Once basement-bound to the bottom of culture, even at one point becoming the focal point of a Western moral panic in the 1980s, Dungeons and Dragons is now being celebrated by many as a staple in their lives, and could even become your next weekend activity — but why?
More commonly referred to as DnD, the game has been telling its own story for years. What started off in 1974 as a medieval miniature tabletop war-game for fantasy fanatics, the game has encountered many different faces. This multifaceted evolution throughout the years thanks to the game's opportunity for creativity and collaboration, makes it the perfect game for many students. Encountering various trials, tribulations, and adventures. Battling monsters, solving puzzles and making each other laugh and cry along the way it's no wonder that DnD has maintained a steadfast popularity throughout the years.
It’s become more than clear over the years that DnD is not just a game for your archetypal ‘nerds’ and social recluses. With celebrities like Matthew Lillard of Scream fame and Deborah Ann Woll who you may know as Karen Page in The Defender’s Saga citing DnD as giving them confidence in improvisation. The creative opportunities of this game truly holds no bounds. Just roll with it.
Let your mind go with DnD, the only real limit is that of your own imagination. Had a hard day at university? Slay a dragon! DnD is a perfect game to let the creative juices of your mind flow, an exercise built to beat the stress of our overstimulating and at times busy lives. Creating your own characters, backgrounds and stories, DnD really does tap into the infinite possibilities of the mind. At its fantastical core, it offers an easy escape—even if said escape does indeed come from metaphorically slaying a dragon instead of your housemate for forgetting to take the overflowing bins out.
Or collaborate with your housemates, if they are your chosen campaign team, DnD can become a perfect exercise in effective communication, negotiation, and problem solving — DnD nurtures core skills that under the guise of narrative structure, providing powerful potentials for leadership development on both a personal as well as an academic level. A recent study from 2026 by Alexandra Peralta and Wendy Wolfe sought to investigate the DnD on social connection, stress, self-esteem, and the adjustment to university among first semester, first year students. Finding that those who had taken part in campaigns had demonstrated a greater personal-emotional adjustment to university than to the comparison (non-DnD playing) group.
On a more parasocial level from watching others play DnD campaigns online, such as Critical Role, It’s easy to see how invested one can get in the game because of the control you hold over every aspect of character creation, narration and collaboration. It can become a fulfilling extension of your life. Whether you watch from the sidelines or want to give it a go yourself, why not check out the universities own Tabletop society?
Holding DnD sessions most Wednesdays from 2-6pm as well as additional socials throughout the week, the Newcastle University Tabletop Society is a great way to meet new people, have fun, and settle into student life no matter what stage you may be at. Opening their sessions to students at all levels, I would wholeheartedly recommend that you give it a go!