“And thank you guys for sticking with us tonight. Thank you all so much for watching. See you on our next live twitch broadcast.”
''Wow. What a day! We've been playing dungeons and dragons for 3 hours and the viewers was very good today. How much did you say, I think you said 1.100 people were watching when we took a break" said one of my best friends. I didn't give them the actual number so they wouldn't get excited and lose the game, but after the break, whatever happened, the number of viewers watching the live stream was 9.000. That was an incredible number for us.
''Dude, I have a surprise for you,'' I smiled. ''Nine thousand people watched us and the comments on the broadcast were excellent. We also got twice as many subscribers and donations as the price we had set to buy the light!”
"WHAT!" 3 of my closest friends and my wife, with whom we played together at the Dungeons and Dragons table, expressed their surprise at the same time. What a fun moment I thought….
Then they came to the computer to see with their own eyes what I was saying and when they saw that it was indeed true, they started screaming with joy.
After hugging each other and congratulating each other, we looked again at the number of subscribers we had collected. It was really over a thousand, which was amazing for us.
''This is unbelievable! What's going to happen now! We have money to buy a new light and we have money to buy an extra light even! From now on everyone who subscribes will get a notification when we broadcast and now 1,000 people will watch every broadcast?”
George, one of my friends, was very excited and couldn't stop talking. He was reinforcing his happiness by talking.
I put my arm around my wife's shoulder and looked towards them and saw how happy they all were. We had been dreaming about this for years. Was today really the tipping point? What made this day special? It must have been time; twitch must have featured us on the homepage. We were no longer appealing to a small group but to an audience.
It was the first time we had earned money to buy something other than pizza and it was the first time we had raised so much money. But would there be a future? Instead of thinking about the future, we started to enjoy the present for the moment.
The photo is of my own D&D playroom.
SIX MONTHS LATER
But six months later, everything was completely different. I came to the room where we were shooting and where our table was, and there was no one in there but me. Today was the day of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game and broadcast. 10,000 average viewers were waiting for us... Yes, 10,000 viewers on average. That's how high our audience had gotten.
Every week, we were in the homes of almost ten thousand people, on their computer screens, telling them about the adventures of our characters in this magical world. Sometimes I felt like an old-time traveler telling stories by the fire. Or like an old grandfather. But it was a very happy experience to realize that what we were doing was helping a lot of people discover a new world and make new friends.
People were meeting each other on our discord page and playing games in their cities. They would come and tell us about their adventures. Sometimes I would even come across people playing Dungeons and Dragons online, and then I would log in to my second account and join the audio channel and listen to them, because if I logged in from my account, their games would break and the dungeon masters would sometimes get excited. It was best if they didn't know who I was. Because there was no such thing as being the right game master. It was enough to be the just right one for your group.
Nothing is written on the stone. That is why I love tabletop gaming.
So today, as I had been doing for months, I was going to come early and start preparing to be a good DM for my group and perform well in the evening game.
I put my laptop on the wooden table... I took out my notes... I started working...
A few notes about the Paladin character's past... yeah, we haven't had anything with him for a long time, and it looks like someone from his past might be put in the adventure we're having now... maybe this game will change direction and they'll go somewhere else... hmm... I hope they will not use the stone from the devil yet. I want them to use it few weeks later at the big war… if they choose to go to this tavern, they can meet this friend from the Paladin character's past in that tavern... So what are the features of the tavern...
As I was preparing all this and writing the descriptions, I didn't even realize that my wife had come quietly into the room. When I turned off the laptop screen after I was done, I was startled to see her face.
''When did you arrive, darling?”
''I've been here for a few minutes; I didn't want to interrupt your busy, creative writing time, love. How are you?”
"It's going to be a very good game tonight. I hope you enjoy it.'' I added and kissed her softly.
She said, "You know today is the second anniversary of the channel, right? How had I forgotten about that?”
Because of my busy schedule and the attention, I was paying to the story, I hadn't remembered that the channel was two years old.
''Oh s**! I didn't prepare anything special!”
''It doesn't matter, just be natural, love. Be you. People follow us because we are not acting and we are like a friend. We are not a professional television program. You say that all the time. You just say at the beginning of the broadcast that it's been two years and thank people, darling. There's no need for more, no need to put on faces, no need for extra insincere performances.''
''Of course. Yes, I will do that, how was your day baby, let’s talk about you?”
The photo is of my own D&D playroom.
A FEW HOURS LATER
''And then your brother looks up at you, Paladin. He squeezes the red stone in his hand and wipes the sweat from his face with his right arm. You notice that the smoke and mists around him begin to swirl around him. His eyes begin to glow red. Just like the red stone in his hand... And this is where we end the chapter!''
''Aaaaaaaa!'' ''No, but!!!'' ''Is this the end of the chapter or what, is the stone controlling him, I told you not to use the stone we got from the demon…'' they started talking among themselves and started discussing the game.
One of the most satisfying things as a DM of Dungeons and Dragons is when your players talk among themselves independently of you, commenting on the game, sharing their thoughts... This makes me happy, I thought, and then I remembered the broadcast and the cameras that were still on.
''Okay, okay, calm down, you can talk about these things later,'' I added with a laugh.
''Yes friends, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being with us throughout our two-year adventure and supporting us every step of the way. We really couldn't have done any of this without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone watching. See you soon and remember, happens is only real when shared. ''
And cut..
This story is inspired by and written for The Inkwell Creative Nonfiction ‘’Daydreaming, mind flying’’. Thank you so much for reading. Lately, I’ve been thinking about our dungeons and dragons live play project so I am dreaming about it… a lot… I hope this comes true one day… See you soon!