Dungeons & dragons 1974 pdf

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING SINCE 1974 1

Dungeons & Dragons: Teambuilding since 1974

Anonymous

University of Maryland Global Campus

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING 2

Executive Summary

Never split the party. This is one of many unspoken rules that Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) players first learn that teaches a team is stronger than an individual. It’s also strikingly well

aligned with the general leadership and team building concepts which teach employees that

cooperation and cohesion are paramount to success. According to The Washington Post, since its

creation in 1974 it is estimated that 40 million people have played DnD. (Alimurung, 2019)

Figure 1. Adventuring Party. Retrieved from: http://www.nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DD.png

The popularity of “Nerd Culture” has grown into mainstream acceptance with shows like

Stranger Things on Netflix and Disney’s Onward only adding to the popularity and prompting

people to pick up the dice and play. With so many people roleplaying through difficult

adventures and challenging scenarios in teams it makes D&D a perfect avenue to build many

skills which can be applied in the work center.

The low cost of the books needed to play and the addition of some pencils and paper makes this

a great option to use for teambuilding exercises that business can use instead of expensive

seminars or adventure outings. While learning to lead and work together with teams in D&D

might look odd on a résumé or office calendar it should be taken seriously and treated as a

valuable training tool.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING 3

Introduction

Teambuilding can be described as exposing a group to an adverse scenario with the intention of

exercising leadership, communication, and coordination skills resulting in a closer and more

cohesive team dynamic. Companies and businesses are focused on building great teams and for

good reason. Common sense says that effective teams lead to successful and productive

companies which result in more earnings. This has led to an explosion of companies offering

expertise in team building while selling travel and entertainment packages to exotic and

expensive places. Multi-day seminars and workshops can also be purchased and employees are

sent to attend rather than be at work to hopefully learn critical skills in a short amount of time.

Figure 2. D&D Books & Module for game play

In this paper a less expensive but effective alternative will be examined by looking at the table

top roleplaying game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Dungeons and Dragons. This

game is played in person using books, dice, and a lead storyteller, called a Dungeon Master

(DM), to explore an imaginary world full of challenges and rich rewards. Players create a

character using a diverse list of races and classes with different strengths and weaknesses. Skills

are also chosen to help further build the characters into talented personas representing whatever

the player has imagined. The players then use these personas to work together to navigate the

world and story told by the DM.

Exercises using roleplay are a common tool used by everyone from companies to military to help

teams become cohesive in a fun way. D&D has been doing this for 46 years, why not use it?

First we’ll look at one example of teambuilding techniques used currently.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING 4

Previous Approaches

Teaching people teamwork, leadership, and communication skills can be very difficult. These

skills aren’t learned overnight and can only be improved by practice which poses a challenging

problem. How do you let people practice these skills at work without making big mistakes that

could cost a company money or its reputation? The answer, creating a simulated environment

and letting people roleplaying how to handle the situation. This is called experiential learning

and a study on this type of learning found the following:

Experiential learning techniques have been used in classrooms for many years. A main

driver behind such strategies is the thinking that “learning by doing” allows learners to

engage in processes of critical thinking and to instigate emotions, values, and cognitions

while relating to the course content, the instructor, and one another. Role-play exercises

are part of this larger body of pedagogical strategies guiding students in “constructing

their own knowledge. (Shaw, 2010, as cited in Tabak and Lebron, 2017)

Figure 3. Customer Service Role Play Trainig. Retrieved from: http://sodacreekconsulting.com/wp-

content/uploads/2013/10/role-play-customer-service-training.png

This technique, as shown in Figure 3, has been very effective and is generally accepted as

standard practice today. This may have led to a potential flaw though because scenarios also

became standardized and predictable. This is helpful to the teacher and supports setting a

baseline but it may not fully prepare the person or team for real scenarios that do not follow the

training exactly. While it is true that no single practice can fully prepare anyone for real life the

more varied scenarios someone is exposed to will help to build on those basic skills. Next we’ll

examine how D&D can be used to simulate an endless amount of varied situations to challenge

teams with the widest range of possibilities.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING 5

New Findings

Figure 4. Example of game play

Using D&D any number of scenarios can be built and experienced by players in a party. One

situation could be built around the idea of negotiating a complicated treaty between two warring

factions of Orcs and Elves with each reluctant to move from their position. Another could be

comprised of finding the correct path through a dangerous maze of trapped rooms and huge

Minotaurs hunting you, something no player could do by themselves. Of course an office doesn’t

have Minotaurs and referring to someone as an Orc or Elf is likely to get you fired but parallels

could still be drawn between both worlds as good communication skills and teamwork are

critical to the success. The fact that D&D creates an imaginary world insulated from everyday

life makes it the perfect place to practice communicating and learning about teammates and

ourselves. In an analysis of D&D Adams made the following observation:

On the surface, D&D may appear to be a game of simple make-believe. However, the

emotions, camaraderie, and accomplishments experienced in the game are real; thus

suggesting that real-world needs are met through communication in socially constructed

RPG scenarios. (Adams, 2013)

This observation is key to understanding how D&D builds strong teams and this can be used to

make sessions into a viable teaching tool. With players having real experiences from playing

supports the fact that they are also learning from those experiences. D&D allows players to

experience different environments depending on the social, physical, and spiritual setting of their

session.

In all of these environments, you’ll find players engaging in storytelling, discovering

history, problem-solving, managing finances, using simple-to-complex mathematics,

team building, public speaking, discussing morality and ethics, and becoming aware of

emotional intelligence all wrapped into an engaging and ongoing narrative.(El-Tayib,

2020)

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING 6

Shared experiences in different environments will help prepare teams for adverse situations they

may face in the future. If the party in D&D has had to be cognizant of a specific culture’s

customs they learn to think about this in daily interactions. The concept is no longer alien and the

experience is not new because they were already exposed to this through game play. This can be

a powerful way to teach cultural sensitivity in a way that is more engaging and effective than

current training. This example can be applied to any environment and scenario and then role

played through by the group and DM.

An article in the British Journal of Education Technology from 2011 outlines seven rules that

D&D teaches and I find them to be a great guide for establishing boundaries in this imagined

world. Dr. Ulrich points out that the following rules are very similar to good business prinicples:

1. To be successful you need a team—it is very difficult to succeed alone

2. To be successful you need diversity—we do not need to be the same 3. To be successful, you need to agree on the fundamentals—we need to share the same values

and visions

4. Work can be fun—as long as it is not an obsession 5. Learn and grow—what is impossible today will be possible tomorrow 6. Manage your downside risk—things will happen that nobody (or at least you) did not foresee

7. You can make a difference; you can change the world

Maintaining a structure without being restrictive is important in D&D, teamwork, and business.

Structure in fantasy provides the boundaries for the imagined world that can be modeled after the

real world. Structure in reality also provides a common understanding that teams can use a basis

to guide them. When those structure providing boundaries blur and turn into restrictions then

creativity and involvement dies and this leads to the game being just another training exercise

and work being just another job.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING 7

Conclusion

With the world becoming more connected everyday people have to form teams and partnerships

to succeed. Skills gained while part of a team or leading a team are in high demand and

important to businesses. Teamwork taught through courses, sports, and experiences are accepted

readily in the workplace. Teamwork taught to players through Dungeons and Dragons is no

different and should be accepted as well. Furthermore tabletop role playing game like D&D

should be incorporated into teambuilding exercises to breathe new life into a critical aspect of

training. This will allow teams to be exposed to a much more diverse range of situations and will

help them safely build necessary skills to be more effective facing any challenge.

Figure 5. Facing a Dragon. Retrieved from: https://assets1.ignimgs.com/2019/05/29/dndmobile-br-1559158957902_1280w.jpg

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: TEAMBUILDING 8

References

Adams, Aubrie S. (2013). Needs met through role-playing games: A fantasy theme analysis of

Dungeons & Dragons, Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication

Research, 12(6), 69-86. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Needs-Met-Through-

Role-Playing-Games%3A-A-Fantasy-of-

Adams/a30189e921bc9b2a1be78dd8924ea3ff4e6966a1

Alimurung, G. (2019, April 18). How Dungeons & Dragons somehow became more popular

than ever. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2019, from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/how-dungeons-and-dragons-somehow-

became-more-popular-than-ever/2019/04/18/fc226f56-5f8f-11e9-9412-

daf3d2e67c6d_story.html

Tabak, F., & Lebron, M. (2017). Learning by doing in leadership education: Experiencing

followership and effective leadership communication through role-play. Journal of

Leadership Education, 16(2), 199–212. https://doi- 10.12806/V16/I2/A1

Tayib, B. E. (2020). Role-playing with educational intent: Games like Dungeons & Dragons can

teach across curricula. School Library Journal, 66(2), 1.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Needs-Met-Through-Role-Playing-Games%3A-A-Fantasy-of-Adams/a30189e921bc9b2a1be78dd8924ea3ff4e6966a1
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Needs-Met-Through-Role-Playing-Games%3A-A-Fantasy-of-Adams/a30189e921bc9b2a1be78dd8924ea3ff4e6966a1
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Needs-Met-Through-Role-Playing-Games%3A-A-Fantasy-of-Adams/a30189e921bc9b2a1be78dd8924ea3ff4e6966a1
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/how-dungeons-and-dragons-somehow-became-more-popular-than-ever/2019/04/18/fc226f56-5f8f-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/how-dungeons-and-dragons-somehow-became-more-popular-than-ever/2019/04/18/fc226f56-5f8f-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/how-dungeons-and-dragons-somehow-became-more-popular-than-ever/2019/04/18/fc226f56-5f8f-11e9-9412-daf3d2e67c6d_story.html
https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.12806/V16/I2/A1