From basement to boardroom
It's a Wednesday night in late July at Firstborn. Two arcade
games sit in the lobby, and a maker studio with a 3-D printer lives
on the other side of the office. The agency specializes in digital
executions, but right now I've joined six people in a decidedly
analog pursuit. We're pretending to be dwarves, elves and magicians
in a cooperative, collaborative game of make believe.
In this industry, "we spend a lot of time making things that
don't exist," Garner says. "If you think about a website or an ad
campaign, there's no physicality to them. This hobby has been a way
for me to focus on things that don't need those digital tools to
exist. It balances out some of the craft I need to do at my
job."
This is the third game of D&D Garner has run at work. About
10 years ago, he picked up the 4th Edition of Dungeons &
Dragons on a whim, after neglecting the hobby for decades. (The
kids in "Stranger Things" play a version released before the 2nd
Edition.) While at a different agency four years ago, he ran a
short-lived game.
Then, a year-and-a-half ago, he invited a small group of
coworkers and friends from outside Firstborn to play 5th Edition,
the most recent version of the game. They meet every other week to
fight monsters, loot ancient tombs and gallivant around a medieval
countryside. They've already freed a barony from the depredations
of a Gothic vampire, and now they're playing through the most
recent official D&D adventure, "Tomb of Annihilation," an
Indiana Jones-style trek through unexplored wilderness in search of
the means to cure a terrible curse.
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"There's something refreshing about sitting at a table with
people and, as a group, creating this epic story out of our
collective imaginations. I really feel like it's a creative
outlet," says Alex Krawitz, senior VP of content development at
Firstborn, who plays James Valon, a ranger (like Aragorn from "The
Lord of the Rings").
"Imagination, storytelling, improvisation: all skills needed to
play D&D," says Jeffrey Dates, creative director at The Mill,
who plays Milosh Millish, a mischievous druid. "I also find them
very useful when pitching, directing or concepting ideas. Magic
swords and dragons? Less so."
D&D and other role-playing games have been around since the
1970s, and some of the kids who played decades ago are now adults
who parlay their childhood interests into content—whether
it's a TV writer who inserts D&D references into scripts or a
world-builder like Marvel director/executive producer Jon Favreau,
who admitted to The Los Angeles Times that he leans on skills the
game taught him to create coherently interwoven plots. (Or even a
journalist at a trade publication who's been playing for 25 years
and records RPG podcasts on the side.)
Those pop-culture appearances in shows like "The Big Bang
Theory" and "Community," along with the unabashed, vocal fandom of
celebrities like Stephen Colbert and Vin Diesel, and the advent of
"actual play" livestream games like "Critical Role," have led to a
resurgence of interest in the pastime. Half of new players make
their way to the game after watching a streamed game, according to
Hasbro, which owns D&D. (Yes, streaming and watching someone
else's D&D game is a thing.)
In fact, D&D is having its "best year ever," said Hasbro CEO
Brian Goldner in an earnings call last month. He singled out the
game and the popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering as
strong performers. Both are owned by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of
the Coast, which old-school fans may remember bought the original
publisher of D&D, TSR, in 1997. Just last week, The Martin
Agency was named agency of record for Wizards of the Coast.
Firstborn isn't the only agency fostering tabletop culture.
"It's kind of funny to see a bunch of famous people playing now,"
says Paul Williams, a production designer at Huge who runs a weekly
D&D game as one of the agency's 16 in-house social groups. He
still remembers the bad old days of gaming, when people who played
were on the lowest rung of the social hierarchy. "But I'm happy
that D&D is now on The New York Times Best Sellers list. The
culture is great."
Seven players participate in Williams' biweekly sessions of Tomb
of Annihilation at Huge. (They're levels 10 and 11, and about to
finish the module. With any luck, they'll survive.) Alternate weeks
are pickup games for agency employees who aren't regular players
but are interested in learning more.
Unlike at Firstborn, the game is agency-sponsored, so it's only
open to Huge employees. That's a bit of a carrot for gamers, says
Williams: "I have a regular freelancer who says he picks the jobs
here over other offers he gets because he wants to come play with
us."
A most demanding client
Back in the temple, my barbarian Hroan deftly discovers the
second trap, a covered pit, by falling headfirst into it. A gout of
flame singes Gideon the rogue's face after a pair of poor rolls by
his player, PJ Ahlberg, executive technical director at Stink
Studios New York, though he spots a pattern in the triggering
mechanism. Milosh magically transforms into a giant spider, an
arachnid as large as a full-grown man, and uses its wall-crawling
ability to skitter along the ceiling and avoid other traps.
The only door that leads further into the temple radiates an
aura of magic that worries the party. Eric Decker, VP of
technology, at Firstborn, scrutinizes his character sheet, a record
of his in-game capabilities dotted with the grayed blotches of
regular erasure. "What if I cast Dispel Magic on the door?" he asks
Garner.
