Dungeons & Dragons has had an interesting history in terms of its reputation and portrayal in media. Often considered to be the bastion of nerds, its also been accused of leading children to evil thanks to various religious groups (*cough* Satantic Panic *cough*). Rare is the time where D&D is showcased as exactly what it is; an in-depth game that encourages storytelling, creative thinking, cooperation, math, and imagination that can sometimes take weeks if not years.
All of these things are very important, especially to developing minds. One of the people who recently discovered this is Chris Pine, and he’d love to see D&D introduced into schools. (Pine has also been visiting Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles for several years, and more recently, introducing several of the young patients to the game.)
Over the past weekend, the film, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” premiered to strong reviews and a pretty strong box-office haul. In preparation for the film, Pine was introduced to the role playing game with some of his family and quickly became enamored with it. “Within 15 minutes, we were having the time of our lives, and we didn’t have to know anything,” he said. Most avid players of D&D can tell you the game is friendly to new players when you have a good Dungeon Master working on the campaign and co-operative players.
Pine set aside the stereotypes that the game was for nerdy outcasts and realized it was, “about the coolest thing I’ve encountered in a long time.” Yeah, it really can be, especially when you’re with the right group of people. Pine continued to stress the game “exercises the imagination. It’s joyous, it’s improvisational.”
When you tie this in with the ideas of cooperation and then it makes perfect sense why he feels like it should be played in schools. Why shouldn’t it be? Why shouldn’t it be introduced as an official afterschool activity? With all the types of clubs that schools can offer for various activities, Dungeons & Dragons could and would easily fit in given its heavy emphasis on storytelling. Given these clubs are also supposed to bring students together, this could easily work to that end. You can also have one of the school staff members acting as a chaperone and DM to help craft a campaign or flesh out one that a student would want to initiate.
[Editor’s note: my kid was a member of an official after-school D&D group. They exist! They’re out there!]
Pine joins a growing list of celebrities who have publicly stated their love for D&D. Jon Favreau, Matt Mercer and all of Critical Role, Vin Diesel, Stephen Colbert, the list goes on and on with at least one common denominator: creativity. One could say that it’s a good time to be a nerd with the growing popularity of D&D into the mainstream, but that’s not the point. The point is that D&D shouldn’t be labeled as just for geeks and nerds anymore. It should be embraced for the design elements that can bring out the creative energies of anyone who takes the time to learn it.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is currently in theaters now.
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