How Dungeons & Dragons Can Help Improve Your Writing

D&D is so much more than just a TTRPG; the benefits that come from playing the game are numerous and range from the social to the mental health-related and many more. At its core, however, Dungeons & Dragons is a collaborative storytelling experience. This means that whether you're a player or a Dungeon Master, the game can help sharpen your writing skills in some perhaps unexpected ways.

World-Building Skills

The DM is responsible for creating a world filled with unique cultures, landscapes, and histories. This is especially true if you homebrew, but even running modules has you immersed in another world with intricate details, and you can learn from that experience whether you make changes based on your player's choices or not. As a player, the same applies: you are immersed in a fantasy world or other setting where your choices matter. You know that how you interact with this world affects the story and the game, and that means you help build the world.

Developing Complex Characters

Everyone involved in a D&D game has to create a character. Even the DM, who isn't making a player character, has to create and role-play all of the NPCs. But as a player especially, creating and embodying a character that grows throughout your D&D adventures can help you make well-rounded, dynamic figures in your writing. As both a player and as a DM, you have to think about character arcs, emotional depth, and how personal histories shape future actions.

Enhancing Dialogue Skills

D&D also makes you think on your feet. The DM's best-laid plans are almost always going to be thwarted by players making choices they didn't anticipate. That's part of the beauty of the game. It's not static, like a book. It's a choose-your-own-adventure and is a living narrative. Conversations in-game are, therefore, not scripted. They're natural and spontaneous. This skill can translate into writing dialogue, making character interactions feel more organic and authentic.

Learning To Handle Conflict

I don't mean conflict between players, although that can happen sometimes. I mean the story type of conflict. Stories thrive on conflict, after all. It would be a boring story without it. Even the cosiest of fantasies has some kind of conflict. D&D provides endless opportunities to explore different types of conflict, from combat to moral dilemmas and political intrigue. Learning how to escalate tension and resolve conflicts in-game can help you to craft compelling narratives within your own writing.

Embracing Adaptability and Improvisation

D&D games rarely go as planned. The DM could craft an entire city only for the players to decide to bypass it entirely. A player could try a non-violent resolution, but a poor roll of the dice means that the guards are not convinced, and combat ensues. Improvising and adapting to new situations are skills that every D&D player and DM will learn after only a session or two. A great example of this is in The Legends of Vox Machina, when they're trying and repeatedly failing to get through a door and have to keep adapting their attempts in an effort to get through their greatest nemesis: the common wooden door. This is so much funnier than if they'd just been able to sneak through the back entry. Learning to adapt and improvise can help you think of ways to have your characters have to do the same in your writing.

Expanding Creativity

I've always played as a wizard, but my friends recently convinced me to try playing as a bard. At first, I struggled to play a bard well. I missed having fireball and the strategy of just trying to do as much damage as possible. I had to learn to think strategically in a completely different way. Where a bard truly shines is in charisma and coming up with out-of-the-box solutions to problems because they can't just light everything on fire and call it a day. This has helped me become infinitely more creative, not just in D&D games but when I write as well.

The Art of Pacing

A good DM can keep the game moving to keep everybody engaged. You know something's not right with the pacing if you're sitting around with nothing to do. The same goes for writing. You need to keep things moving to keep the reader engaged. That doesn't mean it has to be all action. Well-paced D&D games still involve plenty of role-playing, skill checks, exploration, and character development. The balance of all of these things propelling the story forward is what keeps it well-paced instead of getting bogged down in just one thing. You can take a look at what makes a good game at your table and apply the combination of what made that work well to your own writing.

Collaborative Storytelling

In most cases, a D&D table involves a number of different players. No one person is the main character of the story; everyone contributes different skills equally to the team. You can see how different perspectives and personalities contribute to the story. This translates to helping you understand how characters engage with each other and work together. Even if you have a clear main character, chances are good that they're not the only character in the book. The other characters will have roles to play to get the protagonist where they need to go.

Building Stronger Emotional Stakes

D&D players tend to get emotionally invested in their characters. They spend time thinking about that character's backstory and motivations before ever rolling a die. After hours of getting into that character's head and experiencing their triumphs and failures, the effect is even more significant. Knowing what got you invested in that character can help you craft characters your readers will get equally emotionally invested in.

Practising Consistent Storytelling

D&D campaigns can last for months or years at a time and often involve a long-term narrative that goes way beyond just what happens in a single session. While it's the DM who comes up with that narrative in the first place, it's the players who see it through. Everyone has to pay attention to what happens over the course of the whole narrative and pick up on clues that hint towards what could happen later. It's a great example of how to keep a single story going into the longer term and tie everything together while properly foreshadowing everything.

The Benefits Aren't Only for DMs: Improve Your Writing as a TTRPG Player

While being a Dungeon Master has some very obvious benefits to your writing in that you can see in real-time how an audience reacts to plotlines and characters and worldbuilding, the writing benefits don't apply only to DMs. For anyone participating in a D&D game, whether it's from worldbuilding, creating a dynamic character, or improvising when a roll goes badly, every session of D&D includes opportunities to learn and improve your writing. It's certainly helped me!