“Well, I never tried it, and I thought it would be very fun to do,” said D&D club member and first-time player Owen K. “Choosing your own adventure, having no boundaries of how you play; it intrigued me.” 

Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game where the Dungeon Master tells the story and balances the game while the players use dice rolls and their imagination to progress through the game. The D&D club, which meets after school in the cafeteria during the second block on Tuesdays, and the first block on Thursdays, is a new addition this year. There are currently four campaigns running in the club, and P.E. teacher Austin Jenkins hosts it.

A campaign is what you call a D&D group, and the overarching storyline and plot of adventures are created by the Dungeon Master and played by the players. The reason D&D adventures are called campaigns is due to military terminology, with planned attacks, encounters, and movement of military units, also called campaigns.

“We all really like D&D, and we wanted to play it after school, and we didn’t just want to go to another club. So we decided, hey, let’s start a D&D club! There’s probably enough people that want to play,” said James C., who co-founded the club with Charlie P.

Playing D&D begins with creating a character sheet, which is intimidating work for beginners. The number of requirements needed to create a  character can seem daunting. There are many levels of attributes, and writing a good backstory for your character can be challenging.

“[It is] The big thing that would keep people out of D&D,” explained Jenkins.  But he also made it clear that after learning to create a character, the rest of D&D is fun and easy.

“I would recommend it to people who like playing video games and people who like fantasy books because it really combines those two things. I also feel like in both cases, it lets you use things that you wish were in your favorite books or your favorite video games,” said Charlie.