I’m sure many people have at least heard of the notorious tabletop roleplay game, “Dungeons and Dragons.” It’s referenced in the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things” and if you’ve seen any movie from the 80s and 90s, I can almost guarantee that the stereotypical nerds played this game. This game used to be one that the nerds played in the basement away from the judgment of their peers, but not all nerds have freckles, glasses, a lisp, and love math and computers.
https://pixabay.com/photos/dice-d-d-dungeons-and-dragons-3380228/
Dungeons and Dragons is a game that I play religiously with my friends. I’ve been playing with this group for a year now, but they’ve been together for far longer. I would not consider any of us the stereotypical ‘nerd’ from the 80s. Our ranks span from work in the military, a DJ, service, chefs, and ER scribes. All of us have ‘nerdy’ tendencies, but on the outside, none of us would be pegged as such.
photo credit: heath_bar http://www.flickr.com/photos/29789073@N00/46570300792″>D20 in the shade of orange. via http://photopin.com”>photopin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>(license)
Getting started on creating a character is a little bit of a daunting task. First, you have to decide which gender, race, and class that you want to be. The next part of character design is the most important, the background. This background defines what motivates your character, their personality, their weird addictions, their flaws. This background IS your character and you can get as creative as you want. I’ve had previous characters that were runaway slaves, protectors of an ancient forest, and the daughter of a miller. These backgrounds are the foundation of how you roleplay your character.
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/fairy-elf-pixie-sprite-fantasy-2204617/
The next thing to know about D&D is how the sessions are set up. Most DMs have different campaigns set out with certain ‘villains’ and monsters to fight. How a lot of DMs that I know set up their worlds is that they have a map set up and certain types of monsters in different parts of the world. They set up NPCs in specific places, some are more important than others.
The biggest challenges to D&D would be finding a day when all the players have an opening in their schedule. On a personal level, the hardest part is keeping up with your character’s personality, this includes any accent that you might create or anything of the such.
Dungeons and Dragons is a great creative outlet that allows people to connect with others through a mutual love for pretending to be someone else. This game is a great device for getting laughs out and wasting hours away.