The dice rolls. It’s life or death– will the choice the heroes made pay off? Will they make it out of the monster-infested dungeon, or meet a painful demise?
Dungeons and Dragons, more popularly known as D&D, is an American-based fantasy roleplaying game that was created in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. Currently, Dungeons and Dragons is owned by Hasbro. The game rose to popularity during the 70s and 80s before surging up to another peak at the release of the 2016 Netflix series “Stranger Things”. Three years ago, Bellevue East High School made their own D&D Club, sponsored by instructors Nathanael Hindman and Nathaniel Steele.
“I was playing D&D outside of school, Mr. Steele was playing outside of school, and then we talked to students because they learned we played,” Hindman said. “I would say fifteen to twenty consistently show up, [and] our email list is thirty or forty people.”
Coming from a family of D&D fans, sophomore David Murphy recalls feeling very welcomed at his first meeting a year ago. Not only that, but he also believes that the club has helped him strengthen his academic abilities.
“I joined last year, and they try to make sure you stay engaged and that you aren’t bored,” Murphy said. “My English, reading, and writing improved because you have to write stuff down. My math improved, too. It’s very fun to pull people together because you get to experience new things as a group.”
On the other hand, sophomore Logan McCusker recalls feeling nervous at his first meeting. Going to it without knowing anyone, McCusker knew he both wanted to find friends to play with and learn how to better express his character more.
“This club so far, I’ve learned a lot of how to roleplay my character,” McCusker said. “The most memorable moment for me was being able to roleplay the character I made. I’ve just been having a lot of fun with it, I enjoy that sort of thing.”
The club does not necessarily play the game, but rather teaches its members how to make their own campaigns more immersive for all players. Campaigns are what the fanbase calls the whole storyline of their game– these can last one session, or multiple days. The club most recently learned about the fundamentals of world building, which refers to the process of creating entities players will meet, along with locations on the map and more.
“The club mainly just kind of tells you how to do certain things within the game that makes it a lot more of an enjoyable experience,” Murphy said. “Sometimes they’ll tell us how to play a character, things like that. I think just a few weeks ago we were talking about how to scale creatures to the level of the player. They basically go in depth on how to make it more fun to play.”
The club also participates in raffles. Some of the items members can get are die, world pieces, and other things to help them play the game.
“Right before Christmas break at our last meeting this past semester, I brought in a bunch of my old terrain and some dice sets and other stuff,” Hindman said. “And we just gave it all away to people.”
The game relies purely on the imagination of the players, and allows them to roleplay as any fictional character or monster they create. The “Dungeon Master” is the primary storyteller, and is the one that spearheads the game, deciding who their players will meet and/or battle. They describe the scenario the players find themselves in, players decide what to do, and a dice is rolled to determine if their choice succeeds or fails.
“I think D&D is a super fun game, and it’s grown in popularity,” Hindman said. “A lot of kids either don’t know how to play, don’t have people to play with, or something like that. The club is geared towards all of that where we don’t actually play in our club meetings. It’s all about teaching people, getting people together, going over rules, how to world build, all that stuff.”
D&D is officially rated for players ages six and up. As such, it’s not a bad way to bring people together. A few years before, a few special visitors were invited to play with the club members.
“A couple years ago, we invited some middle school kids to come up and hang out with some people from the club, which was pretty fun,” Hindman said.
If players find themselves interested in the world of D&D, East’s D&D club might just be a good first step to introduce themselves to the game. Meetings are typically every other Friday, if not weekly. They take place in the school’s library.
“If you’re a nerd like me, and you’ve been wanting to get into D&D and you don’t really have anyone to play with, definitely join,” McCusker said. “You’ll definitely be able to meet some interesting people and maybe you could even join us in our campaign.”
