Tom Watkin, Author at Dungeons and Dragons at Work

Group Projects in School

For many, school group projects are their first significant taste of teamwork. These projects often involve a diverse mix of randomly assigned individuals. All of whom must come together to achieve a common goal—completing an assignment or presentation. Both of my kids are going through this at the moment. Interestingly, their understanding of how teams work (and don’t) is already beginning to form.

Experience: Students learn to divide tasks, manage time, and communicate effectively to ensure the project is completed on time.

Challenges: Conflicts can arise when some members contribute less or when communication breaks down. In fact, these challenges provide valuable lessons in conflict resolution, leadership, and compromise.

Team Sports

Participation in team sports is a well known way to learn teamwork. Whether it’s soccer, ice hockey, or volleyball, team sports teach players the importance of trust, communication, and working together towards a shared objective. With my own kids sports teams, it has been a joy to watch them progress from a bunch of individuals to a group that works as a team.

Experience: Athletes quickly learn that individual talent is not enough; the team must function as a cohesive unit. Success comes from understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses and playing to those strengths.

Challenges: The fast-paced nature of sports often requires split-second decisions that affect the entire team, reinforcing the need for clear communication and trust in one another’s abilities.

Club Participation

Clubs offer a different flavor of teamwork, often centered around shared interests or goals. Whether it’s a debate club, drama society, or environmental group, clubs provide a structured yet flexible environment for teamwork. Usually clubs have a strong purpose, which gives the group direction.

Experience: Members often take on specific roles that contribute to the club’s overall success, such as organizing events, managing finances, or leading discussions.

Challenges: Balancing individual initiative with group consensus is a common challenge, teaching members how to negotiate and collaborate effectively.

learn teamwork with D&D — The ultimate way to learn teamwork, D&D?

The Ultimate Way to Learn Teamwork: Dungeons & Dragons

While group projects, sports, and clubs all provide valuable teamwork experience, there’s another activity that really stands out: Dungeons & Dragons. This tabletop role-playing game might seem like just a game to outsiders. But, it’s a powerhouse for building teamwork skills. Here’s why:

Collaborative Storytelling: In D&D, players create a shared narrative, with each person contributing to the story’s direction. Success is rarely achieved alone. Players work together solving problems, overcoming obstacles, and achieving their goals. This collaborative aspect mirrors real-world team dynamics, where success often depends on effective communication and mutual support.

Role Differentiation and Cooperation: Every character in D&D has unique abilities and strengths, just like members of a workplace team. Players must understand their own role and how it complements others in the group. This dynamic teaches the importance of role differentiation, cooperation, and leveraging individual strengths for the benefit of the team.

Problem-Solving Under Pressure: D&D scenarios often present complex challenges that require quick thinking and teamwork to resolve. The pressure to make decisions that affect the entire group, combined with the unpredictable nature of the game, mirrors the problem-solving demands of a fast-paced work environment.

RPGs in Graduate Programs

Given the immense benefits of roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, incorporating them into graduate programs can provide unparalleled teamwork experiences. While new to the workforce, graduates are expected to collaborate on complex projects, manage time effectively, and navigate high-pressure situations. These are skills that are directly honed through playing RPGs.

By introducing D&D type sessions into your organizations graduate programs, students gain a unique opportunity to develop and refine their teamwork abilities. Teamwork under pressure is simulated in a dynamic, engaging, and ultimately, low-risk environment. These games encourage creativity, foster deep communication, and build strong, trust-based relationships among participants. Qualities that are invaluable in any professional setting.

Additionally, scenarios can be created that reflect common leadership issues faced by your organization. Albeit wrapped in a different genre.

While traditional activities like group projects, team sports, and clubs provide essential building blocks for teamwork, Dungeons & Dragons offers a uniquely powerful way to cultivate these skills. By embracing the collaborative and immersive nature of RPGs, new workers and students alike can learn the art of teamwork in a way that’s both fun and profoundly impactful.

All you leaders out there, why not talk to your learning and development team about incorporating D&D into your graduate program?

When we think of a classic Dungeons & Dragons session, it’s easy to imagine meticulously planned encounters, intricate puzzles with specific solutions, and a dungeon master (DM) who knows every twist and turn in advance. However, there’s a different approach that can lead to some of the most memorable and dynamic gameplay: emergent play.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while you will know that I am a serious fan of this type of play. In fact, I design all my adventures with emergent play in mind.

Emergent play embraces the unpredictable nature of collaborative storytelling, allowing both players and the DM to experience genuine surprises. By designing encounters and puzzles without a predetermined solution, you create an environment where creativity flourishes, and every decision matters. In this article, we’ll explore how to incorporate emergent play into your D&D sessions and offer ideas for encounters tailored to a work-based D&D group.

What is Emergent Play?

Emergent play refers to a style of gameplay where outcomes are not entirely scripted, allowing new and unexpected possibilities to arise from the interactions between players, the environment, and the rules of the game. In D&D, this means creating scenarios where the players’ actions and decisions directly shape the story, often in ways that even the DM couldn’t have anticipated.

This requires a shift in mindset: rather than guiding players toward a specific outcome, the DM sets the stage and lets the players’ creativity lead the way. The result is a dynamic (chaotic), organic narrative that can evolve in real-time, keeping everyone at the table on their toes.

The Art of Writing Encounters with No Set Solution

Designing encounters and puzzles without predetermined solutions can be challenging, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. I believe that it’s actually significantly more satisfying than developing an adventure with everything though out. Here’s how you can do it:

Focus on the Situation, Not the Outcome

When crafting an encounter, begin by imagining a compelling and exciting situation rather than a specific end result. For example, instead of creating a puzzle with a single correct answer, think of a scenario that presents a problem the players need to solve. This problem can have multiple solutions, each depending on the players’ ingenuity. For me, the joy comes from the players creativity, rather than from my own perceived cleverness.

Example: The players stumble upon a village suffering from a mysterious curse. The curse could be lifted by several means: finding and destroying a cursed artifact, negotiating with a local spirit, or even making a difficult moral choice. The key is to avoid designing the “correct” solution in advance—let the players discover their own path.

Leverage the Players’ Skills and Backgrounds

Encourage players to use their characters’ unique skills and backgrounds to interact with the environment. When players feel that their choices and character traits genuinely impact the story, they’re more likely to engage deeply with the game.

Example: If the party includes a bard with a talent for persuasion, a fighter with a deep knowledge of military tactics, and a druid connected to nature, create scenarios where these skills can shine. The players might convince a rival faction to join forces, devise a clever ambush, or call upon local wildlife for help—all valid and rewarding solutions.

Introduce Dynamic Elements

Consider adding elements to the encounter that change based on the players’ actions or even based on random rolls. This can create a sense of unpredictability that keeps the session exciting.

Example: The players are attempting to navigate a treacherous mountain pass during a storm. The storm’s intensity could be both randomized and influenced by the players’ actions, such as using magic to calm the winds or making a risky decision to push forward despite the danger. The environment itself becomes a living, reactive part of the encounter.

Embrace Improvisation

By its very nature emergent play thrives on improvisation. As a DM, you have to be open to ideas and solutions that you hadn’t anticipated. Listen to your players, build on their suggestions, and use your improv skills to keep the story flowing. Often I create puzzles or encounters with absolutely no preconceived notions of how they might be solved. Instead, relying on improvisation alone to find the solution based on the reactions of the players.

Example: The players might decide to solve a puzzle by using an item or spell in a completely unexpected way. Instead of shutting down their idea because it wasn’t part of your plan, consider how it might work in the context of the game world. This approach not only rewards creative thinking but also reinforces the collaborative nature of D&D.

For some advice on improving your improv skills in a DnD context check out this video by Bob WorldBuilder.

Improvised DnD, essential for emergent play!

Emergent Encounter Ideas for a Work-Based D&D Group

Given the nature of this blog I want to tie in some thoughts about using these concepts in a work-based D&D group. Here, you often have players with diverse levels of experience and varying amounts of time to dedicate to the game. Perhaps the normal tropes of the game aren’t apparent to the participants. Here are a couple of emergent encounter ideas that can engage everyone, regardless of their familiarity with D&D:

The Office Heist

The party is tasked with retrieving a critical piece of information from a well-guarded office building. The twist? Each player is assigned a different role within the company (e.g., security, HR, IT) and must use their “workplace skills” to navigate the environment. There’s no set way to achieve the goal—players can collaborate to come up with a plan that leverages their “professional expertise.”

The Corporate Rivalry

Two powerful companies are vying for control over a lucrative contract. The players must decide whether to sabotage the rival, broker a deal, or come up with a third option that benefits both parties. The encounter evolves based on the players’ decisions, alliances, and even office politics. To make this even more emergent, why not have the rival company played by an accomplice. This would give the negotiations an air of realism, while adding additional unpredictability to the encounter.

The Joy of the Unexpected

Emergent play in D&D transforms the game into a living, breathing narrative where anything can happen. By designing encounters without a fixed solution, you invite players to take the reins of the story, leading to unforgettable moments of creativity, collaboration, and surprise.

For work-based D&D groups, this approach can make sessions more inclusive. Also, engaging players at all skill levels and allowing them to contribute in unique ways. Whether you’re navigating a corporate heist or negotiating a corporate rivalry, the possibilities are endless when you let the story emerge naturally.

So next time you sit down to plan a session, consider leaving a few loose ends. Where will the adventure take you? You might just find that the best stories are the ones you never planned!

Author: Tom Watkin

How New Workers Learn Teamwork: From Group Projects to Dungeons & Dragons