Everything I Need to Know I Learned from RPGs: A player's handbook for the game of life

by Jeff Ashworth, Chris Seaman (Illustrations)

Jeff Ashworth, author of the bestselling Game Master series of resource books for the world's most popular roleplaying game, combines his depth of knowledge about the mechanics of dice-based RPGs and the universal experiences gathered while playing a campaign to create a ruleset for leveling up your own life.

Featuring invaluable lessons drawn directly from TTRPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Blades in the Dark, Fiasco and other TTRPGs (“Always check for traps;” “Never underestimate the power of a short rest;” “Don’t feed the trolls”) as well as in-depth analyses of the ways in which these games’ character archetypes can be successful models for varying approaches to life (“Rage is My How to Live Like a Barbarian and Keep Your Job”), this player’s handbook for the game of life also features high concept illustrations of (and strategies for defeating) horrifying real-world monsters like that pile of junk in the garage, the soul-sucking ghost of nostalgia and the many-headed hydra that is the work/life balance.

With more hilarious, practical lessons than you can fit in a bag of holding, and referencing more than a dozen popular tabletop roleplaying games, it’s a self-improvement book for anyone seeking guidance (both the spell and the advice) in their daily lives.

Genres: Humor

224 pages, Hardcover

Published February 20, 2024

Reviews

[Anthony Kurza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Offers a fresh look into the world of outcomes for TTRPG’s great for educators looking to incorporate TTRPG’s into teaching life skills

[Lamadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very funny. Not just in the ways the author interpreted real life in D&D terms, but also the aside comments that came out of nowhere and were hilarious. Also, the way real life was interpreted into D&D. I didn't expect to get anything life changing out of this, but I think it is actually helpful to cast Reframe on everyday problems and see them as a game that can be played. It makes everything seem less dire and dramatic and more doable and fun. If I can make up a plan to attack a dragon, I should be able to attack the Drag-On problems. It also reminds me to ask for help occasionally with my everyday problems the same way that I would never be able to get past the first Dungeon Crawl without the rest of the adventuring party.

I think my favorite section was the monsters and their stat blocks for things like The FOMO Swarm, The Siren of Procrastination, and the Pile of Perpetual Clutter. It was inventive and fun. The illustrations were really fun as well. I think I'll try to use the sections at the end of the classes on how to live like that class. Sometimes it might be helpful to try to have a day more like a Druid or a Ranger.

[Andries van Wyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has four parts - classes, tips, monsters and spells.
The classes and tips, though good as summaries of ttrpg classes and tips for the table, has minimal bearing and application to the real word. These are excellent for newbies to ttrpg to find out what is at the core of the various core classes for ttrpg. Helping you in your everyday life - not at all, apart from identifying yourself in them. The tips are general tips you learn around the table. Again, applicable in the real world, not really.
The monsters are very cleverly done, apt and funny. This is applicable in the real world.
The spells are ... well quirky and funny, but again not applicable really. If things were that easy to solve by just casting a spell ... by definition we’d be in a very different place.

As a whole there book is an interesting quirky idea but not really helpful.

[Alex Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Clinical Social Worker, this book resonated with me for all that could be learned by my clients. As an RPG fan, it just made me want to drop everything and get back to RPGs as it is so spot on. A life changing book that I couldn't put down!

[Brian Wilkerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has fascinating insight. I thought it was going to be a silly thing, like jokes about wizards casting fireball, but it is actually pretty serious. There is humor involved, but it is wrapped around the serious stuff.

The “Class-y Advice” is my favorite, and so I’ll list some things here:

Barbarian = Rage is a resource. Use it for energy and direct it to solve your problems. Rage by itself is not an action.
Bard= Bardic Inspiration is a bonus action. It only takes seconds to encourage someone and those few seconds could legitimately help them succeed in their day.
Fighter = A few times per day, you can action surge to get that extra output when it counts, but you can /only/ do things a few times per day (or you will burn out), so choose carefully.
Wizard = warping reality because they believed that they could and studied hard to do so; wizardry requires dedication.


Real-World Monsters felt a little TOO real at times.
*The Drag-On, for tasks that never seem to end.
*The Shadow of Doubt, perpetually haunting its victims.
*The Detail Devils, frequently appearing to harass people, keep them busy, and interfere with their schedules and what they truly want to do.
*FOMO swarms, part of the reason why I don’t follow social media anymore.
Etc.
This book helps to identify them and suggests ways of dealing with them. It even suggests “Spells” and Mundane Magic Items to help with slaying them.

Trickster Eric Novels gives Everything I need to Know I learned from RPGs an A+

[Syc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of philosophy. Not life hacks. Sometimes it is all about perspective. From an RPG point of view, life is much more entertaining. But you have to know how to switch on your player mode. I don't agree with everything in the book, nevertheless, it is 10x more useful than what school/parent taught me.

[Markwoods · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes clever and true, sometimes a bit of a stretched truth. The best bit is the class guides: he sees them as like zodiac signs or Enneagram numbers.

[John Geddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really clever idea, but they really torture that metaphor for a long time to make it fit.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good read. Has some good pointers in there for sure. Just cast Focus and get it read!

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was really cute. It'd be closer to a 3.5 personally for me. Parts of it dragged a bit toward the end especially but I loved the character classes and lessons from the table section!

[Tom Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the concept and I like the art a lot. I just lost a lot of steam on this and didn't finish.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little self help book disguised as a gaming book.

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, worth a skim. Nothing groundbreaking life advice wise- maybe for some young nerds it may be helpful, but it’s a silly way of presenting generic advice and the art is fun. Definitely would be a bit of a slog to read it all through. Some sections work better than others— some feel shoehorned by the concept.