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Indonesian Dungeons & Dragons communities grow online
Indonesian fans of the immensely popular fantasy board game bring their fun online during the pandemic.
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Indonesian fans of the immensely popular fantasy board game bring their fun online during the pandemic.
It is a Tuesday night on Jan. 25. Reina, as she refers to herself online, turns on her computer and connects to DnD Jakarta’s Discord server. There, the 30-year-old research assistant living in Bekasi waits for five of her friends to connect. Soon the six of them will travel to Barovia where they will fight monsters, meet allies, find magical items and finally confront vampire wizard Strahd of Zarovich.
This may sound like the beginning of any of a plethora of online role-playing video games, but Reina and her friends will not be playing a video game. In fact, if they had been playing the game at its inception, they would not be playing on computers at all.
Reina, who does not want to use her real name, will take her five friends on an adventure playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).
Most younger Indonesians may have first heard of D&D, or DnD, as it is often called, from popular TV shows that often reference the game, usually to showcase the “nerdy” quality of their characters. But the fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) has had a loyal and growing following since its creation in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (now owned by Wizard of the Coast).
As its name suggests, TTRPGs were initially played in person much like board games, and are often still played that way. However, with the increased popularity of video calling applications combined with restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many have moved their playing online.
That is not to say D&D has completely become an online board game.
Reina is a Dungeon Master (DM), meaning that her role is to referee the session while also narrating the story and describing the imaginary setting the players are adventuring in. It is a big responsibility and plays a major part in how exciting and vivid the game feels.
Reina will not just be leading her friends through the fantasy world of Barovia, she will simulate the game for them. Whereas video games are played on computers, here Reina will be the computer. Instead of showing what will happen via a computer screen, Reina will be narrating each detailed movement, all the small details of the world, acting out any non-playable characters and guiding the players as their story unfolds.
“As you disembark from the boat you feel a chill running through your spine. Suddenly, you see your friend the Tortle. He is standing next to Arabella when suddenly a snowstorm hits you,” Reina tells her friends, and with that, their adventure begins.
Beginnings
Reina, one of the earliest members of DnD Jakarta, which posts games weekly on its YouTube channel, started playing in 2019.
“My first TTRPG wasn’t D&D but rather Blades in the Dark. I was introduced to it because I was in a Discord for girls who play games,” said Reina, who admitted she had previously been fond of writing and role-playing.
“After getting addicted to TTRPGs, I started learning more. I think I heard about Dungeons & Dragons from different TV series. It’s often talked about in The Big Bang Theory and Stranger Things.”
D&D’s presence in Indonesia is much older than that, however. Indra Aziz, a more senior member at 42 and the main founder of DnD Jakarta, first started playing in 2001.
“I learned about D&D from seeing my friends play on campus. They were gathered around a table looking like they were having a lot of fun, and they looked like they were so isolated from everyone else, people passing by, people making noise playing basketball. They didn’t care,” explained the Jakarta-based content creator.
“They were just a small group playing together, having fun. I went straight to them to see what they were doing. There they were holding papers and pencils and there was one person telling a story like they were telling a fairy-tale and they were having so much fun. ‘In front of you, there is a stone door with carving, in which the carvings [...]’ He was telling it with so much excitement. I thought to myself ‘what is that person doing?’ It seemed so strange, and that was my first experience ever with D&D. So, after that, I wanted to play with them.”
Let’s play
Those looking to play their first D&D game can start online.
According to Afiat Yudhistira, who has been playing since 2019, the largest communities can be found on the D&D Indonesia and DnD Jakarta Discord servers. Currently, the servers have 1,255 and 1,440 members respectively, and are very active with usually more than 400 members active throughout the day.
Discord is an application where communities can create a server in which they can congregate. There, members can communicate on the forum-like interface through chat or video call and can even share media. This is where most of the members play D&D together.
“That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of smaller, regional-based communities like in Bandung or Yogyakarta or Semarang or somewhere else,” said the 19-year-old.
Beginners should not be worried about having to invest too much, either.
“You technically don’t have to buy the books. I think they have this online app called D&D Beyond [where] you can have the basic rules online for you to play for free,” explained Yudhis, who currently lives in North Jakarta.
Those interviewed said they had spent less than Rp 500,000 (US$34.72) throughout their playing career, mostly on dice and custom avatars and D&D-related drawings by artists in the community. As for official products, the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set can be had for Rp 300,000 while the Dungeon Master's Guide and Curse of Strahd adventure book are priced at a higher Rp 600,000 each.
Why D&D?
Although Indra is not as active as he used to be, he explained the pull of D&D.
“It’s a world where we can do anything and the world responds. We can use our imagination [in the real world] for anything, but the world doesn’t respond to it. There is no reaction. But in D&D, for example, if we go to a city and stab someone, there are consequences. Maybe a guard will come and jail us. You can really feel the experience of role-playing because of that.”
Reina has a simpler explanation as to why she is drawn to the game. “It’s a game of imagination for adults. That’s basically it,” she said laughing.
Similarly, Haqhis Iqbal, another member of DnD Jakarta, explained the lure of the game through its interactions and role-playing.
“It’s collaborative storytelling, where each person, through their character, contributes to the story created by the DM. It’s more like improv theater,” the 27-year-old from South Tangerang explained.
Haqhis also believes the rules are there for the fun rather than any kind of achievement.
“It is so that things feel more real. When you try something, it doesn’t always work out and the rules are [there] to handle that. The point is, it doesn’t matter if you get a good [dice] roll or a bad roll, as long as it makes the story more interesting. [Who wins] isn’t that important, that doesn’t need to be the focus.”
Dice are a fundamental part of D&D as they help determine whether actions succeed or fail.
More than fun and games
Most of the D&D players The Jakarta Post interviewed said they had learned a lot or had seen other players grow through their experience of playing the game.
Haqhis, who has a degree in psychology, said,
“My biggest takeaway from D&D is that it really improves your social skills and it gives a chance for those who are shy in real life – shy or quiet – to speak up because in the game they are playing a character that isn’t them.”
Another DnD Jakarta member, Vander, focused more on the creative aspect of D&D.
“It helps with writing, voice acting and role-playing for some people,” said the 29-year-old, who currently resides in Padang.
“The cool thing about D&D is you can create your own, be it a character, be it a world, be it a setting. You can create anything you want. If you have difficulties there’s this system that can help you, and that’s D&D,” Vander added.
Perhaps the one thing that was agreed upon by most of the members interviewed was summed up nicely by Vander. “The biggest impact that you have is the people you meet along the way.”
