On most Fridays, I sit down at a table with some of my friends, pull out my laptop, pencil, paper, and dice, and we play Dungeons and Dragons. What is D&D, you ask? It is one of the best inventions ever made, that's what! It is a tabletop roleplaying game, or RPG, where you interact with some people who play with you, roll dice, and have a good time. For instance, I could be playing a human wizard named "Carric" that believes that magic is from having high cholesterol. this is literally about making something that YOU want to make and having a good time. A lot of it is up to chance, depending on what you roll, but you decide how you want to play, where you want to go, and how you want to do it. It allows people to be themselves and it makes them better at interaction with others, on-the-fly decision making, and at internalizing and figuring things out.

When it comes to making people better at interaction, one thing to realize is that interaction is literally a majority of the game. You have to tell the person who is running the game, or Dungeon Master what you want to do, along with what you would say to NPCs, or non-player characters. That is the interaction needed with just ONE of the people. With the rest of the party, it helps you get better at talking to others, since you have to make decisions with the group, find out what is going on with others and make sure that everyone is enjoying themselves while playing and making decisions.

For decisions, ANYTHING can happen in this game. I am not joking. You can make pigs fly. Sometimes there will be certain points in the adventure where you have to make decisions. Such as, should we save this village for free or extort them? Should we save the princess or is the dragon too hard for us to fight? There are even decisions where you have to make them on the go. For instance, if you are in a dungeon and there are traps activating behind you, which path would you take? The left one or the right one? Either one could spell the end, but you have to make a choice and be adamant with it.

Finally, it teaches you good skills in reading people and in reading situations. Sometimes people lie to you and you can decide on whether they are lying to you or not and see how that works out for you. Other times, there could be something hidden in the descriptions that are read to you from your Dungeon Master and you have to be attentive to figure out what it was that was hidden and help you figure out what was so important about it. Other times, there could be a fight that is getting ready to happen and how you read the situation could influence your decisions and make everything suck.

All of this can be used on a daily basis. Decision making, interaction with others, reading a situation, all of this can make your work environment easier. Can give you an edge when it comes to taking risks to get the job done or even get a promotion/ ask someone out on a date. It is all viable ways to go with this. If you don't take my word for it, give it a go for yourself! t is easy to play and get into and very fun!

Adventure on!

Zach