BELFAST — A recent "Dungeons and Dragons" tournament at the Game Loft proved that the roughly 45-year-old roleplaying boardgame remains as popular as ever. 

The event took place Aug. 17, with two three-hour gaming sessions and a total of six tables available to the day’s participants, many of whom made reservations to ensure they could be seated at the same table. 

Four of the tables were geared toward more experienced teen to adult players. The remaining tables were focused on family play, which gave parents a chance to learn the game alongside their child. Chris Donley, program delivery manager at the Loft said that the experience level of players varied from first-time players to those that had been playing the game since near its inception. 

Donley said he grew up as a teen playing "D&D" and was something he was passionate about growing up, though it fell by the wayside as he began college to become a teacher. 

“Now that I’m no longer teaching, but am working here at the Loft, I got back into it. So I rekindled all of my energy and love into the game.”

To prep for the event, Donley said he recruited others to help run the games for the Loft, which each require a Dungeon Master to oversee the game and provide details and guidance to players. 

The idea for the fundraiser was one that came by serendipity when a man living in the southern U.S. called the Loft with an idea. He had been discussing something unrelated to the Loft with one of the organization’s founding members and subsequently looked into the organization and what they offer to the community before calling and suggesting they do a fundraiser. 

“That’s how this got started,” Donley said. “It’s great.”

The initial goal was to raise $1,200 from the event, which was $10 per person per session, though they eventually finished $100 over the goal. This was aided largely by a local business that was inspired to put their own funds toward the Loft and its mission. 

“We got a very generous matching grant from a local company, (Bladerunners Systems),” Donley said. The company’s owner offered a matching grant. 

“We were hoping to raise $600, so he said, ‘we’ll just give you $600 as a matching grant,’” Donley said smiling. “Given the success of [the event], I think this is something we’ll be doing again at some point.” 

Game Loft Marketing and Development Coordinator, Allison Harrell said that the organization was really excited about the event.

“Its an opportunity for us to engage the gamers outside of the [Loft] community; all the people who are involved in roleplaying games, ["D&D"], interested in gaming, or adults who don’t already know about the Game Loft,” she said. 

“This was an opportunity for us to invite [people] upstairs, show them the space, talk about what [the Loft] do and what [Lofters] do and all the parallels there, just to get them thinking about the [Loft] and ["D&D"] and its effects on kids.” 

Harrell said most of the people who are familiar with the game can imagine all the different ways it would be beneficial for young kids to play "D&D". 

“I think that a lot of adults have experienced [the benefits] because it was a social outlet for them when they were young, it was a way for them to explore their creative side. So [the Loft is just] reminding people that that’s what we’re about and that’s what we’re teaching kids, through things like ["D&D"].” 

Roleplay games are a popular choice for frequenters of the Loft, with "D&D" in regular rotation. 

“There are lots of different roleplay games that focus on different genres,” Donley explained, “anything from fantasy, to sci-fi, to steampunk, to even old west, roleplay games that come from franchises like Star Wars or TV shows like Firefly.”

Donley said every Dungeon Master comes up with their idea of what they want to run, “so we usually have two or three different genres going at the same time, which is really cool because it gives the kids options.” 

In "D&D", storylines and adventures are important factors in gameplay, with seemingly limitless options and variations of gameplay to be had. Many "D&D" games are ongoing, allowing more complex storylines and gameplay to develop, though Donley said for the purposes of the fundraiser the games would be limited to single adventure missions.  The multi-session games often take on an episodic feel, with players getting together every week or so to continue playing an established game. 

The characters and backstories for the characters used in the event were created in advance, with players encouraged to play as theatrically as desired, including taking on their character's personality during gameplay. 

The game can either be cooperative or competitive depending on the campaign, which is the specific game’s ongoing theme, depending on who is playing the game. Donley said he only plays cooperatively. 

“I run a heroic campaign, my players, unless they’re under duress, are not allowed to interact negatively with each other,” Donley said.

“In many ways it is cooperative, you need a group of people to tackle [the respective task]. Every character has a set of skills that are often unique to the character. Rogues are good at finding and disarming traps and sneaking around, barbarians are big ‘smashy’ things, wizards cast magic spells that are often aggressive, clerics are often healers,” he said, giving examples of different characters in the game.  

“One of the things we try to do here at the Loft is to use roleplay as a means to foster group cooperation and collaboration. I’ve tried to very much put my characters in situations where they have to work together, where they don’t have a choice, they can’t advance unless they do.” 

Kevin Bergelin, a student at Camden Hills Regional High School and Loft frequenter, said the Loft is worth the trip from his Lincolnville home because there is nothing similar to the Loft nearer his school. 

“It is the only place in the area that does something like this, that’s organized to play all these different things, there’s nothing else really out there in the area,” Bergelin said. 

Bergelin played in both sessions during the event - a total of six hours of gameplay. 

“So my last game I was playing as a halfling rogue, so like a hobbit. I came up with a character [that’s] very greedy, he doesn’t care about the morals, he just wanted to take the items,” Bergelin said of his character. “I played him like that, like someone who only cares about the money and is going to leave everything else behind. It’s very interesting to play "D&D", especially with the roleplay aesthetic, I always love the role play aesthetic, going in, trying to just play a character, it’s what I like to do.”

Looking around the crowded entryway to the Loft, Bergelin said he was a little surprised at the event’s popularity. “I didn’t expect such a big turnout.” 

With the success of the event, Allison Harrell said "D&D" events may become more common at the Loft, noting they already have Magic the Gathering tournaments roughly every month. 

Harrell said she doesn’t know that "D&D" events will be quite as regular as their Magic tournaments, but that there will likely be additional events in the future. 

One thing looming in the immediate future is the start of the school year, which will bring new faces to the Loft. According to Harrell enrollment in the program stays roughly the same as when new students arrive there are also students who will be off to college this fall. 

“Our standard recruitment and the way we get the most kids recruited to the [Loft] is just word of mouth from the kids that are already involved in the program. It really kind of sells itself in a lot of ways, it’s pretty easy,” Harrell said. 

Beyond the world of roleplaying, there are many other programs offered by the Loft, including the ‘I Know ME’ program, which operates out of Mount View and frequently takes participating kids on adventures around the state. The goal of that program is for participants to learn about the State of Maine. 

“There is also the ‘I Am Art’ program where we do recreations of Winslow Homer paintings as photographs and we’ve really been ramping up that programs and getting lots of photoshoots done, involving lots of kids,” Harrell said. 

“That [program] is really fun, we go out, scout out locations, pick out costumes, sometimes we’ll have a kid that will help with the photographer and kind of be an assistant. So we’ll have the kids who are posing and who are models and then we’ll have other kids on site helping to arrange the photoshoot and things like that, so its really a way to get kids involved in art, engaged in art, interested in it by living it and being it,” she said. “It’s been really successful, kids are really excited about it and like being a part of it.”

As a finale of sorts, after the current project is completed, the Loft will host an open house, to show off the results of months of hard work and planning. 

“We’re really excited, we’re actually planning on opening the store downstairs (All About Games) as a gallery for the Belfast Art Walks in the fall,” Harrell said, adding that although they don’t have a set date yet, she wants to present the photographs in autumn. The details have yet to be decided, but Harrell said there may be prints of the photos available for purchase, or possibly an auction of some of the works created. 

Like the ‘I Am Art’ program, the ‘Sea Me’ program which works with younger kids, has also been running throughout the summer.

The program is based on a 4-H curriculum for teaching young kids marine science, with participants ranging from 6-10 years old. During the program, kids do science experiments, storytime, and something Harrell dubbed Pirate Class. 

“Our manager for the program, Brian Phelps, has kind of tweaked the curriculum for the 4-H curriculum to add some kind of fun supplemental stuff to keep the kids engaged. Since they’re very young kids they all have pirate names, they made pirate hats, they actually got to be pirates in live-action adventure collaborations with the Adventurers Guild,” she said of the organization’s younger summertime participants. 

Although the ‘Sea Me’ program is coming to an end, every Monday night at the Loft is geared toward younger participants. 

Despite the fun had with summertime programming, Harrell said she thinks many of the participants are ready to get back to the routine offered by the school year, where weekly "D&D" games are the norm and games span weeks rather than hours. 

“It’s what they like to do, they’re tired of one-shots, they’re tired of board games, they want to get back to the big games that they have during the year.”

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com