I play RPGs because they are fun, and there’s a good chance that you probably play for the same reason. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what, outside of giving you hours upon hours of enjoyment, these games have done for you?

Here’s a few of the things they’ve done for me:

Independence

When I started playing these games back in the ’80′s, it was a different time, culturally. Adults seemed to think that Dungeons and Dragons was satanic and everyone that played was a mindless dupe of the Dungeon Master, fated to kill their parents and probably their friends, too. And, lest you think those links are just funny reads, there were more than a few people that believed that dross back in the day (probably still some kicking around).

It wasn’t much better with the kids around me. Rather than have anything good to say about roleplaying, they relegated it and those that played it to the realm of nerds and geeks…and back then it wasn’t quite as cool to be a ‘geek’ as it is today.

So, you might say the environment where I picked up gaming was not exactly a friendly one. In school, I was in the minority, mocked and laughed at by the ‘cool’ kids. At home, I was defending my hobby from my religious family.

Obviously, none of this stopped me, for here I am many years later, still playing RPGs every week. What it did do for me, though, was teach me how to be my own person. I didn’t look to the kids around me for reassurance, nor did I look to my parents for their blessing. I mean, like everyone, I did these things to some extent, but there was an awful lot of hostility towards this game I enjoyed so much, so I had to learn to form and defend my own opinions and ideas.

This has remained with me my entire life. I neither need, nor seek, the approval of many people, and gaming played a role in forging that independence.

Education

I don’t know how many words I’ve learned as a direct result of RPGs. “Proficiency” always springs to mind, as I recall learning this from one of the D&D 2e books years ago. “Ambidexterity” is another. Maybe I’d have picked these up elsewhere, maybe not, but gaming is where I learned them first.

Words are only the start, though. I study all sorts of things, from history to geography to botany, in order to build better worlds. I like to instill just enough realism in the world that my players don’t notice all the crazy fantasy going on. I have to know some of that stuff in order to do this successfully, and so I study various subjects. It sure is a lot easier these days, since I don’t have to go to the library to do it and can just stroll out onto the internet.

Then, there are the books. I have done an awful lot of reading because of this hobby, whether entire series or one-off reads. Sometimes I read because I am looking for inspiration, sometimes because I liked a character, sometimes because one of my players wants to try something – Chris is a fan of handing me a book and saying something to the effect of, “I’d like to play a character like so-and-so,” so off I’ll go to read the book so I can figure out how to integrate the character in the world.

And of course, hand in hand with reading, comes the writing. There are character histories to create, worlds to build, adventures to craft, supporting stories to weave. So much writing. Maybe I’m not the most gifted or eloquent writer out there, but what skill I do have is largely influenced by gaming.

Creativity

It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyhow: you cannot last long as a roleplayer without a bit of creativity, and that goes double for the person running the game. Nearly everything about RPGs foster creativity, whether it’s creating characters, the game world or adventures.

As players, we spend hours contemplating what to play, what type of character this will be, what motivates the character and how he or she will play at the table. Then, it’s on to what made the character who they are, their background and history, motivation and pursuits. What drives them to adventure? Do they seek treasure? A lost love? Conquest?

It is even more taxing when you’re the gamemaster. Often, I’ll take a few notes from my players and create complex back stories that interweave into the upcoming adventures. Writing new adventures week after week that are both interesting and challenging also requires no small amount of creative thinking.

All of this effort is for a game that is played ‘in your head’. I think, when people ask me what we do at gaming, the fact that the game is played entirely in the realm of imagination confounds them the most.

Friendship

All that has come before is dwarfed by this last though: setting aside family, everyone I count among my close friends came to me through gaming (except for maybe Aaron, seems like Aaron and I met before D&D). I won’t list them, but with each, my friendship began either at the gaming table or as a result of the gaming table. Most are high school friendships that have persisted through the years for the simple reason that, every week on Tuesday, we gather together for gaming.

Our usual game is D&D, but even when we’re not playing an RPG we still get together, talk religion and politics, holler and scream at each other, go home angry and come back next week to start it all over again. However, there is no doubt that RPGs are what keeps the group together and gives us that impetus to make time to see each other every week.

In Closing

If you’re like me, you play these games because they are fun. But spend some time thinking about why you should go out and get some others to play. Maybe you want to encourage your son or daughter to work on reading, or build a closer relationship with a friend or colleague. Gaming has had a lasting and profound impact on my life, maybe yours too, and you never know, you may just end up changing theirs as well.

– Lucas