They are a few moves ahead of everyone else.
At the Dungeons & Dragons Club at Steinbrenner High School in Lutz, members have been playing for years. Not just in the after-school weekly meetups, but on their own, for personal fun and pleasure.
And they’re not playing just because a TV show has made it culturally acceptable by raising its popularity to the mainstream. Or because there’s a blockbuster movie now playing in theaters that’s based on the game.
The game’s popularity, and the club, have grown because of the global hit Netflix series, “Stranger Things,” said Branden Lingerfelt, a Steinbrenner social studies teacher, who is the club’s adult sponsor and monitor.
But he added that he believes the popularity goes beyond “Stranger Things,” which began airing in 2016.
“It’s amazing to see kids come to this club,” Lingerfelt said. “Maybe they didn’t have a lot of friends before, but now they do, and maybe that was or wasn’t their intent or maybe they just wanted to play D&D, but I love seeing both of those from kids who have come to this club.
“They just want to have fun playing Dungeons & Dragons.”
For much of its existence since the game was first published in 1974, this fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson has been considered part of the “nerd culture.” The game is sometimes viewed as played by people who lack a social life or spend all of their time playing the game in a basement or garage.
Junior Mikie White, the president of Steinbrenner’s club, said he never set out to change that image when he founded the club two years ago.
He’s always loved the game — even before ‘Stranger Things’ — and wanted to have a safe space for players to get together and either learn the game, to improve at playing it, or just have fun going through the story labyrinth set up by the Dungeon Master.
But “Stranger Things” has had an impact. About 50 people showed up at the club’s first meeting this school year.
“Basically, before ‘Stranger Things,’ it wasn’t like that,” he said, “and with most clubs, it whittles down after the first day. When you get one of the most famous TV shows in the world basically promoting it and it becomes mainstream, then you see the new players.
“But a lot of people don’t know how to play it or get into it. So if you have a club at school, it’s about, ‘Come join us, come learn how to play,’ — because this is an easy way to find out how.
“This isn’t really about competing — you don’t really win D&D. You’re getting together with friends and having a great time — that’s what you really want.”
The club meets once a week, for about an hour or so of play, as Lingerfelt keeps a watchful eye.
Lingerfelt says he’s not an avid player and doesn’t play with the students, but he’s more than happy to sit back and watch much better players at work.
“What I like is that they’re just hanging out at a place and time to meet,” Lingerfelt said. “It’s lowkey — like a kid isn’t here and in this club for his or her (college) resume. He or she is here to play D&D, and I think that’s great.
“They want a space and time to play with fellow students? I am here for them.”
Of course the club has more experienced players, such as Mikie White or the club’s vice president, senior Peyton White (no relation). Which, as leaders of the club, is perfect, as they are the go-to experts for rule clarifications and playing advice.
“What I try to do with new players,” Peyton White said, “is get them with more experienced Dungeon Masters. I’m very anti-gatekeeping, so no matter how you found out about tabletop dice games — ‘Stranger Things’ or the movie or some podcast or TV show or friend — if you want to play it, play it! If you want to do it, do it! Come join us or a game or find a game and have fun!
“I care about it a lot, that’s why I encourage it, and not everyone stuck with it, but I’m glad to have those who did stick with it and I’m glad to have this club at my school until I graduate because it can be very hard to find games anywhere, especially outside a school setting at our age.
“It’s so much fun and anyone can play!”
Mikie White agrees, knowing first-hand the fun of playing the elaborate game, but also that the game isn’t just for “nerds.”
“There’s a few athletes in (the club),” he said. “It’s not a dorky thing anymore, and whether it’s ‘Stranger Things’ or something else that got you into the game, Dungeons & Dragons is for everyone.”
Dungeons & Dragons
Details: This fantasy tabletop game, created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, was first published in 1974. The role-playing game (RPG) has evolved and gained popularity through the years, even now after it has been published by Wizards of the Coast (a subsidiary of Hasbro) since 1997.
The game departs from traditional war gaming by allowing each player to create their own character to play instead of a military formation. These characters embark upon adventures within a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master (DM) serves as the game’s referee and storyteller, while maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur, and playing the role of the inhabitants of the game world, also referred to as non-player characters (NPCs).
During the game, players describe their characters’ intended actions to the DM, who then describes the result or response. Trivial actions, such as picking up a letter or opening an unlocked door, are usually automatically successful. The outcomes of more complex or risky actions, such as scaling a cliff or picking a lock, are determined by rolling dice. Different polyhedral dice are used for different actions, such as a 20-sided die to see whether a hit was made in combat, but an eight-sided die to determine how much damage was dealt. A single session of Dungeons & Dragons can last anywhere between three hours to an entire day.
For more information about the Steinbrenner D&D club, email Branden Lingerfelt at .
Published April 12, 2023
