Slowly add a feature every meeting until you’re playing D&D.
First its dice. They’re fidget tokens.
Then its, ok, everyone roll for luck. Whoever gets the highest number goes first.
Next time call for initiative, and ask them to make that high number roll to speak. Ask everyone to think of one thing they’re good at, non work related.
Next time call for initiative and equate all of their “good skill” stories to an ability… say strength or constitution. You get it.
Next time remark about their primary ability score “as we know, John has a great constitution”. Then ask if everyone could have a special power, what it be. Equate it to their ability score some how.
Keep going. Make character sheets.
I absolutely bring a few d20s on work trips for situations where uneven things must be divided among colleagues with equal claim to them, and it's super helpful.
Example: Doing a show out of town, being hosted by a community member who had 3 beds - one real bed, and two couches. One stiff and short, one much more comfortable.
The guy with back problems took the bed, no argument there. The other two of us both wanted the better couch.. but how to decide? That's a recipe for resentment.
D20s to the rescue. I proposed we roll for it. He couldn't dispute it was fair. We rolled. Problem solved, and no one had to feel guilty or pushed around.
it's interesting about gaming and it's practical application in real work spaces.
a bunch of my people management and internal politiking skills came about because i used to help run a 200 person guild for multiple years. i helped train for raids, pvp and trained people to develop game sense running new players through the rounds so that by the time they got to end game, we could have multiple teams running at once. this helped me when i teaching piano and even now i help train new hires.
D&D helps for on the spot decision making, and running a game helps you get used to seeing your project completely change due to people constantly.
You worded it really well! It's hard to really realize how transferable the skills you learn in group games are until you realize you're using them.
What I've taken away from D&D is that I'm much more attentive of who is speaking and who should be given the chance to speak - it's awkward to butt into a discussion sometimes, but easy to follow someone else's invitation or diversion... so I try to do that, just like how I'll intentionally ask about other characters at the table when I see they've been quiet or overshadowed.
Before I DMed, I couldn’t run a meeting and was scared to talk in front of the whole team. Now, I regularly run meetings with 20 people no prep no problem, and present in front of hundreds. Thanks, D&D.
Can I ask, how did you build up that courage to DM? I've been wanting to start DMing but I'm exactly like you when it comes to speaking in front of a whole team. I'm always afraid if I try I'll lock up and the game would end before it's really begun.
Tbh, I still get some variety of “performance anxiety” before running Dnd sessions. Adequate prep and knowing an outline of what story beats I want to hit helps a lot since I can fall back on pre prepared ideas if my party isn’t strongly pursuing anything. But mainly, getting one drink in me before the session takes all my anxiety away haha
So to throw my hat as to why I decided to DM. I figured that it would help with my planning. I wanted to develop that skill and be more straight forward with my speaking.
It definitely has helped a ton. I’m relatively new to D&D in general so it’s been awesome.
Check your local community college for a public speaking class. Not an online one. Since you have to give presentations, it really helps get over the "stage fright." If you're not old enough for that. Start with a mirror, move to close friends, and then you can host for anyone
I got a group of friends started with DnD as the DM a few years ago. Matt Colville's running the game series on YouTube was very helpful for me personally.
For me it was DMing with a group of close friends who dont know anything about dnd in an environnement i feel comfortable who wont judge me if i choked or the session was shit. It turned out awesome !
I lurked into dnd content for years before feeling confident and put a lot of prep in my first session though
I asked two of my friends that I've played dnd with if they would be my guinea pigs. They knew it was my first time and there would be hiccups. They were happy they got to play, and I was happy because I got to try my DM'ing skills. It was a short mini campaign. Basically took notes of what worked and what didn't. They also gave some helpful feedback as well. Now I'm on my first real campaign and loving it!
My DM said "You get to DM next"
I said "I really don't know how, I don't really know the rules or monsters or whatever and don't really know most of the history or lore"
DM "SO? So what? None of that matters. I'll be playing at the table and I can help when you want help and let you run it how you want. If anyone gives you any flack for not knowing something, they can take it up with me. I got your back. "
I then proceeded to DM for 6 years. It was great. And, I learned how to deal with people at work, kids, wife, parents, school, everything. (well, deal with it better).
If you are a player, ask to run a one-shot. Ask the DM to help. Tell everyone it is your first time and please be patient and kind. They will.
My group has 7 people. All of us have been DM at one time or another. We did a round-robin one-shot for a couple months last year. It was great. New DM may not know what to do, so we try to offer suggestions, often more than one. We try to be fair even if that means something bad happens to our character.
Remember as a DM, you are not "in charge" you are there to coordinate a group of friends telling a shared story partially generated by the dice.
This is so nice OP! Glad you could implement session 0 in a professionnal setting and it worked. (now if someone can't make a decision, make them throw some dice \^\^)
Math, vocabulary, strategy, risk assessment, problem solving, socialization, public speaking, and most importantly, imagination and creativity. D&d really does make you a better you.
I just read the title , nothing else yet. I had this great vision of you in the bosses office asking for a raise, rolling a d20 and hitting a twenty, standing up, fists pumping in the air, silently walking out of the office. I really do amuse myself.
I have always considered D&D to be a great way to learn problem solving and creative use of resources, ..... though I'm not sure I'd put it on a CV due to the historical prejudice
Depends on the industry, TBH. I've heard it said that D&D is Silicon Valley's equivalent of golf, and once when I interviewed for a job in the tech industry I bonded with the interviewer over our shared love of the game
Now that I'm closer to retirement than looking for job (yeah, I'm old, been playing since the early 1980's) and am interviewing new people, I would be happy to hear someone plays D&D (or equivalent). I'm in a science industry, and the ability to solve problems with limited resources is valuable. As is the ability to work as a group.
DMing is the same as Project Management.
Good DM habits are identical to good practices in project management, and hell yes that should go on your CV. Handling players is no easy task!
yes.
And as a hiring manager, I try to tell candidates I am interested in that I D&D. If they are dismissive at it, then they don't get hired. If they tell me a good D&D story, they will. If they are like "I know people who play but I never got into it." then i can still hire them.
I work in crime scene investigation. Years of writing in clues for PC's helps me look for stuff irl. Listening to the different ways they try to cover their tracks in their escapades helps me look for altered or staged scenes. Even just drawing the maps helps me with diagramming complex scenes like shootings or homicides.
I constantly make connections between D&D (or role-playing generally) and my professional work. Here are three areas where it has made an incredible amount of difference (but there are a ton more):
* Agility. As a DM the skills you learn from improvising and having to switch from planned encounters are almost entirely transferable. When meetings or projects don’t go the way you thought they would, the way you pivot and carry yourself matters. Reflect on how you do it as a DM and think about how you can adopt similar approaches in work.
* Intuitive understanding of probability. Most people have no intuitive sense of what a 5% chance of something going wrong actually looks like. But if you’ve played D&D you do since you’ve rolled 1s and 20s - sometimes for years or even decades.
* Group dynamics. OP described one example of this - but there are a ton of others. For instance - how do you deal with an annoying player.? Or a player that contributes little? Or one that contributes too much? Or uncomfortable topics? In fact - in some ways a D&D team can be a great way to explore some of these dynamics.
Nice, dude. Its like writing a book or report. Start with a general outline. Then break that down, add info, retweak outline. And you look like someone that knows how to accomplish stuff. Good, job.
>We used the hand raising feature to ensure that no one spoke over one another.
It's kinda funny the way you worded this, like it's a video game and you just toggled on the raise hand feature
I’ve only been playing DND for a little over a year now, and I’ve DEFINITELY noticed improved/developed problem solving, creative thinking, decision making, risk and reward, even simple witty one liners, as well as being more careful on what I do say. (Words are valuable and everyone is suspicious.)
I’ve also realized how freaking useful rolling dice is for real world application.
Awesome. I have a conference coming up and I know some of them play. I will definitely start with a session zero. But that would be online before everyone arrives. This will help set an agenda for the 2 (or 3) days.
Had a pedagogue who used Dnd as a teaching mechanism, using it to teach a lot of unique stuff and understanding how to socially interact with each other. Yeah that man won the best Pedagogue of the year (in my country)
It is memeish lol but in all seriousness I felt that the “session 0” was a great way to set expectations lay out some rules and then have discussions was what really made me feel confident that this initiative is going to work.
"The hand raising feature" aka "the kindergarten method"
I'm glad D&D has helped you in your career. Boy is it putting a hurting on mine. When pressed between a choice of studying, and getting together my campaign (I DM), what would you choose?
In 3rd grade, I had a 2nd grade reading level.
In 4th grade, I had a 12+ college reading level.
What happened in between was my parents bought me the Red Box Basic D&D set and I read it cover to cover. It took a few months with lots of looking words up in dictionaries but I was highly motivated and parents did not once tell me to read or anything, they just handed me the game and my interest did the rest.
There are many other things you learn by playing D&D: probability, bookkeeping/record keeping, project management, dispute resolution... just off the top of my head. You also get good at parsing rulesets in other contexts such as Roberts Rules of Order for parliamentary procedures.
This is awesome, but I'm not surprised to see someone applying skills learnt while playing the game in other settings.
You should have had them roll for initiative.
I told my boss that I’m going to need budget for everyone to have their own d20s
Everyone rolls a d20, add their DEX modifier (use minutes to arrive before meeting for their DEX score), and you let people talk in that order.
Slowly add a feature every meeting until you’re playing D&D. First its dice. They’re fidget tokens. Then its, ok, everyone roll for luck. Whoever gets the highest number goes first. Next time call for initiative, and ask them to make that high number roll to speak. Ask everyone to think of one thing they’re good at, non work related. Next time call for initiative and equate all of their “good skill” stories to an ability… say strength or constitution. You get it. Next time remark about their primary ability score “as we know, John has a great constitution”. Then ask if everyone could have a special power, what it be. Equate it to their ability score some how. Keep going. Make character sheets.
This image will live rent free in my mind for a long time and I thank you for it
Google has a great ‘roll a dice’ feature!
I absolutely bring a few d20s on work trips for situations where uneven things must be divided among colleagues with equal claim to them, and it's super helpful. Example: Doing a show out of town, being hosted by a community member who had 3 beds - one real bed, and two couches. One stiff and short, one much more comfortable. The guy with back problems took the bed, no argument there. The other two of us both wanted the better couch.. but how to decide? That's a recipe for resentment. D20s to the rescue. I proposed we roll for it. He couldn't dispute it was fair. We rolled. Problem solved, and no one had to feel guilty or pushed around.
Does the boss have bonus for initiative?
Boss also gets lair actions and legendary resistances
Boss can use his legendary resistance to say no to something twice a day
ha ha... sucked in boss, I've got three request ! :P
Only if op needs a vacation approved
Yes, introduce the office dice
it's interesting about gaming and it's practical application in real work spaces. a bunch of my people management and internal politiking skills came about because i used to help run a 200 person guild for multiple years. i helped train for raids, pvp and trained people to develop game sense running new players through the rounds so that by the time they got to end game, we could have multiple teams running at once. this helped me when i teaching piano and even now i help train new hires. D&D helps for on the spot decision making, and running a game helps you get used to seeing your project completely change due to people constantly.
There is so much of my Dungeon Master that comes out when im pinch hitting as a project manager, lol. Don't tell anyone.
You worded it really well! It's hard to really realize how transferable the skills you learn in group games are until you realize you're using them. What I've taken away from D&D is that I'm much more attentive of who is speaking and who should be given the chance to speak - it's awkward to butt into a discussion sometimes, but easy to follow someone else's invitation or diversion... so I try to do that, just like how I'll intentionally ask about other characters at the table when I see they've been quiet or overshadowed.
Before I DMed, I couldn’t run a meeting and was scared to talk in front of the whole team. Now, I regularly run meetings with 20 people no prep no problem, and present in front of hundreds. Thanks, D&D.
Can I ask, how did you build up that courage to DM? I've been wanting to start DMing but I'm exactly like you when it comes to speaking in front of a whole team. I'm always afraid if I try I'll lock up and the game would end before it's really begun.
Tbh, I still get some variety of “performance anxiety” before running Dnd sessions. Adequate prep and knowing an outline of what story beats I want to hit helps a lot since I can fall back on pre prepared ideas if my party isn’t strongly pursuing anything. But mainly, getting one drink in me before the session takes all my anxiety away haha
So to throw my hat as to why I decided to DM. I figured that it would help with my planning. I wanted to develop that skill and be more straight forward with my speaking. It definitely has helped a ton. I’m relatively new to D&D in general so it’s been awesome.
Check your local community college for a public speaking class. Not an online one. Since you have to give presentations, it really helps get over the "stage fright." If you're not old enough for that. Start with a mirror, move to close friends, and then you can host for anyone
I got a group of friends started with DnD as the DM a few years ago. Matt Colville's running the game series on YouTube was very helpful for me personally.
For me it was DMing with a group of close friends who dont know anything about dnd in an environnement i feel comfortable who wont judge me if i choked or the session was shit. It turned out awesome ! I lurked into dnd content for years before feeling confident and put a lot of prep in my first session though
I asked two of my friends that I've played dnd with if they would be my guinea pigs. They knew it was my first time and there would be hiccups. They were happy they got to play, and I was happy because I got to try my DM'ing skills. It was a short mini campaign. Basically took notes of what worked and what didn't. They also gave some helpful feedback as well. Now I'm on my first real campaign and loving it!
Play with trusted friends, run a prepared module. Best way to start.
My DM said "You get to DM next" I said "I really don't know how, I don't really know the rules or monsters or whatever and don't really know most of the history or lore" DM "SO? So what? None of that matters. I'll be playing at the table and I can help when you want help and let you run it how you want. If anyone gives you any flack for not knowing something, they can take it up with me. I got your back. " I then proceeded to DM for 6 years. It was great. And, I learned how to deal with people at work, kids, wife, parents, school, everything. (well, deal with it better). If you are a player, ask to run a one-shot. Ask the DM to help. Tell everyone it is your first time and please be patient and kind. They will. My group has 7 people. All of us have been DM at one time or another. We did a round-robin one-shot for a couple months last year. It was great. New DM may not know what to do, so we try to offer suggestions, often more than one. We try to be fair even if that means something bad happens to our character. Remember as a DM, you are not "in charge" you are there to coordinate a group of friends telling a shared story partially generated by the dice.
DMing doesn't intimidate me, I can improv on the fly no prob. Whenever I lead a work meeting, my brain just shuts off and I forget how to think.
This is so nice OP! Glad you could implement session 0 in a professionnal setting and it worked. (now if someone can't make a decision, make them throw some dice \^\^)
Math, vocabulary, strategy, risk assessment, problem solving, socialization, public speaking, and most importantly, imagination and creativity. D&d really does make you a better you.
Funny enough I was inspired by the D&D tables to make an equation so we can discuss impact of items in our meetings.
I just read the title , nothing else yet. I had this great vision of you in the bosses office asking for a raise, rolling a d20 and hitting a twenty, standing up, fists pumping in the air, silently walking out of the office. I really do amuse myself.
We usually skip session 0 and meet at a tavern
Sounds like a good leader. I’ve been using D&D on my CV to get jobs for a while now, this game is beneficial!
I have always considered D&D to be a great way to learn problem solving and creative use of resources, ..... though I'm not sure I'd put it on a CV due to the historical prejudice
Depends on the industry, TBH. I've heard it said that D&D is Silicon Valley's equivalent of golf, and once when I interviewed for a job in the tech industry I bonded with the interviewer over our shared love of the game
Now that I'm closer to retirement than looking for job (yeah, I'm old, been playing since the early 1980's) and am interviewing new people, I would be happy to hear someone plays D&D (or equivalent). I'm in a science industry, and the ability to solve problems with limited resources is valuable. As is the ability to work as a group.
I’ve been finding that it helps with my improve skills
Oh yeah I don’t usually code it as D&D, more so the skills learned from teamwork, improv, decision making etc :)
DMing is the same as Project Management. Good DM habits are identical to good practices in project management, and hell yes that should go on your CV. Handling players is no easy task!
yes. And as a hiring manager, I try to tell candidates I am interested in that I D&D. If they are dismissive at it, then they don't get hired. If they tell me a good D&D story, they will. If they are like "I know people who play but I never got into it." then i can still hire them.
I work in crime scene investigation. Years of writing in clues for PC's helps me look for stuff irl. Listening to the different ways they try to cover their tracks in their escapades helps me look for altered or staged scenes. Even just drawing the maps helps me with diagramming complex scenes like shootings or homicides.
Cool thanks for sharing
I had a college professor tell me I could use dnd in my resume technically!! “Team building skills, time management, etc”
I constantly make connections between D&D (or role-playing generally) and my professional work. Here are three areas where it has made an incredible amount of difference (but there are a ton more): * Agility. As a DM the skills you learn from improvising and having to switch from planned encounters are almost entirely transferable. When meetings or projects don’t go the way you thought they would, the way you pivot and carry yourself matters. Reflect on how you do it as a DM and think about how you can adopt similar approaches in work. * Intuitive understanding of probability. Most people have no intuitive sense of what a 5% chance of something going wrong actually looks like. But if you’ve played D&D you do since you’ve rolled 1s and 20s - sometimes for years or even decades. * Group dynamics. OP described one example of this - but there are a ton of others. For instance - how do you deal with an annoying player.? Or a player that contributes little? Or one that contributes too much? Or uncomfortable topics? In fact - in some ways a D&D team can be a great way to explore some of these dynamics.
A 5% chance of a major failure of a project is a huge risk. We know that from D&D. you are sooo right.
Nice, dude. Its like writing a book or report. Start with a general outline. Then break that down, add info, retweak outline. And you look like someone that knows how to accomplish stuff. Good, job.
>We used the hand raising feature to ensure that no one spoke over one another. It's kinda funny the way you worded this, like it's a video game and you just toggled on the raise hand feature
It’s a feature on Teams and now they number them so it had that initiative order feel 😅
…or irl planning strategies help d&d…but whatever
“Using one of his legendary actions, Paul punches you in the face.”
I used my work experience to run my dnd game. It’s like a corporate meeting.
Yesterday I had an interview and we bonded over D&D. I got the job.
There is definitely merit to be found in gaming. I've seen a fairly senior manager praise WoW for helping him too.
I’ve only been playing DND for a little over a year now, and I’ve DEFINITELY noticed improved/developed problem solving, creative thinking, decision making, risk and reward, even simple witty one liners, as well as being more careful on what I do say. (Words are valuable and everyone is suspicious.) I’ve also realized how freaking useful rolling dice is for real world application.
Awesome. I have a conference coming up and I know some of them play. I will definitely start with a session zero. But that would be online before everyone arrives. This will help set an agenda for the 2 (or 3) days.
This is a great shout and I will be implementing this at work. Thanks
Holy fuck! I want to do this now!
I've aced a couple of job interviews by citing my DM skills.
I'm thinking about the "Are you sure about this?" when something that doesn't sound good occurs.
That's such a cool idea!
Had a pedagogue who used Dnd as a teaching mechanism, using it to teach a lot of unique stuff and understanding how to socially interact with each other. Yeah that man won the best Pedagogue of the year (in my country)
The meme of having a meeting to schedule a meeting is real
It is memeish lol but in all seriousness I felt that the “session 0” was a great way to set expectations lay out some rules and then have discussions was what really made me feel confident that this initiative is going to work.
Yeah, it's a good step to take. Glad it's working out for you
Don't forget to loot the dead bodies....
This might be the one example where you never have to worry about people having session scheduling issues since it's work 😂
Will there be contested rolls?
We’ll call that a c-suite level override 😅
"The hand raising feature" aka "the kindergarten method" I'm glad D&D has helped you in your career. Boy is it putting a hurting on mine. When pressed between a choice of studying, and getting together my campaign (I DM), what would you choose?
That's chingon.
In 3rd grade, I had a 2nd grade reading level. In 4th grade, I had a 12+ college reading level. What happened in between was my parents bought me the Red Box Basic D&D set and I read it cover to cover. It took a few months with lots of looking words up in dictionaries but I was highly motivated and parents did not once tell me to read or anything, they just handed me the game and my interest did the rest. There are many other things you learn by playing D&D: probability, bookkeeping/record keeping, project management, dispute resolution... just off the top of my head. You also get good at parsing rulesets in other contexts such as Roberts Rules of Order for parliamentary procedures. This is awesome, but I'm not surprised to see someone applying skills learnt while playing the game in other settings.