Its eyes are glowing bright red, the flames are sprouting from its wings, and it comes rushing at you,

it comes flying at you. What do you do? And if you're a character who's a stout dwarf warrior with a big battle axe you might say to the dungeon

master I want to try to attack it with my two-handed sword. A game like

Dungeons and Dragons allows you to be the storyteller of your own life.

This is Ethan Gilsdorf.

He's a writer and performer and a self-described nerd,

and he's written and spoken about how his childhood obsession with the game

Dungeons and Dragons has helped him face certain challenges and understand his life

in a more meaningful way. I think the moment that I discovered that all my years of playing

Dungeons and Dragons may have been more than just a waste of time

was when I was around 40 and I rediscovered all of my Dungeons and Dragons,

maps and character sheets and dice and rulebooks, which I had kept in a box.

Dungeons and Dragons is an open-ended role-playing game

where your character takes part in an epic story

facing all manner of mythical obstacles like orks and dragons and

wizards on your way to gathering experience and power. But the long-term value of

the game, as Ethan sees it, is in the act of storytelling.

Telling your own story can be very empowered.

It allows you to interpret what happens, just to center yourself in your own narrative

is a very, I think, powerful and important

experience to have.

As storytellers, we get to define the narrative, right?

...