamer, an advocate for education, diversity, and inclusion, and a proud LGBTQIA+ AuDHD neurodivergent human who fully believes that #GamingIsForEveryone.
Jake has been playing RPGs since he was 10. He’s enjoyed playing in dozens of systems. When not making a podcast he spends his free time playing computer games, reading, and board games. His interests include history, science, politics, philosophy, crushing his enemies, seeing them driven before him, and hearing the lamentation of their women.
Lonnie was brought into the world of RPG’s at the tender age of 12, and after a long hiatus, was brought back into it by the unabashed enthusiasm of his friends. Since his return, he’s had the good fortune to spend several years gaming with the Old Ways group in various campaigns, and to appear on several different Actual Play podcasts prior to the Old Ways going live. Otherwise he is a completely unremarkable person with a lifelong interest in gaming of all sorts who is owned by his much more handsome cat, Ammon.
An aspiring voice actor and creative force, I was born and raised a nomad, over most of the Deep South of the US. I am a long-time (20+ years) tabletop game runner, occasional player and content creator. My graphic design work has been featured on magazines, business and people (all voluntarily, I assure you, dear reader).
The Old Ways Podcast is my first sojourn into the world or podcasting, but I have become taken by the media and the entire process as a whole. I have enjoyed having a useful outlet for the various noises and voices that come out of me on a fairly regular basis.
A poster-child for “focused ADHD”, my specialty areas include; Graphic Design, Writing, 3D work (virtual and printing), Game Design, and any other thing that tickles my curiosity.
My life outside of the podcast is happily spent with my family in South Wisconsin, quietly creating the seething madness that the world so-richly deserves.
Mike first rolled the dice longer ago than he’d care to remember. Having played for many years with a group of friends, first around the table and later through the power of the internet, his first foray into gaming with the wider community was during lockdown. Since then he hasn’t looked back and now regularly enjoys games of Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Mork Borg, Vaesen, Liminal, Kult and many more with fellow weirdos from all over the world. Mike also reads weird and spooky tales from some of the great Victorian and Edwardian storytellers in his own little podcast, Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories.
Rina (they/them) has been playing RPGs since they were 12, when they were introduced to Star Trek Play By Forums on ye olde internet. Since then, they have played D&D, Call of Cthulhu, and various other systems; as a Forever GM, they are thrilled to be in a campaign where they get to have shenanigans and solve the puzzles instead of having to make sure everyone else solves them despite all the shenanigans. In addition to gaming, Rina is a voice actor, writer, aspiring drag king, nerd, and general Chaos Elemental. Their favorite TV series is Star Trek Deep Space Nine, and their cat’s name is Garak, and there’s no possible way those two facts are connected. They have plans for world domination through podcasting, but they’re not ready to talk about that yet.
Miranda started playing RPGs in 2014 when she took a risk and joined a D&D group on Roll20 after listening to Acquisitions Inc. She was hooked and has played consistently with various groups since then. In November of 2019, she decided to expand her repertoire and convinced her gaming group at the time to give Call of Cthulhu a try. It was a downhill slope from there leading to new discord friends, online gaming conventions, and becoming a cast member on The Old Ways Podcast. Miranda now loves trying out new systems – especially micro-rpgs – and is always happy to learn and run a new system for friends. Miranda loves animals and has two dogs, Sam and Axle, and one cat, Mauser. She also collects many hobbies including miniature painting, crocheting, 3D printing, bonsai, learning Swedish, and kickboxing (to name a few). When Miranda grows up she wants to be an astronaut.
John (he/him) has been playing RPGs for about 13 years and has an abiding love of horror games and dungeon crawls. His systems of choice are Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Vaesen, Alien, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Mork Borg. Outside of RPGs his interests include hiking, reading weird fiction, and miniature painting.
Teagan Gilbert (She/They) is a Delta Green agent pretending to be a TTRPG player. Their character flaws include trying to run the same Pathfinder Adventure Path for the last 12 years, and obsessive terrain building. She enjoys Vampire the Masquerade for the sex, Mage the Awakening for the drugs, and Starfinder for the rock & roll.
Ali has been a member of the RP community for 20+ years. She has been immersed in many different worlds across her time of participation. An avid player, occasional story teller and book of ideas walking on legs, she has created numerous things to be included in games over the years.
She is a well-rounded nerd in her interests. Pretty much anything horror, fantasy, or sci-fi related in all forms of media have come across her radar at one point or another. The deep dive into these worlds only contribute to her beyond reality perception.
