DnD Club

Students to Storytellers

New dungeons and dragons club already popular

By Claire Terzich and Logan Houghtelling

Photographer Killian Garcia

Members of the club gather around the table to play Dungeons and Dragons.

The clacking of dice; the cheers of pride; the groans of horror; all of these things can be heard echoing down A-Hall on Tuesday afternoons. The group responsible for this is the Dungeons and Dragons Club, headed by Justin Lam, who meet after school every Tuesday in A-8.

Often, the first thing you think of when you hear the words “board game” is a simplistic childhood game. However, DnD [Dungeons and Dragons] is anything but.

“[DnD] is a TTRPG, which stands for TableTop RolePlay Game,” said club president sophomore Justin Lam.

The game is made for players to design their own characters and isn’t tied down to set rules.

“Characters will get these sheets. Empty or pre-made depending on their preference. Premade will have all this info on them and you become your character in entirety. You can give your character name, race, gender,” said Lam. “Presets usually have a race for you and all of your stats set for you. In this game, there are no real rules. Basically, the only rules are what the DM (Dungeon Master), the person leading the game, wants to do.”

The key to the pleasantry of DnD club is the team building and collaboration during the meetings.

“It’s engaging because the story, the DMs, [Junior] Don [Mills-Segura] and [Junior] Jax Leyva they give an air to it. DnD is a co-op game where you work with your party to solve puzzles and fight monsters. So cooperation and communication is really key here.” Lam said. “So in the beginning we played icebreakers and stuff to build relationships and that’s how we really got it all really engaging.”

Club Dungeon Master and Junior, Jax Leyva believes that engagement is achieved through building connection amongst members, which means prioritizing inclusion and having free reign stories to follow.

“We try to include every member, like have them go into breakout areas with other DMs and making sure they interact with each other, and having some combat or some classes for them. DnD is mostly just having the players do what they want. We [The DMs] come up with a baseline story to move them along, but usually we improvise no matter what.” Leyva said. Fellow Dungeon Master and Junior, Don Mills-Segura, has a similar view of the game, as he leads with loose storylines and lets the players choose their story.

“The love people have for the game and most of the players are kind of new. So I’m sure it’s fun for them. I try to run the games like a story; it’s less about moving pieces and rolling dice and more of a play.” said Mills-Segura. “Most of my games are improvised, I like to give them a setting and have loose plot lines in my mind and let them go where they want to and build off the players.”

The creativity and imagination DnD fosters, filled with the unique characters helps players take a break from their reality and explore a completely new one.

“At these meetings, it’s just a way to get away from all of the stress in life as in the game, you’re not you. You are your character. You are an embodiment of them. That’s really what we do here.’’ Lam said.