CAST FIREBALL: Inside the Chaotic, Cosy Rise of Dungeons & Dragons

There's something magical about a game where the only limit is your imagination.

Sure, The Sims 4 lets you live out your ideal (or chaotic) life, and Roblox gives you a sandbox world to explore. But if we're talking about a game where stories are built from scratch, where every dice roll holds the weight of fate, there's only one true titan of storytelling: Dungeons & Dragons. In D&D, players create characters and embark on adventures guided by a Dungeon Master, who narrates the story and controls the non-player characters and monsters.

And if you've noticed more people talking about campaigns, alignments, and nat 20s lately, you're not alone.

Because D&D isn't just back, it's booming.

It's not that it ever really left. The tabletop RPG has had a loyal following since its debut in the 1970s. But something changed in the last decade. A perfect storm of voice actors, streamers, and shows like Critical Role, a popular web series where professional voice actors play D&D, made it visible again. D&D didn't just rise from the basement. It entered the spotlight with a character sheet and a whole new audience.

Planning the next adventure: A Dungeon Master prepares notes surrounded by game pieces, dice, and maps for an engaging Dungeons & Dragons session.

To get a closer look at this shift, I sat down with Fabio de Ascensao, a Dungeon Master of five years and the storytelling centre of a long-running party of five. He got into D&D the same way many modern players (including me) have: through the internet and a little desperation.

"I heard many things about it in the media," he told me. "I could never get into it because I had no one. So I started watching Critical Role in 2019. I knew some people who wanted to try, so I had to be the Dungeon Master."

That line hits. For many newer players, the entry point into D&D wasn't through dusty rulebooks or older siblings. Through live-play shows like Critical Role, professional voice actors brought their characters to life in real time. People watched for fun and left with an itch to play. Fabio was one of them. When there wasn't a DM in sight, he became the one.

And from there, a world began to grow.

"I have an idea that I build up slowly," he said. "Most of the time, it's just inspiration from media I consume. Story-wise, I like moral dilemmas. I like the conflict within oneself."

There's something uniquely personal about being a Dungeon Master. You're not just guiding a group through monsters and maps. You're building something from scratch. You're writing a story that only comes to life when other people step inside it. That story twists and turns with every decision they make, every roll they botch, every moment they surprise you.

One of Fabio's favourite moments still makes him laugh.

"There was a boss fight with an automaton that went crazy, and the party had to stop it," he explained. "When they finished the boss, its core overheated and exploded. The magic shockwave made my players roll on a wild magic table. One of them turned into a plant."

No cutscene could plan for that. And that's the joy of it. The unpredictability, the moments of surprise and laughter make D&D so thrilling and addictive.

D&D is chaos. Structured, meaningful chaos. At its best, it's a collaborative experience where plot and personality crash together like two dice hitting a wooden table. The moments between the mechanics, in-character jokes, dramatic betrayals, and unexpected laughter make it so addictive.

A map of a hidden crypt that may be used in sessions

It's also the disagreements. Players are veering completely off course; a weird decision derails entire sessions. Fabio's had plenty.

"I hate it when they do that," he admitted, "but sometimes I have no choice. I either move the story that way or one of them comes to reason and brings everyone back on track."

There's no game quite like it. And no DM has complete control, no matter how tightly they plan. That shared power between storyteller and players makes D&D feel less like a game and more like live theatre, where anything can happen and everyone plays a role.

That kind of creativity is catching on. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the 2023 film adaptation, brought the game to new heights of visibility. It was funny, charming, and self-aware in a way that finally did the game justice. 

Between the movie's success and the meteoric rise of Critical Role, there's a sense that D&D has stepped into a new era. And it's not just the stories being told. It's how people are finding each other.

Digital platforms like Roll20 and D&D Beyond have made playing more accessible than ever. You don't need a local comic shop or a kitchen table to start your adventure. You just need an internet connection and a group willing to show up.

That digital shift has brought in players who never saw themselves reflected in traditional gaming spaces: women, queer players, people of colour, neurodivergent folks. D&D's resurgence has cracked open the door, and people are stepping in with dice in hand.

Fabio says the beauty of tabletop games is their openness.

"Digital games are like playing football with a team of 3v3. Everyone wants to replicate what they see on TV, and only a game of 11v11 can do that. D&D is the same. You have more freedom to express yourself than you can in video games. And it's a plus because you can socialise without getting judged."

That hit home. Because of all its fantasy trappings, D&D gives people, especially in 2025, a connection. A space to speak, to listen, to explore identity without fear. It's not just dice and dragons. It's trust. It's friendship. It's storytelling as healing.

There's something sacred in that.

And it's why D&D is more than just a nostalgic comeback. It's part of a bigger shift in how we play, connect, and tell stories. From Stranger Things references to TikToks of character memes, it's stitched into internet culture.

But it's not just a trend. D&D's resurgence has also influenced the gaming industry, inspiring new tabletop RPGs and digital adaptations.

It's a return to something very human.

It's looking your friends in the eye and saying, "You enter the tavern. What do you do?"

It's the clatter of dice that somehow feels like a heartbeat.

It's every person who didn't think they had a voice, realising that they could shape entire worlds with it.

As long as people have stories to tell, Dungeons & Dragons will always matter.

And the cosy chaos? That's not going anywhere.