FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Players are turning to Dungeons and Dragons for the first time amid the pandemic, searching for fun, camaraderie and an escape from the coronavirus. (Micah Fluellen/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
People turning to Dungeons & Dragons to escape a real life monster – Covid-19
For a few hours each week, Kevin Benedicto inhabits an otherworldly realm: Icewind Dale, a perilous land of tundra and frost, wizards and orcs, white dragons and crag cats. His domain is the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, the addictive tabletop role-playing game that made its debut more than four decades ago.
As dungeon master – for the uninitiated, that’s the game’s organizer and leader of the adventure – Benedicto steers his group of friends across a world conceived in their minds and limited only by their creativity and the roll of the dice. Here, they can do something they can’t in real life: defeat a monster.