The roll of dice. The laughter of friends. The world of Dungeons & Dragons.
D&D, as the famous tabletop game is commonly called, has hooked millions of players around the world for decades due to its collaborative gameplay and immersive storytelling. Despite the mystery of what each session has in store, D&D players always know that fun is right around the corner.
One such player is Ashton Boyer, a sophomore marketing major at Taylor University.
Boyer started playing D&D over a year ago when some of his friends from work invited him. He’s now approaching his 48th session.
“There’s always just this excitement about it,” he said. “My friends and I often talk outside of the session about what our ideas are for how we are going to go back into the campaign.”
At first, Boyer was confused by the quantity of rules and mechanics. However, he grew to appreciate the game’s free-form design, which allows players to create characters who exist in the world of the Dungeon Master, or DM.
As a creative and artistic person, Boyer enjoys thinking outside of the box while playing D&D.
“Instead of creating something from scratch, I see what’s already there and say, ‘What would pair well with that?’” he said. “That’s a fun challenge.”
Other challenges, such as trying to be an effective party member, also provide intrigue and difficulty to D&D players. Many of these challenges arise from conflicting goals and values due to unique character backstories.
As a professional writing minor, Boyer recognizes the challenge of writing characters.
“Sometimes you notice the errors in your writing after you’ve started playing and you realize, ‘Oh, this character is kind of boring,’” he said. “It’s interesting seeing errors in the character later on, but that helps you learn and develop better characters along the way.”
These different narrative approaches are the backbone of a campaign, or a series of adventures within a D&D world, and lead to surprising outcomes.
Boyer said the fear of character death is common during each session.
“There have been times where I’ve gotten genuinely nervous,” he said. “I have anxiety because there is a chance that my character could actually die, and it nearly happened.”
This anxiety underlines an important part of D&D: character development. Like many players, Boyer wants his character to be fully “fleshed out” before they die or leave the campaign. The constant struggle to preserve characters in the face of great danger and uncertainty is what keeps players engaged in the DM’s world and story.
Another aspect of D&D that captivates players is the opportunity for hilarious moments. While on their way to defeat the Big Bad Evil Guy known as the Madman, Boyer and his friends took a significant detour.
“We kind of snuck in, pretending like we were a part of the city, and we eventually found that there was this massive show going on,” Boyer said. “I wore this costume that looked like a really big, pink Teletubby that I found in a box near the stage. I went out with my trumpet, and I rolled a really high number for performance.” The crowd went wild. It was a total derailment of everything.”
As a writer, Boyer notes how D&D helps him envision his own stories, especially for fiction writing. He is able to collaborate with the DM to add influential figures and story arcs.
Boyer also has advice for beginners and aspiring players.
“I would suggest to newer players to start with something simple so it doesn’t stress them out early on. Some classes like wizard require you to know a lot about the game (and) the spells, which will be overwhelming to new players. So, I would recommend them to try and pick something simple and just enjoy the game.”
