How We Can Use Our D&D Skills in Education

D&D skills beyond the table

Here is something to tell concerned parents when their child gets into Dungeons & Dragons: D&D lets us learn and improve skills that will be useful beyond the game. Especially in education, we can benefit from some of the social and creative skills honed by playing or running D&D. Whether teaching a classroom, giving a lecture, or conducting a training session, dungeon masters and players alike can use some of their gaming skills in these contexts.

First and foremost, playing or running a D&D game lets us work on our social skillset. When we sit around a table with three to five other people, we are constantly negotiating. When do I speak up? How can we agree on a path forward? How can I give the spotlight to someone else? These skills of navigating a complex social situation will prove useful away from the table.

Secondly, D&D is a training ground for our creative skills. Neither players nor DMs can foresee what will happen at the table. We must be ready to improvise, to create a spontaneously emerging, collaborative narrative. As DMs we can prepare content but we have to use it in a flexible manner, ready to adapt to the situation at the table. These creative, improvisational skills can serve us well beyond the game.

Viewing the classroom as a D&D game

These two areas of D&D skills, social and creative, can be especially useful in education. When we find ourselves teaching any subject to any group of people, the situation can often be very similar to a D&D game. There is one person, the teacher, trainer, or DM, that controls the flow of events during class, or during the game. They have spent some time preparing for any particular class, or session, and they expect the rest of the participants, students, or players, to participate to the best of their abilities in the events of the class, or the game. These parallels extend to the social and creative skills that prove useful both in D&D and in education.

D&D skill: Reading the room

As DMs, but also as players, we always keep an eye on our fellow humans around the table. We look for signs of excitement to sense whether a certain scene, event or interaction hits the mark. We also try to be quick to perceive any hints of boredom that let us know when it’s time to move the scene along or to throw in a complication. This skill of reading the table, or reading the room, is crucial in an educational setting. As educators we must be constantly aware of the mood and level of engagement in the classroom. Boredom can be a sign that we should look for a better way of explaining the subject. Excitement and high levels of attention can tell us to double down on the current topic or method.

Staring at blank faces after we explained the structure of iambic pentameter? Maybe we can throw in a practical rhythmic exercise to practice the meter. Are participants at a conference talk eagerly participating when we ask them to show their opinion by cheering or clapping? Double down. Maybe we can use the same method to keep listeners engaged at different points in the talk. These situations closely mimic our responsibility as dungeon masters to provide an engaging experience for our players. We should keep a close eye on the people around us, both in a public speaking, or educational context, and at the gaming table. Embrace the audience’s reactions to our content. Discard what doesn’t work. Dig deeper on promising topics and methods.

D&D skill: Improvising

If reading the room is more of a social skill, then the ability to improvise is its creative counterpart. Things will go off the rails. This is true of our D&D game and of an educational setting. When things do not go as planned, confidence, and the right preparation are key. It takes practice, but we should not despair when students, listeners, or players take the game or the lecture into a different direction than we expected. Instead, we should rejoice when unforeseen things happen. Unforeseen situations are what differentiates our game from a novel. Spontaneous creativity is what distinguishes a great lesson from a good one. The improvisational skills we acquire while running or playing D&D will help us react creatively in education.

Some amount of preparation is necessary but we should not hold on too tightly to our prep when we run the game. This attitude towards prep can be difficult to accept, especially when we are used to doing a lot of detailed preparation. Mike Shea’s “Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master” provides a list of steps that help us prepare the things that matter while keeping our prep light enough to make it easy to adapt on the fly. We can use similar techniques to those of the lazy DM in educational contexts. Prepare the cornerstone content that we want to get across but leave enough empty space for improvisation. Preparing what matters while keeping prep light, saves time, focuses us on the important bits of preparation and lets us adapt to the emergent circumstances in the classroom, or at the gaming table.

D&D skill: Starting strong

We should start our D&D session strong. The strong start is one of the steps of preparation laid out by Mike Shea in “Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master.” The beginning of our game is the only moment where we have close to full control over what happens. Everything after that can and will be warped by the actions of the characters. The same is true for education. Starting a lesson, or a lecture strong sets us on a path to success. Starting with something exciting and engaging, like a practical exercise, an interesting video clip, or a provocative question, draws the audience into our content. Whatever we do afterwards, we have a better chance of keeping the students’, the listeners’, or the players’ attention if we start strong.

Using D&D skills in educational contexts

The social and creative skills we hone while playing D&D can be useful beyond the table, especially in education. When we view the classroom, the conference, or the lecture hall through the lense of a D&D game, many parallels become apparent. Both, DMs and educators must constantly gauge the room. They must be finely attuned to the atmosphere and level of engagement in their audience. Both must also be ready to improvise. Confidence, and smart preparation are key to be able to adapt to the changing circumstances of our table, or our classroom. Starting strong helps us engage our audience, be they students or players, from the outset of our lesson, or session. D&D is a game, and the focus should always be on having fun. Nonetheless, the skills that running or playing D&D can nurture will prove useful in circumstances away from the gaming table.