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D&D: The #dndselfie Shows What D&D Players Really Look Like

3 Minute Read
Apr 11 2019
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A recent SNL sketch has everyone posting their D&D selfies to show what gamers really look like these days.

A strange cross-section of life, pop-culture, and the internet has the hashtag #dndselfie trending on Twitter right now–and it shows just how wide the D&D community reaches. At the heart of the hashtag is the idea that there’s no typical look for a D&D player. Whatever the stereotype is, anyone can play the game, and what began as a response to a skit has become an “internet moment.” First though, let’s take a look at where it all began. It all starts with a recent sketch from Saturday Night Live:

Two things worth mentioning–Kit Harrington is a chameleon, it’s pretty incredible what a haircut, beard, and HBO’s lighting budget can do for a person, and two, I know they’re LARPing in this sketch, and if you trot out the old hierarchy of nerddom from before everyone realized the Internet was a mistake, even LARPers are towards the bottom of the barrel…

…but the fact remains, these jokes were stale even in the late ’90s. In response, twitter user NIC ter Horst, of the D&D Podcast Killustrators came back with a picture of herself and the hashtag #dndselfie, encouraging folks to show what the community really looks like.

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https://twitter.com/nicterhorst/status/1115258257780695041

The results are varied, some are magical, some are mundane–all are a great example of just how far WotC’s shadow reaches. There are the usual suspects, of course, like Matt Mercer and the Critical Role crew.

And then it just sort of takes off from there. You’ve got streaming hosts, artists, podcasters, cosplayers…

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…but then you start getting into all of the other folks and it’s pretty amazing. You’ll see real life clerics:

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..and an assortment of folks, young and old, some with families, some with pets, all of them coming together to share their love of roleplaying games (and one in particular). It’s a dizzying variety of people out there (and I learned that there’s a staggering number of people creating live shows, entertainments and more).

Of course, since the Internet was a mistake, the sadly predictable responses started cropping up:

Which, if you’re so down that the only way you can find an identity is in your suffering and isolation–that’s a hard place for anyone to be. If life is coming down so hard on you that you define yourself as ‘outcast’ and find anything that clashes with that picture threatening, here’s hoping you can love yourself enough to be a part of the community you found.

In the meantime, the hashtag is trending still–you can find all kinds of people out there who show what D&D is all about.

Arguing over which edition is the best and who would win in a fight.

Happy Adventuring!

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Author: J.R. Zambrano
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