This was published 5 years ago
Game-playing for a public audience is on a roll
By Ron Cerabona
Roll for Intelligence. Smith's Alternative, 76 Alinga Street, Canberra City. Second Friday of every month at 7pm. $15/10 admision. 7pm, second Friday each month, at the door or via smithsalternative.com.
At Roll for Intelligence, from left: Euan Bowen (player and former Master of Dungeons), Jack Collins (bard), Helen Luan (player), Joel Barcham (Master of Dungeons and former player), Sharona Lin (player), and Andrew Galan (player). Credit: Leon Garvin
"A group of people on stage doing improvised stupidity."
That's how participant Euan Bowen - a role-playing game enthusiast for the last 28 years - describes the monthly event at Smith's Alternative, Roll for Intelligence.
Another description might be a public, audience-interactive Dungeons and Dragons-type role-playing game with live musical accompaniment.
Here's how it works: one player is the Master of Dungeons and controls the scenario - which could be fantasy, science fiction or something else entirely. The other players - usually four - create characters and go an adventure together. Guided by the Master of Dungeons and employing a regular icosahedron-shaped die (that's a 20-sided die to the uninitiated). Each player has three lives, as in many video games, represented here by three balloons. Each time their character dies, a balloon is popped. Three pops and they're out.
The game-play is accompanied by the synthesiser-playing Silent Bard, who adjusts the tone and tempo of his music to suit the unfolding action.
It's not, Bowen says, "real play" - a serious gaming session.
He says, "[A]udience suggestions [are] taken to flesh out characters, complicate matters, or just provide an extra bit of weirdness for everyone's enjoyment. The full D&D [or other game] rule set isn't used, so players are free to attempt whatever they want, provided they can justify it to the Master of Dungeons."
Each session is made up of two 40-minute (more or less) halves. A single Roll for Intelligence adventure usually spans multiple sessions, with recaps and callbacks keeping those who missed a session up to date.
From left, Euan Bowen (player and former Master of Dungeons), Jack Collins (bard), Helen Luan (player) at Roll for Intelligence.Credit: Leon Garvin
"The audience is usually around 60 to 80," Bowen says.
"Everyone enjoys a fun night of comedy and inventiveness."
"The Dungeons & Dragons aspect of the night is there to provide a bit of initial structure and context, as well as some added randomness and humour through the dice rolling. We use a simple set of easily explained rules.
"Many of our audience members aren't role-players themselves, but are either curious about Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing, or just like to have a good laugh at a bunch of people being silly on a stage."
The current adventure had its January session a couple of weeks ago, a sci-fi adventure in which a group of smuggler ne'er-do-wells are on their latest paid quest, to steal a computer. Bowen's character is a cyborg gunner and others in their motley crew include a communications officer who resembles a chihuahua and an engineer who is a clone.
Roll for Intelligence was first developed for the You Are Here festival in February 2017 and proved so popular it was revived first at the Civic Pub and then in what is now its regular home at Smith's. The regulars are Bowen, Jack Collins, Joel Barcham, Andrew Galan, Sharona Lin and Helen Luan.
Collins, the current event producer as well as its Silent Bard, says, "I'm a jazz pianist by predilection."
The improvisational skills cultivated in jazz come in handy when accompanying the gamers on synthesiser. He has a few stock musical phrases like the "hero chord" for the appropriate moments but otherwise plays on the fly.
Collins says he's only played Dungeons Dragons "a couple of times". It was useful for understanding the scenario but he never really got into it.
"I just preferred doing the music."
But many others would rather play the games. While Dungeons & Dragons and its ilk once had had a stereotypical, nerdy-male image Bowen says, "Geek culture is now pop culture, and people are more interested in what was once considered "nerdy" - citing superheroes, science fiction, board games and Harry Potter as some examples.
And far from being a boys-only club, two of the five regular players in Roll for Intelligence are women.
One of them is freelance writer Sharona Lin who says she was close to saying "No" when first approached to take part.
"I'm not a theatre person, I don't have improv comedy and theatrical experience: I just like playing Dungeons & Dragons."
She found it a steep learning curve and wanted to quit more than once because of the challenge of coming up with ideas on the fly in front of an audience. But regular practice sessions with the others, "a good group of people" made her more confident and she now enjoys Roll for Intelligence.
"It's really fun."
The Roll for Intelligence audio from past sessions is available on YouTube and there are plans to move it to a dedicated podcast provider soon. Bookings for the February session can be made at smithsalternative.com.