Robot Viking

I might as well put my bank account number here - no one's going to notice the caption.

Liana K is a woman with a complicated résumé: producer, writer, late-night TV personality, sock puppet wrangler, comic con costume queen, talk radio host, pin-up model and lifelong gamer. It’s the lifelong gamer part we’re most interested in here at Robot Viking (ok, actually, we’re pretty interested in the pin-up modeling part too).

In an exclusive Robot Viking interview, the sublimely awesome Liana K explains why she loves D&D, offers some diplomacy in the D&D Edition Wars, and tells us how she became a character in a current DC comic book. Plus, bonus chainmail bikini.

Liana K first came to fame as co-host of late-night Canadian TV show Ed the Sock. Although she started out as a producer and writer, her acerbic wit was more than a match for her knitted on-air partner (which is not faint praise – Ed the Sock was sort of like Howard Stern, but less refined and polite). Liana’s hobby also garnered a fair share of Internet attention – a gorgeous redhead dressed in her favorite comic character’s costumes does tend to get the blood flowing, after all. These days, she co-hosts a talk radio show on station CFRB in Toronto, but she’s a still a gamer through and through.

Robot Viking: How did you first get into gaming? Did you start with D&D?

Liana K: If you don’t count video games, then yes, I started with D&D. A couple of guys in my sixth grade class were playing, and I liked the dice so I started hanging around. I thought it was amazing that a “game” could be a collective storytelling experience. Of course, I immediately went for a mage class, which meant I died a lot early on. They were nice and gave me a few do-overs.

RV: What are your favorite elements of gaming? What about it do you enjoy the most?

LK: If you don’t like core rules, change them! That’s the flexibility that tabletop gaming has that video games will never be able to match. Also, I love world building, so the idea of taking the game mechanics and running with them in a totally new world is extremely neat. It’s a kinetic art form. Before the miniatures got so integrated, it was also a fairly cheap hobby. You could get started with only three books.

RV: Do you still get to play regularly?

Is there anything sadder than a gamer without a gaming group?

LK: Up until about two years ago I did. Then I lost my gaming group. I haven’t found a new one that I’m comfortable with, because I have a fairly unique play style — I’m in it to game, not to “win.” Which means without the right group, I die way too early!

RV: What’s your favorite class?

LK: Oh geez, that’s a tough one!  3rd edition high level priests got some bad-ass spells, so I’ll go with that one. But I like mages, paladins and rogues too. I have to admit that I kind of suck at sub-class kits and prestige classes. I get screwed up in the level up limitations, and end up with kind of cruddy characters. I’ve been tempted to try things like illusionists and assassins, but there must be some trick I’m missing.

RV: D&D fans’ third-favorite pasttime is clearly arguing over which edition is best. So, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th?

LK: Oh wow, I have to cop out on this one and say that it’s not a question of better. It’s a question of different. 1st edition was the grand-daddy of them all, and deserves love because it set the stage for everything else. 2nd edition expanded on 1st edition in amazing ways, and still has the best selection of campaign settings. I’m a huge Planescape fan, and I’m intrigued by Ravenloft.

3rd edition blew the roof off everything with what you could do, but became extremely complicated and bloated. By the end of 3.5′s run, it had nearly collapsed under its own weight, but some of the supplemental manuals were just wonderful. 4th freaked me out at first, but I discovered that it’s much easier to teach new people how to play, and it’s much quicker and easier to create campaigns. I know 2nd and 3rd editions best, so I’m most comfortable in them, but I can see the upside of 4th as well, even though it caps out really quickly and I’ve never ever liked talent trees.

RV: Do you and your husband game together? Does that cause any friction?

LK: *laughs* My husband’s never played tabletop RPGs. He knows the terms now because I babble about it, but it’s very much a solo thing for me.

RV: Have you played any non-D&D RPGs? Any other tabletop gaming you’re into?

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LK: I played White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade for a while. Love the system, but the player base tends to get too emo for my liking. Again, I’m not one of those people that needs to be the most powerful godded out character in the game, so the intrigues in Vampire are a little lost on me.

RV: I’ve heard about the action figure collection. What’s your holy grail, the one figure you want but haven’t found yet?

LK: Scareglow from classic Masters of the Universe at a reasonable price without the orange discoloration. I have his halberd but not the figure. Or the mysterious Mad Bubbler from Thundercats, although that toy is probably something that was never actually produced.

You were probably not expecting a lurid tale of Scareglow lust.

RV: Are you a Marvel or a D.C.?

LK: Both! No one believes me because so many of my costumes are DC! I’m not bound to a universe. A good comic is a good comic. There are Image, Dark Horse, Red 5 and lots of other publishers that I read too.

Although I guess now technically I’m a DC character. A lesbian stripper DC character to boot. I will love Gail Simone and her Secret Six book forever.

RV: How exactly did you manage to get into a comic book?

LK: “Liana the Stripper” was a character that first appeared in Secret Six #1 as a Knockout lookalike hired to try to cheer up Scandal Savage, one of the characters in the book who had been Knockout’s girlfriend. Knockout started as a Superboy villain before moving to Secret Six. I really liked what Gail did with the character, and she’s a redhead, so I made a costume. That’s why the character is loosely based on me. Turns out she was pretty popular. Gail emailed me before she included it, asking it was okay. Of course I said yes. I believe my exact words were, “Liana is a great name for a stripper! What was my mother thinking?!”

Liana as Knockout at San Diego Comic Con with DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio. Do NOT attempt to figure out the ouroborous of art imitating life imitating art here, just click for full size.

So far, it’s actually pretty believable that she’d hang around a bunch of hired killers. The way Gail is writing her, it makes sense. I joked that I wanted to be set up with Ragdoll, but, admittedly, Scandal is extremely hot.

RV: Ok, we’re casting the film version of your life story. You will obviously play yourself, but who would you cast in the roles of the Evil Wizard and your Faithful Sidekick?

LK: Gotta be a female villain man!  Tilda Swinton would be awesome, but that’s too Narnia. Susan Sarandon was so great in Enchanted. I’ll go with her. Or Carrie Fisher!  Or Sarah Polley, so she could direct too! Although if we’re going big budget, Peter Jackson has to direct. I’d have to go with Alan Rickman for my sidekick, because he does long-suffering so well. Basically, I’d want a movie full of kick ass talented people to pull up the quality of my own acting!

RV: How do you like working in radio compared to doing the TV show? Is there somewhere online that people outside of Toronto can listen to the show?

LK: Radio is much easier. I don’t have to worry about my hair, make-up or what I’m wearing, and I don’t have to diet! I do my prep, show up, and see where it takes us. And I get to talk about a greater range of topics, because it’s a current issues show instead of comedy. And I love the call-in aspect. That being said, TV is fun too. It’s just an exhausting medium for women, because by the time you’ve recorded your first line, you’ve already been at work for three hours getting poked and prodded. I trained in theatre, so it’s been extremely interesting to learn the different mediums.

Outside of Toronto, people can listen by clicking the Listen Live! button on www.cfrb.com, Sunday Nights at 7PM!

RV: Any upcoming projects you’d like to mention?

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LK: I’m a bomber girl in Eidos’ Battlestations: Pacific video game! The game ships May 12th. Downloadable content pack with my art is coming out sometime in July. Battlestations: Pacific is a World War II Action/Sim where you can play as the allies and help win the war, or play as the Japanese and change the course of history. The attention to detail is phenomenal. The people making this game really cared about getting it right. The website is www.battlestations.net

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