Don't Live Life on DND, Try D&D! by Aubryn Owen

With the rise of Stranger Things, D&D has been pretty enthusiastically ushered into the spotlight. A hobby that was once viewed as deeply “nerdy” has been welcomed into the zeitgeist of mainstream media. But what is it really?  

D&D, or Dungeons and Dragons if you want to longhand it, has been around since roughly the 1970s and has grown in popularity from that point on. D&D is a tabletop role-play game that’s typically played between 4+ people. Players make characters; choosing from a list of fantastical races, classes, and backgrounds to determine who they want to be, then play through a story run by a DM (or Dungeon Master). But of course, that’s too easy, so when a player wants to do something they have to roll a dice to see how well they can accomplish whatever it is they’ve set out to do, which is where the iconic symbol for the game the D20 (twenty-sided die) comes from. Then, the question is, well, what adventures can you go on? A DM can run what is called a module, which is a prewritten adventure that comes in the form of a book, or they can do what’s called a homebrew campaign which is an adventure they’ve come up with on their own. It’s completely up to the DM’s discretion what they want to run.  

Now that I’ve given the most base level explanation of the game, let’s get into how you can get started playing! First and foremost is finding a group. Like I said in the beginning, D&D has been rocketing up in popularity and it’s fairly easy to do a quick search for people looking for a group, and you’ll find one. Or, if online isn’t your thing, check your local library! As for resources, because you will need them for character creation, it’s easy to feel like you’re blocked out of some really cool content because you just don’t have money for the books, but there’s tons of free online sources for everything from spells, races, and even extra classes with just a few buttons. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, you might just find your new favorite hobby!