Extra Life

[Bluetongue]

Which one are you?

[Scott308]

I'm the one in the University of Michigan hat.

[Bluetongue]

How much did you raise in the end and how was the adventure overall?

[Scott308]

The team raised just over $2400, $750 of that was what I raised, and around $500 from participants who didn't join the team or paid cash onsite for their entry fee. My fundraising was down from last year, but I'm happy that I was still able to raise as much as I did.

The game was a lot of fun for a while, but we ran out of steam. The last adventure the DM blew through in an hour because he realized he was losing us. I was definitely struggling (and not really succeeding) to stay awake. We pulled the plug around 6am.

I was at the streaming table the two years we've been at this location, and while still fun, it is missing something. Since we are in a private room, we don't get the energy from being in a big group. When people at another table start laughing or cheering/ groaning for a Nat 20 or Nat 1, you pick up on the energy at the other tables. We didn't have that being in the other room. I spoke with the organizer (who was also my DM) and we talked about changing things up for next year- either not streaming or streaming from a table in the main gaming area with everyone else.

One of the employees had a better suggestion. There are a number of taller tables at the end of the room that are typically used for miniature gaming. We were using them as HQ/ a place to put the auction items. It was suggested we swap those spots. The auction stuff could be in the private room and we could use the tables and cordon it off so the general public doesn't wander into the stream. That way, we'd still be around everyone else and I think it would bring more energy. Plus, people could donate while watching the stream to do things like give us a wandering monster to fight or make us eat one of the Bean Boozleds- is it cotton candy or soap flavor? Maybe we'd get people donating from other tables if they can see the results of their donations. I liked playing at the streaming table, but I did miss being around the other tables.

As far as the actual game- everything was Adventurers League compliant, but the adventures were written for our event. The first one had us tasked with helping a priest choose a place to turn into an orphanage. We had three properties to look at, all with pros and cons and varying prices. Basically, we were on an episode of House Hunters. At one point in his description of the large abandoned manor, the DM mentioned the parties in the basement. We immediately assumed they were wild sex parties and got completely derailed. Turns out, they were summoning demons. We're assuming for sex purposes. We were also trying to determine if we would get paid more if we "found" more orphans. It was a lot of fun (until I started struggling to stay awake) and I'm looking forward to next year.

Oh, and someone at work donated to pick my character's class, then asked me what I wanted to play. I told her that wasn't how it worked. I told her what classes people had already said they were playing so we could avoid those, but it was up to her. She did ask questions about the classes and I gave her plenty of info on which to base her decision. She eventually went with Fighter. I was pretty happy, nobody had ever picked my class before!

[Scott308]

I am hoping to play in the charity event this summer, we are still working on when it will be so I don't know if I will be on call that weekend. Having said that, even if I am not able to play, any funds raised still go to a worthy cause. Why am I mentioning this now, you ask? Because if I can raise $100 from now until the end of April, I will unlock a sweet, exclusive glass d20 with the Extra Life logo on it!

[Bluetongue]

Hope you were able to gain the glass trophy dice. Sorry I couldn't donate this side of Spring. I did enjoy the livestream of the 24hr D&D that I watched you in last August.

I appreciate the Children's Hospitals being a well worthy cause and I shall endeavour to help you in reaching some specific level target. Perhaps enough to get you that Potion of Healing or a skill to foil a nasty GM plot.

[Scott308]

I did earn enough to get the die! The organizers just set the date for this year- June 29 and 30. We are actually doing something a bit different this year. We're still playing for 24 hours, but instead of going Saturday morning to Sunday morning, we'll do 12 hours on Saturday and 12 hours on Sunday. The last few years we have had a number of tables that could not go the full 24 hours- including my table the last two years. The streaming game was in a separate room, and I think that really hurt our energy, not being in the big room with everyone else, hearing tables cheer or laugh during the games, oohing and aahing when a DM breaks out a huge dragon mini (yes, I said huge mini!)... That brings us to another change- no streaming table this year. I'm glad you enjoyed watching, but the organizers decided not to stream this year. I assume it's because all the tables will be in one big room so it'd be hard to hear over the general din.

I don't know what people are going to run yet so I have no idea if I'll be making a new character or using an extant one so those incentives may or may not be active, but I will allow someone to pick my shirt(s) again! I have a concert tomorrow where I hope to get a shirt and Milwaukee Metal Fest in two weeks so I'll definitely pick up some new shirts there!

[Scott308]

I have a concert tomorrow where I hope to get a shirt

Cannibal Corpse shirt: acquired!

[Bluetongue]

So with a Cannibal Corpse T-shirt and a sponsorship to play in Extra-Life as a Harengon, surely you have to combine the two and be more Donnie Darko than Redwall.

Or better still, I remember this gruesome rabbit from the Twilight Zone, which seems much more fun to roleplay as ....

[Scott308]

[Spearmint]

The organizers just set the date for this year- June 29 and 30.

Trust the event went well, you had a great table of characters and survived many encounters.

[Scott308]

Yes! I'm waiting to hear the total raised, then I'll post an update.

[Scott308]

OK, marathon update time!

First of all, this event is put on by our local Adventurers League group, so all characters and games need to be AL legal. Typically, I like to play the higher level games for events like these, but someone was running a a series of adventures I was interested in playing, so I signed up to play a 1st level character. And because I was playing a 1st level character, I was able to get my daughter, Haley, and her friend, Casey, to join us since we went to a 12-hour on Saturday, 12-hour Sunday format instead of 24 hour straight like in the past. Neither of them were interested in playing if it would have been the old format- and they weren't the only ones, as you shall see later. Since I was building a new character, I was able to offer incentives to build my character. Last year, someone at work donated to pick my class, and she seemed interested in doing so again this year but di not end up donating. However, My friend Ed McGlinn, who runs a bunch of stuff at Gamehole each year- often some Cthulhu or superheroes, or just random stuff- so those who attend may have seen his name in the event listings, sent me a text one night when I was at work. The text read, "I hope you like carrots..." I had no idea what he was referring to, so I told him that. He replied with, "You will... " I thought about it for a bit, then thought to check my email and saw I had passed a milestone, so I looked at my page and saw the incentive to pick my race was filled. He donated to make me play a Harengon- a humanoid rabbit! When it came time to pick my class, we had two Warlocks and a Rogue, plus a Barbarian, so I went with a Wizard with the intent of making him a Bladesinger, so could cast spells but also get into melee. The Barbarian player ended up getting pulled to DM another table, but we picked up a father/ son who were running a cleric and a melee ranger so we were good.

The series of adventures were ones the DM wrote. The first three are published and available on DM's Guild, the other three are in playtest to be published. The they are part of the Glockeberg Hunters Guild Adventure series. We played

• 01:The Griffons of Longsaddle
  02: Owlbear Ascension
  03: March of the Manticore
  04: Mummy Dust
  06: The Dragon of Pirate Isles

We did not have time enough to play them all, so we voted on which to wrap up with. Dragon beat out 05: The Chimera Caper.

Because this event is for charity, there are other ways to raise money. People could donate to get reroll tickets, there was a silent auction, and there was the Deck of Many Things. For $20 you could draw a card from the deck. Effects would only last through the charity weekend, unless it said it would persist. I drew and got a homunculus, which I didn't even bother using. The cleric at the Tier 4 table lost all her magic items for the rest of the weekend. This happened during the first few hours, because we were still level one for the draws at our table. The other person who drew at our table was Casey, who was playing the Rogue and kept referring to the spellcasters (which was everyone else) as nerds. She drew the Gate card, allowing her (remember- 1st level non-caster at this point) to cast the Gate spell- normally not accessible until level 17 and never for a Rogue. When we started the final T1 game, Mummy Dust, we discussed it and decided the DM could bump up the final encounter and we'd use the Gate spell at that point. Final encounter was, as you might have guessed, mummies! So, there were a couple of T3 tables running the new Vecna hardcover adventure, as well as a T4 table. We decided to ask one of the Vecna tables which plane they were currently on, as you can summon something from a different plane, so if they were on the Prime Material it wouldn't work. Fortunately, Vecna is a plane-hopping adventure, so that is why we picked them instead of the higher level table. And, sure enough, they were on the Astral Plane. We then had each character make a Charisma check to see who was the most famous, because many of the adventure hooks start with, "Your fame..." The Cleric (perfect for us) ended up with the highest result, so we told the table that we had cast Gate, summoning that character, whose name we know because of their famous deeds. And because the character wasn't a god-level equivalent, they could not deny it. So, we Gated in a high level cleric, who turned the mummies and was helping us wipe them out. I wandered over to see what the other party was doing since my character could see through the Gate (I was contemplating going through just to hang out in the T3 adventure) but they were literally doing nothing because they needed the cleric. After a few minutes, the DM from their table came over. Someone had drawn from the deck and used Divine Intervention to ask a favor from their god, so the god Helm suddenly appeared in front of us, freezing time. He placed a hand on the shoulder of the cleric and said, "This one is needed elsewhere." He and the cleric disappeared and time resumed. We picked the worst possible character at the worst possible time for the other table, as the cleric was the only one who could cast Dispel Magic and Greater Restoration, both of which the party needed before they could continue. This might be the first time in 5e history that a Tier 1 character has cast Gate- and it almost assuredly is the first (and likely only) time it ever happens in AL!

As I said earlier, we split the 24 hours into two 12 hour days. This made it (much) easier to get through the full 24 hours. It also brought in people who would otherwise not have participated. Last year we had 8 in-person tables. The year before we had 7 in-person and one virtual table. This year, we had 9 in-person and 3 virtual tables, so it was by far the biggest event we have had. Not only does this translate into money raised, but also more people spending money in the store, which makes the venue happy to host us again. As a result, we ended up raising just over $6k, with me raising $600 in donations to my page. Thank you for anyone who has ever donated, or watched when we used to stream, or just read the after-action reports. Something like this doesn't happen successfully without a lot of people contributing in whatever way they can. I know that when we first started doing this, I felt really awkward asking people to donate money so I could play D&D, but interest and encouraging comments from others went a long way to making me feel comfortable asking people who aren't gamers or family members to donate, especially those who keep asking me if I "won."

[Leitz]

You did a great thing and modelled helping others to your daughter and her friend. Yes, you won.

[BaltoBruiser]

What Leitz said. Great job Scott!