My brother played Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) in 2008, and now I am playing DnD with my friend group in 2022. When I was in high school, DnD was cringey and exclusively for nerds. I thought that the mini figurines and the grid maps were for loners, but now, especially with COVID-19 pushing us all to invest in past hobbies and indulge in our cringiest passions, DnD has enjoyed a resurgence that I want to share with the rest of campus.
DnD is a role-playing game for groups of ideally 4-8 people. There is one person who creates the story — the campaign — and this person is referred to as the Dungeon Master (DM). The campaign can take place in a DnD-established location or be entirely made up. The rest of the players create Original Characters (OC) that have backgrounds, weapons, personalities, and probably a funny appearance since most DnD characters are fantasy-based.
The campaign is basically a novel in length and complexity of plot, and the players travel through this novel to battle enemies and achieve their goals. Along the way, you can do side quests or just mess around. Heck, I’ve heard of OCs who impregnate other characters!
The point is, the campaign is all up to the DM and the players. It’s completely home-grown — unless you pick a premade campaign — and players will get absolutely attached to their OCs. The best part of these campaigns is that they can be as long or as short as you want. I have heard of campaigns that only take 10 hours if you’re testing the waters. However,
campaigns
can keep your
friends occupied for years. My group meets once a week for two hours, and I think my campaign will last over a year.
The best part of DnD is its ability to build community within your friend group. You’re all working together, being goofy, and building a story. It’s fun and interactive. DnD was made to bring friends together and make Friday evenings something of legends. Especially, in the age of COVID-19, DnD could save some of our friend groups from dying in isolation.
I play DnD with people from St. Olaf, the University of Minnesota, and Chicago. We play on Zoom — something previously unimaginable in the DnD fandom. We have a Google Drive for all of our campaign’s information, and I share my screen to show grids and other fun things I can do in Google Slides. We still enjoy the classics of DnD from a COVID-safe distance — and an even greater distance for the people who don’t go to St. Olaf.
All of this sounds great, I’m sure, but I think most people are still turned off by how fantastical and nerdy the game sounds. Admittedly, it is a bit strange to role-play for the first time. However, I want to assure everyone out there that DnD can literally be anything you want.
You can play DnD without role-playing, and you can make up everything from location to playable characters. If you wanted to have a campaign that takes place in Northfield with only human characters, you could do that! You could change combat rules and add more classes for your characters. DnD only has established rules for the people who like them. If the only thing stopping you from playing is the rules, drop the rules and make your own.
Our generation has gone through a lot of nerdy, cringey fandoms. DnD was definitely something that we all shamed at one point in our lives, but it’s time to accept that this game is not just for nerds — it’s for everyone. If you are looking for something to do with your podmates or friend group, I highly recommend playing DnD.
Karen Larionova is from Eden Prairie, Minn.
Her majors are English, Education, and Russian.
