Last year, I started looking for a group to play Dungeons and Dragons with. Yes, that’s how we’re starting today’s post. I had a bit of trouble finding a group, and gave up after about a week of light asking around, because I figured I would be too busy anyway. I didn’t have time to find my own group and schedule it out. I should give a little bit of background, since probably 1.5% of MBA students play D&D (it’s a blast though, you should at least try it once in your life).
You all have probably played or seen someone play a video game, and I’m confident that essentially every adult has played a board game before. Now, you just take those two ideas and smoosh them together, and voila! You have D&D.
Dungeons and dragons is what’s called a tabletop role playing game, or a tabletop RPG for short that was made in the 80s by a bunch of nerds, but in the past 5-10 years has gained a lot of popularity due to a combination of “nerd” stuff becoming more mainstream and the game getting watered down a bit so that anyone can have fun with it. What that basically means is that you make a character and play out that same role every time you play. The tabletop part is pretty self explanatory; it’s played on a table – though you can totally play it on a floor or any sturdy surface that you would like. Basically, there are 4-6 players who meet weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or whenever to continue where they left of in the adventure which is run by a person with the super sexy title of Dungeon Master (aka DM). This person is the heart and soul of the game. They prepare the story, the bad guys, award treasure, plan the people that the group runs into, etc.
I’ve been a DM before, and it can be a lot of work. I feel like you should be able to put that on a resume, but that would probably get your resume put through a shredder in most places. Players have mad respect for DMs, though, because the DM has all these things that they have to know. Every time the group gets together to play, the DM has to have planned all the bits and pieces as well as know when to improvise. You have to be good at storytelling, humor, group psychology, and have a style that makes the players get excited to play every time. But some people are masochists, and they enjoy this work.
I never would have given it the time of day back in undergrad if my DM hadn’t invited me. I had the standard perception. 30 year-old men rolling dice in their basement and pushing plastic goblins around. 99% of the time, this isn’t the case. My DM was a skinny, very nice guy that was passionate about Jesus and having fun. Sure, it was a little nerdy, but so were we. So every Sunday night, I would sit down and be Beathoven, a Minotaur with a powdered wig that laid down sick music on his harpsichord whenever he got the chance. And eventually I decided I wanted to be a DM, too.
I started a group this semester while taking 19 hours of class! If you add in being a DM, it’s more like 22 hours of class, but it is a blast. I have made some great friends playing it so far. My wife Samantha is even playing with us (she is playing a dwarf cleric), and she likes it! I really did lucky when I married her.
Why am I writing all this? I don’t know. It’s on my mind? Maybe to show that business majors aren’t all guys and gals in suits that watch football, read the WSJ or NYT in the morning with avocado toast and go out for drinks on Friday nights. Not that there is anything wrong with any of that. I do in fact read the WSJ most mornings with a cup of joe after walking Willow (my new years resolution is going strong), and I wear a tie most days to class.
Life is too short to worry about what other people think of you. That’s not to say you should go streaking through your boss’s office or constantly walk around with a “sorry not sorry” attitude. But getting out of your box every once and a while and seeing life through a different lense makes it that much richer. I ask a lot of questions because I like to know things. I want my list of “what ifs” to be short when I am an old man (or robot with an old man’s brain in it, depending on if Trump will keep obstructing the scientific community).
As long as you are a good person, maturity is relative in respects to what hobbies you like. There are people who like shopping who think sports are barbaric, and there are people who like cooking who think playing video games is for losers. Humans live to be like 90 years old. That’s not a long time. Do what you want as long as you’re not hurting anyone.
Also D&D is not the worst thing that you can be doing right now. I attached a video below of people LARPing. If you ever play D&D and someone makes fun of you, you can say, “Ha-ha, well at least we’re not LARPing eheheheheh.”
Disclaimer – If, by some chance, you do like LARPing, then whatevs. At least you’re outside exercising. More power to ya.