D&D 5E Creating a school D&D club: Rolling Again!

[pogre]

Greetings!

I had the idea to create an after school D&D club. I teach high school and several of my students know about my geeky side - I don't hide it. They have been bugging me to start some D&D after football season ends (I'm also the head football coach). I have the OK from administration to do this.

• I plan on making announcements and advertising the club.
• I expect to get a lot of students. I think 25-30 is a realistic number.
• The students will vary greatly in experience from newbies to regular players.
• I want it to be an open and safe environment. Welcoming to anyone who wants to try D&D.
• I probably have a max of 2 to 2&1/2 hours to meet once per week.

Here is where I could use some advice.

I plan on using the 5th ed. D&D basic rules for those who are new. Depending on numbers I probably will need to draft a few veteran DMs. I have a couple already lined up and I am hoping some students step forward to run.

For the first run I really want to run a basic dungeon delve. I have more than enough Dwarven Forge and miniatures to make five or six dungeons at different tables. I think the visual appeal will work well for newer players. If a student shows up at four sessions I plan on buying them a phb or if they already have one, perhaps painting a character miniature for them.

What I need is a simple 2-4 hour tier one dungeon that I can use with basic D&D characters. Preferably one that is friendly for newer DMs to take over and run.

Please make suggestions about my plans for the club or an appropriate adventure. Keep in mind several of the students will be familiar with TMOP from the Basic set.

 

[bedir than]

Sunless Citadel from Tales of the yawning portal

 

[pogre]

Sunless Citadel from Tales of the yawning portal

That's a possibility. I like the adventure a lot. I have one copy.

However, I was hoping to buy multiple copies of the adventure so that is why I was hoping for a DDAL adventure available on DMsGuild. Which, to my knowledge, Sunless Citadel is not available as a separate pdf.

 

[Xaelvaen]

You could try the Mini-Dungeon Tome for 5th Edition.

I backed this on kickstarter, and it's now available in pdf format on Drivethrurpg.

It contains 130+ mini adventures, which might be great for your time constraints - you could even weave 2 of them together if you need to stretch at any point. Buy the pdf, and you could print as many copies as you needed for your sessions, just obviously make sure to collect them after the sessions (so you're not giving away product if that sort of thing concerns you).

 

[jasper]

Check out the adventure league Content Catalogue v8.04. That gives the names and general run time of each AL adventure. I would limit the table to 5 players and 1 dm. I would skip season 4 due to the lock in. Season 8 adventures so far are not great for new DMS.
http://dndadventurersleague.org/

 

[darjr]

The DMSGuild has a ton of great adventures if you wan't to do AL. Sort by popularity.

 

[pogre]

Quick Update:
The first meeting was a huge success - a little too huge. We did not have enough DMs lined up but the players' enthusiasm was amazing. I was right about the numbers, but what is exciting and a little worrying is I think even more kids will come next time. I don't think it is sustainable with 10 players at a table, so I am recruiting my son (a high school student) to run and looking for other student DMs. Around 40% of the students who showed up were female.

 

[Henry]

Quick Update:
The first meeting was a huge success - a little too huge. We did not have enough DMs lined up but the players' enthusiasm was amazing.

That is phenomenal to hear. I love that there were almost equal numbers of male and female interested - it really is a different world for RPGs these days, for the better. The DMing is likely to be your biggest problem, it always is -- more Marines than Master Chiefs.

 

[Azzy]

Quick Update:
The first meeting was a huge success - a little too huge. We did not have enough DMs lined up but the players' enthusiasm was amazing. I was right about the numbers, but what is exciting and a little worrying is I think even more kids will come next time. I don't think it is sustainable with 10 players at a table, so I am recruiting my son (a high school student) to run and looking for other student DMs. Around 40% of the students who showed up were female.

Awesome! Keep up the good work, hopefully the kids keep interest in gaming—gotta make sure that tabletop RPGs have a future.

 

[pogre]

We had our last club session and it went well. We averaged over 30 kids playing, with a high attendance of 41. We had 32 at our last meeting - 15 girls.

If you teach high school, and are thinking about a club, I encourage you to dive in. There was a lot of fun energy and neat interactions. I love how inclusive and supportive our club was and we had a real diversity of our school represented. Always great to get re-energized by something like this after 20+ years of teaching.