Dayne Lyster

Dungeons and Dragons can help people build social relationships and apply their creativity in a game of storytelling.

Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game where the players work together to make a dynamic story, where players can solve problems together and embody their fantastical character ideas. A D&D game involves a dungeon master (DM), who creates the world and runs the game, and the players, who play as the main characters of the game. The Benilde-St. Margaret’s D&D club meets after school on Mondays, and English teacher Anna Overbo supervises it.

In a world the DM controls, the players make characters that fit the DM’s setting. These characters can be whoever the players want to act as for the story, and they can use magic or any other ideas the player has. This gives people a chance to explore any type of personality they want in a fictional world, most often a medieval fantasy setting. The actual rules of the game are less concrete, and it’s more up to the Dungeon Master to apply them as they see fit. D&D gives everyone at the table a chance to write a story with their unique characters. “Even if we’re not phenomenal voice actors, the idea that you have built this character that has little quirks… and then whatever’s going on in the mind of the DM like that creates this interesting… dynamic space where… unpredictable things can happen… and then it’s just a really fun storytelling experience,” Overbo said.

D&D is a great way for somebody to share their creativity and ideas with others. D&D doesn’t just have to be a medieval fantasy world, it can be anything the players want it to be, like science fiction or more modern. The most common setting is fantasy because players want to branch out of the world they see every day. This means that the limit of the dungeon master and players’ world is everyone’s imagination, and players are encouraged to contribute to a story in whatever way they think is best. The game is also a way to improve critical thinking and memory skills. “There aren’t a lot of situations [outside of D&D] where people just get to make stuff up and play. We have no problem imagining these different worlds and having goofy things happen and whatnot, but a lot of that stuff can get shut down [when we get older]… somehow people start thinking that they’re not creative or… they don’t have all those worlds,” Overbo said.

Dungeons and Dragons is a great way to build relationships with other people. It is an outlet to spend time with friends and even meet new people. A lot of people try the game because of friends and family who play, and people stay because it gives them a way to apply their creativity with others. “I was drafted by my friends. And, you know, at first I was like, sure, why not? But my brother had played in the past. I was kind of curious… So far, I’ve been having a lot of fun,” sophomore club member Thomas Wahl said.