Tales from Heroes for CF 2019

            On April 27^th, it was once again my great pleasure to be part of Heroes for CF, a wonderful event where we play Dungeons & Dragons for the entire day to raise money for (and awareness of) Cystic Fibrosis. In previous years, we were limited to 24 players by the space we were in, but those two years were so successful (we raised over $10000 between them!) that Jeremy, the mastermind behind this glorious event, decided to take a leap of faith and expand.

            So, this year, we changed locations, allowing us to run 11 D&D tables instead of our previous 4. We ended up with 59 players and we raised $11750! Amazing, right? We were very happy. In fact, out event got so much interest this year that we even had a surprise visit from one of the founders of Cystic Fibrosis Canada who had heard what we were doing and came to check out our event and say thanks.

            Before going on, since part of this event is about raising awareness of Cystic Fibrosis and May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, I’d like to direct your attention over here where you can learn more about this genetic disease and why we fight it.

            For year 1 and year 2 of this event, I gave a near play-by-play of the events that transpired at my table. This year, I feel like it would take too long to give such a detailed accounting, so I’ll limit myself to a description of what makes this event so special, as well as a few highlights.

            This year’s event, we ramped up the level of interactivity possible between the tables. That has always been one of our goals with Heroes for CF; people can play D&D at home, or with a group somewhere, any time, and if there’s no interaction between tables, you’re just doing what you could do anywhere in a noisier environment.

            In our first year, to make the event special, we introduced Cry Havoc – a reward for raising a certain amount of money that allows a player to summon a random encounter upon another table. This has been extremely popular, and has continued to thrive every year. Last year, we had all the players existing in the same universe and, at the end of the day, brought them all together for a final grand battle. While fun, having so many players at one table proved to be quite unwieldy, and we discovered that some of teams wanted to turn against the other teams – a situation we decided we didn’t want, because D&D isn’t balanced for player-vs-player combat, and would be even more unbalanced by the power-up cards sold at the event for fundraising. More importantly, while some players would find such an interaction to be fun, others would have their fun spoiled by it.

            So, this year, we decided to cater a bit more to the players with a competitive edge by making the event a competition between teams to see who could collect the most gold from within the 11 dungeons. However, to make thing more interesting, the day was divided into 3 sessions of gaming – and between each session, players could choose a different dungeon to go to. What one group changed in a dungeon stayed changed for the groups that followed them – and, yes, players could leave traps for other players. In addition, the teams were permitted to trade with each other between the sessions, allowing them to trade the miniquests they were provided for three random dungeons, as well as any magic items they found, and even the gold they were saving up to try to win. Oh, and each dungeon had a super-powerful boss living in it.

            As you can guess from that description, this ended up being a very exciting event. One of the interesting occurrences was that, in spite of the ability to switch tables between games, I ended up with the same team for the whole event. The only difference that really made for me was that there were fewer surprises for my players as the day progressed. For the players... well, it’s hard to say. They certainly didn’t find as much gold as some of the other groups (though, to be fair, there was a lot of treasure they missed because they didn’t bother searching rooms, or decided they would come back later and didn’t), but they did complete all three miniquests and kill the dungeon boss. So, here are some highlights of what happened at my table.

            My group of players came into the game with one of the miniquests in hand and immediately set out to Press the Big Red Button. They actually did a remarkable job of making a b-line for the exact room they needed to go to. There were a couple interesting occurrences along the way, my favorite of which was when they found a statue worth 500 gold, took it from its stand and – after determining that they didn’t want to carry it through the entire dungeon – left it in a doorway for a future group to find. Once they found the big red button, they spent a good 45 minutes solving the puzzle that would allow them to actually press the button, which they did a fantastic job of – the hold-up was caused by some uncertainty brought on by one of the clues. After succeeding in the miniquest, they continued on their way – calling a Cry Havoc to summon a young white dragon on another table. Coming up on the end of the session, that table returned fire with their own Cry Havoc – summoning a troll and three goblins that my players elected to run from due to the purple worm (my boss monster that was roaming and destroying my dungeon) that arrived in the hallway at the same time. They got away just in time for one of the players to pick up a trapped item that blasted him with fire just before the session ended.

            The group returned for the second session having traded for a quest to end the civil war that was going on between the orcs that lived in the dungeon – a war that has been ongoing since the purple worm ate the previous king. The players started off by returning to the area they were exploring before, where they found themselves fighting some orcs with a giant worm hole filling the hall between the two groups. One of my players jumped across the hole, hoping to cut down the orc on the far side and land safely – unfortunately, they ended up hanging into the hole by their fingertips. My players, not to be dissuaded, soon had two more of their number similarly hanging into the hole from attempting the same stunt. They did eventually kill the orcs and continue on their way, but it was touch-and-go for a bit. Then they got into a fight that some of them thought was a waste of time, so some of them wandered away while their allies fought alone. Just as the battle ended, the purple worm arrived – right under the feet of one of them. With the help of one of the purchasable power-up cards the worm was delayed for enough time for the player to get out of danger. Though one player did end up swallowed, they defeated the powerful monster and claimed the crown that was stuck in the worm’s teeth. At this point, they had only 15 minutes left, but they also had a brilliant idea. They gave up their crown (worth 500 gold) to crown one of the orc leaders and bring an end to the civil war, thus receiving 1000 gold for completing their quest – just in time.

            They actually were aiming for a different table for the final session, but returned to mine when someone else got the one they wanted first. Then they bought the final quest off another group for 500 gold. This run of the dungeon was pretty tame, as there was no longer a purple worm rampaging through the place, and the orcs were mostly in one place, sorting out their politics far more peacefully than before. Because of this, the players were able to make a pretty accurate map of the complex while searching for the location they needed to find for their final quest. However, they were focused on making that map so they could get around quickly and neglected to gather treasure along the way. They did eventually solve their quest – after intimidating orc into helping them find the location they needed – but they didn’t have much time left. They did manage to win some money in a very challenging race against a satyr, which they won on the first attempt with full marks – something I didn’t think was possible! Then, right at the end, they were getting into a fight with a pair of creatures holding a golden mask. The  fight had barely started when the end of the session was called, and one of the players asked if he could grab the mask right before they were teleported home. I allowed him one roll – and he rolled a natural 20, which is pretty much a guaranteed success. So they left with the mask in tow.

            Though they didn’t win the event – or win the duck prize (don’t ask) – my group of players and I all had a lot of fun, which is a win in my books. What will next year’s event bring? I don’t know exactly, but as we continue to learn from these events, we continue to improve them, which means to me that next year will be even better.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.