Stress, relief, pride, an overwhelming sensation of joy. These were just some of the many emotions running through my head last Sunday during our Dungeons & Dragons Charity event.
If you had told me, back when we had first started the Glowing Fool in November 2018, that we would be able to fill an entire restaurant with people all there to play D&D, I would have called you crazy. And yet here we are. On June 23, 40~ people showed up to play D&D in support of a great cause. We raised close to HKD 4,000 in ticket sales and donations for Learning Together, an NGO dedicated to supporting asylum seekers and refugees in Hong Kong. We managed to tell a story that gave our players a better idea of the difficulties experienced by asylum seekers and refugees here in Hong Kong.
To say that I am proud of the work that we did last Sunday doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel. I think I’m still very much processing everything that happened last weekend. But chief among all these different feelings is definitely a sense of gratitude. Gratitude towards the people who came out to play with us, but also gratitude towards the people who all helped make this event possible.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that I was only able to organize this event through the generous support of some wonderful people and organizations here in Hong Kong.
First off, I would like to thank Alicia, and her team at The Aftermath Bar for hosting our event at their wonderful venue. Alicia has been incredibly supportive of the concept of playing D&D as a charity fundraiser event, despite it initially being a foreign concept to her. She took a chance on agreeing to work with us in organizing this event, and for that, we are eternally grateful.
I would also like to give a huge shout-out to Akshay and Chantal of Learning Together, for agreeing to partner with us on this pilot project. This event got its start when I was just mulling over the concept of a D&D fundraiser with Akshay over dinner, and he just said “oh, we can definitely do that, why not do it with Learning Together?” As proud as I am at the money we’ve raised, it is but a drop in the bucket for their organization, so I am so thankful for them taking the time and effort to work with us in sorting out the finances, logistics, and going over our story-adventure ideas to make sure that it was respectful to the refugee experience.
And last, but certainly not the last, I would like to give my own heartfelt thanks to the volunteers from our community whom stepped up to support me in this little obsession of mine. Tina, Nina, Timothy, and Gigi, thank you so much for offering your help when I told you that I wanted to organize a charity event. Thank you for helping me with the organization, setup, and photo-taking of the event itself. Last Sunday was definitely much smoother because you guys were there. To the DMs, Mahar, Rhys, Daniel, Tiffany, Bernard, Nathaniel, Ling, and Durrie thank you for the time and effort you all put into preparing to run the adventure for our participants. Thank you for being patient with me as I wrote the story, offering criticisms to make the adventure better, and almost being as obsessed with this event as I was. You were the real heroes of that afternoon by showing everyone, through your words and your actions, that D&D can be a force for good.
Earl is what you would call a Dungeons & Dragons addict. He watches D&D shows, prowls the D&D forums, and basically lives, breathes, and eats D&D (It’s no joke, he literally listens to the D&D Podcast while eating). He likes to be thought of as the “lead fool” as he guides us all through the silliness of D&D.
For his day-job. Earl is an ERP Consultant with the Nomura Research Institute (NRI). He is also a Shaper with the Global Shapers: Hong Kong Hub.