Dungeons & Dreamforce with Mark Ross & John Graf

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re taking a quick break from the Innovation and Careers series to have a bit of fun. A couple of our Salesforce Ohana community leaders are helping raise money for PepUp Tech with a podcast called Dungeons & Dreamforce. We talk to Mark Ross, Product Director at Clarus Group, MVP, and co-host of the WizardCast, and John Graf, Salesforce Admin at TBS Factoring Service, MVP, Oklahoma City User Group Leader, and Host of the Cloudforce Collective Podcast.

More about this episode: an intro to the magical, wonderful world of Dungeons & Dragons, how Dungeons & Dreamforce got started, and how you can play a role in the action while supporting the incredible world of PepUp Tech.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Mark Ross and John Graf.

A basic primer on Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeons & Dreamforce is a version of Dungeons & Dragons, so if you’re only familiar with D&D from Stranger Things here’s a little bit more about this ubiquitous hallmark of nerdom to help you out. “Dungeons & Dragons is essentially an imagination game,” Mark says, “you have one person who is the ‘Dungeon Master’ (DM) whose job is to kind of adjudicate, but all the other players are there to be another person, a character that they pretend to be, so it’s also like improv.” You describe your actions, and everyone is working together to achieve a goal, whether that’s saving the village from a horde of evil goblins or saving the world, and you use dice to determine how that happens.

In D&D, there are a certain amount of rules that you follow that tell you things like what abilities you have and when you should role, “but honestly there are a lot of people who will play a game with as few rules as possible,” Mark says, “which makes it about group storytelling with everybody contributing to the narrative and having fun while doing so.” The DM often comes up with the world that the story takes place in and the characters that the players meet, but the other members of the group can have a great deal of impact on it too, or even take the game in a wildly different direction than the DM was planning for originally.

The magical world of the Magnificent Lord Benioff.

“Mark and I came up with this idea about two years ago on a podcast that we were recording,” John says, “I was nerding out over Dungeons & Dragons and a lightbulb went off in both Oklahoma City and Kansas City at the same time: Dungeons & Dreamforce.” In the game, they’ve transformed Moscone Center, where Dreamforce is held, into a magical fantasy land with a lot of Salesforce-y puns and maybe a few characters you’ve heard of here and there. “The city of Moscone is ruled by the Magnificent Lord Benioff,” Mark says, and there’s a lot of other fantasy doppelgangers you might recognize, as well as many community members. It’s not just about the puns, however.

“I’ve been taught over the six different Dreamforces that I’ve been to that giving back is a huge part of everything that we should be doing,” John says, “not just as good Salesforce Admins and Developers and community members, but as human beings.” When John’s daughter’s friend was diagnosed with leukemia, he was looking for something to do to support her and came across an organization called Extra Life, which encourages people to play games to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t run a marathon,” John says, “but I’m happy to play a game to help support a good cause.” Dungeons & Dreamforce is inspired by that organization and raises money for PepUp Tech by letting donors have an effect on the story.

The amazing work of PepUp Tech.

PepUp Tech provides computers, Salesforce training, and Salesforce certifications to young people who are traditionally underrepresented in the tech industry. They do amazing work with their Salesforce bootcamp and other programs to help people find ways to give back to the community. Dungeons & Dreamforce is a great example of community members finding a way to use their unique interests and talents to give back, so tune in and support the show or, perhaps, start thinking about what you could do to give back.

Resources:

• Dungeons & Dreamforce Fundraising – https://cloudforcecollective.com/ddf-spring-edition/
• Cloud Force Collective podcast – https://cloudforcecollective.com/
• Get involved with PepUp Tech – https://www.pepuptech.org/get-involved

Twitter:

• Mark – @markross__c
• John – @ADM_Nerdforce
• Gillian – @gilliankbruce
• Salesforce Admins – @SalesforceAdmns

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