When it comes to activities on Point Park’s campus, students have a lot of options. The various events and lounges around campus provide plenty of opportunities to have fun and meet other people.
The commuter lounge on the fourth floor of Lawrence Hall, for instance, has a shelf of board games that students can use, as well as a television, piano, chairs and more.
However, the one thing that is evident is a low, if not empty presence of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) games on campus.
Whenever asked, most students on campus say that they want to play D&D but they don’t know where to find a game.
On campus, “PointParkRPG!” (PPRPG), a club dedicated to playing D&D, is starting up soon. There’s no exact date yet, but club president Sienna Wraith, a first-year history major, said the club just got their constitution approved.
“The club’s constitution just got approved at this week’s SGA meeting, so we’ve been unable to get flyers approved and up on campus,” Wraith said. “As soon as we get all of our officer trainings done, we will be putting up flyers with the first meeting date, and in fact, the flier has already been made.”
When the club gets fully established, it will officially start meeting and playing a campaign that fits within the members’ schedules.
PPRPG’s PointSync description states that the club strives to “create immersive experiences, great stories and long-lasting friendships for its members.”
According to BookScan, which provides sales figures for books, the “Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook” sold over 1.5 million copies in 2023. Despite D&D being popular around the world – due in part to the Dungeons and Dragons movie that was released in 2023 and D&D reaching its 50th anniversary this year – the roleplaying game scene on campus is still small.
In addition to that, most players probably don’t want to ask to join a D&D party, as a lot of parties are already in the middle of a campaign or are not accepting new members.
However, the PPRPG club is encouraging students to join and become part of that party.
“For people who are struggling to find a D&D group to join, I’d tell them to give it some time, just keep looking, and you’ll find a group eventually,” Wraith said. “It took me almost a year from when I first started playing D&D before I found a group I could play with.”
Phillip Harrity, archival coordinator at the University Center, said that people should broaden their horizons.
“Often, players are looking to play a specific edition, a specific way, at a specific time,” Harrity said. “[It] can be hard to check all the boxes like that for a game that can last hours, days, months and even years. Try different editions, try different RPG’s.”
Harrity has been playing D&D for almost 25 years and even hosted a Dungeons and Dragons Camp over the summer along with Fred Angiolieri, the senior director of media services.
“I was interested in Fantasy books at that time, and I knew that many of those stories were inspired by D&D,” Harrity said.
The University Center also offers multiple D&D books for checkout. These books include fourth and fifth editions of D&D and the “Pathfinder Player’s Handbook.”
