Dungeons and Dragons, is a game of monsters, magic, and plenty of dice. When those chosen few gather around the table, helmed by the all-powerful Dungeon Master on a glorious quest to save the world from peril, it can be an experience like no other.Sadly, the game has had a rocky history over the past year at BHS, having lost steam due to a lack of interest from former members and no advisor to lead them, many thought the once favorite club would become a fond memory in the eyes of a remaining handful of students. Some just wouldn’t let that happen, however, and chose to make an effort to breathe new life into a club on the brink of death. The movement is almost entirely attributed to the efforts of (now former) BHS Senior, Bram Cass, who had a love of D&D Club in the past years that it was open to students, and couldn’t let his passion go.
“I saw how much everyone liked D&D club last year and it just falling apart felt unfortunate, so I wanted to do what I could do to fix that,” said Cass.
Cass took over most faculties of the club, wanting to make it feel as student focused as possible.
“The feeling that it’s made by the students, that was definitely the main thing I was going for. I wanted something student run, student organized, and to make a safe space for everyone.”
Even the process of setting the club up was something Cass had a hand in.
“Bram actually reached out to me because he heard through the grapevine that I played [D&D] myself, and I knew that you guys needed a space to play so I thought it was a match made in heaven.” Said Ms. Mansfield, the newly appointed advisor for the club.
Having the club again opened up a lot of space for new and returning members to play, with interest from all sides. Bram’s takeover did change up the formula a bit, and junior Kevin Joyce had this to say.
“There’s a lot less people, since a ton of the seniors from last year graduated. And also just different D&D styles, Bram runs the game a lot different than Sidney, Jay, or the others all did.”
The club becoming smaller may sound like a downside, but what it really did was open the floor to many newcomers, since returning members weren’t taking up most of the space.
“I always looked at D&D, and I wanted to experience it because before I had only seen people play online. I wished I could try it and I heard there was a group at school. I was like ‘Oh my god, I’m going to get to play something I’ve always wanted to,”’ says newcomer freshman, Mia Antonowicz.
One question still weighs on everyone’s mind, though, what does the future look like for D&D club? Bram may have brought it back for another year, but he just graduated, and the future is back up in the air for the lovers of tabletop RPGs at Braintree High.
“Our fearless Dungeon Master Bram does kind of hold down the fort a lot of the time, but I’m excited to see people fill in his shoes. I think we have a lot of excited underclassmen that can bring more to the table. Giving them an opportunity to grow in that way is going to be invaluable to the club,” says Ms. Mansfield.
“I’m not really sure who the next DM is going to be, but hopefully we’ll have a good one next year and we can just keep it going, keep having fun, keep playing the game,” says Joyce
“For the future of D&D Club, I just hope that we get another great DM like Bram. He offered so much creatively and it was so immersive and fun. I also hope there’s new players who are just willing to try it out for a bit,” says Antonowicz
But, ever diligent for the health of his club, Bram was willing to share a few details of his plan.
“I’m working on a sort of program, shall we say, for members of the club to try their hand at being the DM by making and running one-shots. I’ve mostly gotten requests from juniors but I have been trying to push some of the freshmen to try their hand at it, so we can see what we’ve got.”
If the future is successful or not, Cass was certainly able to keep the club alive for a little longer, and form some fun memories for those included. As put best by Mia Antonowicz,
“It’s been such a fun place, I could come here every Tuesday and just enjoy it. That didn’t happen with other clubs before this, but I love this.”
