Role-playing & Beyond

By Hayden Lam

It is more than just magic and swords; it’s about creating a community and connection with people.

Gaming DNA, a store in Kirikiroroa, is filled with cards, war games and miniatures. It hosts a number of groups who enjoy a range of card and role-playing games.

One of these is Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game. The Store Manager, Flint Rennie, said, “It has been around for decades now. It started off very small, but it’s grown a lot in popularity, especially through COVID.” 

Playing Dungeons & Dragons has many different benefits. The main one is building a community and connecting with other people. Another one is about personal freedom and expressing yourself in ways that maybe you can’t do socially. Then there is the creativity side of the game and being able to step out of your usual day-to-day life to try different ideas.

Player, Matthew Johnston, said, “Getting out of the house makes it so much more enjoyable. You meet people that you never thought you would meet. It also sparks creativity in roleplaying. If you aren’t sure what to do, you can ask other players to give you ideas, which you can use to spark your creativity.”

Flint started playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), “which he says was not the greatest due to having 7 – 8 players, making it hard to get into the game. But after he moved to Canada with his group of friends from Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland, they got together and played a ‘homebrew’ game of Dungeons & Dragons created by their Australian friends. 

They managed to get through 4 – 5 sessions before their Australian friend had to return to Australia and they would sometimes do it at a gaming cafe called Stormcrow in Vancouver. Stormcrow is a gaming cafe themed like a tavern, which added the atmosphere and vibe of the game, and gave them a really good experience.

Flint’s opinion is that the future of role-playing games is bright, especially with content creators putting out D&D related content or other similar content, which is gaining popular appeal and attention. A lot of people have found many ways to meet people in person and connect as well, especially after COVID, as people tend to look more for an in-person interaction. 

There are also videogames like Baldur’s Gate, which have introduced people to the role-playing side of the game as most of the characters from Baldur’s Gate can be played by players and interacted with inside a role-playing game setting like D&D.

Dungeons & Dragons is more than just a role-playing game of storytelling and imagination. It is about building a community in Kirikiriroa, connecting with people who share hobbies and developing connections. Flint said, “If you haven’t checked out a game store, you definitely should. It’s a place to meet friends.”

For more information https://gamingdna.co.nz/