Slaying the Red Dragon On Scene and at the Lounge Table

Think about a time when you responded to an automobile fire. How did it feel? Who was with you? Where were the owners? How did you put out the fire?

Now think about the same scenario, but now next to the vehicle is a propane tank, and the automobile is a Tesla. The situation has changed completely, and a decision must be made. Should you try to put out the vehicle? Cool the propane tank? Do you have enough water to sit on that line for long? Why are there goblins stealing stuff off of your engine?

Wait, goblins?

What I just made you do is role-play in my Dungeons & Dragons-themed world. What I asked you to imagine is a separate domain, where monsters and crazy calls happen distinct from reality.

Numerous fire service benefits

I realize that I might have lost half of you there with that previous paragraph, but you want to hear me out.

Here is my proposal: Dungeons & Dragons, aka D&D, and other role-playing games (RPGs) can be used by the fire service as a tool to practice decision-making. They can help us to develop skills to respond to psychological stress. They are a great way to build unit cohesion and teamwork. They can help us to develop social skills to use in citizen interaction.

Whether you ride the front seat of the engine or ride on horseback with a spear charging at a hill giant, strategies must be set for the encounter that you’re about to endure. Proper scene size-up, delegation of tasks and response to condition changes are important factors. It’s the same approach whether I am doing a 360 of a house or looking around a cave for traps.

I support the viewpoint that anxiety can be diminished via role-playing, including because RPG mistakes can serve as learning opportunities.

If riding the front seat isn’t your everyday assignment or your department simply has a low call volume, making decisions at the D&D table can help to fill in the gaps. Of course, role-playing can be done by simply pretending that you are responding to an incident (which is great training as well). However, once you respond to, say, your fifth imaginary structure fire, imagination can get to be thin. D&D has countless maps and enemy configurations that make the decision-making process more fun.

An appealing addition

Emotional health in the fire service is severely lacking, and it’s our responsibility to take care of ourselves as well as to watch out for each other.

According to Sarah Lynne Bowman, who is the author of “The Function of Role-Playing Games,” the elements of RPGs and videogames can be a path that allows greater engagement and immersion in interventions. Daniel Luccas Arenas and his fellow authors of “Therapeutic Use of Role-Playing Games (RPG) in Mental Health: A Scoping Review,” argue that RPGs promote well-being and social connectedness, too.

We know that social connectedness leads to positive mental health changes and that isolation can intensify emotional stress. It can be far easier to get a firefighter to come out to the station for snacks and to “save the city from a volcano eruption” than to practice emergency response.

In the volunteer service, it can be difficult to get everyone together more than once per week—sometimes even more infrequently—for hands-on drills. Furthermore, during the pandemic, there was a sharp increase in mental health issues.

Doing D&D sessions over Zoom was something that I tried with my friends. Not only was it helpful to my mental health amid being inside all of the time, but my friends and I reconnected after being separated for so long. We still are playing to this day.

A teamwork tool

Building unit cohesion and teamwork is vital. The strongest of these bonds are built through the trials of interior work. There is no better feeling than getting that quick knock on that fire and saving a home. Sharing that experience is incredible.

Joseph Luca and Deanna Heal, who wrote “Is Role-Play an Effective Approach to Assist Students to Improve Teamwork Skills,” believe that the concept that teamwork skills and team member participation often can be enhanced through role-playing is valid, because role-playing allows for hypothetical situations to be approached in an authentic setting.

In D&D, teamwork is essential. Your character only thrives and succeeds if part of a team. Yes, you can do a lot of damage to a dragon by using a super-cool fire sword, but that’s one attack, as opposed to causing damage by using your teammates’ skills to your advantage. Instead of attacking the dragon head on, how about you and your team using your various strengths to create a trap with swinging logs, one person controlling the release as the others lure it in.

I want to know my partner’s skills and feel comfortable knowing what we can achieve together. If we are out for a medical call and beat the medic to the scene, I should know who has EMT training and how we want to tackle the call. For example, we must plan for who will do compressions first at a cardiac arrest and who will set up the automated external defibrillator. If you have enough cohesion, you get to a point where a plan occurs with minimal communication. Your team runs like a well-oiled machine based on the trust that you have with one another.

Self-awareness and empathy

Firefighters are perceived by the public as superheroes, but one thing that we constantly must work on is how we engage with those who view us as such.

It can be considerably awkward to talk to someone who is visibly upset by an emergency scenario. Many people might not feel comfortable being comforted.

According to Mikko Meriläinen, who is the author of “The Self-Perceived Effects of the Role-Playing Hobby on Personal Development: A Survey Report,” the positive effects from playing RPGs include increased self-awareness and empathy. According to Soren Henrich and Rachel Worthington, who authored “Let Your Clients Fight Dragons: A Rapid Evidence Assessment Regarding the Therapeutic Utility of ‘Dungeons & Dragons,’” ethical reasoning is improved, too.

Empathy is the big one here. Having it for your patient and for a character in your fantasy world can be very similar.

Consider this: If a character on your favorite TV show dies, you can feel a sense of loss even though you never interacted with the character. It’s the same feeling in D&D but with the extra fact that you interacted with the character during your entire journey, and you have bonds.

Immersing yourself in a fantasy world allows you all of the emotional responses without the real-world consequences. This provides the opportunity to experience things that you might never have felt before, which can allow you to empathize with your community members even though you lack their previous or current experiences.

For yourself, your department, your community

I will level with you: D&D is the nerdiest thing that I ever experienced in my life, and most people who play it probably will tell you the same thing. However, it’s incredibly beneficial and fun to spend time with friends stealing all of the gold in a city and then using that gold to make a massive hammer to beat the boss with.

These are crazy times, but you never accomplish the journey without friends and teammates. You only stand to benefit and make your department better by playing RPGs. It will make you a better decision-maker, relieve stress, make you closer to your brothers and sisters and help you in developing social skills.

Do yourself a favor and set up a session with fellow members. Even if you don’t believe me about its benefits, D&D is all sorts of fun and can be a great station-bonding experience.

When people are in their darkest hour, we must be the heroes who they expect to come and save them from the red dragon.