Tying in nicely with Wizard of the Coast’s RPG club grant program, Roleplaying Tips is featuring an article by Katrina Middelburg-Creswell about Starting and Running a Role-Playing Games Club.
Katrina is a middle school teacher who started a gaming club at her school five years ago, and she has lots of practical advice about what she did, how she did it and why it worked. She covers a lot of ground, and even if you’re not looking to start a school-based club, there are some great tips here.
There’s also a whole section devoted to teaching potential new players how to play RPGs, which Katrina recommends doing by way of mini-conventions. Good stuff all around.
We never had anything like that in my schools growing up. How fortunate for these teens that people understand the beneficial social aspects of gaming with peers.
Wow, that is a really cool article. Thanks for the link! I wish someone had done something like this when I was in school!
Both halves sound great– I especially liked the practical advice for mini-cons to teach roleplaying.
Right after I graduated from my high school, they hired on a teacher who was “one of the kids” in a lot of respects — including, if memory serves, gaming with some of his students a few times. The impression I got was that in his case this was kind of creepy. It’s nice to see an example of someone handling this the right way — and I agree, I wish teachers did this more often.
I got started gaming at the local Public Library(AD&D) the summer before I started middle school. When I got to middle school there was a D&D club sponsored by one of the math teachers. I don’t think it lived beyond the group I played with during those three years.