TTRPGs with Kids – Rewarding Play

Young players can be the best players at your table. Whether you’re hosting a game for a group of students, one or more young family friends or your own kids, you’ll witness some great moments.

Young people have a way of seeing through problems in a way grown ups don’t. They are far more likely to think outside the box instead of trying to work out what ability is best to solve the problem or what rule they need to play on to win. They are not usually the best at the Role-Playing part – specifically doing what their character would do rather than what they would do – but they excel at coming up with awesome ideas for what their characters can do in the moment.

So what do we do to reward the awesomeness?

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TTRPGs with Kids – Mischief Abound

Not matter what Table Top Role-Playing Game you are a part of, chaos is always just around the corner. One joke, one poor roll, one mischievous player can send the narrative off the rails. Depending on the group you’re with, the errant tangents and loss of thread might be what makes the experience all the more special. Eventually though, too much chaos can begin to chip away at the fun for the whole table.

When young people play Roleplaying Games like D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, etc all the behaviour you can expect at the table with adults can appear in extremes. Students of mine have often been the best sort of players I have run games for, but they can also be the most challenging.

We must be careful with the “your fun is wrong” sort of mentality, but we can all be at fault of poor gaming from time-to-time, and its especially true for young players with less experience.

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TTRPGs with Kids – What to Expect

Before life became somewhat more isolated than usual, I often joined in with the D&D club at my school. I also DMed for the children of friends who heard their parents playing and wanted in. From ages 5-18, I’ve run tabletop games for close to a hundred kids.

One thing is for certain, its a very different experience than running a game for adults. If you are thinking of hosting for young people, either as a friend or a teacher, there are a few important things that will help you:

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My Students Ruined a Nursery Rhyme

When you spend your workday with 100+ students, you are going to hear some weird conversations. We all have strange moments – random thoughts said aloud, obscure inside jokes, etc. – but my school day is rife with half-overheard oddball moments.

Students in the playground asking which animal would make the best “were-animal” (my answer was werekomodo dragon), a hallway discussion on “the point of eyebrows” and at one point a student fiercely argued with me that the Titanic was a movie. Not a movie based on historic events, but a movie and nothing else because, and I quote, “if the boat sank then there is no way to prove that it happened”…

So at the end of one recent lesson, when a student asked me a random question, I thought it would just be another weird moment to add to the list. I soon realised that this would be terrible moment, and one that would prevent me from singing a particular rhyme ever again.

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The GamerPeak Quiz #1 – History

I made a quiz!

It’s 6 rounds, takes about 20 minutes, vaguely History themed and not too challenging. The answers are on the end of the video, so you can play at your own leisure. Should make for some fun with friends and family, or as a great resource for entertaining students in the classroom.

If you enjoy the quiz, leave a like on the video. As well as getting back into writing my blog, I plan to make more of these.

Have fun!

When Do Young Geeks Make You Feel Old?

I am still a decent distance away from considering myself ‘old’. I turned 32 last week, I don’t get confused by modern technology, I get very few eye-rolls when I reference popular culture around my students. My five month old daughter definitely makes me feel youthful, if a little tired sometimes.

Nevertheless, from time to time, I experience events that give me the sense that I am old, or at the very least getting noticeably older. This happens to us all in various ways. You might hear yourself saying things your parents exclaimed when you were little, or react to what you see on the TV with the disgruntled attitude of a person past their youth.

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Saint George – Different Perspectives

Teacher – This is an image of the Patron Saint of England, soldiers, farmers and much more. St George isn’t English; he was most likely born in what was Cappodocia (modern day Turkey). He is almost certainly a martyr, dying for his faith rather than making a sacrifice to pagan gods. The dragon was added to his story much later.

Video Gamer – The horse has clearly glitched over the dragon. Horses in video games are always difficult to steer properly. I hope that’s not the final armour or costume St George gets, and that weapon upgrades are available. Not that impressive a monster either. Is this meant to be a boss battle? Pfft. Unique animation style though.

Dungeon Master – that’s not a proper dragon, more like a Wyrmling. They’re only a Creature Rating 2, not that big a deal. And green dragons breath poison, not fire. I’m guessing St George is a paladin? Not sure what class the woman in the background is, but the fact that she has the wyrmling restrained means St George has advantage on his attacks. Not a tough fight.

Haha, you don’t know _____!

I don’t take issue with a great deal while I’m teaching. I’m accepting of the broad span of opinions and preconceptions. I rarely feel the need to lecture people in or out of lessons, and I would never tell you your opinion is flat-out wrong. But when someone laughs at someone for not knowing something, that’s when I dust off the soapbox.

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That One Workbook

There’s a strange phenomenon that occurs when I mark books: there is always one that goes unmarked. I’ve been teaching for 9 years, and each year I have at least half a dozen different sets of workbooks that I mark regularly throughout the year. Every single time, without fail, I hand the books out and one student raises there hand:

“Err, sir? You’ve not marked mine.”

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