Kyle Loader is on a never-ending, noble quest, searching for brave new souls to join his Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
The dungeon master is one of many newer enthusiasts enjoying the game, which has been thrust into the spotlight once more with the release of a blockbuster movie earlier this year, Honour Among Thieves.
But like others in the gaming community, Mr Loader lets his imagination take him places a Hollywood movie director could only dream of, including recently ending his latest three-year campaign in a blaze of glory.
The trouble began when a sentient book teleported one of his party members to another dimension, he said.
“I was screaming at the sentient book, ‘Bring back my friend or I’ll keep ripping your pages out’ and I ripped out a page that was an Earth-destroying spell,” Mr Loader said.
“Our wild magic druid touched it and activated it, [then it] accidentally blew the whole world up.”
But he’s not dwelling on the dramatic finale, with plans already underway to lead a fresh group on a new campaign.
Popularity growth
Since its inception in 1974, it is estimated 50 million people have played Dungeons and Dragons, according to Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes it, a subsidiary of Hasbro.
Wizards of the Coast could not confirm if the movie release had seen a bump in sales.
But as the game also nears its 50th anniversary, some Australian groups have seen a spike in interest.
Melissa Nile runs the Dungeons and Dragons Australia Facebook community with about 10,000 members.
In the last month, she says requests for membership have doubled.
“[It’s had] an absolutely massive impact”, Ms Nile said.
“What you see online, and obviously we’ve got a highly engaged group of people in our community, is only the tip of the iceberg that is Dungeons and Dragons.”
An ‘escape from reality’
Mr Loader was already a fantasy fan when he was drawn into the world of Dungeons and Dragons.
After stumbling across a starter kit at a local store three years ago, he soon became hooked.
Mr Loader was motivated by the opportunity to escape, have fun, and create a community.
“You’re 100 per cent totally free to make this character whatever you want,” he said.
“It could be that they [players] want to make something crazy and stupid, because life’s really serious.”
The game can be as “crazy or as normal as you want to make it”, Mr Loader says.
“In one of our first scenarios my character was scrounging for food and found some mushrooms,” he said.
“The dungeon master whispered to me, ‘You’re hallucinating right now’.
“So I had to play the whole thing out like I was hallucinating.”
Creating a D&D tourist attraction
After finishing his last campaign, which ran for three years, Mr Loader posted to social media asking for five new players for a fresh campaign.
Those places were filled within hours.
The group meets to play at a comic bookstore in Rockhampton which has a dedicated space for the game.
With about 1,000 local players in Rockhampton, when Owner Rob Williams relocated and expanded his store last year he said it made sense to create the space.
Mr Williams believed the playing area could be the biggest of its kind in the country.
“For some people, it’s their escape from reality.
“They also get that social connection and make some fantastic friends.”
According to Mr Williams, scenes of the game in the hit TV series Stranger Things in 2016 helped shed its stereotypical perception that it was a “geeky” game “only to be played behind closed doors”.
It has been such a success that Mr Williams is now planning to create a space where people who are just travelling through can play, or watch, the game.
“We’re going to [talk to] Tourism Queensland to market this as a tourist attraction,” he said.
“We’ve got a really good following of people who come here and we’ll keep working with that.”