Holmes roleplaying club meets Thursday afternoons

The goblin moves in for the strike. You toss your dice, and as you watch it roll down the table, it lands on 20. You jab your shortsword into the goblin’s stomach and defeat it, winning the battle and saving your team in another adventure in a game called Dungeons and Dragons. 

D&D is a fantasy roleplaying game where only your imagination is the only limit. Holmes role playing games club adviser Jeremy Prouty said, “I played D&D in junior high, and it was a very powerful and social extension of fantasy and science fiction reading. I was kinda a nerd. I met others who played, and I soon realized it was more than just nerdy kids getting together, and it really triggered my imagination and I was hooked.”

“Back in 1974, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was arguably the first true roleplaying game,” according to BBC.com. “By 2004, it was estimated that the game had been played by over 20 million people.” 

In the game players create their own custom characters, design their own backgrounds. Prouty said, “I play a Drow Elf.”  Characters in the game can chose from variety of races (human, orc, half-elf, halfling, dragonborn, dwarf, elf, gnome, half-orc, tiefling and more) and classes (fighter, rogue, sorcerer, barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, monk, ranger and more) who can use dual axes and tear down any enemies in their paths. No matter the play style, there’s a race and a class for everyone.

Players distribute points to their strengths and weaknesses and other attributes Players form parties and go on adventures in mystical and sometimes downright terrifying worlds dreamed up by another player called the dungeon master (DM), and they fight beasts beyond their wildest nightmares or meet people so strange they can’t help but laugh.

“I hope to gain good memories with my friends I can recall as fun fairy tales for my children,” ninth grade club member Keegan King said.

In each campaign, the DM guides parties through these worlds and sets up encounters and quests that the other players can complete to get better gear and other loot. Prouty said, “I am leading new players on a basic adventure that is a murder mystery, but my favorite adventure would be any adventure where I can really personify the character I’m playing.”

Prouty said D&D has some surprising connections to school. “So my perspective and why I run the clubs, at the last three clubs I’ve thought is a sneaky way to help kids learn and practice other reading and math skills while flexing creative muscles.”

Prouty said the game can be a lot to learn for newcomers. “New players should ask a lot of questions from the DM and the more experienced players. Also, remember that it is a role playing game, so play the part. Don’t always do what you would do, do what your character would do. Most importantly, not every problem should be solved with battles, Talk your way into and out of trouble; make your dungeon master work hard by coming up with unique solutions to problems.”

King offered similar advice for new players. “I would have to say to have a very open mind because it is very different from other games.”

The Holmes D&D meets every Thursday from 3 p.m. until 5. Prouty said, “I’m thinking and working and trying to start a D&D club for fifth-sixth at Lincoln Elementary. I hope to be able to bring Holmes students over there during the afternoons.”