Local Dungeons and Dragons players Jules Steele and Stephany Ternes as spellcasters. Photo illustration by Charlie Silver.

“What level are we now?” said pretty much every D&D player ever.

Dungeons and Dragons is a table-top role-playing game that encourages players to work together to unravel mysteries and reach various goals.

The Dungeon Master is the storyteller, rule keeper and every character that the other players come across, known as NPCs. In recent years, campaigns tend to focus more on open-world adventures rather than exploring dungeons, so DMs are often called Game Masters now.

The game has changed exponentially since it’s creation over 50 years ago, but it’s still fundamentally the same; the player party makes decisions as their characters in order to progress the story presented to them by the Game Master.

D&D is essentially a fill-in-the-blanks story, except that most of the outcomes are determined by the rolls of dice.

Dungeons and Dragons faced a lot of persecution during the 1980’s Satanic Panic due to the existence of demons and magic within the game.

What many people may not have realised, though, is that the game was co-created by a devout Jehovah’s Witness named Gary Gygax. He and Dave Arneson were miniature war game enthusiasts and created the first edition of D&D together in 1973.

Some people tried to claim that the game promoted devil worship and caused people, especially kids and teenagers, to lose touch with reality.

Gygax, however, said that the game allows players to fight against the forces of evil in a creative and collaborative environment.

Dungeons and Dragons has traditionally attracted people who are considered nerds and outcasts but has become less stigmatized over time. This is partially due to web series such as Critical Role and Dimension 20 that feature popular voice actors and influencers playing D&D campaigns.

Elise Howe, a local D&D player and frequent Game Master, says she was introduced to the game by friends in high school.

“What really got me hooked was my first DM reaching out early 2021 asking if I wanted in on his Princes of the Apocalypse campaign,” mentioned Howe. “I said yes, made a joke character, and now I’m tormenting players with dire omens about what’s coming for that joke character’s joke cousin.”

In this humble writer’s opinion, Dungeons and Dragons is a wonderful game that allows people to be expressive and creative, explore multiple facets of their personality in a judgement free space, and generally find acceptance and true connections.

One of the main appeals of not just D&D, but all role-playing games, is the chance to spend time as a different person with different strengths and skills. However, I’ve noticed that people tend to make characters that are incredibly similar to themselves. I know I’m guilty of that.

I think people don’t really want to be someone else so much as they want to be a more ‘ideal’ version of themselves. Role-playing games give us the opportunity to discover who we are and figure out how to be more authentically ourselves.

Despite how this might sound, however, I assure you that most D&D campaigns are full of quirky adventures and tomfoolery.

To quote one of my friends and fellow party members, Kaiden Johnson; “I’m just here to have fun and make the DM regret their decisions.”