Shaun Garea is a lecturer of psychology based at Massey University. He is also the lab manager at the ‘Gaming Research and Investigation Laboratory’ (GRAIL) where his focus is on tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPG’s) and the potential benefits playing such games may have. Shaun’s broader research focus is on media psychology and how people interact with/and are affected by participatory media (his prior research in videogames has focused on cooperation, aggression, gambling, and obsessive-compulsive symptomatology). A storyteller at heart Shaun is also an artist and filmmaker. His love of storytelling and how narratives influence us, how they help us grow and communicate is a passion; one that he hopes to explore with others who enjoy hearing scary or fantastical tales and/or love pretending to be goblins once a week.