Who Explores the Dungeon?

    

    The town is on fire, people are disappearing at night, and the nobles cannot seem to agree on anything, so who will come to save the day? The tabletop game, Dungeons & Dragons, gives you the chance to be the hero and save the day alongside your friends. Dungeons & Dragons, also known more commonly by the community as D&D, is a roleplaying game in which one player, known as the Dungeon Master or DM, acts as the games narrator and referee while the other players act as characters of their own creation in the story. And although Wizards of the Coast, the company who has invented this game, makes prewritten stories for groups to play, they provide enough material that anyone who wishes can write their own story, also known as a campaign, as well. The game was first created in 1974 (5) and has since gathered a massive throng of fans whether they have been there since the beginning or are only now just learning to play. But besides playing the game, what exactly do these fans do?

Make-Your-Own Monster

    One of the most common things fans participate in is designing their own items and monsters to play in the game which is also known as homebrew. The limit of what homebrew creations can do is only capped by the imagination of who created it. Many people often post their creations on different platforms such Instagram and Reddit to share with others in the community while some even make money of their creations by selling what is known as the stat block, the rules of how something works, of the item or monster online. In fact, just like how Wizards of the Coast sells their own prewritten stories, quite a few people out there write and sell their own campaigns.

To Tell a Story

Another part of Dungeons and Dragons that fans participate in is the storytelling aspect of the game. There are many podcasts, YouTube channels, and other mediums that people use to share their campaign schenanigans with the community. For instance, if one were to search on Google Podcasts, they would find well over a hundred different podcasts with different themes ranging form the classic Dungeons and Dragons to one of my personal favorites, Of Mice and Men and Monsters, which turns classic pieces of literature into campaigns (6).

Of Mice and Men and Monsters logo (8)

The same situation applies to YouTube with one of the most famous channels, Critical Role, currently having 1.97 million subscribers and one of the campaigns from the channel has become its own animated cartoon (2). In fact, the dungeon master for this channel, Matt Mercer, is one of the most well-known faces of the community other than the creators at Wizards of the Coast and is renowned for his story telling capabilities. As for other mediums besides online videos and podcasts, "Tripod," a group that plays Australian Filk music, has made a Dungeons and Dragons stage musical. The stage has a raised platform on which those acting as the players sit while their characters act out the campaign on the stage itself (1).

Gear up

As I have mentioned multiple times previously, creating a character is one part of the game and many players like to take it one step further by cosplaying as their character. These costumes can range from something cobbled together with things they own, to elaborate creations made from scratch. It is also not uncommon for people to use face paint and latex prosthetics in order to look more like their character. I have participated in this part of the fandom myself by sewing a costume for a friend's carnival themed campaign. People also make costumes based on characters from other campaigns, a popular one being Jester from one of Critical Role's campaigns. People will often wear their cosplays at conventions or just as a fun activity with their fellow players.

My D&D Cosplay

                A Cosplayer's Jester Outfit

Roll Them Bones

Speaking of making things, another popular activity in the fandom is making dice. The results of most of your actions in Dungeons and Dragons are determined by rolling various dice and while any dice set can do, some people decided to get more creative than that. Some use dice molds to make dice out of resin which can result in interesting colors and patterns while they will sometimes suspend items in the resin such as glitter or even little rubber ducks. Others make them out of metal which can result in more intricate designs. It is fairly common to collect dice sets in the community that the phrase, "dice goblin," is used to refer to someone who has a massive collection of dice.

Rubber Ducky Dice (9)

Metal Dice (7)

Works Cited

Chand, Neeraj. “Til: 24 Things about Dungeons and Dragons Only True Fans Know.” TheGamer, 17 Aug. 2018, https://www.thegamer.com/dungeons-and-dragons-things-players-know/#there-s-actually-a-d-amp-d-stage-musical.

“Critical Role.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 May 2018, https://www.youtube.com/@criticalrole.

Di, Ginny. Jester in Real Life - Critical Role Cosplay. YouTube, YouTube, 3 Oct. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTXu5VKwVgc&list=PLsmjZYZs1ps2zlNeuLGmqZfzBsklZSegj. Accessed 1 May 2023.

“Dungeons & Dragons Logo.” Dungeons & Dragons: Official Home of the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game, https://dnd.wizards.com/. Accessed 2023.

“Dungeons & Dragons.” Dungeons & Dragons Home Page, University of Southern California, 2021, https://viterbi-web.usc.edu/~mkperlmu/itp104/assignment_05/interests_page_gallery_layout.html#:~:text=Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons%20(commonly%20abbreviated%20as,by%20Tactical%20Studies%20Rules%2C%20Inc.

Google, Google, https://podcasts.google.com/search/D%26D.

“Hollow Metal Skull RPG Dice Set.” Awesome Dice, 2023, https://www.awesomedice.com/products/hollow-metal-skull-rpg-dice-set. Accessed 2023.

“Of Mice and Men and Monsters Logo.” Of Mice and Men and Monsters, Of Mice and Men and Monsters, 2020, https://www.omamam.com/about. Accessed 2023.

“Rubber Ducky Dice.” Dark Elf Dice, 2022, https://darkelfdice.com/products/rubber-ducky-dice-rpg-role-playing-game-dice-set?variant=32074947395645. Accessed 2023.