Dungeons & Dragons (or D&D) is a fantasy role-playing game where a group of people each create and assume the role of their own character and go on an adventure. Together, the players work together to achieve their goals, creating a collaborative storytelling experience. The most important thing is to have fun!
A Dungeons & Dragons adventure can vary and contain a large range of themes, from medieval fantasy, intrigue or horror to jungle exploration, treasure hunting and daring rescues! Here are some examples of themes and adventures that we have used previously:
Drama - a political intrigue drama involving powerful factions - similar to a Game of Thrones-type world. An assassination plot has been uncovered... but who is behind it?
Comedy - the adventurers are shrunk down to the size of beetles while exploring a magical orchard and need to find a way to reverse it while avoiding insects that are now as big as houses.
Adventure - fight your way through a dungeon full of traps to kill a dragon and claim its treasure, or endure a sieging army of orcs as they rampage over the hills towards buildings full of innocent people.
Crime - sneak onto a secret gambling barge, play casino games while trying to quietly locate and apprehend the cult leader in charge of the illegal operation.
Horror - journey in a strange Gothic world draped in mist. Hunt for magical artifacts to slay the powerful, omnipresent vampire lord keeping you trapped there.
A typical game consists of 3 to 6 players and 1 Dungeon Master. The players each have a single character that they role-play as and using their skills, wits, and weapons, make decisions that impact not only themselves and the party, but the world around them. The Dungeon Master is responsible for creating and describing the world that the characters live in, adjudicating the rules of the game and controlling (and acting as!) monsters and other people the characters meet.
A single session of Dungeons & Dragons can be as short as an hour or run for many hours. A 3 to 4-hour session is fairly common. Multiple sessions can be played with the same characters in a longer story (a campaign). Some of these can last months, years or even decades!