10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons

Funny but true. Another one, or maybe it's an offshoot of #7, is: Teams work together to get things done, not squabble about minor details. I used to play with a group that squabbled so much I would (literally) fall asleep while they argued. One day the DM got fed up with their antics and threw at them a pile of Vampire Undead Baby Ducks. While the nitpickers fumed for weeks about the "non-standard monsters", I got the hint burned into my head. Fifteen years later when I listen to people squabble about little nits I think of Vampire Undead Baby Ducks and start laughing.

And, One "Good Framework" to rule them all.

A friend I used to work with sent this to me and asked for my thoughts.
I *think* that this is a great idea, even better that a woman wrote it.

But, for the most part, she doesn't apply any of her lessons to the real world. At least half of them don't offer application AT ALL. I'm not sure some of the advice--as written--would even help someone TO PLAY D&D. [Which I have, for 25 years.]

I would specifically not hire her for any position in the "business" world, if I googled her during the hiring process and found this blog.
1. She prefers emotion to logic...and doesn't see the difference between the two.
2. She has jumbled thoughts and difficulty focusing.
3. She offers ideas with no bearing on the problem at hand.
4. She doesn't follow through.
5. She can't write (or perhaps otherwise express herself) coherently even given a structured format.
6. She lacks attention to detail.
7. She has difficulty taking the perspective of others (including her own audience).
8. She prefers to act from intuition; she never realizes that her intuition may be wrong.
9. She does not have a realistic view of her own image or importance. Borderline narcissism.
10. She perceives herself as much smarter than she is, or having better/more diverse real-world experiences than she does. This translates into a pedantic need to share her perceived gifts with those around her.

Do not always assume that you're smart enough to see what's really going on, especially if the player thinks he knows more than his character.

The Head of Vecna is a perfect demonstration of characters making assumptions based on what the players think they know.

I thought these would be Business lessons? These seem like D&D lessons with only a little bit of business/life application.

What an insightful and unique article! It's good there are still people today who can see the important lessons hidden in apparently frivolous things like games. I always say you should be able to learn a lesson from just about anything as long as it means something to you.

My wife never believes me when I tell her how much I learned from D&D. It really turned me on to ancient history. When I went to design campaigns and kingdoms, I researched political and social structures from the dark ages. A bit of history goes a long way in life.

Don't let the DM distract your from your goal with silly side fights.

I only learnt one thing from RPGs: It's good to be good, but it's better to be lucky. PDL (Pure Dumb Luck) has saved my (character's) bacon more times than I can count.

Schindler's list is actually pretty good!

...Wait...

Whatever happens, respect others and enjoy yourself -- even if you die!

a) Protect your healers, kill their healers first.

As a Project Manager and dnd player - Your support are your most important assets. They'll be doing the actual work, keeping everyone happy, and are more highly skilled that you in a huge number of areas. Keep them happy in the work place, and you can continue.

Also when faced with a negotiation remember that resources and priorities are paramount to success. Success is also a fluid concept, so you can change the battle plan mid way if need be, but always focus on the fundamentals which will lead to success (which in dnd is killing their healers).

b) Don't stand in the fire

The more dumb actions you make, the more chance you have of dying. Don't keep doing something if its hurting you, your team, or the business.

c) It's always a trap

Assume that every scenario will have adversity within it somewhere, and always be prepared. Something will go wrong almost all the time, and if you're already being flippant with the risks, you'll fail much faster.

When I was younger (around 16, I was extremely shy and was hiding away from contact to others.
I started playing D&D as a thief and in that role I was quite cunning.
At some stage I realised that there is nothing that holds me back from being a bit less shy in reality. So I finally crawled out of my shell and life is awesome ever since.

I 38 and still playing (on the other side of the globe form where I grew up) and most of the skills I learned help me in business quite a lot.

The author is right…as soon as you step out of the ‘slay that monster” game play, you will be able to develop good business skills.

How about:

If you're not sure you can handle a quest, don't be afraid of going and recruiting some help (NPC's anyone?). The extra hands can always be a help, and it's better than the alternative of failing (and worst case dying).

Passing notes and creating party intrigue can be fun--but they don't get the quest done.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

On "You create your own traps."
What was Ron's weakness?
(I am lost between the "Someone", "another player", John and Ron.)

#11. Never split up the party (well almost never). Going in more than one direction at a time leaves you open to attack on multiple fronts. It correlates well to trying to do too many projects at once. Trying to get your best programmer to do 8 simultanous projects just leaves her defeated. The same applies to a marketing team, give them 12 new totally different products and equal deadlines and burn out is a guarentee.

It is similar leaving the mage fighting a bunch of fighters, the cleric a pin cushion and the fighers battling mages. Mixed skills are good in a group, and cover weaknesses, but split them up and their weaknesses become glaring.

The good player will take the 8 projects or 12 products and attack with the entire party, but one at a time. Making easy work of all of them.

Human nature states that people want to be justified in their actions. Of course people have all sorts of crazy ways of justifying things to themselves, but if you can understand these justifications and then help them become the "good guy" in a way that suits your purposes, you will a motivated person that can help you. This is helpful for people above, below and on the same level of management as yourself.

If you're fighting the horde of orcs, why not jump ship and JOIN the orcs? No sense in being on the losing side, and who doesn't like to get their WAAAAGH on?

Apart from the fact that the Wilderness Survival Guide is a much more fun read than any survival handbook, I'd add the obvious ones about communication and collaboration - gamers are sociable, and skilled at, and enjoy, working in groups to solve problems.

XP > Gold. Always.

As a novice DM I created a complex maze with an excess of twists and turns and rather few other things to see. It was fairly clear after 10 minutes that they were not going to find their way out before the end of the year so I made a few "adjustments" to the map to keep the game flowing. It's not about the DM beating the players it's about the DM providing a challenging game for them.