 Okay, it is a crisp, cold evening. The sun has just set and the sky is that light blue sapphire color. You take in a deep breath. You can tell that it rained earlier in the day. It has that fresh, clean smell. You hear the leaves rustling around you when you hear the animals starting to settle down for the night. You and your friends have been set out on an adventure. You are tasked with going into the elven city of Eredos, retrieving a magical artifact, and then your true mission is to defeat a dragon that has been causing terror and mass destruction nearby. The elven city is hidden amongst the woods that you see in front of you. You and your friends set out on the adventure. You start to travel through the woods. At first, it's fun. You're hanging out, you're making jokes, you're laughing. And then it feels like you've been traveling for hours. The air draws cold. Too cold. You get the chill down the back of your neck like something's coming. You start to get the feeling that something's watching you, waiting for you. Maybe praying upon you. My name is Jessica Tate. I am an art director at ThinkShout. ThinkShout is an agency and we do strategy, design, and development for mission-driven organizations. So by day, I do creative and design. By night, I am a dungeon master to a group of eight awesome badass women. I'm actually so happy that there are so many women in the crowd today. I for sure thought that there were going to be a lot of men given the topic of the talk. I also play a level three rogue and a level 12 wizard. If you have no idea what that means, don't worry, I'm going to talk about what Dungeons and Dragons is. I probably haven't been playing as long as some of the people in the room today, but what really excites me about D&D specifically is all of the lessons and stories that we can get from it and how we can apply it to working in teams, working with clients, and working more collaboratively and creatively together. Dungeons and what? Can I get a show of hands of people who have played or watched Dungeons and Dragons before? Okay, cool, very cool. So apparently Seattle has also played Dungeons and Dragons. I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday after I got in from the train from Portland, and there is an entire Dungeons and Dragons section here at this Barnes and Noble in Portland. We just have like a little tiny shelf for Dungeons and Dragons. And if you look really closely on the right, the books apparently are so popular that they are alarmed. There are no other books around them that are alarmed. So certainly something that is becoming and growing more and more in popularity. You might have heard of Dungeons and Dragons because of this show, Stranger Things. It's one of the things that they are playing. One of the best ways I can describe D&D is that it's like a murder mystery party. So you are showing up as a character, and you and your group have a goal that you're trying to accomplish that session or throughout multiple sessions. You have a dungeon master which is the narrator or the storyteller and helps guide the story along much like you would need in a murder mystery party, someone that actually knows who the murderer is. Along with D&D and this idea of collaborative storytelling, you have these infamous dice where I passed out already three D20s. The D20 is like the most common dice that you have for Dungeons and Dragons. And what this dice does is it allows a little bit of structure amidst a game that is very verbal and very in the moment as reacting to each other. It also means that depending on what you roll depends on how the story goes. So you can roll a one which is the worst on a D20 and automatically fail whatever you're trying to do. Or you can roll a 20 and that is a great success. And you probably succeed at what you're trying to do. So it really helps adjust the story based on what you are talking about and how like you as your character are trying to interact with objects and other people in different things throughout the night. Speaking of story, let's get back into it. So can I have the person with the green dice roll the dice and tell me what you get? Okay, so you spot in the bushes two pairs of yellow eyes staring at you. It gives you with that roll just enough time for you to tell your friends hey, there's something up in the bushes. And just then a monster comes and jumps out at you and you and your friends start up in battle. The fighter, the strong one of the group grabs his sword, starts running up towards this monster and starts swinging recklessly at this what we now know are werewolves. The stealthy one, the rogue, using opportune moments and surprise attacks sneaks around and throws a dagger and hits the werewolf in a critical Oregon causing the werewolf to fall. Three other werewolves jump out from behind and ambush the party but these are no problem for these three friends or four friends. The cleric, the one who is the supporter of the group, the healer starts to watch the fighter and whenever the fighter takes a slash from the werewolf claw instantly helps mend those wounds. The wizard in the back watching, trying to find the perfect time to cast a spell creates three magical purple darts and strikes at the werewolf and another one easily falls. In a short matter of time all five werewolves or four werewolves or how many there are fall. The party gathers themselves a little bit damaged, realizes that the forests are full of danger and moves on towards the city. So one of the first lessons that we can talk about is teamwork and collaboration. Talking a little bit about what this means and what I just talked about is some of those words were foreign to you. These are the four main pillars of D&D. You have a fighter who is often the warrior, the soldier and the person that is going to be used in wield like typical common weapons like swords or battle axes. You have the cleric who is often inspired by divine magic and is really good at healing or mending wounds or using kind of like a first aid ability to be able to keep their friends in battle for as long as possible. You have the rogue or the sneaky character kind of like Batman that often has a hood up and is trying to find the most opportune moments to surprise or attack their foes. And then you have the wizard and probably because of Harry Potter a lot of people know what wizards are but they cast spells and use magic. There are a lot of other classes in D&D but for the purpose of today I want to talk about just these four. And looking at that story I just told you might have started to pick out some strengths and weaknesses through the characters. The fighter was instantly the one who is wearing armor and battling the sword up close and personal with the werewolf. Whereas the wizard stood back a little bit. They waited for the moment that felt right to cast spells. So while this is fun and D&D is fun as I started to play more and more D&D and especially as I dungeon mastered for this group of women I started to think to myself what if I was a character? What like would my strengths be as a person in a group that is working because I work a lot in project teams? And so I started to ask myself what are my strengths and weaknesses? And what I think is interesting is that when you are in a project team much like D&D they are very clear to find strength and weaknesses of all of the team members in the group. So when you think about the wizard their strength is staying back and waiting for the right time to cast the spell. When I think about the value that I add as an art director I am able to bring in a perspective of how visually different ideas come to life whether that is through a sketch or Photoshop or on the web. And so that unique perspective is going to be different than perhaps my fellow co-worker who is a project manager who is focused on the budget and the timeline. When you put those forces together and you start working together as a team you are each going to be coming at it with different perspectives. So I would encourage you to think about what are your strengths? When you are in a group of people and you are collaborating and you are brainstorming what unique thing do you bring to the table that maybe someone else does it and can you add your voice and help support the situation? Also, what are your weaknesses? This was a little bit harder for me to think because I think it is easier for us to identify our strengths maybe some of us it is easier to identify our weaknesses but I had to really think when I am in a group of people where do I have to rely on my friends to help support in the spaces that I am not as good? For example, the wizard has to rely on the fighter to be able to take the hits because if the wizard takes a hit it is going to go down instantly because they are not wearing armor. When I was working in a project team one of my personal weaknesses is writing. I have dyslexia and so while I can write it takes me a very long time so I have to use the support of my team members to be able to help communicate through writing and be able to take notes. The differences that we all have together when we are working on a team makes us stronger and that is what I really appreciate about Dungeons and Dragons is that together as a group of people we are stronger than just one individual person. Your friends will help offset your weaknesses and it really becomes a celebration and you are able to see the moment when your friend is shining because you recognize that is not value that you can necessarily add as easily. So, there is a clearing in the forest. You see the lights of Eredos, the Elven City. Often the distance you see a campfire and you get that people are probably gathering around it for the night time. There is a large building on the right. You have been told this is the building with the artifact. You and your friends are standing on the outside of the city and you have to figure out what is the plan. How are you going to infiltrate? The rogue speaks up and says I am sneaky, I can just sneak in and steal the artifact and be out in a jiffy. The fighter, a little bit more bullish says yeah but what if you trip and fall or something we need to make this a little bit better. The fighter offers to pretend to be drunk and start a brawl in the center of town. The cleric then adds in what if I add some fireworks sound effects and that will help draw more attention so that we can get people away from this main building. The wizard sitting there thinking trying to figure out how to outsmart the situation says what if I go with the rogue and I can stand back and potentially charm a guard in case a guard happens to be there. So the person with the blue dice can you please roll your d20? Tell me what you get. Okay, pretty good. So the four of you set off. The plan is in action. The rogue starts sneaking into the main building to retrieve this magical artifact. The brawl starts happening with the fighter. It's a friendly brawl, it's not too much. The fireworks go off, a lot of attention is centered towards the center of town away from this main building. Because of the 14, the rogue is easily able to sneak in to steal the artifact. The wizard is there on standby just in case a guard notices. In this case, no one does notice because that was a pretty good roll. And at the end of the day, the plan goes off without a hitch. The magical artifact is acquired and the party is able to continue on. Creativity. So in this particular example and the story I just told, the problem or the goal was easily defined. The adventuring party knew what the problem was going into it that they had to retrieve the artifact. But this isn't always the case. When you are working in a group of people in a team, it's really easy to get lost in the details. It's easy to lose sight of your actual goal. This also happens in D&D all the time where you often forget what it is you're trying to do or you forget what the goal is. If you are working with a group of people, often creativity comes from a problem that you're trying to solve. Those constraints will help guide the group in a way that allows creativity to prosper. So when you're thinking about trying to solve problems, make sure that problem is clearly identified and that your goal is easily understood by everyone in the group. And more specifically, make sure that everyone knows what that goal is and are aligned on that goal. I also see this a lot, especially when working with clients where the goal of our project team might be different than the goal of the client. So see if you can try to find alignment there and it will allow creativity to be unleashed. Another quick tool is, speaking of tool is actually just talking about what tools you have available to you. So in the example, the wizard said well I have a spell that can help charm a guard. That wizard is uniquely bringing something to the table that the fighter can't because the fighter can't cast a spell. So in our case, when we're working in project teams, can you think of the tools that you have available to you? This is also something that's pulled from improv, where in improv you'll see a lot of times you've got a crowbar and a rope. Is there anything we can do with it? And because I've labeled those two tools instantly in your mind you have an idea of what a crowbar and a rope is. And now your mind is starting to think about ways that you might be able to use that rope in ways that maybe I haven't. Or perhaps you can use that rope with something in your inventory. So as we're working together, can you think about ways that you have that you are using as your tool? For example, I'm an art director. I use Photoshop a lot. So I could potentially say in a teamwork environment, hey, I've got Photoshop. Could we use this image and manipulate it in some way so that we can have some sort of cool design? What I did there is talk not only about Photoshop as the tool, but also what Photoshop could do just because it's not as clear like what a crowbar and a rope could do. I also mentioned this because something more specific like PHP or more things that people aren't always aware of. If you classify it as PHP is really good at databases, can we use this database in a way that will help us create pizza toppings? I don't know, right? So try to clarify not only state the tools that you have, but also talk about what those tools do. It also helps you connect to one another and take ideas and build upon them. Speaking of building upon them, one of my favorite things of D&D is you end up in scenarios that feel crazy. For example in that story, someone could have recommended turning it into a dinosaur and marching through town and causing chaos and the cleric could have turned the dragon or the dinosaur on fire. There's this real childlike creativity that happens in D&D and that's because of this principle of yes and which also is stolen from improv where you take one idea that's a good idea like the rogue sneaking into the building to steal the artifact and then you build upon it and you have other layers that help add to the overall story that you're trying to tell. I think that this childlike creativity is super important especially as creatives and content creators because tapping into what it was like to be creative as a child is something that we know from psychology is really helpful in unleashing more creativity as a person. D&D is a great way to have that framework the more that you can be in your day job or working and thinking about like how would I solve this as a child or what are the crazy ideas? Don't put those ideas aside until you fully explored them because maybe there's something within that idea that is fun and different. You can always go back to the simple idea but try to use not only the crazy ideas but also ideas that are built upon with other friends. The... Come on play. It's not playing. It's supposed to be a gif of a dice rolling. Of course we're rolling dice here as a part of the story and I'm actually adjusting the story I'm telling based on the dice rolls that you're telling me and I think that's really interesting as it relates to D&D and certainly a lesson that I learned is you can have all the information and you can have the perfect plan and you can still fail. You can still have a client presentation that bombs or you can still have a piece of art that no one likes or a piece of content that no one likes and it doesn't mean that you're necessarily bad at what you do it just means that the dice is with you that day. I know that seems kind of silly but I do think it's really important to recognize that even having all the tools you have and all of the creativity you can have there are still times of chance where it just might not be up to you that day and there are also going to be times where it's going to be a total success and maybe you weren't expecting it. So think about that dice as that element of chance and how that might apply to your day to day life. So the artifact is acquired. You and your friends can now enter into the caves where the dragon dwells. You approach the caves and it smells rancid. There are rotting carcasses and bones everywhere. You look deeper into the cave and you can see that it becomes denser with these bones and carcasses. You hear the occasional drip from the ceiling. You begin to adventure and deeper. You can hear off in the distance the breathing and snarls of what you assume is the dragon. You begin to descend down into this massive cavern. It's huge, 80 foot tall ceilings. In the center is a red dragon waiting for you and ready. Can I have the person with the red dice roll the dice? Okay. A nine or a six? A six? Okay. Not great. So the dragon gets to go first. Noticing you and watching you come down and descend down into the cavern. The dragon instantly leaps out and starts using its claws and mouth to start attacking your fighter. Without hesitation the fighter snaps back with his sword and starts attacking the dragon but this dragon is strong. The wizard casts a spell that causes a black ichor to seep out of the scales around the dragon's body. The rogue with the unnatural speed starts throwing daggers and trying to find those moments of maybe where the wizard just had casted that spell. The dragon continues to bite and claw down at the fighter and to the rogue. The cleric still watching the situation continues to try to heal whenever they can and perhaps in this instant casts a spell to give them insight into some of the dragon's weaknesses. After a few rounds of battle the dragon attacking the group attacking the dragon takes a moment steps back. The group thinks that the fight is done and then you hear this loud roar and the dragon lets out this massive dragon breath followed behind it this fireball that takes over the party. Sorry, oh man. The group instantly starts to get burned and the wizard not wearing armor also in the dragon breath falls to the ground. The rest of the party looks around feeling like they're about to fall any moment then in the rogue's pouch from the magical artifact that they stole they can feel the slight hum and the vibration of this artifact starting to seemingly activate. The rogue pulls it out and notices that it's glowing ready to work. Starts without knowing how to use it throws it at the dragon with a pulse of light and the dragon is temporarily blinded knowing that the wizard has fallen to the ground seemingly unconscious and the group doesn't know what to do they just keep doing what they know best. The rogue continues to throw daggers the cleric tries to heal looks at the wizard thinking should I try to get it back up or do I take this moment and fight the dragon knowing that the dragon must be defeated the cleric throws an axe towards the dragon the fighter seeing the dragon in its blind state the moment of panic use his sword and uppercuts up into the mouth and with that you hear the lard boom of the body as the dragon's body hits the bottom of the cavern you have defeated the dragon without an instant without a breath the cleric knows that the wizard is still dying on the floor runs over and heals him and brings him back to life storytelling something that is really fun about D&D is this idea of the story and it's constantly changing just like I adjusted the story and had the dragon go first if you had rolled higher you guys would have gone first so think about that when you're in a group of people can you adjust and react based on what other people are saying I know especially for me it's often easy for me to get in my own head and want to get my own ideas out there but if you're actually reacting to what people are saying and building upon different ideas you might have different unexpected outcomes that you originally thought I love it because it forces people to react in the moment in D&D and you have to adjust and change what you're doing because of the role of the dice I also don't want you to be afraid of imperfection when you're telling stories moments that cause humility I can tell you personally that as a rogue I was running off a balcony which is supposed to be pretty easy for me and I rolled a 1 so I failed so I just cursed splatted but I remember that moment you remember failures and you remember moments of real emotional stress because it's connecting to you in a way that is more impactful than just telling a factual story we also know this because if you think back to your childhood probably the memories that you have in your memory the strongest are the memories that are full of emotion as a child can we tell stories that bring emotion to the surface both positive and negative don't be afraid to tell stories that feel a little bit awkward or feel different because I think you're going to remember those than the perfectly crafted story that tells the story of the company in the perfect way stories connect us together and allow us to understand each other if you also were paying attention I've used multiple senses when I've talked about telling these stories throughout each story beat and it's because when you talk through multiple senses like sight hearing, smell, touch you're able to connect in a way that feels more organic and human because you're not just taking one input you're forced to think about multiple inputs so when you are telling stories can you think about using not just one sense can you use sound to help add to the story although being on the web sound isn't great but can you use other things can you describe through touch can you feel like or add various senses to help tell a more impactful story it makes it stronger more personal and more relatable so this concludes the adventure of our four friends who have defeated the red dragon and stole the magical artifact from Eredos they did return the magical artifact for now they are happy and safe and feel a little bit stronger not only as warriors but also as friends because they went into a dragon's lair and defeated the dragon there is probably another adventure in their near future but they never know what is lurking around the corner thank you we probably don't have much time for questions but maybe if there's like one or two questions I want to make sure I give you time to get to other sessions oh and the people at the dice you gotta keep them yeah thank you so much