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I was Interviewed to be a D&D Player
This sounds strange, right? Being interviewed for the position of “Dungeons and Dragons Player.” Well, as a Dungeon Master myself, I understand entirely why. It is not easy to find a player who will fit well into your current D&D group. Let the wrong person join, and your entire D&D game is ruined for everybody.
However, I still found the process weird. I didn’t see a lot of information online for “interviewing to be a D&D player,” so I thought I would share my experience.
I found a post online of somebody asking people if they would be interested in joining a current D&D group. The person who made this post got over 300 requests from people asking to join. I was one of them.
The guy who made the post decided to conduct interviews for all 300 people.
Here are some of the questions he asked me.
Do you have experience playing Dungeons and Dragons 5e?
He explained why he asked this. He does not have time to teach people how to play the game. One of his requirements is owning your own Player’s Handbook
Wow, that’s pretty extreme, right?
Well, as a DM myself, I agree. Players need to take responsibility for learning their class. The Dungeon Master’s job is already hard as it is. They don’t need to be assisting players during the game. I could tell this guy meant business if that was his first requirement.
What are your expectations for the sessions?
I told him, “I believe in everyone putting in the effort needed to make the game work. I enjoy the roleplay aspect of D&D and letting it become a safe space with the people around you. I am not someone who cares about magic items and making an overpowered character. The best part of D&D for me is getting to be silly with friends.”
He took the word “silly,” the wrong way.
He goes on to immediately say, “Maybe you’re not the right fit for this group.”
I asked, “Why?”
He said, “Because you say you are looking to be silly. Our game has a lot of emotional depth to it. People cry sometimes. It can get very dark.”
To that, I replied, “I’ve made people cry in my Dungeons and Dragons games before. I am looking for a group that is willing to roleplay on a deeper level.”
He paused for a while then said, “Ok, maybe you are a good fit. We’ll continue the interview.”
Are you employed? What is your availability?
The guy then tells me he asks this because he wants to run a D&D session every week.
When I told him I was laid off due to COVID, he said, “that is going to be a problem.” he goes on to explain, “I believe for someone to be a good D&D player they need to have their personal life in order. I also don’t want you to disappear on us mid-campaign for a new job.”
I never thought of it that way, but he made an excellent point. A rule I live by is to “take care of yourself first so that you can be in a position to take care of others.”
Reliably is very important when it comes to D&D. The way he worded the question when it came to employment caught me off-guard.
I was not worried about the unemployed thing, but I guess that bothered him.
Our current group is mostly female players, does this bother you?
He went on to explain there are a lot of creeps out there who can’t act normal around females. I completely agree. After he asked me this, I understood why he was interviewing people so thoroughly.
Tying to build a consistent, safe space for a group like that can be very difficult. I told him I respect the effort that he was putting into finding a good D&D player.
Females players wouldn’t be an issue for me. In fact, from my experience, women are some of the best Dungeon and Dragons players. They are out of the box thinkers and great roleplayers.
The Rest of the D&D Interview
We spent the rest of the interview chatting about our experiences as Dungeon Masters. He spoke about the projects he was working on for this group. Things like printing large poster board maps and investing in Dwarven Forge Tiles
We finished the interview with him telling me, “while we got along great, you are not a good fit for us right now because you are unemployed. I am worried you won’t be reliable.”
It’s crazy to think that was the reason why he didn’t want me as a player.
He told me he’d stay in touch and might invite me to a D&D “One Shot” session one day with his current group to see how I would play with them.
The interview ended, and that was that.
Overall Thoughts
Interviewing to be a D&D player was something out of my comfort zone. I thought I was a good Dungeon Master, but chatting with someone who has been doing it for 15 years was a real eye-opener.
The guy knew what he wanted and what he was looking for. He had high standards for his players. This was something I respect and took away from this experience.
Being interviewed as a player also helped me understand how I can pick better players for my Dungeons and Dragons games.
I hope this has been insightful. If you had any similar experiences leave a comment.
