Grab your swords, adventurers! Riverside’s Dungeons and Dragons club is a huge hit this year, more than doubling its players. The club, started by Foods teacher Mr. Cary Brett, meets in room 126 at lunch on Wednesdays and Thursdays. As the name indicates, participants play the classic Dungeons and Dragons game of rolling dice and character building. The club is always welcoming new members, be they rookies or veteran players.
“We started off with a lot of people, at the very start of the club. A lot of people dropped out, but by the end of the year we had a core group of 10 guys who knew the game well enough to run their own games,” Brett stated. “With all the new players this year, we’re running three different campaigns instead of just one.”
Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop game in which one player has the role of the ‘Dungeon Master’, creating a storyline for the rest of the players. Each player creates a character with various equipment and abilities, and roleplays as that character within the story the Dungeon Master has set. The story often is changed on the fly, with the Dungeon Master reacting to the actions of the players. Combat is determined by, of course, the rolling of the dice.
“It’s a really easy game to get into, the core of the game is really storytelling. Even though the Dungeon Master sets how the story begins, every player can influence how it ends,” said Jarrett Cooledge, a student in the club. “Of course, there’s also the occasional throw of the dice and the inevitable anger and laughter at the results.”
“I figured there might be some students out of Riverside’s 1400 kids who were interested in Dungeons and Dragons, and I wanted to give an area for them to hang out and play something with others who are passionate about the game,” said Brett. “I think that Dungeons and Dragons is a really good way to allow people to socially interact with others while playing a really fun game. You get to interact with other players a lot in comparison to many other games, especially computer games, where interaction is minimal.”
