Last year, my close friends Wes Kobernick and Joel Allan were chatting after one of our bi-weekly gaming sessions. We talked about how great it would be if someone made a documentary about roleplaying games and the people who played them -- a film that presented the "real" face of the gamer. Our gaming group, like many others, is a diverse group of friends who have professions ranging from Screenwriters and Lawyers to Non-Profit Program Directors and College Students.
We had all seen the "Trekkies" and "Darkon" documentaries. "Trekkies," while a great documentary, focused on the Star Trek fans that the director thought would make the most "interesting" story, but it left out the day to day fan of the series who didn't have any particular quirks -- other than being a fan of the show. It would have been nice to see the casual fan, as well as the dedicated fan. It only takes a few minutes wandering the internet, or looking at the TV ratings for "Big Bang Theory" before one realizes that "we are all Trekkies." It's only what we are passionate about that varies. "Darkon" was a very emotionally powerful documentary about live action roleplaying, the kind that the kid plays in the hilarious movie "Role Models," but Darkon is also a very sad movie.
While I highly recommend both of those documentaries, we wanted to do something different. Yes, like "Trekkies," we want to show some of the interesting stories of the role playing game hobby. There are plenty of interesting people who play role playing games, but we also wanted to give a look at the casual gamer and at the people who make role playing games as a profession. We wanted to make a film that was something of a snap shot of the hobby as it stands today...a hobby that has lost a few of its founders over the past couple of years and a hobby where some of its founders are still alive today.
What we realized in the course of the discussion was that we weren't looking for someone else to make the documentary, we were the perfect group to make it. Wes is an experienced film maker, Joel is a practicing attorney, and I have spent years developing contacts throughout the hobby who has an entrepreneurial spirit. We quickly decided to form our own company called Twin Suns Entertainment. TSE will produce not only a documentary film, but that produces ongoing entertainment products ranging from web series to physical role playing and board games, from childrens' books to mainstream fantasy novels. Our mission for TSE is for each of our products to promote the hobby and to highlight how hobby gaming in its role playing and table top game forms is a wonderful way to build community.
Today we launched the Kickstarter campaign for our documentary film. The film's working title is "Dice Chuckers," but we ask that you join us in creating title for the film when released and we beseech you to make a pledge and join us on the wonderful adventure that is founding an entertainment company.
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