News

Holiday Events/Sales

This is gonna be our bulletin board for updating sales and events for the holidays.  But before I do that and smile and remind you that us local businesses need you guys big time to stay alive, I’m gonna get on my usual soapbox about Black Friday Sales.

Don’t let big retail (or even me) force you to give up time with yer loved ones, or a rare and well deserved sleep in, just to get out in a crowd, or stuck to a screen to buy stuff!  We will have sales, but they will last into the week after, so you can come in at your leisure.  We will be open extra hours and running extra events during thanksgiving, so feel free to come in.  We’re just not gonna stand outside your door, screaming for attention.

Speaking of the events and stuff…here is the first installment on what is going on:

 

A couple of special things this week
  1.  Magic Brother’s War Release weekend events all weekend, including Two Headed Giants Sat and Sun-using prerelease kits for extra fun
  2. D&D…special Events For experienced (16+) D&D players on Mon, Tues and Friday.  Get a chance to play at the high levels (finally) for Turkmageddon!  Limited number of players and long (5-6 hour) sessions.
  3. Event sign ups here
Lot’s of sales/deals and new stuff coming in this week—rather than just give you a few now here are a couple of places to look to see where the new stuff is updated
https://d20gamestore.com/collections/thanksgiving-holiday-events-sales
Also, we will start taking a bunch of pics of the new stuff as it comes out, as well as special sales on our Instagram account, d20gamesalameda.
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About the D&D Event
Turkmageddon

3 Days of advanced D&D*
Mon 11/21 6pm to 11–10th Level
Tues 11/22 10am-3pm–15th Level
Friday 11/25 10am-3pm–20th Level
$45 in advance/$50 at the door
*For experienced players age 16+
Limited to 8 players per table.

D20 Games is Proud to announce our first Event Campaign: Turkemageddon! Join us for three separate chapters in this holiday themed mini-campaign! Each chapter will be a concise adventure for high level characters with a contiguous story that will weave through and connect each chapter. While it is a campaign Turkemageddon is structured with a drop-in approach allowing players to decide which adventures they would like to take part in. For those who wish to play a character through all three events there will be an in-game gap of five years between each installment to allow for leveling and verisimilitude.

Monday November 21st: Vengeance Most Fowl
We will begin our story on Monday November 21st with Vengeance Most Fowl, an adventure designed for a
party of level 10 characters who find themselves caught between the machinations of a prideful tyrant and the
vengeance of an Eldritch god.

  1. Level 10 characters built with the standard array ability scores (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
  2. Characters may be built with any official WotC 5th edition books. No homebrew or playtest material.
  3. A list of level appropriate magic Items will be made available before we begin play.

Tuesday November 22nd: Attack on Gourmand
On November 22nd the next adventure, Attack on Gourmand, is designed for a party of level 15 characters
captured by a colossal chef who intends to use them in his piece de resistance.

  • Characters should be leveled up to or built at 15th level with the standard array ability scores (15,14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
  • Characters may be built with any official WotC 5th edition books. No homebrew or playtest material.
  • A list of level appropriate magic Items will be made available before we begin play. Magic items
  • acquired in the previous session will not count against new magic items for this session.

Friday November 25th: Turkemageddon
In the third and final installment of the campaign on November 25th, the party, now composed of 20th level
characters, must face their most treacherous foe yet in the titular Turkemageddon.

  •  Characters should be leveled up to or built at 20th level with the standard array ability scores (15,
  • 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
  •  Characters may be built with any official WotC 5th edition books. No homebrew or playtest material.
  •  A list of level appropriate magic Items will be made available before we begin play. Magic items
  • acquired in the previous sessions will not count against new magic items for this session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return of Drafting @ D20

Hey folks….

A few event updates of significance..

  • Return of drafts for FNM
  • Two Headed Giant on Sat moves from 3pm to 4pm start time.
  • D&D is coming back…

 

Return of Drafting for FNM:Starting 10/22 we will experimenting with doing drafts again for Friday Night Magic.  We’ll be pulling out the plastic tablecloths (the ones we used for birthdays) so we can sanitize them in between rounds, and we will have everyone sanitize hands before they start drafting (and have a no drinks or anything that will get hands next to a mouth during the drafting process).  If I think this is going well, this is what we will do from now on.

We have also raised the price of the drafts to $20. (The packs have gotten more expensive and we have a much more limited number of players we can have for the events so we really need every dollar we can to start to clime out of the joy and fun of last year).  But I’m going to do this. For all of our old players, if you also were pushed to the limit from last year or just can’t afford the price increase, tell us at the counter and we’ll let you keep doing the old $15 for at least the next few months.

Two Headed Giants moving from 3-4 on Saturdays:

We’re shifting the time for the two headed giants back to the old time of 4pm, so it returns it to being more of a date night, evening fun activity. This really is one of our favorite events and we will be doing it consistantly to get it back up and running.  (Still have to have the 12+ age limit, but as soon as the vaccination for the younger folks comes in, we’ll happily open the doors to let them back).

D&D in person is starting back up:

This Sunday (10/24) is going to be Dan’s return to DMing events in the store.  The time will be 2-7 and will be limited to 7 players.  This event will be a 4 session run and should be good fun. This is for players with some experience playing, not a first time event. $20 pers session (and if you want to come to all 4, probably best to get tix in advance)

We will be doing a Dungeon  Crawl into an Abandoned Dwarven Keep . Players Should Create a Level 5 Character using Standard array or the pound buy system in the players hand book.  Players will have standard starting equipment as well as any 1 Uncommon Magic item of their choice.  Any Player resources and books printed by Wizards of the Cost will be allowed including unearthed arcana.”

Starting in about a week we will start doing Weds D&D and after that, late night Saturday

Pokémon:

Pokémon continues to be in extremely short supply.  We are continuing to let 12 and younger kids buy 1 pack a day at the old 3.99 price so they don’t get totally overrun by the adults who are snapping everything up. I’m sorry for not having preorders for all the higher end stuff, but we don’t know until the last minute what will come in.  If you want Pokémon gifts for the holidays, I really reeaally recommend getting them now. The supply chain is truly messed up and hits this stuff hard.

Hope to see you this week and as always…seriously thanks for shopping local.

Ben

P.S.  We will be spreading out sales/offerings over November so we don’t have to get people to waste part of their vacation running around shopping.

Hunt for Innistrad-Look what crept back in the night….

Innistrad is back, so it is time to see what goes bump in the night!

Welcome back to Innistrad, a chilling plane of werewolves, vampires, and other things that go bump in the dark. Wanna read up on all the Innistrads and Outistrads of the plane? You can check out the Planeswalker’s Guide from our first visit right here.

D20 Game Events

Sealed event using the prerelease kits from the latest Magic Release.  Players can get their boxes of 6 packs to open and get to build their decks starting 1 hour before each event.  (we provide the land and stuff, so you don’t need anything more to play.)  We pride ourselves that  no one here will make you feel anything but welcome (we all started from scratch at some point).  

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/innistrad-midnight-hunt-prerelease-primer-2021-09-15

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/innistrad-midnight-hunt-mechanics-2021-09-02

D&D Epic One shot, Modern Horizons 2, and return of THG Fat Pack wars!!

Hey folks…

This weekend we have 5 most excellent events that we are gonna hold in as safe a way as possible and with all sorts of bonus goodies for those who attend, including a Special D&D event one shot event on Sunday.:

  • Modern Horizons 2 “Prerelease” (Sealed event using the prerelease kits that we’ve been holding since covid started), $60 in advance, $65 at the door.Friday 8/27 @  6:30
  • Two Headed Giant/Fat Pack Wars returns!!!  Sat 8/28 @ 3pm (We bring out the mystery box, and each team has a player reach in and pick a surprise pack for whatever Fat pack/bundle they get to use to build their decks together.) $30 in advance, $35 at the door
  • D&D Epic One shot, Lair of the Dracolich (up to three parties at different tables come from different places to try and survive to defeat something that will take all of them cooperating.)  $60 in advance, $65 at the door.  Extremely limited seating (only 18 max)

 

13+ and Vax cards required for all(and masks still)
As we’ve bemoaned earlier, a whole mess of people who’ve been talked into proving they have the freedom to lemming off of a cliff, have put us back to needing to be ultra careful.  To attend events here safely, you must bring proof of vaccine (and still wear masks).  I don’t mess with this stuff at all, so we will be very strict about this.  And I hate it means that the 12 and under kids can’t participate yet.  Really hate it. (probably why I’m extra grumpy about this.)

I know for me, going out to an event felt fairly nerve wracking, in delta land.  So we really will be extra careful.  Therefore, we’re gonna treat snacking like smoking….need to step outside if you need to breath outside a mask.

The good part…Goodies (10th anniversary style)

So everyone who attends events this weekend (and for as long as I feel like it), will get a ton of bonus goodies, from special promo magic cards for the magic folks, to mystery dice sets for the D&D participants.

 

In person events starting in August with 10th anniversary celebration!

Tenth Anniversary Magic events…We’re gonna do the #$^#ing prereleases that we missed while we where bunkered up last year!  I’m also gonna be cracking out just a ton of promo cards and other giveaways.  The events are gonna be a lot smaller than they used to be, also to keep everyone safe.  Buy Tix here…

Because of the new variant restrictions, we decided to wait till the first week of August  to open up to in person events.     It also means that for the next month we are going to separate the vaccinated (13+), and the can’t be yet (12 and younger).  (And yes..you need to bring the vaccination card for confirmation. I know it is being overly cautious, but D20 will be a safe place, whatever we need to do, and hopefully people will figure out how to do the right thing sooner then later. Also mask mandates are back, so crack ’em out, wash ’em out and take ’em out (to us).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open(ish), and doing MTG Events!-Real Reopening first Weekend in August.

We meant to reopen at the beginning of August to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the store.  But they went and released a new magic set that combined Magic and D&D so we snuck open early to be able to run some events.  We are doing events all through the weekend of July 24th.

So here is the scoop with magic events through the end of August:

  • We have missed 6(!!) in person prereleases during covid lockdown…we’re gonna do them all over the next month (and we will do them again till the next set comes out!
  • Starting on the last week in August when we do Core 2021 prerelease events all weekend.
  • Bringing back Two Headed Giant! This is my fav form of magic….great for buddies, couples and parent kid combos)

Keeping things safe. (really)

  • We’re gonna do Sealed instead of Draft for all events including FNM till the end of August. Both because we got all these fun prereleases we didn’t do, and because I want to be overly cautious and not have people passing cards around to each other.
  • Vaccination cards required for everyone 13+ for events in the store. I’m really not kidding about this. I’ve spent the last year an a half making choices to keep people safe, including waiting to open up.  I’m not gonna be a place where variants get a chance to bounce around.  Anyone who disagrees can feel free to email me and I will politely discuss it with them.
  • 12 and under and 13+ events.  Because there is no current way to get kids under 12 vaccinated, the best solution is to separate the events.  Each weekend there will be at least one event that will be set up for the younger crowd.  Adults (parents, etc) are welcome to attend, but will be advised to wear masks and MUST have their vaccination cards with them. PS, I  know there are a ton of kids that have both the skill and temperament to play with the adults…they will get to do so again when things settle down.
  • Smaller (but more) events.  To keep the airflow good and give people much more space between each other, we are going to do much smaller event sizes.  To help with making sure that no one shows up to not be able to play, we will have event tix available online.  (We’re trying a new POS, so this is gonna change in what it looks like, but not what happens.

Adventure in Forgotten Realms Events

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sew what can we do to help? Making DIY masks to relieve the pressure….

(I stared this at the beginning of the week before the CDC recommendation for everyone to wear masks….this is a list of the best links for DIY masks I’ve found. PLEASE comment back on which ones are better and send others that you find, I’ll keep the list updated as much as I can.)

We’ve all heard about the mask/materials shortages for hospitals, and its been sticking in my craw that we’re stuck at home with the impulse to help but nothing to do besides trying not to drive each other crazy.  So when I heard about people sewing masks at home to help out, that seemed pretty like a pretty cool use of creativity.  I can’t do it, but I can help figure out what is real, vs. nonsense, and try and spread the word.    The interesting thing is that even masks that are not of medical quality are of value.  Turns out that tea towels are pretty close to fancy medical grad material in terms of catching virus side stuff.  And even if it doesn’t do that, it helps with one of the biggest sources of spread, the almost impossible task of not touching yer damn face/mouth during the day.    What I’ve included is the links to resources that I’ve found, following the contents of a letter that just came to me from a member of a Kaiser task force on what is acceptable designs for them to use to help with their medical professional.  They would like masks for their local Kaiser centers, but obviously, get them to where ever they need to go.  Probably best to wash them, and put them in ziplock bags after extremely carefully cleaning…we don’t wanna pass the virus on in something designed to keep it out…too stupidly ironic.   If you find better information or improved designs, leave a comment or email us at [email protected]   And if you do end up making one, send us a picture and tell us where it went and we’ll share it.  I know it seem like it’s too big for us to do anything about this besides hide in place, but there are a lot of us.  😉


From Kaiser (3/27/2020)
Materials that should be used to make the mask:

        • Reusable/washable
        • Cotton or T-shirt material

Design components:

Cleaning requirements:

        • Must be able to hand or machine wash when soiled or contaminated

Approval/Distribution:

        • Regional approval of masks is not needed if volunteers follow instructions and design components provided
        • Masks will be distributed locally (to medical centers)

We are extremely grateful for your willingness to help our organization keep our patients, members, visitors, staff and physicians safe.

Other Resources I’ve found for this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hour of Devastation Overview/news

Hour of Devastation scoop, updates, news and other stuff…

The dragon’s plans spanned millennia and his perception straddled centuries, a winding maze of possibility and circumstance and statistics and likelihood. Usually the dragon played the odds when shaping his decisions—but now, to manifest his needs, the dragon would need to be violent in his choices….” Hour of Devastation Prerelease story snippit..WOTC. 

The sands of Amonkhet swirl from the wind of the drumbeat wings as the greatest of dragons battles his fellow gods for the fate of those below, living, dead or something more than both.  At the Hour of Devastation Prerelease…battle with or as those gods to determine who will live, die, or go to Jack in the box later as zombies. (Hey, just ’cause you’re undead doesn’t mean a shake won’t hit the spot. Besides, where else can a zombie go at 3 in the morning when everyone else is sleeping.)   Welcome to the second chapter in the Egyptian-inspired  desert plane,  where life after death is just part of life…

Prerelease When: Events Sat at 10, Sat at 4, Sun at 10 and a two-headed Giant, Sunday at 3 pm.   (Remember to sign up in advance..$30 before the event, $35 the day of the event)  As always, we do competitive and casual side by side to make sure both groups have the fun they are looking for. 

Nicol Bolas, Got Pharoh
Nicol is Back!!

Newest Cards— http://mythicspoiler.com/

About the story-  http://magic.wizards.com/en/products/hour-devastation/storytelling

Official Wizards source of the cards- http://magic.wizards.com/en/products/hour-devastation/cards

New Magic http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/hour-devastation-mechanics-2017-06-16

Samut the Tested

Still need help-Updates on the move…

Exec summery:

Volunteers so far have been beyond awesome!

We need everything moved out before 1 April. Still need lots of help…packing, strong man/woman lifting, hauling/donating.  We will be in one location or the other at all times except Monday evening…  Email us if and when you can help out.  We’ll do the next big loads on Tuesday during the day and after school hours….we’ll need help the whole time.

we need help making the place cool

  • Lighting/electronics-Electrician/lighting Jedi master – we need to install LED light strips in our cases.
  • artistic painting

signs-promotion

  • Need skilled  help at putting together sidewalk signs and other promo posters… traditional and clever….

First off, huge huge huge thanks to people who helped us out so far! There is no way  on the planet that we would’ve been able to pull off as much as we have in the ludicrously short time we had.

So far we’ve gotten most of the painting done, the carpet removed, the new carpet laid in And about half of the old store loaded up in the truck to move over.

We’re still in the need of more volunteer help.  I would kill for some help on Monday during the day, but will also take help during the day/evenings for the rest of the week. (Monday night is my kids bday…so gotta take that off.)

 

Mad Creators Club

What’s going on with D20?  We have to move by April First, so the brutal truth is we either evolve, or we shut down.
The scoop:
Here’s the deal.  I love D20 and I love what we’ve built here and it would break my heart not to have it continue.  On the other hand, Amazon et. al. has put a lot of pressure on things, and as much as you’re continued patronage has helped, there is only so much of a premium that people are willing to pay to keep shops like what we were doing alive. Prices for rent in Alameda have gone bonkers and it is clear that there is no way to make a store like what we are now work without a serious upgrade to what we do. We have to leave our current location by April 1st, and we have found a potential replacement on Park St. but it is almost 4 times what we are current paying in rent, and believe it or not, that’s a good deal right now (eep).
The big decision: So I’m facing a pretty big decision point about the future D20.    We either need to go big (expand/evolve) or go home (shut D20 down in April).  To continue the business, we need to expand to do what we’ve been planning for a while, to be a true mental/artistic playground (Legos, robotics, chess, mad science/art).  This aligns well with our philosophy and what we do well, but to be utterly frank, will require me to take a huge personal financial risk.  So I’m going to open up about what we’re thinking and put some of it back in your hands.  I’m going to put together a Kickstarter, or some equivalent, and if what we want to do matches services people in the community want (and more importantly, are valuable enough to them to pay for).
 
So what are we good at? What D20 does best is provide a welcoming and safe place for people to connect face to face, not face to screen, and to get to engage their brains in a fun way. For the kids, we help them build both social and mental confidence, while modeling and molding a place where treating each other with respect can happen side by side with having fun with each other.
When we looked at it a while ago, we realized that the overlap between the kids that come here, and the ones who love legos, Minecraft, robotics, or other mad art, science, or performance it almost 100%, and they have very few places where they can stretch those other muscles.  (This next part is as a dad…) I know that our schools are working as hard as they can to take care of the kids, but they’ve been squeezed and regulated to the point where Gate and other places where it’s ok for the kids to test their limits or where they can explore at their actual pace is a wish on the wind.  We all know that creativity leads to better thinking, and that dumping a ton of extra work, does not create the challenges and sets of accomplishment that our kids need/crave.  And for many of us, we want to play too, exploring stuff side by side with our kids when we can (or when they’ll let us.)

The Vision

The Mad Scientists/Artist/Maker Club. So the vision for the expanded D20 is the Mad Scientist/artist/maker’s club.  A place that has spaces to mess around with the tools and toys of creativity and challenge, and regular and special events where they can do so.   We will make money by running workshops and providing access to some special spaces.
The philosophy behind all of it will be:
  • Creative (Learn what’s been done before, but don’t assume that’s all that can be.  It’s better to do lots of failed experiments and figure out something new, then just color in the lines.)
  • Smart (learn why things do what they do and be smart enough to be creative safely.)
  • Challenge (Push yourself to find your limits, and then go a little further.  This is a place where you can go as far as you want.)
  • Respect ( Messing around is ok, distracting is not.  We’ve all been in classes where we were frustrated because the instructor had to spend so much time wrangling kids who were messing around that there wasn’t time to really explore what was going on.  Also, as always, we’re a smack talk free zone.  Have fun with people, not at their expense.  The higher level classes are open only to those who demonstrate that they understand what they need to to be safe, and that have shown that they won’t ruin the chance for others to test their limits too.)
  • Good Alignments only (Whatever we may play in role playing games, as people, we really work to be good.  If we see a way to help, we do, if we don’t we try and find them.  Our word is good, and we know that being honorable isn’t goofy, its a real thing and it’s worth fighting for.)
The Spaces:
  • Mad Science lab (a workshop of space to work on electronics and more)
  • The Secret Study (the best space for playing tabletop games we can build)
  • The “It’s OK to get messy” Room   (A space for painting, Dyeing, gluing, Cutting, Molding, smooshing, making, creating.)
  • The Studio (A soundproof space with equipment for Recording/podcasting)
The types of Workshops:
  • Lego Engineering/robotics,
  • Arduino robotics,
  • Electronics exploration/construction,
  • Chess classes/club,
  • More unconventional twist-ups like using traditional paper marbling techniques on weird objects like sneakers.

The philosophy of the workshops:

  • Understand the basics (really grock what we’re working with)
  • Learn the techniques (know what it is and how to work with it safely)
  • Take it seriously (Having fun–Big thumbs up.  Slowing everybody else down by disrupting…not cool. This is the place where you can see what you really can do, and people messing around with the instructors and the other participants isn’t ok)
  • Get a challenge–Go nuts (there will be basic ways to deal with any challenge, but figuring out other ways to get it done is always awesome)
  •  Show you know what your doing and be respectful of others gets access to the more advanced stuff.
  • Working on something cool=having fun
  • Show you know what you are doing AND be a good teammate/mentor to others and you may get tapped to join the Igors (the Mad Science/art jr. assistants/sidekicks.) Being and Igor is a great honor/responsibility.  You will get to become class assistants, and get special hours access to the labs as well as special Igor only events.)

Examples of Workshops:

Electronics deconstruction:
Tear apart old electronics in this treasure hunt challenge to find the parts you need to complete your secret goal.  Each class will have a quick-solder challenge to complete a mini machine.  Teams that complete their class challenge early will have access to the higher level challenges. Requires basic soldering qualification class or equivalent.
 Things learned (in a much more fun/hidden way)in the class would include:
  • How to solder well (de-soldering is much harder then soldering)
  • Different types of common electronic parts, (including what is safe and what to be careful of)
  • How to not be afraid/intimidated by the electronics around you
  • Fix/re-purpose instead of throwing stuff away
Cardboard Architecture:
In this three week class, participants will build a functional piece of furniture, a habitat where they will spend the night outside in a park, and a human portable entry into the Alameda 4th of July parade. Oh, yeah…and all of these things will be built out of donated used cardboard box material.  The goals of the class will be to learn and understand the architectural and mechanical principals behind designing something that can be built and can take the forces applied. (Understanding the nature of the materials.) Along the way will be math challenges (can you predict when our test bridge will collapse under the weight), design challenges, artistic challenges and creative challenges.  As with many of our classes, beat the first challenges early to get access to the advanced stuff.
  • Alameda Mystery Theater: a student produced series of radio/podcast audio Theater… script writing, performance, sound effects, music, editing the final release.
  • Seven Wonders of the Lego World: a workshop teaching the fundamental building blocks of (Lego) engineering from ramps to sophisticated pulley   systems, we will re-create some of the mechanical wonders of the world in Legos
  • “Doesn’t matter if your black or white”  Chess Explorers Club. Chess builds the parts of the brain that do math and fudimental problem solving.   It’s also a chance to learn to win with grace, lose with style, and play for the fun of it.  Beginning players learn the fundamentals of both moves and stratagy, more advanced players play, learn advanced stratagy and puzzles, and how to become a great teacher of others (building knowledge and confidence without coming across as impatient or know it all, or an overwhelming firehose of knowledge).
  • D&D Camps
    • DM Boot Camp – how to build, manage and run a D&D campaign.  Each day will be split up between learning, designing, and either running for participating in D&D adventures
    • D&D adventures.  A five day, mega campaign.  Breaks each day to head out to the park, put on gear and whomp on each other with foam swords.
  • MTG Judge Bootcamp– one week camp for advanced MTG players who want to learn the rules to the level that they could take the Judge test.   The Boot Camp will include problems, puzzles, tests, challenges,  Game shows, tournaments. (Parents, the camp will also good morning in and practice on how to be a judge: how to be confident, to control the situation, How to de-escalate when people get angry, and how authority i’m coming across as arrogant or bullying are very different things) ages 12 and up.
  • Mystery Room Challenge: two teams will both design and build the props for their own mystery room (A room that contains a puzzle that must be solved with four players are allowed to leave.) today before the end of the camp, they will try the mystery room out on the other team, and then have the last day to improve it based on what they learn.  They will then put on two performances for the public (including parents and others) that Friday, and Saturday.
 
How to be one of our Instructors: This is one of the areas where we are getting clever.  Teachers would obviously need to be vetted and Live-scanned (I’m not having anyone here that I wouldn’t leave my 12 year old daughter or 15 year old sons with), but beyond that, they are people from lots of walks of life/expertise areas. The way we make sure they are good is that they first teach a no-charge class to our monthly subscribing members and the Igors.  If they pass their muster, their reviews will be the base for the ongoing teacher reviews that are posted with their classes.  Great teachers will fill their classes, and because they get a cut of the money for each class, the best ones are the ones that keep coming back.  We want people who love what they do and who love sharing that with people.  We will have a standard structure for the classes to keep things consistent, but any teacher can either prove to use that they have a better idea, or that it is just better for their class and we will go with it.  We’ll start off with a few great staff teacher, but we want to be the best place around for artists and engineers and geeks (I’m proudly in that group) from all over to come and find a place here full of kids who are having fun getting a chance to stretch their brains. For example, I’ll be teaching Game Review classes, where the kids come and play new board/card games the first part of the day, and learn how to write different styles of reviews in the afternoon. (among other things, I’m an old journalist/editor–founding editor of one magazine, first Toys Editor for Wired, etc)
Will this be for adults? The game playing part of D20 will continue to be adult friendly.  In addition, as we get more and more cool creative/electronic stuff to play with, we will both do daytime classes and offer non-classroom time access to the workshops.  Plus, we will explicitly do parent/guardian and kids classes, as well as allowing vetted parents to participate with their kids and help as adult versions of the Igors.  Most of us adults have kids inside to, and love to play with all this stuff.
 
So how are we making money from all this?  We will be charging for the classes, as well as offering monthly and yearly club memberships.  The memberships will include discounts for the classes as well as off hours access to the different club rooms. It is our intention to eventually become licenced for aftercare so some of the memberships can be used as a safe and good place for smart kids to come after school.  We want to do this well, so we won’t be trying to be the cheapest folks around.  Having said that, people who step up and share the load with us now will be given founders pricing and extra access.  More on that as we put the kick-starter together.
Places:  The Rooms—- (with inspiration images)
  • The Secret Study – the library like room with an amazing configurable gaming table.
  • Related imageImage result for tabletop gaming room
  • The Mad Science lab – plasma lightning covered walls full of workbenches boxes of tools to be checked out depending on the level of skill.  Robotics, and other electronic and fine design skills done here.
  • The Constructoporiam- place of rube Goldberg machine madness. Masterbuilder quantities of Legos, and other reusable or upcycled building materials.
  • The “It’s OK to get messy” Room: A space for painting, Dyeing, gluing, Cutting, Molding, smooshing, making, creating.
  • The Studio – soundproof space with equipment for Recording/podcastingImage result for radio play recording