Welcome to Variant Ventures!
Whether you are a first-time player, lurker, or seasoned adventurer, creator, and overall table-top role-playing game lover, we want to welcome you to Variant Ventures (VV) where through the magic of storytelling, we can make the world a better place.
Current Leadership:
My name is Kait (she/her), and I am a Co-Founder of Variant Ventures, as well as a Storyteller and Creator. Having grown up in the Midwest and moved all around the East Coast for work, school, and major life events, I was trying to find a place to belong. After realizing that my purpose in life did not lie in the places that I worked, I began to focus on the people that I surround myself with and in the beauty of creating and storytelling.
My Husband (Rory) and I partnered with several friends who share a mutual love for gaming and entertainment to build a community together to help others who share the same hobbies and passions. Thus, Variant Ventures was born. We hope you love this community as much as we do and look forward to more adventures together!
Variant Rory:
Greetings and well met. I am Variant Rory (he/him), a Co-Founder of VV as well as the strategist and historian of our party. My adventure begins much like my wife, Kait. I grew up in the Midwestern United States, and have lived in several states along the East Coast.
My introduction to TTRPG’s and role playing began as a youth participating in Medieval reenactment and full contact sword fighting. During the near decade I participated, I learned traditional martial combat, courtly behavior, and many skills from times past including chess, checkers, and the less traditional game of Magic the Gathering.
Years later we were invited by a friend to play Dungeons and Dragons (a game I had never played before, but always loved the sound of). I created a knight in shining armor and rode proudly into the game on my noble steed. Through several campaigns we solidified friendships between some of the most amazing people I get to call found family now. I welcome you to enjoy the works created by the rest of our party, the artisans of our shop, and fellow Variants. May your path be filled with new friends and good memories.
Variant Berry:
I am known by many names, but you may call me Berry (she/her). I am your one woman hype show, ready to pump you full of self esteem and teach you self advocacy! I am also a Co-Founder of Variant Ventures.
My background is in behavioral health, working directly with kids and adults on the East and West Coasts of the United States. It is amazing the growth that can come when we put away our pretenses and enjoy the power of play! Tabletop Roleplaying Games bring a unique sense of growth due to the explorative nature of role play. It doesn’t matter if you are a young kid playing pretend or an adult trying to escape the world; TTRPG sessions take you into the unknown, and if all goes as planned, you’ll leave the table with amazing memories!
In coming posts you can expect tools for keeping a safe table for both Players and GM/DM’s, ideas for how to develop an inclusive game, game reviews and other similar topics. Additionally, I hope to cook up some edible battle maps and board games down the line! (If I put it here you have to hold me to it!)
Variant Izzie:
Hello Variants! I’m Izzie, a serial hobbyist and multidisciplinary artist. I utilize my talents by mixing technology with creativity. I intentionally am on the front lines of emerging tech to learn how it can influence or be influenced by art. One of my primary goals is to help revive the value and importance of artists in modern life and empower creatives to live fulfilling lives by using their skills as income. I love playing games, being in the sun, and spreadsheets!
Inactive Co-Founders:
Variant J, Co-Founder of Variant Ventures
Greetings Adventures! I am Variant J (he/him). Collaborative storytelling has been an interest of mine as far back as I can remember. In the beginning, before I had learned to read or write, I would act out elaborate stories and plays with my toys and dolls. I would referee games of “make-believe” with my friends, and we would spend long summer afternoons taking on the invisible forces of evil. As I grew older I traded backyard heroics with internet message boards and chat rooms, which allowed me to collaborate with a larger and more diverse cast.
One fateful day, someone introduced me to their table of friends and a game called Dungeons and Dragons. I spent the next several hours exploring a home made world as Jiggins McKenzie, the powerful half-ogre monk.
I wish I could say I immediately fell for the hobby, but in truth I left the session feeling that perhaps D&D (and by extension, TTRPGs) were not a viable means of telling and sharing stories. As I have since learned, my reservations were more with the table I was playing with than with tabletop role-play itself. Years later I would find myself sitting around a table with a new set of friends and discovering the true joy that is storytelling through TTRPG. Some of those friends have become family and fellow co-founders.
One of my hopes for Variant Ventures is that it will help new or experienced game masters promote the kind of table I wish I had found when I first approached the hobby. I truly believe that collaborative storytelling and tabletop role-play can make the world around us a little bit brighter. I hope that we can all learn how to communicate with one another, and learn how to bring out the best in each one of us both in the dungeon and in our day to day lives.
Variant Liz, Co-Founder of Variant Ventures
Hey all you cool cats and kittens, I’m Liz (she/her). I was the Variant who is the most novice in the TTRPG game and a total noob to Dungeons & Dragons. I love playing games and am expanding my horizons with the help of my fellow Variants. I hope VV helps you to grow your hobbies and knowledge as well!
More About Variant Ventures:
Our mission is to provide educational resources and support for collaborative story-builders at all levels of experience, ability and backgrounds — through collaboration with passionate, talented individuals along with our own products and services to inspire and entertain our community.
To help you better understand how and why we do what we do here is a look at our Code of Ethics:
At VV, We expect all members of Variant Ventures, including our business partners, to operate by the same values featured in our mission statement in their judgment and behavior. Open communication and expression should be guided by the desire for a respectful, inclusive, and collaborative working environment.
Inclusivity
We welcome and support people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, social and economic class, educational level, color, immigration status, sex, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical differences.
Respect
We conduct ourselves in a kind and professional manner so that we may foster a creative working environment. We believe in the Golden Rule of “treat others in the way you want to be treated.” This principle extends to each interaction we have and in every communication we put forth.
Integrity
We operate in an environment of honesty and transparency. This includes our internal operations, our relationships with our partners and our business and communications within the community.
Lawfulness
We comply with all local, state, and federal laws and requirements in all areas in which we operate. In addition, we only operate with businesses or in partnerships that operate in full accordance with the law.
Justice
We operate under the principles of objectivity and fairness. As such, we work to reduce favoritism at all levels of decision making within the company.
Accountability
We stand by our products, our communications and the decisions we make as a company. If necessary we take the appropriate steps to fix any mistakes that are made. We also own up to our limitations and ask for help when needed to ensure we operate at our best.
Collaboration
We find strength in diversity. Sharing differing viewpoints and perspectives is a key element to creativity and conquering new challenges. We are a community that is strongest when we all work in harmony. Communication is key, as such, all members are expected to keep open and timely communication when collaborating with Variant Ventures or other crafts persons, artists and partners.
