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You might have heard of the famous roleplaying game D&D or Dungeons and Dragons. I remember my first foray into this magical and fantastical world back in 2020 and ever since I’ve been hooked. There are countless reasons for my attachment to the game, one I think being that D&D is a way to escape life as Jaden and live as another person with a rich and vibrant backstory and personality living in a world of impossibility.
In some ways, D&D reveals new facets of yourself that you may never have realized you had as you embark on an adventure that may lead to self-discovery. Another special quality of D&D is the incredible community aspect of D&D — it’s a game that relies on not one but a party of players who work together, questing through whatever world they find themselves in. As such, it is by collaborating with the imaginations of others that you are able to paint the beautiful pictures that form everlasting memories. Truly, the ability to connect with others, whether it be coming up with tactics or having mundane conversations, breathes life into a campaign.
Though I started my D&D journey as a player, I quickly shifted into the role of being a DM, a.k.a dungeon master, the person who runs the game, essentially being the god who controls all the challenges, environments, non-player characters and more which the players interact with. What I most appreciate about this role is being able to exercise the full extent of my creativity to create my own world with its own complex histories, cultures, characters and more. Taking players into a world of my creation and telling a story alongside them is immensely fulfilling and fun. In sum, D&D is an amazing hobby and, for me, is a form of self-care that brings comfort to me.
When it really comes down to it, you don’t need to spend to play D&D; all you really need is people to play with and your imagination, and if you have something that can access the internet, you can easily get everything you need digitally. In the end, it’s not the tools that make the adventure, but you as the player who does. If you’re looking for people to play with, reach out to family and friends or look around for local groups, such as the U of A’s Table Top Club.
With that being said, I wanted to introduce some of my favourite tools and items to play D&D with, both as a player and a dungeon master. Hopefully, this will give some of you a start to stepping into this world yourself!
Discord
Though initially, Discord was used out of necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have found it to be an incredible tool for organizing my campaign and efficiently facilitating sessions. D&D has been a way to build my world, centralizing all my information by having channels represent different locations in my world. In this way, I can add maps, pre-written descriptions, pictures, items, prices and more without needing to slowly verbalize them during the session. I can also hide and reveal locations according to the party’s progress in their campaign by giving or taking away permission to view certain channels. Aside from this, I also can relay announcements, post resources I find, and generally use the server as a vehicle for whatever my needs are.
Dice
One of the most prominent symbols of D&D is dice, specifically the 20-sided dice. These die are one of the main mechanics that drive the entire course of your game; a single roll could decide between success or failure, life or death. While you can forego physical dice in favour of online dice, there is something magical about rolling those die in the palm of your hand before releasing them for luck to decide your fate. Some may end up with their “lucky dice” that they reach for in times of desperation, or associate certain sets with invaluable memories of their adventures. However, be careful as it is easy for one set to become two, then two to become four, and pretty soon, you’ll find your collection multiplying out of control as your eyes get caught by beautifully crafted dice everywhere you go! And while they aren’t necessary, alongside dice are various accessories you can get for them, such as cases or bags to hold them and dice trays to make sure you don’t send them flying off.
D&D Beyond Website
Officially affiliated with D&D, the D&D Beyond website is one of my absolute essentials for playing D&D. For the player, it is great for creating your character sheets digitally. Though players can create it traditionally on paper, I find doing it on the site is far more efficient as it immediately shows all the complicated details to your actions, spells, items and more. Especially in the middle of a session, you want to spend more time in action rather than trying to look up the effects of a spell or the rarity of an item. One note is that while all the basics are available to use in the website, if you want to use released content outside of the basic collection, you will be required to purchase them. However, I have never found myself needing to do so nor feeling limited by this as what’s available is already so vast. In fact, you are even able to build homebrew or custom creations to use in your campaign!
For the dungeon master, there are also various other tools available: you can create a campaign and have all your players’ character sheets in it, thus being able to monitor your players’ health, stats and everything else. You can build encounters to help organize the turn-based combat with your players and enemies. And more recently, the site has released an alpha for maps, thus allowing you to visually place your characters on a plane to better gauge distance whether during exploration or combat. All in all, D&D Beyond is great resource for beginners and even veteran players of D&D.
Google Drive
For all my campaigns, I help create a shared folder for my players so that they have a place to store information, photos and more they gather throughout their journey. Specifically, an adventurers’ log that players update together is crucial to help keep track of the events, characters and goals, especially as campaigns can span months and even years. I as a DM also use Google Drive to upload resources for my players and use it to help organize all of my personal research, planning and content as I tend to be quite intricate and detail-oriented when it comes to building my campaigns.
Books
There are many official D&D books that have been released which are extremely useful, especially for first-time players, to familiarize themselves with the game. Specifically, I recommend the Player’s Handbook and, if you’re the Dungeon Master, the Dungeon Master’s Guide. If you’re looking for a quick start to playing, you can also check out the Starter Set Rulebook to learn the absolute basics. While you can purchase physical copies at your local book store or order them from a site, you could also easily borrow the books from the library. Alternatively, I have also found the books easy to find by searching it up.
Although time-consuming, it is mostly learning the foundations of the game at the beginning that can be a bit of a time investment. Once you’re on your feet though, you will quickly come to grasp the system as you play and gain experience until it becomes natural to you. In fact, you don’t necessarily need to read the entire collection of books to get started; as long as you pick up the foundations, you can start playing and slowly continue building on your knowledge as you continue playing. Of course, once you move past these books, there’s even more as well as endless other videos, articles and resources out there. And if you still find that there isn’t an answer out there for a problem you have, the beauty of it is that you can make up a solution!
With that being said, I hope you all will also get to experience the magic of D&D yourself!