Overcoming the Real World

There’s a number of simple truths about life. While the goals and purposes of this site and blog are not specifically philosophical in nature, from time to time certain confrontations with that sphere of thought are inevitable, and it is with that in mind, and amid the crushing realities of life, that I say what everyone was already thinking at least once today:
Life sucks!

Now, hopefully not all the time, or to the same degree, but with varying degrees of frequency and intensity, we all feel dragged down by events in our own lives and in the world around us.

And that’s why games like D&D are so important.

Wait! What?

Tabletop RPGs aren’t just fun. Obviously they are, or we probably wouldn’t play them. But there are lots of fun games, and always have been. What’s unique about RPGs, and tabletop specifically, is something that goes beyond just fun.

Escape

When we engage in Dungeons and Dragons, we aren’t just playing another game, we are (or should be) engrossing ourselves in a world that is not our own. In the real world, we are bound by consequences, trapped by circumstances, and subject to events of various scales, from personal conflicts to local weather to elections and pandemics.
In the game world, we face different challenges; challenges that we can face together with friends around the table; challenges that we can affect and overcome.

We can’t do much to change the things that we see on the news, but in game we can challenge tyrants, repel invasions, bring justice to villains, succour to the downtrodden, challenge liches and dragons, and overcome tremendous hurdles. And if we die, we are born again through new characters. And if we fail, we learn from it and move on to the next adventure, telling our stories for years to come.

Creativity

While we wander through lands of make believe, we engage in many creative processes. We build characters, use items and spells creatively, make plans and strategies, and weave our characters together within the mesh of the world and the story we find ourselves in.

Some players will write entire stories about their characters, others will draw portraits of characters, or even sketch out entire story arcs, paint miniatures, build scenery, design maps, and so much more. We don’t just escape the world we live in for a time, we engage our minds and interests as we build a new world for our own pleasure and habitation.

Overcome

For a long time I have espoused that one of the greatest things about D&D is the way that we learn, through our characters, how to overcome adversity. Our characters face many of the same trials that we do, and players and DMs often draw on their real world experiences when determining how characters behave in response to these things. This lets us take the things that we learn in game through our characters and apply it to our own lives.

We are powerless to change so many things. But we always have choices in our lives as to how we live, act, and respond to the challenges of the world, the interactions that we have with others, the struggles that we have with friends, and the way that we prioritize our time. D&D, and other similar games, provide us a means to not only cope with these things and more, but also to build bridges with other people, make new friends, and hopefully keep the ones that we already have.

I’ve had a lot of personal struggles over the past few years, and those continue, often daily. D&D has provided me the opportunity to make a lot of new friends and introduce a lot of people to new friends as well. If gives us a temporary reprieve from the things that stress us out, helps us to laugh together, and gives us the tools to make friendships stronger. It has helped some people to have a social life, and during COVID has allowed a lot of people to continue a social life, even if only over Discord.

The Point

I’m not really sure, to be honest. But I think that there’s a few things that I want to say to conclude:

First, thank you to all of the people who have played D&D with me over the past few years. Some of you I have lost touch with and some of you I don’t have contact information for, but in almost every case, it was fun. My life is (obviously) very different, and in a good way, than it would otherwise have been.

Secondly, in light of all of the (I’ll say it) shit that goes on in the world, the best thing that we can do is to admit that we have different opinions about many things and then move on past those opinions to work out life as it really matters. Friendships are more important than politics, and while events in the news will come and go, the people around us provide stability.

Finally, be brave! Be bold!
Put aside yourself, put aside squabbles, put aside meta-gaming and overthinking, put aside the world that drives you to fear and desperation and division, and take up the call of adventure that brings you joy, hope, and friendship.

Let’s throw off the world for a time and play some D&D.