A sorcerer, a bard and a monk walk into a bakery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their mission? To fulfill a mother\u2019s plea to find her son, Skeg, who went missing shortly after he began working at the shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patty Cakes, the bakeshop owner, exudes shady behavior. Her answers are inconsistent about Skeg\u2019s whereabouts. She wipes her brow a questionable amount of times for a temperate shop. The group investigates and discovers a secret door inside the bakery. The bard rolls a 17, just enough strength to push it open and reveal what\u2019s on the other side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could only be one thing: an underground fight club,\u201d dungeon master Brad DeBorde tells the gamers playing the sorcerer, the bard and the monk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The far-off land was brought to life through a one-shot session of QueerQuest, a Dungeons & Dragons gaming group hosted at Fort Worth\u2019s Galileo Church. Anyone 16 and older can participate in the group, which aims to be a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse gamers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a way for us to break down those walls of isolation and bring people into community together \u2014 and just make some joy happen along the way,\u201d said Katie Hays, pastor of the church.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260617_MYG_QueerQuest-4-1024x683.jpg\")
From left to right, Brad DeBorde, Azriela \u201cBrie\u201d Arevalo, Colby Savell and Heidi Fischer play a one-shot session of Dungeons & Dragons through a gaming group called QueerQuest at Galileo Church on June 17, 2026. (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
The idea of QueerQuest manifested in 2025 after the church received a grant from the denomination\u2019s regional group, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southwest.<\/p>\n
In an effort to create community, church members shared a vision at public Pride festivals last summer: host six tables for people to play Dungeons & Dragons and pay their dungeon masters. The congregation aimed for at least 30 interested gamers but opened up its first gameplay at the end of summer with over twice that amount, Hays said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
QueerQuest furthers the church\u2019s missional priorities of being a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse communities to explore themselves, Hays added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get to try on different personas, different identities you can play as a different gender,\u201d Hays said. \u201cThere\u2019s all kinds of ways that you can really just explore questions of identity, and so that\u2019s nice for queer folks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A 2024 study<\/a> by researchers at the University of Plymouth found that tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons can offer neurodiverse people a way to develop relationships and build social skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n Azriela \u201cBrie\u201d Arevalo found QueerQuest through social media. The 26-year-old was excited about joining a gaming group that was welcoming toward LGBTQ+ people, Arevalo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re a young queer person, you don\u2019t know whether or not you\u2019re going to be accepted in these spaces, especially because gaming as a whole has grown a terrible reputation for being very gatekept,\u201d Arevalo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In mid-June, Arevalo was selected to participate in a live performance of a Dungeons & Dragons session, where the audience would have a say in which characters Arevalo and other actions would portray.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sporting a red-feathered hat and Shakespearean attire, Arevalo transformed into Mel Balcanto, a plucky young dragonborn bard.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heidi Fischer, 31, transformed into Jeremy Irons, a lion-like humanoid sorcerer, not to be confused with the award-winning English actor. The character\u2019s hobbies included magic \u2014 both missiles and mushrooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n The two performed with Colby Savell, who played as a \u201cmuscular-bird man\u201d called Gale-Force Gary. The monk\u2019s character card describes Gary as a \u201cgolden retriever of a hero who operates on pure confidence and zero thoughts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fischer remembers being skeptical about joining a Dungeons & Dragons gaming group hosted by a church. The game was subject to criticism<\/a> by fundamentalist religious groups as it was gaining popularity in the 1980s.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Fischer walked into the church for her audition, she saw Pride flags of every variation hung on the church walls.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like doubting Thomas all of a sudden,\u201d Fischer said, referring to the apostle who refused to believe in Jesus\u2019 ascension.\u00a0<\/p>\n Religion in the south is intrinsic to how people form social bonds and a sense of community \u2014 and the fantasy role-playing game can do the same, Fischer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cD&D is storytelling, in its most raw and basic form. It\u2019s what we\u2019re meant to do as humans,\u201d Fischer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n QueerQuest operates in two seasons. The first included 10 gaming sessions from August through December. Season 2, which began in January, runs through June.\u00a0<\/p>\n The most recent season had 160 players, Hays added.<\/p>\n Brad DeBorde, executive director of QueerQuest, noted people traveled from Weatherford to Fort Worth just to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n After participating, the two Parker County natives want to start a cohort in their hometown, DeBorde said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGetting to make this happen has given me so much joy in getting to spread joy,\u201d DeBorde said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Back in the bakery shop, the adventurers discover that Skeg was being held in the fight club against his will. With some imagination \u2014 and some lucky \u201cNat 20\u201d rolls \u2014 the group uses a thieves\u2019 tool to free Skeg and disguises him to escape.\u00a0<\/p>\n Patty Cakes transforms into a giant wererat. The sorcerer, bard and monk fought for their lives and defeated the owner of the bakery-front and saved the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n The end.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260617_MYG_QueerQuest-2-1024x683.jpg\")
Azriela \u201cBrie\u201d Arevalo performs as a dragonborn bard named Mel Balcanto during a live performance of QueerQuest. (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260617_MYG_QueerQuest-5-1024x683.jpg\")
Dice sit on a table at Galileo Church for a live performance of QueerQuest, a Dungeons & Dragons gaming group offered at the church. (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260617_MYG_QueerQuest-1-1024x683.jpg\")
Brad DeBorde, executive director of QueerQuest acts as the dungeon master for a Dungeons & Dragons live gaming session on June 17, 2026. (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n