The Johnsonian

Issue date: 10/4/06 Section: Lifestyles

Fresh notebook paper, a grid line map, five metallic green polyhedral dice and a player's manual sprawled out across a table illustrate the hopes of Winthrop gamers as they send their fantasy characters into the dense forest.

In the game Dungeons and Dragons, playing pretend makes the adventures of hobbits, elves, half-humans and dwarves a reality in a make-believe world. This world wouldn't be complete without the "dungeon master," the leader of the pack.

"It's close to playing Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy or any other role-playing game," David Fichter, a sophomore theatre performance major, said.

All actions are routed in the form of five, non-cubicle dice. There are 20-sided, 10-sided, eight-sided, six-sided and four-sided dice to choose from and each plays a role in determining a character's next move, whether it is travel into a forest or needing a key to get through the next door.

"Say, for example, you're traveling in a party to get to the dungeon and someone needs to have a light to see what's ahead," Adam Conrad, a sophomore physical education major, said. "You roll the die and if the numbers are high a monster is coming, if the numbers are low, there is no monster ahead."

Don't worry though, these monsters don't bite. Fichter, Conrad and Ross Boston, a sophomore history major, have spent many nights entertained by this world and assure others that they have yet to be literally attacked.

"It can be a lot of fun," Boston said. "It's just a good way to get out and do something different with friends."

Actually, it's a fun way to get out with friends and a dungeon master.

For this particular session, the game master is played by Nakia Pope, assistant professor in the center for pedagogy.

"I have been playing for a long time-since middle school," Pope said. "I got into fantasy literature and learned a lot about history and vocabulary, but the game is also a great vehicle for imagination."

The professor introduced students to his world last year hoping to get a group together to dabble in the dice. Pope believes that it is a healthy social and creative outlet, but he's not the only one who thinks so.

"There are big nation-wide conventions that demonstrate Dungeons and Dragons is an extensive hobby," Pope said. "Over 35,000 people turned out at the last one I attended"

Aside from being so popular to fantasy and sci-fi lovers, Dungeons and Dragons is an intense and time-consuming game.

Continued...

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