Me and the DMG

Hemlock

Should be playing D&D instead
Mmmmm. A lot of talk and conjecture, light on concrete data or even proposals. I came away wondering, if they aren't willing to take their hypothesis seriously enough to test it (e.g. they propose measuring junior officers IIRC before and after playing to see if D&D helps them improve their communication ability, but they have never done such a test and so have no tentative results to report), why should anyone else?

The article opens with a story about a commander overreacting to a threat report. It's not clear whether the authors are arguing that D&D could have helped the intelligence officer speak more effectively, or help the commander listen more effectively. So what was the story for?

As an aside it's queer to read that the difference between TTRPGs and wargames is the ability to try anything you can think of, since that ability predates TTRPGs entirely and goes back to free kriegspiel. Whatever the difference between TTRPGs and wargaming is, it isn't that.

<<Tabletop role-playing games are unique from traditional wargames because the collaborative nature of the game means that almost anything can happen. The rules of these games only help structure the narrative and determine the consequences of actions. Players are free, even encouraged, to try anything they can imagine within the limits of that narrative.>>

That's not unique to TTRPGs.
 
Top