Dungeons and Dragons Amid a Pandemic

Dungeons and Dragons Amid a Pandemic: 

Keeping the games alive to build connection

By: Theron Bowman

Originally Published: October 15th, 2020

Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D to its fans, is a popular fantasy roleplaying game that began in the 1970s. Groups of players meet, usually in person, and play characters in an ongoing story led by a Gamemaster. According to the Seattle Times and Wizards of the Coast (the company that owns D&D), there are 12-15 million players in North America alone out of about 40 million around the world. Since the arrival of Covid-19, people have not been able to get together and play the game, and there has been a move towards online platforms. This article will look at some of the changes that have happened.

Matthias Haas, 37, of The Dalles, says, “I enjoy the storybuilding and the connection (D&D) makes with my friends.” Haas has been around D&D all his life, but has only been playing for 26 years. He describes D&D as “kinda like writing your own book.” 

Aaron Bowman, 44, of The Dalles, says that, “For me, D&D is social time. It’s time to tell stories with some of the greatest people I’ve ever met.” Bowman, who has played for 30 years, says that he has met all of his best friends through roleplaying games, not just D&D.

So how has Covid-19 has impacted D&D all across the world? People can no longer meet in person, so they either have to play D&D online or stop until the pandemic is over. It is unknown exactly how many people have done what, but it’s likely that a lot more people play D&D online now. Bowman and Haas have both moved their games online to the instant messaging and voice chat program Discord. Many others are doing it too; according to zendesk.com, this move online has seen Discord’s online users triple since Covid-19 began.

When asked what went into his decision to play online, Bowman says, “The pandemic is the only reason why I decided to play online. If I had a choice, I’d never play online, it doesn’t give me the same feeling.” Both Bowman and Haas say that in order to return to playing in person, there would have to be a vaccine out. Haas says that infected numbers dropping to an acceptable margin could get his group meeting in person again.

Bowman and Haas say that after the pandemic is over, their weekly game will meet in person again. But there has been some benefit to being forced online:  they both agree that they might play online with some friends that are farther away from them. “I have some friends in Seattle and some friends in Portland,” says Bowman, “that I would really like to game with, but they can’t make it down.”