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If nerds who play role-playing games represent a low form of intellectual life and yoga practitioners seek the highest level of consciousness, what happens when the two converge in a Namaste moment?

Downward-facing dungeon master?

Artist Scott Wayne Indiana has created Dungeons & Dragons Yoga, a class in Brooklyn that he says may be catching on in Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas.

In the fantasy role-playing game known as Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D, players take on different fictional characters like paladins, wizards, and half-elf rangers. One player is the "dungeon master" or leader of the game, and the team works together to stop the forces of evil.

But in Indiana's creation, the dungeon master stands in front of a yoga class and narrates an action scenario. Yoga instructor Sarah Dahnke then directs the group, all in spandex and on yoga mats, to do specific poses that she has created for the game.

In one recent game, the players were asked by Indiana to imagine they were one character -- "a roguish rugged individual who has run afoul of the local law" and to envision delivering a package to an ancient wooded temple.

A normal yoga pose like "warrior pose" or "cobra" might be a new move called "sword one" or "dice rolling" in the D&D version of the practice.

Hilaria Baldwin does yoga while flying first class.

The 10-sided die, or 10D, as it is known in the nerd game, sits beside each yoga mat. Typically, the roll of the dice helps the dungeon master determine complex games moves or what each character will do next.

Excerpt from:
Dungeon Master Meets Namaste in New Role-Playing Yoga