It’s a familiar story. During the pandemic, connected to humanity only by Zoom, I fell for Dungeons & Dragons. And I’m still hooked.
I had played in high school, under legendary game master Jonathan Heiles, who presides over one of the longest-running D&D games in history. Jonathan was our science teacher. He once offered an elective class on the subject of Fantasy World Building. My friend Jonah and I, both avid players, loved it. A seed was planted.
By the fall before COVID, my own kids had come of age for D&D. I bought the 5th Edition Starter Set — a whole new trove of rules from when I played in high school — and dove back into gaming. Our family’s first campaign re-ignited my love of role-playing, cryptic puzzles and magical beasts. Most of all, it reconnected me to collaborative story-telling. At its best, D&D weaves together the creativity of multiple player-authors into a unified, epic tale. The Dungeon Master sets the scene, but the players give it life. Their choices drive the narrative arc. I love the managed chaos of a tablefull of authors, all adding their voices to an unpredictable story about fantastical characters who live or die by the dice rolls.
Soon, I couldn’t contain it to my family. I took on DM’ing a few other parties, including one with my favorite character name of all time, Mihiro Matté (played by my friend Matty … say it aloud, you’ll get it). When I learned that a few other PS 261 dads were D&D-curious, we got together and pledged to form a party. This time, I would play, not DM. Fall turned to winter, as we drafted up characters and prepared for our campaign.
And then, lockdown. No more meeting up in person. But thanks to our tech-savvy DM, we transitioned to a virtual table top and started playing on Zoom. We played religiously, every week, in one of Dungeons & Dragons’ most vaunted campaigns: Curse of Strahd. Honestly, it kept me sane through those dark months. The campaign far outlasted lockdown — by four years, two characters and 20 levels, to be exact. God bless our DM, the Dread Lord of Barovia, for putting in all that work!
As we neared the end of that campaign, my mind kept wandering back to world building. Could I invent a D&D world worth playing? Using a sweep
ing campaign setting like Strahd inspired me to think big. Through playing and DMing, I had mastered D&D’s technical knowledge. I felt confident I could get the rules right. But what I love most about D&D is the collaboration. Building a world on my own seemed … lonely.
So I called Jonah. We’ve collaborated for years, both professionally and personally, so I knew that he’d be an exceptional co-creator. Amazingly, he had also found his way back to D&D (through his pre-teen kids, naturally). Clearly, I had rolled high on my luck check.
We have now begun crafting a campaign of our own — an Age-of-Exploration-themed world, set on a planet bedeviled by corruption and greed. We will each enlist our own parties to play through it. In a heart-warming twist, my son will also DM the campaign with a party of his peers.
Wish us all good fortune in the adventure to come!