Contrary to popular belief, the average college student knows more about Dungeons & Dragons than they might think. If they’ve seen the popular Netflix show “Stranger Things,” then they are familiar with what the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual describes as “the Sibilant Beast and the self-styled Prince of Demons” — the Demogorgon.
D&D has been part of the public eye since its invention in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, though it’s taken most of the game’s 44 years of life to reach its current popularity. The role-playing tabletop game gives people from all backgrounds a chance to come together and do something completely new.
The University offers an opportunity for all students to try their hand at adventuring in the form of the Wargaming and Role-playing Society, otherwise known as the WARS Club. Digital arts sophomore Malorie Pugh, one of the club’s vice presidents, said she can’t remember the first time she heard about D&D, but she was more than thrilled to start playing with her friends back in high school.
“We made impromptu games, not based on any logic or books,” Pugh said.
Undeclared freshman Richard Sanmiguel said he found camaraderie through D&D in the form of entirely new friends. People, he adds, he would never have met without the WARS Club. Pugh, similarly, said she felt the WARS Club gave her an opportunity to talk to people she’d seen around campus, but hadn’t had a chance to talk to yet.
“It was great having something to bond over,” Pugh said.
D&D fans are still stereotyped as the Dorito-eating, Mountain Dew-chugging older guys in their parents’ basements. Sanmiguel said this gave him pause.
“It may seem like a stereotype fits,” Sanmiguel said, “but if you see it through — see it through longer past how it appears — something great can come from it.”
He notes that, without the encouragement of others to join, he would likely not have plucked up the courage on his own. Pugh, on the other hand, found tabletop games to be a step down from her original start in live action role-playing.
Sanmiguel had his first exposure to the D&D community through YouTube. However, he lacked the surrounding group to make the chance to play a reality. Luckily, the WARS Club was there to give him a home.
Dungeons & Dragons isn’t just a way to pass the time. Pugh and Sanmiguel said they have positively changed since they began playing. Sanmiguel said D&D helps with problem solving, making new friends and opening up a bit. This is the kind of experience, he said, that any interested person can get through the WARS Club.
Pugh, who is rather outgoing to begin with, said D&D has helped her prepare for her future career.
“I want to make characters as a job, so it’s just kinda prematurely my job,” Pugh said.
Being a college student all the time gets a little tiring after a while, so try being something new with a group of accepting, like-minded people.
That — more so than both the dungeons and dragons themselves — seems to be the heart of these communities of players.