Dungeons and Dragons Comes to SHS
Written by Karl Houtman, Former Student on Friday, October 2, 2015
Games have recently become the newest club trend at Snohomish High School. With last year’s Clash of Clans and League of Legends clubs, multiple-person games are becoming more and more popular. Most recently, the Dungeons and Dragons club has been established in the midst of many clubs here at SHS.
Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy tabletop RPG (role playing game) with a great deal of intellect behind it. Players are called “adventurers” or “explorers,” and are controlled by a Dungeon Master, who controls the world and the creatures that the players will encounter.
“You can be whoever and whatever you want to be,” says junior Dan Hanlon, the president of the Dungeons and Dragons club.
Games are normally played between about five or six people, but can increase to an indefinite amount if the Dungeon Master decides that players are needed for creatures or more adventurers. A game of Dungeons and Dragons can last for hours.
The game was originally created in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. Since 1997 the game is now published by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, with the most recent edition being from 2014.
"[Dungeons an Dragons] is my escape from reality," says junior Kell Engi, a member of Dungeons and Dragons Club. "It helps get away from problems and I get to hang out with my friends."
The Dungeons and Dragons Club at SHS currently has ten consistent members, with several others joining in just in the last few weeks. The club has been unofficially meeting for the last two years, but was technically made a club through the Senate in September.
"People just wanted to start off small with a group of people to play with," Hanlon says, "and now [Dungeons and Dragons Club] has turned into informing people what Dungeons and Dragons is."
Freshmen Honors English and mythology teacher Linda Sparks is the advisor for the club. Formal meetings are held in her room after school and regular sessions are held at Geek Fortress on Avenue D in Snohomish from the end of school to 5 p.m.
