As the 20-sided die rolls and bounces across the table, those gathered around it hold their breath in anticipation. This roll will determine the entire outcome of their long and difficult quest. As the tension reaches its peak, the die slows and comes to a stop. Natural 20. The players jump out of their seats with joy.

Dungeons and Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game, has a club at the high school that draws many members who have played or might be interested in the game. The D&D club meets in room B115 on Tuesdays every week.

For many members of the club, the D&D club is their first experience with tabletop role-playing games.

“I joined last year to have fun and spend time with friends,” sophomore Shey Ryan said. “It was also a really great creative outlet. Everyone’s really welcoming, and it’s easy to be yourself there. Nobody really judges you and there are so many personalities that mesh really well together.”

Many wannabe-adventurers are drawn to the club either through friends or by seeing sessions online like Critical Role or Dimension 20.

“I joined because I’ve heard a lot about D&D over the course of several years and it’s always been a game I wanted to play but never had the opportunity to,” sophomore Kei Laas said.

The head of the D&D club, junior Andrew Murray, has ran the club since his freshman year and organizes the meetings and other procedures.

“So freshman year, I was interested in starting up something at the school that was Dungeons and Dragons. I have a lot of friends that like to play the game and they introduced me to the game,” Murray said. “We got a bunch of new members, a lot of people were really interested and it was kind of cool to just see how many people were interested in this kind of creative environment that allowed them to make their own characters and interact with them.”

D&D allows those who play the game to create their own characters that can be whatever they want the characters to be. The game serves as a gateway to another world, a world where magic thrives, anything is possible and there’s always another adventure around the corner.

“My character is a centaur outlander turned bard,” sophomore Lillian Shaw said. “He was part of this warrior clan and he decided that he didn’t want any of that. He wanted to explore the land and share tales.”