“Dungeons and Dragons,” a game created in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, has again spiked in popularity due to its role in modern retro media, like Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” With the addition of the internet, which allows easy access to the handbook, this complex game has also become easier to learn.
In D&D, there are two roles: the “player” or the “dungeon master.” If you’re a player, you begin by making a character with either the handbook or if you’re more experienced, from scratch. You pick a race for your character, a class and create a personality. It can be pretty fun coming up with character ideas. Maybe you’re two gnomes on top of each other under your armor and have a strong moral compass. But your party is always suspicious of you, and you must keep deceiving them so they don’t discover the truth.
If you end up as the dungeon master, you are blessed but also cursed. You get to create the world around your players and do whatever you want with it, but you don’t get to experience it like the players. The pros do outway the cons though, you get complete creativity over your world. Maybe you don’t want to play in a medieval fantasy setting; perhaps you want to play in 2100 where everything is digital. Either way, the possibilities are endless. You may not get to be the players, but you do get to play as every enemy, friend and other things in their adventure.
In short, both roles are great. Being the player, you get to play as the main character of a world that revolves around you, and being the dungeon master, you get to create a world that your friends get to play in and write their stories. D&D isn’t just that nerdy fantasy game; it’s a world of imagination that’s perfect for anyone willing to play.