Boisterously raiding the cellar in search of more ale and inadvertently getting stuck in an upside-down barrel, pretending to play dead beneath the bright purple flowers in the tall grass, battling using magical fire to battle water elementals in a submerged trap-room, it’s me! Amanda McKnight. I’m an actress, YouTuber, model, influencer, cosplayer, streamer and full time Gremlin.
You can find me playing Dungeons and Dragons 5E with the dames of Roll for Dameage, an actual play stream of fems and friends with great wit and all-natural crits. You can find me in various commercials, television shows and indie films, splattered across festivals, cable and the internet. Or you can find me on Top 10 Nerd, a YouTube channel where we list off the top 10 nerdiest things you could imagine, generally focused around comic-books and the big two, Marvel and DC. I also love to travel and frequent as many cons in a year as my bank account will allow. And I am a huge board game nerd. I professionally travel to board games conventions to teach games and am working on making my own content surrounding all things tabletop.
The dice that I have picked for this month’s Awesome Dice subscription box all speak to characters that I have played in Dungeons and Dragons, and the dream characters that have existed only in mind, but whom I’ve longed to bring to life at the table. And I hope that in opening up this monthly box with me, you will find some inspiration in them for yourself in regards your own characters who you have both created and long to create.
My experience with DnD and tabletop role playing games started when I was just 17 years old. I began playing with a group of friends who just so happened to all be male. I was the token girl. Having played on and off for over ten years, I was attracted to DnD for the storytelling, the character development and creation and the smashing. As I said, part actor, part content creator and writer and ALL Gremlin. I love working with my party as much as I love stirring up trouble generally in games.
As I continued to play, my mind was opened up the larger world of RPGs and the fact that DnD doesn’t have to be a boy's club. In fact since I started playing, I have played with two completely female-identifying parties and have also loved it. What I have learned is there is an RPG for everyone and what I appreciate is how it always feels like there is room for everyone at an RPG table.
Okay, okay, Amanda, enough about you. Let’s talk about what we all came for: the sweet, sweet DICE! The rocks, the gems, the chance cubes! The dice in this set are meant to give you a little spark of whimsey. One set is a specific nod to the shy, awkward and surprisingly loud, short muscley lumberjack of a Hill dwarf named Gunnloada, a character whom I love to play. She is never without a skein of ale and finds approaching women she is crushing on impossibly hard.
The rest of the dice are an homage to the unknown; to the magic users and bards that have gone unplayed but live as little lullabies luring us in within the back of our minds. These are the characters who have yet gone unspoken. I hope these sets of dice help you to find words for those characters. I hope they help you create someone just as gloriously awkward but blissfully strong and happy as Gunnloada. Remember, you have the key and the dice and the tools to unleash whatever character is hiding within you. That’s the magic of RPG.
