Nerd Corner: Dungeons & Dragons
Lili Jones | March 28, 2024
Welcome, traveler, to Nerd Corner: a column that serves as an introduction to nerdy topics of all kinds
Today, you enter a bustling tavern full of mysterious strangers, all huddled around a table of strange maps, papers, painted figures and more shapes and colors of dice than you ever thought possible… This is Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).
If you played pretend as a child: having mock battles with friends, trying to figure out which Greek god parentage you would have, or pretending you were a Warrior Cat named Blacktalon— then D&D might be the game for you.
D&D is a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), meaning that participants play the part of characters in a collectively-told story managed by a “game master” (or “Dungeon Master” in D&D), who acts as a kind of referee and lead storyteller. The story being told in a TTRPG can change wildly depending on character’s decisions, but each game has a set of defined rules to guide players through the story the game master is trying to tell.
When you start playing D&D, the first thing you will do as a player is to create a character whose desires, background and personality will influence the way you act. In D&D this means picking your character’s race (fantasy species) and/or lineage, class and ability scores.
Your race can determine a lot of important information about your character, and since D&D is a high fantasy setting, you’re likely to recognize many of the tropes of each species from popular fantasy media. Each species might have its own cultural history in the setting of your campaign, which you can use in your backstory.
Your class determines a lot of the actual gameplay: If your race is who you are, then your class is what you can do. This is where you pick whether you want to punch really hard, swing a sword like crazy or shoot fireballs. A good rule of thumb for new players is to pick a martial class, meaning little or no magic, so that you can focus on learning how combat works.
Some people find a favorite combination of race and class that they like to use over and over, and many others like to mix it up regularly. The fun of the game is inarguably in its malleability.
“I started as a rogue, obviously,” Anna Saurbey, a sophomore on Farm crew, said “I was a dark elf rogue because I'm sad and gay. You know, that's how it works. And then I was a druid — Half-elf druid, I think, for a while. Because I'm gay. And then I was like, I can't do this shit. I'm gonna be a halfling monk. I was a halfling monk for a couple of years.”
Once you’ve chosen, it’s time for the most daunting task for many new players (which isn’t actually as bad as it seems): your character sheet.
This one document, whether it’s on paper or online, is the most important tool for any D&D player. Your character sheet contains your ability scores — the numbers that tell you how good you are at various basic tasks, as well as your proficiencies in certain skills. You choose your ability scores from a standard array of numbers, or you can roll a twenty-sided die (D20), which might be your first roll of the game.
A Dungeon Master or fellow player will usually be happy to help you set up your first character sheet and D&D official handbooks and free websites like D&D Beyond or the official Wizards of the Coast D&D website have pre-rolled characters that you can use as is or alter to your heart’s content.
So how do you find a group?
Warren Wilson College (WWC) has many groups around campus, as well as an official D&D discord server. Gaming stores often hold open D&D sessions and can connect you with resources for finding a party.
There are many ways to play online and even asynchronously. If you know someone who plays, ask them if you might be able to join their next game. Even if you just have an interested couple friends, you can all wing it together and play through a premade campaign.
D&D can be a fantastic opportunity to make friends and to learn about yourself. Taking the first steps is very rewarding, even if it feels like a lot to learn to start playing. Aurora Rose, a senior on the genetics research crew said of her first D&D campaign at WWC.
“I was in a new place,” Rose said. “I didn't know anybody. I was really nervous and shy. I didn't know if I was going to be able to make any friends at college and having to go put myself out there and be someone else for a second, like roleplay as a character, helped me with that confidence. It was weird because I wasn't ‘myself’ at the table. It was easier for me to reach out to people. And it's fun.”
When playing Dungeons & Dragons, the main point is for everyone to have fun and it takes a modicum of effort to make that happen; but the rewards you will reap (be it lifelong friends, pretty dice, or just a reprieve from schoolwork every once in a while) can outweigh the negatives tenfold.
“I didn't really have that growing up,” Rose said. “Like… a space where there were people who acted like me and had the same interests as me — it's fun to play the game but also I made so many genuine connections and friendships with these people.”
If you were thinking about giving the game a try, this is your sign to go for it! See you there, brave adventurer!