My first Dungeons & Dragons campaign I was the dungeon master for, I wove the tale for my fellow players with the guidance of the player’s book, “The Lost Mine of Phandelver.” 

After we completed that we moved on to playing “Tomb of Annihilation” in which I do not remember much of the character that I played but that I was incredibly stressed each meeting with a dungeon master who was a stickler for the rules. The campaign was based on survival, and he wanted to stick to that, making it hard for a new player who was learning how to do rolls and attacks for myself on top of trying to fit in with group dynamics. I just wanted to have at least some fun with roleplaying and I felt way in over my head.

A couple of years later I am currently playing in a campaign with a different group where my character is a half-orc bard named Onyx Slayer whose background is that he joined a band called the Sirens and Harpies to channel his rage into music. The battles the band plays songs about Onyx sometimes just cannot resist joining in on. One day his band members go missing by a cult and he is pulled into saving the multiverse by this multiverse agency. 

One of my favorite moments so far was as we got to go into battle my character threw down the ship’s dock, ran forward into the zombies, and shredded ACDC on his lute while casting the spell Thunderwave to cause damage. It was a glorious start as one of the other character’s companions, a wolf, attacked next to take a bite out of a zombie all while I was shredding on the lute. 

I have also recently started getting back into watching other people’s campaigns online because my friend has so graciously allowed me access to their Dropout account, which allows me to watch many different campaigns. One I finished recently was, “Misfits and Magic,” this story of four teens who discover they are magical and along the way develop their identities. 

It has become more apparent to me through a combination of watching this series and playing in this new campaign with Onyx Slayer that has shown me that it is important to be comfortable with those that you are playing with. 

I was able to do a cool fight sequence with my friends and roleplay it out a bit because I feel like I can show vulnerability in my character as I roleplay, and I can share that creativity. 

I wasn’t stifled by the fear of messing up on rolls, I just went for it and that’s exactly how they played in “Misfits and Magic” as well. A good group will support you even if you mess up, helping you along the way, cause no matter how long we’ve been playing we’re all still learning. 

Theo Edwards is a sophomore psychology major. They can be reached at 581-2812 or heedwards@eiu.edu.