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The Dwarvenaut (2016)
STEFAN POKORNY:
In the beginning, there was chaos! (THUNDER CRASHING) In the early days of Mythras, the divinities set upon the realms of mortals with terrible wrath. Seeking to reclaim the divine essence, molded in to their forms by Prometheus. (ROARING) In time... ...gods became obsessed and jealous of one another's followers. They urged their worshippers to war against their neighbors. Forever tainting the hearts of mortals with the scourge of violence. When that was not enough, the Gods themselves descended onto the battlefield. And wrought catastrophic destruction upon the lands. All but wiping out Prometheus' creations. And thus was wrought the final vengeance of Prometheus... ...through the violent hubris of his kin. (KNOCKING ON DOOR) Is that Prometheus? (ALL LAUGHING) POKORNY: Dungeons and Dragons is, I believe, the greatest game in the world. It's a psychological game. It's a game that will bring out the good or the bad in people. Because when you sit around that table with six or eight people, and you go through these scenarios, you really get to see who is who. Who is gonna run out of that cave when the shit hits the fan? Who is gonna go for the treasure? Who is gonna split the treasure with the party? Who is going to defend the person who is fallen? You can see the characters of people come out in this game. And that is an amazing thing to watch. As a dungeon master, there's a wanting to create a world that's under your control. It's more than just a game. It's your world. That makes it an unlimited realm of thought, imagination and philosophy. That's a hit! You smite the balrog with your curved blade! And there's an incredible sound as he staggers backwards. Then his wings envelope him and there's a silence that goes across the cave. What do you do? (MUSIC PLAYING OVER RADIO) (GROANING) (INDISTINCT CHATTERING) (LAUGHING) Yeah! POKORNY: My mother said when I was little, I would come into people's houses and I would immediately go and look at the paintings. I'd just put my face in front of it and stare at it for minutes. They were all just looking at me like, "What is he doing?" you know? I've always been a visual person which is why, I guess, I became an artist. MAN: What is that? POKORNY: Dragons do it, they do it. MAN: Dragons do it while falling. POKORNY: They mate in the air. They mate in the air and uh... It's very exciting to watch. Happens only in the spring. Unless you're, uh... They're like, you know, Ice Dragons and then they... They probably do it in the winter. For the winter. I don't know. It's all very elaborate. You can probably hear their screeches in the night. (SCREECHING) POKORNY: For many years, I've been making miniature dungeons for Dungeons and Dragons. I'm not a business guy in any shape or form, right? So I went down to City Hall and they ask you, like, "Okay, put here the name of your company." You know, you've gotta incorporate... So put the name. And I write "Dwarven Forge." And they're like, "What is this? "You can't just make up words. "It has to actually mean something." I'm like, "That does mean something. It's the Dwarven Forge." And they're, like, "No, no, no. That's not how you spell 'dwarf'! "That's not how you spell dwarf, right?" "It's D-W-A-R-F. "You're making this up and you can't misspell stuff like that "for your company" I'm like, "I don't understand that." "And first of all, it's not made up. "This is... Didn't you ever read the Lord of the Rings?" And there was this whole discussion that took me like hours. Until somebody in the office, apparently was like, "Oh, yeah, I read that Lord of the Rings. Yeah, he's right. "Dwarven is a word." And I, still to this day, don't understand what that whole thing was about because I feel like there are companies out there that have names that are made up. (SCREECHING) So I don't know what the hell that was about. And, uh... And this. This... And then, we, like... (MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY) (INDISTINCT CHATTER) POKORNY: Attack... (BOY TALKING INDISTINCTLY) Leaping lizards, here they come! Ah! Are you a Dungeon Master? You run games? I started when I was about your age. Technology changed the world a lot. People are just like constantly looking at a screen. We're turning into these technological robots, these androids, these drones. With D&D, I'm trying to get people to come back around the table, talk to each other, fantasize, use their creativity. These are all my people. (CHUCKLES) This game that we play is important and I believe in it. It's a wonderful game because it teaches you how to cooperate with others who are not like yourself. And you have to learn how to get along while acting in character, in order to accomplish your mission. That's the kind of stuff that's helping us come back to humanity. And I believe it, in a small way, is my way of trying to save the human race. No! Hail Sparta! In the 18 years that I've been doing this, before it was just going to, like, a convention, once a year. Laying my stuff out on the table and selling it. I remember making just enough to barely survive. In 2011, we were almost going out of business. Our clientele had been getting older or leaving the hobby and we were not reaching enough people. But then, I decided to do this Kickstarter. I'm Stefan Pokorny, founder and chief sculptor at Dwarven Forge. For the past 17 years, I've been happy to share my creations with people passionate as I am, about Dungeons and Dragons. Kickstarter is like a marketplace of creativity. There are vendors trying to sell you their incredible ideas and you can support them, just by clicking this button on your computer screen. The first Kickstarter, we started with our basic dungeons pieces. Because that's the bread and butter of dungeon building. It's just dungeons. One of the good things about Kickstarter is it reaches so many people all over the world. Your audience is suddenly so much bigger. I crushed my goal in a matter of hours. The second Kickstarter was caverns. So that's like, you know, organic underground caverns. It's stalactites and that sort of thing. That was a great success, the caverns. For this Kickstarter, we're going above ground into places that we've never gone before. Before this, all we were doing was making terrain. Now, we're creating a world. My personal world. The world of Mythras, the city of Valoria. The city that I've created over the course of three decades of me and my friends. When you play Dungeons and Dragons, the Dungeon Master has to be a storyteller. He has to enthrall everyone at the table. He has to bring this world to life. It's hard work. A lot of DMs want help doing that, so they buy pre-written adventures. We call them modules. We're gonna make a module for this Kickstarter about Valoria on top of physically creating the city. We've created characters that live in the city. Here. Maps, stories. We're building a cosmology. We're building a pantheon of gods. POKORNY: So, all these things... We've created my city. The city of Valoria. Now, I'm releasing it to the world. POKORNY: This is it folks, the time we've been waiting for! And so we venture forth, on to this day! We'll build Valoria! We are in livestreaming, we're streaming live. We're ready to launch, ready to launch! It's live, Kickstarter three is live! (ALL WHOOPING) MAN: Oh, my God! POKORNY: Whoo, $5,000! (LAUGHING GIDDILY) We've breached the crossing and now, onto the barge! 42 K. Oh, man, we're already at 43. (LAUGHING) 43! Ninety backers. MAN: 46! You will back Dwarven Forge. You need little houses. I don't know if we can really pull this off. People really have no idea how much it costs to make this stuff. All the product development and prototypes, photos, videos, the shipping, the labor, the material costs! Every little thing adds up to a crazy amount of money. To do everything that I promised for our backers, we need to raise two million dollars. Just to break even. If we don't go past two million dollars, we're basically going bankrupt. It's over. The show is done. Valoria! Valoria! ALL: Valoria! Valoria! Valoria! (WHOOPING) (MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY) Look at how we're dropping off here. First day, we raised $636,000 from 1,400 backers. The second day, we raised $160,000 from 324 backers. And today, only 19 backers! MAN: Stefan said he wanted to have some hooded strangers walking around his city. Thinking about what kind of a hat I'll eventually put on his head to make him more concealed. I should make his ears smaller. The longer the ears, the older the personality. It's definitely about creating problem solving. Every time you attempt a new texture, a new creature, a new structure, whatever the case may be, you have to come up with a solution for what's gonna make it possible and what's gonna make it look good. MAN: I never have to go out again, ever, for the rest of my life. (INDISTINCT) (ALL LAUGHING) POKORNY: Look, look, I love this part. We're all looking at her dancing. All, at the same time, and they look up from their cups. It's so hilarious. It's like... MAN: They've never seen a woman dance, like, you know? POKORNY: (LAUGHING) Look, look, look... He's like, "Oh, my God." I must have her! (MUSIC PLAYING FROM TV) MAN: Here. Put your arms through, right there. POKORNY: Oh, wow. POKORNY: Yeah, like this? MAN: Like that. My arms aren't that long. MAN: Yeah, you gotta put it through this way. Prepare the armor, my lord. (MAN LAUGHING) And, uh... Boom. POKORNY: Knights! We just gotta get you some chainmail. Actually, we'll put this... Behind you like that. And... Just slide this down this way. I can't see a thing, man! (MAN LAUGHING) Wait, what's going on here? (LAUGHING) There you go. Whoa. I thought you were attacking me. (MAN LAUGHING) MAN: Trust me, you won't know, if I'm going to attack. POKORNY: Whoa, hey. (MIMICKING BATTLE CRIES) MAN: ... let's see what you got. POKORNY: Oh! (MAN LAUGHING) MAN: I'll be making all the magical weapons. Anything anybody needs, I'll create it. POKORNY: Then you can outfit all of us in armor. We'll be like the knights of Bushwick! I'm pouring everything into this project. I'm not worried to lose it all. I didn't have anything to begin with. I was born December 25th, 1966 in Seoul, Korea. I was born to an American dad who was in the military. He hooked up with a Korean girl, woman, I don't know. And, um, they had me. What's up man? How're you doing? Hi. How're you doing? POKORNY: Then he went back to America. And then, my Korean mother put me up for adoption. They brought me to America because this family wanted to adopt me. And they already had a kid. Oh... Blade Runner! I love this book. Somehow, I didn't click with this other kid. And so, they sent me back. They were like, "Oh, we don't want him." Instead of shipping me all the way back to Korea, there was this another couple in New York. I was brought to New York, and adopted by an Italian mother. And my father grew up in Prague. I have a memory that, I don't know if I made it up or not, where, like, I come in and I meet these tall people. See this big house and start running around the house. There it is, that's my building. Papa's building, really. My father was an architect. My mother grew up in Rome. They were art lovers. Every summer, we went to Europe. (WOMAN SPEAKING IN ITALIAN) Seeing all this art, as a little kid, had a huge impact on me, I think. And also, I used to run around everywhere. I was a very energetic, outgoing kid. And my mother realized, the one way they could get me to stop running around, was to give me magic markers or crayons, and I would start drawing. And then, I would sit at the table and not move for hours. Being freshly adopted, I sort of felt like, this was my job now, you know? (CHUCKLING) I better get good at this drawing stuff and all this stuff or I might be given away again, you know? Better do something to make sure this is permanent, you know? Hi, how're you doing? Yeah. WOMAN: Long time. How are you? POKORNY: How are you doing? WOMAN: Very well, thanks. This is Lulu, my girlfriend. WOMAN: Oh, good, how are you? How's your painting coming along? Are you still painting? Good, yeah, yeah. Still doing some painting and sculpting, and I own my own business now. (STUTTERING) Doing what? You know... I do stuff for Dungeons and Dragons. You guys are all in the center of the city. There's all this commotion coming from outside of this Singing Siren Inn. There are a couple of balconies, and patrons are looking out, out the balcony and some of them are drunk. And there are some ill-reputed ladies hanging over some patrons and there's all kinds of hubbub and commotion there. There's a stage in the back where there's a guy wrestling a bear! Suddenly, this big explosion! (EXPLOSION SOUND) Wow, look, it's a harp. There's a wind. You feel the wind! Coming from out of the corridor as you enter. (INDISTINCT) You see a statue on the left of a clown with two jesters. "Do you continue?" Yes, I do. (AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS) Oh... So cool. (MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY) This is why we got to have the Greeks in here, see this? See that? MAN: Oh... POKORNY: Isn't that the coolest? MAN: Oh, that's nice. This is live. This is like... These are our constellations that are right over us, right now. Mmm-hmm. And then you can click on them and then it tells you the whole story. (MAN LAUGHING) Hydra reputedly had nine heads! The middle one of which was immortal. This is like so, totally like D&D. POKORNY: I wanna talk about these legends in my world and stuff like... How can we use it? Is there any way we can make it so, that... Remember how in my city, initially, there are all these temples everywhere? And some of them was like, Zeus and, uh, Thor and all those kind of stuff. And, uh, whoa, holy crap. Times Square right now. That's right now. Why are you showing me Times Square? You can see anywhere like, the... Dude, okay, dude, you're... (STAMMERING) Stay on target. Stay on target, here. POKORNY: This is old, man. How old were you in 1980? OLIVER: Thirteen, fourteen? Crazy... "13, 14?" What? I was so young, I didn't even know how to spell dungeon. "Dungeon." My friend, Oliver, here, we've been playing D&D while we were young, you know, growing up in the city. Best DM ever, right here. He kept it so interesting. I would just make little notes here so that's how I would describe to the players what they see. POKORNY: Okay, see here? "Vapor rats," right? And here in the next room there's a half-eaten roast beef sandwich. (LAUGHING) It actually gives no description here, whatsoever. There is a little picture of a sandwich. It doesn't really look like a sandwich, it looks like a tick. (OLIVER LAUGHING) It's a sandwich. POKORNY: First days, when we first played D&D was like magical. I remember it vividly. If we weren't going to Europe... And I went to summer camp. Camp Mahkeenac. There was this archery counselor, and when he wasn't teaching archery, he would come to our bunks and say, "Let's play this game, Dungeons and Dragons." (SNARLING SOUND) And I had this character. I named him Ganthor! I think I was killed by a balrog. Just blew my mind, you know. Like, "What is this?" It was so fascinating. And you remember these scenes in your mind like they're real. So, I became kind of obsessed. Here you go, here it is. "Ancient Silver Mines." "Dungeon number seven." T.D., Louis, Oliver... Spiro. OLIVER: Spiro... I was really close with Spiro... ...used to play with all the time. We used to, uh, hang out with him on a regular basis. OLIVER: He was a good cat, man. He was very much role-playing sometimes. Like, as a... As a warrior in his mind. Like, just for the right and for the good. POKORNY: Like a paladin. He stood up for these two girls. And he confronted these cats and the guys were just... I guess they... POKORNY: Bad guys. Yeah. They, just... Kind of push, fight, whatever and then, the guys started running. He chased after them. OLIVER: One of the cats grabbed a machete from one of their delis and just skewered him right in the chest. And that ripped me apart. POKORNY: This is New York, during in the early '80s. We were used to violence and death. Those days were both beautiful and horrifying at the same time. We got a lot of people here. They backed the first Kickstarter, dungeons. They backed the second Kickstarter, caverns. But they're not backing the city. We're still short almost a million dollars. 'Cause people think the city is just where we meet our characters and we make up an adventure and then we go to the dungeon to kill the monsters. There's no treasures and monsters in the city. That's just where we hang out after the adventure. But I am going to convince them, that there's so much fucking adventure in the city. They can have adventures right there in the city. And underneath the city in the sewer. That's what the module has to convince them. MAN: We have the backstory almost complete though. Once we finish this, then we can finally go back to actually doing different stories. Valoria is infested with rats. POKORNY: I mean, hello! I grew up in New York City! It was adventure every night! If anyone can show them how much rat there is, that can go down here, it's us! And I really believe that this is going to be the tipping point. No one believes me. We got two weeks for them really to get this done. So, you know, we don't have a lot of time. No putzing around. And we're not gonna be working from 25th, 'cause we're going to Gary Con. Lake Geneva. The birthplace of Dungeons and Dragons, we're going there! And we're gonna stir up interest there. I'm gonna run, like, three games. We're gonna use the stuff. Then hopefully, we'll get a bunch of backers from the convention. All right, hold the fort! You know what, I have to stop by 250, Moore, first. Just to grab a bag. Almost totally forgot. I would've had no underwear and no socks. (LAUGHING) Jesus, oh... Tell Lulu. Thank God for Lulu. She had to do the laundry because we were sculpting so much that, I didn't have... I totally forgot that I have to do laundry for the trip. So Lulu was doing laundry today, for me. This is called, "Flying by the seat of your pants." (PA BEEPS) WOMAN: (OVER PA) Ladies and gentlemen... ...to welcome you to Detroit. The local time is, 3:45 p.m. We're not supposed to be in Detroit. Something went awry. Somebody rolled a one. We have five to ten minutes, so we'll go grab a beer. Have to drink this fast. (INDISTINCT CHATTERING) Set my timer. Cheers! To Milwaukee! If I worried too much about the future, I never would've started this company. Alot of the time, if you think about, "Oh, my God. What if I... "can't pay this bill or... "Oh, my God. What if this doesn't succeed? "Oh, my God. What if we don't sell enough lizard men?" You'd be too paralyzed to do anything. So instead, I approach it optimistically. And I say, "Let's just try as hard as we can. "And somehow, we'll just get it done." And that's been... What's been happening for 18 years. We're in the... We're in Milwaukee now. We're in Wisconsin and, uh... I'm wearing the cheese hat but I, I wanna state for the record that I'm still a Jets fan. Right? But Brett Farve did play quarterback for the Jets for one season. So, you know, it's not total blasphemy. You know? If he had been healthy, we might have even won a championship. Till he got injured. Hey! Good to see you. Welcome! This is Stefan... Stefan, Sven. This is the chariot of the gods, as far as we are concerned. Gary Con or bust! There's a bar in here! Where's... Where's... The bartenders are failing. MAN: So you guys got a feel of... Right now, you're still just working on the fumes of the big push. He still has about another two weeks of sculpting and then... The latest video. And now, dwarves and ladies, this marvelous city can finally be yours. Presenting the Dwarven Forge city builder system. Now available for the first time only on Kickstarter. This brand new design is completely modular. You can tweak as you wish. (ALL EXCLAIMING) With the city builder system, you get to build your own city streets. Wow, what a turn! We're actually in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The homeland of Dungeons and Dragons. I mean, seriously, this is some serious reckoning that's going on here. Holy cow! That little house! It's amazing, huh? So much came from that one spot. Humble beginnings. Humble beginnings. Look at that. You know it's funny that there's like... I mean this should be, like, the town landmark, you know. They all used to come and play there. And used to play in the basement and wherever, on the porch... You know? And there it is, just sitting there. No one has any clue, you know. All the brain storming went in there, and creativity that came out of there from this guy. This guy with a great mind, creative mind and his friends. And all these people around this area that they all came, and they... You know, they have cold winters here. And you gotta stay indoors and there's not much else to do. But you could game. Wow. Damn. Probably used to play right there. That little extension. Well... There's a name on the book. You know? There's the Dungeon Masters guide, player's handbook, you know, it was like, "By Gary Gygax." The writing, you know... Unusual. Like, the dice were unusual. The game method was unusual, everything was unusual. Gary Con was started by his son, Luke. Hey, this is Luke Gygax. Luke. POKORNY: When Gary Gygax passed away, Luke had a service. And after the service they all gathered and played games. And then it just started growing to the point where he was like, "You know, I think I should just probably "just make a full blown convention out of it. And it's a gathering of people who are close to Gary. Frank. Frank, he was there in the beginning that created this wonderful game. FRANK MENTZER: No, no, no, no, I showed up in 1980. Well, Frank is one of the original, most respected guys in the whole industry, and also really nice guy. Not like some asshole. I first learned about Stefan Pokorny when I heard about this crazy Asian playing D&D in bars in Brooklyn. Valoria! Going out and working, what we call, the trenches. Getting out there with novices, he's showing them, it's a way to keep everybody in touch with each other as real people, not just as screen names. And that's why we're all here at Gary Con, of course, commemorating Gary Gygax and all of us sitting down with other people, some friends, some strangers. But to see how it goes, experience new adventures with new people. And share as part of this brotherhood of gaming, that benefits all of us. MENTZER: And Stefan is on the frontlines, keeping that alive. POKORNY: Compared to the tavern where you sat sipping swill not even an hour ago, the part of town where you've been led, conveys wealth and success. (CHICKENS CLUCKING) (BELL TOLLING) The officious, richly-dressed young man, who sought you out and offered you work, whisks you along the broad, flat paving stones of the cities wealthier districts. Until, you arrive at the exterior of a two storey shop on Pheasant Street called Oasis Tapestry. Uh-oh. Oh, my God. (MAN EXCLAIMING) (MAN HUMMING) POKORNY: We are play testing our first Dwarven Forge module. (ALL CHEERING) The module we designed to use are pieces, obviously. So, we've just got about a week left for the Kickstarter. Hopefully, it'll be a success. If not, this time next year I'll be waiting tables. (LAUGHTER) Suddenly, the hole from out of every little crack and floor board in the house, rats come swarming out. Roll for initiative. (CHITTERING) (SNARLING) (SNICKERING) Hey! I tried really hard not to do any shots, but they twisted my arm. You know? One shot led to another and... Then we put on the Black Sabbath, then we all started getting crazy and then... Luke and Mike started wrestling. Luke and Mike Gygax, they started wrestling... And Luke grabs Mike's underwear wedgies him and they were like... Then they were both pullin' from both sides and then they're rolling around on the ground. I think it ended up with them totally tearing his underwear out of his pants. You know? It was nutty. See you later on. See you later. (MAN SINGING) Raising walls of ice and fire (CONTINUES SINGING INDISTINCTLY) (INDISTINCT CHATTER) (INAUDIBLE) Um, I forgot what room I'm in. I believe it's a suite at 13 something. It was a rough night, last night. TIM: Stefano. Hey, Tim. TIM: Where were you all of last night? POKORNY: Huh? If we're gonna get together you gotta do a little better job that's what I mean. MAN: Is that my hamburger? And you gotta answer your phone when people are trying to call you. Dude, we were at the party together. I know... Yeah. And I tried to get a hold of you later. Oh, man, I was gone... Yeah, I know. It's hard man I got one of the Gygax's telling me to do shots. You're a grown man and you have a will power. I gotta get... And you have other friends, remember that. All right, Tim. Tim Kask is cracking me up, man. (CHUCKLING) Oh, man... Tim Kask. That old grognard. He was upset that I didn't call him or get back to him. I know, but really what he's upset is that, uh, that I drink too much he says. He's just looking out for me. Tim Kask is the number one guy right now. Now that Gary and Arneson are gone, these are the guys who were there from the very beginning. They are the guys that deserve the most respect, but, you know, I still gotta be me. Oh, man. Whew! By the time I was, like, 14, I was drinking like, every day and you know... Mmm. Drinking, doing drugs... You know, party hard... I've, you know, always been an artist. Hanging out with other artists and wild people... Goes with the territory. This is like the longest shower that has ever... Wondy's been in there for this whole time. (LAUGHING) (KNOCKING ON DOOR) WONDY: Yeah? Hey, man! Are you okay in there? WONDY: I'm golden. All right, take your time I'm... There's half a cheese burger out here. I cut it in half and ate half. WONDY: All right. Was last night like really crazy? Very crazy, yes. WONDY: Was I crazy? Yes. WONDY: Mad crazy? Well, at a certain point, we all thought it best that you should go home. WONDY: Oh, of course... Yeah, you were starting to get, kind of, you know, feisty with some of the military guys. WONDY: Really? So, you know, not a good idea. WONDY: (INDISTINCT) (CHUCKLING) Yeah. Oh, yeah. (WONDY SNEEZING) Bless you. Oh, shit. I just took a bite out of the half. We're number four. We're number four on the Kicktraq hotlist today. Why are we not on number one? We will be on the last day. Just might. Yes. Two thousand one hundred and two backers. We still need to raise $800,000. And we only have a week. I'm extremely stressed out, but I'm having a great time. I'm doing something I believe in. You know? That's important in life. (WIND WHISTLING AND HOWLING) You hear that? I mean, the sound of the trees. (CRACKLING) Listen. Ah. Crazy. It sounds like the ocean. I don't get to hear stuff like that in New York. You know, you grew up in concrete jungle. Here I was from this bourgeois European family. But I wanted to hang out on the stoop, with a case of beer and a Boom Box. And get into street fights. I was bad. I thought school was a joke. I was just entertaining myself. I was great at art, but everything else was just like, whatever... I was getting kicked out, like, on a daily basis. I got left back in second grade. I think around fifth grade, I got kicked out of the French department. And at like 10th grade, I got kicked out of school altogether. And then my mother was really angry because they'd put my picture like a wanted sign in the elevator of the school. They were like do not let this kid into the school. Because I kept going back. And my mother went to see the principal, she saw my sign and she like unloaded on him, like screamed at the principal and all this. I remember feeling really happy that my mother had stood up for me, you know? I'll forever love her for that. Linguine. Don't tell me we have only linguine. Ugh. We gotta throw this away. Linguine. I hate linguine and, uh, spaghetti... Spaghetti's a perfect shape. Linguine is flat and it causes too much sauce to stick on parts of it. And it's like the whole thing is just a mess. It's not ready yet. It's still too al dente. If you look inside there's this little dot in the middle, where it's uncooked. Yeah. When that dot disappears then it's perfect. Mmm. Nice and salty. I like cooking for people 'cause I'm half Italian. Me, I feel fully Italian but, you know, people argue. (EXCLAIMS) My mom, she's a very strong woman. I was brought up as an Italian. It was really my mother who was really the one that was involved in my life. That cared about me and cared about what was going on with me. WOMAN: (OVER RECORDING) Hello, Stefan. I presume that you are out maybe playing Dungeons & Dragons. I want to know if you come for lunch that I have some meatballs and sauce. You see, how tight it is in here? Like we have don't have enough room to cook. And we don't have enough room to do all the things we might want to do. So, we really need a little more space. This is only like 600 square feet. We're looking into a space that's 2,200 square feet. (MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY) So almost four times the size of this. And then, we are really gonna rock and roll. Whoo! Whoo! (HUMMING INDISTINCTLY) Ah, excited. POKORNY: We got a lot of ideas we are throwing around. We could open up our own gaming store and we would advertise it by just hanging out around Bushwick in our armor. People would just think we're nuts. They'll wanna play Dungeons & Dragons. Yeah! There's a freaking creek right here. We're in Brooklyn but there's a creek. That is like a ship. You guys have a creek access here? MAN: We can have some fun. POKORNY: Let's get a boat. Imagine that. This move's been a big distraction. We've lost some days because of this. But when you can move into a new place, where you have the potential to have a pirate ship, you do it. It's a no-brainer. We just got it to another level, man. Whoo! POKORNY: There's a shortage of Smooth-Cast 300. MAN: (OVER PHONE) Can you call Blick? They're in the city and they have Smooth-Cast 300. POKORNY: Blick. MAN: So that's Dick Blick. POKORNY: Dick Blick. What a name. What is the deal with that anyway? How come... How come Richard... How come Dick is short for Richard? Does anyone have any idea? (LAUGHING) So there I was, getting into all kinds of trouble hanging out with bad guys. My parents begged me you know, "Go to Art & Design High School." I was like, "I don't wanna go to school. "I'm done with school. "And everyone's got a job except me. "I never have any money." I love to see the workshop in full swing. Yeah. MAN: Great progress since Friday. Well, look at my team I got here. My parents are like, "It's art, you love art!" You know? "We'll pay you." And I was like, "Well, okay, I'll give it a shot." It was a school of Art. And there was like, every kind of Art you can imagine. You could actually sign up for classes you want to go to. You know, I was like, "Wow!" I was painting! "I'll sign up for that." There was this dude, Mr. Greenburg. And he was, like, this grizzled veteran. With this big beard, and he had one glass eye. He was going around one by one to everybody. I remember when he came to me he was just like, "Wow. Well, you're great. You never painted before?" And I'm like, "No." And he's like, "Listen, son, you have a gift. "You have a talent. "So, work at it and don't waste your life." It had a big effect on me. Being adopted, even though my parents loved me, there's always in the back of your mind, you feel like, maybe people thought you were worthless or something. You know? Greenberg actually made me love school. He made me believe myself. I had no direction in life and so... Greenberg was like, "You can make something of yourself." The things that great artists do... It moves your soul you stand before it, blown away by the craftsmanship, by the sheer unbelievableness of what they had achieved. You look at it and you're just, like, overwhelmed by the enormity of it. And you're like, "Wow, how could someone do that?" It's magic. It seems like a little bit of magic. If you can do great art, well, it's a piece of immortality. You will go on. Your emotions, what you capture... That thing will continue to inspire people over the course of hundreds and hundreds of years. It's like a little piece of you that lives on to keep inspiring forever and ever and ever. If that's not something worth living for, that doesn't give your life some kind of meaning, I don't know what does. This is so much more of an undertaking than last two Kickstarters. And they all are looking to me to make sure everything gets figured out, you know? The colors, the compositions, the module... Then, moving to a new place. Sometimes, it's just overwhelming. But of course, I'm not gonna give in. Just gotta keep doing it. Things will get better. Like if I was in Valoria the gods would send down strength to the follower. And the next day, and fill me with rejuvenation to once again have the strength to complete the task. You better watch out. Someone might grab something. You know? Who's watching this stuff? MAN: Well, I'm in. I'm gonna stay... You know how people are around here. They see things in the corridor, they think it's up for grabs. So, let's take this off the couch. You know what we should do... It's not for free. I mean this thing is sitting here, saying "Free!" And then look at all this stuff. And that's bad news. Get rid of this shit. MAN: Wait. No, no, no. This sign goes away. We're gonna write on them. It's a very dangerous piece of paper. This is... What is this garbage? This is the garbage. We're moving garbage. (CHUCKLING) Oh, my goodness. Wow. This is my life. Little boxes of my life. "Czech figurines." Oh, my God. These are so fragile and so valuable. I don't think they have any idea. Oh, my God. Please tell me no one smashed this. That's my father's mother. Some painter in Czechoslovakia... I forgot his name. A very well-known portrait artist painted that. You could tell it's really well done. It's beautiful. That's how she looked, too. She had that look. I remember from when I was young she was like... She was very quiet. My father was Czech and he came to America when he was 23 through Ellis Island. I remember growing up in his office and they were making models and planting trees and it was like ingrained into my psyche, making models. So, I think about him a lot when I'm doing this thing. The best time we had was when he talked about art. He loved art. He loved the fact that I was an artist. MAN: Yeah, bring it down towards you. We gotta push this up somehow. (BOTH CHEERING) (BOTH LAUGHING) (INDISTINCT) You're free. The chain is free. Hey! Let me in. I wanna game. Wow! These are our neighbors. We're meeting our neighbors. Hi. (CHUCKLING) So we wanna park our pirate ship out here. Have the gang plank and, uh... So, all our gaming friends can go walk on the boat and then we can play games on the boat. And I was looking at that boat and wondering if someone would sell that. It's just fantastic. My God. Look across the street there's Lays. Oh, we gotta talk to them. MAN: Why you wanna talk to Lays... That's my favorite potato chips. MAN: So, you wanna get a lifetime supply? Maybe they wanna trade. Yeah, I find it very exciting, this whole neighborhood. In every door you go by there's someone making something. I just... That excites me. You ever played Dungeons & Dragons? MAN: Yeah. POKORNY: We're short $700,000. We're gonna need reinforcements. Bring in the gnomes! (DOG BARKING) People always peeking in, now. Now, that we have this ground level thing people always looking in to see what the heck is going on in here. Look, 'cause she's looking at the houses. People are curious, you know? Gotta be careful that people aren't like gonna take pictures of our top secret stuff. I mean, I could tell you now because this is gonna be the future. What we're doing now is the future. When we see it, it'll be the past. Right now, the future's the pa... Whatever. (BOTH LAUGHING) Don't worry about it. It's one of those Terminator things. This is, uh, Edwin. Hi. One of our patron backers. He pledged to sit on the patron game in my studio. For me, it's a real treat to come up here and go through the whole theatrical experience. EDWIN: He's real good at what you call role playing, not the role playing where you're doing dice, but the actual voices, the theatrical part. Which is a real treat. Pieces are melting in the sunlight. POKORNY: I gotta roll down these windows 'cause the sunlight is melting my clay. It's an emergency. The sun, the sunlight. (GRUNTS) (CHAIN RATTLING) POKORNY: Let's get some shit sculpted! So, after Art & Design, it was time to go to college. The first year was all this experimental year. I'd be playing with chicken wire and all that stuff. And finally, it's the second year, you're able to pick your classes. I was like, "Yes! I'm gonna pick painting." And I'm gonna try sculpture. That's cool. That's a place where you can get totally mugged in that little... Oh, yeah, murder alley. Murder alley... Especially this thing hanging over and it gets all dark. POKORNY: As a painter, you wanna make the three dimensional world into a two dimensional world. In your mind, with your eyes, you're flattening everything out. So, I learned to see everything three dimensionally now. That's the best piece of the, uh... So far. Yeah. POKORNY: Huh. Awesome. After school I couldn't get into any galleries. (LAUGHING) That's Rafael, he does all our photography. (RAFAEL SPEAKING) I saw this sculpture in a museum. Originally she's looking at a cross. Now she's taking a selfie. She's turned into a drone. POKORNY: The art world in general at that time was all about abstractions. Cheers man. Cheers. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. And realists like me and Mr. Greenburg were laughed at. (RAFAEL SPEAKING) What the hell is this banana doing here? POKORNY: Yeah. (LAUGHS) What's the banana doing there? "No, we don't show your kind of work here. "It's too old fashioned." So, I took a year off and I went to Italy to do some more painting. Maybe, if I get a better portfolio together, something good will happen. So, I spent a year in Italy just painting doing my thing trying to become the next Caravaggio, you know? Look at the age of the stones. Look at the stone work here. Look at the... There's like stories. There's stories in every stone. Look at these doors and the wood. It's incredible. It was a great time of me being alone with myself and just painting. And I also played D&D. I'd run the games in Italian. (POKORNY SPEAKING ITALIAN) I came back to New York and I still couldn't get into any galleries. And since I wasn't making any money I had to move back in with my parents. This is the old block, a lot has changed. Back in the old days, all these buildings were small little townhouses. Now look what they're doing. Everywhere you go there's a construction. It's nuts. You know? This thing. They attached this gigantic crane. It was, like, as high as that building is now. Maybe even higher. And then this thing snapped up there, this steel thing, and it fell down and it smashed the top of that building. And all those bricks fell on top of my building. I remember my mother on the ground, covered in glass. They picked her up off the ground. It was like a Godzilla movie. We were all running up the block. (IMITATING SCREAMING) My poor father, who was bedridden at the time, we had to take him to the emergency room. Several months after that, he was gone. I watched my father do what he does. Always an honorable man and that's the example that I follow. After he died, I looked at his journals. Prepare for battle! And I saw that he did care about what I did. He was happy and excited about things that were going on in my life. He would make notes about it. (SCREAMS) When I thought all the time that he just couldn't care less, you know. We need to, uh, tighten up the screws on the thing. It was up to me to crack that shell. And I did it. I wish he could've seen us making this city. This would've been the ultimate. He would've loved this one more than any of the other ones. "Now you've really become an architect." He would've said to me. I've never worn all of this together. This is, like, more like an action hero. Just two days left. So, hopefully, we'll get lot's of people to start pledging. You know? Then we're gonna unleash some really kickass videos. And, uh, it's gonna be a lot of excitement tonight. "We have learned a lot "from our past Kickstarter campaigns, "and with your help, are ready to make this "the best one yet." We have learned a lot from our past Kickstarter campaigns and, uh... (LAUGHING) (MAN LAUGHING) That's all we learned. So, join me in this crusade. Forgot my lines. "Join me in this crusade." So, join me in this crusade to bring... To build, why do I keep saying bring? No idea. So, join me in this crusade and get ready to build the city or the kingdom of your dreams. Cut, that's fucking gold, man. Was that good? MAN: That was awesome. During the second Kickstarter and we were right in the middle of a video, when, uh, I get the call that says Mama has passed away. It hit me like a ton of bricks. She had loved me, like, so much. And believed in me my whole life. She's my rock. She told me for several years, "I can't die "until I know that you are gonna be okay." But she was able to see the beginning... The first few days, she was able to see that we had launched again and we were successful. POKORNY: We're almost there! (LAUGHING) Yeah. (WHOOPING) I think, after that she did a big exhale, mentally and physically. MARISE: (OVER RECORDING) Hello, Stefan, this is Mama, congratulations. I'm alive to see your success. Both in art and in business. Good bye, I'm going to rest now. Ciao. I'm angry that my mother and father died so early in my life. Now, that I'm much older, now, that I'm almost 50 I wish I could tell them that I do appreciate them more. I feel like I let 'em down like that. My parents are not gonna be here to see this. I can't change that. All I can do is make this the ultimate expression of all those years, of all that love. They believed in the dream. So, we can't let them down. So, finally, after grad school, the gods took pity and they sent me a gift. I answered this ad for painting collectibles. And, uh, it's a good job. Been playing a lot of Dungeons & Dragons. It's foremost in my mind. I'm working for this company. That's when the lightbulb went off. I was doing these cardboard cut-outs, these passageways and rooms for Dungeons & Dragons so I could take the miniatures I painted and move them through the passageways. And I saw the beautiful things that we were doing at this collectible company. Oh, shit! Like, "Wow! Why don't we make dungeons?" The two parts of my life came together. Eventually, we made our first order. We rented a booth at Gen Con and I set up a display. And when the doors opened the people just swarmed our booth. No one had ever seen anything like this. (CHATTER) In four hours, we were sold out and we were in business. Hey! (LAUGHS) How're you doing? I like the hat. Hey, man, how are you? When he first introduced Dwarven Forge here at Gen Con I was actually right there to buy, like, what six sets? I was, like, addicted. In '96? Yeah. Wow. All the way back to '96, our first year. Oh, yeah. MAN: And I just fell in love with it. I mean, I have all his sets and, I think, I'm only missing one, one set. And every time I go to order from your website it's out. We're gonna have to fix that, my friend. Jesus. Hey. MAN 1: What's the cost of a good set that would have everything you would need, generally? POKORNY: It depends on what you want. MAN 1: (INDISTINCT) That's the simplified cabin version, then there's a more fancy one. POKORNY: Passageways... MAN 1: ... pieces POKORNY: And you know, they're all compatible. That's good. What's it made out of? Dwarvenite! POKORNY: Find deep in the earth, dwarves dug down deep to find this magical substance of non-breakability. MAN: The Dwarvenite! Non-breakability terrain has always been the Achilles heel of the dwarves. So they found the Dwarvenite. Now, everyone can game in peace, without fear of breakage. Are you familiar with the Dwarvenite. Uh, yes, my DM uses it. "Uses?" Yeah. Do you know how indestructible this is? Let me demonstrate! (YELLING) (CONTINUES YELLING) Still in one piece. Genuine Dwarvenite! I gotta... I gotta get something with beverage. I got to drink something... (CHATTER) This is Peter, you know? Uh, owns Gen Con. So this guy is the craziest motherfuckin' entrepreneur you've ever heard of. I got to tell you. What he is... ...is he's an artist... ...who managed to keep control of the company. (SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY) Not sure if it's under control! (BOTH LAUGHING) POKORNY: Nothing in the world that is ever great gets done rationally. You got to be a little bit nuts and prepared to just go full throttle and try to make it the greatest you can whether you fail or succeed. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) Finally, you arrive at a large non-descript house. (BELL DINGING) A meeker heart would be, like, "That's insanity." And that person will never do anything great. The fear of failure is hard. CROWD: (CHEERING) Shot! Shot! Shot! The old man turns his attention to you. POKORNY: (LAUGHS) This guy keeps turning and looking over with his eyebrows. To survive in this godless world, the denizens of Mythras looked within themselves for the power to accomplish the feats that their broken world demanded. (CARNIVALESQUE MUSIC PLAYING) Survival's not guaranteed in this game. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) MAN: (OVER MICROPHONE) Twenty two, 24... I have got a 24. First a 22, then 24, 34, Stefan Pokorny, here, formally forged the yard. He just came by with a very generous donation for charity. This is a prototype of something that won't be out until January. It's dated July 7th, 2015. You wanna tell us a little bit about it? This is Stefan Pokorny, Dwarven Forge. (APPLAUSE) Hello! (APPLAUSE) Hey, guys, uh... This is, uh, some of the first round of prototypes for the new city builder system, the modular, uh, building, you know... Build your medieval buildings, stones, tudors... So, I thought somebody would like, you know, to test it out before they get it in January, um... I hope someone bids on it. Thank you. MAN: Stefan has also said this money goes to our charity. Not for his own benefit. He does a lot of reaching out, helping people, all sorts of stuff. (INDISTINCT DIALOGUE) Starting it at 40. Two-four-six-eight, 50. Two-four-six-eight, 60. $70 80, 90. Ninety dollars, goes twice, done deal. That's for Jeff. (APPLAUSE) MAN: Seventy five, seventeen. POKORNY: What is money? Money's just paper. What matters in life is that you do something you enjoy. That's what matters because that is your life. It's not what's going to happen twenty years, 30 years down the road but what matters is you are what you are, you are what you do. That becomes you. So, hopefully you do something you enjoy. You know? So, I'm doing what I enjoy and for as long as I can do it. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) (INDISTINCT CHATTER) WOMAN: Every $10 you spend, you get... (INDISTINCT CHATTER) (LAUGHS) Did you guys go on the city builder stuff? I haven't looked at a single one. Oh, man, medieval modular building. So, you can build your own medieval world. ...concept. Here's my map book. Dungeons that I drew. Stefan Pokorny, he is an amazing artist. He is one of these artists that has a constant flow of ideas. MAN: Here is a great backstory for Mythras. Well, I love the incorporation of the Greek gods and all that stuff. Like it's just phenomenal. There is no one in the gaming industry that does it like him. The best dungeon sculptor on the planet bar none. MAN: Be quite please. Everybody settle. Now you get the fog machine. Settle... This is just blowing me away. (CHUCKLES) MAN: All right. And... POKORNY: Dwarven Forge is my artistic vehicle. (MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY) My whole life... (IMITATING GAME SOUNDS) ...has suddenly done the circle and now I'm presenting my life's work. MAN: From the left side, there's definitely some open, uh... There is some questionable... (POKORNY MAKING WHOOSHING SOUNDS) It's my city, it's Valoria. Yeah. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) My life's work is Valoria. It took a life time for me to make it. All my experiences, everything I experienced in my life... Being adopted by European parents, growing up in the city, traveling through Europe... All these things, that's how my world became made. Behold! The city of Valoria! (INDISTINCT CHATTER) (METAL CLANKING) (CHICKENS CLUCKING) (DOGS BARKING) This is my masterpiece. (POKORNY EXCLAIMS) Hey! (INDISTINCT) Two minutes to go. I can't say what the future is for Dwarven Forge. You know how to drive a boat? We're looking for a captain I have been a captain. This is it. This is... I've shot all my bullets... (CHANTING) Valoria! Valoria! Valoria! If there's more after this, if there's another one, it's gonna be an embellishment upon the city that's been unleashed. This is the big one right here. ALL: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... (ALL CHEERING) (INDISTINCT CHATTERING) POKORNY: We did it! We kicked ass, man! (ALL CHEERING) Valoria! Whoo! Valoria! I just wish that my parents were around to see it. I love you both. Thank you for adopting me and for giving me all your love. (VOICE BREAKING) For giving me this wonderful life. I'll do my best to give as much back as possible. And thus, the quest having been completed and everyone having been saved, there is much rejoicing and there's much singing and dancing and feasting and the King turns to you and he says, "Adventurers! "Thank you for saving the city "from certain doom. "And please, return to us again "for you shall always be welcomed "within the gates of Valoria!" (ALL EXCLAIMING) (EXCLAIMS) (ALL LAUGH) (MUSIC PLAYING) |
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