In December 2013, my wife gave me a gumball machine filled with dice. There’s a little space at the top, and rather than fill it myself I decided to turn to you. I want you to send me a die and a story. It could be a story about the die itself, or just about you: who you are and why you play games. Traveling around the world, I’ve found that gamers cover an amazing spectrum – teachers and students, celebrities and children, strippers and soldiers. Everyone has a story, and I’d like to share yours.
I met Teagan and Erika during my recent trip to LA. Erika is an actress; Teagan is the Technical Art Director at Naughty Dog, a video game developer that’s produced a few obscure titles you’ve probably never heard of (Uncharted, The Last Of Us, Crash Bandicoot). Their home is filled with games, custom miniatures, and more NERF guns than I’ve ever seen in one place… and I’ve seen a lot of NERF in my time. They gave me a remarkable die that Teagan had actually made himself. I’ll let him tell the story.
Perfect gifts sometimes only happen when everything falls into place. We’d been hard at work on a custom miniatures startup “Hero Forge” we planned on Kickstarting come the new year. We’d received a few test prints back already so I was pretty familiar with the process of sending 3D models off to get 3D printed. I turned to finding a Christmas gift for my lovely and vivacious D&D partner and girlfriend Erika Ishii. It needed to somehow compensate for how absent I’d been putting so much work into the Kickstarter! A custom made silver D20 that could be worn as a necklace was the perfect intersection of beautiful jewelry and functional nerd culture. The 20 was replace with an E&T encased in a heart. Cheesy but… “critical hit to the heart cheesy” according to Erika. She was ecstatic, and insisted on wearing it nearly all the time. By the end of our New Year’s party she had bruises where the dice was around her neck from all the hugs she’d been getting!
The dice I’m sending you for your dice machine is a test print before I ordered it in full silver. It’s the exact same material we’re printing our Hero Forge miniatures in! 3D printing is going to bring so much personalization and meaning that was just not possible before. We’re very excited about what the future holds… although Erika might want to avoid wearing the necklace during celebrations where there’s frequent hugging.
Teagan started playing games at an early age, but there were religious restrictions on what his parents would allow in the household. As a result he made his own games, crafting books of puzzles and mazes. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was a defining experience for him, drawing him into a new and magical world. While video games have played a central role in his life and career, tabletop roleplaying has only become a passion in the last few years. In his own words: I discovered just how engaging and exciting it is to collectively tell a story with your friends while face to face. There’s a power there that video games just aren’t advanced enough to provide. Seeing the emotion in your friends’ faces and participating in the back and forth. It’s powerful stuff!
By contrast, Erika’s first brush with roleplaying came as a sophomore in high school, when a friend handed her the 3rd Edition Player’s Handbook and said it was the game she was meant to play. Apparently he was correct. Erika was captivated by the game and read the PHB cover to cover, and generated a host of characters. This continues to be one of the most compelling parts of the gaming experience today. She’s not a min-maxer or rules lawyer, but she puts a great deal of time and effort into developing elaborate character backstories and roleplaying her characters’ tics and motivations… even when they aren’t beneficial to her as a player. More than anything, what she loves is the experience of collaborative storytelling… hearing and shaping living, organic stories with her friends.
Both Erika and Teagan have plans for the world of gaming. Teagan is especially interested in finding ways to blend technology and tabletop, building on the virtual tabletops that exist today and finding more ways to merge virtual aspects with the tangible… ways to maintain the vital experience of being face to face with friends even when it’s impossible. Erika would like to have a hand in making games more inclusive of women and minorities; in her words, “I think the miniature market could stand to have a few tiny people of color on the shelves… and Josh and Teagan have promised me that Hero Forge will give you the option of creating a female miniature that doesn’t have giant breasts, which is extremely novel.”
Today Teagan is in the midst of his Hero Forge campaign, and the 3D printer is churning out new figures. Erika wears the silver die on a chain around her neck, while the prototype rests at the top of the gumball machine… a symbol of love of games, but more important, of their love for one another.
Do you have a story and a die? If you’d like to take part, send both of them to Keith Baker, PO Box 13250, Portland OR 97213. Make sure to include contact information so I can get in touch with you for follow up questions!