JAG is just playing games ... and wants you to, too

Story by Mark Monette; Photo by Suwsan Kueny

As a Judge student, you likely have heard of the Judge Adventuring Guild through the Friday morning announcements. Perhaps you know that the Adventuring Guild plays games, but what is the Adventuring Guild really about? On September 28, I decided to interview several members of the Adventuring Guild: Rick Garcia, a freshman, and Milo Hohmann and Nathaniel Haertel, both sophomores, and Mr. Vanderlaan, the club moderator. 

When asked to describe the club in his own words, Mr. Vanderlaan replied, “I see the Judge Adventuring Guild as an opportunity, honestly just for people to relax a little bit. I think a lot of clubs have high stakes and a lot of things going on, but really this is just a place where people can come together, hang out, play some games. That’s really the big focus. Y’know, I kind of built it with the intention of role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, but really it’s just kind of become this chill period where people can come and relax on a Friday.” 

Rick Garcia said that his favorite part of the club is, “When everyone is playing a game together and it’s just utterly chaos.”

Club members listed a wide range of games as their favorite, from traditional tabletop role playing games, such as Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons, to more casual “party” games, such as One Night Ultimate Werewolf, a game that Nathaniel described as “like Mafia,” but “much funner.” 

The club is looking for more members, with Mr. Vanderlaan saying, “We welcome everybody. We would love more people to show up. It’s by no means is it a nerds only kind of club or that this caters to certain people. Like any kind of interest a person has, they can likely find something at the Judge Adventuring Guild to be able to have fun with and hang out with people.”