Dungeons & Dragons fans still prefer in-person play despite COVID-19

Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game, is generally a social game. It involves a number of players sitting around a table and a set of dice which dictates action, cause and/or effect. But in March 2020, local table-top adventures would suddenly come to halt when the globe was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

As a result, players had to make a choice: Revert to an online system and communicate through Zoom, or keep things the same. But for a Fresno State student and one criminology professor, playing Dungeons & Dragons through a computer screen was not the ideal choice. Instead, these enthusiasts decided to keep things relatively the same but also implement health guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

“My group still meets in person to play [Dungeons & Dragons] even though it is recommended that we shouldn’t,” said Fresno State student James Mora via email. “There are seven of us in total. We all keep watch of how we are feeling to see if anyone may or may not be sick.” 

Mora, a junior studying media, communications and journalism, began playing the table-top game a few years ago and would much rather enjoy his experience in person. 

“I prefer to play in person,” said Mora, “I just feel like I function better when I am in person than on a screen. The second reason [he doesn’t like to play via the Internet] is that some of my players do not have computers that they can [use] to play online.” 

Mora isn’t the only person at Fresno State to feel this way, however. Much like the MCJ student, Keith Clement, Ph.D. of the criminology department also enjoys Dungeons & Dragons and has been playing since an early age. 

“It was the fifth grade or so and my mom had taken me over to one of her friend’s houses and I actually got to play a one-on-one adventure with just the [dungeon master] and me. My first monster I got to fight was a gelatinous cube and I will never forget that first day and I was hooked from then.” 

A dungeon master works like a referee of sorts, making sure players are following the rules and dictates the level of difficulty. These individuals often create vast open worlds for players to explore, and implement creatures that are medium in size to gargantuan. 

Clement, who works as department corrections option coordinator at Fresno State, prefers to play the table-top game in person and does not fancy the online experience in the slightest. 

“[It] didn’t work. It was awful: people [were] talking over each other and people were checking their phones. It was difficult and I don’t think any of us liked it.”

According to Clement, exploring fantasy-driven worlds is meant to be done around others and believes he knows why people usually return to slay more enemies and interact with others. 

“I think [Dungeons & Dragons] is a social game. I’ll be honest, I suspect that most people that play actually crave the human contact,” said Clement. “And while you can get it virtually in some quantity, I think that it’s a lot easier to joke in person.”

To date, Dungeons & Dragons has become a billion dollar industry and it is said that more than 20 million people are playing the game’s fifth edition, which launched in 2014.