How do your hobbies or job change the way you play D&D?

[MNblockhead]

Hobbies and IRL experience had more impact when I was younger. I did two summers with the Student Conservation Association, one at Lassan Volcanic National Park and the other at the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness national park. It gave me experience with living out of backpacks, pack animals, dealing with difficult terrain and weather, light wilderness survival, etc. It made me a bit insufferable when it came to running "realistic" wilderness travel and survival in my games.

I have modest, non-military experience with firearms, mostly pistols. I get annoyed with how shooting is portrayed on TV and in movies, but don't think about it much in my games, except that I do prefer to play sci-fi / sci-fantasy games with guns than those set in more contemporary settings.

As a lawyer, I may have a higher threshold for arguing about rules, but I think that is more of my old war-gaming roots and my enjoyment of more complicated board games to be honest. Being a gamer probably primed me more for an interest in law than vice versa.

 

[Stormonu]

I took drafting classes in college with eyes towards becoming an architect. So my building plans are always designed with an eye towards actually being lived in and how they would be used. While the big things most people don't think about are lighting, water access, trash disposal and latrines, smaller things like a secondary exit to a cave/building, smoke traps for chimneys/campfires/wall torches and even keeping rain from sweeping or welling up at the entrance don't even cross most people's minds, but I think about these details and more.

Also, I am a hobby programmer and have worked on old text zork-like dungeons, and that's had some effect on my dungeon designing as well (for one, they all have to fit in 32k... ).

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Many years in the SCA (knight). I don’t use much from it other than to dissuade people who think they know how moving and fighting in armor works. little things like being uptight about sleeping in armor as I have done it enough to know no big deal.

Older and I am an executive as are many of my players in my main game. I DM, my players are pretty mature in decision making and teamwork. Biggest impact there is to keep the game for a regular schedule as we cannot mess around with times.

Many other hobbies like 3D printing that add to the game if I play in person.

 

[Nytmare]

When I was in college, I had two experiences that really opened my eyes a bit D&D wise that I then insisted on dragging the people I gamed with, out to do at least once or twice a year.

The first was paintball. Specifically the experience of setting up and having to walk into ambushes. This really gave my brain a centerpoint to help visualize a combat round, sneak attacks, and the chaotic adrenaline rush of what an initiative round might be trying to describe.

The second was spelunking and the understanding of what a cave actually was. Years of Disney movies and 70s and 80s era TV had left me (and most of my friends) with the pristine mental picture of caves just being a nice flat string of rooms with level dirt floors.

I think that the main reason why I insisted on bringing other people out there was so that they were able to more easily understand what it was I was trying to describe.

 

[Derren]

Ever since I discovered my (light) interest in history I became increasingly dissatisfied at how superficial and trope heavy D&D and similar settings are.
Especially kitchen sink settings with cultures based on real world ones from different centuries sitting right next to each other ir the use of modern concepts in a roughly renaissance setting (The latest PF2 AP where the PCs play modern policemen for example).

 

[Scott Christian]

These are great reads.

Teacher here, so watching the students in D&D club has always inspired me. Not so much with ideas, but with youthful exuberance. And BookTenTiger, I do the same thing with when creating a quest or lesson plan. What's the final outcome, or in the quest's case, outcomes, and what are the roads there. I think lesson plans are much more linear, as you are trying to encourage a very specific skill set to be utilized. But it is still the same process.

Avid hiker. This has crept into all aspects of my gaming, from design to play. I'm fifty, and even today when I hike, my mind wanders into D&D territory. Was hiking just last week. It was hot and buggy and the trail was full of roots as it made its way on the high-ground through the estuary. And all I could think of was - If this were D&D, I bet a troll would live here. Maybe even a hag. Where would their lair be? What difficulties would you describe to adventurers about traveling? Where would the fight scene take place?

Really like cooking. So there's a lot of that in my game. Fortunately, most of the people I play with like it too, so we throw food that matches the game every so often. We have a brewer, so he will sometimes make something relevant to the game as well. But this works its way into the descriptions more than anything.

Read a lot of science books. Not sure this comes into play. At times, it may have even hindered the escapism. Other times, it has helped the escapism by letting my mind come to a logical conclusion about an setting or scenario.

One thing I haven't seen in here, which is surprising (I think?) is an avid video gamer. I choose one game every year or two to play. That's it. They are always fantasy RPG's. I draw some inspiration from those settings and the world. Skyrim, The Witcher, and Dragon Age have been the three games I played the last ten years.

Working out I find will translate to my table every now and then. Describing a good deadlift from your big burly warrior is an artform.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm a quality analyst, and that absolutely has changed how I run and prepare to run games. I always go back to an adventure before I run it and try to look at ways to improve it. I try to learn from my failures and successes.

For hobbies, my interests in mixology and medieval cooking both help me bring the world to life. You can practically tell a story with food and drink alone. I'm also a musician, but I mostly just make oppressive crushing drones. Still, being able to sing and write lyrics can come in handy when playing a bard.

 

[Retreater]

Let's see hobbies include creative writing, theatre, and painting/crafting. So I hope to get good stories, memorable NPCs, and a dynamic physical setup.
My career involves literature research and storytelling as well as small group leadership. I think this all plays into being a good GM.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm an indie game designer (well, not recently), so I homebrew a lot of stuff if I'm using a pre-existing adventure. I love to flesh out more details, create backstories, link adventures, etc.

I'm also a cook and a brewer, so pre-COVID, I'd have a good meal ready with some new flavor of mead/wine/beer for my group every time they'd come to my house to game.

I'm also a creative sort, so I like to make handouts, gaming aids, etc for the players to physically hold

And I love to paint minis, so our games always have a ton of painted minis to use

I'm also an amateur woodworker, so it allows me to make things like this:

 

[Levendor]

Wine ends up being a part of my campaigns. With gm approval, I end up discussing "great vintages", and drone on and on in-character to the other pc's about the vineyards in this or that unexplored place-name on the campaign map. Just like a real life wine-snob boring their uninterested friends with their favorite obsession. After a bit, everyone plays along... finding collectible fine wine bottles as dungeon loot, bribing officials with wine, other pc buying me in-game gifts of expensive wine.

Also, as a structural engineer, I design all my buildings - especially castles and dungeons and bridges - as structurally plausible and usually architecturally interesting. Not that I "design" them, as I might a real life building. But I make accommodations for how a ground floor great hall can support the floors above (i.e. more columns than the lady of the castle might have envisioned), etc.