What
is Dungeons and Dragons?
“The
first Dungeons & Dragons game was played back when Gary Gygax and
Dave Arneson chose to personalize the massive battles of their
fantasy wargames with the exploits of individual heroes. This
inspiration became the first fantasy roleplaying game, in which
players are characters in an ongoing fantasy story. This new kind of
game has become immensely popular over the years, and D&D has
grown to include many new ways to vividly experience worlds of heroic
fantasy.
The
core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story
together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles
with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more.
You can also explore the world of Dungeons & Dragons through any
of the novels written by its fantasy authors, as well as engaging
board games and immersive video games. All of these stories are part
of D&D.”-Overview
from official D&D website
(http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-is-dd)
My
Organization:
-Is
a loose collective of good friends with a passion for the
storytelling/roleplaying enabled by roleplaying tabletop systems such
as D&D. However, our storytelling/roleplaying activities are not
limited to D&D. By way of explaining our history,
we also enjoy:Call of Cthulhu
-Based
on the horror fiction of 20th Century American writer H.P.
Lovecraft
(Stranger
Things owes a great deal of its popularity to Lovecraft and the
Cthulhu Mythos, as this pair of pictures might suggest)
Pathfinder
-An
offshoot of traditional D&D for players looking for more
technical depth
All
of these systems are frequently referred to as D&D, purely as
shorthand for the sake of convenience.
Our Mission
Statement:
-Our organization is
centered around the premise that a group of friends can take time out
of their busy lives to meet once a week to tell amazing stories
together. Moreover, we hold that tabletop roleplaying is a means by
which each of us can explore who we are by stepping into the shoes of
the characters we create.
Pedagogical
Potential:
-Our organization
holds that D&D has potential as a pedagogical tool for
encouraging students to experience history, not as a collection of
dates and names, but as a dynamic, unfolding story. The future
teachers among us practice this craft for that very purpose. New
scenarios and in-game mechanics are continually being re-worked to
incorporate a sense of historical realism.
There is also
significant potential for D&D as a tool for psychological
development/therapy. We hold that the Jungian archetypes and the notion of
the Shadow Self anticipated this very form of roleplaying, whereby a
person can give voice to the depths of their personal being in a safe
and friendly environment governed by rules and possibility.
Our Symbol:
-Our organization
makes use of 4, 6, 8, 10, and 20 sides dice. They represent for our
the unpredictable dynamism of the story; it can (and often does) flow
in a direction none of us anticipated. We open ourselves to chance
and possibility in storytelling.
