Dungeons and Dragons is good for your mental health

Who do you want to be? A brave dwarvish warrior, a wizard who can cast spells, a stealthy halfling rogue, or a paladin who upholds the law? D&D lets you be all of these, as well as explore your wildest imaginations.

You are a member of a group of adventurers, set on a quest to rescue a prince who was last seen near the ruins of an abandoned castle. As you approach the castle you see up ahead of you a creature who is 9 feet tall, green, grumbling, and holding in its hand a massive axe. It's a troll! And it's chained to the entrance gate of the castle. What do you do? Will you rush forward and charge the beast, will you shoot from afar and barrage it with arrows, perhaps you will attempt to sneak around.
What do you do?

Dungeons and Dragons offers many scenarios which tests your resolve. D&D is technically a board game, but without a board, this game is played in the imagination. You choose one person to be the Dungeon Master, or the rule keeper, and everyone else will be a player. The Dungeon Master (DM) will set up an imaginary story in which your Players will work together in to achieve a goal set by your DM. You play with paper, pencils, and dice. The role of dice and your attitude determine the outcome of a situation. Each player assumes the role of a character and those characters will have certain things they are good at, for example, if your a dwarf fighter you may be very strong (18 strength) but perhaps a bad talker (3 charisma).

Getting to the point of this article: D&D is great for not only kids but adults! Here are four reasons D&D improves mental health:

1. Teamwork: D&D requires you to work together to achieve a common goal set by the dungeon master. If you can't work together not only do you not have fun, but you never finish the game. Example: Perhaps half of your group wants to attack the troll, but the other half wants to barrage it with arrows...if you do both, the ones attacking up close will be shot with arrows as well. Thus D&D teaches how to compromise and work as a team.

2. Bad choices have consequences: Every choice in D&D has rewards and consequences, if you choose to sneak around the troll and are spotted, perhaps another troll comes out to help the first...now you have two attacking you! This is the same for real life, if you try to 'sneak' around paying your rent and you are called out for it, you're now out of a home. D&D helps prepare everyone for real life.

3. Innovation and problem solving: In D&D there are many times when you are presented with a problem similar to a troll guarding a castle. Perhaps instead of choosing to attack or sneak around the troll, you choose to be diplomatic. You notice there is a chain around the troll binding it to the castle. You offer to release it from the chains if the troll lets you past. Similar to real life, perhaps you have someone bullying you, you can figure out what is causing them to bully you and befriend them.

4. character building builds character: Like in life, in roleplaying games you begin at level one, at the bottom of the ladder. You're weak, you only have four hitpoints, armed with a rusty sword and you can only cast one spell that makes poptarts appear. But with patience and perseverance you will gain hitpoints and learn a spell that is actually worth casting (not to say poptarts aren't good). You grow in power by taking risks. Why? Because risks lead to reward. This game provides you with this environment to take risks and to fail. Why is that good? Because failure leads to innovation and failure in real life is much more tough on you than failure in a fantasy game.
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To end it off, I leave with a question: What do all these famous people have in common?:

Junot Diaz, Stephen Colbert, Robin Williams, Mike myers, Tim Duncan, Vin Diesel, Patton Oswalt, and George r.r. Martin

It turns out all these cool, weird, and smart people all cut their creative teeth on role playing games and dungeons and dragons. So maybe these games aren't a waste of time, maybe they dont warp your social skills, maybe they can be good for you?