D&D@B&B

Recently, I got to have weekend for the books. It wasn’t a long vacation, or even a very far one. My friends and I decided to take a weekend to rent an air B&B cabin in the forest and spend most of the time playing D&D. Dungeons and Dragons - a popular tabletop role playing game - has been in my life for many years now, but the idea of spending an entire weekend to play was never something in the cards…

…until this weekend. We finished our day’s work on Friday, packed all our stuff in our friend’s truck, picked up one more friend and headed toward the forest. On the drive, the four of us spoke on our recent mundane lives until the conversation quickly turned to more comfortable topics: music, fandoms we all enjoy, and D&D. We all are in a weekly remote campaign with each other, but this was different. We were playing a one shot (a short story) for the weekend and it was one of the first in-person games we have had since the Pandemic. We had occasionally met for a few hours on a Saturday at the local coffee shop to play, but this was monumental compared to those. We would spend most of our hours playing, and when we would get tired, wanted a break, needed to cook, etc., we could pause the game and get back to it whenever we were ready. The excited conversation took us all the way to the cabin. We arrived and met with two more friends who had gotten there a few hours prior. After a few joyful hugs, we made our way into the air B&B.

Now you might be picturing a small cabin in the woods in which one of us was going to run out screaming later. I know this whole idea might sound like the beginning of a horror film, but that was part of the appeal, because we were planning on playing Curse of Strahd, a famous horror themed D&D adventure. As for the cabin, I can assure you this place was neither Evil nor Dead. This beautiful two story cabin had 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 balconies and a hot tub. The open living room and dining area (where we would be doing most of our gaming) was probably bigger than my whole house combined. The long wooden dining table, exotic chandelier, and views of the dense forest beyond fit perfectly with the aesthetic of the setting of our adventure: the gothic Castle Ravenloft. Everyone excitedly called dibs on rooms, gave each other small gifts, and started to grab what we needed to play the game.

The premise of Curse of Strahd was simple: we were a bunch of characters from all different worlds and lands, whisked away to Strahd’s castle, and we needed to defeat the vampire lord in order to leave. Once settled in, we sat down ready for the story.

“The mists call to you...”

When I tell you how awesome Jo did as the DM (Dungeon Master), I want you to magnify that by 1000, and then you would start to get close to understanding how good she was. Like a good host at a party, the DM makes sure the story goes smoothly. The DM has the biggest job. They ensure that the story told continues to flow, helps determine the mechanics (the system of luck in the game), and they know most of the premise. They make sure that everyone is having good time, remaining comfortable and entertained. Behind the DM screen, Jo felt right at home. It’s wonderful to watch someone do something they are good at. It’s even better when they allow you to participate in their awesome geekyness. Between the pacing, the mood, the carefully crafted music, the slight costume changes for important NPCs (non-player characters), the acting, the word choices — it was simply magical, like walking into Disneyland after many years away. It was safe, and familiar, and immersive.

We took breaks to rest, helped out with cooking (although that was headed up by one of our fantastic friends who is an excellent cook), made time for walks around the block, and even conversations in the hot tub; but of course, most of our time we wanted to stay in the game. Collectively, we wanted to work together to tell an amazing story and we wanted as much time as we could to do so.

There were laughs, tears, theories about each other’s backstories, challenges, and finally, victory. By the end of the weekend, we had told an incredible story. It wasn’t long after that we needed to pack up and head home… away from each other. Away from these characters we had gotten to live and understand and relate to. Away from this vacation, which had been a moment in time without boring work and monotony.

I knew I would be heading back to my house, but leaving this magical world we had created, I started to get homesick. I completely understood the appeal of a D&D weekend away from the world, but until this experience, I hadn’t yet lived it. We said our goodbyes and thanked each other for an amazing weekend. For the next few days, we wrote each other, sending inside jokes from the game and funny memes trying to hold on to a little bit of the momentum; a bit of that world.

It didn’t help much.

We know the only thing left to do is schedule another time, book another cabin to defeat a vampire lord, head into the faerie realm, board a starship, or whatever our imaginations can come up with.

Sometimes, the journey to a magical world is only a short drive away.

Greetings, Fellow Geek!

You find yourself in a haven where magic, fandom, and creativity intersect. Not much of a tall order, if you ask me. My whole life, they’ve always been one in the same. Stories are magic, creativity makes stories, and creativity is the spark of magic. And what else is geekdom other than the stories we love, the creativity in which they are made, and the magic of the creativity and community they inspire in us, the fans, in return?

My cohort Shawna and I found ourselves as children and instantly latched onto one another upon recognizing that we shared this love for fantasy, science fiction, superheroes, and cerebral/creative games — “geeky stuff.” Growing up in the 90s & coming of age in the 2000s, we older millennials (or…”Eldritch Millennials, as we prefer to be called) experienced a youth where these more geeky topics of interest weren’t as celebrated as they are today; especially on the school yard.

Before I met Shawna, I spent recesses for years in the classroom on the computer playing Oregon Trail (when I was lucky), or out on the wall reading The Chronicles of Narnia for the fifth time, being teased mercilessly by my classmates (when I wasn’t).

When we met, it was magic.

Like a party meeting in a tavern, like Harry meeting Ron on the Hogwarts Express, like Cloud buying a simple flower from Aerith in the Midgar slums — I finally have the confidence to say that our meeting on that elementary school playground was fateful. Through the years the followed, we grew as individuals, and as partners in our Geekdom. Any time we found a new interest, a new fascination, we threw ourselves into it with the passion of a sun’s gravity, learning everything about the topic as we could; as geeks are wont to do. Through cosplay, photography, theater, dance, music, puppetry, writing, digital art, DJing, emceeing and even helping to plan and run events such as cons and balls for our local geeky communities — everything we did, we did it with passion. We burned our candles at both ends, and the burning kept us bright.

But candle wax doesn’t last forever, and neither does human energy. To use an illustration from D&D: after expending all of our spell slots on quests for others, we needed a long rest.

The COVID 19 pandemic of 2020 came with many many trials and sorrows, but every cloud has a silver lining. As the world came to a halt, we finally had that opportunity for that much-needed long rest. And from it, a new seed of creativity was born.

I took time to just absorb geekdom. No longer was my precious time stretched into using my talents and creativity to make art for others. Instead, I finally had time to sit enjoy the art others made. I caught up on Kingdom Hearts, and the Final Fantasy VII remake. I read all of Elfquest, and Sandman. I started therapy, and mood-stabilizing medication (though not for everyone, both were and still are a godsend for me), and discovered my neurodiversity. Shawna and I started two new remote D&D campaigns; one in a homebrew world of Shawna’s creation.

Sometimes, you need to burn the field and let it lie fallow for a season before the phoenix within it can rise from the ashes.

Shawna came to me one day and said “I wish there was a place, like a central hub, where I could keep all of the geeky art and projects that I make. I have so many ideas to make videos, art, costumes, puppets, projects, TTRPG homebrews, homemade dice, and I have no where to share them all!”

This. From THIS tiny sentence expressing a deep and primal NEED was Mythic Geekdom born.

It began as a place where we can express ourselves in our creativity and our geekiness. And it grew into something that not only fulfills that purpose, but also provides entertainment for fellow geeks in our videos, livestreams, blogs, original art, music, and other content. And then we started getting comments from our fellow geeks: that watching our videos brought them joy after a difficult day. That our tik toks gave them encouragement. That our livestreams make them laugh, cry, and think.

It was then that we realized that our little Geekdom was not just for us, but it could also be for others. That we were not only a place of geeky art and entertainment, but a place where geeks can feel free to be their full selves and to encourage and enrich one another, and themselves. A place to help remind everyone that they too had the ability to make ANY aspect of their life mythically geeky.

So thank you for being here. Stay Mythic out there, Geeks,

And Welcome to the Mythic Geekdom.