Dungeons and Dragons, often abbreviated to D&D, is a fantasy role-playing game that takes a person’s creativity to different levels. Usually, a Dungeon Master (DM) is chosen to map out a world, telling the other players their surroundings, and what adventures and obstacles they are about to encounter on their hopeful path towards a victory. Players will then choose a species/race they think has the best chance of victory.
Listed here is a brief description of the core species/races:
- Dwarves – Proficient at welding
- Half-orcs – Physically strong & intimidating
- Elves – Good agility and great magic
- Halflings – known for their luck and resilience
- Humans – Most versatile species
- Dragonborn – The most powerful species
- Gnomes – Very intelligent in spellcasting
- Half-elves – A slightly more specialized human
- Tieflings – Strong spellcaster.
The skill of the game comes with storytelling. Simply put, how well is your and your fellow players’ ability to tell a story? There is no correct way to win, a DM could create what would be an ideal path towards victory, but you don’t have to follow that, you, the player, should focus on yourself and your fellow adventurers’ ability to tell a compelling, collaborative story, while also, most importantly “making the DM mad,” according to Mia Lipari, sophomore. And although there are nine core species, players are able to create anything, “You can make any sort of person/being you want” says Lipari.
Gina Roberts, sophomore, for example, who exists within the same game as Mia’s child. “They (campaign members) called me one night asking if I wanted to be their child and I said yeah,” says Lipari. It really is that simple: if you want to be something, you can go ahead and be it.
Nola Ochs, sophomore, partakes in a different campaign. “Sky is the limit, anything is possible,” said Ochs. And that most definitely is true within his world, where he and his campaign members are planning to “fight to the death” where he and his fellow players agreed for the fight to end when “only one of us is living as the one God.”
While the D&D club is listed on the Shorewood Website as meeting in room 3101 on Fridays, it isn’t true, club meetings taking place in Mr Bishop’s Room 2508. But meetings might be sparsely populated as, “The actual club meets outside of school to play,” says Roberts. Several separate games take place that involve Shorewood students, with each game consisting of around four to five people, and often lasting as long as the school year. After all, it takes a long time to tell a good story.
For any person interested in joining a great game of Dungeons and Dragons right now, by the initial looks of it you are out of luck, as most Shorewood-based games are well underway. But, there will always be someone out there who is up for a game of Dungeons & Dragons, whether it be a short hour game, or a slightly shorter year-long game. Your best bet is to ask around, your magical creativity is waiting.
