Summary
Anajli Bhimani has teamed up with Petco Love to run her first charity stream,The Puppy Roll. Bhimani took her first spin at Game Masterwith the Lego D&Dgame and has caught the bug. Now theCritical Rolemainstay is returning as Game Master with a star-studded cast of friends who will each play their own pet in a fantasy adventure, but because they are four-legged heroes, they’ll face more hurdles than most.
The cast includes Aabria Iyengar, Matt Mercer, Ashley Johnson, Emily Swallow, and Maggie Robertson, with co-host Jonathan Graziano. Petco Love is the perfect charity for Bhimani to team with each of the players embodying their furry friends. Petco Love is a nonprofit organization first formed in 1999. They help numerous rescue organizations, distribute free pet vaccinations through their “Vaccinated and Loved” initiative, and help reunite pets with their families with Petco Love Lost.
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While at San Diego Comic Con,Screen Rantcaught up with Anjali Bhimanito talk about her exciting upcoming projects. She shared insight into the Jon Hamm led podcastDungeon Mastersand her hopes for a second season ofDesiQuest. Bhimani also discussed her upcoming charity stream The Puppy Roll, including who will be playing and what inspired her to team up with Petco Love.
Anjali Bhimani Is Definitely Hoping For A Second Season Of DesiQuest
Talk to me about what is going on withDesiQuest.
Anjali Bhimani: We did a DesiQuest panel [at SDCC]. We’re doing a live show at Gen Con, but we did a panel here and it was fantastic. I’m always blown away by, I mean, I know how special what we had with the show is, but I’m just extra blown away by how much the community has grabbed onto it and just run with it. And love it so much. Inevitably, there is someone who says something beautiful that makes me cry. It was fantastic. It was so much fun.
Are you guys looking to do a second season?
Anjali Bhimani: Oh, absolutely! At least I say that. I say that, I’m like, What? We’re doing a second season, duh. Of course, we’re doing a second season, and I’m one of the executive producers, so what I say goes. But I know we definitely want to do more. We will have an announcement at Gen Con, so that’s something to keep an eye out for. So we’ll announce something at our live play there, but we’re not entirely sure what the specific plans are for a season 2 yet.
Anjali Bhimani Shares Insight Into Jon Hamm’s New Podcast, Dungeon Masters
Can you tell me a little bit about the Jon Hamm show that you’re involved in?
Anjali Bhimani: Sure, sure. It’s called Dungeon Masters, and it is based on a series of conversations. Well, it’s based on a true story about the Dallas Egbert, case that happened many moons ago back in the 79, I want to say 79, surrounding a missing person that was loosely linked to TTRPGs. Jon is the executive producer and playing the lead as well. And we have Will Wheaton playing Gary Gygax.
This particular narrative format, this particular bookend that they’re creating with it is based on the conversations that David Kushner, the writer, the journalist had with Gary Gygax specifically about this case back in the day and how it affected Dungeons & Dragons going forward. So it’s a very, very cool and very unique project. I’m so excited that we got a chance to do it. A lot of buddies working on the project, which is fun. And Felicia [Day’s] there, [Jason Charles Miller], and Will Wheaton. So yeah, that’s that.
This All-Star Cast Become Their Beloved Four-Legged Friends As Adventurers
Talk to me aboutThe Puppy Roll.
We have Matthew Mercer, we have Aabria Iyengar, we have Ashley Johnson, we have Maggie Robertson from Baldur’s Gate and Resident Evil. We have Emily Swallow from The Mandalorian, and we also have as my co-host slash partner in crime for the actual stream part of it and the donations part of it. Jonathan Graziano, who is well known in two communities, he’s well known in sort of the pet-tok community. He used to have a dog that has since passed away named Noodle. Noodle The Pug who became very famous for the Bones, No Bones Day.
So Jonathan is very also entrenched in our beautiful TTRPG community and he’s going to be coming out and joining us. And then we’re also going to have some surprise guests here and there throughout the stream. Some little surprises that are popping in and out. So we are opening up the Tiltify on August 1st when we announce it. At that point people will be able to donate to the cause to affect the game in tiny ways. But really the most exciting part is obviously going to be the day of the live stream and at different donation levels when we hit certain milestones, we’ll have some more surprises for the folks at home as well.
I love that. I can’t wait to see everyone play as their pets.
Anjali Bhimani: I have to tell you, I have the art. Our art is by ulia Maddalina, who is an incredible just fantasy portrait artist. She’s just absolutely wonderful. I want her to work on everything I do for the rest of my life. She has made the most extraordinary art that is also going to be a surprise to all of the players. I fully expect to be putting all of these all over my walls. It’s doggies and D&D, what could possibly go wrong. I’m very, very excited about it. I’ll be DMing, so it’ll be my second time DMing. Oh boy! So that’ll be fun.
Anjali Bhimani Reveals Her GM Approach: “Anjali The Fun Maker”
What did you learn from your experience with the Lego D&D DMing that you wanted to take into
Anjali Bhimani: I learned that I love it. That’s one thing that I did not know. I thought I was going to be terrified.
Are you going to be a forever DM now?
Anjali Bhimani: No, I don’t think I am. I still very, very, very, very, very much love playing. But what I really was surprised by, and it seems so obvious, but it really wasn’t for me. I’ve been scared to DM for so many years because I didn’t want to be in charge, and there’s so much to know, and how do I keep everything straight? Obviously the bar is very high. My friends are who they are.
I mean, Jasmine, look at what Jasmine does. She’s freaking incredible. She’s created whole worlds. And so I was really worried about being responsible for so much. But what I didn’t realize until the actual day of that Lego thing was, Oh, you get to be responsible for the fun. You get to be in charge of fun. You are the fun maker. And that’s going to be my new title, by the way. Anjali The Fun Maker. I’m not the fresh maker. I’m the fun maker.
So that immediately set me at ease, realizing that that was what I was in charge of. This particular game, I mean, look, it’s puppies, it’s going to be silly. It’s going to be rambunctious. There’s going to be all sorts of stuff that doesn’t make sense. These puppies do not have opposable thumbs. They are actually puppies. So they’re going to have to deal with some things that other adventurers maybe don’t have to deal with. I can’t wait to see a puppy go into a rage and see what that looks like.
Anjali Bhimani Explains Why She Wanted To Team Up With Petco Love
I feel like that’s going to be Matt’s corgi going into a rage because he’s told me stories about him confronting coyotes.
Anjali Bhimani: I can either confirm nor deny the allegations. We will all find out on August 20th who is playing what. But yeah, we’re going to be letting everybody know which dogs are going to be involved as we announce. Oh, let me tell you about Petco Love. Goodness. Okay, so Petco Love, one of the reasons that I love them so much is that they are not just an organization that is sending out money to different shelters. They are also working boots on the ground and with their own initiatives to help reunite lost pets with their humans.
One of the things that they have is Petco Love Lost, which is the initiative. They have facial recognition software for animals. So you’re able to register your dog or your cat and say, there’s natural disaster or whatever. Someone can go to Petco Love, snap a picture of this found pet, and if they’re in that registry, you are reunited with your little furry one. I love that so much. So I connected with them for the first time through the Hollywood Creative Alliance ASTRA Awards when they showed up on the red carpet with puppies.
I almost took home an Oscar that had four legs and not two, because it was an adorable little dog who would’ve been a lovely little brother to Charley, but we just couldn’t at the time. But point being, we’ve connected since then, and they’re just a fantastic organization. The work that they’re doing is so important, particularly with shelters that don’t have the resources. I feel like there are a lot of organizations and a lot of shelters that get more press maybe, that don’t necessarily need the money as badly as some of these smaller organizations.
One of them that I work with that I love so much has connected with Petco Love is called the Underdog Community Project in Los Angeles. They offer free veterinary care to the pets of unhoused in LA. So on Skid Row and the gal who runs that, Olivia, is literally boots on the ground helping as often as she can. So Petco love helped by supporting them. One of the reasons shelters are so overrun right now is not just a bunch of unwanted pets. A lot of times it’s lost pets. That we can’t find.
Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of the kill shelters happen because they just don’t have the resources to be able to save these animals. So the more we can reunite lost pets with their humans, the more we can solve that problem, and the more resources that we can give to them to be able to handle things, the more we don’t have to worry about those little guys not finding a forever home or not finding their home that they already had.
Yeah, I love that.
Anjali Bhimani: I’m really excited. It’s going to be silly. It’s going to be stupid. It’s just my kind of show.
That’s what you need.
Anjali Bhimani: That’s my life. You know me. Nothing good in my life ever came from me trying to be cool, but everything good came from me trying to be silly.
You got to be silly.
Anjali Bhimani: You gotta. I mean, what’s the point?
If you’re trying to be cool or you play in D&D, you’re doing it wrong.
Anjali Bhimani: That is very cool. Unless you’re trying to be cool, knowing full well that you’re also, the character is going to fully face plan. I’m all about that.
“There’s Got To Be A Way To Give Back With Everything That We Spend”
A hundred percent. Yeah. Are you looking to do more charity streams like this with either this charity or other ones?
Anjali Bhimani: I would love to. Look, everything that we do, I’m a firm believer that there is a way in today’s society to make $1 go so much farther and do so much more than just $1 worth of a thing. There’s got to be a way to give back with everything that we spend, there’s got to be a way to just create more for people. And so if we’re already going to be playing games, we might as well be doing it for good.
All of these companies are banding together and doing good things in the world for that same reason. There’s no reason not to be doing additional good when you’re already going to be doing something and creating something. So yeah, I mean, it also gives me an excuse to get my friends together and play games.
Which is always what you need.
Anjali Bhimani: That’s all I need. Look, home games are very, very, very hard to organize. We’re all very busy people. Everybody’s got schedules. Everybody lives in the modern world. So if we can organize it by saying, Hey, we’re getting together on this day, and we’re running this game specifically to raise money for an incredible cause, then the scheduling becomes much easier too.
Are we going to see a Charley appearance in the game?
Anjali Bhimani: Oh yeah! Charley was fully the reason that this came about! So when I wrote my book, I’m Fun Size, my illustrator, who’s this extraordinary artist, Vivian Tron. I had asked her to draw a bunch of pictures of me and Charley, and one of the pictures she drew for the book was a picture of me as a knight and Charley as a bard. I was like, Hmmmm, that’s really adorable. When we ran the Kickstarter for the book, one of the tears was to play one shot with me.
And so I was like, Well, obviously I’m going to play it with Charley if we’re doing it for I am fun size. So Charley saved the universe from a Mind Flayer by crashing a space whale into him. How deep nerd is that? My Pomeranian Chihuahua dog saved the effing universe with his brilliance. His strength is his dump stat, but his charisma is through the roof, obviously. So come on.
Anjali Bhimani: That’s all you need. He’s a bard. That’s all he needs!
Could We See Fy’ra Rai Return?
Are you hoping to see Fy’ra Rai pop up again?
Anjali Bhimani: Always! Yes, of course. Of course I am. I mean, I’m not going to say that public. I’m not going to be like, Hey, Matt, I’m not going to be that guy. But I love the way that they have, I mean, Matt and Abrea and Brennan have done such an incredible job of interweaving these stories and all of these characters. I don’t know how they do it as individuals.
I don’t know how they keep all of this straight as individuals. I’ve already said I can’t even keep my calendar straight. But then to do the lore together with each other like that and interweave it and for Matt, then to come in as a player in Exandria Unlimited and all of that, it just, it’s mind blowing to me. I can’t wait. I’ve been watching Downfall.
But they’re doing such an incredible job and just such a brilliant conceit. I can’t even, you were there at the live show when they brought Brennan out and you were like, I’m sorry, what is happening now? I’m just excited to see where this goes. Every time I think Critical Role can’t get any cooler or better or more innovative, they do something else that I’m like, Well, you proved me wrong again. Awesome. Fantastic. Keep going, keep going.
About The Puppy Roll
Welcome to The Puppy Roll, a streaming event where we play D&D as our dogs! Join DM Anjali Bhimani, Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, Aabria Iyengar, Maggie Robertson, Emily Swallow, & co-host Jonathan Graziano as we roll dice and raise funds for Petco Love
The Puppy Rollwill debut on August 20 at 6pm PDT onAnjali Bhimani’s YouTube channelandthepuppyroll.com
