Calling all fantasy lovers — it’s time to to grab your pencils, dice and adventuring cap.
On Saturday, May 11, the Agassiz Library will be hosting its first Dungeons and Dragons role-playing session, in an effort to bring more games to the library.
“The library is trying to be part of the community,” library technician Kate Gillespie said. “It’s somewhere where people can meet and make friends and talk about things and learn things. And games fall really well into that.”
According to Gillespie, who’s organizing the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) events, games were the most requested programs for the Agassiz Library.
“It was all games,” she said about the “wish-list” board she had set up in the front of the library. “It was all card games and board games and chess, and we had about six people who wanted D&D.”
Board games and role-playing games have been gaining popularity in recent years, and Gillespie thinks that has something to do with the many requests the library received.
“Chilliwack has a big gaming community, there’s lots of games stores and just that kind of drop in atmosphere,” she said. “But there’s nothing out here. Not that I know of anyway.”
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Gillespie has been playing the fantasy role-playing game on and off for the last decade, bringing wizards, druids and fighters to life in her various games.
For most D&D sessions, the fun is equal parts imagination, strategy and chance. Dice are used to determine what happens in particular events, and storytelling by the game organizer (the Dungeon Master or DM) and players fill in the rest.
For the D&D session on May 11, the library has a volunteer who will be taking on the role of Dungeon Master for the first time. This game will be adults-only, with everyone playing Level One characters from the fifth edition of the game.
On Thursday, June 6, the library is expanding to a new kind of role-playing: Hero Kids, a D&D-like game for kids ages six to 12.
Gillespie will be running that session, building on her experience playing with her daughter. For her, the best part of D&D is that it’s a game of “collaborative storytelling.”
“I have the bones of the story, and then the characters fill in the details and use dice to help them make decisions and tell the story together,” she said.
Eventually, Gillespie hopes to turn D&D sessions at the library into a monthly event. But for now, she’s looking for six people to play in the adult session and kid session. Interested people can register at the library.
And for those who might be feeling apprehensive about trying D&D?
“It’s more fun than you’d expect,” Gillespie said. “Especially if you’re nervous around people, like I was the first few times I played.”
“It’s flexible that way,” she added. “If you want to just come and roll dice and sit there, you don’t have to participate in the role playing part.
“But that does make it more fun once you’re comfortable.”
grace.kennedy@ahobserver.com
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