VERSATILE JOURNEY
Paper, dice, imagination all it takes for D&D play
Players encounter monsters, wizards and threats like no other in Dungeons & Dragons, but none of those are beyond players’ imaginations, because imagination is what makes D&D so special.
Garland County teen librarian Brett Williams runs D&D classes at the library and teaches the game to new players who want to start their D&D journey.
The game brings people together and puts them in scenarios out of this world against orcs, dragons and other threats.
“There’s no board or anything,” Williams said. “It’s just paper and dice and imagination.”
A Dungeon Master (in the library’s case, this is usually Williams) helps create the story and move the game along.
The DM hands out scenarios, situations and threats to the players, and the players must make decisions on what to do next in the game.
“I think it’s just so versatile,” Williams said. “You can just find a group of friends. If one person kind of knows what to do, you can just sit down and play wherever. It can be any sort of story. You know traditionally it’s fantasy. It can be sci-fi. It can be horror. … It can be literally anything. I think that really resonates with a lot of people.”
While D&D produced many different books that help guide the game, Williams highlighted that a group of players only really needs three of those books to start the adventure.
Even more advantageous to prospective players, free resources to play the game exist online. The rest of the story relies purely on imagination and dice.
Williams keeps a cart full of D&D books, dice and materials that he can wheel to any location in the library when he needs to set up for a game or class.
The cart also holds folders stocked full of papers and notes from all the various games and sto
rylines Williams and his players created.
Williams teaches a variety of new players how to play D&D, all coming from different backgrounds.
“If somebody’s coming in and I know they’ve played video games a lot, that’s a good jumping-off point,” he said. “But beyond that, the hardest part is keeping all the different stories I have going on straight. I’ve got four or five different groups that I run every month now and they’re all doing everything very differently. So it’s just keeping track of who killed what orc and who started a cupcake shop with that orc. That’s literally one of the things that’s happened.”
Williams makes his appearance felt in schools around Garland County and reaches out into the community to
find fellow nerds.
Teens in Garland County can find a home at the library with Williams and fellow D&D players.
“I think it’s good to know that there is a physical place you can come to, as a nerd especially, and be welcomed and find fellow nerds,” Williams said. “I know with the internet of course it’s easier than ever to find that in a virtual environment. But it’s something else to actually come together over a table and play a game. I like them to know that they have that option here.”