Roll for Creativity: How Dungeons and Dragons Impacted my Life

For the past four years, I have been playing DnD nearly every week and many people have expressed how they want to get involved and ask me where to start. So, here’s my little guide to what to expect and where to get started. 

For those that don’t know, Dungeons and Dragons is, typically, a high fantasy, role playing game. It’s featured heavily in Stranger Things so if you like that, DnD might be for you. 

Here’s why I love dnd: 

• It’s collaborative storytelling. 

DnD is a group game. You rely on the other members of your party to contribute to the story and it provides so many unpredictable moments of genuine connection or uncontrollable laughter. 

• Switching off your brain.

For two or three hours a week, you are, somewhat, forced to dedicate time to a story rather than doom scrolling. And you can focus on it throughout the week in-between sessions. 

• You have your own personal adventure film playing out! 

Wether you love Lord of the Rings or Marvel, you can build your own adventure film with personalised themes and tones throughout. It’s so malleable to whatever you want to do. 

There are many skills you can practise within DnD that can, easily, be converted to the workplace. 

• Communication is imperative within the game format and can really benefit anyone who works within a team. 

• DnD is based on creative problem solving. Your party might run into a puzzle that leads you to an artefact. You need to figure out creative ways to solve it, this works for any solution based roles as it lets you to practise thinking outside the box. 

• There is a mathematical element to this game. So quick basic arithmetic is sharpened by playing this silly little game. 

Now, where to start: (yay! more bullet points🎉)

• Deep dive on Youtube to get to know the format and the structure the game could take. I personally recommend Dimension 20 as its beginner friendly. The most famous DnD group is Critical role, their campaigns are a bit more serious and based in high fantasy and intense role-playing. 

• Look online for any groups that are looking for a player. There are many reddit pages that would be looking for someone for their campaign. 

• Check if there’s a local board game cafe and they might have a Dungeons and Dragons night. 

• Just jump into it! The only way to get “better” at the game is to keep playing. Even if the story isn’t for you, there can be other games, or formats, that will be of more interest to you. 

The main thing to remember is that it’s a game. It’s supposed to be fun. Give it a go and enjoy being nerdy. 🔮🐉