What is Saving Throws?
Saving Throws is a weekend retreat for storytelling enthusiasts of all stripes. It’s an opportunity to delve into an immersive environment of heroism, humor and hijinks—where the actions your character makes have world-changing and narrative-altering effects. Saving Throws forges an inclusive environment that forms community and celebrates shared experiences. We utilize a Sandbox approach to Table Top Role Playing Games, focusing on player and character development more than the Game Master’s (we call them Stewards) pre-written narrative.
The Team
Rev Roger Speer (he/him) has lived his life in service to others. A Minister and current Candidate for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Church, he has used D&D to build safe space for teens and young adults, built family game nights for communities, and produced LARP, Art & Music, and Gaming day camps. Roger’s mission is to stand by people as they discover the best version of themselves.
Roger is a Winner Circle recipient of the One Page Dungeon Contest, the winner of the Golden Mace for tabletop terrain building at MACE (now MythicCon) and a well known artist, writer, and illustrator. He has GMed (Fifth Edition) at Con Carolinas, MACE, The Festival in the Forest, Sandbox Adventures, The FORMA Conference, and countless church groups, schools, and summer camps. Learn more about Roger at www.rogerspeer.com
Mark Ezra Stokes (he/him) is a little obsessed with storytelling. By day, he’s a high-school theatre teacher and freelance journalist. He holds master’s degrees in screenwriting & film studies, and he’s spent about a decade and a half in the film industry. One time he was the stand-in/puppet for SpongeBob’s best friend. Another time, he got paid $100 an hour to trip over a random stuffed alligator.
Mark has GMed professionally for MACE (now MythicCon), The Festival in the Forest and Sandbox Adventures. His published resources for GMs include Off the Shelf, On the Table and the upcoming Under the Skin. Learn more about Mark at www.markezrastokes.com.
Gregory Peterson (he/him)has lived a life of a self-indulgent artist, who’s leisurely pursuit of the arts has been met with very little turmoil and resistance. Of his graphic design and multidisciplinary goals, he’s developed a handful of card games including Bout, Circadia and Minions. If Greg has a mission at the gaming table, it’s to give players the space for their creativity to shine.
Gregory is a newly minted Shamanic Reiki Master and purveyor of uniquely-crafted game experiences. Greg is a two-time award winner of the Tabletop Crafters Guild craft-off, a handful of miniature painting competitions and professionally DM’d for The Festival in the Forest, Sandbox Adventures and The Side Quest in Lakewood, Ohio. For more information about Greg and all his various pursuits, check out gregoryjohnpeterson.com
Rev Louis-Patrick Mua
Catherine Wallace de Melendez (she/her), spends her days as a Pediatric Registered Nurse Coordinator first in Hematology/Oncology and now in Physical Medicine. A lifelong board game lover she was introduced to tabletop dice-based role-playing games over 15 years ago while in undergrad and participated in an improv comedy student club. She has been playing RPGs ever since. She loves the cooperative nature of adventuring and the relationship-building that happens when a group of people play together over an extended period. Her passion now is making sure individuals who are not part of the traditional “target audience” have access to safe and inclusive spaces to play. When not gaming Catherine spends her time nerd-ing out to medical history podcasts, Legos, and most things Sci-Fi.
The first time Nolan McBride (he/him) played D&D he knew he wanted to play a cleric. In retrospect, that should have been a clear sign of how he was feeling called. Nolan is a Postulant to Holy Orders in the Episcopal Church and works as a Chaplain-In-Residence at Sewanee. A major theater kid, he loves playing RPGs and challenging himself to step into another person’s shoes. Often he realizes the characters he creates are helping him discern or process some part of his own life. Fair warning, he will probably burst into song at some point (ok multiple points) over the weekend.
Saving Throws’ Philosophy of Gaming
PLAYER CHOICE Role Playing is a series of moments of action–of Decision-making points and what influences them. Those moments build both character AND story.
MOTIVATIONS Motivations are not inherently good or evil. Player choices, not prescribed alignments, drive character development. Characters are as capable as we believe they are within reason and believability. Player decisions affect how our characters feel about themselves and their relationships.
CLASSLESS Equipment defines what a character can do. Skills define what a character knows. Experienced play-time defines how well a character can do something.
ORGANIC Growth is based on gameplay and choices more than a skill tree or prescribed route. We are a sandbox, not a railroad. The DM/GM/Steward is not the master, but a catalyst for storytelling.
THE WORLD Character choice has consequences on a universal level. The World is an active character in our communal storytelling, and it follows rational, causative rules.
SHARED OBJECTIVES We build trust among players to engage the World, their personal goals, and the party’s goals. We assume the party is a team. We assume players are heroes.
THE STEWARD The Game Master is the Steward of the Narrative. Their first obligation is to the story and the player’s care. Stewards operate sometimes for the player’s benefit, and sometimes for the World’s benefit.
LEVELING-UP Leveling up drives Character development. As in the real world, various skills, abilities, and knowledge Levels Up independently of other abilities. We do not reach a certain point and suddenly become universally stronger. This puts the Character’s development in the hands of the player and not the system.
Ealdsmyth Tabletop Role Playing System 