The evolution of storytelling

The evolution of storytelling

Seth St. Clair, Sahger BIndraban, and Lizzy Ensign

If you walk through the halls of Timpview High School after hours on Friday, most everyone is already home. However, you might find one of the clubs taking advantage of the after-school emptiness, in a den of the bloodthirsty red dragon! The Dungeons and Dragons club. They gather to have fun through storytelling and roleplaying. 

The Timpview Journalism Staff Interviewed Adam Hall, the founder and president of the club, and asked him why Dungeons and Dragons, commonly known as DnD, is so popular. “I think that it’s because of the participation in the story telling.”  

In ye olden times, people would tell stories to entertain themselves and to teach children morals. Over time, these ways of storytelling have evolved drastically. Today, the world has countless works of literature for people to enjoy from the comfort of their own home, and on-screen media is broadcasted to people around the world. Oral storytelling has become a lost art.

However, these methods of telling stories have one thing missing. The social aspect of storytelling has been forgotten, and interacting with the story isn’t a common thing in today’s world. In 1974, Gary Gygax took note of this, and invented a game that incorporates basic principles of storytelling, in a fun and unconventional way. DnD was born; a way to tap into verbal storytelling once again. In addition, a player can contribute and incorporate themselves into a story.

In his interview, Hall explained what first drew him to DnD. “I first played with some friends not thinking much about it, but as I played more and more… I grew to enjoy it”. Join DnD club to find a new way to immerse yourself in storytelling, so that you can be part of a story, too.