Why even bother with tabletop?

The importance of tabletop role-play, particularly Dungeons & Dragons is one that is severely underplayed. Despite being a niche market, this style of gameplay has touched upon most modern day fictional media, and remains an incredibly effective tool for both interaction and learning to write. It’s a dying market that really needs more attention, or at least more money.

Now, there’s a point to be made about how much of an impact D&D has made on the world of fiction. But more often than not, it’s something of a secret, even to those that are familiar with the creators of said works. If you follow the background of most prominent authors, screenwriters, and even actors, check obscure interviews about odd questions, you might discover that quite a few people that made it big played D&D when they were younger. One of the more interesting examples would be Dan Harmon, creator of the NBC comedy show Community. Not only did Mr. Harmon play D&D when he was younger, but his first touch with fame was based on D&D. Harmon, along with a few others, was part of an improvisational comedy troupe known as The Dead Alewives. Although most of their work was unrecorded or simply lost in time, one piece particularly remains, their D&D parody skit. Some of the most famous lines about the game come from here, ones that people who have never played or really know much about it might well know. Lines such as, “Roll to see if I get drunk!” and “I wanna cast magic missile!” among others. A game requiring such creativity often sparks and kindles the creative instinct in people, especially at an early age.





The game, and tabletop role-play in general, heavily encourages creativity. Although a good chunk of it can be dice-rolling and number crunching, it simply cannot function without a story, without characters, without players willing to put themselves forth into a fictional world to some degree. Arguably the best games are when people become very engrossed in the world, and in their characters. Forming complex motivations and flaws, an in-depth character worthy of a novel. It can often require making a character that is both realistic and relatable, especially in the context of the gaming party, where all the characters have to get along to some degree in order for the party to function. It’s not hard to see how the ability to role-play a character well translates easily into writing a character well, especially when not limited by the whims and means of other players or the Game Master running the whole world. The Game Master, who may not play a character, has to play all of the side-characters, and construct a world that makes logical sense, but is also pleasing to the players. A combination of these skills gives a good basis for creating a fictional world, one that is interesting to the reader, but still within logic and bounds of what is expected of fantastical settings. Characters that change and react as appropriately as a person grip the reader much better, just like gripping your fellow players. Particularly as a non-linear sort of narrative, told by several point of views, but only seen through one. It’s an incredibly useful expression of creativity, that ultimately functions as practical and entertaining.

An interesting side-effect of tabletop gaming is one that most people might not expect; it brings people into the whole genre of fantasy and science fiction. Not particularly in just that perhaps they enjoy wizards and knights much more, but they begin to be more willing to grasp onto creative things like that. One could refer to it as a “nerdy gateway” of sorts, where someone who doesn’t have many “geeky” habits to so speak may pick up some after becoming engrossed in the game. This is because of the role-play aspect, it overwhelms what might put people off of sword and sorcery, and puts them more into a social setting. Instead of being a wizard that would get beat up in high school or mocked by coworkers, they’re interacting with people they enjoy, exchanging jokes and witty quips with one-another. The game is, after all, just people telling each other how they think a story is being told, which is something people do all the time without dice or books.


But instead of it being primarily from a one-person perspective, it’s a group effort, everybody banding together and forming a single mental image, and managing to function an entire game with naught more than a handful of numbers and game pieces. Sometimes, not even that, just the pure basis of social interaction that happens to take form of a fantastical story. It’s a great format for somebody who isn’t ready to jump into more “hardcore” things, and may just be looking to socialize with their friends. It encourages people to read, to explore further into the worlds that these are based off. They hunger for more of the feeling of being in a world, of being the hero, of creating heros, and creating worlds.



As a past-time in a mild danger of disappearing, due to most of it being passed down by word of mouth or invitation by friends, it’s an american past-time that has determined a lot of what we see around ourselves today. An exercise in creative self-expression and social interaction among peers, it’s something that should truly be more acknowledged as something beyond young adult men in a basement, and more as an opportunity to explore something that most people never will get to.