As the druid stepped forward, a shadowy presence began to emanate from her. That’s when an ethereal blue glow began to illuminate outwards towards the adventurers, who were now tasked to face her. Before she could send forth her spell towards the group, Dante, the fearless paladin, empowered by his ‘Oath of Glory’, charged forward with a vicious intensity and swung his blade to slash her down.
The greatsword became enveloped in a pure, holy energy for the culmination of a paladin’s magic: the Divine Smite. At least, that’s what happened during Pembroke Pines Charter High School teacher John Jablonka’s Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
It was 2021, in the height of the pandemic, when a familiar friend contacted him online with a proposition. The alumnus, Brandon Mendez, reached out to play Dungeons & Dragons, with him as the “dungeon master”, or the one who manages the game.
That year, Mendez had been playing games with Jablonka’s current fiancée, Vanessa Foinquinos, as well as other alumni. He stated, “around five years ago, all of our friends started bringing our partners into group hangs. That’s when I met [Jablonka] again”, after he was invited by Foinquinos.
According to the alumni, D&D has made Jablonka and Mendez the closest they’ve ever been. He said “[Jablonka] graduated one year prior to mine. We never spoke while we were both at Charter”. Now the two meet every time they can, with other alumni.
Among the alumni who reconnected during the pandemic, Maurizio Catale also joined the campaign. His friendship carried him back to his earliest days at charter, meeting Jablonka through mutual friends in middle school.
Catale says, “[Jablonka and I] have been best friends for a while now … we both wanted to try [being a dungeon master] but neither of us are Dungeon Master material.” He continued to say that Brandon, who wanted to take a stab at being a DM, kept the group alive.
Delivering a good campaign for his crowd is no easy feat. It requires creativity, structure, and spontaneity. To Mendez, that role just seemed to come naturally. “I’ve been the dungeon master since we started playing. I know I can put in the effort to make it good, and I would much rather run the game and be proud of it, than play in one that could have been better [if I did] it myself.”
To his surprise, Mendez found joy in both preparation and improvisation. As the story teller, he designed worlds while also adjusting to character decisions on the spot. “He does a ton of research [for the campaign], he does so many things for us,” says Jablonka, reflecting on his dungeon master’s efforts in running an exciting campaign for the group.
“This guy is an amazing storyteller, and I honestly think we wouldn’t play this much D&D if it wasn’t for Brandon, nor would we enjoy it as much as we do.”
However, in a proper game of D&D, it’s not just the dungeon master’s job to create an interesting story. “Some players designed characters with different traits”, explains Mendez. It’s the job of the player to shift the story’s momentum with their own actions, whether it be in their dialogue, their combat, or anything else they may do over the course of the campaign.
Jablonka’s character, Dante, is a paladin, a divine warrior that derives its power from a holy oath. “[My character] comes from a noble family,” he says, describing his character’s backstory.
The alumnus-turned-teacher notes that his character is always looming in his brother’s shadow: “His older brother, Duncan, was basically his everything. He looked after him, taught him what he knows, and is the reason he’s a paladin today.” That being said, Duncan isn’t with Dante anymore, so his goal is to ultimately live up to his expectations.
Other players seem to notice Dante’s tendency to overshare when completely unnecessary. Catale mentions that “It’s always a treat to watch Jablonka stammer with the main villain and watch him let slip a bit too much information.”
In one part of the campaign, the players found themselves ruled by a strict baron, trying to balance winning his favor with protecting the refugees outside the walls. The baron believed his mansion was haunted, but the truth was that his son, a wizard, had accidentally separated the soul of his best friend, the daughter of a rival family.
While reporting back, Jablonka let the spirit’s name slip, and as Mendez recalled, “everyone at the table completely froze in shock, why would you say that?”
The group has done a good amount of one-shots, or short one session campaigns, and have completed one full campaign so far. Their first full adventure was The Ruins of Phandelver, one of the most popular fifth edition campaign modules.
Jablonka recalled that it took the party four or five months to finish. He links the reason to how his group only plays once a week for three hours. Jablonka doesn’t shy away from the way D&D goes.
He says “some sessions will keep going on forever and [you won’t progress], but other times you’re flying through it. It always depends on what we get into, and that’s the beauty of D&D: it is what you make it. But you’ve got to commit, you’ve got to put your best foot forward.”
The group is now on their second big campaign, which is arguably the most famous in D&D history: The Curse of Strahd. A vampire gothic horror campaign designed to take characters from level one to level 10.
“My players are at level five now; we’ve been running once a week for a year and a few months,” remarks Mendez. “They’ll probably hit level six within the next month. Campaigns can last anywhere from four sessions to multi-year sagas, depending on how you run them.”
The campaign follows a group of players stranded in a land known as Barovia, ruled by a reawakened vampire known as Strahd von Zarovich. A nonlinear and generally open campaign, The Curse of Strahd is both difficult to run from a DM perspective, and notoriously challenging for players, with incredibly deadly fights.
Thus far, the party has enjoyed Mendez’s telling of Strahd.“This feels like a giant story that we’re just barely getting to halfway right now,” says Jablonka. “The character himself, Strahd, is a very multifaceted, multilayered character.
We can’t hate on him, or anything, because he’s such a cool character.” Calculated, yet charismatic, Jablonka describes Strahd as an incredibly interesting and intimidating villain for the campaign.
“We can’t deal with him at all. He’s basically a god. Scary guy, not someone we’d want to be on the bad side of. But he’s a very logical character. He’s someone that’s like a master chess player, he’s just sitting there playing with chess pieces. It’s been awesome.”
Regardless of the hectic day-to-day life of a working adult, these alumni still continue to meet as frequently as possible. Through communication, Mendez is able to introduce his group to new games and put his campaigns into action, giving his fellow PPCHS alumni a memorable experience each week.
