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How D&D Can Help You In Real Life

Story by Sarah-Jane Simpson • 1mo

Dungeons & Dragons lets people unleash their imagination in worlds of their own creation as they set off on adventures. However, despite taking place primarily in a fantasy setting, DnD has some great real world benefits too. At its heart, DnD is a social game which has the power to provide skills and experiences that can be transferred into people’s lives.

Boosted by the game's role in Netflix's Stranger Things and the rise of actual play shows such as Critical Role, High Rollers, and Dimension 20, many more have been seeking out groups to start playing. The social aspect of DnD has long been a key part of its makeup, something that became especially important to many during the COVID-19 global pandemic, which saw many countries implementing lockdowns.

D&D is often misunderstood and banned in many prisons, as many fail to realize the social, behavior, and beneficial life skills the RPG can offer.

While it's been widely known for some time that DnD can be good for mental health, there is evidence that shows that this can be transferred to other aspects of life. Using DnD in schools and clubs can help establish skills and patterns of behavior that can benefit people later in life. But this isn't limited to young people; with more adults exploring the hobby and finding new ways to express themselves through their characters, it's a benefit that persists across the game's wide demographic.

Dungeons & Dragons Helps Build Key Life Skills

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Dungeons & Dragons can be used to address and tackle a wide variety of social, behavioral and personal issues. Through the fun of exploring a cave network or battling a Beholder, players are able to learn new skills, sometimes without even realizing it. One of the first steps to addressing any issues is communication, and DnD provides the perfect vehicle for learning that key skill.

Lucas Maxwell is an award-winning school librarian and author of Let's Roll: A Guide to Setting up Tabletop Role-Playing Games in your School or Public Library. When discussing DnD and the benefits it can provide with Screen Rant, Maxwell explains:

"DnD is an amazing tool for communication. It is a social game; you can’t really play it on your own. It's a fantastic way to teach non-aggressive communication skills to those who might struggle with social settings, and I see this on a daily basis running the game. In DnD you are required to communicate on your turn, especially in combat, and you must work together to solve a common challenge."

This is an excellent starting point for people of all ages, as simply talking to others has been shown to help tremendously with many problems. As players learn to not only communicate their own views but listen to others, a bridge is created that can then allow other aspects to be safely explored using DnD as an outlet. Through their characters, complex issues such as gender identity, depression, anxiety and past trauma can begin to be viewed through a safe lens.

It's important never to push a fellow player into discussing things if they are not ready. The best way to help is to provide support and a friendly ear should they need it.

Once safe communication and a support network has been established, other skills can begin to flourish. Problem-solving, organization, adaptability, coping with failure, and mathematics are all skills which can be learned and honed through DnD. On the subject of failure, Maxwell notes that in schools, young people are often taught that failure is the worst outcome, and this mentality is something that can carry over into adulthood. However, anyone who has played DnD knows that success or failure can come down to the roll of a d20, and that at times failure in DnD can be hilarious.

"When you walk around in life worried about constantly making the wrong decisions and upsetting people it fills you with anxiety that can be really damaging. For some, simply making a decision in real life can be mentally taxing. In D&D, that anxiety is removed because everyone is on the same playing field and failure doesn’t matter. The result is your confidence as a human in the real world grows as that fear slowly dissolves."

Playing as a character is so often about wish fulfillment, but there can also be an aspect simply wanting to take a break from personal issues and escape to another world. Dr. Megan Connell, author of Tabletop Role-Playing Therapy, spoke to Screen Rant on the subject:

"Having a break from our own issues and problems can be incredibly helpful. Also, there is something interesting that happens in role playing a character that has a skill we wish we had, it helps model for us what it can be like to have that skill set."

Dr. Connell also noted that simply being able to play as character with problems different to our own can also be beneficial. This provides perspective and insight into other problems but also their solutions. Working as a team to solve an issue in DnD can help shed light on how to solve a real world issue in an environment free from real world consequences.

And this seems to be the key. The fantasy setting provides a safe space to not only practice new skills but explore complex subjects in a way that will not immediately negatively impact the player's real life. Playing a character whose self-esteem grows as the party gains levels is a small but vital step in the player's own confidence growing.

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Maxwell works with children in an educational setting, organizing DnD sessions in the school's library, including five hour Saturday D&D-athons with teachers and students all immersing themselves in fantasy worlds. He says that one of the things he's noticed when running these games for the students is that DnD provides a save and very effective means of escape, where the teens are in control of their paths and act out any frustrations they are experiencing in an understanding environment.

"That is the key for me and that is why I think it's so effective for some at helping with depression and anxiety. The students know that three times a week at lunch they are going to be in a safe, warm, welcoming environment where they will be completely immersed in a new world while falling off their chairs with laughter.

In my experience working with youth through D&D, they will often express their fears and anxieties through their characters. This is because the way it is set up in the library creates a safe space for people to be themselves while also being something completely different in a strange and fantastical world."

So how can DMs and players alike bring this into their own DnD games and create a space where issues can be explored safely? Dr. Connell advises against becoming armchair psychologists and actively trying to turn home games into therapy sessions for friends. Instead, she recommends Consent in Gaming from Monte Cook Games, a free PDF which has fantastic guidelines for session zeros to help establish clear boundaries for all at the table. Ultimately, that's what using Dungeons & Dragons, or any TTRPG, to aid in real life comes down to; creating that safe space for people to feel comfortable experimenting and expressing themselves in.

Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the '70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions. 

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How D&D Can Help You In Real Life (msn.com)