My first time playing Dungeons and Dragons, we ended up in an underground cavern, complete with stalagmites and mushrooms that stood taller than our heads. My flawlessly beautiful elf ranger (cut me some slack, I was thirteen) was leading the adventuring party through this dark fungal maze, when we happened upon a pulsing mushroom that blocked our path. The Dungeon Master, who was my uncle, informed me later that I could have chopped it in half and proceeded unharmed, or I could have burned it down and, again, we may have passed freely, but instead I did what any cautious young elf would do: I poked it with a needle.

 

The mushroom sounded a high-pitched scream that woke every monster and mage in the compound. It was an alarm system, and I had chosen the one action that pretty much guaranteed the alarm would sound. In the last five minutes of our five-hour adventure, my entire party died. Because of me.

 

The joke prevails in my family to this day, some twenty years later, “Why don’t you poke it with a needle.”

 

This is the beauty of Dungeons and Dragons: one silly action, one bad roll of the dice, leads to calamity. But, as humans, I think we often fail to see the humor in mistakes, and D&D forces us to do so. I could have despaired that my party died, but they are fake characters on fake adventures. The joke I now share with my siblings and cousins will live on, bringing us closer together and providing some levity to this very serious world.  

 

Whether it be from an elf ranger to a half-orc berserker, a journalist to a politician, or from a press secretary to her chancellor, I have built my life around a love of communicating. But no single experience has taught me more about communication than the experience of tabletop gaming and roleplaying with friends. This is why I believe Dungeons and Dragons can serve as much more than a silly past-time of make-believe. I feel there are true applications to team building and corporate communications through the art of playing D&D with one’s co-workers, experiencing harrowing adventures together, and ultimately communicating through them.

 

Adults need more opportunities to be imaginative and to play. Adults need more humor. Adults need more freedom to be creative and to frame their problems in a different light. Beyond that, teams tend to be more empathetic with each other when they interact outside of work. In fact, 70% of employers say that creative thinking is the most in-demand skill this year. Once you take down a cursed vampire together or a kraken of the deep, what can’t you accomplish?

 

Imagine, laugh, play, roll the dice, and above all else, adventure. Take it from me, it helps to know that you can slay dragons. Just don’t try poking it with a needle.