The Theme Park That's Like Dungeons & Dragons In Real Life

If, by some cosmic coincidence, you live your life in the center of the Venn diagram where "likes Dungeons and Dragons" and "likes physical activity" overlap, then there's good news. A living, breathing world of medieval fantasy adventures awaits in the most magical place on the planet: Utah.

Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, opened in 2018. As theme parks go, it's less "Space Mountain" and more "meeting the characters from Beauty and the Beast outside of the Tiki Room," with the addendum that you might end up in a swordfight with Gaston. What the place lacks in nausea-inducing thrill rides, it makes up for with its immersive design. Evermore is described as a "living theatrical park," filling 13 acres with meticulously detailed fantasy environments, beautifully designed characters, and live action role playing elements which shift in real time, allowing visitors to forge their own adventures. Think Westworld, but the robots are recent theater school graduates and you get in more trouble if you shoot them.

The denizens of Evermore are varied and colorful. Vampires lurk in the town's mausoleum, while witches and banshees in astonishing makeup stand ever at the ready to haunt your dreams for the rest of your life. Depending on when you visit, there might be goblins in the market, or a steampunk automaton, or a time traveler. And of course, it wouldn't be a real role playing experience without the opportunity to grind up some sweet XP.

Beyond leveling, quest-goers might be interested in joining a guild, a process that involves following plot lines, fetching items, achieving feats in skill-based activities, and braving dank dungeons filled with terrible beasties. Maybe you'll want to join the hunters, learning to use a real bow and arrow from the elves at the archery range. Maybe you'll become an apprentice dragon trainer, or join a band of pirates. The experience is entirely up to the visitor.

The park's storylines shift with the seasons, with brighter fare in the spring and summer followed by a veritable monster mash in the fall, so the experience changes depending on when you decide to visit. Costumes are encouraged to increase immersion, and reviewers have been close to universal in their praise of the park's cast, whose performances have been described as impeccable and unfaltering. It really is a magical place.

Ken Bretschneider, the creator of Evermore, poured five years into the park's creation, chasing a childhood dream. Speaking to Utah's KUTV, he described the park as "a giant stage," saying, "You go onto that stage and you get to live an experience inside of it... We're all about immersion. We want the public to feel like they've entered a world, they've forgotten the rest of the world."