D&D at 50: The National Security Angle

Dungeons and Dragons is fifty this year, and we haven’t done nearly as much at the blog to explore than anniversary as I had hoped. I would love to hear about how folks here have experienced with the game (please no “I hate D&D; actually I’ve never heard of D&D; in fact I live in a hermetically-sealed aluminum pod and never interact socially beyond LGM threads,” although it is okay to hate on D&D and give reasons for that hate), and I’ve put together a couple short columns at National Security Journal about the relationship between D&D and the national security enterprise. Here’s the first:

A cursory inquiry online demonstrates the depth and breadth of the penetration of D&D into national security communities. There is no shortage of stories of D&D campaigns taking place in military and security environments. One reason why deployed troops play D&D is that the game is flexible; it can be played with a board and pieces, with just pencil and paper, or online. Games can go on for months or even years, with players dropping in and out as availability dictates. Its attraction for groups of deployed soldiers, sailors, or intelligence professionals is obvious under the circumstances. Like any other kind of game, D&D can offer relief in stressful situations.  A robust gaming culture has developed among soldiers and citizens in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, for example. Of course, not everyone is a fan. The IDF famously views Dungeons and Dragons with suspicion, reducing the security clearances of draftees who play the game avidly.

And D&D may be more useful to the national security community than simply a way to pass the time. In the next column, I look at how some have proposed that Dungeons and Dragons can be played to positively enhance certain kinds of training and organizational performance. The founders of D&D did not envision that the wargame would feed back into the actual practice of national security, but it has done so and seems to have an expanding footprint in that professional world.