With shaking hands and a small, whispered prayer for good luck, senior Connor Su throws the dice onto the table, his friends watching in anticipation. Rolling and stumbling over its many sides, the die finally reaches its stop — proudly displaying a “20”— and kills the monster. Through the video call, cheers emerge as Connor begins to recount the heroic victory over the wretched creature.

Over the last few months, Connor has been playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends. Connor’s role of Dungeon Master requires him to write the story and orchestrate interactions between the players’ characters and non-playable characters. 

To Connor, D&D is much more than a game — it’s also a powerful storytelling medium. Unlike typical forms of media, such as books, movies or plays, D&D covers many different perspectives. Players uniquely customize their characters, all fantastical creatures in an unknown world where rules bend to the player’s choice. Connor’s current campaign, Secrets of Clareon, is an iteration of another story he had been wanting to tell for a long time — and he found D&D to be  the best storytelling medium.

“This story is one that I’ve been writing since I was 12, but back then I didn’t know how I wanted to tell the story,” Connor said. “I had a general concept, I had some characters, but I wasn’t really sure. I knew a musical wouldn’t really work for this. I knew a book wouldn’t tell the story how I wanted it to, because of all the different perspectives I wanted involved. Then I got super into D&D when I was 14.”

Connor’s duties as a Dungeon Master include not only writing the basis of the story, but also adapting the session as players make specific choices. The most important part of D&D is improvisation, but it’s doubly as important for the Dungeon Master, who must morph the story as it plays out and avoid revealing the plot to any of the players. Naturally, Connor’s love for storytelling has lead him to be his group’s Dungeon Master.

“In my mind, there’s this whole entire world that I’ve created, and I’ve been creating for years now,” Connor said. “There are these things that even the players won’t know about their own characters. Sometimes it can be hard because I want to reveal these things and I want to talk about them to someone, but I don’t want to spoil it, because it’s happening in real time.”

While some people tend to focus on the game’s nerdy reputation, Connor embraces its more technical side and all of its creative opportunities. He disregards that notion and encourages others to love the game regardless of other opinions, as he does.

“D&D seems like one of the nerdiest things you can do,” Connor said. “You’re going to get a group of people together to play a roleplay game where you’re fighting dragons and you’re rolling dice to calculate how your battles are going. But I don’t think you should let what people think get in the way of you experiencing and loving things.”

Fellow D&D player and close friend senior Rei Binkley shares his experience with being the last to develop his character and how Connor patiently guided them through the process. As a busy student, Rei could not find much time to talk with Connor about their character, but Connor was able to facilitate the process and help them develop their character and  manage their workload.

“He’s always on top of it, pushing me to get things done, with gentle reminders,” Rei said. “Even though it’s something I should be doing myself, he’s there to support me for it, which is really sweet, and something I appreciate a lot.”

Close friend senior Abigail Samuel recounts all of the fun memories their friend group has created during their session. She especially appreciates how Connor’s improvisation and playfulness skills shine through while also allowing the  story to remain intact. 

“I really like how unhinged we all get, and how he rolls with it,” Abbie said. “When we’re like, ‘Let’s summon Cthulhu’, he says, ‘You know what? Okay.’ Or when we randomly start singing Not Like Us. He knows when to be on top of things but also lets us be silly, and it’s created a lot of great memories for us all.”

Theater teacher Brandi Griffith, Connor’s mentor in all things creative, recognizes the importance of self-exploration and how Connor discovered his own way to engage with his creative aspects.

“I want him to follow those passions,” Griffith said. “Whether or not in college or beyond, just finding the space to play, be himself, and be surrounded by people who will uplift that.”