A new adventure is taking shape at the 100 Mile House Cariboo Regional District Library.
Every Saturday from Jan. 25 onwards, pre-teens and teenagers are being invited to explore far-off fantasy lands and magical adventures. Not through reading books, but playing Dungeons and Dragons on the tabletop with dice, a character sheet and a whole lot of imagination.
"I find D&D is such a great and easy way to be able to make friends, whether it is you playing with a group of people who live just a couple of doors down from you or online with people from other counties," Karl Lundsbye, the club's dungeon master, said. "D&D is storytelling in a way where you and other people come together to create and almost write your own story."
Dungeons and Dragons, better known as D&D, is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game that has been popular among people from all walks of life since the early 1980s. Played using a set of polyhedral dice including the ubiquitous 20-sided D20, players create a character using rolled stats that either increase or decrease the likelihood of their characters completing certain actions and skills. While playing their characters players are encouraged to role-play as them, giving them their characters unique voices and personalities.
As the club's primary dungeon master, more commonly known as a DM, Lundsbye will be responsible for creating the world for his players to explore along with an overarching story and scenarios to solve using either their skills or brawn.
He's been playing D&D, on and off, since he was around six years old. Lundsbye said his dad has always been a big fan of D&D and was eager to share it with his children. Since then Lundsbye, now 14, has gained a love for the game, especially its in-built ability to form connections and make friends.
"It was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had and I continued to play whether it was in person or online and I got more and more into it with each session," Lundsbye said. "Now that I'm able to do (the club) I think it's a big step for me to get more into the game."
This will be Lundsbye's second time serving as a campaign's DM and he is looking forward to the challenge of creating the world and story. He noted he is hoping this club will inspire other similar groups and events in the community.
"One of my favourite things to do is to introduce people into things like this, especially for D&D. It is such an amazing community and the more people who learn about it and are interested in playing, the better."
The club is being facilitated by Gina Gigliotti, the library's branch assistant, who said she decided to get the D&D Club going to help fill a gap in the library's programming. While the library has plenty of programs for children, adults and seniors she remarked they were kind of missing youth programming. When a local community member suggested they form a D&D club at the library Gigliotti thought it was a great idea.
"A mom approached me and said some of the homeschoolers would like to start a group. Then I reached out to Karl when (we were in A Long Time Ago... together) and he said he was interested in doing it," Gigliotti said. "I am hoping this will take off so hopefully the homeschoolers and kids in public school attend. We are looking at more Grades 6 to 12, which you know would be more 11 to 17 or 18."
Gigliotti remarked that she doesn't know much about D&D herself and trusts Lundsbye to take the lead. Her role is to provide the club with space in the library's program room, snacks and whatever else they may need as the club evolves, such as miniatures, props or extra dice.
At the club's inaugural meeting on Thursday, Jan. 16 Lundsbye met with three potential club members who expressed an interest. He remarked they asked a lot of questions which bodes well for the future.
When asked what genre of a campaign Lundsbye has picked, he said that is still to be determined and will depend on what his players want to do. He said their campaign could be based on fairy tales, a classic high fantasy adventure like Lord of the Rings or even be set in space.
"There's an infinite amount of ways you can play and it quite literally is, just to summarize, a game about creating stories," Lundsbye said.
The D&D Club began meeting every Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the library's program room. Gigliotti said it will be a drop-in format and that Lundsbye has told her participants can create characters for one session and if they don't like it are under no obligation to come back.
"I think it's going to be exciting and once it starts, with word of mouth, it will take off," Gigliotti said.
Gigliotti said anyone with questions about the D&D Club or any of the library's other programming can reach out to her at 250-395-2332.
