Dungeons and Dragons (DnD or D&D) is a kind of tabletop role-playing games (TTRPG or RPG) that was published in 1974, and is currently published by Wizards of the Coast (a Hasbro subsidiary).

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Broadly speaking, DnD is essentially a cooperative story telling game. The Dungeon Master (DM), or Game Master (GM) depending on who you talk to, will act as the referee regarding the rules and gameplay, but more importantly they will explain the environments and conflicts of the game, and will typically play as multiple Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) the players can interact with. Players on the other hand, create characters and back stories in a variety of ways, and then choose how those characters will engage with the world created by the DM, using dice and DM's parameters to determine success of certain actions. The actual equipment can be as simple as a piece of paper, some dice, and the "theater of the mind" or can be as detailed as several painted miniatures specially created terrain maps, and hand build boxes used to roll die. As technology has improved there exists many cloud based programs to run DnD games online with friends all over the world as well. 

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Since the inception of the game some religious groups have been vocal about the game's "promotion" of such things as devil worship, demons, and the satanic panic. This publicity actually skyrocketed the popularity of the game. DnD's popularity inspired the creation of more TTRGPs such as "Fate", Live Action Role-Playing (LARP), and several RPG video games that continue to dominate the markets such as "Fallout" or "Skyrim". Even today there exists movies, books, TV series, streaming services, You tube channels, podcasts, and many other forms of media dedicated or inspired by DnD. Popular actors such as Joe Manganiello and Stephen Colbert are open about their love for the game. Critical Role (a web series) and Dimension 20 (a gameshow on Dropout TV) have done live tours at conventions and sold out stadiums around the world. It is not uncommon for player to tout, in online forums or in other groups, that DnD is where they turned when they could not access therapy or was their first kind of therapy.    

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It wasn't till more recent years, DnD system has been used as a tool for therapeutic interventions. While this is a fairly new development, DnD's system can easily incorporate coping skills into the game play strategy and gives players a safe place to explore areas of their lived experience that normally feel too scary or unsafe to access even in a therapy session. DnD creates a sandbox for player to explore situations such as sexuality, gender, or even trauma. Therapists comfortable can incorporate traditional interventions (role playing) and coping skills into game play for clients to practice while they are simply having fun. 

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More research is of course needed, but the benefits of using TTRPG in therapy continues to expand. Below are a few articles regarding the use for TTRPGs in therapy. 

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• John Hopkins University

• WIRED

• CBC

• The Guardian

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