Players react to a 20 on the dice (critical hit).

By Ayla Kickhofel

Co-Managing and In-Depth Editor

Dungeon & Dragons club is another one of Hammond’s ventures outside of school where students are able to express themselves, their creativity, and their interests in the medium of board games and various different scenarios that build friendships and camaraderie between peers and anyone else in the club.

When you think about the Dungeons & Dragons club, you may think it’s just about the game itself, but this club is also associated with the Board Game Club. These clubs meet regularly and are always open to new members to get involved in the various board games they play, such as Magic the Gathering, a trading card game where players use magic to defeat their opponents. The club tries to pick a different genre of board game every week for their members to play. Their meeting dates can be found on posters typically hanging up all around the school, such as in the staircases and the hallways.

Patricia Sullivan, the club supervisor, recalls how a few years ago, a few students expressed an interest in Dungeons and Dragons in her World History class. After a couple days of them talking about it during her class, Sullivan proposed the idea that they start a club based on the board game. The club has been running for around three years now, and the students involved are loving it! It gives them another place where they can feel like they belong, and board games are very therapeutic in a sense for students who may be experiencing a lot of stress in their lives, whether it be from their school or home lives. It’s a perfect club for kids on the quieter side to join and find something perfect for them to get involved in!

If you don’t know what D&D is, it is a creative roleplay game that involves going through different campaigns and scenarios with each player having their own character they come up with. Currently they are doing a campaign called Star Tide. Sullivan explained it as, “a pirate campaign, [where] everything takes place on a boat, and they are picking up pieces of what they call the astral compass. And the astral compass is leading them to a wish, any wish that they could ever have. They are allowed one if they find the compass. And so it takes them to all these distant lands and distant islands.” 

D&D club is always open for new members that want to get involved and take part in their various campaigns and activities that they hold throughout the year. If you are a creative person that likes experiencing all kinds of different fictional and fantastical worlds, give the club a try!