I’ve taught at my current school for over a decade now, and for most of this time, I have also run an after-school games group for students. The group continues to grow, and we’ve been really lucky to find a nice core group of nerds to keep us going. I just wish we could also find more volunteers!
This week’s Throwback Thursday is all about this post from 2018 in which I discuss the joy of playing roleplaying games with children.
Things have evolved a bit over the past few years and the group have changed since the original article was written. It might actually be worth doing an update. My group, as it stands, has been together for a long time and the interactions are really pleasant, positive, and patient with one another. They’ve just played together for years now, and they know each other well. When new players come in, they are welcomed.
There are challenges arising from the sizes of the groups. it can be hard to include everyone in a given scene, and there can be big gaps between turns in combat as we work through everyone. Judging encounter difficulties can be difficult for these big groups as well. It takes a bit of fudging. Scheduling is also a challenge. There are quite a few weeks where I need to cancel due to meetings. I feel guilty canceling, but unfortunately the work needs to take priority.
All that said, I still enjoy the group. The kids are great, and it’s a lot of fun to play these games with them. I love how creative some of my players are, and the feedback from parents has been very positive. I also like schools to have at least some groups and clubs that aren’t sports-focused. It caters to a different crowd, but I really love that I have sporty kids in the group as well. Embrace the diversity!
No Rerolls 
This is really cool that you do this for your students. I had some cool teachers in high school, but unfortunately I was in high school from 79-83, so that was the whole evangelical campaign years agains the evils of D&D. So my friends and I played all summer and most Saturdays during the school year. I can honestly say that D&D was the single most positive thing to come out of my late teenage years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m a bit younger and was in a remote area, so we mostly missed the evangelical crusade. Though it did hit harder in High School when I started listening to Heavy Metal. One of our teachers, had a ‘D&D Club’ in High School. Basically he let some kids run D&D in the classroom while he graded papers. Still, it was a lot fun for being in school after hours!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember getting back into D&D after many, many years out of school. It was after I divorced and took up Fencing, lumped in with a bunch of high schoolers they thought they would D&D talk me. Imagine their surprise when I told them I played, then again when they asked me what edition I played, and I replied, “there’s editions, we just used the Red Book and later hardbacks”.
It’s fun now that my adult boys both have groups they play with, I wish I could find a group that played near me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yea, we started with Basic and 1st.
Played mostly 2nd, when it came out. I’m teaching my daughter using Basic, but will graduate to 5th once I can give the rules a read through. I’ve been tempted to try Roll20.net or another online service. Roll20 has lots of different games, so it would be good if I wanted to play something other than Fantasy as well. All depends on time though, which can be hard to come by.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did enjoy 5th much more than my high school days.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice post! I Just introduced my youngest to D&D this year. Surprised me a bit how much she liked it. She seems to enjoy the storytelling and the challenges it presents. We’ve played several times now with some of her friends. The group is really small, 2-3 so far. I’ve seen large groups of 10 or so play though and that gets pretty crazy. Probably even crazier with kids. I think your first idea of breaking into two groups was good. Maybe if there is a more experienced kid in the group, they could run another D&D session or boardgame on the side?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great stuff- I wish there was something like that when I was back at school.
Cheers,
Pete.
LikeLike