Tag: DND

Reflections on the Extra Life Charity Fundraiser – Raising $655 AUD ($450USD)

Reflections on the Extra Life Charity Fundraiser – Raising $655 AUD ($450USD)

Christos

Extra Life has passed once again and as a community, in total have raised $655 AUD (which translates to $450 USD) over the 24 hours of the live stream!

24 hours, two separate stream events (Dungeons and Dragons + Video Game Live Stream), over 20 donations and dozens of viewers! Thank you to everyone who tuned in!

Those who donated $20 will receive the copy of ‘Bubbles’ by the 21st of December! Just finalising some sections throughout the next week and a bit.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated and donated!

Some of my thoughts:

  • Dungeons and Dragons was super fun. My group was super awesome, shout out to Nick, Mustafa, Jeremy, Edgar, and Cameron for playing super fun characters and engaging with the narratives. The story also has ramification for my home campaign.
  • We had one of the biggest donations through the last 4 years I’ve been doing Extra Life, of $75 USD, which is amazing! Raising $450USD was no easy feat and I could not have done it without so many supportive people in my life!
  • I had a blast playing video games with my friends and having some awesome bants! Im always inspired by how many people pop in, play games and get to talking around this event!

I have done two fundraisers this year and it has been a blast organising and supporting these charities!

D.I.R.G.Ezine – Fanzine and Kickstarter I am now a part of!

D.I.R.G.Ezine – Fanzine and Kickstarter I am now a part of!

Christos
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reigndragon/dirgezine

Exciting news! I am now a part of a kickstarter for a fanzine about Diversity in Role-Playing Game Experiences (D.I.R.G.Ezine)!

The premise is that Role-playing games (such as DnD) have a fair portion of the community that is rather underrepresented in the hobby. The fanzine is aimed at showing off the talents of the different artists, writers and members of the diverse RPG community.

I am excited to be a part of such an opportunity to allow a hobby that I love to grow in a more inclusive way! I will be writing an article about the representation of gender and sexuality in the hobby, as both a game master and as a player.

The release is scheduled for July/August 2019.

If you would like to back the kickstarter or find out more about it, you can find a link to it here!

Presenting Themes in Dungeons and Dragons

Presenting Themes in Dungeons and Dragons

Christos

One of my favourite things to do in Dungeons and Dragons is to imbue my homebrew world with real-world parallels. For example, the backstory to my continent of Illiam is that it was invaded by humans a long-time ago who basically colonised the continent. Hundreds of years later, the other races got sick and tired of this and pushed back the humans for the majority back to where they landed, which was Ericsa. After a while, all the races had to set aside their differences to face an even greater threat, a Shadow Dragon casting their dominion on the continent.

Allegorically speaking, this is a representation of colonisation and decolonisation practices. The uniting force, which is the Shadow Dragon, is meant to representation of acknowledging the past and working together with the resource that the city states now have.

But in terms of actual player experience, my home-game players have fought against a radical who attempted to change the foundation of the main religion in the biggest city. The main religion, was all about Progress and progress in the radical’s eyes came from tradition. One of the players had recently converted to this religion and became a cleric. The players had also met so many people already who identified as following the main religion. This is representative of what’s happening currently in our society.

Even if I don’t attempt to interweave themes seamlessly, it will always be a product and result of DnD as it is a living and breathing world. It is a story and stories have meaning. Themes and commentary in an RPG give that ‘oooohhh yeahhh’ moment where players can pinpoint and be like “oh boy that’s capitalism summed up” or “wait I know alot of tieflings, they aren’t all bad”. In my experience, integrating themes adds another layer of problem solving and enjoyment at the table.

DnD, like all stories, have some kind of underlying message. Giving thought to what themes you put in your world some thought may enhance the narrative experience as they go through the DnD story. Or like some great writers, winging it and developing it as it goes also works.

Just don’t J.K Rowling it please.

FYI: You can catch up on what my homegame players get up to at https://boullinismilfmoneysquad.obsidianportal.com/.
I also run DnD Weekly for Game Traders Blacktown! Check it out at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1786577751573911/