I'm Dating the Dungeon Master

Fade in: 

A band of misfits find themselves in a small village plagued by misfortune and fear. A caravan of dwarves has been ambushed in the forest that stands between the village and the town to the west. To the east, mountains cast a dark shadow across the valley. While they all have different motives -- treasure, exile, a quest -- these five strangers will band together to discover who is terrorizing the country.

**Spoiler alert: it's an underground organization of ancient dragons who have been experimenting to create a perfect being by splicing dragon DNA with various species.**

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This semester, I wanted to expose myself to more new things. Advertising professionals and well-rounded human beings in general are open to the world around them and I want to be both of those kinds of people. 

Tonight, in honor of this commitment to me, I ventured out of my apartment and surrounded myself with elves, mages and direwolves. Yes, I stepped into the fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons.

Nerdy? Yes. I am not even going to attempt to count the number of different colored dice splattered across the small round table these six boys encircle. But underneath all of the mythical accents and crazy creature names, this game is about a story. And not just any pre-written adventure purchased from your local comic shop. In fact, this adventure was written by the person who introduced me to this group: the Dungeon Master.

And I helped.

As cool as this all sounds on paper, as soon as you introduce five other, independent thinking tabletop players, the whole game changes, and with it, the story evolves, too. In this way, the story is a living creature, with pieces of each player in it. 

Whether I'll join in on the game is yet to be determined. Maybe I'll aid the party as an elven archer, or ambush them as the leader of a group of sexy sirens. But, for now, I'm content watching the magic unravel from afar. 

xoxo, 

Kelsie

An Experience in Virtual Reality

Holy cow.

Seriously, that was the coolest thing ever.

Have you guys tried the Oculus Rift yet? Cause you should. Immediately.

Don't have hundreds of dollars? Go to the Salvador Dali Museum like I did!

Included in your admission, you can use the Oculus to explore Archeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus from every angle. 

I was skeptical. We've all dealt with bad visual experiences. Old VR tech, outdated 3D effects and most other forms of visual manipulation just left me dizzy and sick. Could this really be any different? I figured I'd have to try it to find out.

The exhibit assistant placed the Oculus over my eyes. Then I adjusted it on my head to make sure everything was in focus. And then I was alone in the museum.

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On the wall in front of me was the painting I was poised to explore. This by itself was pretty impressive. There wasn't an obnoxiously sized crowd of tourists corralled around the painting; I could actually stand an appropriate distance away and look at it.

But then, whoosh, I was inside the frame.

I looked at the two towers in the distance. I looked up at the sky filled with stars. I looked at the odd couple, a man and young boy, to my left. I turned around and looked at the desert behind me. My mouth was involuntarily open in awe the whole time.

Imagine what I must have looked like to the people in line behind me. Twirling around in my chair looking up, down, all around, with the word "wow" permanently on my lips. The image flashed in my mind for a second, but I soon forgot about the people behind me. They couldn't see what I could. They'd understand soon enough.

A sphere at the base of the right tower was my navigation. I focused on it for two seconds and then whoosh I was standing by the towers.  (A lot of whoosh-ing took place in the next five minutes.) From here, I ventured into the right tower. Dali's Aphrodisiac Telephone was ringing. I wanted to answer it. 

I climbed the tower stairs and found myself on a ledge at the very top. The wind howled as I looked down. I noticed a navigation ball in the distance. Whoosh. Dali's Elephants were shakily inching toward me. This was probably my favorite sight.

My session timed out soon after that. 

Looking back, I'm amazed. I virtually explored a two dimensional painting by a man who's long dead. Yet, it felt so real. Well, as real as you could expect a surrealist painting to feel. It's truly an immersive experience unlike anything I've ever done. I'm excited to see where this technology takes gaming, movies and even live entertainment. 

The Dare to Dream exhibit is open from now until June 12th at the Dali Museum in downtown St. Pete.

xoxo,

Kelsie