Collaboration

One thing I love about Dungeons & Dragons is this opportunity to collaborate. In fact, one way I describe D&D is as "a collaborative story-telling game." Each player controls one of several main characters, and the Dungeon Master controls the world those characters live in. The DM describes the scene the characters are in, the players declare what their characters try to do, a number of dice are rolled to determine how successful the character's attempt was, and the DM describes how the character's actions affect the scene.This goes back and forth, with the players and the DM describing actions and outcomes, until the story they all weave together reaches a (hopefully) satisfying conclusion. The end result is a story experience that is shaped by everyone. The DM, as the narrator, arguably has the most control over the story, but the players also control the story to a large degree by deciding the actions of the main characters. The collaboration that can exist between the players and the DM is, I think, a beautiful thing. Everyone at the table works together to make something awesome, hilarious, and fun.

I love collaboration. I love it when people work together, pool their ideas and resources, and do great things together. I love it when everyone gets to participate in the collective creation. It can be argued that one of mankind's greatest strength is the ability we have to collaborate, to create greater things together than any one of us could have created on our own. Many games and systems focus on competition, and I think competition has its place, but I also love when games and systems make room for cooperation. Cooperation and collaboration are wholesome and uplifting, and I'm glad that they're an integral part of my favorite game.