Educational benefits of D&D

[Camelot]

Mathematics: Improves your basic addition and subtraction skills. Also includes probability because of the dice.

Logic: Lots of problem solving, mind puzzles, tactical strategies, etc.

Theater Arts: Roleplaying!

Literature: Opens up the world of fantasy literature to those who might not have otherwise known of it.

Culture: Inspires you to research the middle ages and its literature, or other time periods depending on the game.

English: Teaches many words that aren't commonly used, such as lycanthrope, among others.

Ethics: Reinforces basic good versus evil ideals.

Social Skills: Lets you work together instead of fighting each other.

Science: It's a bit of a stretch, but certain aspects of learning the rules of D&D are a bit like chemistry, so it could help memorization skills at least. I always thought it would be a cool chemistry lesson if the teacher made a card game with each element on the periodic table having a power, and doing certain combinations (like two hydrogens and an oxygen) would increase their power.

 

[Vartan]

D&D was the "gateway drug" that got me hooked on studyinghumanities: literature, composition, history and political science are all part of the D&D experience. For others D&D was part fo the reason they learned higher math (just post this in a character optimization forum and you'll see what I mean). D&D, by its nature, forces its participants to learn how to work well in a group and provides opportunities to develop leadership skills. I could go on but a good, short answer is this: there's a reason why so many nerds play D&D.

As for the violence: there is no evidence that RPGs lead to violent behavior, and conclusive proof that games in general (including video games) lead to violent behavior. That being said, the violence in D&D has the potential to be as high or as low as you want it to be.

 

[MarauderX]

Story telling and speaking to different audiences is one of the many benefits I attribute to the game. I am a docent (tour guide) at the National Building Museum (National Building Museum), and I am glad for the expansion of vocabulary and how to bring descriptions of spaces during a different era alive.

For the violence aspect, it is something that has been part of story telling since before humans created an alphabet. Violence and war were constant threats, and as such re-enactments were common. Refer the VP to any number of greek tragedies, or reference Homer's work in recent movie renditions (Troy, for instance). I would say a typical D&D game has far less descriptive violence than many of the classics.

 

[Ahnehnois]

The educational benefits of D&D are similar to that of any creative activity; nothing expands your mind like having to create a world inside of it. The social aspects of D&D, as well as the math and ctitical thinking, and the dedication needed to produce a campaign's worth of material are excellent side benefits.

As for the violence, the rules are written with a PG-13 violence level, and there is no incentive to go beyond that in terms of graphic violence. Certainly D&D is less violent than some of the books you'll see in English class. It's also worth emphasizing that D&D is not (generally) LARPing and that the game takes place strictly by talking and writing, not any physical actions.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Also, what should I tell her about the violence in-game?

There's a lot less violence in D&D than in just about any history book in your school. Yes, it's "zoomed in" to a closer level of detail than what you get in class. At the same time, in 20 years of gaming, we've never come close to an afternoon in the US Civil War.

Edit - That's not to mention the stuff you see in "classic" literature like Shakespeare. Heck, if you boil it down, Macbeth is almost as bad as Watchmen for violent content.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Hi all, I just wanted to ask about the educational benefits of D&D, since my Vice Principal asked about. Also, what should I tell her about the violence in-game? Thanks in advance!

A lot of good points about educational impacts made already. The degree of benefit varies, of course, with the age of the kids involved.

As for violence, that's easy. Some posters have said that you can have as little or much as you like, but that's not really true. Even at its densest (about a combat encounter every hour of play), the amount of violence in D&D is WAY below what you'll get in a moderately violent movie or video game (let alone a seriously violent one).

And that violence is very abstract, represented by numbers on paper rather than images of gore or (more importantly) specific violent acts. When you get down to it, "I use my Thunder Wave and do [clatter] 6hp of damage" can barely be called violence at all.

Violent themes, perhaps, in the same sense that any adventure story has violent themes. But the experience of violence is about as mild as it can be.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Hi all, I just wanted to ask about the educational benefits of D&D, since my Vice Principal asked about. Also, what should I tell her about the violence in-game? Thanks in advance!

This sounds like you want a sales pitch; tell us about your vice principal - what does she teach and what are her favourite phrases? Also why was she asking?

 

[Cor_Malek]

DnD (and any other RPG's, for that matter) are first and foremost not a source of information, but an incentive to gather them.
First glance at forums here, at EnWorld will show you for example how Gliese 581g got people excited, when they thought of making a tidally locked campaign setting. And in discussions that follow Umbran and others share their knowledge.
A lot of my pre-university knowledge of archaeology came from such sources, where I investigated some idea that could help me with interesting game (Catal Hoyouk campaign).

Is it better then spending same amount of time on reading specialized literature? No. But it "forces" me to learn even when I spend time explicitly relaxing.

Of course "first and foremost", means that it itself can provide knowledge as well. A lot of kids have wast knowledge of dinosaurs. Yeah, they don't know a whole lot of details, but basics? There. Surely more than on subject of Mesolithic fauna of Euroasia. That's because books about them are cool to read, have plenty of images and are great to skim through and imagine stuff.
DnD works in similar way. You think you're having some downtime, and some things just creep up on you. I've recently seen a Enworlder write in rather condescending tone about "armchair weapon experts". Irony of his post aside* - I think it's a very good thing, when people have knowledge of various subjects, rudimentary as it may be.



*as there were clearly people in that thread that actually practised some forms of fencing, and at least one archaeologist