Flood of Kobolds vs. Epic Boss Fight
I had a group where I was running a dragon-themed adventure. Before you gasp and say mockingly, “In Dungeons & Dragons, there are actually dragons?” let me tell you that that was just thematic (as far as my players knew).
Part of this was making Kobolds be in a frenzy because they were acting on the orders of their dragon overlord. For those unaware, Kobolds are the cannon fodder of the D&D world. The party was repeatedly beleaguered by hordes of them with staged battles (archers then infantry then mages). Long story short, each battle felt like a big fight with the difficulty ramping up each time. Unfortunately for my players, these were just the opening volleys.
The big battle was against a young dragon. Don’t let the word “young” distract you from the word “dragon.” This wasn’t an easy fight. Sadly, it was nearly a total party kill (TPK) for the group because they got overconfident based on their previous encounters. Confidence is great – overconfidence less so.
I’ve seen the same thing in IT. Technicians get cocky thinking that they know everything and bite off more than they can chew. This is typically something that green IT people do, but they don’t have exclusive rights to this failing. The thought that “in a perfect world it will go just like this” falls on its face when you realize that there’s no such thing as a perfect world. New IT people sometimes don’t have the good sense to think, “maybe this isn’t just one-degree harder than the previous thing I did.” If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s that you cannot win every fight with the same skills you already have. Learn new skills and evaluate your scenarios before rushing in.
Summation
We get to the final question here, “Has running a D&D game actually provided me with any life skills?” The answer is a resounding “Yes!” So much so, that I would have no issue putting a few things on my professional resume.
- Meet with peers for scheduled creativity and conflict resolution exercises
- Assisted multiple people with gathering experience for both character and skill development
- Learned to quickly assess situations and collaborate on best solutions
