Dungeons & Dragons can tell all sorts of stories. It can tell the story of heroes rising against evil, of scoundrels scrtaching out a better life or even the fall of an empire. On Tuesday, August 20th, it will tell the story of good dogs.
The Puppy Roll brings together Matthew Mercer (Critical Role, Baldur’s Gate), Ashley Johnson (Critical Role, The Last of Us), Aabria Iyengar (Critical Role, Dimension 20), Maggie Robertson (Resident Evil, Baldur’s Gate) and Emily Swallow (The Mandalorian) to play a fantasy adventure as their real life dogs. Anjali Bhimani (Ms. Marvel, Critical Role) will serve as the Dungeon Master for the event.
Bhimani concieved the event from two main sources. The first was the love of her own dog Charley and the chance to play him as part of the Kickstarter that raised funds for her book I Am Fun Size, and So Are YOU!: Thoughts from a Tiny Human on Living a Giant Life. The second was a puppy encounter on the ASTRAS red carpet sponsored by Petco Love.
While putting together the event, Bhimani initially considered using Realms of Pugmire as the game system. Created by Eddy Webb, this role playing game tells the story of a kingdom of dogs that’s risen up long after the disapparance of man. Bhimani opted for something a bit more light hearted in the end.
“I love Pugmire but didn’t want to deal with the potential of characters based on our dogs dying,” said Bhimani.”I wanted to keep things relatively light hearted for this stream. Plus, I wanted to come up with puzzles and traps that dogs might face in real life like opening a door without having any thumbs.”
The Puppy Roll benefits Petco Love, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of pets and pet owners. The nonprofit supports adoption centers around the world, helps owners find affordable veterinarian care and reunites owners with thier lost pets. The foundation, which began in 1999, has donated over $400M to these causes over the past 25 years.
Petco Love Lost is a massive photo database of lost pets. It uses photographic matching technology to connect potential matches between photos uploaded by pet owners and by ones uploaded by people who have found strays in the wild. It uses the power of the Internet to increase the odds of bringing a pet home to the family that loves it, going above and beyond fliers posted around the neighborhood.
Bhimani also plans to use the power of her platform to find some homes for new pets. She’ll be using pictures of dogs currently housed at shelters as NPC portaits during the game. Hopefully, viewers will be enticed to bring home the shadowy dog in the corner giving out the mission or the grumbling guardian of the dungeon door.
Fans can donate ahead of the livestream to unlock items for the puppies such as gear, spells and “insPAWration” to help out with dice rolls. Bhimani will be joined by author Jonathan Graziano, whose book Noodle & The No Bones Day became a viral sensation in 2022. The event is targeting $10,000 dollars as the main fundraising goal.
The Puppy Roll can be seen live on August 20th, 2024 from 6-10 pm Pacific. It will be available to view live on Anjali Bhimani’s YouTube page or on the Tiltify donation page.
