Life Is Just A Really Boring Game of Dungeons & Dragons
Heading into a job interview? Roll a D20.
Picture this. Four young boys sitting in their parent’s basement at the age of thirteen, surrounded by a few oddly shaped dice, books with titles like “Dungeon Master’s Guide” and “Monster Manual” sprawled open all over the table, empty bags of Doritos, and a twelve pack of Mountain Dew. Three of them are huddled together, trying to figure out what their next move is going to be, as the fourth boy sits at the head of the table with a menacing smile on his face. While it may look like a whole lot of nothing, I promise you it’s not. These kids are on a quest to retrieve a lost amulet and return it to the princess of the Forgotten Realm, who promised them their weight in gold if they succeed. They’re standing at the edge of a mystical cave, trying to make a game plan to defeat the terrible monsters that are awaiting them inside. A loud stomp rumbles the ground beneath them. Out walks a 9-foot tall hill giant, wielding a wooden club. One of the boys says “I want to attack him with my war hammer.” His friend, sitting at the end of the table looks at him, nods his head and replies, “Roll a D20.”
Before this year, I had a very limited knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons. I always assumed it was just a board game that nerdy boys played, and that I would have no interest in it. But as I grew older and submerged myself deeper and deeper into “nerd culture”, I developed a love for fantasy. Harry Potter was the first book series I read, and it acted as an escape from reality for me for a very long time. Then came the Lord of the Rings. And then, before I knew it, I had thousands of pages worth of fantasy novels stacked on my bedside table. Years later, I found myself desperately wanting to tell my own stories, to build my own characters, and create my own world. That’s where Dungeons & Dragons came into play. At the ripe age of twenty-one, I started diving into D&D lure. There was so much to learn, and it was all so exciting. I picked up on the mechanics through a few real-play Dungeons & Dragons podcasts, and instantly fell in love with the collaborative storytelling aspect of the game. Before I knew it, I began raking through my imagination for character ideas, story arcs, and my own homebrewed game mechanics. I needed to find a party soon, or else I might’ve exploded. So, when one of my coworkers outed himself as a D&D veteran, I knew I had found my Dungeon Master — or DM for short. We gathered a few more mutual friends and got down to business. During every session, I got the same feeling I did when I read the Harry Potter books for the first time. I dove deep into the story and forgot about everything else going on. I wasn’t stressed out about work, or school, or my car troubles. I was just a young halfling ranger that wanted to adventure around with her friends.
As our sessions grew more complex and we each got more and more comfortable with the game, I started to realize how intensely I was using it as a distraction from my real world problems. For a few hours a week, I was able to transport myself from my real life into our campaign, where my actions were decided by the roll of a die.
If I succeed, great!
If I fail, I guess we have to figure out a different way to solve the problem, and hope that I roll a bit better next time.
During the game, the anticipation of learning what’s going to happen next always keeps you on your toes. I started to wish that I could live my life by a twenty sided die. Nothing would really seem like the end of the world, because at the end of the day, I did everything in my power to help change the outcome. But, as I started to reflect on both the good and bad things in my life, it dawned on me. We are all playing a part in the world’s lamest game of Dungeons and Dragons ever. While we may not encounter giants, goblins, or dragons, we each face our own beasts on a day to day basis, and we’re just rolling a D20 to see how well we face them.
You’re going into a big job interview later today. Roll a D20.
You got a 19, and the interviewer offers you the job on the spot!
Your fifteen page research paper is due today. Roll a D20.
You got a 13. You forgot to print it, but your professor lets you email it to her in class. She deducts 5 points from your final grade.
You take your car in for routine maintenance — an oil change and a nice tune up. Roll a D20.
You got a 1, and critically fail. The mechanic finds a bunch of things wrong. Take a D6 of financial damage.
Just like my character in D&D, the more I put myself out there and the more experience I gain, the more I can allow myself to grow and “level up” my skills. Of course, there will always be the deadly critical fails on my twenty-sided die, but as long as I keep pushing myself to learn and become a better friend/girlfriend/employee/student/whatever other titles you can give me, I can just brush off my shoulders, get up, and try again. If I have low HP, I know that I need to give myself the time to rest and recover. If I have no HP, I definitely need to give myself the time to recharge, and get back up when I’m ready (but we should all try our best to avoid that).
Overall, Dungeons & Dragons was supposed to act as another escape from my problems, so I can forget about the stress that my job, my car, my relationships, and just my life in general are causing me. Instead, it gave me a new way to think about the roadblocks I run into. D&D helped teach me that things can turn themselves upside down at the drop of a hat — and that I need to be okay with that. I need to be prepared for that. I can’t just sit idly by and hope things go my way. I can’t get upset, or stressed, or want to quit when things take a sharp right turn when we were supposed to go left. If I have a day full of crit fails, I need to get back up and keep rolling dice. There’s a creative solution to every problem, and while real life may not have the exciting sword fights, bar brawls, or enchanted items, the mechanics are still the same. Do I want to hit the troll guarding the cave with my war hammer, or do I want to use a spell to put him to sleep? Either way, roll a D20 to see how it goes. And if it goes wrong? Try something new.
