Drinking and Dungeon Crawling with Thomas Solar, founder of Dungeons 'N Drafts

0:01 The podcast for role players and game masters to help level up your game. We are your dungeon Masters. Jason Portiso, I'm Joe McCall and Jim Crocker. We got our first guest on the show. I didn't really think this is going to be like the guest having type of show. No, we know we're bringing people to tell their stories and uh about how bad their games went or how good their games went. Well. Jim wanted to bring on like game designers and things like that, which is something we'll eventually get into.

0:46 But ever since I got involved with this group, I wanted to get the story of the group out there. And let's let's get a founder to to talk about Dungeons and Drafts. So the the web is founder. The correct term is founders. So we have the things that are near and dear to my heart Dungeons and Drafts, founding and foundations founder of Dungeon and Drafts or Coke founder. I believe it, But I believe your wife is also a founder. But this is this is Thomas Solard. Thomas, Welcome to the show. Hello adventures as well. Hi. Yeah, I hope ever again natural, Oh you're hired. Yeah, that you just started something.

1:27 It's gotta yeah, everything started giving him the side. It's like, who are you done for? Here? Right here? You're trying to replace with that. It's awesome to have you on. And what's funny is that this is the first time you and I have actually met or spoke to each other, not through email. When I messaged you about DM ing four Dungeons and Drafts, you were like, yeah, I give everybody like a just a quickly phone call or a zoom call for like a vibe check. But I'm busy this week, and then like a month and a half goes by. We just never got around to it. That busy. That one week turned into busy two weeks turned into holy crows like January February. Oh, don't I know it. Yeah, but I've run a few games for Dungeon and Drafts at this point, and I guess nobody called and complaints, So you know, I guess that's I couldn't find a number. We can just title the episode check Joe did play in one of the games that I ran.

2:15 Yeah, like I said, I could not find a number right to reach you. Well here he is, all right, tell me yourself, tell them what a great job I did. Now, it was fine. It was fine. That's all we need. That's all we need is fine. So give us the quick version of what Dungeon Drafts is. Let's sort okay, yeah, I mean it is our best way to try to bring a community and people together and to make DD as accessible as possible because growing up, I'm you know, into my mid thirties now, and I have been trying so hard to play this game for years and years and years, and for a game that's been around for fifty years, it is incredibly difficult to get into it. You have to know somebody. You have to know someone that is a dam You have to see if that person's going to invite you to their house or are you going to invite this potential stranger into Europe.

3:05 Like, there's so many of these hurdles and barriers that we created Dungeons and Drafts as a way to not only bring people together check off that box, but also as a way to help support local businesses, mainly breweries. Breweries are to me, a modern day community hall. You can get married there, you have concerts, you have trivia, you have all these cool events. And I used to help at a brewery in Orlando. I was a tap brew manager. I was one of the brewers. And one of the most difficult things is trying to figure out a way to bring people in on a slow Tuesday night. And you can only do you can only do trivia or bingo, you know, these same type of events so many times, so many times, So trying to think of a way to bring people in on a slow night, while also trying to think of a way where we could just make D and D that's super accessible for people, where you could just jump in and play. You don't have to have any experience. It's a laid back environment. You're in a brewer, and why not have a beer while you're at it, have a cider, have a cocktail. Because we go to distilleries, breweries, crack beer bars, we go everywhere.

4:09 Breweries are just some of the easiest to work with. So they're the ones that reach out to us and say, hey, can you come on a slow Monday night. I definitely prefer this to brewery yoga as well. That's right. Yeah, personally everywhere find me a demographic that is not flexible. Yeah, there we go. So what's interesting about Like, I'll just I'm just gonna say our our little host group here, the three of us. So Jim is the most experienced of us with gaming, specifically with playing since Distance first edition and owning game stores and things like that, and because he's a little bit older, probably also with beer. Oh I don't think he was a drinker though, but he's still more experienced. Okay, sure, fine. My understanding though, is that that you guys have made up for it with in terms of yes, yeah, that's probably I'm not drinking for the thirty years that he's been legal to do so versus the amount that you and I have. I am I am like like like that older thing means my beer consumption has ramped down, and you know that besely proportional to my age. So that's yeah. So with Jim being very experiencing gaming, Joe has a background and brewing. You were, you did sales, you did brewing, you did delivery, you did a bunch of stuff for it all for a couple of dime and uh. And then I have a hobby level appreciation of both even just as a podcaster. You know, we have I'll see this show and then Curmudgeons and the Dragons before it, and while we're doing Curmudgeons, I was also hosting a show called Flight in a Pint where

5:41 we would record inside the breweries and just talk about how great they were. So this this is something that like this particular group, it's like, yeah, D and D inside breweries. Yeah, we're cool with that. Yeah, it's like right up our outlet. Yeah. I'm definitely at the point where, like, I can't have half a dozen beers in a night, so the one or two I have, I want them to be really good. Yes, right, So so like it's all you know, I'm down with the whole craft beer phenomenon. That's been a genuine miracle from the days when I was in college and you know, like Rolling Rock was really good beer, right, you know, if you got a Rolling Rock, everyone was like, whoa, you splurged man like that. So this has been a you know, that's just been a phenomenon. I've watched with, you know, with with kind of quiet awe as this whole thing has exploded.

6:31 So so I want to talk to the difference between how a game goes down inside a brewery versus how a game would go down like a game store. Those are those gonna be like GAMESO is gonna be the the number one place you're gonna find a group of strangers to play with. But now where we we're trying to meet, breweries being like either the second option or possibly even the better option. So what kind of differences between breweries and game stores have you found? I'd say the amount of people that reach out before they come to an event. They ask, Hey, I've tried doing this at a game store and it was super intimidating. So I hope it's okay that I'm new, and I hope it's okay that I'm trying it. I went to this game store one time and everybody knew what they were doing and it was super tough and I use the wrong spell, and I just want to make sure it's okay that I'm new. That's the type of atmosphere I've meant from, like the brewery and the game store side, because I've tried like working with game stores as well, and like, hey, we could host you know in your game store. We could maybe get sponsored by a local brewery.

7:39 I know obviously there's some laws behind all of that, but like, what's the way that we could bring all of us together type thing. But a lot of people that have tried a game store and then they come to us, they say, oh man, it was just really intimidating when I went to a game store and there's something I can see, there's something about it, and without social lubricant, so that I'm not being at a brewery, and you know, the environment's different, and it's just so much more comfortable and relaxed, and you know, I can have a beer and I can eat, and I can just chill and I could wait my turn and and and all these type of vibes versus where when you are in a game store, it is this is the focal point, this is this is we're we're here to play, and then we go home. And then that it's in a name, you're it's it's a game story. Yeah. Yeah.

8:28 Doing it in a brewery, there's all these other elements that I think make it a little bit more relaxing for newer players, because we do get a ton of newer players, people that you know, hey, I've heard about this for twenty years. I'm finally going to get a chance to try it at my favorite brewery. I was gonna say that has to be a part of it too, is that they're not just newer players, the newer players of a certain age, right, And so so that that age thing like that's important, especially as somebody that's you know, nearing forty, I'm not necessarily going to want to sit at the table with fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty year olds, right, It's going to be a lot more and and honestly, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three year olds aren't going to breweries. That's really not the brewery crowd. More than likely, I'm going to run into somebody closer to my age. Sure, that's going to have you know, world exters. Yeah, that we're going to have We're gonna be able to relate to each other, and I'm going to be more comfortable because that person is also new to this, right, So it is a lot less Yeah, because I'll tell you, even as a nearly forty year old man, teenagers are mean. They're really they are really mean, especially these new these this generation, these kids. You got your own, I got my own. He's super made one. Yeah, that kid, that kid has cut me to rib A tough crowd.

9:50 I think as they have an earlier access to Internet than we ever did growing up, so they've got they've learned way better roads. They've been They've been on all the borrower yeah, yeah, all the burn websites, They've learned all the good ones. They know how to ratio us. There's a massive difference between playing with twelve and fourteen year olds, which is a lot of my tables at the game stores, versus playing with mid thirty year olds, like my tables I think at the breweries now. It is cool, especially if you're, like like Thoma said, if you're around our age and you've always wanted to it is intimidating to play with the player teenagers now. You want to look like you know something about the world, and like bumbling through a new hobby, is that when you look the most vulnerable I mean, and I mean not to put too fun a point on it. Also, like if you're the kind of person who when you're hang out with a bunch of your friends and you're just sitting around the table, you are inclined to like drop an F bomb here and there, that is, you know, that's a thing you got to just you got to monitor your behavior in that game store setting in a way that's different than you do in a brewery.

10:56 I think the other thing that definitely is true about a brewery is that is a setting where it seems to me it's a lot easier to drop in with like four or five of your friends, kind of with an already established friend group and say we're going to be a table. It's a lot tougher to do at a game store, especially because game stores tend to have I mean, even if they're advertised as one shot events, you tend to have regulars that are coming every time and they want to sit together, and so a lot of times at a game store, you know, and they're a wonderful thing. You know. I owned game stores for many years, and I tried to make those events as welcome as as welcoming as I could, but really, no kidding, a lot of times, you know, you were looking around at the five tables and going, Okay, that table's got a spot free, and you know, no matter how cool we were about it and how welcoming and like, you know, how much we impressed upon the gms that worked for us that we needed them to make sure that they were inviting of new players you're still sitting down probably at the table with a bunch of people that know each other, and the much more casual setting of that.

11:58 Brewer, I think, you know, that's a thing where you can show up with three or four of your friends and you know they match you up. Thomas, you can tell us exactly how it works. But I assume you know that you guys aren't doing necessarily like you know, everybody signs up in advance and you have a you know, like like we assign you to this table or anything like that, but it's a little more, a little more casual, Like I'm just curious about that. Can you tell us how that works? Like table selection? And you know, can you know, can I show up with four of my friends and we all get to sit together and play. Absolutely, we totally advertise to whether you want to play by yourself. You're the solo player and you're just looking for a night out to meet new people. We have a lot of people to come out for a date night, which is really fun. One partner is like really into D and D and they've been dating for a long time and then they say, Hey, I can't wait to show you this hobby of mine.

12:45 Like, this is a big thing for me, but yep, I never had a chance because I'm in the middle of a campaign, so I can't just assert you in as a random character for you know, episode fifty Hardy sure that's how yo goa oh no broke up the people they were in a long term game a huge day. So we do have a lot of people to come out for like a date night, which is really really cool. And then we definitely had people buy four, five, six tickets at once. We actually just had last month at the International Bar in Philly, in Fishtown, we had a person buy twelve tickets for her and her work friends and they all said, divvy us up however you want. We're just excited to play and like hang out with each other after work. So this one person, she had been coming to D and D events over the past like month, two months, three months, and she kept bringing in one extra friend, two extra friends, and then to a point where we got the order in and I looked at my wife and said, the heck do we do? They just bought twelve tickets. But she was very nice and she emailed us and we bring in another DN. She immediately like emailed and said like, hey, I know, I just bought twelve. This looks crazy us up into two pairs of your two tables of six or three tables of four. We're happy to do whatever. We just love coming to your events and and I want to show my friends, you know, all the different types of like dming, you know, styles and one shot adventures and stuff

14:15 like that. That's how you know you nailed it too. And like whatever DM like got her first, like like make sure that they know that they that they created that experience for her, and you set off quite the domino effect that like I could have never predicted that, like something that could have happened. So that's just such a a surreal badass moment of Oh hey, babe, I think we did it, Like this is really cool. That's fantastic. As a DM who like almost exclusively does like like small events like this one, that would be my absolute top compliment. Yeah, it's like, ye'all bring it twelve of my friends next time, and then they do it, and that's a That's another thing that I think is important that kind of that story underlined is that we tried really hard at the store to make it welcoming. Specifically, to women and girls, and we did have some women and girls that would play. But game stores are just inevitably just kind of male coded spaces, right, and they're you know that people think of it that way and just kind of default that sort of you know, especially with younger players, you know, I mean, you know, things like Critical Role are making some inroads into that and stuff. But we tried really hard. But for the most part it was you know, eighty ninety percent young men, and you know, and and and for the most part the women that were attending, we're spouses or sos of you know, people that were regulars. That's but but those but breweries are just public spaces. They're social spaces, and they're coded as a place that, you know, where where everybody, you know, everybody gets together. Like it's just kind of

15:46 a it's a little more low key, you know, version of just a bar right, so that barrier, you're removing that barrier of a space that in their heads people think of, well, this is the place where guys go. Yeah. Uh, And that's fantastic that thing, you know, that gal bringing all of her work friends in it is amazing. I would have you know, I would have moved heaven and earth to get something like that happened, but it never did. Just you know, and and we tried, and we're conscious of it, but that's just how those spaces work, and us really neat to see that happen. Yeah, it's been. It's been really fun watching little checkpoints like that and everything. And there's absolutely that that stigma or around just the game itself that it's meant for guys only, Like that's it. It's just it's the guys. You know, they're gonna go in their man cave and they're gonna play D and D and drink their beers. Like, oh man, this game is super fun for everybody.

16:37 And I have a ten year old daughter and she loves to play with us too, Like it's so fun making this game accessible. I keep throwing that word out there and it sounds cliche, but no, it's as serious. We really want to make this is super important word absolute. We really want to make it accessible to everyone. I don't care what's your race, your gender, your your background. I want you to come have a fun night out, meet new people and let go of reality a little bit. Because that's what originally got me to D and d was man, my life is tough. I would love to spend the next four hours pretending to be a changeling sorcerer and just doing whatever I want to do, having fun with my friends. So it's been really, really fun those little checkpoints throughout the past a year and a half, those moments where oh, hey, babe, I think we did it. I think we're doing it like this looks really cool. Hello Adventurers, just stepping in here to remind you guys that we're actively looking for submissions for our Hello DMS episode that gets reported every month.

17:41 Send us your burning D and D questions to Helloadventurers podcast at gmail dot com, or send us a voicemail by visiting helloadventurers podcast dot com slash voice. Don't forget to begin your message with Hello DMS. You can't wait to get your questions to talk about them on the show. Send us your questions today. That's helloadventures Podcast at gmail dot com, or you the voice at helloadventurers podcast dot com slash voice. Now let's get back to the show. So tell me about the victual process of how someone signs up for a game and how they get assigned to DM. Yeah, we made a website Dungeons and Drafts dot com, Dungeons letter n Drafts. You would find your location, find your ticket through there. There are certain checkboxes that you have to check off before you could even put the ticket in your cart. And there's common things. There's photo permission. Hey, there could be photos taken at the at the event, we might use them for social media. Hey, cancellation policy. Oh. Also, here's a checkbox. All are welcome at a Dungeons and Drafts event. We do not discriminate against race, religion, gender, ethnic background, or anything. And if you cross this line at any point, the DM has all the right in the world to remove you from the table. So we put that gate immediately there on the ticket.

19:03 Because we have had people like email and ask in the past of hey, is this something you look out for? Hey, have you ever had any problems at a table? Yeah? Never, Because I I I trust, I lean into my dms with that whole vibe check idea. I tell them the model, and I tell them that this is an accessible, accepting thing for everybody. And so a lot of dms as well. They'll even at the start of their session, they'll introduce themselves and they'll even call it out as well and say, hey, I do We're not going to tolerate any X y Z things. Yep, I do that at my games, even at home with like with with new friends coming by, pretty sure the first time. You never you never know how far someone's going to take, you know when when when you're told the rules are you could do whatever you want.

19:48 You never know what direction someone's going to take the name of r P, Yeah, I can do anything I want. Well, hang on, okay, Yeah, that that safety discussion at the beginning of the game. That's a big indie game community thing where where you know, everybody make sure some of the games even like build it into the rules to say before you start play talk about what you know, what's okay and not okay stuff. Again, that's that's fantastic about this. Yeah, we just thought about it was like an episode or two ago where like it's actually at a at one of the games I ran, I ran for you at at my at my friend's brewery. I opened up the conversation with hey, money is Jason, I'm dmming for you a couple of quick things, you know, some some of it was game stuff, and then also while I have your attention. We are not tolerating any sort of real world racism or bigotry, and like kind of go through my little list and they looked at me like slack draw They're like, is that really a thing? You have to see? The people? I'm like, oh, oh, sweetheart, people are people are awful. Yes, I have to say the summer child. Are you familiar with something called the internet? Yeah? I think I called the fifty year old man my speak summer child child. He's been he and his friend was signing up for every game since I since I met them a couple of a couple months ago. They'd been great. From the ticket, the last check boark, the last old checkbox you have to check off as a player is a question, what is your experience playing D and D? And there's four options. Never played, some knowledge played a long time ago and place regularly.

21:07 So as soon as this ticket is bought on our on on my end, and and the DM end, I will get that information. I will see all right, Dave Simpson, party of one, never played, Okay, cool. I'm gonna let the DM know ahead of time, and then that way they can better cater that one shot to them. A player doesn't really know who their DM is until the night of the event. A player does have the chance when they're purchasing a ticket. There is a yet another box for DM requests. So you know, maybe it's a friend of yours. Maybe you've heard a lot of good stuff about Jason and you really want to, you know, give Jason a try as a DM. Okay, you can check a box and then I'll see that on my end, and then I'll add a little note. You know, Jason requested so this party not that game. Yeah, no beardos. Yeah. So I will even say, like there's there is something who if you worked with one DM the last time and you just want to try something different, or like you style, or I just want to see what everyone's got, there's there's nothing wrong with with having someone request against you. Yeah, variety. Variety is the spice of yes. However, I will say that all my repeats have requested me. It is really cool watch on the players. They definitely split themselves up, where some players all they do is ask for the same DM over and over. They really enjoy that one story, that one DM style, and then you have this other huge group of players that are just like, nah, I've already had five of these. I want that one new guy right right, that guy just joined the team. I want him. And I'm like, okay, we be nice to Will Okay, I want to

22:40 ruin his day. Have like ten of these events under your belt. Man, please be nice. I must break you. It's gonna. I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna print out the exact word of his silvery barbs and here we go. All right, let's make him cry. Yeah right, yeah, welcome to touchits of dress. This is my this is my Ira Cochra monk who knows silvery barbs. Don't ask how now he's your problem. But actually, you do recommend that the dms come with pre generated characters, and we just kind of, you know, fast track all of that part of this that here's some characters that we know will work in this campaign, and we're not going to spend half an hour or god, we're got bit more creating characters when that's time we could be role playing. Yeah, especially because of the time constraint at a Bird's a lot of places want us on a slow Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Okay, well, then that means those places are probably closing at around nine o'clock. In order to try to get as many people as possible, we're going to start the event at six pm. People get out around five five thirty. Great, cool, all right, we're gonna start at six. Holy crap, you get three hours to pack in your one jot adventure for probably six players. And some of these players might not have even ever played. They don't even know what dice to roll. So in order to make this we say plug and play event for both the brewery and the players. We do tell all of our dms come with as many pre made characters as possible, just so the players have plenty of options. So it's it's definitely been a learning as we grow type thing over the past year, but that that's been a pretty crucial element is

24:14 here's pre made characters some dms. Here's you know, here they bring loaner dice, here's this, here's this. All right, let's jump into the adventure because we only have now two and a half hours. You know, I did I did actually love that in the one that I played I Jason dmd it. I did love that I had the character sheet handed to me I got, I had a few to pick from. I had all my spells were already on there. I didn't have to like go through and make those. You know. I'm the kind of person too if I'm at if i'm at McDonald's, it takes me a while, Like I got to look at the menu. I don't just get the ten piece every time, like maybe this time I'll try, you know, the chicken. And this this really just it was like here, here it is, this is what it is. There's there is no room for you know editing this right? It was great. I love I'm I'm sure to see other other dms like go bags like your d bug out bat that's another episode. But uh and we we've done this on an earlier Curmudgeons episode, and I would like to do this again with another year and a half of d M a experience, but we did it. What's in Jason's Bag episode and I'll give them the real quick version of specific to these events. My bag is designed for strangers to play with me. So I've got a giant bag with I think forty sets of dice in them. Just grab what you need plus plus my own dice, and I have a couple of pouches of super cheap dice that I will happily give away if I if I get a first time player who had a good time and does not have their own dice, I would happily give that to them. I have ten characters that I that I made all level three,

25:44 and I'm just going to keep all my campaigns at level three until I feel like making more. These are laminated, so we can wipe the beer off of them and use dry and use dry erase markers to keep the HP with the wing sauce and whatever. Yeah, exactly, these things get dirty. They're already sticky. But I'm but I can just win dex the down like a diner menu. I have spell cars printed out. I might eventually laminate them, but right now they're not. But they are color coded and and pay eclipped per character. So now we've got the spell cars ready to go. Everyone gets dry erace marker. Everyone gets a pen. I have Hello, My name is tags. That is for your character name, because I don't know your name. I don't I don't need to know your name for your character. Is that a tip you picked up from me? That was absolutely yeah, yeah, that was what I think we recorded that episode, and then the next day or the next days went to that game and they had all you think I didn't You think I didn't have the Amazon app opened while we were recording. Come on, that's fantastic. Yeah that was that might have an episode I want to say two or three. That was a GM shopping list episode that was. That was a cool one. So go back and listen to that if you have them already. But yeah, so the idea and and the other the snap together hexagon oal dice trees I bought. I bought a six pack of them. They sit out in the middle of the tab. So like you walk in with nothing and now you've got a character sheet, a marker, a pen, something to remind every when your name is, you have dice, a dice tray. The only thing this left is your beer and like you know, you buy that.

27:11 Yep. I did also make laminated DM inspiration cards that I hand out physical DM inspiration on and I encourage them to try to earn it. And this is part of my pregame speech. It's like we are using DM inspiration today. If your character does something that I completely did not see coming, I will absolutely give the inspiration for it. One player used speak with animals to completely bypass a bully ug encounter and like, like really like sold it that we are not here to hurt you. And they were smart enough to figure to believe her, So I gave her inspiration for that. If you make me genuinely laugh, I will give an inspiration out freely. I will happily give out. I would give more inspiration than anyone ever needs. I will basically like give to rap this campaign for the players to steamroll me if we all have a good time, If you're making me laugh that much and you have advantage on every role, I don't care. And then you know, this is something we'll talk about in a second. We're there to support the brewery. It's a slow night for them. We want to push their sales.

28:08 You buy me a drink, I'll get your inspiration. And I had and I had one player abused that. Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't know, I don't know if this type of behavior is condoned by dungeons and dress. I'm pretty sure I sold six Sextra beers that night, So that's great, six extra beers. I wasn't going to buy it. We've absolutely had a handful of d ms that are like, hey, is it okay that like that the players buy me a beer for inspiration? Hey man, that's part of your DM style. I give you the freedom to DM however you want. Well, I mean, but I mean the DM guide is very specific that each table, you know, every DM can decide their system for how they reward inspiration. So I mean that's not just you know, that's cannon. Actually, I think they actually suggest beers. In top Tasha specifically talked about IPA. What do you think is in her causure?

29:07 Yes, right there we go. I've been a gigging musician for god twenty years now, and like every musician that I'm friends with, and I'm a sound engineer for for concert halls too, so like every new musician that comes through, like how do you how do we do this? Like how do how do you actually like support yourself doing this? Like you're looking at this the wrong way. But don't forget why we're here. We are not here to play music, just like we are not here specifically to play Dungeon and Dragons. We are here because we are alcohol salesmen. We are here to push the products. Yeah, and like we we get to continue doing this over and over again if we are good salesman and like, yeah we're here to play a game, and yeah, I'm here to play some songs.

29:48 But like, that doesn't continue to happen if the venue that is allowing us to use our space isn't also profiting from it. So like when I changed how I looked at like playing in and stuff, I made my set list a lot safer instead of playing the songs I wanted to. I've played the songs and made money. I made more money too, and and and and playing games like this. Okay, if we can push more sales, but we can do it in a fun way exactly then that that that brewery is gonna invite us back and we get to play more game. Yes, it's it's a it's a super fun and relaxed way. I do say it out loud every time alcohol does bring up. To be a DM, you do not have to drink. I have absolute plenty of dms that have asked in the in the vibe checks and in wanting to join. They let me know, hey, I've been sober for eight years. I hope that's okay, and I go holy crap, are you gonna be okay, Like that's insane brass to you. But in most of these you don't miss these.

30:41 Yeah, you don't have to drink even as a player, you don't have to drink anything. I just make it abundantly clear that, hey, if a brewery sees a table full of water and diet coke, they have no reason to invite us back. So well, we need to buy something from them, whether it is food, whether it is beer, whether it is merch. We need to support this local business for giving us a table for three to four hours when other paying customers could have taken it, or multiple tables take up their whole space. Yeah, and most of these breweries now have some kind of like fancy ass root beer that they're brewing in house, or you know, they're the Spoke Colas or something like that. You know, there there's plenty of options fun year for NA drinkers. Lots of breweries are starting to put on tap lots of NA options, which is really really cool, or mocktail and hop water, which is just like not the not yeah, like not only cop sell strong, not hoped strong selters, but like hop water where it's it's a non alcoholic pop selter essentially. Yeah, seltzers are easy. I've seen some root beers and birch beers and things like that. But yeah, absolutely, that's and that's that's something that you know, I am a casual drinker. I forget about that sometimes, but you know, again, being a musician for as long as they have a lot of my friends are former drinkers, what pool say, or decidedly not drinkers.

32:05 A few friends, that guy I'm very close friends with in his early forties, He's like, I'm in my forties. I don't drink. I don't drink coffee. Is that a teetotaler? I don't think he drinks tea. He doesn't do calendar caffeine or alcohol. I don't think you have to drink tea to be a tea totaler. But he's like, he's like, literally, how do I make friends? Right? I don't know if I'm not going to coffee shops or bars? Literally, how do I make friends? So you could possibly play D and D com there. You don't have to drink. You just just hang out in your neighborhood. See if anybody wants to play Manhunt. That's how I'm pretty sure I did. For if drinks coffee or teas, that's a lot less creepy when you're eight. Yeah, there you go. So somebody wants to get involved in Dungeon of drass as a dungeon master, how would they go about that? Best place to start go to the website. We do have a little tab that says becoming a d M, and there's right off the bat a ton of the information that I already told talked about, but I try to be transparent and put that info out there as as kind of obvious as possible that like, hey, we're looking for dms that are kind comfortable, patient with new players while still being able to challenge experience players. There's all these cool bullet points on what we look for. And if at the end of that wall of techs you the DM, the potential DM says, man, I'm really interested.

33:23 Great. There's an email at the bottom and that just goes directly to my inbox and from there we strike up the conversation and then I get to know what area are you in. Dungeons and Drafts is currently in Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Delaware, Pittsburgh, Knoxville, Ashville. We will be opening in Durham very soon, and then over the summer we're looking to open in Hartford, Connecticut. Really really cool that one of our players from New York City, he's been a big fan for a long time, been playing in New York City and he's moving to Hartford. So he asked, can you make a Dungeons and Drafts guild and Hartford. I'd love to meet new people up in Hartford, where my wife and I are moving.

34:04 And I said, yeah, absolutely, let's you know, talk over the summer and and kind of go from there. But yeah, the best way for a DM to get involved would be going to the website, finding the little tab that says becoming a DM, reading the wall of text, and then just sending me an email. So it sounds like if we were somewhere, like hypothetically kind of within roughly within that area, but in a city that you know doesn't have a Dungeon draft set up yet, that getting in touch with you to make a pitch sounds like something you'd be recepted. Absolutely. It's what happened in Durham. There was a very enthusiastic DM that was down there and saw what was happening in Asheville and went man, that's really cool. Can you do that? So, like, can you do that over the ear in Durham? Yeah? Yeah, So like hypothetically, if there was somebody enthusiastic with a lot of experiences that had recently moved to the Washington, DC area, saying, you know it might Yeah, funny enough, I have absolutely been eyeing d C in Baltimore as as an area I already made. Whenever I make a new location in order to help me stay organized, I do have specific emails to that area. So within the last week I did actually make a DC at Dungeons and Drafts, and I made Baltimore at So you and I could definitely sidebar at some point. Yeah.

35:24 Yeah, since you're down there too, you might as well just do Dungeons and waffle House. Come on down for exant drive. Yeah, probably, I'm probably going to Maryland. What you do for that? That's such kind of how how I got involved, because yes, you are active in New Jersey. It seems to be a lot of North Jersey and the western side of South Jersey, which is which is basically the the the outer Philly area. So that makes a lot of sense for you being Philly based yourself. Right, you're in Philly yourself. Yeah, okay, so so hitting that part of like south southern and western New Jersey makes a lot of sense. And the North Jersey there's just a lot going on. Plus you're New York.

36:05 People can come over there and here I am in the Shore area and there's a wide open spot there. I'm like, here, listen. And that was how we started our conversation. I'm like, listen, I have friends who owned breweries in this area that would love this. Let's talk. Yeah. Absolutely. We started this in Philadelphia. We started it in the city. It slowly grew outside into the suburbs, and then all of a sudden we started getting emails and messages from locations in New Jersey and they would ask, Hey, we're like ten minutes across like the river, could you just come to D and D over here? And I went, well, yeah, that makes sense. I'm driving forty five minutes over to King of Prussia. Why not just go ten fifteen minutes over to Jersey and start offering D and D. And then that's when this whole idea. Talking to my awesome, badass wife about what if we started expanding and making these guilds and specific areas. Because the more we grew in that Jersey area, the more people in Jersey asked, hey, can we just get like our own schedule because you're lobbing us in with the Philly you know schedule, which makes sense, that's where you started, But I just want to see where the New Jersey locations are. And so we started that natural progression into South Jersey, and then all of a sudden we started getting interest from North Jersey locations reaching out and asking us North Jersey players and dms and people that again would see the instagram or advertisements and go, well, I want to be part of that, but I'm not driving an hour and a half to South Jersey.

37:36 Yeah. So I'm stoked to keep learning and growing in Jersey, in New York and all these places where, yes, we do have the New Jersey Guild, but we are absolutely missing a crucial part of Jersey, which is the shore. So we put out a post not too long ago, I think like a week or two weeks ago where on the New Jersey's Instagram I specifically asked looking for dungeon masters. This is a big state with a lot lot of places to cover. A lot of our dms can't make it to all these locations that really want us and these players want us. So we are absolutely LFDM looking for dungeon masters email New Jersey at dungeons and Drafts dot com and we can get the conversation going. And Jason, because you're part of the server that we run for New Jersey, I'm sure you've seen the uptick in I think the last week we've added probably like six or seven new last week or two has been close to like ten. Yeah, I keep seeing new people. It's like I know this this person was demoted, was promoted to the the DM role and you know they get all their access from there. But yeah, there's been I think ten that passed like through three weeks, and my inbox easily has five or six unread emails during its kount like when I woke up, and then I've noticed during this conversation I've gotten a couple more emails. I have to figure out if they're from Jersey or Pittsburgh or wherever or wherever at But it's really really cool being able to make a platform for dungeon masters to show off their art end of the day.

39:00 This is a really cool art, a really cool type of storytelling. And it's been so fun watching from all the different guilds, the hundreds of different ways you can DM. There is no right way. There's just an incredible amount of creativity out there, and so giving these dms that chance to use theater of the mind to bring their maps, to bring their minis, that's just super fun. Yeah. I could go on and on tomes. Do you compensate the dms at all or or is this just yes? Yeah, yeah, for sure, they do get part of the ticket price. So we introduce the ticket price mainly because yes, I am putting a lot of work into this, I need a way to pay bills, but also we wanted a way to compensate the dms for their time as well. Oh, I think that the ticket price is fantastic, And that's another difference between this program and what a lot of game stores do. We had a very modest ticket price at our store, but it just creates that bar that everybody has to step over where they got be willing to actually make an investment exactly what's going on in the game, and so everyone that's showing up there. You know, they want to be there because they paid to be there, and it just like it just makes everything more professional in what I think is probably a really good and productive play. Yeah, that their parents, their parents aren't dropping them off and coming back to call bick them up. Yeah, that's that's been a huge push. My mother would drop me off. It's it's a huge I mean when I was a teenager. It's a huge selling

40:31 point to the dms and to and to host locations as well as a brewery. Being able to tell them that, hey, tonight at Yards, we have sold thirty six tickets, so you can expect thirty six players, but you can also expect six dms. You could expect forty two people tonight, and then that way they can let their staff know and go all right, hey, be ready, we're going to have a lot of people tonight. And that works for any location where we're able to give them a head count. We teetered on the idea about a ticket price and every thing, but the amount of behind the scenes of work that I'm doing, Yeah, No, I think it's I think it's great that I think it's great that you do that because it professionalizes it for everyone. And it also you know, like I was taking a quick look at it, and you guys are pretty clear about like, you know, if you don't cancel within forty eight hours, you know you've paid and we're gonna, you know, go ahead and run the game. DM still gets paid even if you don't show up.

41:27 I think that's the DM's coming out, that the DM's preparing something. We absolutely want to compensate them for the three to four hours that they are hanging out at that brewery. And that's fantastic, just like not put sure the three to four hours brost of the time they prepare and everything, and you know, and if the uh not everyone goes as as arts and craft says I did, but most of the dms that I've seen go, some of them go farther than I did. And like, you know, this is some materials and hours that we're putting in behind the scenes as well, So like this is something that a DM in a public setting, I think. And then the last, the last thing about compensation for dms. We learned about this a few months ago from a New York City DM where she had told me, Hey, I hope it's okay, but somebody offered to give me a tip at the end of the session. I said, yes, I hope that's cool, and I went, holy, that's fantastic. Yeah, I'm glad you went with asking, you know, for forgiveness versus provision.

42:19 But now that this actually became a thing, let's promote that idea. You can. Absolutely they are providing a customer service skill set that bartender at the host location for that night, they're going to get tipped out and they're doing a fantastic job with their customer service. But why shouldn't you also be able to get tipped something? So I do. It's not a requirement. I offer it to the dms who want to do it. Some of them print out, you know, a sheet of paper. It has the QR code to their VENMO, it has their Instagram account. A lot of dms on Dungeons and drafts across all the gills. A lot of them have made their own specific DM Instagram account. They make their own graphics, they make their own little calendars, and they say, hey, I've signed up, I'm going to be at these locations in April. You can request me.

43:07 Here are the adventures I'm running. And it just makes for a really interactive way. Once again, I'd love making this platform for the dms. They're they're able to promote themselves and get work even outside of Dungeons and Drafts where Hey, I had a lady come to me in Wilmington many months ago and she told me that they were getting married, her and her fiance. She wanted to do a one shot bachelor party. I love bachelor party, birthday parties, that kind of thing. And Sherry, I love this DM. We just had him tonight. What do I do? Do I talk to you? Do I talk to him? No, you can go talk to him. Absolutely, you had a fantastic time with him. I don't want to be your middleman. He's an independent contract. My plate's kind of full with this too, right. I appreciate you coming to me, but absolutely you can go talk to him, and you guys can kind of settle on what works best for your two parties. Thomas, let me let me pitch a softball here. Like say, I had a group of friends and I wanted to treat them to a night of dungeons and drafts. Do you have a way that I could go about doing that? We do have gift cards we introduced that over the holiday season. Lots of people asked about that again Dungeons and Drafts dot com and you scroll down, We're going to do a big overhaul on the website. It's it's a lot of locations. So the feedback has been, Hey, I just want to know where Pittsburgh dates are.

44:25 But I'm going to work hopefully with one or two different website designers and we're going to do a big overhaul. But that is absolutely a thing that we do have on the website. When you scroll down, you could see gift cards available and you can buy you know, fifteen dollars worth, you could buy one person a ticket, you could buy you know, as many tickets as you want for your friends, and they're good for any D and D event pending. It isn't sold out, but absolutely And that's and that sounds great because that's it's it's regardless of what brewery it's happening at, it's a Dungeons and Drafts gift card, right, So so it doesn't matter where the venue is as long as it's an event that you guys are involved with, we can use that wherever. Yeah, that's awesome. We sometimes do a raffle at our events, and that's one thing we're going to switch into doing online raffles. But we made one of the raffle prizes a ticket to any future Dungeons and Drafts event. Sure, and we made the cube and we made the cubon code good for anywhere, so we had someone win it in Philadelphia. Great, you can go to the New Jersey Guild and play over there if you want. This is good anywhere funding. With the raffle that we do, we do donate half of the raffle money to a local nonprofit, local charity. It's a fun way to get out of the D and D and beer lane and just meet the community. So here in Philadelphia we've done it a lot because I do live here and I am able to go to these locations and buy some dice, buy some dice trays, a hat, and a book, and then you know, we put it all

45:55 up for raffle. But thinking future, I am like everyone know that as soon as I can, as soon as we update the websites, we're going to do an online raffle because I can't go to Pittsburgh all the time, because I can't go to Knoxville or Asheville. I really want the Knoxville community to bid on stuff, to bid on prizes, and then at the end of two weeks of bidding or something, Hey, we're going to donate half of that to the Knoxville Library. Who like, how fun somebody won something fun for Knoxville. You want some fun prizes and we're able to give back to something in the community. I throw community out there a lot, because I don't know, it's just something that means a lot to me. It's something I grew up on, and it's something that I feel like as we go into twenty twenty four and more of these years, people are going further away from community and they're kind of sticking to themselves and they're afraid to go the whole bowling alone. Phenomenon Ye people talking, and so I love creating this idea that we're here for everybody, not just D and D, not just beer. I love helping out in philadelp and donating to South Philly Community Fridge or the Mural Arts Program. Out here, a lot of really really fun places to work with. Locally. There's obviously fantastic nationwide charities, but there's also phenomenal local places you can go to as well, and then it just helps me learn about the area as well. I'd love to learn more about Jersey and where we can donate in Jersey. I'd love to give one of the prizes we're going to give someone in Jersey for that. Raffle is a fifty dollars. I looked it up and you could do a gift card

47:28 to easy Pass. You guys have so many soles. Nice, Holy crap. Yeah, I learned so hard about all the tolls, and I thought, you know what, whoever wins in Jersey, I'm gonna give you fifty bucks, then you can come to any dent. That's great. That's meek prizes I've ever heard of that. That's a really nice week going up and down the park with right, Yeah, thank you. George Carollen has a whole riff about New Jersey being the toll booth state. You know, you can't back out of your driveway without some schmuck and a half wants fifty cents? Is his his whole Well, yeah, yeah, we've all you know, we've all just got it on, you know, right on top of our windshield. Then. So yeah, so this is this is question, This question is mostly for Thomas, but absolutely Jim and Joe wants you.

48:15 I want you to let us, let me know your opinions as well. So an entire adventuring party ends up inside a brewery which classes are ordering what. Oh, let's see I think the I think the Barbarian gets the biggest, the biggest flagon of ale of the pub ale. I was I was going, you think it's like a Loggers, like a stout dapple bach. Is that where you're trying to get to Yeah, yeah, we're getting that. Yeah, Oh I'm getting I'm gonna the the Barbarian has taken the the the imperial and the imperial style. I thought of a bard with a very eclectic fruity. I p a very complex type of maybe maybe a Belgian maybe something. Not ordering anything. The bar is just gonna like start to play and like like like assume that things will be brought to him, right, and like he's not he's not paying for his own drinks. That's not the that's not what the bar is going to be doing. I wass saying that the bar is getting the Seltzers. Okay, Okay, it's a glamor Bard, though Coultron glamor. Okay, got to watch the figure. Uh, let's see, Rangers and druids are gonna split between farmhouses and seissans. Okay, nice earthy beers. Yeah yeah, man, who would get I feel like a Warlocks going like stout porter, something dark, oh yeah, dark

49:49 and brooding. Yeah, serve warm, so yeah yeah I think that's and then a Palatine would get something bright yeah maybe like maybe hills yeah, golden ale. Yeah yeah. And the cleric is the one ordering like the root beer, the seltzer, yeah you've got yeah, yeah, exactly, the actual seltzer. The roague brought his own little little flasks, right, snuck him in there. Yeah, that's the best I got. Thomas is awesome. Where can people find more about dungeons and drafts? All right? Perfect? Yeah. Best way to learn more about dungeons and drafts Dungeons letter n Drafts, Dungeons drafts dot com. You can also look up dungeons and drafts on Instagram. We have dungeons and drafts Philly, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, New York City, Delaware, Ashville, Knoxville, and we do post daily.

50:45 We have lots of flyers going up daily. We post lots of recap photos on our Instagram. We like to post lots of like DM highlights and everything. Maybe you can learn about like a DM that's local in your area and you could try to request them at an upcoming session. But yeah, so Instagram and the website. Also on the website there is a drop down if you Once you scroll down, there's a spot where you can put your email in and sign up for a newsletter. We like to send a newsletter out once every couple of weeks. We always drop the monthly calendar. And then we also like to send everyone like a ticket update and let them know, hey, if you were thinking about coming to an event next week, there's only three tickets left. Little things like that, So lots of fun updates through our email. There's a separate Instagram for each region. So uh so go find your go find your local region if you're local to the area.

51:35 So Dungeons and Drafts NJ for New Jersey, Dungeons and Drafts p HL for Billy. Once you find one, you can basically find them all. Sure. Yeah, well we'll put links to not only the main website, but we'll put all the Instagram links in the show notes as well, so people can find them easily from this episode. Yeah, this is this has been such a cool thing. And not only and only this this interviewing you coming on the show, but the even just the the operation that you're running. This is this is really cool. We'll kill the curtain back a little bit. You're called disconnected for a little bit there, and while we're waiting for you to reconnect, Jim was kind of flipping through the website and just marveling it, like how how much reach this operation even really has and how successful he believes it's going to be in DC Baltimore area as well, and how much he wants to run all again in the DC Baltimore area. You and I will talk a little bit later about breweries around my area that I think we can get into. I'm sure you've got your pitch for them already set, but I think maybe it could bring people together in our nation's capital, something we desperately. That should be all right, So we'll drop all that later. Thomas, thank you so much, and you and Desre for creating this as well. This is this is awesome. So if you you're in one of these regions and you can't get out to a game. Highly highly highly recommend. I'm actually running a game for you tonight at the closest brewery that you're participating in to me, which is about forty five minutes away.

52:59 But well we'll fix that later. But Thomas, once again, thank you so much. Thank you, guys, thank you, thank you so much. Goodbye Adventurers. If it's wonderful to meet and hang with you, Oh you can, you can? You can say it with us after good for much? Feel yeah yeah, ready, stick around man, Thank you for listening to Hello Adventurers. We are your hosts Jason Portiso, Jim Crocker, and Joe McCall. Our guest today was Thomas Solar of Dungeons and Drafts, producer, editor engineer Jason Portiso. Music is by Nick Spurrier, artwork by Kristen Broderick. You can reach out to us with any feedback or suggestions by emailing Hello Adventurers podcast at gmail dot com. Hello Adventurers is a JTP audio production. Now we can say it ready, Goodbye adventures