You walk into a home. A woman is unconscious on the floor. A
strong breeze chills your cheeks and you realize that, in addition to the
sounds of the road behind you, you can hear children playing basketball in the
back yard. Toxic fumes burn your nostrils and lungs. You hear a loud thump
upstairs as a baby begins to scream. What do you do?
Did you think of an answer? If so, gotcha!!! You just played
Dungeons and Dragons.
I know, right? That isn’t what I thought the game was like
either. I always had this image in my head that playing D & D was more like
pretending you were following along as your math teacher used a convoluted Lord
of the Rings analogy to explain derivation; all while a halitosis infested
gamer-gater asks you if you have a date to the prom. But recently, I have
started playing the game and I want to tell you what it is like. I also want to
ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to do me a big favor. We will get to that
later.
About a year ago I was assigned to a special project at
work. One of the big boss guys that lead the project made a little joke about
being a “sexpert.” I know, maybe not the best call in mixed corporate company,
but it was the exact best thing he could have said to make me want to be his
friend. You see, if you didn’t know, that was a reference to the great Travis
McElroy, the internet’s best friend. He is part of the trio of brothers on the
podcast My Brother, My Brother, and Me. So, we started talking about the
McElroys and he reminded me that they had a podcast called The Adventure Zone as
well.
I had heard them talk about the fact that they did a
Dungeons and Dragons podcast with their dad, Clint McElroy, but . . . gross. I just
wanted them to cull nonsense from Yahoo Answers and joke about it. I wasn’t so
much interested in listening to them do . . . I didn’t quite know what . . . be
wizards and shit. But they have never let me down comedically, so I gave it a
shot.
It was hilarious! I instantly fell in love with the dynamic
of this family of comedic geniuses navigating their way, in character, around a
fantasy universe. I binged episode after episode, laughing out loud at grocery
stores and plasma donation centers (don’t judge me) as I listened. In episode24, though, magic flowed from the interwebs into my headphones. There was a
dramatic moment at the end of the episode, and it was accompanied by beautiful
music. I was crying. I had to stop what I was doing, roll the episode back a
few minutes, and sit there just moved to tears by a tender moment in the campaign.
The podcast elevated to the best storytelling I have experienced
in my life. I wish there were words I could say to carry the gravity of that. I
was there for the comedy, which they gave me in spades, but I also received
life-changing levels of drama and humanity.
After I finished listening to season 1 of The Adventure
Zone, all I could think of was how much I wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons.
I can’t explain why, but I decided to begin by reaching out to Bryce
Blankenagel the world-famous, impossibly named, Mormon history badass. We
joined a couple of campaigns together and I became a different, better, person.
Through Dungeons and Dragons, I have been able to wander a
colonial North America as a sardonic bard charming persons and slaying cyclops from
Roanoke to Virginia. I have also dealt with a traumatic past as I battle cruelty
through a Blood Hunter named Nalsa. Every session of every game has been full
of humor, imaginative improvisation, and tender moments of drama. Times have
been tough lately for me and for so many of us, but this game has been an
incredible source of joy and a way to make friends I would die for.
So here is the favor. Bryce has launched a new project,
connected to his Naked Mormonism Podcast. He is going to be a game master for a
Mormon-history themed Dungeons and Dragons Podcast. Whatever your current
position is, relative to Mormonism, or to this weird game your cousin used to play,
there is a rich depth of story in our history that is best told through this
game and through Bryce’s creative authorship. If you are skeptical, let me
prove it to you. Let me show you how real people who love and hate and fight
and feel the way that you do would react to the passionate, volatile, story of Mormon
history. There is hilarity, drama, evil, and good here that has not been
plumbed to any kind of appropriate depth.
In a sensible world, this would just happen. You wouldn’t
have to help to make it happen. Bryce would be drowning in grants and publishing
contracts that equal the effort and care that he puts into his research. He
could just take the time to give us this campaign in addition to his incredible
work for Naked Mormonism. But that is far from the world we live in. So he
needs your help. Please go to his Patreon page, the link is right here, and donate.
We need to help him hit his Patreon goal so that this can happen.
There is some good fucking content that will make you laugh
and cry and experience incredible joy if you will just donate for the cause. It
is time to reclaim the stories we were all told growing up. Please help.
https://www.patreon.com/nakedmormonism
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