One of the many clubs at Camas High School (CHS), the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) club, is getting some new additions to liven up the games throughout the year with help from the Fab Lab.
D&D is a tabletop roleplaying game where people play in a game run by a dungeon master (DM). D&D is a very well-known game, as it was made popular by the show Stranger Things, which Shawn Levy and the Duffer Brothers produced in July 2016. While many people know about D&D worldwide, fewer people in the crowd know how to play the game.
“I think one of the challenges [for new players] is that everybody has heard of D&D, but nobody knows how it’s played,” D&D club advisor and head chef Clay Blakeman said.
Many people are deterred from playing D&D due to not having the resources to play, the knowledge to play, or the time commitment a game takes. Another primary reason is that people get overwhelmed by the number of options when playing D&D, as the whole point of D&D is to have primarily unrestricted freedom to do what the player wants.
“This club is a great starting point, and next year, we’re going to make an even easier starting point with short adventures to bring new members in,” Blakeman said.
“The D&D club is great. It gives me more opportunities to play, which is always fun, along with having other players I interact with,” D&D Club president and senior Nathan Martinez said. “There are a lot of people willing to help you learn and get started, which is always helpful.”
“If you’re trying to get into D&D, [the club] is a good place to learn the ropes and start a dice collection,” D&D Club member and junior Matthew Guptil said. “It’s nice to have people to play with, and those people will help you.”
D&D is a game that primarily plays on the theater of the mind, which means that most of what happens is up to the player’s imagination to picture based on the descriptions given by the DM. While this is the case, there are ways to help players by implementing maps and miniature figures.
“We have a screen we use for the maps and tokens for our characters,” Martinez said.
Using a digital map program, the D&D club can more easily visualize the scenes around them, saving money and time on printing out maps and drawing out the scenes.
“It started as just a TV, and then I took my minimalist woodworking skills and built a picture frame around it,” Blakeman said. “I think it helps engage the players a bit more.”
With help from the Fab Lab, a film was created that perfectly fits into the frame and covers the screen, which allows miniature figures to be placed on the map and creates an even more immersive experience.
D&D is a fun experience anybody could enjoy if they have the time and imagination. The D&D club meets every Thursday after school at the Fab Lab, so anybody can join the club and try playing a game of D&D; they only need to roll the dice to step into a new world.
