Tabletop Role-Playing Games as Left-Wing Fundraising and Protest Platforms

Just before the June 2026 primary, six Los Angeles city-council candidates gathered at Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre to play a short Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign led by comedian Brennan Lee Mulligan. Audience members pledged up to $150 for an “auto crit” that would deal maximum damage to an evil dragon. The event raised $30,000 for the city’s primary election, and five of the six candidates later won re-election or advanced to the November general. Organizers describe the night as part of a broader resistance movement in which tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are used to raise money and mobilize supporters against policies such as ICE raids, attacks on transgender rights, and the rise of artificial intelligence.

The Guardian

In 2023 Wizards of the Coast, D&D’s parent company, banned AI-generated art for the game, contrasting with a 2025 Google Cloud survey that found 90 % of video-game developers using AI. Players cite the game’s emphasis on imagination and collaborative storytelling as a refuge from corporate-driven AI tools. Historically dominated by white males, D&D and other TTRPGs have increasingly attracted people of color, women, LGBTQ + individuals, and neurodivergent players, who value the “found family” and safe-space dynamics the games provide.

The Guardian

• Critical Role Foundation – founded in 2020 by the cast of the popular “Actual Play” series; has raised nearly $5 million for causes ranging from wildfire recovery to Gaza aid.

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• Jes Wade (Jes the Human) – creator of the ChariTTRPGs initiative, which has amassed more than $1.1 million in donations since 2021 for groups such as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center and Doctors Without Borders in Gaza.

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• Twice Rolled – a Brooklyn-based, femme- and LGBTQ-owned TTRPG company that streamed “Operation ICE Breaker,” raising $3,000 for the National Immigration Law Center.

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• Rough Magic Games – withdrew from a Chicago Comic Expo partnership over ties to data-analytics firm ICE and organized a charity “Con Crawl,” collecting $1,500 for Organized Communities Against Deportations.

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Players criticize AI integration as a “deceptive tactic” employed by corporate elites, and they have faced platform censorship; Drive Thru RPG removed the anti-fascist game *Rebel Scum* for “overt political agendas,” prompting creator Chris O’Neill to sell the game independently. Concerns also arise when event sponsors are linked to surveillance tools used by ICE.

The Guardian

• “Most people want to be tapped and told how to help,” — Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dungeon Master

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• “One of the appeals of a game like Dungeons and Dragons or tabletop role playing is to disconnect and use real imagination,” — Andoni Elias-Nava, DSA-LA member

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• “The progression of what this has turned into has blown all of us away, but it has grown so much because of the community,” — Ashley Johnson, Critical Role Foundation president

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• “It walks people through the emotional steps of ‘I have done this hard heroic thing at a table surrounded by friends, and that’s something I can do in other places,’” — Linnie Schell, director of creative development, Twice Rolled

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• “We’re trying to create games that matter,” — Chris O’Neill, creator of *Rebel Scum*

The Guardian