Chris Perkins On Anxiety, D&D Live Shows And Challenging Yourself

Chris Perkins On Anxiety, D&D Live Shows And Challenging Yourself one of the first things you’ll notice
about Chris Perkins is that he is
exceptionally genuine and that comes off
in his show days camera action and also
when he Dungeon Master’s penny arcade’s
acquisition incorporated live show and
so I had asked him what is it like doing
dice camera action what is it like to
perform D&D live on stage for
acquisitions incorporated in front of
all those people like for you would like
to be on state like to be on stage that
first time I’m terrifying horrifying it
still is I’m an introvert being on
camera being on stage terrifies me and
I’m a wreck up to like the second minute
into the game when everything else falls
away and I’m just playing D&D with
friends again that’s the only thing that
gets me through those experiences if I
had to remember that there’s an audience
out there who are mentally dissecting my
performance and the game and wondering
why I’m ignoring this rule and ignoring
that rule and sort of second-guessing
questioning my abilities that would be
paralyzing but as soon as the dice start
rolling as soon as the role-playing
begins the audience fades away and it’s
like I’m in a room with four people
sitting around a table again I don’t
think I’ll ever get over the butterflies
and the terror despite having DM now for
over 30 years I think that’s okay I I
think that that gives a little bit of an
edge I think insecurity is healthy I
fear that if I were to ever lose that
insecurity something might suffer with
the dice camera action group I actually
did not know any of them before we sat
down to play for the first time these
were not people that I had hung out with
or I had any any dealings with at any
point in the past what what brought us
together was we were just looking to
start up a D&D game a livestream game
and we were looking for people who
seemed to be just kind of warm and open
and creative souls who are nerds there
they love nerdy stuff and they kind of
share a nerdy common language and I had
no idea how that chemistry would play
out it’s been very interesting for me to
watch this group gel because it’s these
aren’t like my high school friends that
I that I corralled into doing this we
are just these drifting spirits in the
the ether of the world who just happened
to be all tied to a love of gaming the
audience as far as I’m concerned doesn’t
exist it’s it’s literally just me with
the players they can’t go right yeah and
I don’t have chat windows up when I’m
DMing so I don’t see what I can’t see
with the community my producer can but I
can’t see with community is saying why
they’re yelling at me for threatening
the baby albear and the party or
anything like that so it’s it’s just me
Dee IMing and I feel unfortunately the
players I’m with are all very funny
people they are wonderful
players to have so they make it so easy
on me because they’ll do things that is
not optimal for their characters simply
because it’ll be entertaining or fun or
because it is in character for them to
behave that way so they put themselves
in all the glorious predicaments quite
nicely and that makes me happy from a
storyteller point of view I certainly
feel like just another guy who’s a DM I
don’t feel like I’m when I’m playing
with Holly and Anna and Nate and Jared
and the other people who who joined in
the fun on dice camera action I never
feel like I’m putting on a show all I’m
trying to do is make sure the players
are having a good time and to put them
in situations that are going to make
them feel a little bit uncomfortable so
that they have to improvise and and
possibly do wacky things or might lead
to a strange conversation or something
but I don’t have any ulterior motives
beyond that it’s simply
these people are making time to sit down
with me to play this game I’m going to
make sure I give them the best
experience I can that’s really all I can
do and I think that’s what brings them
back
certainly the internet and all that has
allowed this to happen before that it
was always the tools weren’t there to
really get it out but it’s been
startling unexpected I didn’t know when
we first started doing the acquisitions
Inc games on stage whether they would be
entertaining and people would enjoy just
sitting and watching instead of playing
so the discovery that it is spectator it
has a lot to get the spectators hooked
and it demystifies the game in a way
that can’t be demystified really any
other way it got the acquisition sync
games the critical role games and all
the other games that are out there now
have basically shown various ways to
play D&D what individual DMS and players
bring to their games means that no two
are exactly the same and what that’s
created is this feeling that anybody can
go out there and start a D&D game just
gather some people run a game and have a
following and Teleco he Civ story and
not have it be like anything else out
there
I find it surprising constantly daily
the number of games that keep coming up
it seems like every week somebody
starting up another D&D game and people
are now in the NB a– bhishen of saying
my week is full of D&D I’ve got D&D on
Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays and
Thursdays you can watch games almost
there will come a time when you can
literally watch D&D online 24/7 that
makes me happy
well I’m glad I was there in the
formative stages of that and so that I
can I can look back and say hey I
remember when there was no there was no
competition
me and the Penny Arcade guys goofing
around and thinking mine is gonna be a
complete waste of time why do you like
this because you chose you played your
whole life this is down your career is
open like anxiety in using situations
oh I don’t the people I work with if I
had my choice I’d be like just under a
rock working on a DMV project of some
sort no for me it’s good as much as I
come internal internally struggle with
it it’s healthy for me to get out side
to kind of put myself out there I think
it’s just a healthy behavior of humans
to get out of your comfort zone once in
a while because you’ll discover things
about yourself that you didn’t know
we’re true or you’ll flex some muscles
that you don’t typically get to use me
being me falling into the antisocial
introvert isn’t going to help me make
friends or get very far in life so I
need these opportunities to go out and
it’s a great opportunity to meet people
to meet new people to game with new
people to discover fans out there who
are doing new and interesting things so
it’s it’s good to put myself out into
the world the way I see it if I make
mistakes and other people see my
mistakes then they can say oh he makes
mistakes that’s okay I make mistakes too
I guess that’s normal and it’s okay for
a DM to make mistakes or it’s okay for a
DM to have insecurities or misgivings
it’s perfectly normal and I think that’s
a good message to send out there the
other thing that keeps me out there is
there have been a number of incidents in
the last 10 years since we started
running acquisitions Inc that have
inspired me for example at one after one
of the live games I met a man who was in
the US military and he served in
Afghanistan and he had a really
difficult time out there and his wife
would send him DVDs of the games of the
acquisitions Inc games and he’d watched
them and it would remind
Tim of his childhood experiences playing
with his friends back home and those
games got him through that experience
and so he wrote me this letter and he
gave me the patch off his military his
Air Force military uniform and told me
about how critical it was that these
games the function that they served in
his life to help him cope with what he
was going through and I was so struck
and moved by that and surprised because
I didn’t realize at that time that these
games could have a meaning for people
far deeper than simply entertainment
that it motivated me to keep this up
because what’s my discomfort compared to
the possibility of these games actually
helping somebody get through a
real-world ordeal and so that those
kinds of experiences have happened
periodically over the last several years
and more than anything else those
inspired me to keep going despite
whatever character flaws I have that
want me just to not do that anymore
thank you Chris Perkinshttps://t.co/YRw308CEdv via @YouTube

— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) May 11, 2017