So very excited to announce that we are partnering with Initiative Coffee Company for our 5th Edition Campaign Module, The Red Opera RPG!

I have always been an avid coffee drinker (although now I try to stick to decaf) and I have so many wonderful memories of playing Dungeons and Dragons, Shadow Run, Vampire The Masquerade, Mage the Ascension, (and so many more White Wolf World of Darkness games) back in junior high and high school guzzling cup after cup of coffee while we gamed. Come to think of it, I think all my Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 game were also fueled by the glorious coffee bean, too.

Because of this, we at Apotheosis Studios wanted to feature a special coffee blend for our The Red Opera Kickstarter Campaign. Everyone on the team was so excited to share that glorious rush you feel while rolling your dice and roleplaying an epic game while sipping a wonderful cup of coffee with your friends. Nothing better to fuel those late night gaming sessions then some liquid epic! So, we reached out to the Initiative Coffee Company, a group of caffeinated gamer who have a passion for three things: coffee, games, and community. We could not ask for a more perfect fit!

Initiative Coffee Company strives hard to combine all the best things coffee and tabletop games have to offer. According to the owner, “Specifically, I am striving to build community. Community around games, community around coffee, community around...well the community. There are few better ways to get to know a person than to sit at a table, drink a cub of coffee, and roll some dice, take a turn, or otherwise enjoy a game.”

Initiative Coffee has been in the gaming, comic con, and fandom convention scene for a long time. They, rightfully so, have become a pillar of the community and after geeking out on our fist call, we knew it was a match made in RPG heaven! They sent us a few samples of a few of their favorite blends and we whipped out our Chemex pour over and got to tasting!

We had three flavors to choose from:

The Dark Sumatra Ratu Ketiara Gayo which was carefully roasted by Anodyne Coffee Roasters. This Semi-Washed (Wet-Hulled) coffee was grown in the Aceh region of Sumatra between 1200 and 1600 meters above sea level. Although it was great, it was unequivocally a Sumatra, which people usually either love or hate. Even though this is for a Table top RPG, we didn’t want to roll the dice on something so important!

Next was Milwaukee Rockstar. South American and dark roasted coffee come together to form this sultry blend. A full, well-rounded body with a light acidity and smokey spice create the perfect coffee for those about to rock. Now, this was a fantastic light coffee and the rock theme worked well with our partners DiAmorte who inspired The Red Opera with their epic rock opera of the same name (they also are providing a custom Classical version of their album for our 5E Campaign Module, too!) BUT a light coffee for such a dark and brooding story about warlocks and the end of the world did not seem fitting…

Which leads us to our last coffee, The Extra Dark Special Blend. This coffee was full bodied, aromatic, and packed with flavor! The beans were beautiful and rich, and the brew itself packed a punch without being overpowering. We had asked Initiative Coffee to give us something special for our final tasting, and hot damn, did they deliver! Suffice to say, we were hands down all in love with The Extra Dark Special Blend and it won our tasting contest, grinding to the competition to dust! (I cant help myself with these coffee puns, I am sorry.)

Extra Dark Special Blend Coffee is the winner!

And so it is decided. The Red Opera RPG will officially have its own epic, limited edition run of Extra Dark Special Blend coffee. You will be able to buy it by the pound in whole bean on our Kickstarter campaign page on September 1st. It will have custom art and we will time the roasting and shipping so that there is no downtime at all. The beans will be roasted, shipped to Apotheosis Studios and then directly to you so you can enjoy this epic brew during your first The Red Opera gaming session.

Again, a huge shout out to Initiative Coffee for not only being awesome, but sharing their love of gaming and community with us and you. We are so excited to sit back, roll some dice, and sip this wonderful blend and make a treasure trove of new memories while we play The Red Opera RPG with our friends, new and old. Thank you and enjoy!