I love porn and I love Dungeons & Dragons. Which is why I had to talk to sex/nerd legend Satine Phoenix about her new web series I Hit It With My Axe. Why do porn stars always play elves, anyway?
I Hit It With My Axe debuts this afternoon on The Escapist, and a few weeks ago, we spoke with star Satine Phoenix about the show, just after they'd filmed several episodes. Here's what she had to say.
io9: So you've just signed the contract for a show where porn stars will play Dungeons & Dragons. Before this news breaks the internet in half, tell us more about the show. What's it called, and what's the format? Who will be in it?
Satine Phoenix: "I Hit It With My Axe" is a web TV reality show that will air once a week for a year. The main cast consists of Zak S as the Dungeon Master, Mandy Morbid [pictured in middle], Kimberly Kane [pictured at bottom], Frankie, Connie and myself [pictured at top]. We have a few other people that come in and out of the game like Sasha Grey [pictured at bottom] and Justine Joli. We aren't all porn stars though. We're a medley of porn stars, strippers, models, a hair dresser and I am an ex-porn star/fetish model and currently an illustrator.
io9: I think it's safe to say that the general public doesn't expect to hear the words "porn star" used in the same sentence as "Dungeons & Dragons." What gave you the idea to do this show?
That's one thing I don't get. Why wouldn't a porn star play Dungeons and Dragons? It's an escapist game just like World of Warcraft or any videogame. Porn is a job like most others where at the end of the day you are glad to be home. It is pretty funny that people think that all porn stars do is have sex with one another. Ok, that IS mostly true, but when they aren't having sex with each other, many play games or watch movies. A couple of us in the group are book worms, some read comic books and watch cartoons while others like foreign films or movies with lots of explosions and visual effects. We are the next generation of sexy women in the media where most of our sexy comes from our brains.
The show wasn't my idea, although I wish it had been because it's a FANTASTIC idea! Zak has been blogging about our games for quite a few months and through word of mouth it ended up in front of the Escapist guys. It only made sense to have the show on their site. It was really great of them to invite us to join their world!
io9: Tell us what character you play and what your attributes are. Does there seem to be any particular type of character that porn stars like to play, or are you all a pretty diverse group of characters?
I play an Elf Rogue named Mirror who is generally kind and will try to avoid killing in most instances but will step over a friend to get the sparkly piece of gold. Rogues have great back-stab bonuses. I think 4 out of our 5 characters are some sort of Elf or elf mix. Most girls I know like playing Elves. Lithe creatures with delicate features that have infravision =/> Sexy. If I'm playing a game I like my characters to be nonhuman, but sexy. I'm pretty reliable when it comes to what I like to play. I've been playing different versions of the same character for 15 years. Just because most of us like to play Elves doesn't mean we all have the same temperament. Frankie's character happens to be very very sneaky which always works out in our favor in the end. Connie's character likes animals and enjoys climbing walls. Mandy has such leadership qualities that we can't help but follow her lead. Kim is the muscle of the group and I just kind of fill in wherever I'm needed and try to steal all the shiny pretty objects.
io9: Which edition of D&D are you playing? Are you using a commercially-available module, or making your own dungeon? And will we see just one adventure or several different ones?
The world we play in is Zak's creation. A mix of AD&D and 3rd Edition. We don't list our skills or use feats. Instead Zak likes us to play as if anything we could imagine up and do in real life, we could do in the game. If my character wanted to climb a wall and was a wizard sure she could try, but it would be much harder than if my character was a rogue. Just because it's not in my list doesn't mean I can't do it. The same with alignments - we don't use them. He doesn't want the skill list or alignment to limit what we think we are able to do or how to act. I have to admit that it was strange to not have these at first because I was so used to using them but it makes sense for his game and it gives us more freedom to play our characters.
The plan is to play for a whole year. If we die we just roll up new characters. The show will be our various adventures within the campaign.
"I Hit It With My Axe" airs starting this afternoon, March 17, on Escapist Magazine. Or watch the first episode here!