10 Business Lessons I Learned From Playing D&D

Esther Schindler writes "Those hours you spent rolling dice in your youth weren't wasted according to my 10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons. Playing fantasy role playing games did more than teach the rules of combat or proper behavior in a dragon's lair. D&D can instruct you in several skills that can help your career. Such as: 'One spell, used well, can be more powerful than an entire book full of spells' and 'It's better to out-smart an orc than to fight one.'" What other wisdom have you gained from your time sequestered with various RPGs?

Oblig. "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" quote

[elrous0]

Well, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage.

Re:Rolling the dice

[Feyshtey]

If this is your experience with RPG's then I'm sorry to say you had an unimaginative gamemaster. If you have a talented storyteller that's willing to adapt from their intended plan quickly and creatively, then RPG's can be extremely entertaining.

It's all about creating scenarios where people can try bizarre crap and see what happens, an much less about adhering to some statistical dogma.

Re:This list is horrible

[Anonymous Coward]

Helloooooo? Schindler was the movie's hero!

Re:How to Barter !

[Anonymous Coward]

What did you barter [reference.com] (to trade by exchange of commodities rather than by the use of money) with? Did you travel with a wagon load of goodies or just a few goats?

Personally, I'd have just tried to lower the price by bargaining. Don't need to lug around feed for the goats that way ;-)

Re:Real Life

[Anonymous Coward]

Sigh. Do I have to reveal that I know that much about the game and its cosmology?

A portable hole and a bag of holding both do pretty much the same thing: they contain a little 'pocket dimension'. The space inside is finitely larger* than the space outside, and the weight of the container is not related to the weight of objects inside the container. They're extremely handy devices, and quite common in DnD games where they are allowed. Now, a player wanting to carry an infinite amount of stuff could simply place one item inside the other, no? The designers of DnD must have run across that concept early in playtesting, and decided it was a bit much, so the rules state that any attempt to place one device inside the other results in Very Bad Things happening. This usually takes the form of a big rip in spacetime, everything in the bags and anything within a certain radius is carried off into nameless spaces between the worlds, and No You Do Not Get Your Character Back.

It makes sense, or at least it's internally consistent. DnD tries to be internally consistent, because players have a nasty habit of capitalizing upon any rules ambiguities, just when you've come up with the perfect way to almost squish them into tiny quivering bits. Yes, you were supposed to get past that, but not that way! It was supposed to be a lot harder! Now, you will expect me to reward you for your cleverness. Well, so be it...I'll get you next time, mark my words!

--the GM

*Except in the upgraded version of the portable hole: the Plot Hole.

Re:Real Life

[Talderas]

They've changed the rules a bit....

Placing a Portable Hole in a Bag of Holding causes a Gate to the Astral plane to open sucking in all objects within like 10 feet. The bag and hole are destroyed and the items contained in both containers is then either destroyed or scattered across the Astral plane.

Placing a Bag of Holding in a Portable Hole causes a Rift to the Astral plane to open, causing both containers and their objects to be lost forever.

Placing a Bag of Holding in a Bag of Holding causes no adverse effects, so you could generate your infinite capacity via that method.

I'm not sure what happens when you place a Portable Hole in a Portable Hole.