A professional game master is on a quest to work with more non-profits after a successful fundraiser helped people with autism find joy in collective storytelling.<\/p>\n
“With tabletop role-playing games, you really do have a lot of engagement, but aside from selling people entertainment, me and the non-profits have seen that it’s a viable way of combining games and doing good,” said Kevin Douangmany, the owner and game master of The Resplendent Cave<\/a>.<\/p>\n Douangmany sees what he does as a mix of hospitality and entertainment. He organizes and hosts tabletop role-playing games (henceforth referred to as TTRPGs) for enthusiasts, corporate clients, large events such as the Edmonton Expo<\/a>, day camps, and now non-profits, which have started to take notice of his work.<\/p>\n He ran a sold-out Dungeons and Dragons fundraiser for the Centre for Autism Services Alberta<\/a> on May 30, bringing in more than $2,000<\/a> for the charity. Douangmany said he and his team underwent training with the centre ahead of the fundraiser, and the entire experience made him want to do more such events.<\/p>\n “The experience was magical, seeing people feel comfortable bringing their family members who are living with autism, who are living with autism themselves, knowing that they had the support staff and the support of all the players and the volunteers and game masters,” he told Taproot. “It was innovative, I would also say, because it’s the first time that we piloted this thing. (We learned) tabletop role-playing games also have a place in delivering social and mental health services. They allow people to role-play a situation with lessened consequences.”<\/p>\n Douangmany knows what it’s like to come into one’s own in role-playing environments, having dabbled as a game master at Table Top Cafe<\/a> before going pro.<\/p>\n “Through that, it just kind of built my confidence in running sessions in a public setting for different types of players,” he said. “There’d be new players, there’d be players that have been playing since the first edition (of a game), there’d be kids, there’d be adults \u2014 and that just made me more comfortable in a customer service role in that kind of environment.”<\/p>\n He’ll bring that confidence to Game Con Canada<\/a>, the nation’s largest gaming expo<\/a>, on June 20 at the Edmonton EXPO Centre<\/a>. He will serve as game master for the Cosmere Roleplaying Game, which is based on the lucrative intellectual property<\/a> of fantasy giant Brandon Sanderson.<\/p>\n