You wake up, heart pounding. You’re in a beautiful circular hall with marble pillars that reach towards the concave ceiling, the ceiling is covered by beautiful paintings of people you don’t recognize. As you lean up, you shake the sleepiness from your head. As your hand goes down to support yourself, it touches the cold, marble floor, the coldness of it shocking you awake. The marble that you’re sitting on is pitch white with small black specks. As you look more carefully, there is a sliver of gold, the width of a rope, snaking itself in a seemingly random pattern around the marble floor. Entranced, you begin to trace your finger over the gold. Armored figures were standing at the foot of the pillars, imposing an air of unease. Your eyes scan the beautiful silver plate armor, lined with gold, your mind beginning to drift until the light from a window in the roof glints off of the armor and shines in your eye, blinding you only momentarily. All along the walls, large tapestries are hanging where there aren’t any extravagant statues, torches, or hallway entrances, each one telling a different story. What do you do?

The above paragraph is an example of the opening description of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, designed to allow the players to picture the setting they get to start in, already giving them a variety of options.

Dungeons and Dragons, also known as D&D, has taken a lot of its players by storm. It’s a social RPG that allows players and their Dungeon Master to connect to a fictional world without having to know of its previous editions, each session entirely unique. The game is played with one Dungeon Master, and any number of players. The role of the dungeon master is responsible for writing the story, running the game, and trying to deal with the endless onslaught of silly player shenanigans. The role of the players is to create characters that they will control to play through the Dungeon Master’s story. This allows for the creativity of the Players and Dungeon Master to go absolutely wild, free to design their characters in any way they wish, whether it be an angsty high elf who absolutely hates cheese or a stout dwarf whose family heirloom fish died, leading them on an epic journey to find a way to revive their beloved friend and family possession.

One of the big reasons for this increase in popularity is most likely due to the unique manner in which this game is played, which is where the players use their creativity to problem solve through tough puzzles and problems in order to try to complete a task, whether it be killing a mafia leader, or just trying to break into a treasure room. The play order is unique in the way that, the Dungeon Master explains the area and condition everyone is in, and offer a goal to get to. The players must think of what they want to do, and then express their motive to the DM. The DM would rule whether or not this is an appropriate action, and then the player would roll to do it. If they roll within certain parameters, they get to do that action, while failing could lead to some consequences to the party. After rolling, the DM explains what happens, whether it’s good or bad, and then the cycle continues.

The other most likely reason that Dungeons & Dragons has become more popular recently is most likely due to its unique social aspects. It is a game where you have to go out to a friends house, talk in person, and share great experiences with each other over some snacks. This allows the people playing to do sessions on the weekends and watch movies before or after, or even celebrating a birthday party and such.

All in all, Dungeons and Dragons is a pretty good game to play with friends, in order to have fun with friends and create a fanciful world. It allows friends to join together, create unique characters, and stop some terrifying monsters.