Try @ TXST

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi, y'all. My name is Giselle Kowalski and I'm the digital content producer here at Texas State University and you're listening to Try @ TXST. Today's episode is about a game called Dungeons & Dragons. You may have heard of it in passing or, if you're like me, were introduced to it by watching Stranger Things. The game is complex where players weave their way through an intricate story filled with fantastical creatures and full-fledged characters. Here at Texas State, the D&D Club is ran by students whose games, which are formally called Campaigns, can last for hours on end. I got to speak with the president of the Texas State Dungeons & Dragons Club to get a better grip on the game, how to play it, and how personal it can get.
So, hi, Allison. How are you?

Allison Drinnon:
I'm doing good. How are you?

Giselle Kowalski:
I'm great. So for those that don't know you, can you tell us your name, your major, and what you do with the D&D Club?

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, my name is Allison Drinnon or sometimes I go by Allie. I'm a journalism major at Texas State University as a senior, so I'll be graduating this spring. I serve as the president of the D&D Guild at Texas State, which stands for the Dungeons & Dragons Guild at Texas State.

Giselle Kowalski:
And so how long have you been playing Dungeons & Dragons?

Allison Drinnon:
So I started playing Dungeons & Dragons when I came as a freshman and I was introduced to the game beforehand in high school, but I didn't really have anybody to play with. And so one of the first things I did as a prospective student was look at student organizations and I found the Guild and decided to join and get plugged in.

Giselle Kowalski:
What about Dungeons & Dragons initially interested you?

Allison Drinnon:
Initially, it's mostly the fantasy storytelling aspect. I was a very avid reader growing up and still am, and I also enjoy writing and D&D is kind of putting all these skills together to play a game with friends.

Giselle Kowalski:
If you could describe Dungeons & Dragons because I know it's kind of complicated. To somebody who's never heard of it before, how would you describe it?

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, Dungeons & Dragons at its core is collaborative storytelling. Yes, there's dice and yes, there's a little bit of math involved, but at its core, you are playing a character and you're acting as them throughout a story and you're working with your fellow players to solve a problem or defeat a bad guy and different things like that and the dice that you use determine your success rate.

Giselle Kowalski:
Okay. And so these characters, are you coming up with them? Are they predetermined? How does that go?

Allison Drinnon:
So for the most part, you will come up with your own character and so you'll play as this character during a campaign. What a campaign is is a series of sessions. Sessions is when all of you players and the game runner, or the Dungeon Master, sit down and play for a few hours. Typically, this can be about three hours long. And so these sessions will run continuously and you'll tell a story over time.

Giselle Kowalski:
Whoa. So are you a dungeon master?

Allison Drinnon:
I am a dungeon master.

Giselle Kowalski:
Oh cool.

Allison Drinnon:
So I started being a dungeon master this past year and I actually recently completed my first campaign, which is very exciting. So it ran for about a year and a half, actually. So these campaigns can run very long. They can be shorter. We sometimes have dungeon masters in our club run campaigns for only a semester, but typically, they can run pretty long.

Giselle Kowalski:
I didn't know that they could last that long. Is that the longest campaign you've ever ran?

Allison Drinnon:
It's the only one I've ever ran.

Giselle Kowalski:
Right.

Allison Drinnon:
But I've played in some that have lasted longer.

Giselle Kowalski:
Whoa.

Allison Drinnon:
So I'm currently playing in one that has lasted a little over a year and a half. It started around the same time.

Giselle Kowalski:
So do each of these campaigns have a different story part?

Allison Drinnon:
Yes. So the different campaigns, the dungeon master will come up with the story or the plot of the campaign. And so typically what this will look like is there'll be what's called a Big Bad, where there's some evil villain out there who's wrecking havoc on society, and your characters have to figure out what's happening and then figure out how to defeat them. And so this will look like, for example, discovering clues or rooting out evil politicians or conquering lands like exploring dungeons, defeating dragons, all of these different things. And so as you explore, you form different stories with your characters and you also undercover the plot of the campaign.

Giselle Kowalski:
Do you have anything planned for us? Could we play a game?

Allison Drinnon:
Yes, we can certainly play a game.

Giselle Kowalski:
Oh my gosh. Okay, well, tell me what to do. I want to play.

Allison Drinnon:
Okay, so we're going to play a little bit of a simplified version just to kind of introduce you to Dungeons & Dragons because when you're getting in, the hardest thing for new players is the learning curve because Dungeons & Dragons at its very start is very technical, but we're going to negate that today and just get into the meat of it. So we're going to set the scene. So you are a fighter for your village. You've been working for your village for a very long time, supporting your family, and you hear some rumors in a nearby tavern that there's a treasure lurking about and you explore and you talk about and you find out that this treasure may be located in the nearby forest. It's very close to home. So you find yourself one day in this forest exploring what could possibly be out there to see if you can find this treasure. So you're out there in the woods. What are you looking for?

Giselle Kowalski:
If I'm looking for a treasure, I'd think that it's a box. So I'm looking for something shiny amongst trees and brush.

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah. So I'm going to have you roll a D20. A D20 is a 20-sided dice that's going to determine your success rate. I'm going to have you roll a perception check. You're a fighter. You're not super perceptive, so I'm going to give you a plus one bonus. So why don't you go ahead and roll that D20 for me.
So that's a 13 and a 13 with your one bonus equals a 14. So D&D on a D20, the higher the number, the better your outcome. So with the 14, you don't really find any shiny treasure, but you do notice some dragon tracks laying about. Can you roll me a history check to see what you know about dragons? So roll me the D20 again.

Giselle Kowalski:
Okay. So there's history checks?

Allison Drinnon:
Yes. So there's a bunch of different skills that your character has and based off of their core statistics like strength and dexterity and intelligence and some other ones, it will affect what bonuses you get. So you rolled, I think that's a nine. With a nine, you don't really know a whole lot about dragons, but the main thing you know is dragons have hoards, hoards of treasure. Do you follow these tracks?

Giselle Kowalski:
I guess so for the plot.

Allison Drinnon:
You guess so?

Giselle Kowalski:
I'll do it for the plot. I was going to say honestly, but I'll tell you, my gut says no, I wouldn't follow it. I would be too afraid.

Allison Drinnon:
You're too afraid. Well, you could always come back and bring some friends.

Giselle Kowalski:
That's true.

Allison Drinnon:
Or you can go it alone.

Giselle Kowalski:
No, I'd go and follow it. Curiosity killed the cat. I'll follow it. I'll follow it.

Allison Drinnon:
So you follow these tracks and it leads you to the entrance of a cave. You can't quite see inside of the cave, but you can probably tell from the nearby surroundings that it's at least a tunnel. Do you go inside?

Giselle Kowalski:
Oh, I'd need a light.

Allison Drinnon:
You need a light. Can you roll me a survival check to see if you can find material to build a torch?

Giselle Kowalski:
Oh my goodness, this is so intricate. I love it.
Okay, I got a six.

Allison Drinnon:
Okay, so with a six, you scrounge up a little bit of wood, not quite enough, but with your sword, you're able to strike a match and light the fire. And so with your burning stick of wood, it's not quite as effective as a torch, but it will just be enough. You go inside the tunnel and you get deeper and deeper and deeper and it starts getting colder. It's getting darker. You can't see as well and your torch is getting low, your makeshift torch, and all of a sudden you turned a bend and there's a large sleeping green dragon on a hoard of gold. What do you do?

Giselle Kowalski:
What do I do? I guess I see the gold and I see a dragon that's just sleeping. I'd be incredibly quiet and creep closer to it and see how I could... first, I would probably see how he's sleeping on the gold. Is he completely laying on top of it? Is there gold around him that I could maybe grab without disturbing him? I'd try to see all my entry points and I'd probably leave and then come up with a plan overnight.

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah.

Giselle Kowalski:
That's probably what I would do.

Allison Drinnon:
That's perfectly reasonable. That's smart. So roll me a perception check so you can see where it is.

Giselle Kowalski:
Okay.

Allison Drinnon:
So a two.

Giselle Kowalski:
That's horrible, right?

Allison Drinnon:
It's not good.

Giselle Kowalski:
It's bad.

Allison Drinnon:
It's not good. The worst that you can get is if you roll a one. That is called a natural run or a critical failure. That means you automatically fail at whatever you do. So there's also a natural 20, which is a critical success, so you automatically succeed. So with a two, you're just above a critical failure, but you still fail. So you're looking at this hoard of gold underneath this dragon and it's very dark and this dragon is very big and you can't really tell kind like if you can sneak away gold or not. You can either risk it now or you can try and come back later.

Giselle Kowalski:
I would come back later.

Allison Drinnon:
Come back later?

Giselle Kowalski:
I am not taking my chances. Yeah, no, I would come back later.

Allison Drinnon:
So you successfully sneak back out of the cave. You head back to your village. You go and you tell all of your friends what had happened and all of your friends are like, "Oh my God, there's a lot of gold. We should rally together and go see if we can try to fight this dragon." Do you want to encourage the fighting or should you just want to say that we should sneak out the gold?

Giselle Kowalski:
I would say we sneak out the gold because no, we're humans.

Allison Drinnon:
Make me a persuasion check.

Giselle Kowalski:
A persuasion check.

Allison Drinnon:
Persuasion check.

Giselle Kowalski:
Okay. So when you're doing all of this, how many checks do you have?

Allison Drinnon:
So we're doing a lot of checks right now, but in a longer session, you won't have as many back to back. So for instance, with these, I'm just giving you a little bit of a taste of success rate in different things like that. But some of these conversations can happen over the span of an hour. And during that, you may only make one check. So the whole interaction between you and your friends trying to convince them not to go in and kill the dragon, that could be a whole conversation that you and your party members have with non-player characters that the DM plays.

Giselle Kowalski:
Okay, I see, I see, I see. Okay. 17.

Allison Drinnon:
So a 17. That's pretty good. You successfully persuade your friends not to go and fight the dragon. So you lead your band of friends back to the cave where the dragon is thankfully still sleeping. And so with you and a few friends, now you're going to try to stealthily take the gold. Can you make me a sleight of hand check?

Giselle Kowalski:
A sleight of hand check. And now what is that?

Allison Drinnon:
Sleight of hand is basically how dexterous you are at getting your hands into places they're not supposed to be.

Giselle Kowalski:
Okay.

Allison Drinnon:
So this is picking pockets or lock picking, different things like that.

Giselle Kowalski:
Okay. Okay. 19

Allison Drinnon:
19. Good job. So with a 19, you successfully grabbed this gold and you stir your way out of the cave, the dragon none the wiser. Now you have a big bag of gold to fund you and all of your friends in the village. Congratulations.

Giselle Kowalski:
Thank you very much. I'm very proud of myself right now.

Allison Drinnon:
So that, at its core, is Dungeons and Dragons.

Giselle Kowalski:
Oh my goodness. So when you're playing this and before you became a dungeon master, what did you learn about yourself as a storyteller?

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, so I began telling stories as a writer and so that's how I got really invested in this. And so I wrote fantasy fiction for a time and so that's kind of how I explored weaving plots together is my favorite thing. So it's like from the very beginning, a character may have a backstory that's related to some noble and I'll make that really relevant and really impactful for the character later on. And so as I became a dungeon master, I was able to explore this a little bit further. And so some of it comes with experience of playing. I always recommend that players should become dungeon masters only after that they've played a game or two. And so with this, you kind of get an understanding for the people at your table and the people that you're playing with. Now the players are people and they will do things really unexpectedly that sometimes you can't prepare for. And so that's a little bit of the fun for the dungeon masters, taking these really impromptu twists and making them into really interesting stories.

Giselle Kowalski:
Man, you have to think on your feet then. It's kind of like improv.

Allison Drinnon:
Yes.

Giselle Kowalski:
Oh my gosh.

Allison Drinnon:
It's exactly like improv because even the players are acting as their characters and so it's completely improv. And so it's really, really fun because you really get invested in this person that you've created.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah, I was thinking about it as I was going. I was thinking, "Do I want to do what I would do as me, Giselle, or do I want to do it as me the fighter?" Because I don't know which one to do. I don't know which one to pick.

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, exactly. And that's the difficult part. Sometimes, players will create self-inserts. Well, the character will act very similar to them, but sometimes players will create characters that are completely different. So you have to remind yourself, "Is this something that I would do or is this something that my character would do?" And if it's something that your character would do, then sometimes that has to guide your decisions.

Giselle Kowalski:
So when you're playing this with your friends, have you learned a lot about them in the process? What have you learned about the people? Are you doing this with strangers or are you doing this with people that you've really, really made a connection with? What's that like from a student perspective?

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah. So within the Guild, I've played mostly with people that I didn't know previously, though when I was a dungeon master, I did it for some friends outside of the club. And so I knew one or two of them beforehand, but for the most part, they were all strangers. And so it's very fascinating to get into a game where you're acting and you're depending on one another. It's a very strong team-building exercise to rely on these strangers that you've never met before to work together to solve a problem and to defeat an enemy. But I think the most important thing is you learn a lot about yourself.
So you're playing this character and you're telling a story and sometimes, these characters will have themes or problems that may relate to your own life and you get to explore this in a safe space with other people through the lens of a character. And so you understand yourself a little bit better because you're trying to navigate the problems that this character has that may reflect your own life. And so at the same time, you're also seeing this happen for your other players who may be strangers, but while you're playing are some of your closest friends because you're all in this together.

Giselle Kowalski:
Dang. That's deep. Yeah, that's really deep. I was just thinking about it in the sense of what you just said. You're going through your own personal problems while you're playing a game. And yeah, it's all about what I read earlier about what are your character's morals, what are their moral compass? And sorry, you kind of threw me through a loop with that one because I was like, "Wow, that's really insightful and really wise."

Allison Drinnon:
No, you're good. It's something that most people don't really realize is happening with D&D. A lot of people think that this is a fun game and it is a really fun game, but it also is really personal. And so it really forms those connections well.

Giselle Kowalski:
I've never played it and this sounds so much more exciting than what I had imagined and I think that a lot of people, when they hear Dungeons & Dragons, at least for me, the first thing that comes to mind is Stranger Things, which I know is really lame for me to say because it's been around for much longer than that series has been around, right? But I didn't really have a base knowledge. But you're basically building a book in front of you or a movie in front of you and growing as a person while you play this game. Do you have any advice for someone who wants to get into it? They want to come play a game, but they might be afraid to?

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, so our club often teaches basics of D&D and I've been running that event since I've been an officer and my term ends at the end of this calendar year. And so hopefully, we'll have a new fantastic president who will be leading these events. And so we teach people about the mechanics primarily because a lot of the creative stuff is very individualistic and so there's that, but there's also a lot of online resources. There are fantastic YouTube channels out there. There are other podcasts of D&D games that you can listen to if you've never played a game before, but you want to experience that with somebody.
There's also a really popular new game called Baldur's Gate III and so it came out last year. It's basically a D&D video game. And that's how a lot of people have found us recently is this game was wildly popular and a lot of people started playing it. And it brings in a lot of the mechanics that you use in D&D and so you learn it by playing this campaign solo on your own time and it's a fantastic game. It's one of my favorites. And you learn a little bit about turn-based combat and rolling the dice and different things like that. So it's a great introduction for new players who want the experience of a campaign but can't really commit to anything, but primarily online resources in our club. We have a lot of dungeon masters who are very excited to talk to new players.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah, that's amazing. And how often do you guys meet if someone wants to come and join?

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, we meet every Thursday on the third floor of Alkek Library at 6:30 P.M. We typically do weekly events that run about an hour to an hour and a half, and we will have weekly one-shots or one-time games that will last about three hours. And so we have all of these different things going on. We primarily run all of our interactions through Discord, which is linked in our Instagram and on the Student Involvement Hub.

Giselle Kowalski:
Perfect. And how can they find you on Instagram? What's that handle?

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, our Instagram is at @txstdnd.

Giselle Kowalski:
Perfect. Oh my gosh. Well, Allison, this was so fun. Thank you so much for coming.

Allison Drinnon:
Of course.

Giselle Kowalski:
And thank you for playing with me and I'm excited now. I want to start playing.

Allison Drinnon:
Yeah, I hope you do. It's a really fun game.

Giselle Kowalski:
Awesome. Well, I hope you have a great day.

Allison Drinnon:
Thank you. You too.

Giselle Kowalski:
Thank you.
Allison, thank you so much for having this conversation with me. I learned a ton. And thank you to the whole D&D Club for having us film with [inaudible 00:17:49]. If you haven't seen that video, go and check it out on our Instagram @txst. And thank you for listening to this episode of the Try @ TXST podcast. Make sure to tune in next time to learn more about something else you can try on campus at Texas State. And also, remember to follow us on our social media @txst. This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the hosts and guests not of Texas State University. Again, I'm your host, Giselle Kowalski, and I'll see you next time. Bye, y'all.