The WHS Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) club has had multiple sponsors over the years; this year, due to the previous sponsor, Kjersten Johnson (staff), transitioning to a part-time employee, new math teacher Deanna DeVall (staff) took charge as the club’s sponsor.
The club meets every Monday and Tuesday during lunch in DeVall’s room, B206. “I’ve been playing D&D for five or six years and I love it. I always thought I’ve known I wanted to teach high school for a long time and I always thought it would be so fun if I could do D&D at the school.” DeVall said. “So I thought about that for a long time and then it just worked out really well that Ms. Johnson was trying to pass it off to somebody else and I was like, well, ‘perfect timing.’ Of course, I’ll take it.”
The club starts the year by deciding that year’s Dungeon Masters (DMs), who are the people that essentially control the game. This year’s DMs were Tom Albro (10) and Oliver Bilotte (11). “I first got involved with D&D because of ‘Stranger Things,’ but I never got into it that much until eighth grade. It was me and my friends, and we just went to the library and played,” Albro explained. “I thought that DMing was gonna be really easy, but I was wrong. I ended up in the D&D Club as a player, and then I eventually wanted to do the DM thing so I decided to volunteer to be one of this year’s DMs.”
This club provides an opportunity for students to connect with other like-minded students and build a community. “We’ve seen a lot of change in consistency this year. Some groups are very consistent, and we’ve lost one group over the year, which is fine,” DeVall said. “I’ve enjoyed it on my end because I get to see them interact with people that they normally wouldn’t and start to become friends. I’ve also enjoyed how some of the kids in the group, they’ve opened up a lot more in class. Just partially because they have a community.”
The game consists of one DM per group, also called parties, and numerous players within that party. They all work together to tell a cohesive story, with each player playing a character that they create, and the DM acting as a narrator to describe the environment to the players.
Being a DM comes with its challenges. “Trying to make everything ordered per se can be a challenge, just because one player may be trying to figure out how to open a door while another guy is trying to pull a Waffle House from a bag of holding,” Albro said. “That’s the hardest thing, just trying to balance everybody and make sure that everybody can say what they wanna do and then try to do it.”
While the game does have a steep learning curve, with numerous rules and mechanics, the work to learn is worth it with an experience that is fun, and rewarding. “If you just wanna see what it’s about, there isn’t really any harm in trying. You get to meet new people and have fun while doing it. And if it’s not your thing, that’s alright,” Albro said.
