Hobbies Adjacent to D&D: Recreational Activities for Tabletop Fans
Tabletop roleplaying pulls together a distinctive mix of skills — storytelling, tactical thinking, creative improvisation, and social coordination — and it turns out that combination maps onto a surprisingly wide range of other hobbies. This page identifies the recreational activities that share the most meaningful overlap with D&D, explains what makes each one a natural fit, and helps players figure out which adjacent pursuit is worth their time and shelf space.
Definition and scope
The phrase "hobbies adjacent to D&D" refers to recreational activities that share at least one core mechanic, creative process, or social structure with tabletop roleplaying games. The operative word is adjacent — not identical. Miniature painting and D&D both involve a tabletop, but one is a solo craft practice and the other is a group narrative exercise. What they share is a specific aesthetic sensibility and a tolerance for intricate, slow-burning projects.
The dndauthority.com reference framework treats D&D as a broadly recreational activity, which is explored in depth at How Recreation Works: A Conceptual Overview. Adjacent hobbies are evaluated against that framework — not just by surface similarity, but by the degree to which the underlying skills and satisfactions transfer.
The scope here covers 6 primary hobby categories: miniature wargaming, live-action roleplaying (LARP), creative writing and worldbuilding, board games with narrative elements, video game RPGs, and improvisational theater.
How it works
The transfer of skills across hobbies follows a predictable pattern. D&D develops 3 distinct competency clusters:
- Narrative competency — constructing plot arcs, managing character motivation, pacing tension and release
- Tactical competency — resource management, spatial reasoning, probability assessment (see Dice Rolling and Probability for how this plays out mechanically)
- Social competency — collaborative decision-making, conflict resolution at the table, reading a room
Different adjacent hobbies activate different clusters. Miniature wargaming, for instance, engages tactical competency almost exclusively — games like Warhammer 40,000 from Games Workshop involve point-based army construction and turn-by-turn combat resolution that will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has run a D&D encounter. The narrative side is largely absent unless a player builds it in deliberately.
Improv theater, by contrast, draws almost entirely on narrative and social competency. The "yes, and" principle foundational to improv — accepting your scene partner's premise and building on it — maps directly onto collaborative storytelling at a D&D table, where a good player does the same thing with the Dungeon Master's world. The tactical layer simply doesn't exist.
Creative writing and worldbuilding engage all 3 clusters, but shift the social dynamic from real-time group coordination to asynchronous solo production. A player who has spent 40 hours building a campaign setting has, effectively, been doing a form of speculative fiction writing — the same cognitive work that goes into constructing a fantasy novel, just organized around gameplay rather than prose.
Common scenarios
The most common pathway into adjacent hobbies starts with miniature painting. A player buys their first set of D&D miniatures — Wizkids produces pre-primed plastic figures specifically for tabletop use — notices that painting them is absorbing and meditative, and begins pursuing the craft for its own sake. From there, the natural next step is miniature wargaming, which provides a competitive context for the painted figures.
A second common pathway runs through video game RPGs. Games like Baldur's Gate 3 (developed by Larian Studios and released in 2023) use the D&D 5th Edition ruleset directly, making the mechanical overlap explicit. Players familiar with Combat Rules Overview and Spell Slots and Spellcasting will recognize the system immediately. The pathway often runs in both directions — video game players discover D&D through the game, and D&D players extend their experience into the video game format during weeks when the group can't meet.
LARP occupies a narrower niche but a devoted one. The LARP community in the United States includes an estimated 30,000 active participants according to reporting by the Smithsonian Magazine, with events ranging from weekend-long immersive experiences to ongoing chronicle-style campaigns that run for years.
Board games with narrative elements — Gloomhaven, Arkham Horror, Betrayal at House on the Hill — occupy the middle ground between tabletop RPGs and traditional board games. They provide structured mechanical systems (closer to board games) with emergent storytelling (closer to RPGs), making them an easy entry point for players who want a lower-commitment version of the D&D experience.
Decision boundaries
Choosing between adjacent hobbies comes down to 3 practical variables: time investment, cost, and preferred mode of engagement.
Miniature painting and wargaming carry the highest material cost. A starter Warhammer 40,000 army runs between $150 and $300 before paints and tools. The time investment is also significant — competitive-quality paint jobs on a single model can take 3 to 8 hours.
Video game RPGs require a one-time purchase (typically $40–$70 for a major title) and no ongoing investment beyond time. They are the lowest-barrier entry point.
Improv theater is primarily a social and financial accessibility question. Drop-in improv classes at comedy training centers like Second City or Upright Citizens Brigade run approximately $20–$30 per session, and no equipment is required.
LARP sits between wargaming and improv in cost — basic costume and kit investment typically starts around $100 — but offers the most complete physical embodiment of the roleplaying experience.
Creative writing and worldbuilding cost nothing beyond time and whatever Campaign Planning and Worldbuilding resources a writer chooses to consult. The challenge is entirely intrinsic: sustaining a solo creative practice without the social accountability of a weekly game table.
The clearest decision boundary is between group-oriented and solo hobbies. D&D is fundamentally a group activity, and players who find the social dimension most satisfying will gravitate toward LARP and board games. Players who find the creative construction most satisfying will tend toward worldbuilding, writing, and painting.