TL;DR - Wanted to see if any other teachers/librarians who have trod the path of starting a club had any tips to share.
Hi all, I'm a school teacher, but also I work at a library. We've started, by popular demand, a D&D group for our teens/young adults at the library. Struggling a little bit though. I have played many TTRPG in my time, starting in middle school, and we never really had an adult advise us. We'd just hang in the cafeteria and do our own thing, for better or worse! For that reason, I'm trying to be pretty hands off and tolerate a lot of the goofy antics. Skibbi toliets and all. I was (still am?) an awkward introvert, so how can I complain? :D
That said, I do want to see them be successful and ensure the no one is driving folks away with their antics. Right now, we have two volunteer DMs, one middle school, one high school. They've been getting slightly frustrated by how COMPLETELY off task the party is. Side shenanigans can be funny, but their players have not figured out how to read the room and are making zero progress after a couple sessions. Thanks in advance!
I help run a club for 12-16 year olds at a local library and we're expanding shortly with a 16-19 group. All the tables we run have adult DMs which might be making a difference but we've not had too many troubles. We found it was very important to have a strong session zero, even drew up a club charter for agreed behaviour like no PvP, and made it clear there that the point was for everyone including the DM to be having fun and to engage with the story. So far we've had occassional single sessions where everyone gets side tracked and spends the whole session discussing whatever new TV show someone has discovered but our general direction has been forward in the plots. I'll admit there's been a couple of times myself or the other DM has done the "are you here to play or to gossip?" line to get everyone back on track but it's not been too often and is a lot easier for me at 47 years of age then I imagine it would be for a DM closer to the players age
That said, I do want to see them be successful and ensure the no one is driving folks away with their antics. Right now, we have two volunteer DMs, one middle school, one high school. They've been getting slightly frustrated by how COMPLETELY off task the party is. Side shenanigans can be funny, but their players have not figured out how to read the room and are making zero progress after a couple sessions. Thanks in advance!
Managing the players is a part of the DM's job. It's the WORST part of the job, but as the adjudicator of the game, they need to do what needs doing to keep the game moving forward. If the players are distracted from what they are "supposed" to be doing, throw something at them that reminds them. If you are seeing it as a problem and the DMs aren't willing or able to set the party to rights, then you can step in.
I run a DND club at a middle school and when groups start getting too rowdy or it is clear a minority of the players are causing problems for the majority of the group, I step in and remind them that this is a school club and school expectations still need to be met. Also that DND is cooperative and nature and is the job of everyone at the table to make sure that everyone else is having fun. Other than that I take much the same hands off approach that you do. Let the kids run the game and I'm just there to make sure that it is a safe and secure environment for them to play in.
I work in IT for my local school district, though I haven't done anything for clubs at schools, I did help setup a program for a local children's hospital for volunteer DM/GM's to host D&D days for the kids going through longterm treatments and extended stays in the hospital. It's still running once or twice per month, having at least two DM/GM's who run 3-4 hour sessions for a full day. We set this up using the Pathfinder 2nd edition beginner box but I believe one of the DM/GM's has swapped back over to D&D. I purchased a couple battlemats, markers, and painted up a handful of miniatures for them to use which the hospital keeps on hand. The kids really love to get together and feel like adventurers and heroes. It's super rewarding as a DM/GM to see them smile and laugh, just helping them forget about the hospital stuff and be kids for a while. I'm currently in Florida, though I'm moving to Georgia in March and plan on approaching the hospital there to try and setup something in the area I'll be living in.
I run a game club at my job. I'm a high school teacher. I'm working on my doctorate in education and looking at the impact of game clubs on SEL of young people.
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TL;DR - Wanted to see if any other teachers/librarians who have trod the path of starting a club had any tips to share.
Hi all,
I'm a school teacher, but also I work at a library. We've started, by popular demand, a D&D group for our teens/young adults at the library. Struggling a little bit though. I have played many TTRPG in my time, starting in middle school, and we never really had an adult advise us. We'd just hang in the cafeteria and do our own thing, for better or worse! For that reason, I'm trying to be pretty hands off and tolerate a lot of the goofy antics. Skibbi toliets and all. I was (still am?) an awkward introvert, so how can I complain? :D
That said, I do want to see them be successful and ensure the no one is driving folks away with their antics. Right now, we have two volunteer DMs, one middle school, one high school. They've been getting slightly frustrated by how COMPLETELY off task the party is. Side shenanigans can be funny, but their players have not figured out how to read the room and are making zero progress after a couple sessions.
Thanks in advance!
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I help run a club for 12-16 year olds at a local library and we're expanding shortly with a 16-19 group. All the tables we run have adult DMs which might be making a difference but we've not had too many troubles. We found it was very important to have a strong session zero, even drew up a club charter for agreed behaviour like no PvP, and made it clear there that the point was for everyone including the DM to be having fun and to engage with the story. So far we've had occassional single sessions where everyone gets side tracked and spends the whole session discussing whatever new TV show someone has discovered but our general direction has been forward in the plots. I'll admit there's been a couple of times myself or the other DM has done the "are you here to play or to gossip?" line to get everyone back on track but it's not been too often and is a lot easier for me at 47 years of age then I imagine it would be for a DM closer to the players age
Managing the players is a part of the DM's job. It's the WORST part of the job, but as the adjudicator of the game, they need to do what needs doing to keep the game moving forward. If the players are distracted from what they are "supposed" to be doing, throw something at them that reminds them. If you are seeing it as a problem and the DMs aren't willing or able to set the party to rights, then you can step in.
I run a DND club at a middle school and when groups start getting too rowdy or it is clear a minority of the players are causing problems for the majority of the group, I step in and remind them that this is a school club and school expectations still need to be met. Also that DND is cooperative and nature and is the job of everyone at the table to make sure that everyone else is having fun. Other than that I take much the same hands off approach that you do. Let the kids run the game and I'm just there to make sure that it is a safe and secure environment for them to play in.
I work in IT for my local school district, though I haven't done anything for clubs at schools, I did help setup a program for a local children's hospital for volunteer DM/GM's to host D&D days for the kids going through longterm treatments and extended stays in the hospital. It's still running once or twice per month, having at least two DM/GM's who run 3-4 hour sessions for a full day. We set this up using the Pathfinder 2nd edition beginner box but I believe one of the DM/GM's has swapped back over to D&D. I purchased a couple battlemats, markers, and painted up a handful of miniatures for them to use which the hospital keeps on hand. The kids really love to get together and feel like adventurers and heroes. It's super rewarding as a DM/GM to see them smile and laugh, just helping them forget about the hospital stuff and be kids for a while. I'm currently in Florida, though I'm moving to Georgia in March and plan on approaching the hospital there to try and setup something in the area I'll be living in.
I run a game club at my job. I'm a high school teacher. I'm working on my doctorate in education and looking at the impact of game clubs on SEL of young people.