Wizards and warriors meet at GRC

On certain dark nights at VCU, brave students come together to battle it out with wizards, dragons and axe-wielding trolls.

And they do it armed only with a set of dice.

Members of the “Dungeons and Dragons” student organization meet on select Thursdays and Fridays each month. On those nights, the lobby in the Gladding Residence Center Phase III is transformed into “The Hole.” For the next five hours, the members take turns playing out fantasy scenarios using characters they’ve created.

Tom Liles, president of Dungeons and Dragons at VCU, said he started the organization as a cheap way to get the supplies necessary to play the game. He later realized that the club was a great way to welcome off-campus, transfer or new students to the university.

“The D&D community is very close-knit and friendly,” Liles said. “Joining the club is like making two dozen good friends at once.”

Liles describes D&D as a video game without the computer. All the rules are found in a book. Using these rules, the players create a character to play in the game. Each character has its own strengths and weaknesses.

“You can make any character you want, like a sneaky thief, brave warrior or mysterious wizard,” Liles said.

Being able to create your own characters and environments is a big part of the game’s draw.

For information about the “Dungeons and Dragons” organization, contact Tom Liles at lilestm@vcu.edu.
For more information on starting your own student organization, visit www.usca.vcu.edu/studentorgs/index.htm.

“It’s kind of engaging. You’ve got this whole imaginary world for your characters to explore,” said Joe Starsja, the owner of One Eyed Jacques in Carytown.

Conflicts between characters during the game are settled by rolling sets of dice. Unlike most games, however, even after these conflicts are settled, there is still no real winner or loser.

“It’s more of a cooperative thing. You get together with your friends and have some fun and have something to do,” Starsja said.

The “Dungeons and Dragons” group is an official student organization. That’s important, because official organizations get support that’s not available to informal groups. They’re even eligible for financial help from the Student Government Association.

“When you’re a student organization, you have the ability to request funding from the SGA,” said Tzeira Creditor, office assistant at Student Organization Services. “You also have the privileges here, with the copier and the printer. If you want to make a banner, we’ll give you the paint and the paper.”

A fair is also held at the beginning of each fall semester. It provides a place for the official organizations to set up tables. Liles took advantage of past fairs to recruit new members.

“We ran a table at the student fair to generate interest,” he said. “We got a fair amount of people signed up.”

He says that the best way to recruit for the group is through friends and the Internet. With a current roster totaling 20 members, Liles and his organization are always looking for more people to come play.

“My group is always very welcoming to newcomers,” Liles said.