Additional Update

Building off my previous update...

I have recently been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and had additional testing to confirm I also have ADHD.

The reason this is important, is because I have to manage myself and my time. Otherwise, I can easily become overstimulated or over stressed. Recovery for an autistic individual is lengthy. So, working toward Charity goals is up in the air. I'm not sure I can feasibly pursue them.

Managing my personal life is my top priority. Lately, that has been difficult because of finances. As many people know, the economy has not been kind. I have spent a lot of my personal money on this organization. I used all my own funds to get it off the ground. Sometimes I pay for things out of my own pocket. That is no longer possible. While I have reduced the amount of personal money I put into the organization, I still have expenses that come with running it.

Basically, when I am doing well, it is easier to grow the charity because I have the time, funds, and health to do so. But this year has not been great, so my efforts need to condense into my own wellbeing. If I can find personal and financial improvement, I will be able to invest into the charity again.

This doesn't mean the charity won't exist. I will still use funds appropriately. I will buy/deliver games. I just can't organize events and do all the steps to expand like I wanted to. Not yet.

For the Legacy Adventure, I have decided to stop due to several factors.

I don't feed the social media algorithm and I'm not going to sacrifice my mental health to do so. So, the engagement I get on the Legacy Adventure is nearly nothing. It was meant to be a fun side project for the charity to drive interest, which it is not doing.

With me having to manage my personal life much more closely this year, I'm having a harder time putting effort into the Legacy Adventure. I do like the idea of it and the progression and the creative ideas I draw from it. However, it is not worth it at the moment.

I may continue the Legacy Adventure on my own platform. If I do so, I will provide the links on where you may follow me.

In addition to this, the Kickstarter I wanted to do for 2024's Legacy Adventure has been put on hold. It is a lot of work, which I currently can't do. Also, because of tariffs, it is basically impossible for small scale Kickstarters to produce a physical book. I may consider doing it digital only. But I'm still debating what to do. Especially if I'm informally transferring it to my personal works.

Thank you to the organizations and people that do so much work and support Games On The Table. It is a huge relief.

Personal Update

I want to give an update on the goals and operations of the charity.

So, I have ADHD. There are also a lot of signs pointing to Autism as well. Is this bad? No. But it does effect how much I can invest into this organization.

I will try to be brief with the point I am making.

I have really ambitious ideas for this organization, and am aware that these ideas will take time and effort.

Some of the things I want to accomplish soon are:

• Facilitate more tournaments

• Have RPG workshops/events

• Do a Kickstarter for the 2024 Legacy Adventure

• Continue the 2025 Legacy Adventure

Here are the issues I face daily that make these difficult...

• Executive Dysfunction. Making initiating tasks difficult.

• Burnout. Working too much too long and then abandoning notable progress.

• Overstimulation. Getting too wired from activities and then needed days, or weeks, to calm down.

• Engaging with social media. To make social media actually matter, I need to utilize it in the right ways. Feed the algorithm. I have zero drive to do this. I limit my personal time with social media. And I do not have the capacity to learn all the nuances of managing proper presence on social media.

On top of managing these things for the charity, I also have to manage these for all other aspects of my life. My job, hobbies, projects, and my interpersonal relationships. Sometimes I crash hard and cannot find drive to invest into these things.

Sometimes I'm overstimulated and need to cease interaction.

And I never know when these are going to happen.

I've been better at managing my life after discovering I had ADHD. But with Autism, it gets even harder. They both like to push back at each other. Without revealing much more, I also have several other disorders that I manage as well, so its not just the neurodivergency.

ADHD: I need stimulation all the time or else become depressed

Autism: Too much stimuli and I become overwhelmed and cannot function

ADHD: I need routine to stabilize my life

Autism: Routine has bored me and if I don't do something else I'll shut down

The point of this update is to inform you that I am not sure I can achieve all the goals I want to with this organization. There could be a plateau for growth. I need to focus on managing and regulating myself before I can commit more to the charity. If I can find/develop effective tools for myself, then further organization growth is on the table again.

2024 Wrap Up

2024 is over and I've accomplished a lot this year. I want to share what has happened, what my goals are, and present how funds are managed.

• Sanford Children's Care Center

  • This year, I decided to donate some creative tools/books to the Sanford Children's Care Center. Dungeons and Dragons has made a huge positive impact on my life and I have been trying to share that with others.

  • I donated multiple copies of The Young Adventurer's Guide books (Series 1 & 2). These books cover all sorts of aspects of the D&D. Weapons, spells, monsters, locations, dungeons, and more. They are meant to give creative inspiration to kids. No specifically to play D&D, but for whatever fantasy world they want.

  • The Sanford Children's Care center works with kids with traumatic experiences, like sexual abuse or witnessing a homicide. I chose them because there is a lot of beauty in fantasy, in world building, and in story telling, and I felt that these books could offer some healthy escapism.

  • It felt great to speak with the team at Sanford, this particular facility did not receive many donations so they were very thankful.

• Events

  • I did a few events this year. Not as many as I would have liked but funding became an issue. Icewind Brewing hosted me several times and I can't thank them enough for that.

  • I also was at the Fargo Pop Expo and will be there again in 2025. Valley Con is in sight as well.

  • Doing events and tournaments takes research and help from other people. And it can be exhausting to manage all the moving parts. I am still learning how to manage my time and resources.

• Legacy Adventure

  • As something fun for the charity, I started the Legacy Adventure. This is a year long fantasy themed adventure that I post on Facebook and Instagram.

  • Each month, I create 3 options for the next stage of the adventure. We start with a hero, then a region, then get into monsters and traps and all sorts of fun stuff. People can vote for which one they like most by donating. The choice with the most donations wins.

  • The following month I make Dungeons and Dragons 5e (and soon 5.5 as well) content based on that winner. I post all the content on social media.

  • Some months I struggled to keep my schedule. Some months I questioned my quality or creativity. But I am proud that I completed a full year of this commitment. Even though it didn't pull many donations in. But I'm hopeful one day it will.

  • I am working on a Kickstarter for the 2024 Legacy Adventure. This is a first for me as well so I have a lot to learn. But I am optimistic and I am trying to remain disciplined in working on it.

• Reselling Games

  • I get a fair amount of used games donated to me, but for various reasons I can't always donate them to the kids. So I've been reselling them for additional organization funds. I've been selling at events as well as on Ebay now.

• New Wheels!

  • I acquired an SUV. The charity was a major decision in this. I was needing more space for travelling. So it is an exciting step for me and the organization.

  • This purchase was not used with donation funds. It was a personal purchase.

• Year End Total

  • This year we ended with $1839.37 in donations!

  • This is less that my goal but it is still an incredibly generous amount.

  • Below is a breakdown of income sources. Events are very high as they are a bulk donation to me from numerous donations. Individual donations are single instances that I receive directly. I.E. no middleman.

• Costs

  • I struggled to Bookkeep consistently this year. There were so many new things to consider. Ebay, website orders, Paypal, etc. So I spent more than I wanted on Event Support. However, all that spending is good. Much of it is a permanent resource for the future.

  • I still had a generous amount of funds to purchase items for the kids. My goal is to keep it about 50% for games and 50% for business upkeep and event support.

  • What I can spend is based off the previous year's income.

• Thank you

  • Thanks to everyone who donated, who shared, who simply liked social media posts. I'm learning so many things with this non-profit. I'm making mistakes and learning how to do better. And I've been putting immense effort into managing my personal life, which is seeing very good results, but it can make it difficult to dedicate sufficient time to Games On The Table. So I am truly thankful for any support, as it takes a huge weight off of me.

Ethan J Helling