I learned about Child’s Play when I stumbled on the mention of the BrigadeCon for the weekend of November 15 & 16, 2014.

BrigadeCon is billed as a Benefit. I found that the Benefit is Child’s play, but the link [now broken: http://www.brigadecon.org/booster/] to an explanation of what Child’s Play is was not obvious to find. For something billed as a charity event, it should be more obvious on the BrigadeCon website that it is a charity event, what the event is, and a simple donate button. From checking out the link to the explanation and donate button, it looks like only two people have donated. The donate button did list the website of Child’s Play. From the About page on the Child’s Play website: “Since 2003, we’ve set up and organized Child’s Play, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in our network of over 70 hospitals worldwide.”

There is a link to the official Child’s Play events, and that link does a better job of explaining things: “BrigadeCon 2014 is an online tabletop gaming convention hosted by the RPG Brigade, a collective of tabletop roleplaying enthusiasts. Events include live games of D&D and other RPGs, and live panels on game-mastering, world-building, and adventure creation. Donations will be accepted for Child’s Play during the entirety of the convention.” The homepage of BrigadeCon leaves out the last sentence about donations for Child’s Play. The link for Child’s Play at the top of the page is misleading, it that a link for kid’s games?

I think it should be more obvious that not only is this a fund raiser, but what the cause is. No one likes to go to an event and not know that the collection plate will be passed, or that there is an expectation of a donation.

I am all in favor of having an event that is fun, to raise funds for those in need. More clarity is needed.

I may not be able to participate in the games at this online con, but I can give a few dollars to help out.