MUNCIE, Ind. – Ball State University’s Dungeons & Dragons Club held their miniature painting session Monday at the Cooper Science Building. Club members painted miniature figurines, either provided by the club or brought by themselves, for their current and incoming campaigns.
Club president Mike Beaty is in charge of running the games for many players at the club. However, he said he enjoys playing his own character for a D&D campaign.
“I'd say if he was to die in combat, I'd be pretty bummed out. I very much enjoyed playing that character,” Beaty said. “His whole character thing is he wanders and explores. He was to make his own story by doing that and so I've done that, and I've really enjoyed how the story has turned out so far.”
Some players tend to get attached to their characters over time. Club member Triston Haas said he developed a deep connection with his character - a dark elf fighter.
“You get attached to these characters because that's who you are; who your fellow players typically know you as. And then if you lose that character, it's suddenly like you just aren't really into the campaign,” Haas said.
Beaty said building that connection between players and their characters is key to a good story.
“That's probably the most important thing in the game. If you're just playing a game, just kind of going through the motions, you don't really care too much about what you're doing. Like, yeah, you might have fun, but I think that the best type of story is told when you're invested in who's in it and what's happening,” Beaty said.
The D&D Club has meetings every other Monday at the Cooper Science Building. To get updates for when the club has another event, you can follow their Instagram @dnd.bsu.
Contact Daniel Huber with comments at daniel.huber@bsu.edu.
