So about that birthday thing...
Well howdy, new folks! Welcome to my frankly irresponsibly chaotic and irregular newsletter! If you joined the list for details about our first birthday events, you’re in luck, but first: July! (Patience, my loves. Patience.)
July is somehow (rudely, shockingly) around the corner, but we’re determined to fight the crushing weight of the passage of time with fun. Here are our July events that still have tickets available:
7/2: Pajama + donut party for the launch of “Tusk Love,” the in-game romance novel from Critical Role that Thea Guanzon has so brilliantly brought to life! Seriously, I loved this. We’re gonna hang out about it.
7/12: “Pasión de los Pasiones,” a one-shot role-playing session in the style of a telenovela! Heather from Worlds 4 All is running this (she also now officially works at the shop, in case you didn’t hear! We’re so excited!!), and it’s gonna be a blast. No telenovela (or Spanish) knowledge required — just campy vibes.
7/17 & 7/24: A two-session mini campaign of “Warrenguard,” a role-playing game where you’re dragon riders! Heather’s also running this one and I am hugely jealous I can’t join. So you should, and tell me all about it.
We’ve also got another session in our ongoing shop campaign of Yazeba’s Ben & Breakfast, plus our two book clubs (for “The Salt Grows Heavy” and “Godkiller”), and then our monthly movie night (we’re watching one of my all-time favorite sci-fi films, “Galaxy Quest”).
OKAY NOW ONTO BIRTHDAY STUFF
First let me say: I truly cannot believe that they (the gods? the universe? my landlords?) are letting me run the fantasy shop of my dreams. It constantly feels like I’m getting away with something and that at any minute, someone’s going to come out from behind a curtain and be like, “Alright folks, show’s over, gig’s up, you’re done,” etc. But since that hasn’t happened yet: we party!
So far, we’ve got two big things in the works for the last week of August. They are:
Tue, Aug 26, 7pm @ Upstairs: All-Author D&D w/ DM Caroline
That’s right! I’m running a D&D session live at Upstairs, with five incredible fantasy authors as my players, NO PRESSURE. Our authors are:
Melissa Caruso, "The Last Hour Between Worlds," the Swords and Fire trilogy, the Rooks and Ruin trilogy
Maiga Doocy, "Sorcery & Small Magics"
Aislinn Brophy, "Spells to Forget Us," "How to Succeed in Witchcraft"
Tara Tai, "Single Player"
Rebecca Podos, "Homegrown Magic," "From Dust, a Flame"
All five of these phenomenal humans have been supporters of the shop this year, and I couldn’t be more thankful to them! So to show my gratitude, I’ll… try to avoid a TPK, I guess?! We’ll let the dice decide.
Here’s the Eventbrite for this event! Y’all get exclusive early access since you’re newsletter folks (and since you’ve stuck with my rambling this far) — use “sidequest” as the password to enter.
Sat, Aug 30, 12-4pm and 7 til late @ Upstairs: Game time, and then party time!
I’m coordinating with a bunch of game masters in our incredible community, and we’re gonna have some excellent sessions available from 12-4pm! Everything from D&D to Kids on Bikes/Brooms to Mazes and more — probably about 10 games in total. A great way to spend your afternoon before getting all gussied up for…
Costume party & shenanigans! From 7pm til late, we’re gonna party like it’s… any other time in any other world that’s not here and now. Dress up like your favorite sci-fi/fantasy character, or like your own D&D character, or like anything vaguely fantasy-like! We’ll have some fun prizes at the end of the night for costume-y stuff, but if you just wanna come hang out and have a good time, that’s also good and chill. No pressure here!
We’re also gonna have some activity booths — Athina, our favorite local character sketch artist, will be there to draw your D&D character for you! The chainstitch folks from Keeper will probably be there too! We’re gonna figure out some fun dice-rolling games! There will be snackies! A DJ! (Don’t ask me how I’m planning all of this — it’ll come together. Somehow. I promise.)
The Eventbrite page for this is not yet live, but y’all will be the first to know when it is. Just save the date, mmkay? (And probably follow our Eventbrite page to get email notifications for when other things go live, too.)
So that’s it! That’s what’s up!
I hope I get to see y’all for the craziness in August — I truly cannot wait to celebrate with you. (Yes, YOU!)
Yours in frantic D&D prepping,
Caroline