Dungeons and Dragons: A Game for the Imaginative

     You have probably heard of Dungeons and Dragons before. I would bet that only a few people reading this know more about it than just the name, and that even fewer still have played a full session or campaign. So how is it played and why do people love it so much? I asked myself these questions when my friend and roommate Reuben asked me to participate in the first campaign he’d ever DM’d (Dungeon Mastered), and I’m going to attempt to answer those same questions here for all of you.

     Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing “board game” designed for a party of 3-5 players and 1 DM. The Dungeon Master’s role is to write a compelling story before the players all come to the table, and to change that story as the players make decisions in the game; I will go into much more detail about the job of a DM in my second blogpost, where I’m going to talk about writing my first campaign and, if we get to play this week, how it turned out! The players only need to do two things: know their character inside and out, and to have fun inside the world that the DM created.

    Those two goals that a player should keep in mind sound easy, and they can be! Here is where we get to the part that turns people off to Dungeons and Dragons, however. To make the right character and to be able to play it well takes a considerable amount of reading. The only essential book to read would be the Player’s Handbook, which can be found at the link or online as a free pdf, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be read in its entirety by a first-time player. A good DM will work with new players to help them both understand the basic rules and to make sure they make a character that will challenge the player, but not be too difficult or complex for a beginner. Outside of the Player’s Handbook, there are a plethora of other books (20+) for player’s and DM’s to consult for Fifth Edition alone, but I personally haven’t read anything outside the Player’s Handbook and snippets of other texts and my knowledge of the game is plenty enough to have a great time as a player.

     Once a character is made, the player is ready to start an adventure, which is where the fun happens and where the player is rewarded for all the hard work they put into building their character. The DM will begin telling their story and players have to use their character’s in unison with the characters of other players in all the different challenges and conflicts that the DM puts them through. There will be stressful times, there will be laughter, there might be death, there might be victory, but with the right group of friends and a little imagination (I know it sounds dorky… it is dorky… but give it a try) an adventure of a lifetime will unfold!