Rolling for community

During Covid lockdowns, I was trying to balance a taxing PhD in a foreign country with anxieties, imposter syndrome, daily doomscrolling and isolation. Thankfully, there were some silver linings to this – including Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). 

This originally obscure roleplaying game (RPG) – where players pretend to be fantasy characters acting out make-believe scenarios set by an almighty narrator, the Dungeon Master (DM) – is now a central pillar in pop culture and instantly offered me some much-needed escapism at the time. The story is told jointly, only nudged along by a 20-sided die that, together with bonuses on a sheet describing characters' strengths and weaknesses, determines the outcome of any player action (see my 2024 piece in The Conversation for a detailed game description). 

Little did I know that a niche hobby that I played with friends around the table, or with family online across the pond, would become a whole repertoire of skills for my career…

Why D&D at work?

Moving from a structured PhD into the unpredictable world of an Early Career Researcher (ECR) can be daunting. At Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), I found a balance of fresh perspectives and experienced mentorship, but challenges remained: developing autonomous research, gaining confidence in sharing ideas, and navigating funding opportunities. These are all key aspects of shaping an academic identity.

Identity formation in academia thrives on mentorship and shared experiences, reinforcing Tajfel and Turner's (1978) social identity theory that a significant portion of self-identity is derived from group membership. Seeking connection, I turned to a familiar coping mechanism: D&D. A casual mention of my interest at a department meeting sparked enthusiasm among colleagues, leading to the formation of an adventuring party.

As DM, I set the scene: a daring heist to steal an egg before it unleashed an ancient horror. The session revealed striking parallels to academia – problem-solving, collaboration, and adaptability. Research highlights the benefits of roleplaying games in fostering resilience, creativity, and social bonds (Henrich & Worthington, 2023; Brown & Vaughan, 2009). Besides these benefits, which we often frame for students as employability skills, Lehto's review (2021) also highlighted something profound: Playing around makes us feel good!

Could D&D extend beyond entertainment to actively shape research identity? By embracing its principles of agency, immersion, and collaboration, I found a means to foster professional development and community in academia.

The power of play: What D&D offers beyond the table

To understand the impact of escapism and improvisation in RPGs like D&D, we turn to the literature. When my colleague and I reviewed the existing literature on RPGs, we found that empirical evidence remained limited (Henrich & Worthington, 2023), yet existing studies highlight potential benefits for well-being, creativity, and resilience. More importantly, we currently don't really understand the mechanisms to foster those outcomes. In general play literature, Bateson (2013) postulates that tasks encouraging adaptability have positive results, while Winnicott (1971) emphasised how play allows individuals to explore different versions of themselves, shaping identity through experimentation. As a researcher exploring social identity in a variety of contexts – from building resilience to extreme forms of violence in my forensic work – the latter appeared the most attractive explanation to me.

D&D provides a unique space for this self-exploration. Players adopt different personas, experiment with new perspectives, and embrace the unexpected – especially in failure. A botched dice roll might derail a plan, but it also creates unpredictable, often rewarding, storytelling moments. This was a real learning curve for me. Like most people, I'm not particularly comfortable with failure. And, of course, it feels great to be the heroic cleric bringing another character back from the brink of death with a successful dice roll. But the real story potential, where unforeseeable things happen and either joyful chaos or heartbreaking twists occur, is in the critical fails (a one on the 20-sided die). At a good table, players join to solve a new problem in the most unusual way or just bond over their funny misery. The RPG community refers to this as failing forward, reframing setbacks as opportunities for growth. Moore and Price (2018) frame this appreciation for failure as a central pedagogical skill for life-long learning, as that mindset disrupts the stifling avoidance of mistakes.

In academia, failure is as defining as success. Grant rejections, unexpected results, and theoretical revisions shape researchers' growth. Yet, academia rarely provides spaces to explore failure safely. To address this, my colleague Dr Elizabeth Braithwaite and I created ECR Coffee Mornings – monthly gatherings where colleagues come together over coffee and pastries (I promise you, we laid it on thick with the café metaphors). But how do we (a) ensure a non-judgmental environment and (b) encourage creative exploration? We start every session by sharing two successes and one challenge we encountered since the last meeting in our studies. Then, we encourage idea-sharing through Half-baked Ideas, a segment where participants present early-stage concepts for feedback. By fostering a culture of openness, creativity, and collaboration, we replicate the benefits of RPGs, making academia a more supportive and innovative space.

From party to community

The social heavy lifting in D&D is usually done by the unique combination of structured yet spontaneous interactions. The DM provides a framework through the story, freeing players to focus on problem-solving. Because it is usually so far removed from reality, it also breaks down professional hierarchies, instead leaving PhD students and senior lecturers to scramble equally for solutions as their characters, for example, desperately try to avoid animated statues chasing after them. 

In the most extreme forms of commitment, this can be described as 'serious leisure' (Stebbins, 2007), where a hobby is pursued in a career-like fashion because it offers so much joy, such as becoming part of somebody's identity. Tajfel and Turner's (1978) social identity theory supports this, showing that shared experiences foster a sense of belonging.

McAdams (203) highlights the role of storytelling in shaping group identity. Like long-term RPG campaigns, academic communities rely on shared narratives. D&D, rituals like game recaps and inside jokes mirror academia's reading groups, conference pub trips, and nerdy memes that populate our Teams chats. These rituals reinforce a collective identity, which is essential for a supportive academic culture. Furthermore, play can serve as a way to generate social capital (Harris & Daley, 2008), meaning trust, sprawling connections, and shared values, which build the base for a functioning group.

We apply these principles in ECR Coffee Mornings, where senior staff openly discuss both successes and failures, transforming them from gatekeepers to mentors. Kolontari et al. (2023) emphasise that open dialogue reduces imposter syndrome and strengthens professional networks. By allowing ECRs to shape discussions and training topics, we create a culture of shared ownership. Together, we can voice what we want training on, who we think is a good fit for presenting, and who shares their ideas. Like D&D, academia thrives when participants feel invested in their journey, fostering resilience and collaboration.

Creativity as a survival skill in academia

With the right parameters – low-risk exploration, comfort with failure, and strong group identity – D&D thrives on creative problem-solving. For example, my adventure party successfully apprehended the aforementioned egg from the museum exhibition but suddenly saw themselves confronted with an armada of guards. Thinking quickly on her feet, our druid decided to scale the massive dinosaur animatronic, using an out-of-the-box combination of engineering and magic to secure herself an all-destroying escape vehicle. This unscripted solution, unexpected even to me as the DM, exemplifies cognitive flexibility – the ability to keep options open and adapt (e.g., Dennis et al., 2010).

This talent for improvisation is vital in research, from interpreting unexpected results to pivoting when funding applications fail. Csikszentmihalyi et al. (2014) describe how play fosters a state of flow, where problem-solving feels effortless and intuitive. Likewise, RPGs train adaptability, a key skill in academia where decisions must be made on the fly. To me, this is one of the most exciting parts, both as a scholar and as a DM.

Confidence also plays a crucial role. Kaufman and Beghetto (2021) highlight how stepping into different personas in roleplay builds self-efficacy. In our ECR Coffee Mornings, we apply this by rotating leadership roles – members might practice pitching research to the media one session and lead a training discussion the next. Bates et al. (2024) emphasise that structured, playful environments reduce imposter syndrome and strengthen professional networks. One colleague even tracks group collaboration through social network analysis, illustrating how these sessions reinforce integration. By embracing creativity and improvisation, ECRs gain confidence in navigating academic challenges.

How D&D created the perfect BREW

It becomes clear that incorporating play into professional settings can be a real game changer (Sutton-Smith et al., 1971). At MMU, we are so convinced of this that researchers joined forces in the Manchester Game Centre in 2016, a cross-discipline network that promotes game studies on an international level, from pedagogy, over mental wellbeing, to climate change education. In my opinion, the following principles can be deduced from our exploration here so far: 

• Play fosters connection – Social events should be about genuine fun, not forced networking.
• Improvisation is a skill, not a weakness – Thinking on your feet is as valuable in research as in role-playing.
• Collaboration beats competition – Like in a party, a diverse skill set makes the whole team stronger.
• Shared stories create belonging – Universities thrive when people feel they're part of something bigger.
• Embrace failure as part of the game – In both D&D and academia, mistakes drive growth.
• B – Building a shared work culture
• R – Recognise challenges and needs
• E – Expand expertise
• W – Work collaboratively

Dr Elizabeth Braithwaite and I channelled these ideas into the acronym BREW for our ECR Coffee Mornings (I told you, we continue the café metaphors):

The initiative works because it provides structured but flexible, low-pressure, and collaborative spaces where ECRs can be creative, build resilience, and find belonging. The fact that it's spreading to other departments shows the demand for these kinds of self-directed, community-driven solutions.

A better adventure

This reflection illustrates how D&D helped me to navigate academia, both professionally and socially. It is not meant as a silver bullet to all ECR challenges but more an inspiration that can work wonders with the right colleagues and a welcoming school that fosters a warm and appreciative environment. I encourage readers on all levels of the university to embrace play, creativity, and shared stories to build better communities in their own academic environments. Start your own RPG group with colleagues! Have monthly ECR socials, like the coffee mornings that are now also implemented in other departments! D&D and BREW both teach us that identity, confidence, and community are things we build together – not just things we inherit. 

So, whether it's at the game table or the coffee table, the goal is the same: to find our party, level up, and make academia a better adventure.

Dr Sören Henrich is a Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a member of the Manchester Game Centre, researching how social identity impacts group membership, resilience, but also violence and other harmful behaviour. [email protected]

References

Bates, A. E., Davies, M. A., Stuart-Smith, R. D., Lazzari, N., Lefcheck, J. S., Ling, S. D., ... & Baker, S. C. (2024). Overcome imposter syndrome: Contribute to working groups and build strong networks. Biological Conservation, 293, 110566.

Bateson, P. (2013). Play, playfulness, creativity, and innovation. Cambridge University Press.

Beghetto, R. A. (2021). 18 Creative Identity Development in Classrooms. The Cambridge Handbook of Lifespan Development of Creativity, 395.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The concept of flow. Flow and the foundations of positive psychology: The collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 239-263.

Dennis, J. P., & Vander Wal, J. S. (2010). The cognitive flexibility inventory: Instrument development and estimates of reliability and validity. Cognitive therapy and research, 34, 241-253.

Harris, P., & Daley, J. (2008). Exploring the contribution of play to social capital in institutional adult learning settings. Australian journal of adult learning, 48(1), 50-70.

Henrich, S., & Worthington, R. (2023). Let your clients fight dragons: A rapid evidence assessment regarding the therapeutic utility of 'Dungeons & Dragons'. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 18(3), 383-401.

Henrich, S. (2024, April 22). Dungeons and Dragons at 50: how the role-playing game may soon be used as a form of therapy. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/dungeons-and-dragons-at-50-how-the-role-playing-game-may-soon-be-used-as-a-form-of-therapy-226584

Kolontari, F., Lawton, M., & Rhodes, S. (2023). Using developmental mentoring and coaching approaches in academic and professional development to address feelings of 'imposter syndrome'. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 11(1), 34-41.

Lehto, K. (2021). Role-playing games and well-being. International Journal of Role-Playing, (11), 72-93.

McAdams, D. P. (2003). Identity and the life story. In Autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self (pp. 203-224). Psychology Press.

Moore, D., & Price, E. (2018). Failing forward. J. New Librarianship, 3, 16.

Stebbins, R.A. (2007). Serious leisure: a perspective for our time. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

Sutton-Smith, B., Scott, B., & Scott, S. F. (1971). Play, games, and controls. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1978). Intergroup behavior. Introducing social psychology, 401(466), 149-178.

Winnicott, D.W., (1971). Playing and reality. Oxford: Routledge.