Help me get some kids involved in D&D

johnsemlak · Oct 13, 2007

Situation

I run an informal game club at the school I teach at. It's an international secondary school in Moscow, meaning that the kids are from all over the world. Many are from Korea and Japan, though there's some from Eastern Europe. I like to encourage games to get them to practise English. Right now they mostly play Risk, the Bang! card game (a great Western-themed game if you're not familiar with it) and Uno. They play during their lunch break so sessions are very short.

One of the kids really wants to play D&D (no, the 'kid' isn't actually me

, though of course I'd love to see it happen). Actually, the boy acquired my 3.0 D&D books (he bought them cheap and the money went to charity). Unfortunately, true to the negative stereotype of gamers, he's got very poor social skills and to be brief he can't convince anyone to play with him. I don't think any of the others really know what an RPG is beyond computer RPGs.

Still, I do have a rule that the kids should try different games, so I might be able to have them give D&D a try given that one member is interested.

Problem

How do I run a session that interests the kids, given that they're complete newbies? The key limitation is that the session would probably have to be less than one hour as they play during their lunch break. Due to transport difficulties they can't stay after school. I hope one day to organise a Saturday session but that's also difficult. The first session doesn't have to be a one-shot but it should if possible provide a meaningful taste of what D&D is all about, and hopefully encourage them to keep playing.

In my mind, I should run a session with as little rules-explanation as possible and emphasise the fun in role-playing. I thought of giving them index-card size PC sheets with very brief stat info but with interesting character background descriptions. I'd encourage the kids to say what they want to do and let me work out the mechanics and rules (though I'd still let them roll their d20s).

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Gilladian · Oct 14, 2007

You might try this set of rules:
http://wiki.greywulf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Macropedia/Microlite20

Its simple yet retains the flavor of DnD quite well. And there are some quick simple adventures on the site somewhere...

Ycore Rixle · Oct 14, 2007

I've had success running game clubs at school in New York and Buffalo. I strongly recommend not altering any of the rules in any organized way. That is, I wouldn't hand out a list of simple rules. In fact, I don't hand out any rules at all. In a first session with all new players, I just say, I'll explain the rules as we go. And we're off. Start with a combat. Ignore any rules that slow play. That's any rule that takes more than two seconds to resolve (I mean that two seconds literally). Wing it totally when necessary - keep things moving. Sometimes I say, When we learn all the rules, that will be a little different, but sure, for now that works.

I start with a combat and make the story come out in the combat. Have a villain who is attacking the PCs for a reason - perhaps a mistaken reason. Some kids will try to talk to the villain in the middle of the combat - let them. Listen to their out-of-character talk. If one of them says, "The villain's secret is probably..." then make that the villain's secret. They'll love it. Have the villain escape, but have some villains die and some treasure be found. With the villain escaped, you have a hook to your next adventure. And be sure to make it seem like the D&D world is much more solid than fluid. The kids want to feel like they're playing against a set difficulty, not against something that you're making up.

That's what's worked for me. If you want to discuss it more, feel free to email me.

Mark · Oct 14, 2007

I agree that Microlite20 might be a good idea. Also, use plenty of props, like maps and coins and such.

Job · Oct 14, 2007

I started my kids in D&D many years ago by using a lot of props, as Mark mentioned. Here's an example of what I did.

- I started off with simple adventures that had goals which could be reached in one or two sessions;
- Battlemat and cardboard counters (or mini-figures) to make combat easier to envision;
- I gave the players an index card (not a sheet of paper filled with numbers) with their character's description and statistics
- I gave the players an index card for every item that they carried (I drew a picture of the items on one side, and description of the item history and stats on the other side). They each had one special item, such as a +1 dagger, or +1 battleaxe,
- I gave the spellcasters an index card for every spell (I drew a picture of the spell effect on one side, and stats on the other)
- If their players were effected by a spell, I gave them (you guessed it!) an index card with the effect--with an appropriate hand-drawn picture.

- I used monopoly money and plastic coins

My kids loved it! I'm still running games for them almost 20 years later.

Hurm.