Gathered around a table strewn with colorful dice, a map, notebooks and snacks, a group of adults at Whitmore Library (2197 Fort Union Blvd.) dive into the immersive and imaginative world of Dungeons & Dragons. 

For two years, the group has met to battle bipedal hyenas, capture magic relics and enjoy the realms of fantasy and friendship. Jackson Myrick is a customer service specialist for The County Library and also serves as the dungeon master for the group’s monthly adventures. 

“The basics of Dungeons & Dragons is that it’s a cooperative storytelling tabletop war game,” Myrick said. “There’s one player who’s performing the role of the world and the characters within the world and then everyone else is a main character in the fantasy story. They’re all interacting with each other and that interaction forms the story that people come back for.”

D&D celebrated its 50th birthday last year and it’s estimated that 50 million people play the game worldwide. The Whitmore group is currently full but it’s only one of several D&D in the county’s library system. 

West Valley resident Leah Sanford started playing a game similar to D&D 35 years ago, meeting with her group every Saturday. After COVID, she got interested in D&D and found the Whitmore players in 2023. 

“Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast and things have been getting very controversial ever since as they’re trying to gear it more to the younger player who is used to video game dynamics,” Sanford said. “There are those of us who like the pure tabletop type games…Adults don’t engage in imagination. This is cooperative storytelling in a venue where we can totally invest ourselves in imaginative, cooperative play. And it’s delightful.”

Each person keeps track of their character in a notebook so they have a record of its adventures and changes and details of their character’s history. While the Whitmore group has an ongoing storyline that has taken them through surprising challenges, unexpected twists and interesting character development, other groups might have a one-off storyline that lasts for a couple of hours. These shorter stories allow people to drop in and join the fun without having to learn the history of the group. 

Myrick said in our current world, people only interact with each other in specific ways. Playing D&D creates an open-ended collaboration and exploration into something that isn’t finite. 

“It’s exploring that space in a more organic way and it’s nice for developing dynamics that you’re not normally going to see in a particular kind of evening’s conversation,” he said. “A question or puzzle can affect the other members of the group and how their characters interact. You have interesting conversations that put yourself into situations that are dynamic but aren’t high risk.”

The six members of the Whitmore D&D group come from all over the valley. Two even live in American Fork but travel to Cottonwood Heights for the story and camaraderie. Capping the group at six allows each member to have a chance to feel part of the adventure and fully invest in their character’s development. 

“I just love watching other people play. I just think it’s great,” Sanford said. “You can end up with some high-tension moments. We had an adventure where one of our characters died and another character got upset and was desperately trying to revive him. My character got in on it and the next thing you know, between the two of us, we managed to revive him. That was fun.”

For information about joining a D&D group through The County Library, visit slcolibrary.org/dungeons-and-dragons. λ