What does d&d do to people, really?

[Keeper of Secrets]

I think that more 'brainy' people are attracted to it. I also think lots of people are attracted to it who daydream about killing creatures and seeing hot elf maiden porn. So you probably have a nice crosssection. But like anything else, some people (who I knew personally) simply sat around all afternoon after school talking about gaming or gaming and had some crappy grades because of it.

But don't ignore the first thing I said - smarter people are certainly attracted to it because of the fantasy/sci-fi nature so those people may be more pre-disposed to have better grades.

 

[diaglo]

One other thing - my grades never slipped before or after D&D... and never had any noticeable change.

ditto.

although, i tutored in school. and some of my fellow classmates in my OD&D campaign definitely improved their math skillz and vocabulary. it also got them to read more.

i also had friends in the advanced classes do the opposite. they became obsessed with D&D. their grades plummetted as they neglected to turn in homework assignments. or they put little effort into major projects. we had to do an intervention to get them to scale back.

 

[diaglo]

I haven't had "grades" in almost 20 years.

you don't work for the feds do you?

we have grade scales.

 

[Gothic_Demon]

Here in the UK, in high school I played with a pretty mixed bunch. There wasn't a single person who didn't improve their grades (excepting when they had good grades anyway, like me ). Beyond the small improvement in language and mathematics, as well as a decent grounding in thinking, the reason so many of the people I played with improved was their increased attention span and attention to detail. When these kids could sit for a whole four hours and concentrate on DnD, sitting for an hour in Maths class became a breeze!