Playing pretend is so important. People these days love to talk about «healing your inner child,» to means doing things you loved as a kid in order to soothe the part of you that’s still a wounded child. Think about the popularity of adult coloring books, Disney adults, or adult dodgeball leagues. It’s not regression, it’s important inner work. Getting back to a place of childlike wonder and excitement can do numbers for your mental health. And playing pretend is a huge way to do that. Remember when you could spend hours playing «doctor» or «school» or «house» where you’d roles of regular adults and did whatever you assumed they did? Or when you’d set up pillow forts and pretend like it was a castle under siege. 

DnD is perfect for that. It’s a socially acceptable way to play pretend as adults. Actually, scratch that. Who cares if it’s socially acceptable? It’s just pure fun. And we can look at memes about it.