Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e H E L P! Teacher in need of rescue!
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 9788115" data-attributes="member: 6988941"><p>Hey, fellow classroom teacher here. While I have not actually done D&D in a school setting I did run and/or supervise it at a summer camp over several summers for similarly aged kids. That was under the aegis of a creative writing project, so we used nothing prepublished except the rules, and I tried to incorporate materials made by the kids (including one summer having the whole adventure take place on a map one kid drew). Most of the time in my experience once the kids get going they require minmum help, and while I have not experimented with prepublished materials I suspect most middle schoolers would not stick to them for long, so really the key is to give them something as a jumping off point.</p><p></p><p>My personal preference in your situation is, as others have suggested, for <em>Lost Mine of Phandelver</em> from the original 5e starter set. It's a modern classic if anything is, the module has more DM supports than a typical WotC product, it is a slim handbook with all the monster and magic item stats in the back so the DM only needs MM or DMG if they add something, and it's usually cheap on Amazon. It is a bit of a sandbox for when the group inevitably goes off the rails. I personally DMed it having never played 5e D&D before, and it was fun.</p><p></p><p>A strong alternative is the new <em>Heroes of the Borderlands</em> starter set. It provides even more DM support, is even more of a sandbox, and comes with all sorts of bells and whistles like all the maps you need and tokens for all the monsters. The tokens, maps, etc. might be useful for other groups as well. It is also set up so that DMing can be shared out between various people, with three seperate booklets for the Keep, the Wilds, and the Caves of Chaos. The drawbacks are that it is $50, has lots of items to keep track of and try to fit back into a packed box, and that it relies on so many fancy apparati (having cards for all the monsters and npcs, etc., not making you draw your own maps) that I don't feel like it really encourages a DM to improvise beyond the provided materials or to generally develop the skills they need.</p><p></p><p>In your shoes I would probably decide on the best option based on my best judgement of what was a good fit for the would-be-DM.</p><p></p><p>If you haven't requested an official D&D for educators kit yet you can do so at <a href="https://dnd-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/9485614877588-Educator-Resources" target="_blank">https://dnd-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/9485614877588-Educator-Resources</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Benjamin Olson, post: 9788115, member: 6988941"] Hey, fellow classroom teacher here. While I have not actually done D&D in a school setting I did run and/or supervise it at a summer camp over several summers for similarly aged kids. That was under the aegis of a creative writing project, so we used nothing prepublished except the rules, and I tried to incorporate materials made by the kids (including one summer having the whole adventure take place on a map one kid drew). Most of the time in my experience once the kids get going they require minmum help, and while I have not experimented with prepublished materials I suspect most middle schoolers would not stick to them for long, so really the key is to give them something as a jumping off point. My personal preference in your situation is, as others have suggested, for [I]Lost Mine of Phandelver[/I] from the original 5e starter set. It's a modern classic if anything is, the module has more DM supports than a typical WotC product, it is a slim handbook with all the monster and magic item stats in the back so the DM only needs MM or DMG if they add something, and it's usually cheap on Amazon. It is a bit of a sandbox for when the group inevitably goes off the rails. I personally DMed it having never played 5e D&D before, and it was fun. A strong alternative is the new [I]Heroes of the Borderlands[/I] starter set. It provides even more DM support, is even more of a sandbox, and comes with all sorts of bells and whistles like all the maps you need and tokens for all the monsters. The tokens, maps, etc. might be useful for other groups as well. It is also set up so that DMing can be shared out between various people, with three seperate booklets for the Keep, the Wilds, and the Caves of Chaos. The drawbacks are that it is $50, has lots of items to keep track of and try to fit back into a packed box, and that it relies on so many fancy apparati (having cards for all the monsters and npcs, etc., not making you draw your own maps) that I don't feel like it really encourages a DM to improvise beyond the provided materials or to generally develop the skills they need. In your shoes I would probably decide on the best option based on my best judgement of what was a good fit for the would-be-DM. If you haven't requested an official D&D for educators kit yet you can do so at [URL]https://dnd-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/9485614877588-Educator-Resources[/URL] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5e H E L P! Teacher in need of rescue!
Top