D&D 5E Good Lord - I'm Taking Over 20+ Teen D&D Players

[Brotton Goodfellow]

A little background. I'm a librarian by trade, and word has gotten around that I'm experienced in the RPG hobby. A library in a neighboring county has created a successful D&D program with over 20 teenagers participating on a biweekly basis. The problem is that their staff member/resident DM/etc. has resigned his position. So now I've been asked to teach others on their staff how to DM (many the first time playing the game) to be ready in a couple weeks. I'll be there to help transition the club to new DMs, show them how to run, etc.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Or do you have words of encouragement? Or just want to laugh at the predicament of the resident ENWorld pessimist who regularly laments "I'll never be able to run an in-person game of D&D ever again."

Let the power go to your head and just rule with an iron fist. Turn those DM’s into savage player character killing machines. That’ll teach those teens some REAL life lessons.

 

[payn]

Let the power go to your head and just rule with an iron fist. Turn those DM’s into savage player character killing machines. That’ll teach those teens some REAL life lessons.

Retreater's default GM setting then?

 

[Retreater]

Retreater's default GM setting then?

True. But I want them to learn to be better than me.

 

[Stormonu]

Sounds like an embarrassment of riches - good luck to you!

I had something similar happen when I showed up at our FLGS's first game night back in 3E. Apparently, word had gotten around about my DMing and I had at least 20 folks show up (mostly college, but down to age 8 and up to age 55 as well). Unfortunately, turned out to be way too much to handle so I broke it into two groups (on different nights) until one of the players could get up to speed to run the second table. I try to keep my games since then down to 6 people or less, mostly for sanity's sake.

Had a lot of fun with that game, and we had to do a bit of a restart* after the party got a bit arrogant and decided they could take out an adult green dragon at level 7. But I did try to warn them...

* Two survivors who ran away when the dragon fear kicked in.

 

[Baron Opal II]

A little background. I'm a librarian by trade, and word has gotten around that I'm experienced in the RPG hobby. A library in a neighboring county has created a successful D&D program with over 20 teenagers participating on a biweekly basis. The problem is that their staff member/resident DM/etc. has resigned his position. So now I've been asked to teach others on their staff how to DM (many the first time playing the game) to be ready in a couple weeks. I'll be there to help transition the club to new DMs, show them how to run, etc.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Or do you have words of encouragement? Or just want to laugh at the predicament of the resident ENWorld pessimist who regularly laments "I'll never be able to run an in-person game of D&D ever again."

I have done this; it can be tricky but incredibly rewarding. I've run groups of 8-14 year-olds.

Assuming that the whole horde is there at once-

Split the players into teams of 3-5. One of them is the Caller. It is their job to find out what the other PCs are doing and tell you. This allows you (the DM) to receive input from 3-5 people instead of 12-20. The position of Caller, and the people on the various teams, changes each session.

Passive checks are your friend, use them liberally and call out the team that makes the discovery rather than an individual. This allows the kids to feel some reward for builds but also allows for some shared glory. Keep track of those that expressed a specific desire for specialization and give them opportunities to shine. For example, I had one young lady who played a ranger with a winged cat friend (very Diana-esque). Because of her character description, I called her out specifically when the party found a mushroom faerie ring, and she was the one who could guide the party safely though the encounter.

Develop some plentiful buying tables. Have most of what can be bought be useful single or triple use items (c.f. flask of boric acid solution- drives off giant insects and cures monstrous fungi attacks.) For the most part, girls like pets and boys like toys. Everyone loves fire lizards, of course, but that's the trend. Favorite pets were fire lizards, winged cats, shadow dogs, rolling rocks, and an eye on two chicken legs that could dance around. Bonus points for the toys to be combined in novel ways that the players can discover. I had a list of 12 pets and 20 one use items, along with about 4 pages of regular stuff.

I strongly advise against any PvP whatsoever. Maybe some duels if consequences can be agreed upon, but it never goes well in my experience. Cliques form in that large a group, be aware of trolls. Given them a change to play with, rather than against, the other players. Usually after a discussion pre- or post- game the desire to play with the group wins out over the desire to poke other people in the eye.

Sandbox style games are a poor fit. Too many different agendas along with a group of passive people. A choice of A, B, or C can work. Those that wanted a different route have their option next. Adventures run 2-3 session. They seem to get bored with the EPIC QUEST.

Happy to answer any questions you might have!

 

[Voadam]

Taking over another homebrew campaign?

They might want to continue with their established characters instead of starting completely anew.

You could try to learn about the world and keep DMing them there or do any number of things to get them to a new world/area.

A teleportation trap.

A one way gate they go through (chasing someone?).

They disrupt a magical ritual/break a magic item and get teleported.

Ravenloft mists.

They get magically summoned by a wizard (Magic the Gathering style?)

They get sent on a mission into the new area by their existing patron.

A new underground dungeon is discovered/appears and needs to be dealt with.

 

[Quartz]

Rule 0 has already been covered but Rule 1 has not: if everyone is having fun you are doing it right.

 

[Retreater]

Yeah, I will recommend the library staff not continue the departing DM's homebrew campaign world - though characters can transfer. I think the regulars will understand that new DMs can't pick up where the previous left off.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I do this when I run a one-off learn-to-play (2 Hours):

Pre-Game: Have 'em pick from pregens. Go over the character sheets and the dice, etc.

Game: I usually start the group on the road, guarding a caravan. I give them a choice of two paths: quick and dangerous or slow and safe (known paths). The quick one goes through a forest with goblins/orcs/lizard folk/wolves/bears, whatever I feel like running. The Safe one has Bandits. Bandits can be talked down with good RP, the "monsters" will just attack and retreat.

Next, the caravan comes to a ford/broken bridge/whatever obstacle. I run a skill challenge getting a wagon unstuck, or something. Something that uses skill checks and terrain and interaction with NPC caravaneers.

If there's time after that, I'll do an encounter with an animal, a bear or giant eagle or something. It's hungry and curious, but not out to kill PCs and can be handled with skill checks or driven off with combat. The goal is to make them understand that it's not all about kill-or-be-killed.

For my own amusement, I never make the scenario exactly the same twice. Different season, different monsters, different landscape. But same basic chassis. The World Setting doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what the players see and experience on that DAY (or two, or whatever). Everything else is a distraction.

Post-Game: Go over what they liked and answer questions.

 

[Seramus]

If you feel comfortable, record the training session you run. It doesn't have to be top quality, but you can go the extra mile to really demonstrate how everything works, your reasoning behind things, AND have a nifty video both you and they can show to future people they might need to train.