Dungeons and Dragons has become a much harder game to play due to the quarantine, but despite this some Bear River students have persevered and continue to play their favorite tabletop adventure game.

Before the quarantine, there was a Bruin D&D club, however when COVID-19 hit and everyone was forced to stay at home, the D&D club had no real way to meet up. However this didn’t stop smaller groups from meeting up online and doing D&D games while still social distancing.

Sophomore Zach Averill was glad to elaborate on the topic.

“I started D&D when my dad introduced me a couple years back,” he said, “I didn’t get back into it for a while up until two or three years ago now. Quarantine has made it easier for me to play because more often than not people have more free time nowadays. Being a DM let’s you write and play out these wonderful stories. Being a character let’s you experience and shape these stories, so I have no preference.”

Junior Jake Vogt also had been taking part in D&D during the quarantine

“I’ve played/been interested in D&D since about 6th grade,” they said. “I have played during quarantine with friends over discord. Schedules were the main challenges. [I prefer playing] characters, I don’t have good leadership skills or motivation.”

Sophomore Vaughn Hulcy had plenty to say on the matter of D&D.

“I have played dungeons and dragons before, I have played it for about four to five years,” he said. “I have been able to play DND mostly through visits to friends houses, as in my opinion D&D is best played in person. But I have also been experimenting with a potential digital format.”

Junior Max Nicholson however didn’t have as much to say on D&D.

“I played for about 6 months before Covid,” he said. “we haven’t played since Covid, it’s hard to get everyone together.”

Senior Ava Graham admitted to have played D&D before the quarantine.

“I did play Dungeons & Dragons before Covid and played for the majority of last year until distance learning occurred,” she said. “I prefer to play as a character because it’s much more fun and creative to think of your avatar,” she said.

In my personal experiences, I have been interested in playing D&D for quite some time; I’ve only recently started getting into playing it. I began hosting a campaign with some school friends around December or January of 2021, and so far it’s been going well. Thanks to this handy website called Roll20, it’s been surprisingly easy for everyone to play D&D without being in the same place. With the right tools, it can actually be easier to do D&D while social distancing than to do it in person.

While doing D&D has been hard for those with bad wifi or no way to reach others outside of their own home, it’s not impossible to do. Through different platforms some students have been able to keep Bruin D&D alive, even if they can’t gather together in person to play it. Hopefully, with the coming of more leniency and the number of in-person school days increasing, students may get a chance to play D&D on campus instead of just from home.