East students met together on Friday after school to play Dungeons and Dragons, nicknamed D&D, as a part of the new Tabletop Gaming Club. The game is a fantasy role playing game that allows students to create their own world and become characters in it. They are presented with scenarios and problems that they must solve in order to progress through the campaign. The story is determined by the dungeon master, who is the main storyteller.

Junior Tristan Hart has been playing with the same group of friends for around three years now. According to him, the game is very unique from other games and provides students with positive social connections. 

“It helps build social feels it bridges connections between people, meet new people, learn about them, and you get to, at the same time delve yourself into this story,” Hart said. You feel immersed, you are your character. you are in that world that they create in all of its facets. And it’s a really exciting and immersive experience.” 

Senior and club president Danfred Razon had been interested in D&D and said that when the opportunity arose, he created the club not only for D&D, but other tabletop games as well.He said that playing them has a positive effect on students’ social interactions.

“I learned the power of these tabletop games, and that they can make a lot of people have more confidence in themselves, and form stronger friendships through playing these characters,” Razon said. 

The story is led by a person called the Dungeon Master who creates and controls the events of the story. Junior Harrison Hrvatin has been a Dungeon Master for over three years. Together with his friends, he created a campaign about prisoners on the imaginary island of Mythria. He said that creating an interesting story is a very important aspect to the game.

“The Dungeon Master is the one who controls the story … they’re the one who controls the game and allows the players have fun,” Hrvatin said.

According to the members, the club helped students bring out a student’s confidence and imagination. Junior Christina Mack plays as one of the escaped prisoners in Hrvatin’s campaign. She said that it helps students build up their social skills through playing the game.

“If you aren’t like a very strongly social person, it’d be a good way to see if you juggle things around making your own little characters and even though it’s not necessarily you being the character, you’re portraying them in a way where you feel like you’re most comfortable,” Mack said.

“Part of what makes it fun is being able to act in different ways that you’re not able to in real life, and there’s a part of strategy and collaboration involved. You have to work with your friends to try and figure out a solution.”

— senior Hannah Cordilla

The club also welcomes people who are not familiar with D&D. Sponsor Thomas Bochenczak became interested with D&D in college and played a lot  with his friends. He said that he wants to bring students together in that same way.

“The atmosphere, it’s very inclusive. We accept anyone here,” Bochenczak said. ”You could show up, and we’re going to teach you on play every game we’re playing, and we’re going to run through the rules with you. Mainly I wanted to start this club, so people could meet new people that have the same interests.”

Senior Hannah Cordilla enjoyed playing with her friends before the club. She said that the greatest part about the game is the endless variety characters you can be.

“Part of what makes it fun is being able to act in different ways that you’re not able to in real life, and there’s a part of strategy and collaboration involved. You have to work with your friends to try and figure out a solution,” Cordilla said.

Sophomore Michael Weizeorik became interested last year in D&D from friends. He said that it’s not like any other game that he has played before.

“It’s all your imagination, there really are no laws,” Weizerik said. “You can do anything you want.” 

The club meets every Friday, and it is welcome to everybody, regardless of their experience in D&D. Junior Harrison Hrvatin said that students who are interested are able to learn with little struggle.

“At first it seems kind of like a huge undertaking but once you get to know the rules and how to play then it’s a lot. It’s really simple. It’s really easy, and they should give it a shot,” Hravtin said.

Andrew Le is a staff writer for Oswego East High School’s online news magazine the Howl