Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) may seem like a difficult roleplaying game involving math and a roll of the dice, but for some San Jose State students, it’s a form of art.
Finn Mathews, president of D&D Club at SJSU and communication studies senior, said the club’s main priority is to make sure everyone feels welcome regardless of experience.
“I know, personally, I've dealt with a lot of social anxiety. So I do my best to make sure that everyone feels welcome and that we have spaces for all different types of people,” Mathews said.
Mathews said they have been playing D&D for nine years as both players and game organizers, also known as dungeon masters.
At the start of every week, a survey goes out to members and dungeon masters asking how many plan on attending the meeting.
Later in the week, a second survey will go out inquiring dungeon masters about a short description of their continuing storyline, or campaign, for that week so members can sign up for specific games.
Within the description of the campaign, dungeon masters include whether or not they think the campaign is beginner friendly.
“One major issue is just that it is a game with a lot of rules and that can be very intimidating for new players,” Mathews said. “We do our best to encourage new people to join regardless of experience level.”
Mathews said the club occasionally runs new player and character creation workshops to help new members learn the basics of the game.
The dungeon masters at the club meetings run west marches style campaigns, a style of play that has players interacting in the same world doing different quests. Mathews said these campaigns are good for students because it allows them to go in and out of campaigns at any time.
D&D also introduces new players into roleplaying their characters, much like improv. Some find the aspect of roleplaying of their character a more immersive experience while playing the game.
Matthew Kronmal, treasurer of D&D Club and aerospace engineering senior, said he finds that new players often struggle with the roleplay aspect of the game.
“You get nervous acting in a way that you're not used to or maybe entirely comfortable with,” Kronmal said. “That's totally understandable . . . we've all been there.”
He said new players subvert this by describing the way a character acts rather than acting out the character themselves.
Nikolai Chase, sophomore industrial design, is one of the three dungeon masters that run a west marches style campaign for club meetings. The three dungeon masters run their campaigns in the same homebrew world, a player-made world within the rules of D&D.
Chase said he runs hexcrawl campaigns, a style of game where players explore landscapes, whereas the other two dungeon masters run different campaign styles.
Kronmal is one of the dungeon masters running his campaign in Chase’s homebrew world as more linear and story driven, while also focusing on character dynamics and narrative.
“One person brought a home brewed class . . . they would prick their fingers to fuel an anthropic transformation,” Kronmal said. “It was really fun to have in my game.”
Joshua La Rosa, biomedical engineering senior, is the third dungeon master who plays in Chase’s homebrew. One of his west marches campaigns has players teleported to the end of a dungeon, forcing them to progress through it starting from the end.
“So new players are some of the most creative and interesting people that I've seen come into the game because they just bring a whole different energy,” La Rosa said. “I want to envelop that energy and I want to project that energy out with them, because they don't really have any idea what they're getting into.”
Chase said one of the benefits to the dungeon masters using the same homebrew world is that it allows players to drop in and out of these campaigns with their same characters.
“I think [Dungeons and Dragons] is a way to express yourself . . . to people you know, will listen,” Chase said. “It's your world and what you say matters in a way that basically it doesn't matter anywhere else.”
