Community is often found and forged at what is called "the 3rd space"; you have your home, you have your work, and you have "the 3rd space". It is somewhere to be and exist and express your identity, what makes you unique. Our culture currently has a lack of these spaces outside bars, gyms and churches, which leave out large parts of the population. Our guild can provide this space, and pride itself on being welcoming to all kinds, especially the LGBTQ+ and neuro-diverse populations that tend to be attracted to these kinds of games.

     Playing games and providing this 3rd space can help us collectively face that next crisis by re-charging our personal batteries. Burn out can be counteracted by having meaningful connections with our fellow humans, making everything else we do feel so much more worthwhile. More and more studies are showing the benefits of mental health that games have, especially in-person ones. What we can provide is a place to play games and a home for that community.  

    While we survived the isolation of the pandemic, humans were definitely not made for it and playing games allows us to unlock problem-solving and interpersonal skills in a way nothing else can. Learning to utilize your team to defeat a dragon teaches you how to give tasks to the most suited team members and how every player can participate in a plan, and teach flexibility when that plan inevitably goes awry. Players can practice taking on challenges, not even aware how well they might translate to the challenges in the real world at work or at home.  A common slogan on D&D t-shirts is "friends who slay together, stay together", and it could not be more true. Having the confidence to defeat a beholder means that when the next inevitable hurricane comes, you have a group of people who have got your back when someone's house floods or someone didn't buy enough toilet paper. That, is how true community resiliency is forged, not just in city sponsored workshops, but in playing together and forming bonds.

   Play is part of human nature, it allows us to not just survive but thrive, and is not just a goal of some better future, but a means to achieve one. By fighting isolation and burn out, we can enable our community to do so much more than any one member could accomplish on their own.