D&D

Crafting may be the most useless skill in D&D, but it’s not the most useless skill for D&D.

D&D is truly a wonderful escape from reality. With the right group of friends, it’s full of creativity, world building, story telling, humor, and hijinks. When I run campaigns, I like to give my players something physical to interact with really gets them engaged and into a creative mindset. Also, I just really like to make stuff and D&D is a nice excuse 🙂 Sometimes I have an idea for a session that involves an object I can make- a letter, key, or puzzle. Other times, I’m inspired to make something and then develop a story around it. My last campaign was called The Book of Silent Songs, about the legend of the first Bard and musical journey the players embarked on to find the Famed book which they needed to save the world. It led to some really fun crafts and music. I’ve been too busy of late, but I look forward to my next campaign.

NASA &

The Data Arcana

Since I’m a scientist, I also like to incorporate science concepts into my world and my games. In 2023, I was awarded a NASA Early Career Award in Planetary Science, which has provided support to jumpstart a new science outreach effort. I’ll be developing easy to use, free game modules which introduce players to planetary science and astronomy concepts with ideas for fun and fantastical ways they can be used in the game. Have you ever considered what werewolves would be like on a planet with two moons? If we can understand the moons’ orbital patterns and phases, we might be able to find out 😉 This project is new, but I’ll post more about it once it gets going.