D3atSea: An Adventure On And Off The Table Top– Part 1

Welcome to the table,

Long before the incursion of the pandemic known as Coronavirus, my TTRPG table had long transitioned from an in-person game to something we played in a group call or through one video-based meeting platform or another. The current campaign I’m running started around the same time, as we adopted Zoom in mid-2013, and has been going strong since. What is wild is we have lost players, we have gained players, and players have left the grand game of life (your stories live on with us my friends)… and across all these adventures and all these tables, there has been one thing that keeps coming up time and time again…

“It would be rad if we could get together somewhere and play in person, even if it was only once a year.”

Now, the logistics of this are unhinged, to say the least, as my players are from all over the world. The current incarnation of the game, as not everyone is currently playing due to production schedules and such, has us spread from coast to coast across the continental United States.

However, on Tuesday nights we all put down the tools of our trade, flip on our Do-Not-Disturb, and sink into four or five hours of adventure. Every week at some point, one of us mentions a running plan we have had but have never been able to pull together where we all take a week away from the desk, go to someplace that has a hot tub, enough bathrooms, good food, and space for us to roll-dice, and we just vibe.

I’ve written the side quest for this thing and have been waiting to run it for almost four years now. Stuff always comes up, though. We find a place but we can’t all get there travel-wise. We find a place but it does not have enough bathrooms. We find a place but the food options are not the best. We find a place but there are jaguars who will be mating in the nearby animal reserve and we will have to listen to the sounds of that for three of the five days we would have been there… yes, this is an oddly specific example… and, no, I’m not joking.

“No matter how hard we looked, we could not find a place to get away that was not unhinged.”

Everything has some kind of weird catch or pitfall or thing that does not make it work. In the same way, you see countless memes about how scheduling is the largest foe to a TTRPG party, our ability to get away’s biggest foe was that there was not something that could be a relaxing getaway while being a place we could game, while also being a place we could drink, while also having enough bathrooms, while also having food options that fit everyone’s diet. We had mostly given up on the idea of this kind of trip ever really working out, until, through a random chain of events and some mutual friends in the industry I found myself becoming aware of D3atSea.

“D3atSea is a unique getaway where those looking for an elevated TTRPG experience can play their favorite roleplaying games hosted by a collection of the biggest names in the TTRPG community from the comfort of some of the coolest cruise ships in the world.”

When I found out about something that sounded so epic, I was skeptical myself. There is no denying that TTRPG culture has been on a meteoric climb over the past few years. A hobby we once played in the moldy back rooms of comic shops has become so beloved openly that there are now getaway experiences where you can play inside fancy castles. Where you once had to order ill-fitting shirts from the back of catalogs, you can now pick up clothing with the iconic D&D ampersand at Target next to T-shirts with One-Piece and Fortnight branding.

Even with this renaissance that TTRPG is having, what D3atSea seemed to be offering just felt way too good to be true. So I started digging in to see what I could find out and I am here to tell you, what I’ve been learning has me pleasantly surprised.

The cruise sets out from New York on October, 29th 2023, and Arrives back in New York on November 5th. During this week-long adventure, the Norwegian Escape is set to take players (and their non-playing NPCs if they have brought any along) on a trip across Royal Navy Dock, St. George’s, and Hamilton Bermuda while offering opportunities to sidequest through various beaches and shops while sampling the local flavor, and take in shows, live music, and even a masquerade ball inside the Royal Dockyard fort, all on top of joining in on some next level TTRPG experiences.

I sat down with the two minds behind this endeavor, Don Goodlin and Aaron Bateson, and within the first ten minutes, it was easy to see the reason D3atSea caters so perfectly to the TTRPG community.

“As a Storyteller, if I was going to make two NPCs who helped my party coordinate their adventures, they would be based on Don and Aaron.”

Don, who’s the Co-Founder of Cruise Planners All Out Vacations and Gaming at Sea, has been a fan of cruises since he was 19, and now with over 100 cruises under his belt, Don and his partner have been travel agents and cruise coordinators for over 10 years. There is a passion for making the most enjoyable and accommodating experience possible for those with who he works with that comes through in an infectious excitement. Don has this joyous passion for positive and inclusive experiences that was, with no hyperbole, heartwarming.

Don grew up playing board and video games, and even when board games were the only things to play he still said he had a great time. As board games and TTRPG have started to see a resurgence and the growth of their communities, he and his business partner Jae decided to launch a board gaming cruise called B3atSea. When they saw the wealth of interest they realized they had a hit on their hands, and soon they decided to craft a spinoff version of B3atSea, with the TTRPG-focused D3atSea.

Don’s associate on the gaming side of things, though I’ve heard he has been learning to roll a pretty formidable paladin, is Aaron Bateson. Aaron has been a gamer and TTRPG Game Master for over 15 years now. He picked up the hobby in his teens and he’s been working his way through as many systems and settings as he has been able to get his hands on since then. He combined his love for travel and gaming when he joined the B3/D3 team as a consultant but later became their coordinator helping to grow and keep the cruses going year after year.

In an environment where sometimes dollar signs and fame seem to drive people into a pop culture space like TTRPG when it’s popular, this duo really cares about the people who join them on their adventures. More than anything else that is the biggest and more comforting takeaway for me after my nearly hour-long phone call with them.

“The D3atSea team genuinely cares about the experiences of the people who travel with them and delights at the ability to provide such a curated and fulfilling experience not just in regards to the travel aspects of the venture but in regards to the gaming aspects as well.”

There is so much to talk about in regards to D3atSea and I will be diving into more including the gaming events, the celebrity Game Masters, and the free loot you get from all their sponsors in the coming days.

If you want to learn more while you are waiting for my next installment about this epic adventure opportunity you can check out their site at this link.

Until next time, this is really a rad experience and I mean this when I say it, Don and Aaron have sold me on this being an amazing way to get together with your friends and have one heck of a TTRPG vacation adventure.

MORE COMING SOON!