I have run an after school D&D club in a middle school for the last few years. The three core rulebooks and a master subscription are plenty to start with. Lost Mine of Phandelver is free and can last you for months. If you're thinking about buying an adventure, I highly recommend The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Wizards of the Coast has a free document that shows you how to have multiple tables playing together in the carnival. If you want to have a battle mat, a tube of wrapping paper that has a one inch grid on the back works fine. The kids can draw maps on it with markers or colored pencils. Tokens from board games can be used for their characters and monsters. Good luck with your club!
Why does it have to be so formal? D&D is a game, not a competition. Why not just give the players an overview of what the different classes are and let them make a character using the default stat array and play it? If they don't like the character, let them try a new one. I don't believe I've heard of anyone actually needing to play every class before they understand the rules.
People want to know the options and the differences. Some GMs do not let people change PC's just because.
This is a school club. If the GM's going to be that strict they shouldn't be GMing.
In a perfect world things work perfectly in real life especially with new players and GM's there are growing issues. Also age can be a big issue on many fronts where you have to have to do things differently based on the age group of the target participants, school type and maybe parent input. For example parents of 10 year old's often require more feedback then 17-18 year old's in such situations.
I have no clue what point you're trying to make with your rambling about a perfect world. Nor do I understand what the relevance of saying that kids requiring different levels of feedback has to this topic. There's no circumstance where someone should be forced to play a character they don't like- if you think that's a good idea, you've missed the point of role-playing games. Kids can learn things quite quickly if they're given an opportunity to experiment for themselves. Let the kid make the character they want to play, and if it turns out that they don't actually enjoy that character then next session they can make a new character and try again. I don't see why this is an apparently controversial stance for an after-school club.
Quite simply when new you may not know what you like until you try it. So providing different pre made options I have found work the best.
Different schools may have different requirements for clubs.
When talking to parents about clubs I have seen many more questions from parents of younger kids wanting to know what the club is about and what things would and could go on.
Edit:
Besides seeing this in school I have also seen this happen with parents in game store's asking about RPG gaming at the store in general as well as MtG games and various tournaments.
I have taught, tutored and been asked about starting such types of clubs as well as my opinion on how to do it under guidelines set forth by school districts as well as faith based schools. I also have quite a few friends and family who teach and some who work in the mental health field and they have tried to launch such clubs and talked about the various hurdles and trials they have had to go through.
spammdc, why are you so opposed to the idea of letting kids make their own decisions about what characters to play? Letting them figure out what they like by trying it is exactly what I've been arguing for this whole time. Let them choose a character concept and maybe do a simplified version of character generation (like pre-selecting the skills and spells so they're not overwhelmed) and let them go. It's all right to actually trust kids, especially teenagers, to actually know what they find fun.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Quite simply when new you may not know what you like until you try it. So providing different pre made options I have found work the best.[...]
I notice that you said you "provid[e] different pre made options", which is substantially different to what 6LG is objecting to,nwhich is "demanding that each player uses each of the different builds in a given timeframe, and if they still want to play, they might then have the freedom to choose what character to play as. If enough players remain to form a party, that is".
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
More important than the core three books are the Starter Set, and the free resources.
SRD & OGL is the important parts of the core three books.
There are free dice rollers available for phones.
Print out the Starter Set Rules as many times as is reasonable, because sometimes the wifi can be a problem.
After the Starter Set & Free stuff, go with the PHB. Then decide between Modrenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything as your next few books.
That's probably more than you need, but the Essentials Kits are also a good idea.
Some advice, just dont do it. Trust me, I have tried to do this, and it just does not work. There is simply not enough time.
This is not good advice. As I mentioned earlier, I have a friend who is the faculty-advisor for his school’s D&D club, and it is doing quite well and thriving, having survived the killer that is summer vacation. Perhaps some groups fail—as exampled above—but others succeed, and the chance of failure does not mean OP should refrain from trying.
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I have run an after school D&D club in a middle school for the last few years. The three core rulebooks and a master subscription are plenty to start with. Lost Mine of Phandelver is free and can last you for months. If you're thinking about buying an adventure, I highly recommend The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Wizards of the Coast has a free document that shows you how to have multiple tables playing together in the carnival. If you want to have a battle mat, a tube of wrapping paper that has a one inch grid on the back works fine. The kids can draw maps on it with markers or colored pencils. Tokens from board games can be used for their characters and monsters. Good luck with your club!
Quite simply when new you may not know what you like until you try it. So providing different pre made options I have found work the best.
Different schools may have different requirements for clubs.
When talking to parents about clubs I have seen many more questions from parents of younger kids wanting to know what the club is about and what things would and could go on.
Edit:
Besides seeing this in school I have also seen this happen with parents in game store's asking about RPG gaming at the store in general as well as MtG games and various tournaments.
I have taught, tutored and been asked about starting such types of clubs as well as my opinion on how to do it under guidelines set forth by school districts as well as faith based schools. I also have quite a few friends and family who teach and some who work in the mental health field and they have tried to launch such clubs and talked about the various hurdles and trials they have had to go through.
spammdc, why are you so opposed to the idea of letting kids make their own decisions about what characters to play? Letting them figure out what they like by trying it is exactly what I've been arguing for this whole time. Let them choose a character concept and maybe do a simplified version of character generation (like pre-selecting the skills and spells so they're not overwhelmed) and let them go. It's all right to actually trust kids, especially teenagers, to actually know what they find fun.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I notice that you said you "provid[e] different pre made options", which is substantially different to what 6LG is objecting to,nwhich is "demanding that each player uses each of the different builds in a given timeframe, and if they still want to play, they might then have the freedom to choose what character to play as. If enough players remain to form a party, that is".
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
More important than the core three books are the Starter Set, and the free resources.
SRD & OGL is the important parts of the core three books.
There are free dice rollers available for phones.
Print out the Starter Set Rules as many times as is reasonable, because sometimes the wifi can be a problem.
After the Starter Set & Free stuff, go with the PHB. Then decide between Modrenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything as your next few books.
That's probably more than you need, but the Essentials Kits are also a good idea.
Some advice, just dont do it. Trust me, I have tried to do this, and it just does not work. There is simply not enough time.
Leader of the Dwarf Lovers Association. Join today here!
This is not good advice. As I mentioned earlier, I have a friend who is the faculty-advisor for his school’s D&D club, and it is doing quite well and thriving, having survived the killer that is summer vacation. Perhaps some groups fail—as exampled above—but others succeed, and the chance of failure does not mean OP should refrain from trying.