THE ECHO

by Edward Crowe

The Dungeons and Dragons club at Avon High School had their first meeting after school on Aug. 30th. The meeting took place a week and a half after the callout meeting, with additional days to help newer players with character creation and DMing (Dungeon Master) in between.

After a week and a half of waiting, club members gathered and started their campaigns, each differing in setting, events, and more between each group.

“I body slammed my brother with a giant crab. That was pretty funny,” Junior Justice Collins said regarding a part in their campaign.

Collins had been involved with the club since freshman year, but this year he took on a lot more responsibility by becoming a Dungeon Master. As DM, Collins had been the one crafting a story for their group to explore and interact with.

“For me being a new DM I feel like I’ve been doing pretty good but I’m not too sure,” Collins said. “That’s just really what my players decide…if I’ve been a good DM or not.”

With no formal training for how to be a DM, Collins had been figuring out the ins and outs of DMing as the campaign went on. The results might not be great at first, but that’s to be expected in the beginning.

“Frankly, I do feel like I could do better, but especially with it being my first year I feel like I can cut myself some slack,” Collins said.

Overall, club turnout this year was recorded to be 71 attendees, a large amount according to senior Jonah Blair, co-president of the club. They saw that this attendance size is part of a trend of growth that has been occurring for the past few school years.

“It may be similar to last year, but going between my freshman year and my sophomore year, we’ve jumped up probably 60 members,” Blair said.

The leadership of the club, much like Collins, has had some changes since the previous year, most notably with the introduction of a new cabinet position. The hope is that this new position will allow the club to improve and do more in the future.

“It’s creative director, because we’re planning to do more,” Blair said. “More extra stuff to have more fun with the club and get a better sense of community.”

In a way, Club leadership have already taken the initiative in trying to do more things. They have already planned at least one activity for the future, focusing on the painting of character minis.

“It’s pretty self-explanatory, but we get a bunch of minis, probably 3d printed, and we paint them with the club,” Blair said.

Something previously mentioned as a leadership goal by Blair, was to get a sense of community. While there are plans to help build it over time, this first meeting seems to have laid a solid foundation already.

“We are already getting this sense of community which makes Dungeons and Dragons really special.” Blair said.