The fantasy of an alternative persona—a strong, confident, smart identity among peers—is one that many high school students can appreciate. For students at Miriam School and Learning Center, a school geared toward students with learning differences, that fantasy is reality thanks to a special club centered on a timeless game.
Miriam’s Dungeons & Dragons Club has become a haven for students this year. Organized around the game that debuted in the 1970s, the club has an advisor, or “Dungeon Master,” who leads the story and presents the game’s challenges as players create characters who, based on dice rolls, live within the story and navigate the scenarios.
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Miriam educator Gary Schoen, who’s sponsored Dungeons & Dragons clubs before, explains that children with autism or ADHD often find D&D especially beneficial because of the game’s structured creativity and problem-solving as a team, which makes socializing in a group setting more manageable. Schoen has witnessed the social benefits of the multigenerational game on students first-hand, including the hard skills associated with team play.
“It’s a turn-taking system. Students have to pay attention to what’s going on with the other people and they have to wait their turn. So it’s not this instant gratification kind of thing,” he adds. “It also allows them to step out of their normal routine and experiment with different things and problem-solve.”
“The safe space lets players process real-world challenges through fantasy scenarios, including facing fears and standing up to a bully,” Katie Stalter, content and communications strategist, notes in a press release. “Gamers who are neurodivergent may find D&D to be an outlet where they can explore their interests and express their unique perspectives–but still feel in control.”
For sophomore Bryce Kramer, who developed a love of the game while playing it with his family, the club has provided a chance to connect with friends through the game. “D&D is almost like a story being passed from one generation to another or one set of kids to another,” he says. “It’s always changing, but the basic premise tends to stay the same.”
Kramer encouraged freshman Mariah Scott to join. Scott says she was initially nervous but soon felt free to have fun and explore new friendships thanks to the game’s roleplaying mindset. “At first, I did not know what D&D was,” says Scott, who plays a dwarf with a duck. “The more I got comfortable with the game, I started getting more comfortable with the people, too… Being able to walk around with this confidence is really refreshing… D&D helped me come out of my shell a little bit, and it made me able to meet new people.”
For graduating senior Addi Bertz, the club offered consistency when she moved from a school that also had an organized D&D game. “If you haven’t done D&D before, it is going to be a little slow at first,” Bertz says. “People are going to need time to figure out which things go for what and certain rules. But once you get past that part, it starts to get going more.”
“You can be whoever you want to be,” Kramer adds. “You can play a big, strong character, or you can be like Addi—a small, squishy character who casts spells. As long as you follow and progress with the storyline, you can do practically anything you want in it. That’s the joy of D&D: Anything you want to happen can happen.”
Kramer emphasizes that schools and students should understand that a D&D club is an investment in fun. “The learning curve is incredibly steep but very fast,” Kramer adds. “The hardest part is building that character up, which does take time… Some students will take a long time to really learn and understand it, and they might not be able to really role play and have the creativity needed. So [teachers might] have to help manage and figure out ways around that.”
As the club’s sponsor, Schoen sees it as his responsibility to present students with options in the game and help them navigate the decision-making framework. “The No. 1 rule is we’re here to have fun,” he says. “Everything else is secondary. You can get a lot of treasure; you can get a lot of creatures. You get to ride a dragon, whatever it is. Sometimes that goes in weird directions. Like Bryce bought a wheel of cheese, and Mariah got a duck. It was fun, and we went with it. As long as you keep fun in mind, I think you can’t really go wrong with it.”
While Schoen says the creativity of the game inspires players, he also notes that maintaining structure is key. “The person running the game has to make sure they are adaptive, they have a good story, and they’re clear about instructions,” he says. “All those things really depend on the person running the game and the fact that the players want to be cooperative. It’s a group effort that way.”
“It honestly isn’t much of a game at all if you break it down; it’s a bunch of people who follow a guideline of rules to use their creativity to have fun,” Kramer adds. “The base game is a group of people having fun using their own imagination to create a world.”
Schoen attributes much of the club’s success to the fact that it was student-interest led. “You want students to feel a connection to the school,” he says. “If you’re giving them something they already have an interest in and it’s related to the school, then they have more commitment to the school and its ideas, and it translates to success in other areas.”
The club’s participants agree. “The goal of going to school shouldn’t be just getting information; it should be having fun in wanting to learn,” Kramer says. “If you do things the kids actually want to do and manage to sneak in how to socialize, how to have patience, etcetera, then it’s a win-win for everyone.”
