Since its creation in the mid-1970s, Dungeons and Dragons has become something of a cultural icon. It has brought together a broad community of devout fantasy fans and storytellers, players explore mythical worlds with their friends using spells, strategy and dice most of all.
Dungeons and Dragons, commonly known by its shorthand of D&D, turned the act of playing a character into a game. Unlike other games, though, D&D is often played as a campaign over many sessions. During the campaign, players embark on adventures born solely from their imaginations.
“It’s not too foreign from other things we’ve done in the past like sitting around a fire in group storytelling,” said Sadie Rockette, a student at UW-Milwaukee studying psychology.
Rockette is also the president of the Dungeons and Dragons Network at UWM. With the help of the group’s other leaders, they hope to help other students find their party of fellow adventurers. Simply put, it’s networking for nerds.
“It also helps with teaching the basics of D&D,” said Stephen Merrills, a UWM senior and an officer in the group. “We can bridge the gap from new players to veteran players very seamlessly.”
The group also hopes to build up the community by hosting events tailored for fans of the game. During the spring semester, for example, they have hosted movie screenings and dungeon master “boot camps.” Just last Friday in the Student Union, they even organized a one-shot night. As the name suggests, a one-shot is a miniature D&D campaign compressed into one night or “session.”
But Rockette’s reason to serve as the D&D Network’s president goes beyond just her love for the game.
“A lot of people need community,” she said, adding that she hopes the club will serve as people’s social home.
When people find their group, there is often a great deal of freedom in the character they can be. From their personality to their physical characteristics and their acumen with a sword and shield, the creative limits are nigh-endless.
How do players come up with a character, then? Is the character they play anything like themselves, or is it a completely different version of their non-D&D self?
“I think for many people, it could be different things,” Rockette said. “Some of my friends, I can definitely see they’re using it for a group therapy session. But then sometimes, it’s just a fantasy escape.”
For all of the passion behind Dungeons and Dragons, however, the game has never truly broken into the mainstream. The game faced headwinds in the 1980s during the “Satanic Panic” when parents grew concerned over an alleged growth in the occult. For its emphasis on magic and the supernatural, this wave of panic caught D&D in its crosshairs.
“I really feel like it kind of kneecapped the whole thing because a lot of people were afraid,” Rockette said. “But a lot more people, as we’re getting older and as times are changing, are being more aware of different fantasy aspects and the fun that they can have.”
Lately, though, media franchises centered on D&D have been wildly popular, such as the Netflix TV series Stranger Things and the 2023 video game Baldur’s Gate III. Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns and publishes Dungeons and Dragons products, estimated the game had over 40 million fans in 2019. With that kind of growth and media attention, the game is likely more mainstream now than in the past.
Cecilia Parkes, another one of the D&D Network’s leaders, said she saw only a temporary surge of interest when popular media featured the game.
“You see that surge with Stranger Things,” Parkes said. “Then, as soon as Stranger Things stops production for a while, especially after this last season, I’ve noticed an immediate drop-off.”
Whether or not it breaks into mainstream culture is something the group’s leaders are conflicted on. While they all emphasized making the D&D Network a welcoming space, Merrills and Parkes said the game might lose some of its original appeal if it broke out of its niche.
“Sometimes going mainstream brings a lot of new fans, new appreciation for the game,” Merrills said. “But at the same time, it loses some of the push that certain cultures had.”
“If D&D becomes mainstream, it’ll be like dressing punk rock without believing in the values,” Parkes added.
On the other hand, Rockette said there may be some benefits to the growing popularity.
“I think that more people are just going to make, instead of watering down the suit, it’s just going to give it a bigger one,” Rockette said. “I think it’s going to be the same way, just on a different scale.”
Regardless, the D&D Network at UWM is always looking for aspiring adventurers to find their people.
“I’ll say the way I got introduced: give a one shot a try,” Merrills said.