Enjoy these backgrounds for our meeting tonight! Hopefully they bring some good luck your way!

It is now possible to request credit for most individual achievements earned from Education, Service, and Spirit quests! Logged in members will now see a Request Credit button that allows you to email the officer or committee chair responsible for the awarding of said achievement. A Notes field is provided in case you need to provide additional details. For example, if you notice that you are missing credit for having completed the Use a Special Event Background quest, you can use this new form to send an email to Master Scribe Angel L. to request credit:

Doing so will send an email to Angel with a link to easily approve or reject the request. This feature should assist members in requesting credit for completed quests from the appropriate officer or leader.

Hello, humans of Dungeons & Toast,

The time has passed for saving money, yet money is still due. Toastmasters and club dues for the period
of October 2023 through March 2024 are due September 30, 2023. The total cost of dues for 6 months
is $65 ($60 to Toastmasters International and $5 to the club). As always, we don’t want to wait last
minute and battle with the internet gremlins. Therefore, if you pay your dues on or before August 31,
2023, you will receive 20 bonus XP.

Early Dues Renewal
Service Quest

20 XP

Renew your dues within the month of February or August.

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Until next time,
Kelly / Maj, Master of Coin

P.S. You may note that this was addressed to the humans only. All species are welcome to pay, but only human currency will be accepted. Any karats sent my way will be retained without benefit to you.

In (belated) celebration of International Cosplay Day, Dungeons & Toast will host a cosplay-themed meeting at 7PM PT on Friday, September 8. Members are encouraged to dress in a costume to represent their character for the 2023-2024 TTRPG campaign, Warrens of the Harengon. Members’ choice* of costumes will win $25 in Amazon credit, intended to be used toward further costumes or accessories.

*While I will be making an appearance in the costume of Hana, my kitsune Warlock, I won’t be participating in the contest itself.

Harvey and the 3 Little Pigs, written by Dr. Michael and illustrated by Kait R. is now available online. Something for the children…

Last week, I attended my 29th GenCon (“The Best Four Days in Gaming”) in Indianapolis, IN. As always, it was a delightful whirlwind of games, shopping, and friends, though this year you could really feel the crowds with a record 70,000 attendees. I wore a mask for the exhibit hall and any movement through big crowds in the hallways, because that’s 69,992 people around me that I don’t know.

One of the things I really enjoy at GenCon is seeing how the industry is changing, year-over-year. The biggest theme in the exhibit hall this year was definitely new dice. I found that surprising since there are always numerous dice vendors, with wide assortments of must-have shiny math rocks.  But this year, with people able to make their own dice with resin and other materials, it really seemed a step beyond. 

It’s All About the Dice

There were probably 10-12 new dice exhibitors this year. Chessex, Crystal Caste and Q Workshop all had 3-4 booths with their traditional, beautiful dice. I got the free GenCon die from Crystal Caste (and ended up buying the set). From Chessex, I purchased 4d8. This was a utility purchase. Somehow, over the last five years or so, I’ve found that I’m running low on d8’s in my standard gaming set. Rather than find them, I just bought some. This impulse buy cost me $2.56, including tax; this seemed quite the deal, given that there were polished resin dice that were upwards of $30 per die.

As for the rest, I always look at dice, but don’t think I’d purchased any in 10 years or so. I’m at the point of measuring dice by the pound, so it’s hard for me to really *need* new ones. I’m as much a die goblin as the next person, but when you almost never play in person, and don’t even get to look at the dice you have, there’s less incentive to get new ones. That said, this year, I bought some new ones.

My big find was these “Stained Glass” dice, by Gate Keeper Games. They had an amazing collection of “pretty” dice, including several glow-in-the-dark models. Firefly dice were sold out before I found them, sadly, but these were must-owns, anyway. 

This article is continued on my blog, DiceDeliberations.com

In the meantime, here are a couple of other pictures I took of the convention.

On July 28th/31st the first game of our new year’s campaign Warrens of the Harengon opened to two full games! Thanks to Guild Master Loni, we opened to a fun and exciting festival hosted by the harengon inviting all animal races alike. Below is a link to some accounts from a few of the characters who attended the festival and got to see all the events unfold.

The Story So Far…

As a reminder, any member who creates a writeup or delivers a speech based on their in-game experiences is eligible to receive one of the following achievements:

Beyond the Board (Written)
Spirit Quest

69 Gold

Submit a writeup of one of the games within the annual TTRPG campaign or additional world-building material (with approval).

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Beyond the Board (Spoken)
Education Quest

15 XP

Deliver a speech — in character or otherwise — related to the annual TTRPG campaign.

View More

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The next in campaign game will be on September 29th. Have fun and have a great adventure!

A good Toastmaster should always have a speech in their back pocket. In order to encourage this, the Council of Elders (I.e. the Officers of the club) have decided that whenever a speaker drops out with less than 24 hours advanced notice, any person who fills in should receive a 10 XP bonus to reward them for that back pocket speech.

Further, since Table Topics similarly requires advanced preparation, there will also be a 10 XP bonus for someone who fills in as Table Topics Master with less that 24 hours advanced notice of the vacancy.

The name of this award is pending, but the offer is available immediately.

My first experience at Comic Con was good times. My wife recently started producing independent films and one of the perks of her being in the “industry” is we were able to attend Comic Con at no charge. As such, I didn’t feel the pressure that some other folks might have felt to participate in “Line Con 2023” because I didn’t have the same skin in the game. Still, I did make sure to rock my love for Spidey.

Saying the Main Hall is packed to the brim and overwhelming does not do it justice. I made it a point to methodically go row-by-row to see everything I could the one day I attended but despite seeing everything, I definitely did NOT see everything. There is something for everyone with sections dedicated to video games, artists, independent publishers, and big studios/publishers hoarding over the coveted space in the center. Artists Alley was cool but the paths were more narrow which made seeing the work challenging.

Outside of the main hall the Dragonball and Junji Ito installations were both fun for an anime lover like myself. As many of you know, the former guild master has a dark and twisted soul and Ito’s art always speaks to that particular side of me.