Who came up with D&D in a Castle, anyway?

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Cameron Rout, one half of the brother-sister duo who created D&D in a Castle, shares some of the secrets and magic behind this tantalizing event.

The first thing we all want to know is, what is your interest in Dungeons & Dragons? 

I am a long-time devotee of D&D. I’ve been playing since I was a kid, DMing all through my teens, and I credit a lot of the good things in my life to my experiences in this game. I really believe in the power of role-playing as a force for good, on a personal level, for mental health and skill-building, as well as on a community level, to bring people together and genuinely make the world a better place. I started this event because I wanted to bring people the amazing experience of immersing themselves in this game for a serious chunk of time. I’ve known the value of that and I wanted to share it with as many people as possible. 

How did you get into Dungeons & Dragons?

My dad brought home the original D&D game in the 80s, the little red box, and I loved it.  I was so excited and wanted to play it more, but the rest of my family wasn’t interested and it was like torture until I found a few friends who would play it with me.

When did you first start DMing?

I was eleven years old when I started DMing.  I had been trying to find someone else to play D&D with me after that first time.  I made a friend down the road who wanted to play, and his older brother helped us get started. After that, I played basically every weekend all through school.

Did you keep playing D&D all through university?

My friends and I had stopped playing D&D when we hit university and started working and having families.  We still kept in touch, and one day I realized that several of us were dealing with some life challenges and I thought a weekend away together would really help.  I planned the weekend and convinced all my friends to take time away from jobs and family life to come.  We got to revisit our youth and played for three days straight, up till 5 am, a short sleep, up again at 9, playing all day long.  It was such a cathartic experience.

What made it so meaningful?

By the end of the weekend, we all realized how great it was for our well-being.  Everyone left feeling like it was the best possible therapy. That’s when I thought, “We really needed something like this, we actually need something like this regularly going forward.  How can I bottle this? How can I share it with other people? You can’t do this in a couple of hours, you need days! What would get them to take the time off necessary to make this happen?” And the answer was, a Castle. If it was in a castle, they would come.

What was it about that weekend with your friends that you want to recreate with D&D in a Castle?

I want to give other people the experience of that close connection, the intense play, and the feeling of support that we got out of that first weekend.  After running D&D in a Castle a few times now I can say that we’ve managed not only to re-create that experience time after time, but we’ve enhanced it in ways we hadn’t imagined at first.

And did it work? Were you able to create that magic?

More than we ever expected to. It was more powerful and life-changing than our wildest dreams. We rented this fantastical French castle, isolated from everything, and people just started coming forward, wanting to be part of it. Jeremy Crawford himself wanted to come, and then other incredible talent followed, like Elisa Teague, James Introcaso, the GM Tim. Nerdarchist Dave… And Lawren Nemeth, who I first got into D&D with when I was a kid. We thought it would be a one-time thing, but the guests were hooked, and almost all of them came back the next year. Some of them got tattoos of the castle, like full sleeves. People have chosen to come to the castle instead of buying a house. It’s that significant an experience for people. 

Now we use a 14th Century castle hotel in England, which we take over for 5 days at a time, and everyone just keeps coming back for more.

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Your partner in this undertaking is your sister. What made you decide to ask Tara to work on it with you?

Tara gets stuff done.  Obsessively.  I knew once I told her, she’d have no choice but to work on it with me.  I knew she would feel exactly how I felt—compelled to make it happen.

What was Tara’s reaction when you told her about the idea?

Ah, I think she said she hated me, because of course she had to do it. It’s always satisfying when you can get your siblings on board despite themselves.  Then you know you’ve got a really good idea.

What is it like to run a business with your sibling?

It’s such a satisfying partnership.  Growing up with siblings you might feel like you’re kind of stuck with each other sometimes, but working on this project together as adults, wanting to work on something together, knowing we’re both so committed to it, that’s a great feeling. I know all about D&D, and she’s an expert at putting on nerdy immersive experiences and events, and as a partnership, it really works.

Which aspect of running D&D in a Castle do you love the most? 

I’m really seeing how D&D can bring us that peacefulness from life, that therapeutic, intense connection with others, that we all crave.  It really is a passion project for both of us.  We work full time and both have young children, but after experiencing it ourselves we don’t have a choice.  We have to do it.

What are you looking forward to about the upcoming year of D&D in a Castle?

The chance to all be together again, after so long, I will definitely cry. Oh, and our talent list just keeps growing with such cool people. I can’t wait to get to spend time with them, and the guests. It’s like coming home, finding my people. It’s kind of what I live for.

Well Cam, thanks for taking the time to share your story with us.

My pleasure, and I hope to meet you all at the Castle, where there are lots more stories to be told. 

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