YOU ARE WHAT YOU ROLL

“Do you want to be a Gnome, Elf, Half-Orc, Halfling or Dragonborn?”

I was a little disenchanted by my friend’s question when I started playing Dungeons and Dragons. I got dizzy poring over the options. I still don’t quite know what a half-orc is, but that’s OK.

As much as I like nerdy stuff, some of it – like dragons – turns me right off. But when it comes to my own niche obsessions – like arthouse cinema or skincare science – I’m no different in jabbering on about their minutiae.

Once you get past the fantasy gobbledygook, you realize why the stereotype for a D&D player – the awkward adolescent – exists. More than the opportunity to play out your fantasies, D&D offers a safe space to try different identities. It’s the perfect game for someone still coming to grips with who they are. By building a fictional character, you essentially learn to build yourself.

Such role-playing has a way of prompting self-reflection. I found my enthusiasm for battles disturbing before realizing it wasn’t a vicarious blood lust as much as it was a subconscious urge to be more assertive in real life. Nerd culture, of which I count myself a member, has long been dominated by men, but playing D&D left me feeling empowered in a way that watching Beyonce videos never has. Instead of looking up to a role model, the game prompted me to discover the bad-ass warrior within.

The applications go far beyond musty basements. After all, role-playing is a technique used by therapists and counsellors. The only real surprise is that it isn’t more readily co-opted by teachers and managers. Who needs trust falls when you can fight imaginary bad guys?

With D&D, you have to think quickly in the moment and use your imagination. The more you engage, the more you flesh out the imaginary world, and the more exciting it becomes.

It’s funny how quick we are to dismiss other people’s nerdy interests and hobbies, when it seems that we all have our own. Whether it’s following Metallica on tour or knowing the batting average of every single Blue Jays player; memorizing lines from Kristen Bell movies or collecting stamps, we use our obsessions to help find ourselves and navigate our place in the world. Our specific interests are as arbitrary as the roll of polyhedral dice.