The Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) community has been brought back to life on the University of Tennessee at Martin campus with a high class revivify spell.
D&D, for those who don’t know, is a tabletop role-playing game that was initially released in 1974 and gained popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Paul Meek Library and the D&D club have taken the campus by storm with their workshops, gaining a name with the fantasy community. Advisor Ronne Cox has also brought the club back to life within the last two years.
On Sept. 5, the D&D club had one of its usual workshops and had to turn away students due to full campaign tables. To help its numbers grow, the club is now seeking out more dungeon masters for tables.
Mrs. Cox said, “You would think it would feel good to max out, but I felt like crap. We never want to turn people away from the library, so we’ve been looking for more DMs so more people can play.”
Her mission is to not only increase library engagement but also provide an educational experience for the students who engage with the D&D club, both in officer and player positions. She claims that it not only provides a sense of community to students but also a chance to gain real-world experience in organizing events and reaching out to the campus.
This all raised the question: Why has D&D regained so much popularity, especially here at UT Martin?
Bailey Hester, vice president of the D&D club, says, “I would say that the media heavily influenced Dungeons and Dragons coming back to popularity. Some people find it through D&D podcasts, shows like Stranger Things, and friends recommending it to them.”
Students from the workshop claimed that they enjoyed the sense of community it brings and the whimsy of being someone else in tabletop roleplay.
College students seek ways to escape their stressful work schedules and the chaos of everyday campus life. What better way to do that than to spend a couple of hours being someone completely different with a couple of strangers or friends?
Our guess as to why D&D has gained so much popularity over the last two years is its sense of escape.
If you’re looking for a new hobby or just a getaway for a couple of hours from your everyday schedule, try D&D. It just may be the escape from reality that you’ve been searching for.
