Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. First released in 1974, it has since grown in popularity and editions. The D&D club here at MN is several different groups running different campaigns with six to seven kids each lasting about two hours every other Thursday.

“I found out about D&D through the internet. I was really young when I found out about it, but ever since I’ve been in love with it. I’ve always loved creating my own characters with a backstory and just bringing life [into] the character,” Senior Rufio Morrison said.

Morrison has been helping the club leader, Aydyn Mason, with the club since the beginning, though he plays within one of the ongoing campaigns. 

“What got me to start playing was making my own character, and watching different playthroughs and going ‘Oh my God I want to do that’,” Morrison said.

Senior Jacob Cordes runs one of the aforementioned campaigns in the club and a few more outside of school. He’s a Dungeon Master, DM, for many of his groups.

“[As the DM, I do] pretty much everything the players deal with: whatever is described, I am everybody else in the world. We have the six main characters doing their own thing and I have to do literally everything else,” Cordes said.

The main characters in question are the players in the campaign. They’re in charge of creating their characters and acting as them throughout the game. However, many people in the club are new to the game.

“It’s helpful to have [more experienced] people talking to you about what kind of dice are used for different situations and just learning more about how you actually go about [playing] rather than just watching someone else do it, that makes it fun,” Junior Jenna Faust said.

Faust, like many others, is new to D&D. They found out about it through the internet and different podcasts and shows online. But the school club isn’t the only way to play.

“[My experience with D&D thus far has been] a mess- a wonderful mess in the best way possible. At first I was nervous because it felt like a lot of expectations,” Junior Payton Stone said “Now I know I can just improv it and ask for feedback.”

Stone is the DM for three campaigns within her friend group and discovered the tabletop RPG through a friend in middle school who listened to the podcast Adventure Zone.

“[If you’re interested in playing] research, go through different books, different stories of what you want to do, research and find out what you like and build off of that,” Morrison said. “It really helps if you learn it for yourself– be it reading, researching, or even watching people play.”

D&D has helped build a sense of community, nation and even worldwide. It’s built friendships and connected people across oceans.

“The lesson of D&D is that family is not about the people you are blood-related to. Family is about the family that you choose. It’s about the family that you find, and that finds you,” Brennan Lee Mulligan, DM of CollegeHumor’s campaign Dimension 20, said. 

Whether an experienced player or a novice, D&D provides thrilling adventures, unforgettable experiences, and an escape from real world pressures to players everywhere.