Dungeons and Dragons, What’s Up With It?

Written by Wilby Nyo

D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) is a TTRPG (Tabletop roleplaying game) that is quickly gaining traction, but what even is it? And why do people like it so much? Is it worth the hype? Boy, do I have a tale for you!

Hallo! My name’s Wilby (or “Wib” for short), and I use he/it pronouns. I am one of the many local nerds in the WGSS D&D club! Here’s my small, questionable recall of what Dungeons and Dragons is and a little bit of history behind it!!

Dungeons and Dragons was created around 1974 and currently has seven total editions: Original, Advanced, Advanced 2 ED, 3rd ED, 3.5 ED, 4th ED and the most popular and recent, 5th ED. It is a tabletop roleplaying game, now what does that mean? Think of a board game but with roleplay. It’s a very simplified version but it’s not totally inaccurate. TTRPGs are just board games with extra layers and a lot more dice.

Dungeons and Dragons has been around for a long while, but it became much more popular after Stranger Things. I've never watched the show personally, but I know that one of the characters, Eddie, plays D&D. The show is pretty popular, so that got a lot of people interested in the game.

Personally, I found out about D&D and became completely fascinated by it via Tiktok, specifically users like The Rosewood Inn, Dndhart and Quincy’s Tavern! They all make skits and ideas for characters and it captivated my little fantasy-loving twelve-year-old brain immediately!

The players are the people who well, play in the campaign. They create characters with different personalities and builds to embark on a magical journey through mysterious worlds! Now despite how fun and whimsical it may seem, trying to figure out how character creation works is maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done other than 10th-grade math. It’s hard to wrap your head around some of the things in the player's handbook. The PHB (Player’s Handbook) is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a book with the basics of Dungeons and Dragons, rules, character creation, and all that.

So obviously there are players, but who runs the campaign? Well, that would be the game master! The D&D term for game master is dungeon master, but it doesn’t matter which one you choose, they mean the exact same thing. They run the show! Now, there are two types of campaigns you can run. They are module campaigns and homebrew campaigns. Homebrew as a term just means something that is completely original, an example of this would be my Wondrous Adventure campaign set in an Alice in Wonderland-inspired setting. I made the world, I made the characters, and everything in that world is of my own creation! Now a module campaign is also called a book campaign in simpler terms. It is an already written-out campaign usually with many plot hooks and different endings. An example of this is a campaign I am running soon called Wild Beyond the Witchlight which I will end up writing about sometime :)

This is barely scratching the surface on Dungeons and Dragons, there’s so many details and so much work that goes into different campaigns and characters and the community is so welcoming and fun! Collaborative storytelling is a whole different level of bonding trust me. All of my closest friends are people I’ve met through D&D, and I adore them all. It’s a great place for creatives and anyone who loves a good story to collaborate and bond!

So maybe you’d like to give it a try? Roll some dice and make some friends! Mayhaps read the next thing I write?

And remember, all will be well :)!