Keylane owes its success to the diversity and talent of its employees. Our DevOps Engineer, Hielke, has been passionate about Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) from a young age. His creativity, imagination and love of problem-solving help him build immersive adventures and bring a fresh perspective to teamwork and innovation at Keylane.
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Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a fantasy role-playing game where players create stories together. One player takes on the role of the Dungeon Master (DM), who guides the story and creates the world and its challenges. The other players create and play unique characters, each with their own personality, traits, and abilities. Dice determine whether actions succeed or fail, whether you’re fighting monsters, exploring ancient ruins, or negotiating with NPCs. The game is all about creativity and collaboration. There’s no fixed outcome—the players shape the story through their choices.
Right now, I’m playing a chaotic good character named Thorvald Windjager, a kineticist—a class that can control elemental forces. In Thorvald’s case, that means air and electricity! He’s a devoted follower of the deity Cayden Cailean and, as a result, enjoys alcohol just a little too much. Whenever he enters a new room, the first thing he does is try to smell or detect beer or anything similar. Our Dungeon Master loves incorporating little character traits like that into the story. As you continue playing, your character grows stronger and develops new abilities.
My passion for D&D has many different sides. First of all, it allows me to fully explore my creativity and imagination. The rules provide a framework, but there’s plenty of room for creativity. Sometimes you allow something that technically isn’t in the rules simply because it’s such a cool idea.
The social aspect is just as important. You experience adventures together, create stories together, and have a lot of fun along the way. The chemistry within the group really determines how enjoyable a session is. In the end, the people you play with make all the difference.
Not always, but I do enjoy collecting fantasy items at events. Besides the D&D books, I’ve bought gloves and accessories that fit my character. Wearing something that matches my character helps me immerse myself in the story even more. It makes the fantasy world feel more real.
Absolutely! As a child, I was always imagining castles and knights. I was also fascinated by ninjas, and I loved pretending to be one or the other.
I’d love to host a D&D session as a Dungeon Master at the Keylane office. My idea is to set up a large screen displaying the battlefield and run an adventure for up to four colleagues. I often play with my colleague Maurice, who also joined Keylane because of my recommendation. There are actually quite a few colleagues at Keylane who play D&D.
In D&D, you’re always looking for creative ways to use the rules to your advantage. That same way of thinking carries over into my work. As a DevOps Engineer, I’m constantly switching between different technologies and challenges, which keeps the work interesting. You regularly get tasks you’ve never dealt with before. Because you’re exposed to so many different challenges, you develop broad knowledge. Combined with creativity, that helps you connect ideas, draw conclusions, and find solutions. Looking at a problem from a different perspective is something that really helps me as an engineer. Role-playing also teaches you to step into someone else’s shoes and see things from another point of view.
Quite a few, actually. Creativity, imagination, and a sense of humour all come into play, both at work and in D&D. Teamwork is equally important in both. You learn to find compromises, work towards a common goal, and use your communication and persuasion skills to get others on board with your ideas. Those are all skills that help me become a better DevOps Engineer, and they make D&D even more rewarding as well.
At Keylane, everyone has a story. Whether your passion is Dungeons & Dragons, motorsports, music, sports or something completely different, we believe that the unique experiences and talents of our people make us stronger.
If you’re looking for a place where you can grow, collaborate and be yourself, we’d love to hear from you.
Explore our open vacancies on our careers page or get in touch with one of our recruiters.
Want to learn more about Keylane, our customers and our business? Visit our corporate website.
