The Loch Cafe and Games home to local Dungeons and Dragons community

Nick O'Connell tells the players the next part in their quest. Photo by Chloe Farnsworth

Walking into a brick building on 18th Avenue and seeing the words “cafe” and “games” working together might seem a little different, but it’s enticing. The Loch Cafe and Games is “the local spot to unloch your nerd”—a place where you can play and shop for games while drinking a coffee or eating a sandwich.

“Everybody is really friendly and the ambiance of the place is really inviting and conducive to having fun,” Russell Stewart, a regular at The Loch, said. 

“The Loch is the perfect place to just come together,” Winonah Ojanen, another regular at The Loch, said. “We like spending time here. D&D nights are one of our favorite nights now. It’s like an escape for us to get away from the busyness of everyday life.”

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a fantasy role-playing game that was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974. It was built to stimulate medieval combat with personalized battles and individual heroes. D&D is all about storytelling and imagination in this magical world where nothing is off the table. 

“D&D can be whatever you want it to be and I think that’s one of the coolest things about this game,” Jackson Salo said. 

Salo has been playing D&D for about four years now. He learned D&D and how to be a Dungeon Master within a week over winter break one year. 

“I read the player’s manual, the monster manual, and the dungeon master’s guide, all three encyclopedias back to back, understanding everything in them as much as I possibly could,” Salo said. 

Since the very beginning of his D&D life, Salo has also been teaching the game to others. He held a D&D class at The Loch Cafe and Games for the first time last Wednesday night. The classes will continue weekly throughout the month of October, starting at 5:30 every Wednesday. Anyone is welcome to the Novice Knights classes, with a maximum of 12 people and a small fee of $5 with the purchase of a drink. Each class will progress through the rules and fundamentals of D&D until the last meeting when they’ll play a one shot adventure and apply the knowledge they gathered. 

Salo has hosted six or seven one shot D&D nights at The Loch. A one shot is when you go for one night only and you play D&D. Even if you’re a beginner or have no experience, you are still welcome to join. Salo thinks teaching the class is more difficult than joining a one shot because he is doing a very deep dive on D&D. 

“It’s not teaching a rule set, it’s teaching improv comedy,” Salo said. “D&D is not a list of rules, above all else it's an improv game with dice rolling in between. As long as you get that, you're gonna be a great D&D player.”

The other essentials to being a good D&D player are to have the player’s fifth edition handbook, a printed character sheet and one set of dice that includes D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20 (D representing die and the number represents the number of sides that die has). 

Creating a character for the first time may be overwhelming, but that’s not necessarily the case. Connor Sengbush, a Novice Knights student, loves writing and with that, crafting characters. “It’s like making a game out of something you like to do anyway,” Sengbush said. 

There are many races and classes to choose from for a D&D character. Some races include an elf, halfling, human, dwarf, half-orc, gnome, etc. The classes include titles like fighter, wizard, cleric, rogue, ranger, and many more. Each player’s character’s class, race, strengths, and weaknesses can also play into the success of their actions and tell their own story. 

A dungeon master (DM) is a necessity for the game of D&D. Their role is the primary storyteller. 

“It’s like writing a story where you don’t have control of your protagonists,” Nick O’Connell, a DM who has been playing for six years, said. “You’re setting up situations, you’re setting up the world, when it comes to the events, you can have a general idea of what you think might happen, but your players will always surprise you. It makes an interesting story though.”

O’Connell is currently the DM for two sessions at The Loch, along with a third, personal campaign with friends. A campaign is the long overarching story that the characters are going through, it’s the main event of each game.

“One suggestion I like to give to new DMs is have a general idea, but don't set the specifics in stone, because a lot of the specifics will be sussed out by the player characters,” O’Connell said. “When you’re the DM, basically find what your players are interested in and then do the research.” 

O’Connell also mentioned that you do not need to know everything about the game in order to have a fun time. As DM, you can always make up an answer on the fly, so you shouldn’t be nervous to run your own game. 

“You can literally do whatever you want,” O’Connell said. 

Jackson Salo explains some rules about characters to the first Novice Knights class. Photo by Chloe Farnsworth

One constant struggle with D&D can be getting everybody to meet at a specific time and place over and over. 

“That’s where The Loch has really been helping, because we have the set time, we have the set place and if you can make it into your schedule, you can show up. If you can’t, we’ll miss you, but it’s not necessary for you to come to every session. You can miss one or two here and there and still be part of the campaign,” O’Connell said. 

There is a lot about D&D, but if you find the right people to learn and play with, it can be a rewarding experience. 

Salo’s reason for playing D&D is for “the friends we make along the way. Doing the one shots at The Loch, I've gotten to meet a lot of the customers that come in and I’m on a first name basis with them.” 

Owned by Matt and Erin Glesner, The Loch Cafe is located at 318 N. 18th Ave. East in Duluth. They are open Monday through Saturday from eight a.m. to nine p.m. Find more on their website.