Picture this: you and a group of friends walk into a dimly lit room; you can barely see but you hear a noise coming up ahead. You and your friends debate over who should go and check it out, and you can’t figure out who should go first. You think maybe it should be your friend the wizard who can cast magical spells or maybe your strong friend the brute. Instead you take out a 20-sided dice and have each friend roll for initiative, and whoever gets the highest number will check it out first. Oh no! It looks like you had the highest number, so you nervously begin to walk ahead of your friends and you notice something that looks like an oversized lizard. As you get closer you begin to see the shape of…wings? Uh-oh, brave traveler, it seems that you have stumbled upon a dragon.
Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game that has been around since the mid-70s but quickly gained popularity in the 80s and 90s. This game has also been prevalent in pop culture, especially in the show Stranger Things. But not many people know that Rancho has its very own DnD club that meets after school on Wednesdays in Mr. Tootla’s room.
Rufaro Foreman, the club president, said, “DnD club has been up for about a year and a half but I’ve been playing DnD since elementary school.”
Despite this you don’t need to be super experienced to play.
“I’ve been playing DnD since about last year,” said Rafael Sendejas. “I mainly play as a cleric. I like to say it with air quotes because I don’t heal, I just hit things. Usually you’re supposed to heal and stay back, but I like to go up and just hit things.”
There are many roles in DnD. AD Eclarino plays as a ranger.
“Rangers are really good at archery he’s almost like an assassin. My character’s name is Auto Wildgust.”
“I’ve been a dungeon master for a while. A dungeon master is basically a person who looks over a campaign,” Foreman said. “A campaign is basically like a story.”
The current campaign seems to be a big hit amongst the players.
“So right now our campaign is like a medieval time thing, and all of our players have been summoned to see the king who is like a previous jester. The previous king has mysteriously died and the new king wants us to figure out how to cure the plague but since none of us are doctors we need to figure out what happened to the old king,” AD said.
DnD is a very fun and creative activity that anyone can play. It may take learning a few things but everyone in the club is very helpful. If you are interested in playing DnD talk to Rufaro Foreman or AD Eclarino, or stop by the club in Mr. Toola’s room on Wednesday after school.
