A Tale from the Geeks’ Gathering

Sarah Smith
Nov 2 · 8 min read
Photo by Clint Bustrillos on Unsplash

Dungeons and Dragons is a game invented in the middle of the 1970s by Gary Gygax. It is a game that has a myriad of characters, editions, and rules, each more elaborate than the last; a game which allows the players to think up mystical characters and go through impossible scenarios as their made-up heroes; a game that I, without any hint of shame, play. I was introduced to this snippet of geek culture by my boyfriend, EJ. From this introduction, we have adventured through worlds, fought the worst dragons, and met some of the most interesting creatures. From this game, a new part of my imagination was brought to life.

The game, as I have come to know it, begins with a text: “Hey guys! D&D at my house. Noon. Bring your level-four-character sheets and lots of snacks!” The initiation of a session. Each story of Dungeons and Dragons takes so long that the game is played in long sessions until players finish the story, or for as long as they can manage to keep their characters alive — which can be harder than it sounds. I pack my sets of dice, my laptop, whatever snacks I can spare from the kitchen, and head off to EJ’s house, where I will spend the next four to eight hours of my life.

Once we are there, set-up begins. My friends and I all squished together at the table while Corey, EJ’s dog, struts from person to person begging to be petted. We place a large grid, our map, in the center of the dining room table and surround the map with our laptops. The laptops contain the character sheets that we have each created. In D&D, the character sheet is essential to gameplay as it contains all the information about who your character is. This information ranges from how tall the character is, to if they have magical powers, to how smart they are. The character sheet is the basic layout for the different options you have while playing the game. EJ then sets up his station at the head of the table as the Dungeon Master, who lays out the story and acts out the non-player characters.

As we wait for the rest of our party to arrive, we indulge ourselves in the mountain of snacks that have formed on the kitchen counter. The staples are always orange soda, barbeque chips, Oreos, and the pizza that is provided by EJ’s parents. We fill our plates with junk and wait anxiously to pick up our story where we left off.

“Alright, now that everyone is here, who wants to summarize what happened in the last session?” EJ asks as we all look blankly at each other waiting for someone to step up.

“I’ll explain,” says one of my friends.

The game has begun. We pick up where we left off in the last session and begin to get back into the mindsets of our characters. We are in the middle of a make-believe sea with a group of rowdy pirates that have taken us prisoner. I am a sorcerer, one of my friends is a low-intelligence goliath, another is a rogue, one is a barbarian, and the last among us is a cleric. We must decide what we want to do. After some deliberation, we conclude that the only option is to take over the ship, as one does. We all look to our character sheets to figure out a plan that will allow us to distract the crew and conduct a successful take-over. I study my bright laptop screen and feel the carbonation of the orange soda in my throat as I take a sip.

We decided that I, as a sorcerer, will cast prestidigitation to create the image of an explosion on the other side of the ship from where we are currently stuck mopping the deck. My friend, the kenku (ken-Koo), will mimic the sound of an explosion she had heard earlier in her life (kenkus can recreate sounds they’ve heard — a skill that is strangely valuable to us at this moment) to complete this distraction.

“Okay, so that’s how we’ll distract them. What now?” I ask as I am one of the only voices of reason among my group of friends.

“OOH! OOH! I ROLL TO SEDUCE!” my friend yells at EJ from across the table.

“I’m sorry, you roll to what?!?” I am worried at this point.

“Well,” he explains, “if we create this distraction for the crew, I can seduce the captain and swindle him into giving over the ship!”

“Um,” I am dumbfounded at this logic, “okay…whatever.” I don’t think this will work.

My friend picks up his twenty-sided die and shakes the icosahedron in his hands as he blows for good luck. We hear the rumble of the die as it hits the table, spins, and then stops. The whole group stops and stares at the results. He rolled a nat 20. A nat 20, or natural 20, in D&D is the best dice roll a player can make. This type of roll will allow you to fulfill your goal with perfect grace, while the Dungeon Master adds a positive side effect that will happen as well. In short, my friend succeeds in his attempt to seduce the captain of the ship we are on. All of us, including EJ, are in disbelief. We now have a solid plan, though unconventional.

EJ approves our plan and sets the wheels in motion. My character, Tauris, creates the explosion, the kenku makes the sound, and now, the captain is being “distracted”. While the crew is investigating our explosion, we remove our shackles and get our weapons back. We have succeeded and taken over the ship and its crew. We all stare at the map in front of us. The ship is marked on the grid with an expo marker, and the smell of the expo stings my nose as it mixes with the pizza smell in the room. We watch EJ carefully mark out the borders of the sea as the marker squeaks when he presses too hard.

We listen carefully as EJ continues with the story. We have now reached the docks of a curious land. We rearrange our minis in the order in which we plan to leave the ship. Minis are tiny action figures that look like heroes or the enemies that are introduced through the course of the game. These figures allow the players to plan how fights will work, the marching order into a strange dungeon, and the more minute details that the map lacks. We step off the ship and head toward the open road. However, D&D players cannot carry on for a long time without having to fight some enemy that is attacking for no reason.

“Roll for initiative!” EJ exclaims. This is the part where he will be most involved.

We all respond with groans because we know that the next hour will be consumed with fighting a no-brain giant, much like the one in our party.

“Wait! I want to roll to seduce too!” my friend shouts. She is mostly trying to avoid a fight, and we all know it.

“Really?!?” EJ is exasperated. “Okay, I guess you can try.”

She picks up her die and rolls. Again, we hear the die bounce across the table and hold our collective breath.

“Well,” EJ starts, “not a nat 20, but it’ll get you there, I guess.”

We all laugh at the awkward turn this session has taken. Our giant can divert the attention of our sudden enemy in enough time for the rest of us to get by without a fight. We decide that it is time to take a break. One of my friends runs off to the bathroom (she had waited so as not to miss anything), another brings the tin of Oreos to the table and eats half of what is left, EJ looks over what is coming up next in the story while smugly grinning to himself. I sit and play with my dice as I watch Corey gently place her head on my lap, asking to be petted. EJ’s mom comes out from hiding in her room, away from our noise, to check on us. Someone asks a logistical question about their character, followed by the sound of pages flipping furiously through a Player’s Manual to find their answer. Everyone begins making their way back to the table.

“Alright, from where we left off…” EJ says as we all settle into our seats once again, and he then changes character.

“Well done,” EJ says, having taken on the personality of a warlock named Firebeard who has trapped us in an alternate dimension, “I didn’t think you would make it this far. However, I don’t think you’ll get much farther than what I’m about to put you through.”

EJ lets us know that the scenery around our characters has changed very suddenly. We are now in a chamber with no doors or windows. In the center of this chamber, or dungeon, is a dragon chained to the floor, angry that we have intruded. As we realize that we are going to have to kill this dragon, four skeletons appear in the room, guarding the dragon.

“Roll for initiative. For real this time!” EJ tells us, as one of my friends plays intense fight music from his laptop to give us some much-needed background music.

I roll a nat 20. This means that I not only get to go first, but I also get two turns — a great leg up in a duel against a dragon. I throw two twenty-foot fireballs with my sorcerer’s spellcasting ability and cause crucial damage to the dragon and his skeleton friends. When my turn is over the next person goes, and we continue in a cycle based on our initiative rolls until the dragon is dead or we are.

Each one of us feels the pressure to cause critical damage, cast the best spells and go into a blind rage on this dragon that is trying to end us all. For the next hour, we take turns doing our worst to this enemy until it falls to the floor dead. We have succeeded! We celebrate the end of our game by replaying the events with each other and exclaiming just how much fun we have all had.

“I have a confession, everyone,” EJ says, which draws our attention back to him. “I may have fudged the numbers a bit. You were all doing so well that I wanted to see how far you could get without dying. It turns out you guys killed this dragon three times over before I decided to call it.”

All our jaws drop. Not only have we defeated our first dragon together, but we also demolished it into oblivion. We are champions over this enemy and the wizard who has trapped us with this dragon. We all begin discussing how the game developed and what may have turned out differently with a change of our choices. As our conversations begin to wind down, we pack up and head home, thanking EJ for the adventure.

Although Dungeons and Dragons may be considered an odd pastime, it has changed the way I think about things. I have developed a new place in my imagination that is sacred for all the sorcerers, elves, and wizards I have created. This place is one that I can go to to escape reality and make up stories for out-of-this-world people. Dungeons and Dragons has taught me to open my mind to the unusual and take a chance on the strange. Not only this, but D&D has brought a level of closeness among my friends unimaginable otherwise. We began to work together in new ways and, although we fight like siblings, we can get away from life for a few hours and focus on a world we have created together. At the surface, Dungeons and Dragons may not seem to be much, but D&D can take imaginations and bend them into new forms.

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