Benefits of playing D&D

[Mad_Jack]

Give a group a decanter of endless water, fifty feet of rope, a bag of holding, and a portable hole

Lol - no DM has been dumb enough to do that since about 1985...

For the young, D&D teaches basic math skills, reading comprehension and creative problem solving, and improves the ability to work cooperatively within a group as well as the development of more advanced social skills.
For the older folks, Gilladian's post hit the most important points.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Lol - no DM has been dumb enough to do that since about 1985...

I did it last campaign.

 

[Mad_Jack]

I did it last campaign.

Well, unless you're playing 1st Ed., you can't really do anything too terrible with that list...
On the other hand, if you are playing 1st Ed., prepare to have the entire Ethereal Plane flooded, lol...

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Well, unless you're playing 1st Ed., you can't really do anything too terrible with that list...
On the other hand, if you are playing 1st Ed., prepare to have the entire Ethereal Plane flooded, lol...

They destroyed a city and a good portion of the surrounding countryside.

Well, technically, the volcano destroyed the city. They just used the bag of holding and the portable hole as a bomb to remove the magical artifact keeping the volcano from erupting. The rope and decanter simply acted as a fuse so they wouldn't be within the volcano when it erupted.

 

[Eis]

hot nerd girls....or guys...

 

[TBeholder]

One relevant question here is - benefits compared to what? Other RPGT? Wargames? Drinking beer? Watching TV? Fishing? Skiing/swimming?

 

[TarionzCousin]

Playing D&D (and reading game books) greatly embiggened my word-hoard, especially when I was a teenager.

 

[Water Bob]

I've learned a lot about statistics, math, and probability from D&D, long before I took Finite Math is college.

The first time I saw a bell curve was in the AD&D DM's Guide.

And, if you want to expand this to other games, I learned a lot about astronomy from Traveller. I learned about a light year and light second, an AU, and all sorts of stuff from that game. Even using the metric system.

 

[Henry]

How about one of the most important benefits - it's harmless fun! It doesn't involve smoking, drinking, ingesting any detrimental substances, or demeaning anyone in the course of play.

(It CAN include any of these things but that's up to the group, not a quality of the game.)

Between that, encouraging creativity and higher brain function, as well as social onteraction, who should need any further reason to defend play?

As a senior citizen, it might also be beneficial to point out the following to his peers:

http://www.alz.org/we_can_help_stay_mentally_active.asp

 

[Mercurius]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned what I believe to be perhaps the most important benefit of playing D&D, at least in terms of a relative scarcity of it in other activities: use and development of imagination. So many of our entertainments and leisure activities--not to mention work--are simulative, involving watching or interacting in a pre-made visual field (e.g. film, tv, video games); or they are sense-based, involving engaging in a physical-sensory experience (sports, outdoors, sex, etc); or they are social-relational (going out, parties, etc). If they are mental, they are usually analytic-intellectual, involving problem-solving, analysis, and so on. Very few activities, at least in this day and age, involve direct and focused use of the imagination....especially with the overall decline in reading.

So, yeah: imagination. It is also what separates tabletop RPGs from related activities that don't engage the imagination as much, if at all, like board and video games.