Saturday Knights dungeon master Ryan Knighton is encouraging people to take a chance on a new form of entertainment. Photo / Supplied
Saturday Knights dungeon master Ryan Knighton is encouraging people to take a chance on a new form of entertainment. Photo / Supplied
It's Saturday Knight and you just got played.
That's what the team behind Palmerston North's homegrown show about dungeons and dragons (D&D) wants to happen to you this Saturday and the first Saturday of every month.
Saturday Knights: Another D&D Live Show is led (dungeon mastered) by Ryan Knighton, nostranger to the Palmy stage having performed with SpontaneoUS for the past four years.
It is a mix of comedy, long-form storytelling and fantasy, plus as the show is also a game there's rolling of dice to determine what happens next.
Knighton uses the audience as a resource to help tell the story by asking for environment noises, their name or some other information to keep the story rolling.
Knighton has a masters degree in storytelling from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. He says Saturday Knights is a chance to combine his favourite genre with his scriptwriting studies and improv skills.
When not dungeon mastering, he works at the Housing Advice Centre.
The six players started by picking a character and writing a backstory.
One of the players is Valkyrie Games manager Toby Lockhart, who has a theatre degree from Massey University. He says D&D is the framework or genre for the play, it's what lets the players tell a fantasy story.
Lockhart says the dungeon master builds a big expansive world for the players to play in. He runs the game and has to play everybody else, respond to what the characters are doing and describe what is happening.
"There's something quite creatively fulfilling in that space. It's basically long form improv."
Lockhart says he has done a lot of D&D over the past 10 years, but has gone into very few dungeons and run into very few dragons in that time.
Lockhart says people who enjoy board games and role-playing games are often labelled as anti-social but there are very few such games you can play by yourself.
The artwork for Saturday Knights was done by a fan. Photo / Supplied
His character is Chip the Sorcerer, while Morgan Parker-Corney plays Tiffy, a paladin who is good at swinging a sword.
Lockhart says the audience interaction is key to Saturday Knights.
"They are being told a story but they still feel like they are part of it."
Showgoers don't need to know about dungeons and dragons. "If they know what the acronym stands for that's great, that's the first step."
He says if you don't know anything about D&D you won't mind taking a risk attending a show when it costs only a couple of dollars.
Lockhart says D&D has been growing steadily over the past five years and is now at the height of its popularity. Being a game that can be played easily over Zoom, it had a particular surge during lockdown.
Saturday Knights started nine months ago.
The Details What: Saturday Knights: Another D&D Live Show When: Saturday, June 5, 8pm Where: Valkyrie Games, 134 King St Tickets: Koha
