What is character development in RPGs, and why is it so important? It gives players a deeper connection to their characters and a more immersive experience. Here's why character development can turn a good campaign into a great RPG. With character development tips to get the most out of your next game.

What is the connection between RPG characters and personal development? While we’re immersed in the game, our characters are impacting our own personalities in ways we may not be aware of. What are the different types of characters we play in D&D, and how do they drive our personal growth? What are the best RPG character creation tips to have fun and while driving our personal growth & understanding?

Anger begets anger. Our brains radiate their emotional condition outward, much like a wizard casting an area of effect spell in D&D. Looking at Dungeons and Dragons for clues on personal development, is our anger really like casting the Radiance of the Dawn? And are we damaging others when casting our personal anger spells or is it just an emotional radiance that causes no harm?

From superheroes to fantasy heroes, we are inspired to become something more. But how to be a hero in real life, and what makes someone a hero? The truth is that without gaining magical abilities or finding superpowers, the path to heroism may be easier than you think. We all have the ability to become our best selves and embrace our inner hero.

There are many benefits to playing games. When we put down the controller or pack up our dice, the values we learned in playing games stay with us. From video games to tabletop roleplaying games, playing games teaches us about life. Here are the ten most important life lessons that I learned from gaming.

Many games let players personalize their character’s development through a game skill tree. Different combinations allow for a great variety in gameplay and player engagement. What are different player types on RPG skill trees? What about real-life skill trees? How to manage our goals through levels of experience and how we can create our own skill tree for real life?

Stress is often unavoidable. But how we react to stress can have a greater impact on our physical and mental health than the stressor itself. What can RPGs teach us about stress? We typically chose the most beneficial stress management strategies while playing. One of the great benefits of role-playing games is that they can teach adaptive coping mechanisms that we can apply to our real lives.

Have you ever enjoyed huge RPGs like Skyrim, Fallout 4, or The Witcher 3 with numerous side quests? Side quests can be a great addition but they can also distract from the main story. What about in real life? The side quests in life often distract from our real-life main quest too. How can you find a balance between working on your dreams and completing those real-life side quests?

“Life is a game.” Gamification is a powerful tool to motivate us by making tasks more fun and enjoyable. Companies have used it for over 100 years to encourage us to buy their products and schools have found great success gamifying education. But what is the science behind gamification and how does it work?

Quests in games provide goals, help us progress our story, and develop our character. What if we could do earn experience points and complete quests in real life? There are plenty of real quests that we can take to improve our stats and have some fun along the way.

Here is a list of 25 real-life quests for nerds, geeks, gamers, and would-be adventurers to get you started on your adventure.

Whether video games or tabletop games, we enjoy the immersion, interesting questlines, and magical creatures of role-playing games. But next to it, our reality may feel anything but an adventure. Boring responsibilities, difficult challenges, and some days life is anything but fun. 

But what if we thought about real life as an RPG?   While it may seem like a novel idea, changing our mindset and thinking about life as a game can produce real benefits to our lives. 

Every good fantasy story and RPGs include a band of adventurers facing danger together. In real life, we can have the same. Real-life party members help us battle our monsters and encourage us to work toward our goals. Who are your traveling companions and what RPG party roles do they fill? And if we are in a real-life RPG, how can we find other adventurers to share the journey with us? Remember, it’s dangerous to go it alone.

We may not have dragons to slay and princesses to rescue in real life, but there are plenty of quests that we can take to improve our stats and be more successful.

Is life an RPG? In role-playing games, you get to beautiful landscapes, exciting action scenes, fantastic stories, interesting characters, and best of all, be the hero. But what about real life? There's no magic or fiery steeds. But if life was a game, how would it compare to our favorite RPGs? Here’s a review of the game of life and why real life is the hardest RPG of all.

Self-discovery as the hero’s journey. Heroes in stories go on great adventures and return home heroic. We can take the steps that Joseph Campbell described in the Hero's Journey in our own search for purpose. It is not an easy journey, but no great adventure ever was. Starting with the Call to Adventure, we pack our bags and set forth on an adventure of authenticity to become our own hero.