By Kaleen Luu
Fantasy roleplaying is an immersive experience that the new Dungeons and Dragons club on campus is happy to explore.
Ava Brodsky, a first-year pre-film major, is currently in the process of having the D&D club registered through the university to be an officially recognized club.
“Dungeons and Dragons is a super fun roleplaying game where you make a character and you are that character when you play,” Brodsky said. “Sometimes if you want to do something, you have to ask the [dungeon master] for permission. It’s kind of like real life.”
The premise of D&D, a tabletop roleplaying game, is that it’s run by a DM who creates a universe and players create their own roles in that universe. The DM is in charge of overseeing the campaign and a storyline that can last over a year. A campaign can last as long as it takes, unless all the characters die or the characters get to level 20, the highest level in the game.
“Depending on how you roll the dice, and how you roleplay, you can fight monsters or explore new places and it’s really, really fun. It’s like being in an adventure novel,” Brodsky said. “I encourage beginners to try it; it’s not that hard, it’s really easy to get into [but] you might just hooked forever.”
The idea behind the D&D club began when Brodsky met design graduate student, Josh Ian at Smorgasport last month.
“I met Ava and I jumped at the opportunity to make friends because I’m new here,” Ian said. “I overheard her and her friends talking about D&D and it was like a chain reaction in that line because four people around us started getting into this conversation.”
Brodsky started playing D&D two years ago. When she arrived at Long Beach State, she realized there was only a video gaming club. This sparked the idea of forming her own club.
“I think what D&D lets you do is explore new paths,” Ian said. “It’s almost like an alternate reality where you’re trying things out and seeing it from a different perspective.”
According to Brodsky, she printed 40 flyers to advertise the launch of the club and was “overwhelmed” by the number of responses.
“I thought maybe 10 people would show up but so far, there’s been 44 people that showed up,” Brodsky said.
The D&D club has multiple campaigns set up for different levels of player experience.
“My favorite part is the roleplaying because you’re interacting with people at the table,” club member and first-year pre-communication major Dylan Barber said, “It’s not just roll some dice and do a thing, it’s acting it out and telling a collaborative story, and I think that’s a really cool feeling to have.”
The concepts of D&D are endless and players are only limited by their imagination. The immersive game has players take on various missions and is an easy way for people to make friends.
“Join and if it’s not for you, you can always drop out, but you will meet people and if you get into it [then] you will be able to strip away and get into character,” Barber said. “It feels like you’re in a storybook. You are the hero defeating the dragon, you are the person.”
The D&D club meets in USU 307, Fridays at 7:30 p.m.
