Dungeons & Disciples

In the debut episode of Dungeons & Disciples, Josh Shaw and Tony Benda discussed their passion for using Dungeons and Dragons as a tool to share Jesus with others. They shared their personal experiences and emphasized the importance of building a spirit-filled role-playing community and fostering fellowship. They also discussed the two primary methods for creating characters in D&D, and how self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and communication. Later, they talked about the intersection of personal growth and safety in tabletop gaming, and how Christians can integrate their faith into the gaming community.

What is Dungeons & Disciples?

A new D&D podcast from a Christian perspective.

Josh Shaw 0:19
Alright, are we going? Is that Is that what that means?

Tony Benda 0:23
I think that's what that means Lord

Josh Shaw 0:24
starting it. Welcome, welcome. Welcome to the first episode ever of dungeons and disciples. I, I almost want to cry. I really do. I mean, it's

Tony Benda 0:41
okay to get emotional.

Josh Shaw 0:41
I really do. I remember sitting in your mom's in your mom's shop, like driving down there. And I was like, I got a really crazy idea. And I gotta tell Tony about it. I remember that, do

you, but when you really, like when you have these ideas, and you think about like the d&d community, it's, it's odd, you don't typically relate, you know, Jesus, into this community. And so when I felt the Holy Spirit speak on that, I was like, I was kind of alarmed. I was kind of nervous. And I prayed about it. I was like, Who do I? What crazy person is gonna want to do this with me

Tony Benda 1:19
with crazy ginger person? It looks like that literally

Josh Shaw 1:23
acts like my brother. It's just crazy. I really, thank you, honestly. Because without your genius, I don't think this would have happened.

Tony Benda 1:36
Well, thank you for asking me to be a part. It's a lot of fun. I'm very excited like this is it's a little surreal. So for those listening, we are currently sitting in a room that I built kind of two and a half years ago, it's lovely. And this podcast room never got used. And within the last year, different people started using it for different ministries and stuff like that, which is awesome. But, and it's weird being on this side of the mic. I've produced things from here, but say, Yeah, I've never actually been on I mean, a couple times. Anyway, that's irrelevant. I tangent sometimes, but here we go. And that's the point of a podcast. Right? It is. I'm very excited to be on mic with you and talking about something we definitely love and enjoy almost every other week on a regular basis for the last two years together. Really.

Josh Shaw 2:27
I mean, we've done a two year long campaign. It's been great. And that's how we met. Yeah. When you think about it, yeah. met at church. And then we're like, Hey, wanna play d&d? Sure. And it happened. Yeah, we're two years. And that's, and we will dive into that. I'm excited. It's just crazy. I mean, for those listening, Tony just touched it perfectly. But really, why we're doing this podcast is, we're not here to kind of if you listen to the trailer episode, I really encourage you do that to kind of understand the mission and the vision why we're doing it. But we're just honestly worked over two dudes passionate about d&d, we're passionate about Jesus. And I said it in the beginning, in the trailer episode, but I love this scripture. And I've had so many people proclaim it, since I've been a part of the church and it's Revelation Chapter 12. Starting in verse 11, it simply says, and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And like when you think about d&d, it's so awesome. Because literally all we're doing in d&d is we're building characters, right? We're building characters, we're telling a story. And we're going out with weapons and like, the most invigorating thing is like that hour to two hours of just going around the table just destroying things. Yeah.

Tony Benda 3:45
Like, really, the fight episodes, I think, are some of the most fun. Those sessions are awesome. They I don't know that they provide so much like back and forth collaborative opportunities, and, and then the role playing episodes, or sessions, I should say, are just as fun, right? Because there's a lot of story arc happening and shout out to our DM Steven, who's been phenomenal with that man, homebrew content, and he's just killing it.

Josh Shaw 4:14
Incredible DM incredible man of God. Yes. Both both.

Tony Benda 4:19
He's fantastic. But

Josh Shaw 4:21
I love I love how you talk about that. Because there's, as Christians, there's a real battle we fight every day. There's real battles we fight, whether that be from XY and Z sin. From testimonies, I've heard of people battling addictions, from people battling gluttony, I mean, anything I mean, you can you can list really anything. And one thing that I loved about it, and it's kind of in our mission, like we truly exist to show fellow players how our God given identity is found in him. Yeah. And through storytelling, right. We build our own stories, and it's like it subconsciously We find that when we build our own backstories, at least for me, I don't know if this for anybody for you. But for me for sure, I write my backstory and I look back and I read it, and I play my character. And I'm like, Whoa, I actually see like, some things I need to work, I need to see things that need to work through. Yeah, things I need to see. But there's also that element of like, why we exist of guiding and fostering fun and spirit like gameplay and building a spirit filled role playing community, like, that's what we want to do. Because there's so much more than that. And that's definitely stuff. Well, we'll talk about that as we as we go in here.

Tony Benda 5:33
Yeah, I know, the Bible talks about the fellowship of the believers. And, yes, I think there are appropriate times where you don't always have to come together and just, you know, be 100% in the Word, you could still, you could still foster great relationship. And this is again, just my opinion. You can you can foster great fellowship and great relationship and build those communities without always having to be sermon focused. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, we've talked about, like, what our sessions look like, and how we, how we kind of like pray over our, you know, meals, and pray over the sessions and different things that we have. But it's, it's a fun community. Yeah. I love playing with our group. And then we also are branching out to other players, right, who have indicated that they want to play so we've done some one shots with some friends and things like that, and it's a blast. And the more we incorporate, the more we fellowship, and, you know, the bigger the group gets, and

Josh Shaw 6:31
here's the thing, when you begin to find your yourself in Christ, and you build with a when you play with a community of believers, you're not afraid to bring in people that may not know Jesus, correct? You know, you have the confidence in your group to say, you know, Hey, we love each other. You love Jesus, there's actually a friend, I want to come play with us. And that person comes in and you may not know their walk. But you know, their heart for the gameplay. Yeah. And I mean, when you really look at this community, and, and I was so passionate about it, because how many people like if you were to go to any of your local game stores, and you're in you're a Christian, if you walk in that room, two things. Will you walk in that room and see another fellow believer? And I'm not stereotyping? I'm being genuine? Because sometimes I walk into stores, and sometimes it may not be present or may not be shown. Yeah. Yeah. But then also, are you walking into that room? And showing and building and embodying? Are you that light in that place? Yeah. And that's where I desire people to move is, can you walk anywhere, in this context into a game store into whatever? Can I call nerd facilities? Yeah, I want to say shops getting started or can you walk into those places? And someone say, Whoa, who's that guy? Yeah, what's different about him?

Tony Benda 8:00
Why is he so magnetic?

Josh Shaw 8:05
Why can I not cast fireball and at work? You know, because I'm already the light. Oh, that's deep. Moving on. So fun first episode that we're going to dive into. We're gonna do two things. We're going to jump in to what exactly is a personal character sheet. For those who are listening and never played d&d before, and they want to get into it, we're just going to kind of break down the small semantics of like, of like a character sheet. We're also going to do something fun with that. The back we're going to create backstories right here on the show. Yes, but these backstories are going to be me and Tony is on testimonies. This is gonna be fun. And before we get into like the deepness of the testimony, the orientation of the testimony is going to be primarily focused on our walks in d&d exclusively. Yeah, you know, if you want to reach out to us and know more of our testimonies, just by walking in the church, how we've walked in, you know, when we became believers and other other semantics of the testimonies, feel free to reach out, feel free to leave a comment. You know, we'd love we'd love to chat with you and share our testimonies with you. But we want to really dive into like, where we were in d&d, and where we are now. Like,

Tony Benda 9:22
every good game or session, you don't get all the information up front, you're gonna roll for some of that stuff. You're gonna have to score net 20 If

Josh Shaw 9:32
you roll a d 20. I will talk with you on the phone for however long you desire short,

Tony Benda 9:36
I mean, not just roll a d 20. But we have to be watching on like, FaceTime or something.

Josh Shaw 9:40
That's a good premise, because you can just take a picture of it 20 and say, Look at everybody 20 Give me a phone call. Yeah,

Tony Benda 9:45
I'm talking about huge Eric, I know you'll take a picture that 20 Okay, can we shout out to Jericho looking forward to him?

Josh Shaw 9:53
I I love that man. Oh my gosh, he's he is a

Tony Benda 9:57
he's a blast. Talk about

Josh Shaw 10:02
oh my gosh, man, we need to have him on the show just

Tony Benda 10:04
for real. Oh, my gosh. So this is gonna be fun, personal character sheets. Josh walked me through exactly like what you're thinking on how we should do this and how for our listeners, they'll be able to follow along with what we're doing. Yeah, absolutely. So

Josh Shaw 10:19
when you look at a personal character sheet and you can like pull up, you know, you can go on Google or anything look up a personal character sheet right now this is pretty basic. And there's there's a lot of things you can jump into. For a lot of the more detailed works anybody that's getting started in d&d, I would highly encourage you guys to go to your local bookstore. Preferably probably a big one, like Books a Million, Barnes and Noble whatever. Find yourself a d&d five e players handbook, that walks you through, you know, everything semantic wise, they need to do and kind of explain things. But I really want to talk about some of the main attributes that we have when building characters with that involves Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and charisma. The reason why we're touching base on these things, is because how you roll for those particular traits, is what's going to determine basically everything else that falls under the character sheet. And as you roll for these things, we'll break down like maybe specifically how you can roll for him and you can find that anywhere. But we'll we're gonna kind of throw them shot in dark how we're going to do it because Tony and I are going to roll for us. Yeah, not just like for our character recruiting but for us as people. So we'll roll for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and charisma. This is gonna be fun. Okay, so this is what I'm gonna do. This one I do. You're ready, Tony, I will hear the I'll let you do this. I will let you determine how we roll. Oh, mercy, we're going right down the list. Okay.

Tony Benda 11:55
Are we going to do point by or do you want to do like, roll and drop the lowest is? Okay, so for folks who don't know how to create a character sheet or have never done it, themselves, so to speak, there's a couple different ways on which you can set up your character, you can do what's called a point by system, which there's a standard set of X amount of available points to go into each category. So you can kind of balance it out that way. Or you can roll for your character sheet, which is, I think, a lot more fun. It really is and the way we've done it, especially with our DMS Steven, we usually roll what is it? For D six, row 46. And we drop the lowest number. I'm getting out all my ducks. Here we go.

Josh Shaw 12:44
Let's see. I got I got four. Ready, I've got four. So let's do that here. We're gonna roll. We're gonna roll four. So yeah, we'll roll 46 and drop the lowest one. Great. And then we'll, we'll just take turns. It's gonna be fun, folks. So I want this what we're gonna do, Tony, I want you to roll dropped the lowest take that score. And I want you to I want you to pick the right up right up front. Where would you put that number? Into what character trait? And why?

Tony Benda 13:15
Based on me playing d&d on my testimony. Oh my goodness, is it gonna be fun? Ready?

Josh Shaw 13:21
This is live. Y'all are doing this right now. Oh, mercy, Lord help us.

Tony Benda 13:28
Oh, my goodness, Grace, what did you get? I got a one. I got a one, a one, a two and a three.

Josh Shaw 13:37
When I searched role of dungeons and disciples, and Tony completely knocked it out of the park, I the lowest,

Tony Benda 13:43
I just wished. You don't get to redo. So with a grand total of six points, I think. Oh my goodness. Ah, I don't know. For me personally, I'm strong. I'm folks. This is not like a brag by any means. I'm physically strong. I'm pretty dexterous. Believe it or not. I'm a bigger dude. But that semester of yoga in college really helped. So my dexterity is a bit beyond what people would ever hope to imagine that I can do. This is true. It's it's crazy. I've got a decent constitution which like, you know, ask my wife I can really eat anything. And I've got an Iron Stomach. I

Josh Shaw 14:24
have seen this man slam more Buffalo Wild Wings than I care. I really have.

Tony Benda 14:29
It's been a long time. I don't know wisdom charisma. I don't want to say I'm like super intelligent or super wise. Actually, you know what I found it. My six is going into my wisdom. Really? I would say

Josh Shaw 14:48
I can't. I mean, they're,

Tony Benda 14:50
you know, no. My six is going to my constitution. Okay, why? For the reason of I have tailored terrible allergies like on a regular basis. i i walk outside in eastern North Carolina and my constitution goes to one. Yeah, so it's a good time. Oh my gosh. Go ahead, Josh. Let's see what's your I got? I

Josh Shaw 15:13
got my little metal dice. All right. All right, let's go. Wow. Okay. I rolled a one, a two, a two and a four. So there'll be eight whoppin points, eight, WAPP and eight whopping points. Man,

Tony Benda 15:33
are you throwing them?

Josh Shaw 15:34
Why am I gonna throw them? I can always I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest. Okay. I almost want to put it in strength. I'm not I'm not very physically strong. Okay, and eight strength is the bed. It's not great. It's, um, it's not all this. Okay. Okay. So in the Marine Corps, I could do. I was a, I was in the Marine Corps. I was a musician in the Marine Corps. And obviously, so to meet physical standards, I got out in 2021. And since that time, I mean, I was hitting the gym two times a day. I was in taking like 3000 calories, and my protein level was like, like, 200 grams of protein today.

Tony Benda 16:18
I saw the pictures. You were, I was Jack, you were a lean fighting machine. I was a lean albino machine.

Josh Shaw 16:27
Right. Since that time, and I can attest to because I'm sitting here with it. I've drinkin so much zero sugar, Canada dry ginger ale, and have partaken in the Lord's great food of church and serving and ministries and church potlucks. That's right. So I think I did. Oh, that's what I did. I went to the Marine Corps Museum a couple weeks ago in DC, and then a pull up bar, because they walk you through areas and you get to the bootcamp section. There was a pull up bar. I hopped on that pole bar. I did four pull ups.

Tony Benda 17:02
Okay, if that's the case, I'm putting my six into my strength because I don't think I can No, you can't.

Josh Shaw 17:09
So for me, my my, my big whopping eight is going right

Tony Benda 17:12
my string Great. Oh, my goodness, which 1am i doing next?

Josh Shaw 17:16
That's not up to me.

Tony Benda 17:18
Okay, okay, well, we get okay. My lowest Okay, so I got a 643 in one. I'm gonna drop that one, obviously. So that gives me seven plus six is 13. That

Josh Shaw 17:31
ain't bad. That's not bad. That's not bad. Um,

Tony Benda 17:37
I would say my decks would probably be 13. Okay, at this point, that's, that's fairly reasonable. It's reasonable. You know, no, I'll put in my strength because strength. No, but my decks. Okay,

Josh Shaw 17:48
for nipa say, have you seen your calves? I know. For those who are listening, if you ever get the pleasure of meeting Tony, I don't want I want you to shake his hand and say Hi, my name is whatever you name is shake his hand. Make eye contact with his eyes first. Then as soon as you're done, I want you to look at his calves.

Tony Benda 18:08
Oh my goodness. Apparently my calves are something to be spoken about. Especially in a podcast. This is the weirdest medium that my calves have ever been discussed.

Josh Shaw 18:17
You got major you got you got huge cab there.

Tony Benda 18:20
They're strong folks. I I played soccer and drums and all sorts of things to keep my calves. If

Josh Shaw 18:28
we needed a Thanksgiving turkey for Thanksgiving, we could definitely grab your calves. And

Tony Benda 18:37
I appreciate the love for my calves. What's your next?

Josh Shaw 18:40
Oh, no bless. Let's see. Wow, still? Three twos and a one.

Tony Benda 18:50
Well, that's another sick that's still okay. It's

Josh Shaw 18:52
a six. It's still lower. I am going to put my six in wisdom. Explain. I mean, we're talking about testimonies. Okay. All right. I've never really felt like the wisest one in the room. I really haven't. You know, when I, I spent a lot of time trying to read, trying to try to spend my time around like, my my friends who I perceived to be like spiritual giants in my life, my pastor, people in my Bible study. And so whenever I think I'm wise, I listen to these people speak. And I'm like, Whoa, there's, there's like a profound statement that has moved me biblically that has moved me to conviction that has moved me to those places. And I've never again, it's not that I'm comparing myself not trying to but like, I know, especially as a leader, especially as one who's trying to grow into his gifting and giftings and callings. I know There is never like, we always try to reach for like this, like the top the pinnacle point of like what is success? What is where we need to be? Well, I believe we'll never achieve like the top, we need to be constant learners, we need to be constant growers. So I think Charlotte, the Chad Veatch, if he ever listens to this podcast, he's like one of my favorite speakers ever. Leadership. He said, always be a student of yourself. Always know what makes you frustrated, always, always makes you joyful. What makes you this? What makes you that? So you can either know to stay to that or stay away from that. So I'm putting my 16 wisdom because I know that there's so much more to grow for me, for sure.

Tony Benda 20:46
No, I hear that. Oh, my goodness. Okay, my next.

Josh Shaw 20:49
His roles are already somewhat better than mine. Oh, falsified

Tony Benda 20:53
information, folks.

Josh Shaw 20:55
Did I Okay.

Tony Benda 20:58
I rolled a 633 and a two to dropping the two. I got a 1212 I would say off there my 12 and charisma. I, I would say I'm fairly charismatic. You are in? He's working with Nazis because I grew up in an ag church and a Nazarene church. Well, Nazarene church first and then Nazarene. And yeah, they're like the Baptists of the North, in my opinion. I

Josh Shaw 21:23
mean, that. I didn't really do. Yeah, I grew up

Tony Benda 21:27
in a Nazarene church. And then after that, so about 13 years, I was at the Nazarene church. And then after that, I was at the Assemblies of God church for about 12 or 13 years as well, and then Nanda Nam after that, and I returned here. Yeah. So fun time. So I, I grew up in a Pentecostal church. And it was, it wasn't people running in the aisles and flag waving, it was just a very expressive and charismatic. Yeah. gifts of the Spirit were prevalent. And, yeah, I'm just gonna leave it there for now.

Josh Shaw 22:02
That's probably not bad.

Tony Benda 22:04
But yeah, I would leave my charisma at 12. Also, I don't know, part of me thinks I'm a lot, like, very introverted, but then again, I also think I'm very extroverted when I need to be like both. I'm that weird middle ground where I can, yeah, I can lead worship and say hello to people, and hang out with people, but realistically, but at the heart of it at the heart of it. I would love to sit in a room and just play board games with my friends all week and not step outside the sun. Well, unless the weather was nice enough to play outside. And then I would like play board games. That's Oh, yeah. Which I don't think I've ever done that. I'd be nice. Actually. That would be fun. Anyway, so yeah. 12 in charisma, what's your next job? Let's see.

Josh Shaw 22:49
That a bad fight. Take I enrolled at six, a five, a three and a one. That puts me 14. Yes, it does.

Tony Benda 22:56
That's a decent role.

Josh Shaw 22:57
I so I'm gonna go the flippin I'm gonna put myself. What did I say? 14? Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna put 14 and charisma to it. Again, I like to think I I like to think I'm pretty charismatic. I lean a lot when I'm self conscious, shy, unsure, into like the introverted side. But when I get really, really excited about something, I'm a full extrovert. I've

Tony Benda 23:29
noticed I talk.

Josh Shaw 23:30
I preach I do so much. I just have it because I just I feel like I have so much to say I'm super I'm literally sitting here flailing my hands.

Tony Benda 23:40
I should take pictures for the Instagram.

Josh Shaw 23:43
Oh, shout out about our Instagram page coming up. Tony's gonna talk about that. I'm gonna we're gonna talk about that. Anyway, continue. But I mean, I just I love being extroverted I love the more I've grown to learn to talk with people and to do stuff like this. Even like podcasting is stepping out side of like, the things I'm used to doing. Yeah. I love being I've learned to love to be charismatic. It's hard to say. I've learned to love to become charismatic. I like that. It's challenging. That's fun. It is fun. It is true, but I mean, yes, Run button. Okay,

Tony Benda 24:19
great. See what my next one. What is your next one? Oh, Lord, help us.

Josh Shaw 24:24
Bless the day. I can't Okay, for those who I can't even see. I'll just see him laughing looking at this thing.

Tony Benda 24:30
I got a 321 and a one. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, that's a six folks and I've got three spots to put strength constitution, or I'm sorry, strength, intelligence and wisdom. I'm gonna throw it in wisdom.

Josh Shaw 24:51
Gotta be humble sometime. Well

Tony Benda 24:52
justify that primarily because there are things that I feel Um, I don't know, I'm 31 years old. I know that's not old to some people, but it's ancient to others, especially to some of my own friends who are listening to this podcast. But there are times where I'm not the wisest, and I opened my big mouth. Contrary to what I should be doing in a situation, and I like stirring the pot, for those who don't know, recent events in my life, we'll have to talk at some point. If I do know you, and we have discussed, there's just some things going on in life that I like to stir the pot, and I try to do my best to be humble about it, and intelligent about it and kind of wise about it. But man, there's times that I'm a six.

Josh Shaw 25:50
So there's room to grow. There's plenty of room to grow. There's plenty of levels where I mean, if we're starting at one, like level one, there's plenty. There's plenty more level ups to put that towards.

Tony Benda 26:00
But there are other times where I think, you know, I I'm called to speak what I, you know, say, and others just don't receive it well, so there's times that I'll just leave it there.

Josh Shaw 26:10
Oh,

Tony Benda 26:11
let's see what you got. Josh,

Josh Shaw 26:12
can I can I talk about that for a month? Go for it. There's nothing wrong with being bold about what you're talking about? Yes. But it's how it's what you embody, when you talk about it. When you express what you feel, there's a certain attitude, there's a certain fruit. Yeah, you know, we're called to have the when we talk about the Bible, I believe it's in Galatians, the fruit of the Spirit, it's a fruit, it's a singular fruit. So when you look at all the attributes, they're not fruits, plural, there is a single fruit, often the Forgotten fruits, gentleness, self control. I don't think it's like a theological thing. But like, I think they're the most forgotten fruits. Because when we speak our mind, we often forget about gentleness and self control. And I think for those listening, I think there's, there's it's a good thing when you want to speak, what you like, what, like what's on your heart. But we also need to learn to give that to God first. Yeah, God should be our filtering system. God should be the one that we say, Lord, these are my true feelings. I need you to help me to be quick to listen, slow to speak slow to anger. That's good. But it can be used as it can be used for something big. I mean, when I hear you sing when I hear you talk about what you're passionate about. Tony here is the guy that says there's a need, I need to express the need. It needs to be addressed and heard. And hear us. We are not perfect. We have made mistakes. We have messed up. We've said things to others that have hurt before. And will and we can dive into that. Other Other episodes, like, trust me, my wife would be the first time I have said things that are that made her upset, but we're not perfect. We're growing. We're learning. That's right. Does it matter?

Tony Benda 28:10
It is Oh, after my sixth wisdom right there after your sixth wisdom.

Josh Shaw 28:16
These ones are killing me. See, that's five, seven and a big nine. Amen, brother. So I have dexterity constitution. And intelligence left. That's hard. I almost want to put nine in intelligence. I really, I'm really not that smart. See, I

Tony Benda 28:39
tend to disagree. But sure. I mean, but see, that's all of the remaining ones. Okay, so

Josh Shaw 28:43
okay, but agree with me on this. If you put a math textbook right in front of me, I would fail. But you asked me to call some rando thing. Random meme or random piece of knowledge. I can recall it. I'm smart in some ways, and dumber and others, okay? Academically, like I can write an essay or two and remember some things. But if you tell me to drive home to Arizona, where I'm originally from, and list out seven friends and say I'm and put me in the middle of Payson, Arizona, where I'm from, and say drive to drive to these seven friends that used to have houses wherever they used to live, I could do that, like in a heartbeat. Yeah, that's cool. But like what No, and when, when it when am I ever going to use? Maybe, maybe to remember where McDonald's is that when I'm in a foreign town

Tony Benda 29:39
to use this knowledge, I also retain it's useless knowledge.

Josh Shaw 29:44
I have to put it in intelligence. That's funny.

Tony Benda 29:46
I do, man.

Josh Shaw 29:48
We have two more, two more and more tomorrow. And we haven't even touched on like, I

Tony Benda 29:55
know a big bulk of stuff. Here we go. Well,

Josh Shaw 29:58
did you

Tony Benda 30:01
I rolled three ones and a four. That is total of six there, folks. I'm gonna throw that in. Wow, I'm gonna throw that in intelligence strength. I'm gonna throw it in strength. I mean, we talked about earlier. If we're not rearranging our numbers at this point system here, then sure I'll wait for the higher number for intelligence, I hope. Or maybe that's the lack of intelligence waiting for that high number.

Josh Shaw 30:30
These are the Lord's roles. I tell you.

Tony Benda 30:34
Listen, I don't know if there's a Holy Spirit filled. I can tell you that. Oh

Josh Shaw 30:39
my gosh. Okay. What's your Alright, so I have dexterity and constitution left. That ain't bad. I mean, bad.

Tony Benda 30:49
What did you get?

Josh Shaw 30:51
I got 12. I wrote three fours into two. That's cool. All right. Yes, see, intelligence is not yet not fully there. I still I still do finger mouth. You know, me too. Sometimes. Can you define dexterity for me?

Tony Benda 31:05
Define I yeah, I

Josh Shaw 31:07
like what what? Like, I've been playing d&d for years and I still struggle with dexterity. Constitution ZZ the higher constitution you got, the more health points you've gotten. And when you play a Goliath, that's your like, you're gone. Who knows?

Tony Benda 31:25
Let's do a little search here.

Josh Shaw 31:28
I mean, I mean, we're exposing who we are honestly, and honestly, dexterity confuses me.

Tony Benda 31:33
I'm trying to use my intelligence to look something up. Six. Dexterity is simply an attribute that measures a character's agility and reflexes. Oh, yeah. So like certain skills like stealth and acrobatics rely on characters deck score, as well as mechanics like initiative and armor class.

Josh Shaw 31:51
initiative and armor class. Yeah, I'm not putting a 12 index. I'm gonna put 12 and constitution great way you can go about describing that other than when it really push comes to shove. Truly. I could down like 16 or 17 Barbecue wings.

Tony Benda 32:14
Okay, we're going based off of the terrible foods we eat. How much of it we can eat.

Josh Shaw 32:18
I mean, what else we're gonna go it off of I mean, I can. I don't know. That's what you based it off. That's all I really that's really big thing off of go off of it's great. I mean, I do spend a lot of time just staying up at night thinking writing reading. You got a lot of life in me for the day. I mean, we're literally recording this podcast and we're gonna go play d&d. Oh, yeah. I got a lot of life left in me. Alright, you got one more roll. One more. Right. Here we go, folks. Please pray for Tony

Well, folks, the look on his face.

Tony Benda 33:07
a one a two, a two and a five. Oh, so total of nine which isn't terrible. So Mike nine intelligence. That's all good. I'm, I'm totally okay. With the nine for intelligence. I feel like there's so much more to learn in life. And I am constantly learning. For example, I just started taking an online documentary course. Because there's so much that I can, like, keep learning. Like I won't ever stop learning. I don't ever want to stop learning. I'm so excited because this documentary course, by the way is Okay, quick tangent.

Josh Shaw 33:44
We have sponsors. It's okay.

Tony Benda 33:45
I mean, you can sponsor this podcast. I'd be fantastic. Maybe I shouldn't be filming this as part of the course. Oh, okay. Maybe some future videos to come on our Instagram and Facebook page. Shout out to those. And we'll tag those at the end here. So stay tuned. But yeah, so this document, of course, is great. And it just goes to show there's so much to learn all the time. Don't stop learning. Don't stop growing. Especially scripture and I'm going to tie it back to the Bible for a minute. Yes, let's go deep. I'm so glad you're here to do this with me. And it's good stuff. Good. Keep learning the word as well. Don't. Don't just learn worldly things, but keep learning the word. Anyway, let's go. What's your last roll? Man?

Josh Shaw 34:27
Here we go. We're just going for it. We're going for Wow. I will never ever do that again. Can

Tony Benda 34:36
you take a picture?

Josh Shaw 34:38
Ever? I'm never gonna do this again. three sixes in a five.

Tony Benda 34:45
That's fantastic. Oh, that. Well, that's

Josh Shaw 34:47
an H ends at eight team. Of course I rolled an 18 on the thing that I really don't have that mote that much of which is dexterity. But I did say we can't switch any rolls. So I will have to force myself to put 18 in dexterity even though I'm not agile in any way, well, it is what it is. Okay, but here, but we can do it this way, hold up now maybe this is maybe this Holy Spirit talks to me, the higher dexterity the Higher initiative. Alright? Yeah, I definitely feel like I need to grow when it comes into taking the initiative to being more in the word,

Tony Benda 35:31
bro, come on.

Josh Shaw 35:34
I think we can all relate to that. I can take the initiative, instead of playing games on Xbox. When Everyone's Asleep, and I got a bag of Doritos Come on, and saying, Lord, I wanna spend time with you. Yeah, I can take a deeper initiative into when I feel restless at night. And I can't sleep instead of scrolling on tick tock scrolling on Facebook, scrolling Instagram, getting into my secret place with the Lord and saying, I need to come to you in prayer, I need to be with you. So sure, my dexterity is currently at an 18. But I look at that as this is where I need you to be. That's good. That's where I need you to be. This is this is great. This is why we're doing this. So we just did that. And now we're getting into some deep meat and potatoes. Our own character backgrounds, you and me. And this house is gonna go. We can talk about, like, let's start with this. A character background, a character background, when you've done when you finished rolling and you're getting ready to build your character. You can take your character background and apply into the world that you're in, and basically write anything you want. That gives the DM a general gist of who your character is. Like what has happened in that character's life to lead them up to this point, how is it developed to their character, how has it moved them to the person that they become, you know, maybe the character you make was, was born on an island and Raiders came in and they burned the entire island and everybody was was taken and you were the only one left and had to and you build your story like getting off of this island. And then you know, wherever your characters are starting like I worked on a boat for 15 years, and now I got off to this port or doing that you can go deeper than that with with your own character backgrounds, but it's your story. It's your story. And it's your very own, you don't have to follow anything. It's just your own creativity. And I've seen people do this with like, one page documents. Or if you're like me, I take 10 pages of a Word document writing this backstory and I break it down by like ages like I literally go from like birth to like, like for or light and then like Florida, until like early teens, early teens into your young adulthood or however however old you want to go. But like when you build your character sheet includes personal stories, experiences, strengths, weaknesses, values, things that will contribute to how you're going to play the character. Because you're not just using it for the DM. You can also reference it coming back as you play the character. So if you're playing a one shot, you can look at how you want to mold your character and how your voice is going to come. And how you've shaped like the in character in game voice you're going to use which will be a whole nother episode that I'm stoked about. Yeah. But also, you can use it for long campaigns. Like if maybe you're just down on the day and you're like I need to remember how to play my character. What is my character mean? Move into that. Yeah. So who wants to start with this?

Tony Benda 39:00
Oh, my goodness. Go ahead and let us know I want you to go ahead and lead us if I ever

Josh Shaw 39:04
used to have I ever told you my like d&d testimony story. I

Tony Benda 39:08
don't think you have like that. Okay, folks, I'm excited.

Josh Shaw 39:13
Take a drink of my did real quick water break quick water break. Well, Tony can just lean back and listen at this point. So I started playing d&d. When I was in the Marine Corps, I was going to a church at that time. And I started with a group of friends. They they were really, really close at the time. I was very young in the Marine Corps. I been only maybe married to Jayla, gosh, maybe less than a year at this point. And we had we had already had our son Peter. And some friends introduced me to this to this concept of d&d. And it sounded really fun to me. And to be honest with you, I thought it was like a video game. Like you could play it like on Xbox. It's like this sounds great. It's like Lord of the Rings I can play Yeah. And I came and they, my friend handed me this, this binder. And he texted me a couple of nights of forms like I need you to, like, pick a character from and he sent me like a couple of categories. And I thought I just I was just kind of part of this shindig. And honestly, the we played our first couple of couple of sessions. It was supposed to be a really long campaign, but it wasn't honestly. But I fell in love with it. Of the concept of like, creating my own character voice. I think I played a barbarian. And I was just like, smash, smash Smash. And it was great. That's most barbarians, right? And I guarantee it's like most people's first like d&d experience. Yeah. Because it's like, it's almost comfortable. Like you're too uncomfortable to do spells. Yeah,

Tony Benda 40:45
you don't have to worry about the magic stuff.

Josh Shaw 40:46
You just You just hammer on up you just smash.

Tony Benda 40:49
Smash Roy things. Yeah.

Josh Shaw 40:53
So as it went on, I got more into the Marine Corps. I had a friend. Shout out to my friend Ian, who I love dearly. Super great musicians. Super big nerd. I love him. If he ever listens to this, I love you. I started he invited me to play a d&d session with another group of people. Because I told him I was like I dabbled it in I would really love to get involved again. This was a full homebrew campaign. Full homebrew. And I picked a fallen as summer. Full spells. Nothing else I went off the deep end. My favorite spells like fireball every day, I was real mad damage. But if I'm being honest, it was probably the darkest campaign I've ever played. It was called it was called Shadows of a Kona. It was cool. I mean, it. The concept was was awesome. I mean, the the battles were intense. The the dialogue was great. But but just for honesty, in my life. There were nights I was going, I was playing four or five hours with these people. And they're great people. But at the time also, I was I was actually alcohol. I was actually close, like borderline alcoholic likes drinking. I was playing this campaign. And it was very, very dark. Very, very, very dark to the point where I was going home. I mean, every Friday night I was we were playing on Thursdays I think every Thursday, it was like every other week, every week. Every other week, I was having nightmares. And when I had these nightmares, it was just consuming me and my my wife was just like, why are you doing this if you're if you're complaining, oh, I'm having fun. I'm fine. I'm fine. And honestly, it was a lot more destructive than anything. I look back on it. Not that the experience was destructive. But the the side effects it was giving me was destructive. I love the people I was playing with shout out to all those people I was playing with you guys made that campaign a great time a great experience. And the only reason it stopped is because a lot of them moved. spiritually. I was inviting something in that was impacting me. And I didn't realize it. I'm on top of this, I was having church hurt I was having so much stuff going on in my life. So much stuff, dealing with sins dealing with hurt dealing with lack of purpose. All that. So then I I kind of said to Lord, I was like I don't at the time, I was so hurt and brokenness. Like I don't want anything to do with this anymore. And so my wife found a church and was like, I'm going to this church. And in pure honesty, she was like, I'm gonna go you don't have to. You can go when you want but I'm going and she called me I was in Arizona, partaking in not good things. And she's, she called me crying. It was like, I just had the most amazing church experience. I'll tell you about because she was flying out for my friend's wedding. We did the wedding. Go back to the hotel, and I was like, What did you what happened? Not really anticipating anything. She said, I've never been to the altar before. But the more words that I heard and the Holy Spirit that I felt drove me to my knees and I was bawling. And all I remember is multitudes of hands coming upon me and preying upon me. So I decided to go explore to the church. Long story short, I ended up being baptized again. I found purpose I found calling. Because it's DND. I found brothers. I actually had at the time that when the wobbly hog was open that a gatekeepers night we were gathering there and Jim brought Steven never met Steven ever. And I really didn't even talk to him at the wildly hog. Our first interaction was I was sitting in the Back at Jim's truck as I needed a ride home and Steven was back there. And Jim goes, Hey, Steven, I think Josh likes Star Wars

Tony Benda 45:10
as all good friendships, and we

Josh Shaw 45:12
talked so very minimally about it. And then I was talking to another lady in our church weeks later. And I told her I liked d&d, like, tabletop playing. And So Aaron, your brother, or she tells Aaron, your brother, who then tell Steven, so I get a phone call from see I basically I got like vetted to be in this campaign. I really did. If Steven says I got vetted, to be in this campaign last season was like, I just need to understand the intensity of what we're gonna do. We're gonna be playing on a bi weekly basis, I need full commitment. I was like, bro,

Tony Benda 45:49
I'm there. That's fantastic.

Josh Shaw 45:50
I'm there. I had no idea it was gonna be that intense. It was intense. I felt because he had picked he had already picked everyone pretty much. And there was one more I don't remember who was supposed to our campaign. But I was like bedded, and I felt nervous. I was so nervous. I hadn't played d&d, since that campaign. That was hard. It had been like two years. And I was like, I don't remember how to play I. I'm gonna go back to my roots. I ended up building a Goliath named Canaan, who will dive into that there's a crow. I love that off my favorite character ever. But what I gained from that was so my, my co host, Tony, Aaron, Steven Jarrett. have become my closest brothers ever. I can come to them for anything. I can talk to them about anything. When I have trouble they pray for me. When I'm like going astray, like like when I'm when I'm having a profitable moment, they call me and they say, Hey, come here. I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna guide you through it. We've been doing this campaign for two years over almost a single bedroom. More purpose than I've ever had in my life. The calling that I've been looking for and the voice of the Holy Spirit and the true scripture of As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another I'm a living testimony that d&d has changed my life. And not the game. Playing the game with Christian but with with fellow brothers changed my life. That's, that's my backstory.

Tony Benda 47:42
That's your d&d backstory,

Josh Shaw 47:43
my indie backstory.

Tony Benda 47:48
Mine is so I haven't been playing for super long. I moved to North Carolina from Chicagoland area where my family was all from and grew up. And let's see I moved down here in August of 2020. I started attending Temple Church in October ish and started playing on the worship team when Fitz was worship director here. Shout out to Fitz, my, one of my favorite people in the world, credible guitar player anyway, I digress again, love he fits.

Josh Shaw 48:24
He really does eat

Tony Benda 48:25
philosophy, awesome person. So on that worship team was also another guy named Luke Richards, who plays electric guitar. He had mentioned that there was a d&d game that he was putting together for a group of some friends that he knew and we got together for a few weeks, like every other week, almost that same kind of thing. And that kind of fizzled out, just people weren't able to commit as much anymore. And Luke was bummed, I was bummed. And you know, we hadn't played really d&d after that. And then somehow, my brother had Aaron had mentioned that we are going to be doing some d&d playing on a regular basis and every other week thing. Oh, wait, no, no, no, even before that. Stephen had DM to small campaign for Jesse his sister and also my sister in law now, was that was that their Star Wars camp? No, that that was even before Star Wars. So we did like we did last month offend elver? Okay, so that was Jesse's intro to d&d. And I think Aaron's intro to d&d too, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, I'll have to ask him and he'll have to be on the show. He will know but it was super cool because like we played last mines. Had a blast doing that and after that, so that lasted for like four weeks, maybe five weeks. What however long it took us to play it. And then we did like a short like three or four sessions Starwars thing. Were still jealous. By the way, it was so much fun. Oh, Joe is so much fun. I played. I don't remember the guy that hugs Obi Wan from the cantina that's like, oh could know the Yeah. Oh

Unknown Speaker 50:13
my remember the

Tony Benda 50:14
guy from the diner? Jack's oh,

Josh Shaw 50:20
I want to say, Fritz, I know.

Tony Benda 50:22
Y'all are gonna hate me for not remembering his name right now anyway, have you ever you know, drop it in the comments, drop it in a comment or on an Instagram post or something. Anyway, so I played one of those that species, I don't want to look it up right now. So we had forearms and every anyway, it was great. So I talked like that for the like, majority this campaign. And by the end of each night that we played, I was losing my voice. Because it's hard to talk like this for so long, in really getting into character and stuff like that. So good, though, is a lot of fun. But my voice was shot by the end of each night. So after handover, after Star Wars, then Steven approached me about the long the long haul again. And since then, I had been playing with these wonderful folks. And yeah, it's been amazing. It's so cool. Playing with y'all just the interactions, the brother brotherhood. It's a real thing. And, and again, going back to that whole concept of fellowship fellowship is is not just being stuck together in a church building. It is beyond the walls, it is being the church outside of these walls and fellowship with other believers. And being a light to those who are not believers yet, either. So we meet a lot of people who play d&d who are not believers. And I've played with a ton of different groups who are a little bit on the edgy side, which, you know, that's cool, because we can be the light. And yes, kind of build it from there. So that is, that's a bit of my backstory. It's not as I haven't played as long as Josh, but it's still my story. And I know God's gonna use it. And I'm looking forward to it. So but that's what you're talking about

Josh Shaw 52:09
as a great transition into our into kind of what we want to talk about next, exploring the connections between the attributes of a d&d character sheet, our backstory, and truly how we follow Jesus. And you talked about it, fellowship is important in the Christian walk. And I really think it let's just talk about like the community, right, you're, we're called to be the light when we play. You know, obviously, it's in a more private setting. And I have explained experience from my own backstory, that there that there are moments that it can be dark that I'm, I'm real about that. I hear all the time, like parents vetting their kids like saying, like making sure they're not participating in that. And honestly, that's not a bad thing at all. That's actually great. That is a great thing. But like, I think about it, and it's like why do people look at us funny. You know, like, the stereotypes, the common misconceptions about the game, those dumb

Tony Benda 53:10
stigmas, that it's the stigma, though, but here's the thing drives me nuts.

Josh Shaw 53:16
It can be clean, it can be safe, it can be holy. It doesn't have to be this way. Correct. So like, can we confidently say that we're probably one of the only d&d, the only d&d podcasts that are Christian content? From what I've been able to find the I haven't found a single thing. But like for d&d players, like listen to Critical Role dimension 20 Like NAD pod, yeah, those are bad things I listened to. I have fun. I

Tony Benda 53:49
have no problem admitting that. I be I came into d&d through watching dimension. 20 Brantley Mulligan is one of the best d&d Oh my god players and DMS and just oh my goodness, the mind on that human is just so he's got they have gifts he probably has a 20 for intelligence and a 20 for wisdom when it comes every attribute. 20 Oh, my goodness. But anyway, I love dimension 20 I love NAD pa because these people are so creative. They're so funny. They're so fun. It's just not all the time is the content, you know, 100% for kids, right? And they you know, that's in the in the, you know, Episode descriptions as well, but they are more mature shows. And that's why we're here right? To prove that it doesn't have to be edgy all the time. It could still be a fun game in a safe game in. Speaking of like, safe games, one of the things that d&d has at its disposal are safety cards, like veils, and those are different safety tools that are put in place for if you're uncomfortable with situation you pretty much say hey, We're stepping into something uncomfortable. And there's ways of doing this anonymously. And we can dive more into safety cards in lines and veils in another episode if you want. But safety tools do exist to make sure that we're not stepping beyond a line that you're not willing to

Josh Shaw 55:12
cross. Yeah. So like somebody about alcoholism? Yeah. You know, whenever you think I mean, I guess maybe the internal DND stereotype is, I don't think there's a single pin campaign doesn't start at the top and start at the top. Yeah. You know, like, it's true. Like, it really is, though. But like for people, like if the DM wants to plan a bar fight, or plan, like in a scene where, like, let's let's just say, for whatever example, the DMS, like, the way that the camp that that campaign transitions is like, you all start at the tavern, and you're going to celebrate your achievements on the organization, you're part of you all take part you all partake in drinks and, and do this and then you get, you know, somebody has drugged, you're drinking, you end up in what whatever. But let's say this, this scenario, maybe somebody's battled alcoholism, maybe somebody has gone through a trauma Ward, that was part of it. A safety card says to the DM, as he builds the campaign as he walks through it. Player one has a history of trauma. player two has a history of being exposed like

Tony Benda 56:20
that. Yeah. And again, this is anonymous between the player in the DM. Yeah, so there's ways of keeping it safe and keeping it clean and safe. So if,

Josh Shaw 56:30
like Tony said, we're gonna explore that in, like safety cards, lines, and veils deeper into different episodes, because I feel like there's a really there's something powerful there. There's something powerful, powerful for players, the parents, the players, regular players, there's some powerful there. So the question is, how do we how do we walk it out? How do we do this? Let me first start by saying, We're called to be set apart. It takes so much to evangelize, especially to a group that is predominantly introverted. I mean, we literally if you're like me and Tony, you probably played D in a basement or an attic with your friends. Yeah. And your parents house, you or another parents house. You buy food halfway through the session, you interact with no one but those people correct. And you leave when everybody else is asleep? Yeah, pretty much, pretty much right. We're called to be set apart, though. Somebody, even in the middle of that has to be willing. Even in the middle of a campaign or outside of doing it, somebody has to be willing to stand up for the, for the fruit of the Spirit. For the characteristics of Christ. Somebody has to be willing to go out to a game store, and not partake in profanity. Yep. not partake in the things of what the world has. Jesus says in the Bible, and I believe it's in John, that He has called us out of the world. He has chosen us out. Because if the world loved us, it would give us everything but it doesn't work hard to live outside of that, which is why we're doing this podcast. I don't know about you, too. And I want people that don't know Jesus to listen. Yes. And to say, and to say, what is this? Honestly, what is this nonsense you're talking about? Yeah. And so we can have a conversation with you. We don't desire to condemn you. We don't want that. Lorda. No, that's not what Jesus did. Jesus says, I did not come to condemn the world, but save it. We want to talk with you we want, we want to get to know you. For those who are in the Christian walk, we want to teach you what it means to play in these campaigns, but not just with your friends. But to go out to a store together. When you're buying dice. When you're buying battle maps. How can you bring the love of Jesus to somebody else that needs it? Because I'm telling you, it's hard to just go up to someone say, and you look like you're having a rough day. Can I pray for you? At a nerd store. Yeah. What do you got on that?

Tony Benda 59:14
It takes quite a bit to do something like that. I am very much it takes Yeah, it just takes a lot. I don't feel comfortable doing something like that on a normal basis. We've been doing like evangelism training here at the church recently. Were you Yeah, it's uncomfortable. Yeah, it's not fun. It's not easy, but like, the eternal impact that something like that could have on someone without it needing to be anything more than just, like even just saying hello, and just introducing yourself and it doesn't always have to, you know, be a gospel presentation at a store like Josh said, it just it's a matter of, Hey, can I pray with you about something or like, something like that? If It's easy to do. Well, easier said than done. But the situations are many. So you have to be perceptive. Do a little Perception check, walk into that game store,

Josh Shaw 1:00:12
which depending on how you roll on your character sheet,

Tony Benda 1:00:14
ooh,

Josh Shaw 1:00:16
if you roll better than me then but also also, something that's kind of come into my mind is like, what about you being a Christian? And you playing a campaign with people that are not? How do you be the light to that?

Tony Benda 1:00:30
That's a great question. I think, well, me personally, I think, continuing to live in that. Christ like mindset, and like, obviously, it's a game. Obviously, we're in a fantasy world, but not letting yourself go beyond a certain point or, like you said, not partaking of, you know, debauchery, or craziness or foul language or any of those things. And just living in that Christ like way, in its in and of itself shines a light, because the Holy Spirit through you will be that light. Yeah.

Josh Shaw 1:01:11
Make it a goal that when you're playing in the inside world of the campaign, that the people sitting at the table, come to you after and say, Why are you playing the character like that? Yeah. Why are you Why is your character not drinking? Why is your character not creating chaos with us? Yeah. Why are you living outside the norm? That's good. I just popped a moment. Yeah.

Tony Benda 1:01:38
A cool opportunity that will arise for. For me and Aaron and Steven, we're going to Gen Con in August, which is a powerful, crazy 65,000 people. Gaming conference. And no, this is not a plug for Gen Con, but it's, but it is incredible. We're gonna be playing d&d with total strangers, we're gonna be in this place in Indianapolis with a ton of people who are going to meet and I don't know, just be able to, I guess, be that light in the midst of a dark place, or potentially dark place. Yeah, let's just draw the

Josh Shaw 1:02:19
plugs for Dungeons and disciple. That's right.

Tony Benda 1:02:20
Be that light for both Jesus and the podcast, which focuses on Jesus. So how do we take what we learned now? And I guess apply it? What did we learn? And how do we apply it? Because we learned a few things. We talked about law. We did we learned about each other's backstories, both in terms of playing d&d and a little bit beyond, I guess, d&d. So they got a little bit more than what that you know, 19 on the die would show. Yeah, it's it was a fun episode so far. How do we apply it? How do we take it? How do we just go and live and learn and do things and

Josh Shaw 1:02:59
talk to me? Or you want me to talk? Go for it? All right. What I would do is I was in, I would encourage everybody here, you don't have to do exactly what we did enroll for your own character sheet. But I want you to reflect on your own character sheet, I want you to reflect on your own testimony and your personal fellowship of believers. I want you to look at some traits in your life that say, Where am I? You know, it doesn't have to be exactly from the DND, you know, character sheet building, but what are some great qualities that God has blessed you with? And what are some things in your life that maybe need to change? Your has listening to this podcast, has something convicted you has something moved you to where you say, Maybe I shouldn't participate that or, Oh, maybe there's room to grow on this. Take a look at your backstory. Remember Revelation Chapter 12, verse 11, that that is the theme verse for this podcast. Your testimony is a story. And that story is going to lead everyone to the main story, which is Jesus. How you live, how you walk, will point people to the Gospel, it's called planting seeds. You plant a seed through your story. That's good. Show people this podcast saying like, hey, you know, I don't know your walks up. But I want to show you some cool, sit down and listen with them, participate with them, move with them. And finally, who you playing with, that needs to see the light. How are you playing and how can you show the light? I think it's some really good practical application steps. As you look into these things, reflect on your own character sheet. Reflect on your own testimony. reflect how and who you're playing with. Honestly, though, what an incredible first episode no My goodness, this has been a blast. What an incredible first episode. I would encourage everybody to listen. Trust me, Tony and I aren't going anywhere. We have at least we have at least six episodes planned, at least at least. So so you can follow us for six episodes.

Tony Benda 1:05:20
I know we got more coverage, but

Josh Shaw 1:05:21
there's more coming. I invite you guys. Like, Share, Comment, do whatever you need to do. Get this, get this podcast into somebody's hands. Spread the word. Because we're here to spread the gospel. That's what we're here for. Yep. And like Tony, Tony, why don't you go ahead and did some of these social media platforms and things? How are we? How can we spread? How can we comment? We're

Tony Benda 1:05:48
on Facebook and Instagram at dungeons and disciples, that's not the ampersand. spell out the word and folks, dungeons and disciples on both Facebook and Instagram. Go ahead and follow us there. And we're also going to ask if you guys can rate and review the show done to the disciples is available on any podcasting platform, Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever you're currently listening to this, obviously, but go ahead and rate and review the show. It definitely helps. With the analytics on the nerdy side of things, it helps us start to, you know, promote things and spread the word even more about the show. Yeah, just share with friends. Honestly, word of mouth is one of the best ways of doing that. So thank you guys for listening. I'm so excited for where this podcast is going. We're gonna take oh my goodness, gracious. And I don't know, we've toyed around with the, you know, the concept of an actual play episode or two. So we'll see. Yeah,

Josh Shaw 1:06:47
if you want to ask for true and you shall receive.

Tony Benda 1:06:51
Mm hmm. That's a that's a good scriptural point there just about that. I think we'll close

Josh Shaw 1:06:57
with that. Actually, I'm going to close a prayer great. I am not we're not doing a podcast about Dungeons and Dragons and discipleship without closing a word, brother not let's do it. Father in the name of Jesus, we thank you so much God, we thank you for the knowledge that you have bestowed upon just me and Tony to be able to share with our listeners Logan I pray for everybody listening to this podcast, whether it's one or a million God, that your Holy Spirit would come upon them like a fresh fresh Fire God right now. Bring conviction, bring truth and most of all bring love God. We want people to know you on a deeper level. More than just the superficial stuff God we we want people to be impacted by your love. Father, we thank you for where this podcast is and where it is going. It is by your hand that it is So Father, we love you. We thank you. We praise you and all things and glorify You in Jesus mighty name. Amen.

Tony Benda 1:08:03
Thanks for listening.