Dungeons and Dragons
An exercise in collaborative storytelling inside alternative realities
Your heart is racing. Sweat beads down the back of your neck. Everything is riding on this one moment. This is Life or Death. You can feel them surround you. A flash of grinning yellow teeth. Beady red eyes. They will kill you if you fail. You pick up the stone, hoping to all the gods of the world that you succeed. You close your eyes as you roll the stone. There is a moment of silence as you slowly open your eyes. You peer down at the bright blue die to see a…1
The goblins attack and you die
The world of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) has been a part of people’s lives since the 70s but remains one of the most popular games. The idea of being someone new has always appealed to people. Many teens and young adults have started playing this game, creating different DnD memes and fandoms. With the use of technology, we are able to play DnD with anyone and anywhere. Despite my fascination with the game, Dungeons and Dragons seemed like a daunting task to learn with my uber structured routine, both at home and school. However, when the Corona crisis hit the world, it seemed that most of us had too much time on our hands.
A lot of my friends and teachers are avid DnD players and when our school shut down, they all decided to start a new campaign and I thought “Well why not?”
That was the first mistake.
Once you enter the world of DnD, there is no escape. Soon all my social media feed was being overtaken with DnD class memes or Tik Toks about various campaigns.
Despite the excessive fanbase, DnD has given me a new sense of camaraderie with the people around me. It used to seem as if the technology was the one thing that was keeping everyone apart, but with the quarantine now it’s the only thing tying us together.
So, what exactly makes DnD so exciting and exhilarating? The ability to escape reality, even for just a few hours, helps people cope with the daily stresses of life. People can dream up their own fantasy character from scratch, and live a whole different life in an alternative world of imagination. But all of this creative freedom begs the question; how can you structure a game in which anyone can do anything they want?
It is easier than you would expect. The way a DnD campaign works is that there is one Dungeon Master, and approximately 3–5 other players. The Dungeon Master (DM) is in charge of creating the storyline for the players to follow. Oftentimes, new DMs will follow premade campaigns, which provide the general outline as well as the major combats the players might run into. However, more experienced DMs can create their own storyline to follow. The DM is also in charge of playing all Non-Player Characters (NPCs) such as enemy wolves or lazy barmaids. All NPCs have their own character sheets detailing their strengths and weaknesses.
While the DM is in charge of many minor characters, each player only has to focus on one major character. As a DnD player, the first thing you do is create your personalized character. Now, although DnD is very creative, there are still rules you have to follow when you define your character. It wouldn’t be fair to create a super-powerful Elf Queen that is on a Level one quest to fight a couple of wolves.
The first thing you need to consider when starting a new character is class and race. This helps to determine the character’s background. Many people choose their class based on whether they want to be a magic-user or not or a religious person. There are many different deities in DnD, and the various classes have specific relationships with them. For example, you might be a Warlock, who was gifted powers through a badly struck deal with a minor deity, or you might be a Rogue who only believes in the cruelty of the people around them. Certain classes are known for different values. Bards are known to be flirtatious artisans while Barbarians are considered dimwitted tanks. Wizards are intelligent magic users while Clerics are the religious fighters for a certain God or Goddess. It is possible to combine classes, which is called “multi-classing” but for most new players, it’s recommended to start off with one distinct class.
Once a player chooses a class, they must choose a race. There are many different DnD races but the most common are Human, Elf, and Halfling. Each race has a certain set of features that either help or prevent them from performing certain tasks. For example, elves have Dark Vision meaning that they are able to see in the dark, whereas other races may not. There are several less common races such as Tieflings, Kitsunes, and Goliaths. Some of these are so unique that there are still ongoing debates on whether or not these races should be allowed in campaigns. However, if your group’s DM is ok with it, you can play any race you desire.
Now that the player has determined their class and race, they are able to come up with some form of backstory for their character. This will help them in the roleplaying aspect of the game so that they can think about how their character would react to different situations. For example, one of my characters is a high elf sorcerer that was abused by her parents because they wanted her to become their personal weapon of destruction. Because of this, she has never really known love or trusted people, so in a circumstance where she is meeting a new NPC, she may act hostile and even attack if she feels threatened in any way.
A character’s backstory also helps determine their alignment. DnD alignment charts are as shown below.
There are two main measures in the alignment chart. Lawful-Chaotic and Good-Evil. The more lawful the character is, the more likely they follow a code or list of rules. However, whether the laws they follow are considered good or not determines their position on the chart. A character that is chaotic is more of a free spirit. They do not like being told what to do, but being chaotic doesn’t automatically mean you have to be evil. Chaotic Good characters are those that perform good tasks based on what they deem good versus evil. The definition of good may not adhere to societal norms.
Once a player creates their character, the DM will give them a basic starting point telling them what surrounds them and different clues. Players can ask questions about different parts of the story, but the DM doesn’t necessarily need to answer. The player must do a skill check to perform different actions. If the player wants to ask about a certain artifact, they would roll one 20-sided die (1d20). If they rolled high enough, they would be told more information about the artifact. Throughout the game, players can perform various actions without any restrictions, as long as they pass the skills check needed. However, this only applies to moments in the story outside of direct combat.
DnD combat is structured so that every single moment in the fight is in slow motion. This allows characters to play out all actions or moves in the fight sequence. All players and NPCs roll 1d20 for initiative, which determines the order in which they perform actions. The higher a character’s initiative, the earlier they are able to act. Right before every fight, or provocation, all plays involved in the fight must roll for initiative. When it is a character’s turn in the combat sequence they are allowed to move a certain amount of tiles and perform one action. This can be a spell attack or physical attack. For every act, the player must roll to determine whether they hit their target, then roll again to determine the amount of damage done. If an enemy character comes within range and attacks a character, the character can retaliate, even if it is not their turn in combat. All of these actions and reactions help create a well balanced and engaging fight sequence.
Now whether or not you play DnD for the imaginative storyline or the funny memes, it’s a place for everyone. All you need to get started in the world of DnD is to grab a few friends and find an exciting story to play out, and before you know it, you will be sucked into the world of your imagination. All I know is that for me it provided a welcome relief to connect with my friends and teachers online when we were all isolated at home.
My friends and I use a software called Discord to call and stream our online DnD campaign. Discord is mainly used for in-game calls for games like Fortnite, Overwatch, or R6, and since we all like to waste our lives away on video games, it was the easiest option for us, as we all had Discord accounts. Many people will use a platform called Roll20 to host the battle maps, as well as for calling purposes. We used a game on Steam called Tabletop Simulator in which the DM can place different characters and maps. Anything you can do on a table, you can do on the Tabletop Simulator, and I mean anything. It allows users to have more freedom than one might have in Roll20 maps. On the other hand, it also means that users can have way too much freedom.
A couple of weeks ago, I was playing in a DnD campaign that consisted of a Tiefling Bard, Goliath Barbarian, and Gnome Artificer. As we were attacked by a giant centipede, both the Goliath and Gnome tried to kill the beast, yet were unsuccessful. Soon, the centipede dealt enough damage that the Goliath was down to negative hit points (hp) or health. Until that moment, the Tiefling had decided not to intervene. One of the spells used by Bards is called Vicious Mockery. It is what is known as a Cantrip, or a spell that can be performed without repercussions. It is a relatively low power spell, but in this circumstance, what the players did not know was that the giant centipede was one hp away from dying. So when the Tiefling cast this traditionally useless spell on the centipede, and literally insulted the beast to death, the Goliath player became enraged and flipped the table in the Tabletop Simulator, to the dismay of our DM. Everyone was laughing about it until they realized they would have to pick up all the pieces virtually and reset the board.
This illustrates how DnD allows people to overcome normal societal restrictions. In real life, if you ever get mad at your teacher, you can have your DM add them into the storyline as an evil dragon, and you can defeat them in a glorious battle. When you can’t find the courage to ask your crush out, you can create an NPC based on them and cast charm spells. Soon, you will let that wall of depression fall down and realize that you never had a chance with them in real life. Through the world of DnD, anything and everything is possible.
