Walking past room 140 during X-block, you might hear talk of wizards and knights, but the main thing you will hear is laughter and good times. This is how you know the Dungeons and Dragons Club is holding a meeting.
The club, which meets twice a week during X-block and after school on Fridays, is for students to come together and participate in Dungeons and Dragons—a role-playing game—all while having fun and making memories.
Club president and sophomore Solomon Willig said the club has been a great space for him to make friends and have fun after and during school. He said the club has brought him many great experiences and memories.
“It’s given me the opportunity to play a new fun game. I made new friends, I met great people,” Willig said.
Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop, teamwork-centered role-playing game. During the game, players embark in a fantasy world led by the “Dungeon Master,” who is the storyteller and referee of the game. The game can be adapted to various settings and genres, but it is most commonly associated with fantasy settings involving magic, monsters and epic quests. Of the game’s many aspects, Willig said its ever-changing, creative nature is what makes it really special.
“You create a character that could be a wizard, a knight or anything really,” Willig said. “By the roll of various kinds of dice, you can determine what happens in the game.”
Club member and junior Josie Carvajal Kossnar said she feels able to escape by playing Dungeons and Dragons.
“Fantasy has always been an escape for me for a lot of things, and Dungeons and Dragons is something that I’ve wanted to try for a long time,” Carvajal Kossnar said. “The fantasy aspect, creativity, role playing and immersement of the game are what I find the most entertaining.”
Willig was inspired to join the club in his freshman year because of the storytelling and sci-fi aspect of the game. Like Carvajal Kossnar, he said he enjoys the escape-to-another-world aspect that the game brings.
“I’m a big fantasy and sci-fi fan, and when you get to play a game where you can be a part of that, it’s really fun,” Willig said. “It’s a nice escape from school during the day.”
Going into the club, Carvajal Kossnar said she was nervous because of her last Dungeons and Dragons experience where she felt excluded, but she quickly realized that the club’s environment was very warmhearted. She said everyone was happy to see her and help her learn how to play the game.
“This time around, I was actually getting to roll the dice,” Carvajal Kossnar said. “The club is bringing me more experience with the game and it is more welcoming.”
Sophomore Alexander van der Brugge said the club is a great place to meet people with similar interests in a friendly community and is a good place for self-expression.
“The club is great for socializing with friends and other Dungeons and Dragons players,” van der Brugge said. “The community is pretty small, but it’s very tight-knit. Anyone is welcome to join. People there are very supportive and kind.”
As of today, Willig’s goal for the club is to expand and introduce more people to the “pleasantly fickle” game. He said he’s excited because the more people join, the more different the game will continue to be.
“One session of Dungeons and Dragons is never going to be like any other,” Willig said. “It’s a different story that you can tell every time.”
