Dungeons and Dragons Life Hack

Give Your Real LIfe Advantage on Saving Throws by playing Dungeons and Dragons

Creating the perfect Dungeons and Dragons Character is easy but using D&D to build a better YOU is the epitome of a life hack. Or a life hack and slash if you prefer. Using the principles of gameplay and the built-in philosophies of tabletop role-playing is proven to impact your day-to-day life.

How so?

GREAT QUESTION!

Dungeons and Dragons players are known as a hive of imagination and creativity. So, it only stands to reason that playing D&D further improves your imagination, increases creativity, improves social skills, and builds your ability to “think on your feet”. A true TTRPG player is part tactician, part wingman, and part thespian.

The draw of D&D for many people is to delve into a realm of make-believe and escape the real world – if even for a little bit.

The side effect of slaying Goblins and matching wits with Dragons make an impact on Real LIfe in ways that Gary Gygax never dreamed!

Filling Out Your Real Life Character Sheet

Critical Thinking

Dungeons & Dragons boost your brainpower and encourages problem-solving as well as thinking outside the box. This applies to both the Dungeon Master and the player characters.

If you’re a Dungeon Master you must create worlds, characters, and lore for your players to enjoy. This is true for Homebrew as well as a pre-written adventure from Wizards of the Coast LLC. Decisions on the fly and rule adjudication are just the tip of the iceberg for DM’s when building a better world for their group of adventurers.

Players on the other hand are tasked with creating backstories and utilizing their characters to benefit the story as a whole. There is a level of creative thinking that goes into playing a character to benefit not only your goals but the goals of the campaign.

Dungeon Masters and players act out scenarios in a high fantasy D&D campaign but the skills learned are NOT learned in a bubble. When embraced – the in-game problem-solving and creative thinking skills bleed over into your real life.

The ability to improvise on the spot greatly improves real-world creative abilities. The practice of problem-solving in a dungeon builds critical thinking skills that impact your life in countless real-world ways.

So embrace it. Your friends, your boss and your significant other will thank you!

Understanding Empathy

Dungeons & Dragons is the World’s best role-playing game. Key word is ROLE PLAYING. The term Role Playing is important as it implies a player WILL step into someone else’s shoes while in-game.

Even if a player creates a character based on who they are in the real world there will be deviations once the adventures begin. This often leads to a character who’s different in many ways from their usual self.

This deviation in personality opens a window for the player to view the world from a different perspective.

The definition of empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” There is no better way to cultivate empathy skills than by actually living as someone else for a few hours. The ability to play characters that you otherwise would have no connection to is a beautiful thing. This skill helps in building and keeping meaningful relationships. In today’s World – we could ALL use a little more of that!

Building Self Awareness

Dungeons & Dragons open the door to endless scenarios with a multitude of consequential factors. These are scenarios that most of us will never encounter in real life, but, they still uncover who we are at heart. Regardless of the character we play or the campaign we create there will always be an internal pull toward decision-making.

How you would react in any given scenario is an ingrained response. Would you go out on a limb for a friend? Attempt to steal if there were no consequences? Volunteer for life-altering adventures with no guarantee of compensation? Playing D&D gives you the opportunity to do self reflection in uncomfortable situations. It’s a good thing.

For greater insight – if you create a character that completely deviates from your given personality – how does that impact you? Playing a character so completely different than how you are in real life provides insight into the outcome of your actions. This cultivates the self-awareness skill.

Self-awareness goes hand in hand with self-improvement and is something that humans develop throughout their whole life.

Teamwork makes the Dream Work

Dungeons & Dragons is a game but it is less about competition and more about acting as a team toward a common goal. Your party, your companions, your fellow adventurers… whatever you want to call them, THEY are the team you have to play the game with, take adventures with and defeat campaigns with.

In Dungeons & Dragons, collaborative skills are required for survival. Political intrigue, battling monsters, and tavern fights are par for the course in Dungeons & Dragons. Surrounding yourself with a good team and in turn, being a team player guarantees that your journeys will not end in a TPK.

The same can be said for real-world scenarios. Open collaboration is as essential in the darkest dungeons as it is in your real life. Facing an onslaught of monsters or deciding where to go for lunch are both scenarios easily achieved when everyone is on the same page. It’s just that simple.

The Ultimate Dungeons and Dragons Life Hack

It is common knowledge that D&D improves social skills and relationship-building skills. These are TWO of the most important factors in the development of emotional intelligence.

All of the interactions, reactions, and consequences of actions are stepping stone experiences. Normal gameplay builds emotional intelligence. That is unavoidable. This allows players to experience high fantasy adventures and then apply those reactions to real-life situations.

This Life Hack is even more noticeable in younger players where emotional intelligence is a newfound skill. Mastering emotional intelligence at an early age leads to growing up with better social skills and engaging in healthier relationships. That is how impactful Dungeons and Dragons can be in real life.

Dungeons and Dragons Life Hack

To the untrained eye Dungeons & Dragons is just about magic items and complex rules but in reality, it is so much more. Whether playing a homebrew campaign or using official Dungeons & Dragons products the outcome is the same.

The improvement of self through playing a game.

In the TED Talk by Christopher Robichaud, he points out that learning and playing aren’t mutually exclusive. Just the opposite, one of the best ways to learn is through playing.

So complete your character sheet, choose your inspired location and discover the Hero that is YOU!

The Worst D&D Habits To Stop NOW

How does D&D help YOU?

What other D&D topics should we cover? (Radiant Citadel? Spelljammer Academy?) LET US KNOW!

While you’re here CHECK OUT our other Dungeons and Dragons articles LIKE THIS ONE – Ranking The Best D&D Editions