By: Dara Edwards

When you think of gaming, what is your first thought? You probably think Call of Duty, Dark Souls, or GTA. Video games, though, are not the only way to play a game. Recently, tabletop RPG’s have been making more of a comeback and while they have always been around, the use of streaming platforms has helped their popularity grow. Dungeons and Dragons, started in 1974 by Wizards of the Coast, is one of the many tabletops RPG’s that exist and one of the most popular aside from Warhammer.

Dungeons and Dragons is usually often referred to simply as “DnD”, and lately it has seen a huge surge in people both playing, watching, and even listening to others play the game. To those that don’t know, the game requires players to create characters under a mythical race and give them a class, or special skills to perform certain actions. Player’s roleplay using their characters and enter combat with great monsters that are sometimes extremely hard to overcome or super easy to defeat. The game allows for creative exploration, giving both players and leaders the power to create their own special weapons and spells to cast. Often, leaders of these games will create an entire world of their own, with their own special monsters, weapons, and non-player characters.

Players use a special set of dice to not only roll for how much damage they can dish out to enemies, but to also roll for actions like stealing or lying. These dice give everything a player does some more chance to it. Sometimes, even with a high rolled number, there is still the possibility that a player’s action could not work. The leaders, called Dungeon Masters, oftentimes must roll on their side as well to both counter actions and dodge them entirely. This chance makes the game extremely exciting for a lot of players, as they never know what their choices lead to.

While players and dungeon masters have the creative freedom to do whatever they want, there are still rules, of course. The rules on what players can and can’t do is up to the dungeon master, as they are leading the game. Some dungeon masters will let you do as many things as you want within reason, but others will stick to strict rules, not allow much room for creative freedom. It entirely depends on who you get leading the game. Regardless of who you have leading the game, it’s always a fun experience.

As mentioned before, Dungeons and Dragons has seen a huge surge within the last few years and there are so many platforms that people can experience it on. Spotify has several podcasts for Dungeons and Dragons. “The Adventure Zone” is one of the many popular podcasts where people can listen to sessions and laugh at the humor involved. “Dimension 20” hosted by College Humor members, is relatively popular on YouTube. The most popular Dungeons and Dragons show, though, has several campaigns, books, and recently an animated show for its campaign. The show is known as Critical Role, hosted by professional voice actor Matthew Mercer, and other professional voice actors play in a huge world created by Mercer himself. The show has a large following on Twitch and is currently in their third campaign. Each of their campaigns has different characters all within this one world. The idea of roleplay in any platform has always had a negative connotation to it, but until people are willing to try it, they may never know the joy it brings to people.

Image Credits: DiceBreaker