The game is about to start and the whole bar is full to the brim. “Gosh, I haven’t seen you in a long time,” says Tanner Rawlings, one of the newly arrived players, walking up to his friend, Sigurd Joostens. They chat cheerfully. It seems almost like a birthday gathering with friend groups scattered all over, joking and catching up, celebrating another night together. It’s a pleasant chaos where everyone is talking over each other, and the organizers are running around giving out gear to those in need and chatting in between.
More players enter the building. It’s the biggest Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) gaming club in Belgium, known as D&D Gent. D&D is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game where players create characters and embark on collaborative adventures. Players like Sigurd and Tanner meet up bi-monthly on Wednesday evenings here at World’s End Comics & Game Center, a gaming bar and shop in central Ghent.
The bar gets louder as players are planning tonight’s game. This fantasy game has developed into its own kind in Belgium. Known for its lively café culture, Belgium hosts a great deal of gaming cafés and bars where D&D sessions take place regularly. “Welcome to a game night full of scary adventures and happy encounters. We’ll begin shortly,” the organizers of today’s game announce. A group of players waiting at the bar talk about their plans for the game. “Tonight I’m gonna kill my character purposely and bring back our lost friends. Do you think that would work?” says one of the players. It seems that they enjoy incorporating fascinating storytelling, character development, and world-building.
Everyone receives a character sheet specifying the qualities of their chosen gaming figure and a set of dice. The players instantly start crafting their characters and stories. Once the gaming tables are set, the friend groups sit down. You can hear Dungeon Masters – the primary storytellers – all around the bar introducing the game to their groups of players. One of them says, “You wake up in an old cave in the little town of Eldoria. How will you get out?”
A game without winners and losers
“Hi guys, nice to meet you. I’m Timo!” one of the players interrupts and introduces himself with a smile on his face but looking a bit overwhelmed. The player, Timo Spanhove, explains to the people sitting at his table that he’s never played the game before. He’s new to the club. “I used to watch the channel High Rollers D&D on YouTube, and now I want to try it out in real life,” he says. He found the gaming group in Ghent on Discord and decided to join a session.
Tanner explains to Timo that he’s the Dungeon Master. “The players – you and Sigurd – each represent a hero in the story,” he says. Winning the game is not so much about completing the adventure successfully, but about creating a fun and exciting story together.
During a break from the game, Tanner explains that he naturally likes storytelling and loves making characters grow. “It’s like reading a book; it keeps you invested,” he explains. In these moments, he feels a rush of adrenaline, a feeling of excitement, and euphoria. He says, “There’s a big misconception that this is a purely nerdy hobby but there’s so much more to it, it’s also a social and emotional experience.” This misconception makes him laugh because “it’s like someone who knows nothing about cooking saying that you can’t make tasty vegetarian food.”
Tanner creates personal connections with the characters over time, and they become almost real. He gets emotional when he talks about his favourite character, Pop, who was killed in a previous game. “Making the characters myself using my 3D printer and painting them adds a personal attachment,” he says.
The game of freezing dungeons & blazing dragons as a community
The blonde guy next to Timo, Sigurd, is carefully writing something on his character sheet and looks up saying, “The rules of D&D are some kind of second nature to me.” His passion for the game has been ongoing since he was a teenager. He’s always been into – as he says – “geeky games”, but D&D is his biggest passion.
“What is keeping me in the hobby mainly is the community in Ghent itself,” he explains as he sips his drink and laughs with his playmates, who have become close friends. The D&D community is very open to letting new people join or try out the fantasy game. “I was one of the first members of D&D Gent; I joined eight years ago.” As Sigurd is currently soliciting a job, he describes his situation as this: “I am spending my day browsing different companies and spending my nights playing D&D with my people.” Sigurd sees the tabletop game and the organizational tasks around it as some kind of escape from his daily life, but not only that: “I indeed see it as an escape to find some fun between the day-to-day things, but I also see it as an opportunity to grow myself.”
The three guys talk about their love for D&D and end up talking about painting figures. They all paint their own figures using their 3D printers at home. Sigurd says, “You guys are welcome to my place next week to paint together.” Timo and Tanner are instantly interested, and they set a date. Everyone will bring glue, paint, and sketches.
Making D&D your lifestyle
The three guys start talking about the D&D gear they have at home. “Above my bed, I have wooden frames of the seven D&D dice,” Sigurd discloses. Tanner and Timo both have 3D printers in their homes to artistically support their passion. “I print my own figures with my 3D printer. I can let my creativity flow by first designing them, then painting them and really bringing them to life,” Timo explains. He also just ordered a gaming table for his home, with which he wants to start D&D sessions at home: “I want to learn how to be a Dungeon Master; it gives me more control of the narrative,” he explains as the group is slowly getting ready to go home.
Truly a game for everyone
They all chat a bit more, reflect on the game they just played, finish their drinks, and get ready to get home as the clock nearly strikes 1 a.m. Everyone leaves the bar with a different emotion: maybe sad that their character died, happy that they saw an old friend again, or just victorious. However, it doesn’t matter if you are new to the game like Timo, an experienced long-time player and organizer like Sigurd, or a Dungeon Master like Tanner – just roll the die!
Authors: Katharina Woisetschläger and Manolis Gustafsson
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