Intro: As of late the Dungeons and Dragons community has grown due to the attention it has received from shows like
. Since so many new players are jumping head first into the D&D community there are a lot of new, and preexisting, ways that fans show their dedication to the Table Top Role Playing Game. First to understand the different things the community of this game does it is important to understand who they are. Wizards of the Coast released an infographic showing the age range and gender split of D&D players (Figure 1) (Croliss, 2021).
Seeing as so many different age groups play this game each fan is unique and has a different way of expressing their love for this game, but there are a few more common ways that fans show their dedication to dungeon delving and treasure hunting in D&D. The most common ways that players show their undying love for this RPG is by doing things like hosting and playing in local games, cosplaying as their favorite characters, listening to podcasts or YouTube videos dedicated to showing D&D or skits related to it, collecting the merchandise and tools of the game, and lastly by making and sharing their own additions to the game.
Playing D&D: Dungeons and Dragons is known for its over the top roleplaying and intense dice rolling, but what many don't know is there are a lot of different ways D&D fans enjoy the thrill of fighting giants and dragons. The most common is with your friends or family at someone's house. Its not uncommon for a party of four or five to gather at their friend's dinner table every Friday to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons for a few hours. In this informal setting the players crack jokes, eat snacks, and enjoy each others company while they battle an evil goblin army attacking a local village. Another common form of Dungeons and Dragons, and one that is a bit more formal, is the Adventurer's League. On their own website Wizards of the Coast , the current owners of the D&D name, discussed the Adventurers League and how to get into it. The Adventurer's League is a public game of D&D that meets regularly at a public place, where players can join and leave as they see fit, and players focus on a more serious roleplaying experience. It is often held at game stores since they are the most willing to harbor a single or sometimes multiple groups of adventurers, but WotC (Wizards of the Coast), claim that "other locations such as a school, library, or community center" could work just as well (Wizards of the Coast, n.d.). Anyone can start up an adventurers league in their area, and often times there is one set up in most places already! Playing D&D is a great way to meet new friends, and to just have a good time playing a fantastical game. The last way, and most unorthodox way of playing Dungeons and Dragons is over the internet. Sometimes a group can have a hard time meeting in person, whether there is no location to meet at, or players are too far apart to do so, it can happen quite often. The solution lies on the internet, websites like Roll20 and FantasyGround offer free platforms for Dungeon Masters to make a digital board for their players to explore the same as they would sitting around a table. Other options exist that are more in depth and offer a better experience than you might even be able to get in-person, such is the case with the game Talespire, however these options most often cost money, and must be owned by all players involved. Playing D&D whether in a public Adventurer's League, online with some old friends, or in your friend's basement on a Friday night, the love and desire to play D&D is strong with millions of players across the U.S.
Cosplaying: Once a group has played a game for a few weeks, its common for players to get attached to their characters. Character creation is one of the best parts of D&D, crafting a personality, look, and backstory for your character can create a real connection with this fictional hero. After making a fun character its not uncommon for players to want to dress up as their character, to help get them in the mindset of what their character would be thinking. Emily Joice touched on this topic, saying "you can wear your costume to D&D sessions, or even wear it to a convention" (Joice, 2022).
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Figure 2. The party of Critical Role dress
up as their characters. Found at Kotaku.com |
A full table of people dressed as elves, dwarves, wizards, and thieves is not an uncommon sight for D&D players, often times the funny voices and over the top roleplaying follows. Dressing up as your newest orc slaying hero can be a blast, and no two characters look alike (Figure 2). Emily Joice while talking about D&D cosplaying gave a guide on how players can go about getting the most out of cosplaying their character
here. Dressing up as your favorite D&D character is a pastime that most players can agree is a fun way to further involve yourself in the roleplaying aspect of the game. Even if it is just a hood to represent your assassin, or a pointed hat to show your wizard, cosplaying can drastically change the experience players get from D&D.
Online presence: D&D is not strictly limited to playing the game or dressing up, there are tons of different ways that the community comes together to enjoy D&D. The most prominent is through online message boards, Reddit being the leader in this. The Dungeons and Dragons Reddit has nearly three million members with hundreds of different posts being made everyday. This allows players within the community share how they feel about rules, talk about a character they made, post artwork, or even just share a funny story that happened at last weeks game. Another way fans of D&D go about sharing their love for the age old game is by making YouTube content on it. D&D YouTube content falls under two main categories, videos made for comedic purposes, and videos meant to inform. There are hundreds of channels dedicated to sharing funny stories, or poking fun at stereotypical character builds to get a laugh out of an audience who understands. One such video, found here, is a comedic take on how D&D is portrayed in popular TV versus how it is actually played. Other YouTube videos might discuss a creators favorite monster, or how to properly use a spells. Regardless of what a D&D fan is looking for, a fellow fan on YouTube has probably taken it on already. The last large online presence that D&D has online is via podcast. Plenty of fans of D&D record their games and put them online as a podcast for others to listen to and enjoy. Some larger names have also gotten involved in this practice, groups like Critical Role have millions of dedicated followers who love to listen to Dungeon Master Matt Mercer tell an enthralling story. These D&D podcasts are a great way for avid D&D lovers to stay involved with the game while driving, getting some work done, or just relaxing. Often times, when not playing the game itself, D&D fans are in some way staying involved in the game, whether its posting on a message board, listening to a podcast on the drive to work, or falling asleep to a YouTube video on the best dungeons in D&D history, the game is almost always involved in their lives.
Merchandising: D&D is a game of ever expanding trinkets and additions. The only required information to play a character is the Player's Handbook, but most D&D fans will admit they own dozens of other expansion books that add new information and things to do to the game. Collecting these large hardcover, art-filled, books is commonplace for almost every D&D player. However the collecting doesn't stop with these books, one of the biggest things collected within the D&D community, is the
dice. Some are content with a solid blue or red set of dice, and that's all they need, but most D&D fans will show a collection of various different dice of varying sizes, shapes, materials, and designs (Figure 3).Laura Gray, argued that one of the reasons D&D players like collecting these dice so much, is for the flare of it. Picking a specific set of dice to match a character that they are
playing (Gray, 2021). Using a set of metal dice with skulls dotted on them is great for playing a necromancer who manipulates zombies and skeletons. While using dice that have little plastic gears situated in them
is perfect for a robotic character. It is common among fans of the game to show off their dice to other players and often times players might bring multiple sets to one game. Often times with most D&D players there is a perception of good and bad dice. While being fictional, and all players know this, there is still a widely accepted superstition of some dice not being able to roll high numbers, while others do. Since this is the case players might deem a specific die unlucky during a game, and switch to another thinking it will bring them more luck. Dice are one great way to accent your character and make yourself stand out at the table, but the best way to do this is through minis, or miniatures. When a D&D game is played around a table in person, most times a map is laid out and the characters
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| Figure 4. A D&D mini found from etsy.com |
are placed on it. These little plastic figures that you use to represent your character are very important in the community. There are many different types of plastic and sometimes metal minis, and some are painted before buying, while others the players have to paint for themselves. Having a mini specifically designed for your character, made with good resin, and expertly painted is a huge difference from using a placeholder to represent your character (Figure 4). Making minis for players has become so common that websites such as
Heroforge have popped up, where you can custom make your own character from hundreds of different options and then have it shipped directly to your home. There are plenty of other things that D&D players collect, but just about person in the community will have the additional sourcebooks, a few neat sets of dice, and a good looking mini or two to show off their character at the table.
Making your own rules: Dungeons and Dragons is a very flexible game, with the rules and anything about it really being subject to change by a group of players so long as they all agree to it. With this in mind Dungeon Masters, the people who run the game, will often times make up their own things to add to the game. Whether it is a special sword that can grow and shrink on wielder's command, or a special made goblin boss who throws explosive grenades, there are tons of custom made things by people in the D&D fandom. One website in particular, D&D Beyond, allows players to make a free account, and then upload these custom made additions to the game so that others can see them and use them in their own D&D game. This style of making something for your friends that you enjoy and then sharing it with the world for others to enjoy is a great way to build a community. This is also a very popular practice among players, on D&D Beyond's website for homebrew, the title given to things made by players for other players, under the monsters tab alone there sits over seven thousand pages of custom made monsters with twenty each on one page (D&D Beyond, n.d.). This is just monsters alone, there are nearly a dozen other tabs where people can put their creations. Some of these are made for fun, such as the enemy created by PanaromicPanda in 2017 called Dwayne "The Rock Golem" Johnson, while others are serious endeavors that have undergone hours of work so that they can be shared with the community. Custom making things in the D&D backdrop is very common among players, and often times they will share these with others so that everyone can enjoy each others ideas. Sharing from one to another is a great way to strengthen the community, and helps weave all D&D players together.
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Figure 5. My group of players that meet every
2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month |
My time in the D&D fandom: I've spent several years now playing D&D, since my time in middle school five or six years ago. I was first introduced to the game by my dad, who had played the game when he was in high school, and thought I would like it. Since
then I have done a lot of interaction with the community. I run a public game at Barnes & Noble in my free time (Figure 5), that has amassed nearly thirteen players total. I own nearly all of the sourcebooks, and have collected well over twenty different sets of dice. My time with this community has been a lot of fun and I've made a lot of friends through it. I've collected a lot of my own plastic miniatures, and have even started to paint them on my own. Recently I made my way to my first ever D&D convention, MEPACON, with my girlfriend and had a great time meeting some new people there. Aside from the game I run at Barnes & Noble I run two other games with my friends on the weekend. Dungeons and Dragons has become an integral part of my life, and like many of my friends in the community, I am better for it.
Conclusion: Dungeons and Dragons is a massive community, and it will only be growing in the future with the release of the new movie Honor Among Thieves coming out in 2023, and as word continues to spread from person to person of this exciting game that runs back generations. The stereotype of nerds sitting around a table rolling dice and doing math is a far cry from the truth, D&D is geared towards all ages and all backgrounds of people. There is something that everyone will enjoy while playing the worlds leading table top role-playing game.
Work Cited:
Corliss, C. (2021, May 19). Dungeons and dragons infographic shows how popular the game has become. Game Rant. https://gamerant.com/dungeons-and-dragons-infographic-2021/
D&D Beyond. (n.d.) Monsters Homebrew. D&D Beyond. https://www.dndbeyond.com/homebrew/monsters
Gray L. (2021, May 05). Why D&D players love pretty dice so much. Game Rant. https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-dice-collection-types-uses-characters-special/
Joice, E. (2022, January 24). Cosplay and D&D: How to bring your character to life. Cosplay Advice. https://cosplayadvice.com/cosplay-and-dnd/
Wizards of The Coast. (n.d.). Adventurers league: Organized play. Dungeons & Dragons. https://dnd.wizards.com/adventurers-league
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