Relational Art, Dungeons & Dragons

I'm starting a project, and I need people to join me.

Below is a copy of a recruitment message I sent to all of the ROIAL Players, reprinted here so that interested parties will have easy access to the information. To be clear, this is not a ROIAL-only or RCAH-only project, and I welcome basically anyone that knows me to come learn about it this Friday (3.14), when I'm holding an informational meeting.

The exact time and place are TBA (when I have a better idea of who's coming, I'll be able to set that down). It will almost certainly be somewhere in Snyder-Phillips.

Also, the most relevant piece of information: I expect this will be a 2-hour-a-week group, for the rest of the semester.

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I'm forming a crew of 5-6 people to join me in an ambitious art class project: a game of Dungeons and Dragons that will be art.

For those who don't know, D&D is a game where players sit at a table and roleplay fictional characters with pencils, paper, and dice. It's a fancy way to "play pretend." In our case it'll be "relational art," made so by changing the rules and practice of the game.

Here's the relevant info:

) The crew doesn't have to be all-ROIAL or all-RCAH.

) You don't have to know a thing about D&D.

) We'll perform this publicly in some form or another, and record parts on video for my class.

) Our deadline to "finish" will be the end of the semester.

) We'll all have to read an article about relational art. I'm not going to lie: it's dense, but also fascinating, and it will get us all on the same page.

) For this to work, we'll have to view ourselves as artists. You don't need to be an art major, but we'll be designing parts of the project as a group, and that means I need people with opinions: able not just to make ideas, but to criticize other ideas.

) This will take commitment. It'll be challenging, and we'll need to meet regularly to flesh out our "artistic D&D" system. I also promise that I will be committed to this - this isn't a flighty idea I'll abandon in a week. I am ready to stick with this through setbacks and difficulties, and I say this because of my admittedly-deserved reputation for slacking off.

My e-mail* is the address for details and questions. I won't be able to answer some, because some won't have answers until the crew's assembled and ready to rock, but I'll try my best.

So, why should you do this? Because it will be fresh, funny, delightfully awkward, and carry us deep into uncharted waters. Consider this the classifieds ad in an 1800s newspaper placed by an ambitious explorer, for indeed I seek all who would dare call themselves artistic pioneers and courageous social revelators. I can promise little other than the opportunity for improvised acting, fantastical story-weaving, sociological revelations, the thrill of truly challenging creation, and free tea.

And, you know, we'll try to have fun. I'm sure that won't be hard with ROIAL Players on-board.

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*I'm not posting my address publicly, but I'll post my IM screenname ("Hamsterebel") publicly.