Dice Tales began as a monthly live Dungeons and Dragons show at Dog Story Theater in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Today, we’ve migrated to a virtual format, streaming on Twitch, with our videos available on YouTube. We hope to return to a format with a live audience, but for now, with social distancing our “new normal,” we look forward to connecting with our fans virtually!
Our story begins in a small black box theater called Dog Story Theater in downtown Grand Rapids. Dog Story was a nonprofit venue, beloved by many in the community as space for local artists to share their art, including theater, comedy, dance, and more. Of course, as a nonprofit, funding was always tight. In an effort to help Dog Story make ends meet, a group of nerds decided to take action. They pooled their efforts and came up with Geekfest, a small-scale convention in May 2018 that included various panels, shows, and gaming competitions. Among those shows was a live DND one-shot adventure. Or, at least, it was planned to be a one-shot. The event received a really positive reception from the audience, and the group thought, “We just might have something here.” They decided to turn the adventure into an ongoing campaign, unfolding live before an audience, with each show continuing to benefit their beloved Dog Story Theater. Dice Tales was born.
The show continued on a monthly basis for more than a year and a half, adding on a podcast version with the audio from the live show. Sadly, the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent venue shutdowns led to the closure of Dog Story.
So Dice Tales is now beginning a new stage of its life, shifting to a new medium with an all-new Twitch stream, and we’re all very excited about the possibilities this opens up in this new time of social distancing!