About Dungeons & Dragons

What is Dungeons & Dragons?

You’ve seen Stranger Things, you’ve seen those episodes of Riverdale, but what exactly is Dungeons & Dragons?

Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) that is commonly considered the first modern role-playing game. This is all just a fancy way of saying that you pretend to be a character in a fictional setting with your friends.

So D&D is like a video game?

Sort of! Your characters have abilities and spells, and the game is governed by sets of rules much like a video game.

But what makes D&D unique is the level of customizability: unlike a video game, which might have linear paths, out-of-bound areas, or static dialogues, the world in your tabletop campaign is as limitless as your creativity!

An innkeeper gives you a quest to defeat some goblins that have been marauding the village. You can go do that and return for your reward. You can refuse and find a different quest. Or you can join the goblin horde and take over the village – it’s a game where you can try anything!

Awesome! I want to assassinate the king and rule the world!

Well, you can certainly try. Like we talked about, there are rules, and therefore limitations to what you may actually be able to accomplish. That’s where your dice come in: any time you want to try and do something, whether it’s tracking a monster in the forest, discerning whether the thief you’ve met can be trusted, or even slaying a monarch, you will have to roll to see how well you do.

Most of these rolls will be with a 20-sided die (a D20), but there are certain exceptions. If you roll very high, you might just be able to accomplish what you set out to do! But if you roll exceptionally low, you could be in for trouble, as the monster gets the drop on your group, or the thief backstabs you, or the monarch spots you and calls his guards.

Oh, so D&D is just a game of chance?

Not quite – your character will have strengths and weaknesses that will grow as you play the game and level up. The stealthy Dwarven rogue might have better luck sneaking up on a guard, while the observant Orcish wizard might notice traps hidden in a dungeon.

That’s where your party comes in: the strengths of your character will help propel the group forward, while any shortcomings are covered by your friends. D&D is a game where you collaborate, combining your skills and compensating for each other’s weaknesses in order to explore the world and accomplish your goals.

Great! I have my friends, my character sheet, and my dice – what else do I need?

You’re almost good to go! The last thing you’ll need is a Dungeon Master (DM). The DM serves as both the world you explore and your guide – they will present your party with quests, they will describe the world you see and the people you meet, and they will be the enemies and allies you make along the way.

And that’s my job: as your DM, I will help guide you through the world of D&D, clarifying rules as necessary and providing storylines and monsters that will keep you and your friends on the edges of your seats, as you dive into the deepest dungeons and battle the most dangerous monsters.