Satine Phoenix's Rise From The Ashes: 5 Storytelling Lessons From A Top Dungeon Master

Mention “Dungeons & Dragons” and a niche retro teenager game may be the first thing that comes to mind, but the truth is that Dungeons & Dragons or D&D done well is storytelling and community at its most pure. No one knows that better than Satine Phoenix, Dungeons & Dragons Community Leader, Founder of tabletop game-inspired art production company Gilding Light, and a lifelong Dungeons & Dragons devotee.

Phoenix has broken down barriers in the gaming world by being a leader of Dungeon Masters (DMs) as a woman of color, but the lessons she’s learned from her gaming and brand-building transcend both.

 I had the chance to sit down with her at Wizards of the Coast, publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, and hear about some of the storytelling wisdom she’s gleaned from a lifetime of storytelling through D&D.

 1) Storytelling is universal.

Although the medium may vary and the technology to broadcast it or not has revolutionized the way we connect, storytelling is a core part of being human. It crosses culture and time, and writing off D&D as “silly” because it isn’t your type of storytelling misses valuable learning and growth opportunities.

Phoenix is thrilled by the way livestreaming has transformed and amplified the ability for players to connect through D&D, but she notes that it is really just like cave people telling stories underneath it all. “The livestreaming phenomenon that has helped grow D&D has been so beautiful because D&D is very primal; it’s storytelling. It’s you and your friends just like the cavemen used to do. Essentially it’s a very basic way of storytelling, except we have rules so that people can participate.”

2) Aspirational storytelling is about the future.

Storytelling can be a powerful tool for telling people about the way things are, but it may even be more powerful when used to tell people about the way things could be. Phoenix shares a bit about how both she and the other people she games with have used their characters to evolve into the people they wanted to become. “I started gaming about 30 years ago, and I got to explore the woman that I wanted to be by playing Dungeons & Dragons. It’s really cool to help people find the characters within themselves that they might want to explore in the real world, and give them a safe place to do that so that they have the confidence to say if I want to raise my wisdom, I need experiences. It’s really cool to see people come to the table with an idea, but as they experience it, they might change.”

3) Everyone deserves to tell stories.

Phoenix challenges the notion that D&D or any type of storytelling is just for one specific demographic. Although the stereotypical D&D player may look a certain way, Phoenix notes that all types of people have been playing the game since its inception. The difference now is that the internet is democratizing access to whose stories get told.

“When I was growing up, everybody played, but nobody had a platform to talk about it. Now, you have the internet on a really big scale. Now it is more accessible… and what it does is it gives anybody anywhere in the world access to put a camera on and stream it on the internet for your friends. The roadblocks have moved out of the way. And everybody wants a voice right now, everyone deserves a voice, and so we have the Twitch culture, and the Facebook Live culture, and YouTube, and all the platforms that give people all over the world a voice. And people are interested in watching because it’s storytelling.”

4) The best storytelling is collaborative.

Storytelling is always a communal act between storyteller and audience, but the very best storytelling is also a collaborative act. Phoenix sees her role as Dungeon Master as guiding a story that the groups creates together, and one of her favorite learning experiences as a storyteller was when she hosted "Dungeon Masters Guide with Satine Phoenix," where the segment GM Tips gave game masters the opportunity to spitball about how best to lead. “The best thing that we did was GM Tips, where I would interview somebody and we would share our thoughts on being a game master. My ideas are cool, but the collaborative idea is way cooler.”

5) Storytelling provides space for struggle and growth.

Storytelling gives people a place to struggle with what is difficult and find a way to overcome challenges by nurturing a growth mindset. Phoenix co-wrote a book called The Action Heroine’s Journey, where she delves into the idea that the difficult path is the one best suited to create inner change.

Phoenix elaborates, “You could just take the easy path and get some cool stuff, or you could take the hard path and really get through those challenges. I don’t want to just put a whole wall in front of the players, I want to give them a reason to fight harder, so that each individual can attain the next level of who they are.”

Her production company Gilding Light was also founded based on this idea of struggle and the principle of Kintsukuroi, which is Japanese pottery made even more beautiful after being broken and repaired with gold. Phoenix believes strongly that, “ We are the heroes of our own stories. We each have defeated our threshold guardians in order to level up to who we are today taking these experiences and learning from them: this is our IRL character builder. We look to the future with an understanding of what accomplishments we have made and walk into the light of what's to come with the strength we've forged.”

To learn more about D&D and the work that Phoenix is doing around democratizing storytelling through tabletop gaming, check out her production company, Gilding Light, which encourages people from all ages and walks of life to create epic collaborative stories and accomplish goals through tabletop gaming. In the game and in life, Phoenix believes, “a Dungeon Master is a storyteller. They facilitate the story for all the players.”

Watch the full interview with Satine Phoenix out of Wizards of the Coast HQ here: