I played Dungeons and Dragons a few times with friends but it didn’t grab me at first. It had seemed like the perfect game for me, fantasy world, strategy game-play, and theatrical elements, but it wasn’t until I watched a season of Dimension 20’s Fantasy High that I was really taken with the game. Joining a fandom like DnD was great but like many “nerd” spaces there was an unfortunate undercurrent of misogyny and toxicity commonly faced by women and those in the queer community - which felt outrageous because those were the people who championed the game and first introduced me to it. There are beautiful parts of the community, but there are also negative people who use the game as an excuse to explore elements of toxic masculinity and are not as welcoming to those not eager to destroy all in their path and romance every character of the opposite gender.