Chamblee High School has many clubs, each fulfilling its own individual purpose. Service clubs, language clubs, and honor societies; all of these groups congregate and bond groups of people together. Dungeons and Dragons club also does this through playing a unique and exciting game.

“The rules are pretty complicated but I’ll give the spiel about Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). You can kind of think of it as a guided story. You create a protagonist and you walk through that story making choices that affect its progression with the Dungeon Master (DM) as the narrator,” said Max Potowitz (‘25), club co-founder.

This game deserves its own club solely because of its originality, there are no other games similar to D&D.

“Well, really the only rules are just to have a [die] and maybe some paper. The rules are kind of unlimited. Just whatever you and your group [decide] on,” said Ethan Cochran (‘26).

D&D is a personal favorite of students full of creativity who are passionate about expanding their imaginations, while also considering mathematical decisions.

“I’ve always been interested in D&D because I really like storytelling. But Dungeons and Dragons is essentially a game of statistics. I don’t really play it because it’s a math game, but I like the funny stories that come out of it,” said teacher sponsor Hannah Postema.

Chamblee’s D&D club consists of many different levels of players, so anyone can join the club whether they have been playing forever or are just learning the rules.

“I found out about the game— I don’t think it was Stranger Things, most people hear about it through Stranger Things— but I think I just heard that people had played it before online or something and it seemed interesting,” said Cochran.

Once people find out about the game, it is pretty easy to pick up and get obsessed with.

“I think [Dungeons and Dragons] is really fun,” said Ronit Nememman (‘26). “At the beginning when you play it, you’re really confused. But after you’ve played it like multiple sessions, you kind of get to know all the other players’ characters and it’s just really fun.”

Once players get the procedures down and become more experienced, they use their knowledge of the game to help lead the club.

“My dad had been playing since the first edition and the 70s and he just wanted to introduce me to it, ” said Potowitz, “I’ve been playing and DMing Dungeons and Dragons for maybe eight years now. It’s always been a very large part of my life and activity with my friends and to me at least, we kind of wanted to extend that hobby and share that with the school. We just wanted to make something that we can be all passionate about.”

Even though D&D club doesn’t have too many set leadership positions, higher-level players such as Potowitz help run campaigns by playing the role of Dungeon Master.

“The DM (Dungeon Master) kind of tells the story and helps play the monsters. Really anybody can do that, you don’t have to be anything special,” said Jackson Lee (‘.

Aside from the Dungeon Master, another leader in the club is Ms. Postema, whose enthusiasm for the game matches most of the students’.

“My entire life led up to this role. This is what I’ve always waited for. I have taught for six years and finally, somebody asked me to sponsor the Dungeons and Dragons club and I was like, ‘yes at last my time is here,’” said Postema.

As teacher sponsor, she holds and participates in the meetings. She gives the students a consistent place and time to play their favorite game.

“We meet every Thursday and we usually play for an hour and a half. Everyone else is separated into their own special groups, where they all play different campaigns, which are the games,” said Cochran.

The set adventures are the main components of the game, so what setting is chosen leads to the type of game played and the world participants are immersed in.

“The world of Dungeons and Dragons is usually fantiful,” said Ronit Nememman, “It depends on what campaign you’re doing, sometimes if you’re going to Fandelver-that’s a city that is completely closed off and only humans are allowed. It looks more like a normal city but if you’re going to other places it might get magical. There’s like floating cities; there’s cities by [the] shore. It just depends on what campaign.”

Some campaigns lead to better games than others, and the stories that come out of each one never fail to excite the players.

“I played a one-shot with one student Dan Malloy, a very cozy cottage-core one-shot that was really fun. That was hilarious because the group behind us was killing a whole bunch of people and rolling to see if their attacks hit me while we were rolling to see how pretty our hats were that we made out of flowers,” said Postema.

Along with creating new D&D worlds, players can also create new people and personalities to play.

“My favorite part of being in the club is just being able to come up with interesting characters and be able to experience the world of D&D,” said Cochran.

Some players are so creative that they have intertwined the stories of multiple characters who they have played as.

“I have a couple [favorite characters]. It’s not from the school campaign, but her name is Morningstar,” said Nememman, “She’s a rogue and she’s a sorcerer and her sister— I made a really weird thing where her sisters who I’m playing [as] right now.”

Overall, Dungeons and Dragons club is very beneficial to the students, both in school and out.

“My favorite part of the club is definitely seeing shyer students get a community. There’s at least five that have come in and kind of blossomed. It’s really nice to see them like have something to come to school for and be invested in and make new friends, especially the freshmen becoming friends with upperclassmen […]. Then the grades are melding together instead of bullying each other,” said Postema.

Students that join the club get to remove themselves from Chamblee High and enjoy an entirely new world of their own creation.

“My favorite part of D&D is the role-playing part. Not necessarily hiding, but when you actually get to play you get to immerse yourself in the characters,” said Nememman.

The world of Dungeons and Dragons connects this club and joins all the students and their sponsor together. Each individual’s imagination has a role in improving their reality.

“[My favorite part of the club] is probably the community it makes,” said Potowitz, “simply because it’s something that can tie us together for an infinitely long time that we can all really be passionate about while having different experiences.”