(CW: Childhood cancer and death. If you want to skip to the game details, click here)
Extra Life is one of those charities I love to watch and I’ve always wanted to participate in, but never had a reason to jump in… Until this year. I had an idea. Take a group of people, allow them to sign up for time slots, and run a campaign where you level about every hour, meaning you go from level one to level 20 in one day.
What is Extra Life?
From their website:
Extra Life unites gamers across the world to help kids treated at 170 Children’s Hospitals in the U.S. and Canada. When you join us to help fundraise, you will help kids treated at your local CMN Hospital and have fun at the same time! COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on these children’s hospitals and your love of gaming is needed now more than ever.
Extra Life website
For me personally, Children’s Hospitals hold a special place in my heart. (CW: Childhood cancer / death). In 1984, my older brother was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
The Eighties were not a good time to get that diagnosis. Treatment options were limited. Even small tumors that were easy to remove were considered life threatening, and his tumor was neither small nor simple.
At a standard hospital, I family visits would have been limited, and it’s very likely that I, a germ-laden preschooler would have been banned. But Children’s was different. They knew how to deal with small children and answer tough questions and do the things that help make horrible situations a little better. So, I got to see my brother, and he got to have a real birthday party (his seventh), and he was allowed to have an Atari in his room, which was pretty rad.
He didn’t make it, but I’ll always be grateful that the time we had left with him was a place as great as Children’s Hospital.
What’s the plan for Extra Life?
I’m a part of a West Marches server called Kellandale, which is attached to the show Court of Corvids. This year, we’re doing a one-day streamed event where players will go from level one to level twenty in 24 hours. Your character dies? No worries, your cousin with an eerily similar name will run in to avenge you. Bob is dead, long live Rob.
Most of us have a good decade between the time when we could game for 24 hours straight, so GMs will be running in shifts, and players can sign up for whatever shift works for them.
How to help
The biggest thing we need? Donations. Our team is collecting donations through the Extra Life charity. Our goal is to raise $1500 as a team, though obviously, we’d love to blow through that. Personally, I’d like to raise $1000, and the day of, I plan to do matching donations.
Team Kellandale – The whole lot of us
My Extra Life page – Just my page
If you can’t donate, spreading the word helps a ton, as does just coming and hanging out in chat the day of. Having people active during the stream is great for energy, and hey, maybe we’ll have a slot open up!
How to play
The easiest way to play is to join the Kellandale Discord server, since those players get first dibs on slots. However, if you know me (and I mean you really know me), hit me up on Twitter.
Katie Plays Games 