Tabletop Gamers Can Win 'Healing Dice' and Help Save Lives

The next time you toss dice in a tabletop role-playing game like “Magic: The Gathering” or “The Binding of Isaac,” you can roll those bones knowing that no matter how the competition turns out, you’ve helped save lives IRL.

That’s because The Martin Agency created a set of finely-crafted “healing dice” on behalf of Donate Life America, designed to raise awareness of the need for organ donors nationwide.

These polyhedral dice are hand-painted with detailed images of kidneys, livers, intestines, lungs, a pancreas, eyes and, yes, even bones. An extra eighth D20 is included, featuring a heart, and only used for death saves. IRL, one donor can save up to eight lives.

Click images to enlarge:

Folks who are registered organ, eye and tissue donors can enter online to win a set until March 27. Actually, anyone an register to win a set, but do you really want to chance that kind of karma?

This 90-second video breaks it down, gamer-style:

We spoke with Kate Placentra and Kim Nguyen, creative directors at The Martin Agency, about targeting tabletop gamers for organ donation.

What was the campaign brief?

Placentra: Our assignment was to promote the organ donation registry for Donate Life America. We could do anything! But we had a very limited budget. So instead of trying to reach a broad group of people with limited resources, we decided to try to really connect with a narrow niche of people, specifically gamers. Kim and I really liked the juxtaposition of dying in games, and saving lives in real life.

Who came up with the connection of RPG and organ donors/donation?

Nguyen: A message just for tabletop role-playing gamers about organ donation is kind of odd. Like what is this organ donation non-profit doing here? But as we went deeper and deeper into gaming, in TTRPGs there were so many themes that make sense for Donate Life America. Life and death, healing through selflessness, teamwork and storytelling, it’s all woven into this world.

My family has always been into TTRPGs, and they’re constantly creating or collecting things that make their gaming experience more fun and immersive. So as Kate and I were talking about how to reach the TTRPG community, our goal was to make something that fit neatly into their world, but also gently nudged people to become registered organ donors. So we came up dice with organs in them! If you like TTRPGs, you get it immediately. If you don’t, that’s ok, they’re still really cool dice.

How are you promoting it?

Placentra: We made lots of social videos, including a very stupid infomercial, set in a home shopping network of a fantasy world. We were pretty sure organs would look cool. But once we started working with the local Richmond artists Crux Scenica, who handmade and painted each organ, they really came to life. They made the molds for each dice, tried about five different types of glitter before we found the perfect blue green that wouldn’t interfere with the resin. A lot of craft went into making sure these dice look great, and feel good in your hands or your mouth! Fifty sets were made for winners of the sweepstakes.

Are prompted to become an organ donor when registering for the contest?

Nguyen:You can enter to win at www.thehealingdice.com, but the site also takes you to  https://registerme.org where you can register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor. Anyone can enter but we hope that it nudges people to become donors. And if they enter to win, and aren’t donors, we hope they are cursed with bad rolls for eternity.

CREDITS

TMA:
Neel Williams – Group Creative Director 
Kate Placentra – Creative Director 
Kim Nguyen – Creative Director 
Nate James – Senior Designer 
Mark Caasi – Studio Artist
Danny Robinson – Chief Creative Officer
Hannah Luse – Account Supervisor
Chris Mumford – President 
Tasha Dean – Chief Revenue Officer
Anna Gilliam – Associate Print and Product Producer
Kim Zaninovich – Executive Digital Producer
Suzanne Wieringo  – Associate Director, Business Affairs
Matt Kessler – Associate Director, Cultural Impact Communications 
Elizabeth Matthews – Senior Project Manager 
Heather Hartman – Senior Project Manager
Kelly Clow – Associate Director, Financial Affairs
Mariana Cotlear-Vega – Strategic Planning Director

Crux Scenica:
Joshua Bennett
Christinia Delli Santi

Big Secret:
Jason Lefton

Superjoy:
Director – Brian Camp
Photographer – David Freeman
Production Director – Leslie Evers
Senior Producer – Amanda Ricks

Editor & Colorist – Will Rummel
Flame Artist – Paul Wiederholt
Flame Assistant – Armando DeMachi
Associate Director, Post Production – Katherine Leatherwood
Senior Post Producer – Christopher Frendo
Associate Director, Design & Motion – Josh Corliss
Content Creator, 3D / Motion – Jay Purrington
Content Creator, Motion – Andres Jimenez 
Director of Animation Production – Joanna Recinos
Associate Director, Digital Lead – Angela Williams
Motion Producer – Jack Johnson

Head of Production – Kerry Ayers
Executive Producer – Brian Fox

One Pixel Off:
Clayton Partridge
Jen Paul
Ryan Hryciuk

Promosis: 
Harry Janock
Kramer Huculak
Tom Paschetto
Melissa O’Brien
Margaret Hollister