D&D Yoga: only a matter of time after Star Wars Yoga? You bet your cute little dragonassana. For the uninitiated, Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing board game you play in your basement with a 10-sided die and a bunch of your nerdy friends banning together to swing imaginary battles axes to stop the forces of evil. There’s a Dungeon Master and other characters like wizards, priests and sorcerers, or like in this first trial of D&D Yoga, every student is “a roguish rugged individual who has run afoul of the local law.”
During class yogis “are given the opportunity to be absolved of your crimes. Your task at hand is to take this package to the ancient temple in the nearby forest and leave it in its proper place,” the character sheet reads.
Playing the Dungeon Master, of course, is the yoga teacher, directing the journey of the adventure, aka the sequence. The DM who came up with this brilliantly nerdy idea is an artist by the name of Scott Wayne Indiana. With poses renamed to “Sword One” to align with the narrative (“Opening Door” is our favorite), and a group of people excited by bringing their love for battling goblins to the light of day, D&D yoga is super new but is already catching on – can you guess where? Yep, Brooklyn. Where yoga comes to be reimagined to fit our hedonistic/fairytale lifestyles.
D&D Yoga seems harmless enough, though. Indiana is a devoted yogi who decided D&D would be a fun and interesting addition to the practice:
“When you do yoga, it’s usually a meditative experience and you are very focused,” Indiana told ABC News. “So it’s not much of a stretch to substitute what the mental activity brings when there is a narrative along with it.”
A storyline of overcoming obstacles certainly has its empowering qualities. We wonder why it couldn’t be stories about Hanuman or sage Koundinya, though, all the same.
On one hand, all of this registers somewhere on the ridic-o-meter between innocuous, unnecessary and heinous. On the other hand, whatever brings you to yoga, whether it be dungeons, vogueing or hangover mimosas, we can’t help but see the positive that more people may be inclined to give it a try.
However, like with any adaptation, there are a few problems. One, a lot of people will find this downright ridiculous. Two, if you’re really into D&D you will be disappointed because this is the yoga light version. As 32-year-old Alexander James a former Middle Earth role-player from New York City contests:
“This is ridiculous. How is no one cracking up while they’re doing this? They’re really just doing yoga while the dungeon master tells a story. Role playing is all about creativity and each individual player charting his own course through an adventure. It seems quite contradictory to have everyone doing exactly the same thing.”
After all, it’s still yoga (mostly). Another issue one could encounter is the power the DM has to choose to deviate from D&D rules or make up new ones whenever they want. We don’t know about you, but that sounds like a terrible and treacherous yoga class. D&D: Yoga at your own risk! (We know that just got some of you even more interested. muhahahaha)
Next yoga adaptation? LARPY!
Watch the sock-filled video for more. Apparently rogues need to protect their feet with soft armor.
[CBS News]
——
Earlier…
