Written as part of an oral presentation he gave when in Year 12.

Hello ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming here today. Today I will be convincing you all of why Dungeons and Dragons should be allowed in our school system and offered to our students.

What are Dungeons & Dragons? It is a tabletop roleplaying game. In this game, people are encouraged to express themselves more freely and openly than they might otherwise. Being able to express oneself is a difficult thing to do at times, so this could help students with doing so.

Dungeons and Dragons provides a structured way for people to get to know one another in a way that is easier than talking to strangers you’ve only just met; this could be beneficial to socially awkward children and teenagers who have trouble with conversations and small talk.

DND is a game based around teamwork; rather than having people play against one another, you work in a team to help one another complete tasks and achieve goals. Teamwork is an important skill to learn and a difficult one at times, so if students played D&D, they would start to learn the importance of teamwork, as one player cannot do everything alone. Doesn’t everyone want our children to be able to get along with one another?

Another skill that can be built playing Dungeons & Dragons is imagination.
Imagination might not always seem the most important skill, but without it, nothing new would ever be created. Imagination is important as it encourages the mind to create stories and other worlds to get lost in for hours, and with that world you have created using your imagination, you can use DND to let your friends explore with you. A Dungeons & Dragons world is a world woven with many different colours, and each colour can appeal to a different person.

Dungeons & Dragons engages players in hours of endless creativity; what I mean by this is: What if you wanted to be an elven sorcerer with a pet monkey? – in DND you can.

When you create a character to express yourself, you also get to create the story of their past: were they born a royal? Were they a sailor? Were they a scholar at an academy? The possibilities are endless.

Speaking of characters DND can also help players develop more empathy towards others, how you might ask, well Dungeons and Dragons makes you play by wearing someone else’s shoes, this is done through your character, because your character is not yourself in the game it is someone else in a different world, when you play you should always try your best to try and act the way that character would depending on how you wrote them to act. Don’t we want our children to have a strong sense of empathy towards others?

Now I wish to discuss how DND can help with improving mental health wellbeing of students which nowadays, several students suffer from self-confidence issues – DND can help with building up our students self-confidence, this is done by showing them their ideas are good and often fun, ideas meaning their characters goals, the plans they yes to overcome issues, the way they solve riddles and puzzles, those are a few examples of which can help with confidence building, confidence is important for people of all ages from children to teenagers to even adults, without confidence people would not be able to do the things they love, they wouldn’t be able to because of having no confidence, out of fear of failing, failing is the first step to success.

Speaking of which, Dungeons and Dragons is a game where failure happens. What I mean by this is you might fail to save the town from bandits, and as a result, the town is destroyed. This does not mean it is the end for the town; it just means you must learn from your mistake and try again in a new way with a new plan. One more thing I must mention is that when playing DND your actions have consequences, it is exactly as it sounds if a player decides I’m going to be a bully to a non-player character and then they have to ask the character for something, that non player-character will remember the player who was a bully and refuse to help of indulge the player, this can teach people that doing whatever you want without thinking can lead to some very unwanted consequences, these consequences can lead to problems happening such as not being able to leave a city, ending up in a prison in the game of course, not being able to buy things from a certain store, or getting banned from joining certain groups of people. 

Now I wish to address the argument that Dungeons & Dragons is evil and satanic; now I wish to ask this: what makes it satanic? Is it the mention of demons and fiends within the game? When playing this game, the goal is often to put a stop to the plans of demons and fiends and to save people from evil. I know that there was a panic in the eighties and nineties about Dungeons and Dragons being Satanic, but I can assure you it isn’t. 

In summary, this game, Dungeons and Dragons, provides many beneficial experiences for its players, which can help them become more outgoing than they were before, along with the creative experience it offers. Before I conclude, I wish to say something which was told to me by my grandfather: “I believe that people have three eyes, two for seeing and the other the imaginative eye, which is essential for seeing the creative aspect of life”. I thank you all for the time you’ve given me today. As you leave, I ask you to consider the possibility of the power stories have upon people, stories that can be told through Dungeons and Dragons.

I hope that with this today I have changed some minds about the use of Dungeons and Dragons within our school system. I wish you all well, and goodbye.