The Lisbon Dungeons and Dragons Club has seen so much growth over the years that it has had to become two separate groups.

According to Amelia Kibbie, the club’s supervisor, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a roleplaying game in which a player assigned to be the Dungeon Master (DM) creates a story world, and players create characters with stats that increase the more they defeat monsters and achieve quests within the world that the DM has created.

Lisbon’s D&D Club began in 2019 under the supervision of Shannon Walker and Amelia Kibbie, teachers at Lisbon Community School District. For Kibbie and Walker, starting the club felt important.

“Ultimately, what we wanted was something for kids to do that weren’t in a sport,” Kibbie said.

Due to medical reasons, Walker had to leave her job at the school in 2022, leaving the club solely to Kibbie.

“We miss having Mrs. Walker here,” Kibbie said, “but we’re still enjoying the benefits of her idea and her passion for it.”

With continued growth, Kibbie ultimately made the decision during the 2024-25 school year to split the club into two: one for secondary students, and one for elementary and middle school students.

However, the split was only partially inspired by the club’s growth. Another reason that Kibbie ultimately decided to branch the group off into two was because she saw a desire to be part of the game from younger students, like her daughter Alyssa Kibbie, and Alyssa’s classmate and friend, Zoey Goodman.

Alyssa, while waiting for her mom, and Zoey, while waiting for her brother Zeke Goodman, a member of Lisbon’s D&D Club, had to stay after school while the club met, but wished they could be part of the game too. Together, Alyssa and Zoey got to work making sure that younger students, like themselves, would get the opportunity to be part of the game.

Once Alyssa and Zoey’s work had paid off and the group had split, each group found themselves only getting to meet on one day of the week. Currently, the secondary group gets Tuesdays from 3:30p.m. to 4:20p.m., while the younger group gets Thursdays at the same time.

However, the club of 22 to 25 students couldn’t be handled by Kibbie alone, so she welcomed the help of Sara Cripe and James Carillo without hesitation.

“I’ve appreciated having help this year, because last year it was just me,” Kibbie said.

The only difference, according to Kibbie, between the secondary group and the elementary and middle school group is that there is more experience and self-sufficiency, as the game does not require more advanced skills for more seasoned players.

For students like Jace Brown, Joslyn Holets, Collins Aaron, and Beckett Clough who are all relatively new, each of them being within their first or second year of the club, it has been an enjoyable experience; although, each of them had different highlights from their time in D&D thus far.

The first year that students can join is fourth grade, as the game heavily relies on the player’s ability to read and write.

For Holets, a current fourth grade member, the best part of being part of the club has been defeating “mystical creatures, hanging out and getting to know people.”

Brown, a fifth grader who is also a first-year member, stated that the most enjoyable things have been “discovering new species and new creatures in the game,” and that “if your teammate’s being annoying, you let nature do its thing.”

On the other hand, for second-year fifth grade players Aaron and Clough, the best parts have been “developing your mind,” and that the “DM gets to play as a bunch of different characters.”

Older students Sam Jubeck, Kenith Wolf, and Jonah Morillo shared some insight.

“It’s a really nice place and you can meet new people who want to be your friend,” Jubeck said, with Morillo adding that, “you find more people than you’d expect,” because there are tables full of different campaigns each time the club meets, which is because, as Wolf said, “D&D is really funny, because literally anything could happen!”

The joy that brings students together in the D&D world left Jubeck with one thing to say to the people who might be considering joining: “if you really like fantasy and also things that are hands-on, then I really recommend it.”

Members of the secondary group share the sentiment that D&D is a good place for connection. According to Rylee Gerber, a junior at Lisbon, D&D “makes [her] feel like [she’s] part of something.”

The secondary players in Gerber’s campaign, senior Nolan Fall; juniors Caleb Ford, James Hansen, and Pattison Tutton; as well as Parker Ford, sixth grader and younger brother of Caleb Ford, have all been very welcoming to her in her first year being part of Lisbon’s D&D Club.

Caleb Ford is the current DM, but in previous years, Fall had taken on the role. With his graduation coming up, Fall passed the title of DM along to Caleb, a tradition held by all of Lisbon’s DMs. The tradition is in place so that senior DMs can have one last chance to participate as a player before they graduate.

For Fall, in reflection on his seven years in the club, said his favorite part has been “being able to get away with cool things.”

Juniors Caleb Ford and Tutton took a more joking route when sharing their favorite things, at which point Tutton said, “annoying people,” and Caleb simply said, “Bard,” referring to a “musical entertainer” who is “very charismatic and chaotic” within the game.

Parker Ford gave a more serious take, in which Parker said his favorite thing has been “creating characters how you want to do it, and if you don’t like it, you can change it. It can be the random-est combination and still be good.”

Hansen, also taking a more serious approach, said, “I’ve always liked making up stories and playing pretend. This is another extension of that.”

For Kibbie, one of the most rewarding things is seeing the community aspect within the game.

According to Kibbie, “it is a good place for kids that aren’t into mainstream things,” and she encourages people who have a negative assumption about D&D to research it with an open mind, because it can be more than a game.