I’m sure we’ve all had a moment during a gruelling midterm where we’ve felt like chucking our 50-pound textbooks out of a third-storey window and slaying a dragon for its gleaming horde of treasure. Fortunately, the Camosun Dungeons & Dragons Club is here to help.
Founded by Camosun student and Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) clubs and events assistant Amy Lee-Radigan before the pandemic, the club was intended to create a place for students to blow off steam and make friends.
“I feel like a lot of people want to play D&D, and the hardest part is finding enough people to play with, and then finding a place and a time,” says Lee-Radigan. “My entire goal with this was to remove as many of the barriers as possible to new students picking up the game.”
In the beginning, they facilitated this by simply immersing students in a familiar setting.
“We did a zombie takeover of Camosun College at Lansdowne,” they say. “We had them running around Fisher and trying to find what they could use for makeshift zombie weapons, and I think somebody said, ‘Can I dismantle some of the racks in the bookstore and turn them into armour?’ It was very cool, they were getting very inventive.”
Experience is no barrier, because newbies play alongside seasoned professionals in the club.
“We’ve had a lot of a lot of players that are quite new to the game, and because we have people coming from all different all different levels of ability in D&D, we can create groups that are of a good mix,” says Lee-Radigan. “If anyone is a DM [dungeon master] and really enjoys that, they should definitely sign up, because the biggest barrier is finding enough dungeon masters.”
Occasionally there are other ways to be involved with the group, such as paint-ins, where students can intricately decorate mini-figurines of any fantastical creature imaginable.
“We’ve done a couple days where everyone hangs out and paints minis together, so if you want to be around other cool nerds but don’t have the capacity in your schedule for weekly games, then there are still opportunities to hang out with the club,” says Lee-Radigan.
Third-year Arts and Science student Kit Scholz has been playing for eight years, DMing for seven, and has been with the club almost since its inception.
“I really like the community aspect of it. When I joined I didn’t really have many friends, as I was very new to college,” says Scholz. “I actually met my current partner in the group, and I met a lot of my close friends through the group as well.”
D&D is a great way to get to know other students beyond strict classroom parameters, says Scholz.
“It’s really fun getting to know aspects of people that you wouldn’t know otherwise,” says Scholz. “Like you wouldn’t really know that ‘Steve,’ the guy who’s doing chemistry, also likes to play druids and turn into tigers. Some people can have a funny or devious streak about them that that you wouldn’t get from collaborating on a research assignment.”
Lee-Radigan believes that tabletop games have more benefits than just stress relief, according to studies they have read.
“There’s so much research starting to be done on the positive benefits of Dungeons and Dragons and tabletop role-playing games,” they say. “In terms of acquiring leadership skills and conflict resolution, beyond just how much fun they are, it also gives you some really good life skills, and even just socialization in general.”
Dungeons & Dragons brings together people who share the same interests, and you can come together to defeat a common enemy, like a horde of drooling orcs lurking in a dank subterranean cave (email camosundnd@gmail.com to sign up).
“It’s a fantastic way to unwind from the stress of school,” says Lee-Radigan, “so having that weekly game where you can go and hang out with a bunch of friends and fight monsters together is great.”