By Brian Fenley/reporter
What started with a curiosity about the tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons led to a role as club leader for South student Quentin Jackson.
Jackson’s interest in the game began by seeing references to it on TV shows and he wanted to know more — a game that started in 1974 and lets players create and play the role of a character with a unique class within the game’s storyline, known as a campaign, led by a player called the dungeon master.
Jackson’s rise to dungeon master began when he started college. He discovered that South Campus offered a gaming club specializing in tabletop games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, which led him to join. The club had been around for five years when he joined and learned how to play from the leader at the time. After that leader graduated, Jackson took the reins.
Under his new position as the club’s leader, Jackson convinced others to join, including his close friend and fellow classmate, South student Raynal Washington. Once Washington began playing, he knew the club was a good fit for him.
“I’ve been playing D&D for about two years now, and participating in the club has benefited us by improving our friendship and also helps us in being more creative,” Washington said.
Because of these positive experiences for them, Washington and Jackson think others should give it a try, too.
“The club itself, it’s really fun to be in, and it’s a really great community to come in and make new friends and find people who are interested in the same games,” Jackson said.
All that is needed to get started are some friends with similar interests, a rule book, guides and basic game-board pieces with imagination to do the rest.
A usual session of D&D can last for one to maybe a few hours, so the roles at the table fill up pretty quick. When this happens, the club offers an array of different video games and consoles for others to try, such as Super Smash Brothers and Street Fighter on PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch.
Whether challenging friends to an old favorite game or trying something completely new, the club stands out when it comes to playing Dungeons and Dragons with the novelty of a great campus setting and involved friends with similar interests.
To join, attend one of their meetings, which are typically held at South’s student center 2-5 p.m. every Tuesday. Mickey Teeters is the club’s adviser. Their first meeting this semester is Feb. 5 in SSTU 2207.
Not only does the club help students make new friends, it can also offer an immersive form of escapism. As the Dungeons and Dragons universe’s immersion in the series establishes, the experience can take a lot of the stress and struggle away from the real world, Jackson said.
“It allows me to let imagination run wild, within reason, and bring a lot of things to life,” he said.
Most TCC campuses have a gaming club. Like Jackson, joining the club may provide a fresh creative outlet, new friends and begin a gateway into a whole new world of imagination a student never thought possible.
And who knows, maybe one day they will be the next dungeon master and lead the party to victory.
