Dungeons & Dragons is an exciting new club at RHS, bringing the classic role-playing board game to a new generation of fantasy-loving nerds.
How It Started
Senior club president Gerald Creighton, alumna Emma Underwood (’24) and several members of their nerdy crew started the club two years ago. At first, the club consisted of just Creighton and his friends bringing their own D&D board games into school and playing during lunchtime.
Soon, Option II teacher Stephen Cullis, the current club advisor, and school aid Steven Larson encouraged the students to take it to the next level—with Cullis sharing some books on the game and Larson acting as the Dungeon Master (DM)—and try turning it into an officially sanctioned club.
Last year, Creighton and Underwood worked hard to do just this, publicizing the club to generate enough student interest to make it viable. One hurdle Creighton and his OG team faced was making D&D seem accessible to students who had never played before and might see the game as being too complex for them to master.
“[We formed the D&D Club to] help other people learn how to play without going through that same feeling of being overwhelmed by something that’s supposed to be fun,” Creighton explained.
He noted that he too had initially felt intimidated by the unique challenges of game, but he overcame it with the help of his friends, and he wanted others to benefit from that same positive experience.
How It Works
D&D is a role-playing game where the players create the characters themselves, choosing from several races like human, orc, dragonkin or space ooze; classes including wizard, rogue, paladin or barbarian; and subclasses, which might require a response to the following question: Do you want to be a dragon-wizard creature that spits fire or blows people around with its wings?
The players create backstories for their characters and use a special die to determine the characters’ stats; that is, how the characters interact with the fantasy world and its monsters.
D&D teams have anywhere from two to 10 players. Although there is no strict number, teams generally average between four and eight members and are headed by designated DMs.
The DMs have the fun task of using their imagination to create and control the world where everyone plays. This includes designing a challenging campaign through which the characters must successfully navigate to win the game.
In the process, the characters face obstacles, defeat enemies, slay monsters, complete tasks and sometimes even face death, although reincarnation is possible. The players then control whatever happens to their characters in this world, just like mini gods.
“It gives people an opportunity to get together and interact with one another in a setting that’s not real,” Cullis said. “When you take on a different character, and you’re put into a situation, often times you’ll act totally differently than you would as a real person.”
How It’s Going
The D&D club now has 28 members, including many freshmen, who enjoy a thriving gaming community. The club welcomes all players, no matter their level of experience. One purpose of the club is to give new players the opportunity to experiment with the game in an environment that features knowledgeable DMs and more experienced players to help guide them.
Freshman Weston King joined the club to “see if it’s fun; all of my friends are joining.” King said he was happy to find that the club has “a whole group for beginners.” Since joining, he said he has developed a passion for D&D, a game that might have otherwise have seemed too cryptic and alienating for him to learn.
The club generally meets once or twice a week during unit lunch in one or more of three rooms adjacent to the library–Rooms 269, 267 and/or 213—at a time determined by the DM for each individual team.
Creighton leads the meetings. “Once we get an understanding of the group’s dynamics, then we split everyone off into their own separate groups based on what they want to do,” he said.
After each group is formed, the DM introduces the new groupmates, and works with the group to select a meeting time and place, decide how long a campaign will take (hijinks notwithstanding) and determine the game rules.
Of course, it’s not long before the DM whips out the D&D board and the real fun begins.
To join the Dungeons & Dragons club, RHS students can contact Stephen Cullis via Teams to be assigned to a group and receive the corresponding meeting schedule.
