Why you Should be Playing Dungeons & Dragons in Lockdown
Has lockdown got you dreaming of an epic continent spanning adventure? Maybe you’re longing for sandy beaches, sky scraping mountains or cities steeped in rich cultural history. Though these places may seem impossibly out of reach right now they’re actually right at your fingertips, and you can go there with your friends right now.
I’m not recommending you round up your mates and head to the nearest airport, there is a pandemic going on after all - instead just open your laptop, message your friends and play some Dungeons & Dragons.
D&D doesn’t have the best rep in the world, it’s long been known for an activity reserved for basement dwelling geeks, however if you can shake yourself free of your preconceptions it’s a masterfully constructed game, a fantastic outlet for creativity and a unique form of socialising. Plus it makes a welcome break from the relentless onslaught of pub quizzes we seem to be living through at the moment.
So what is Dungeons & Dragons?
In its most basic form D&D is a tabletop role-playing game set in a fantasy world - think Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. If that description hasn’t cleared much up for you I’ll break it down a little further.
A tabletop role-playing game (RPG) is simply a game where you sit around a table and play a fictional character in a fictional world. There is no winning and losing, the aim of the game is to tell an ongoing story with your fellow players and the characters who inhabit that world. The characters populating the world are played by the Dungeon Master (DM) who provides the setting for the players to adventure in - think of them like the director of a movie or the author of a book except they have no control over the heroes in the story.
For a great visual explanation of D&D have a watch of this excellent VOX video.
There’s no predetermined plot or best way to do things, players can do anything they want in D&D - you could even recreate that trip to Thailand you had to cancel. The DM presents a situation and the players react however they want.
Why is it Better than Pub Quizzes?
Pub quizzes are great fun, I’m not denying it. However, when you’re answering your ninth general knowledge round of the month you’re still very much in the real world and there’s still very much a global pandemic happening.
D&D is escapism, it’s like watching a film or reading a book except you’re telling the story with friends. The story can theoretically go on forever, the narrative and characters flow between sessions like episodes of a TV show and your characters develop as does the world around them.
For the DM there is a whole other level of creativity - they create the world and characters that the players interact with. They get to dream up epic storylines, intriguing worlds and complex characters - there is truly no limit to what can be created in the world of D&D.
It’s also a highly social game, most of the playtime is spent talking to each other or characters, learning about them and the world around them. Discussing how to infiltrate a sorcerer’s layer is much more interesting than asking someone how lockdown’s treated them this week.
But I’m too Cool to Play D&D
If your knee jerk reaction to D&D is to reject it as pointless and nerdy then think again. Thanks to shows like Stranger Things D&D is now a part of mainstream culture and plenty of high profile creatives attribute much of their storytelling experience to the game. John Favreau (Marvel & Star Wars), Dan Harmon (Rick & Morty), D. B. Weiss and David Benioff (Game of Thrones) have all been cited as saying they’ve learnt a lot from D&D - it’s an incredible breeding ground for spontaneous creative thought and you don’t need to class yourself as a nerd to play it.
How can I play D&D in lockdown?
Roll20 is a fantastic platform which provides everything you need to play the game online free of charge, the basic rules for the game are also available online for free, so you've really got no excuse to not give it a go.
If you’re intimidated by the idea of creating your own adventures there’s a D&D Starter Set available designed specifically to help beginners get to grips with the game. It comes with a brilliant pre written adventure which takes the pressure of world building off your shoulders as a rookie DM. Give it a go, it’s a lot of fun, trust me.
Dan is a freelance writer and musician who is currently living and working in Bristol. You can find him on Soundcloud and Instagram and check out some of his written work here.