Partner Spotlight: Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons has a long and storied history in the gaming community. The brilliant and fantastical innovations Gary Gygax and his team brought to the game have enthralled and entertained players and dungeon masters alike for 45 years. That made it a huge deal when Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns and expands upon the wonderful worlds of D&D, got involved in Extra Life back in 2013.
The support both the Dungeons & Dragons community and the team behind the game have shown us over the years is nothing less than extraordinary. 2019 will be the seventh year dungeon masters and players alike take up their pens and papers to support Extra Life. All told, these efforts have raised over $600,000 USD for sick and injured kids in Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the United States and Canada. This year, they aim to far surpass their previous work with a staggering goal of $300,000 USD.
The creativity the team brought to fundraising stands out as one of the coolest parts of what Dungeons & Dragons has done for Extra Life. Over the years, Dungeons & Dragons has developed and released multiple modules and adventures for players to run during their Extra Life Game Day marathons. While having specialized Game Day content would have been incredible enough, Dungeons & Dragons went the extra step of making all proceeds from the sale of their specialized modules go toward Extra Life!
So far, there are five unique adventures and supplements available for tabletop gamers to play through DMs Guild. The first is a full-on adventure to enter a forbidden valley in the mountains and the chance to come face-to-face with Kwalish, the eccentric inventor behind some of D&D’s strangest items. The Lost Laboratory of Kwalish makes for a fun and varied adventuring experience that presents unique and interesting challenges for players to overcome, as well as fun roleplaying opportunities for the DM. The adventure itself seems well suited to being slipped into a pre-existing campaign as an engaging and memorable sidequest, especially if your DM loves to throw Kwalish’s eccentric items at the party.
Volo’s Waterdeep Enchiridion presents an excerpt from Volo’s Guide to Waterdeep updated for 5th edition D&D. It consists of a chapter excerpt from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and serves as a handy guide to the city for players who might not want to share their precious hardcover books or might not want to purchase the full adventure for updated Waterdeep information. While perhaps not having the versatility of the other offerings from Dungeons & Dragons, it’s invaluable as a tool to navigate the city of splendors.
The Tortle Package gives players an entirely new location to adventure in or to incorporate into their campaigns, the Snout of Ongmar on the isle of Chult. People who purchase the supplement also receive the information necessary to play as tortles, humanoid turtles with a particularly distinct culture. As a cherry on top, The Tortle Package includes a dungeon called Dangwaru, the Typhoon Palace. Even if you aren’t planning to run a campaign in the Snout of Ongmar, this collection of information and gameplay will undoubtedly be useful in crafting your own adventures.
If you’re looking to spice up your D&D campaign with a fun, unofficial race, One Grung Above has just what you’ve been looking for. The Grung were a race of frog people in second edition Dungeons & Dragons that were left behind by the passage of time. However, the unique race of amphibians stuck in the mind of Christopher Lindsay who was given the opportunity to design a small packet about the Grung for Extra Life and ran a campaign of Grung adventurers on the Dungeons & Dragons Twitch stream.
Finally, The Lost Kenku presents the most comprehensive adventure of the bunch. Tasked with tracking down a kenku thief in the jungles of Chult, players stumble upon a much larger danger lurking in the dark mists of the dangerous island. Something sinister stirs among the townsfolk of Weirding and the adventurers who enter the town must solve the mystery or perish. With a town full of strange folk, an unorthodox mission target, and an ever-deepening sense of wrongness, The Lost Kenku is an excellent way to kick off a campaign with a satisfying bang
If that weren’t enough, Dungeons & Dragons does even more! They have set up a small store where tabletop gamers can snag a cool shirt/tanktop/sweatshirt/hoodie with designs unique to the Dungeons & Dragons Extra Life team. Plus, all proceeds from the shirt sales go to Extra Life, too! So you can look snazzy, show your passion for D&D, and feel good that your money is going to help sick and injured kids all at the same time. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Dungeons & Dragons has a vibrant streaming schedule on Twitch. They frequently host excellent content for both Dungeon Masters and players, as well as people who just want to enjoy the stories that come out of the amazing campaigns put together by the folks behind D&D. In past years, Dungeons & Dragons broadcast campaigns that featured the content released to support Extra Life. It’s been amazing to see and we can’t wait to see what they have in store for this year’s Game Day.
A huge thank you to the Dungeons & Dragons team for giving so much of their effort to help kids in hospitals across North America. We can definitively say that Extra Life would be a lesser event without them and the amazing community they help bring into the event every year. It’s mind-blowing. Here is to an even more amazing 2019, D&D!
You can join the Dungeons & Dragons Extra Life team to support your local children’s hospitals and be sure to follow those fine folk on Twitter to see what new and marvelous things they have coming in the future.
One of the common misconceptions about Extra Life is that someone can only participate if they play video games. Not true! Extra Life supports and encourages all kinds of play. To that end, we have been supporting Tabletop Appreciation Weekend for the past few years. This year, the event takes place August 24-25th and will be a time for players to gather together and play board games for the kids. If that sounds intriguing, learn more about Extra Life Tabletop Appreciation Weekend and be sure to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!