(courtesy of Wizards of the Coast LLC)
With a throw of the dice a player’s fate is determined.
This isn’t your average board game. This is Dungeons and Dragons and its players are part of the game.
Andrew Parliment, a 19-year-old freshman chemical and biological engineering major, said he has played since sophomore year in high school. He said he began to play because a friend introduced it to him and he loved it. He now is the Dungeon Master of his own group at CU.
“The Dungeon Master creates the story to the game being played,” Parliment said. “The game itself provides all of the rules needed to play, sometimes altered to the preferences of the D&D group, but the adventure is produced by the Dungeon Master.”
According to Wikipedia, Dungeons and Dragons was released in 1974. In the game, everyone chooses a character and goes on a quest. The dice determine random chances, such if the player is hit by an attack. Players travel in a fantasy world, gain levels and find equipment that make them stronger against attacks.
Jessica Garret, a 19-year-old sophomore open-option major, said she has been playing D&D for about a year.
“[In D&D] you create a character that specializes in a particular form of combat and go on adventures with other people to defeat monsters, find treasure and save the world,” Garret said. “Dice rolls determine how successful you are at actions you choose to take in the game and you’d better be ready to contribute ideas and think outside the box.”
Parliment and Garret are in the same D&D group, which meets once a week. There are five members in their group and sessions last about five hours.
Parliment said he is well aware of the stereotype surrounding the typical Dungeons and Dragons player.
“I think American youth culture has an attitude of ‘You can do whatever you want, as long as you are not a nerd,’” Parliment said. “I have most definitely met D&D players I don’t particularly want to be associated with, but I would imagine that is true in any sub culture. I do think it is however unfair that D&D players are not stereotyped as being these buff, ruggedly handsome bad-asses who get all the girls. I for one am just a normal Giants fan, who enjoys working on his computer, enjoys Calculus, is obsessed with Japanese culture and wears glasses.”
Garret said she agrees with Parliment and said she and her friends joke about the stereotype.
“The people I’ve played D&D with have been so diverse that the typical D&D player with seven bags of Funyuns and Mountain Dew stains on their shirt’ stereotype is totally silly,” Garret said. “This caricature is something we’re aware of, sure, but it’s mostly invoked as a kind of self-deprecating humor when we do happen to open up a bag of Funyuns. Most of the D&D players I know are normal, average people. We know full well that rolling many-sided dice and pretending to be wizards is pretty ridiculous, but that’s half the fun of it.”
Garret also said that D&D players are seen as anti-social.
“No matter what anyone says, D&D is actually quite social,” Garret said. “The fact that, yes, it’s a nerdy fantasy game where you can pretend to be an elf, but that doesn’t take away the fact that you’re playing it face-to-face with other people. It’s very different from spending hours playing video games by yourself; you can’t just go to D&D and never talk. You are expected to contribute and interact with everyone there.”
D&D is a role-playing game, meaning the players act out the characters they create. Parliment said this is one of his favorite parts of the game.
“My favorite part of D&D has to be the immersion of the game,” Parliment said. “In a standard video game, you inevitably have limited options as to what you can say to other characters, but in D&D you are always talking to real people, so there is a more open range of responses. Also, the game allows for a less rigid story line, since it is usually created as the game progresses, so the characters actions can alter the outcome of the game, whereas most video games have one ending.”
Parliment shared an example of what he said was one of his funnier D&D games.
“A player who was playing a Warlock, a type of spell caster, was in the crowed and used his magic to make it appear as though the sword had impaled him,” Parliment said. “The townspeople freaked out and called the town guards, and the Warlock, unsure what to do, got up and indicated he was okay. The guards thought that the Warlock had come back as a zombie, so they moved to attack him. In response, he decided to do jazz hands to indicate it was all a magic trick. However he rolled poorly and was unable to stop the guards from attacking. In the end the whole party ended up running for their lives. Our favorite quote of that day was, ‘Sorry, but you are unable to impress the guards with your jazz hands.’”
Sarah Stoeck, a 18-year-old sophomore chemical and biological engineering major, said she began playing D&D this year.
“It’s fun and a good way to meet friends,” Stoeck said. “It’s a great way to unwind and it’s funny to play. D&D is a weird way to spend the night.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Brigid Igoe at Brigid.igoe@colorado.edu.
