How Dungeons & Dragons Can Help You Be a Better Museum Worker

Time to share secrets: I sometimes play Dungeons & Dragons, and usually I'm the Dungeon Master leading the game. Perhaps you've heard of D&D as a game designed to produce satan-worshipers and school shooters, or maybe you know that it's a form of interactive story-telling fused with tactical strategy gaming. Regardless, there are at least a few reasons I can think of why all museum people should play D&D (especially as Dungeon Master (DM), essentially the narrator).

• Creative, evocative story-telling: D&D is a game played primarily in the imagination. While dry erase boards with maps and little figures are often used, the greatest purpose of the DM is to create an engaging story in a living setting and in a few words to paint a picture so vivid that all other players--with varying interests, personalities, and levels of patience--can imagine themselves within the story. This translates to museums because the exhibit designers must too attempt to recreate an engaging picture of history, one that draws in a variety of different people. The audience must feel connected to the history being shared, and often the text writers have only a few words for a lot of meaning. DMing will help you practice being both succinct and descriptive to better engage your audience.

• Enhanced Problem-Solving: DMs always need to think on the fly. In games, things often go awry from the original plan (be it because of player actions or die rolling), and as a result, DMs find it necessary to improvise and problem-solve on the fly. A character "accidentally" murdered the "chosen one"? Time to get the mental gears turning. Players, too, must problem solve all the time. Not only does the DM provide puzzles all throughout, but most situations can be solved in multiple, unexpected ways. For example, an orc guards a door. You could fight it, stealthily knock it out, cast a sleep spell, talk your way inside, disguise yourself, fly to the roof...the list goes on. This kind of creativity and "seat-of-the-pants" problem-solving can be a great help in a pinch when, say, a water main bursts. You'll feel like MacGyver when you turn a shoelace, a paperclip, and a half-eaten sandwich into your artifacts' salvation.

• The Ability to Prepare for (almost) Anything: DMs know one thing above all else: if you build it, they will circumvent. Know matter how much you prepare, the players will always find a hole in your plans and weasel through for results you'd never expect. Despite the philosophical repercussions of this inevitability, DMs gain a great deal of skill from trying, and that skill builds a natural ability spots potential issues that need to be prepared for. This can be wonderful when creating disaster preparedness or performing preventative conservation. Even more wonderful for anticipating such things as, say, parents lifting their children into an open B-52. People enjoy "breaking the game," as it were; it makes them feel like they've experienced something special. With this skill, you can anticipate that and either stop it, or, use it to your advantage to give your audience a truly satisfying experience.

I could go on about these and other benefits all day, and while you could build these skills in other ways, I ask you one thing: In what other way can you contribute to your work experience while tossing explosive-ridden goblins via catapult to a floating citadel to prevent the planet's annihilation via lava rain?