Dungeons & Dragons: An Adventurous Way to Improve Your English

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Do you know about the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves? It's an action-adventure movie about a unique group of characters, including a thief, a warrior, magicians and others, who are searching to find a special, ancient item. If you like adventure with a little bit of comedy, you may enjoy it!

However, this is not the only way you can experience Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, this movie is only the latest in a series of films, cartoons and other media that all started about 50 years ago with a project that led to a whole new category of games.

This article will introduce the background and basics of Dungeons & Dragons and explain how it has spread into pop culture. We'll also look at why it's a great game for English learners and explain some common words and expressions that you can use while playing. Let's start the journey!

What is Dungeons & Dragons?

Before we talk about the game, let's talk about the name. A dungeon is a dark, underground cave, usually underneath a castle. In fiction stories, they are often used as prisons and are filled with dangerous people, dangerous creatures or both! Therefore, a game called "Dungeons & Dragons" should make you think of historic fantasy worlds with heroic characters and magical beings like you would find in a storybook.

Dungeons & Dragons (often called "D&D" or "DnD" for short) is considered the first modern fantasy role-playing game. It was created by American game designers Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and was first released in 1974.

In the game, players create their own characters with unique skills and abilities and use them to fight monsters, find treasure and uncover mysterious secrets. Unlike board games and video games that use pictures and images to help people play, in D&D, your imagination is the most important thing. Players have a large amount of freedom to decide the details of the game and how they want to experience it. That means no two games are alike!

How do you play it? (And why you should!)

Dice and game pieces for a tabletop role-playing game

All you need to play Dungeons & Dragons is a book of the rules, a sheet of paper that lists each character's abilities, and special dice players roll to decide various points of the game. However, you can also use additional items, such as figures to represent your characters.

Once you have these, the only thing you're missing is a group to play with! One person in the group will be the Dungeon Master (or "DM"), who narrates the story, makes decisions on rules, and guides the overall flow of the game. Because it was created in the 1970s, D&D was originally designed to be played with a group sitting around a table — that's why games like these are sometimes called "tabletop games." These days, however, you can also find and play with others online.

Maybe you have already guessed, but playing D&D requires a lot of speaking. Because the game is mostly about storytelling, you will always be listening to the DM and discussing strategies and decisions with your partners. Additionally, you will often need to check the rule book and the notes you've made about your adventure. That means you will also be doing lots of reading. If you're studying English, this is a fantastic way to practice several skills while also having some fun with friends!

Dungeons & Dragons in pop culture

Dragons flying over a group of warriors with a castle in the distance

Since the beginning, D&D and other games like it have had a core of passionate fans, and interest in them has continued to grow over the years. Sites like YouTube and Twitch have now made it possible for people to watch games being played anywhere.

Additionally, many films and TV shows with fantasy settings have reached mainstream popularity. Unrelated to the Dungeons & Dragons films (there are four so far), you can also watch shows based on book series like The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire (or Game of Thrones in its TV version). Though these are not connected to D&D, they all share similar themes, and fans of one are often fans of the others. They have all been very successful internationally and have helped to increase the awareness and popularity of fantasy worlds. Even in the hit show Stranger Things, which has more science-fiction and horror elements, the main characters all play D&D and use its special expressions throughout the series.

Useful words and expressions for D&D

A fighter wearing armor and holding a large sword

Role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons often have long lists of special words and terms for playing the game and for the world represented inside of the game. Some of these terms are used in other games, and some are even useful in daily conversation. Here is a list of just a few of them:

Class - A type of character. Each class, such as Fighters, Wizards and Monks, has its own strengths, weaknesses and abilities.
Campaign - A series of connected adventures that are part of a larger story. Outside of D&D, "campaign" can be used to refer to a major operation that will take time to complete, such as a political campaign or a military campaign.
NPC - Non-Player Character. A character played by the Dungeon Master. This is also a common term in video games. There's even a movie about an NPC!
HP - Hit Points. These measure the amount of health characters have. When a character loses all of their HP, they die and must start again.
XP - Experience Points. You gain these as you complete adventures and defeat enemies.
Module - A book with a complete story or adventure that has been prepared for players in advance.
LFG - Looking For a Group. This abbreviation is used when looking for others to play with online.
OP - Overpowered. This describes someone or something that is so strong that it becomes unfair to players.
Encounter - A situation in which players must fight enemies, talk to other characters or solve a problem in order to continue the story. "Encounter" is a common English word that is both a verb and a noun for "meet" or "meeting."
Ruling - A decision by the Dungeon Master about what is allowed and what is not. This word is also used in law for a judge's decision in a legal fight.
AoE - Area of Effect. When a character performs an attack or magical spell, the AoE determines how much space around the character is affected by it.
Alignment - A character's alignment determines how "good" or "evil" they are.
Backstory - A character's history. In other words, this is what a character has done or what has happened to them before the start of the game. You can also hear this word used to talk about characters in films, books and other games.
Fluff - Unnecessary details or things that do not affect the actual game. "Fluff" also has a similar use in everyday English, though the nuance is a bit more negative.
Downtime - The time between adventures. This word is used outside of D&D as well to mean a rest period between activities.

Start your adventure

We hope this article has given you a better idea about how big the D&D universe is. You may enjoy the movies, but don't forget that the game is a fun and unique way to practice all of your English skills in a casual environment. You can find plenty of videos and streams online to see if it's something you may like. It seems like it's becoming more and more popular every day!