Scouts can soon earn a Dungeons & Dragons activity badge
Two decades too late for us, sadly.
Woodworking, orienteering, needlework, and… D&D? The UK Scouts shop recently updated their listing for the Scout Entertainer Activity Badge to include information on an upcoming sponsored badge from tabletop giant Dungeons & Dragons.
Historically, the entertainer badge featured the twin masks of Melpomene and Thalia, the dramatic muses of Tragedy and Comedy, respectively, below the Scouts official symbol. This new badge fixes the contemporary Dungeons & Dragons logo in red on a white partition at the bottom of the circular badge. It is listed in the UK Scout shop for 70p, though there is currently no option for pre-purchasing.
Scouts can earn the Entertainer Activity Badge in one of two ways. The first is to plan and execute an original piece of entertainment across a broad range of media or formats. Storytelling, stage plays, short films, music production and campfire stories are all listed as possible structures. The description advises the involvement of other Scouts as a form of coordination and group creation.
The second option is to take part in one of the above activities at the behest of another Scout. This sounds like that member of the group activity who relied on the leader to do all the work, but who are we to judge? It should be noted the listing’s overview matches the description for the non-sponsored entertainer badge exactly, and it is not clear whether the sponsored badge will require any specific criteria before a Scout may earn it.
This is not the first tabletop-related badge a Scout could possibly earn. The San Diego Girl Scouts have a TRPG Badge that is awarded for learning and playing a tabletop RPG of the Scout’s choice. They can speak to someone else who actively plays or attend a local game convention (I wonder to which they’re referring) and speak with players, vendors and designers. The Scout can also do online research to learn about various games and contact publishers with questions about the hobby.
The US Scout store has not posted any information about their version of the Dungeons & Dragons-sponsored badge. Seeing that D&D is published by US-based Wizards of the Coast, it would be unlikely if a similar offering didn’t appear in the future.
The Scouts have a history of adding badges to embrace the hobbies and fads of younger members, adding a game design badge in 2013 and a Pokémon Collector Cub Scouts badge, which awards Pokémon TCG cards as well, in April of last year.