To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, we’ve asked some of our favorite Gen Con TV personalities what their relationship with D&D is.
Check out Part 1 of our Q&A with our special guests! And stay tuned for Part 2…
Banzaibaby or Banzai (She/Her)
How long have you been playing (or DMing) D&D?
I have been playing D&D for 19 years.
What has D&D taught you?
The more characters I play the more I begin to understand who I really am. It can be hard to honest with yourself on who you really are but it is easy to recognize what parts of the character you can truly connect with. For me, I’m a little weird and play goofy characters really well.
Tell us you best D&D story
My best D&D story is the one and only time I actually made a god call. I was in a campaign in the worlds largest dungeon. My cleric saw a creature getting tortured by a demon far above our party’s level that we were suppose to run away from. I could not stand seeing such an evil and not doing anything about it so I ran in to fight the demon knowing my character would die.
As the rest of my team got away and I was dying, I made a god call and got a 001 thus my god answered. The demon was destroyed, I was restored and given special equipment becoming “chosen” and teleported back to my group.
You can follow Bonzai for more on Instagram or Tiktok
Meagan Karimi-Naser (She/Her)
How long have you been playing (or DMing) D&D?
15 years or so.
What has D&D taught you?
Problem solving, teamwork, creative ways to bend rules, quick thinking, and that with a high enough roll you can seduce anything.
Tell us you best D&D story
One time we needed to get into a room surrounded on all sides by impenetrable stone. Our son used an inspiration point to reverse cast flesh-to-stone as stone-to-flesh. He was able to transform a part of the wall into a mimicry of his own flesh and we cut our way through. Gruesome, but effective. Plus we totally bypasses the actual puzzle we were supposed to solve to gain access to the room.
Follow Megan on Instagram, or catch her on GCTV, Actoroke of Burning of Saratof.
Mike Boozer (He/Him)
How long have you been playing (or DMing) D&D?
45 years.
What has D&D taught you?
Storytelling, Socializing Skills, Organizational Skills, the importance of it as a learning and teaching tool.
Tell us you best D&D story
Too many, but the time a Wizard snapped a Staff of the Magi and started a chain reaction detonation on all the artifacts in the party because a player rolled two ones on his save has to be one of the best. Primal energy was unleashed killing half the party and stripping them of non-Artifact level magic items. Boons and some artifacts saved others.
You can find Mike Boozer on GCTV, Actoroke GMing the Nearly Departed.
Peter Adkison (He/Him)
How long have you been playing (or DMing) D&D?
Since 1978.
What has D&D taught you?
Leadership and organizational skills. DMing taught me how to plan, how to prepare, and how to solve interpersonal problems between players. Running a D&D campaign is very similar to running an organization.
Tell us you best D&D story
There was a guy in our gaming group that ran a huge battle every summer where all the local players brought their toughest PCs and went to Hell. These “Hell raids” took all summer and there were hundreds of miniatures on the table representing a dozen or so PCs with all our henchmen and hirelings fighting rows and rows of devils. It was epic.
You can follow Peter on Facebook. Or follow his fantasy series, World of Chaldea on Facebook, X, and Instagram.