Students find an escape through Dungeons and Dragons club
Story by Emma Hardesty
Photos by Gabriel Milby and Nate Upchurch
Design by Candace Alvey
Editor’s Note: This article was originally released in Issue 18 of the WKU Talisman print magazine. Click here to read more articles from the Talisman’s semesterly print.
Ara opened her eyes slowly, seeing before her a building engulfed in flames. She inhaled sharply. Something in her was telling her that this was wrong.
“Roll.”
Dice scattered across the table. D19.
“This is a dream,” Ara whispered to herself.
She glanced around her home, her eyes narrowed, trying to think of the best way out of this situation. She had experienced it before, again and again. She did what she always did. She picked up a nearby chair and weighed it in her hands, before looking to the door before her. She was getting out.
“Roll.”
Another die flew across the table. D20.
With full strength, Ara threw the chair at the door and was able to escape. All around her, the town was engulfed in flames. Her town.
Before her, a burning building began to collapse. With horror, Ara realized that a woman was beneath it. Pieces of the building hit her leg, keeping her trapped.
“Help!” The woman screamed.
Yet off to the side, she witnessed none other than her own son fighting for his life against the raiders of the village.
“Mom!” The boy yelled.
Ara launched into a full-blown sprint toward her son, squeezing her eyes shut as the woman was submerged by the building. She reached her hand out as she approached her son. She was so close, so close, so…
Not fast enough.
Before her very eyes, her son was ripped away from her. A blade shot through his chest before his limp body was dropped to the ground.
Ara tried to run after the men who did this horrible thing to her son, but was unsuccessful in stopping them. She slowly retreated back to her son’s body, and knelt before him. With trembling hands, she guided his head into her lap.
Carefully, she ran her finger along his hair while humming softly. Her eyes became unfocused, listlessly staring at a spot on the ground.
Slowly, freshman Salem Hickman looked up from behind the Dungeon Master’s screen, locking eyes with senior Clara Masters, with teary eyes. While Masters had created the character of Ara, it was Hickman’s job as the Dungeon Master to deliver the treacherous tale that happened to her.
This is Dungeons and Dragons.
Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D, is a fantasy roleplaying game created and designed in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Hickman described D&D as a storytelling game involving many players. The dungeon master is the person who guides the campaign, or story arc, and writes out the story while players create the characters they play throughout. During the game, choices are made that directly impact the potential ending, so each campaign played is unique.
Story and gameplay is completely up to the players and the Dungeon Master. Whatever world they want to use, whatever character they want to be created – it can be.
Hickman said the highlight of D&D is the dice. The roll of a die, the most commonly used being the 20-sided D20, impacts the characters’ abilities throughout the game. Higher rolls typically lead to better outcomes for the character, whether it be in a fight, a dream or walking without tripping. The rolls allow the Dungeon Master and the player to build onto the story and create an incredible game.
Hickman’s campaign, written by them, is titled “Song of Creation.” It consists of five people who each created their own character to live through, and Hickman – the all-seeing Dungeon Master.
Each session for Hickman’s campaign typically consists of around four to six hours of roleplaying, dice rolling and beast-slaying.
Hickman has only played D&D for about nine months, but in that time it has become a huge source of community for them.
Coming to campus and seeing a flyer “calling for adventurers” urged Hickman to join the D&D club and begin playing.
“To me, it’s more than a game,” Hickman said. “It’s where friends and family can all come together and take a deep dive into another world, where you get to be and do things that you obviously can’t do in the real world.”
Hickman said that D&D, and by extension the WKU D&D club, allowed them to connect with people in a time where friendships weren’t as easy.
“As a freshman, I don’t really have any friends,” Hickman said. “Being in the D&D club – I’ve got to connect with these strangers who now I consider my friends.”
That desire for connection is what led to the founding of the D&D club, senior Rue Ziegler said.
Ziegler, who has played D&D for over 10 years, co-founded the club in September 2022.
It all started in Ziegler’s sophomore year during a communication class. They and some of their friends in the class wanted to create a space to allow those interested in D&D to connect with one another and find games to participate in.
Once the idea was planted in their mind, it took off.
After finding an adviser, criminology professor Kyle Maksuta, and writing the club constitution, WKU D&D club was created.
“It actually happened very abruptly that we became one of the largest clubs to appear on campus,” Ziegler said. “There was a moment where we did not have enough seats in DSU to fit us all for one of the first meetings.”
Currently, the WKU D&D club’s Discord server, the main online hub for the club, includes 184 members. Discord is an online platform for people with similar interests to communicate with one another.
Maksuta reached out to the Registered Student Organizations and the WKU Student Government Organization to inquire about the size of the club in comparison to others.
Though there is not a record of all organization sizes, RSO and SGA told Maksuta that 200 members would create one of the largest groups on campus. According to them, most Greek organizations average around 145 members.
Though all the numbers are a rough estimate, according to Maksuta, they are certainly one of the largest if not the largest organization on campus.
“I’m really proud of what the students have done with this club and hope that it continues to grow and foster community as it has,” Maksuta said.
Maksuta said that there had previously been a tabletop game club at WKU that had gone inactive. The creation of the D&D club allowed for a void to be filled.
“D&D is a massive business, but it’s more than a business,” Maksuta said. “It’s a space and activity for people from all walks of life to come together and realize something so quintessentially human: the power of storytelling. So, why did we grow so fast? Because the community was there, it just didn’t have a place to formally meet.”
Storytelling draws many people to the club, and for some, such as Elliot Gordon, it is their favorite aspect.
Gordon, a sophomore and co-president of the club, said D&D is similar to other escapist media people may involve themselves with.
“It’s a way to escape,” Gordon said. “You go through the closet; You go to Narnia. You get the letter from Hogwarts. You find out you’re a Demi-God. You do whatever.”
Gordon, who has been playing D&D for about six years, said the personalization with D&D stories is what sets it apart from those other media.
“It’s not like another book that you’re reading,” Gordon said. “It’s your story. You are the one that determines the path. You get to see it play out. How do you want the story to go? How do you want to improve? How do you want the happy ending to play out?”
Gordon said the storytelling aspect is why he finds the game to be a form of escape.
“I enjoy the logic of it,” Gordon said. “I love problem solving and figuring out how things work and mesh together, so having a new different world to play around with and figure out is a good way to have a project to throw myself into and think about.”
Sophomore Hawke Ipox said the characters of D&D provide her with a realm of escapism – but not in the way one would traditionally think.
Ipox is an avid cosplayer. Cosplay is the act of dressing up as a character, either an already existing one or one created by the cosplayer.
Ipox cosplayed an original character of hers named Alcina, who is currently being used in an active D&D campaign.
“Cosplaying is, and definitely always has been, an escapism for me,” Ipox said. “D&D and cosplay (have) been the most constant thing in my life. (They) allow me to step back from my admittedly pushover personality, and let me be this person I could probably only dream to be.”
The other co-president of D&D Club, junior Kierin Tilts, also finds escapism through how she plays her characters in the games.
“It’s not just this avatar that I’m playing,” Tilts said. “It’s – Who is this character? What would they do? Who are they? What do they want? I get to put myself in that headspace for a while. I do get to get away from whatever me, Kieran, is dealing with, and just be a wizard for a while.”
Tilts said her characters don’t just provide escapism. They also bring her hope.
Tilts, who has been playing D&D for about six years, said she created a specific character when she was going through a dark time in her life. She described this character to be the “the embodiment of the sun and light and warmth.” When things got hard in real life, she would think of this character.
“I would just think about that character and go, what would she do? What would she say here? And put that more into my daily life,” Tilts said. “That’s still something I look back to, I will never forget that character. That’s been just a really big part of my own healing.”
To those wanting to get involved in playing D&D, Tilts suggested the first stop be to join the D&D club on campus. The easiest way to get involved is to follow their Instagram, @dnd.wku.
“A lot of times the hardest part of getting into D&D is finding a group,” Tilts said, “With our club, we make that the easiest it can be with — we have 180 people in there that all want to play D&D, and you’ve got to be able to find your group out of that.”
For those who are unable to join the club, Tilts suggests searching within their own community.
“You could find local comic shops,” Tilts said. “A lot of times they will be running weekly games. Or just see if your friends are willing to [pretend to] be goblins for a couple hours.”