DnD For the Kids

... I was talking to a friend from college the other night. He and I played 2nd Edition AD&D together in 1998... Man, 1998 was 23 years ago! I'm just letting that sink in... Anyway, 1998 was a great year. When my roommates and I weren't playing Baldur's Gate, Diablo, or Final Fantasy 7, we were sitting down to enjoy some serious AD&D. The hobby was still expensive back then, but most folks did not spend near as much as one does today.  Anyway, it just so happens that my college friend, Jim, and I are both running games amidst this pandemic with the folks nearest to us, and we got to talking about the current cost of 5th edition adventures.  During our phone conversation I got stuck on the idea that while a modern D&D 5e Adventure book is around $50.00, you're actually getting great value for your money. I repeated some of the points that Mike Shea often makes on the topic. I keep going back to that call in my mind, though. There are so many great free or ch...

Running D&D or any TTRPG for kids is fun and rewarding on many levels, but at times it can be frustrating, especially when you don't know what they don't know. I'm a teacher, and I have a lot of cues I can use in my Computer Science class to figure out where my students' gaps are. I have a curriculum that contains a scope and sequence for instruction, noting what they will be exposed to at each grade level. I have formative assessments that gauge their performance on distinct skills and knowledge, allowing me to fine tune my instruction to fill in what's missing allowing students to apply a firm foundation of concepts and practice to create their projects.  Often, when running an RPG for a group of newbies, kids or adults, you need to come along side them and help fill in the gaps. The problem is that many of us old grognards have been rolling dice since the 80's and we have years of foundational knowledge that's not necessarily covered in the Players Ha...

Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash Do you have a D&D / TTRPG Gamer or Dungeon Master in your life? Trying to figure out what to get them that goes with their favorite hobby, but they buy every book as soon as it's published?  Are you a TTRPG gamer or DM and have no idea what to ask for?  Well, here's my Holiday Gift Guide for the TTRPG enthusiast in your life. Remember, I DM for kids, on a budget, so I'm not going to be recommending any crazy expensive custom engraved wooden dice boxes, $98 Chardalyn Dragon Minis, or Dwarven Forge setups.  These are all gifts that I would love to get or that I plan to get for the other tabletop gamers in my life. Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, there are numerous gift-giving opportunities this season and those that come after, so enjoy this guide. May it help you buy cool gifts all the year through!  Top Pick: Pretty much anything from Loke BattleMats Okay, I don't know how I made it as far as I did without discovering L...

Choosing a VTT So, I wanted to make it clear from the title that I don't have much experience with Virtual Tabletops (VTT's). While this is a review post of sorts, it should not be confused with Expert opinion. I am clueless, and I am asking as many questions as I am providing insight. I'm looking for a conversation here. That said, it's mid-September, and we're back to school. Depending on what that means for you, you might find yourself back where you were last May. My Wednesday night group is made up of three families, including mine. The other two families involved have chosen cyber / distance options this Fall, while my kids' schools only offered going back full-time. I am a teacher, and I am back full-time. So, with two families limiting exposure and my family going full-exposure at three different schools, we can no longer enjoy our Wednesday night session in person. I'm going to begin with an overview of a lot of your options, and then I'm going ...

How many of us parents / teachers / guardians have had a talk with our kiddos about needs and wants? Well, this post is all about needs and wants. What do you need to run D&D? What makes it cool for the kids from a best-bang-for-the-buck perspective? What is completely unnecessary overkill? I'm going to cover everything from money-saving ideas to flagrant consumerism, and hopefully you will find something you can use somewhere in between.  So, what do I need to buy? So, you may be wondering, what the forward investment is to successfully run a D&D game for kids or in general. This is a two tier answer and largely depends upon your level of creativity as a Dungeon Master (DM), and how much DIY work you're willing to put in. The Free Route Wizards of the Coast ( WotC from here on out) wants you to play D&D. They have done everything they can to bring down barriers to entry. Yes, the Players Handbook still retails for $49.95, but the basic core rules are absolutely ...

All D&D games go off the rails from time to time. It's part of the fun. A game that's always off the rails, though, that is chaos and not a game at all. DM-ing for kids is an art and a science that's similar in a lot of ways to my day job. I'm a Middle School Computer Science teacher , and I use a lot of different classroom management techniques, many of which center around gamification , which intrinsically rewards the behaviors you want, rather than penalizing those that you don't. So, I'm going to share some table management techniques, many of which deal with in-game rewards, which are totally legitimate and won't wreck your game, I promise.  Before I get into this, I need to give a shout out to Mike Shea , whose podcast, The DM's Deep Dive , has provided the seed for a lot of the ideas presented here.  The sandwich on the side Before I talk about anything else, I want to talk about the Sandwich on the side. For most of the rest of this post, th...