Dungeon Master School

#1

I work in an international school in the Middle-East and have started a Dungeon Master School. This is different to a club just to play the game, what I am doing instead is teaching students how to create their own resources and run their own games with their friends and family. We are using ICRPG as our system and text book.

I am distilling and simplifying the process to release a pack for teachers to run their own Dungeon Master Schools.

20190516_103852

Our first two sessions have been playing the game to understand how it works for the players. Next week we are making our own Dungeon Master Kits

#2

Does this help fulfill any curricular requirements (e.g. math, creative writing, planning or organizing skills) for the students or is this just in adjunct to their normal learning? Do you have a lesson plan for this, and if so are you able to share it?

Really cool that you’re doing this, by the way! :sunglasses:

#3

Yes. However I want to be mindful with this, particularly trying to shoehorn in traditional subjects. In my experience kids can can smell forced education a mile off. Also every school and country has different curricula and ‘more maths’ isn’t a problem that needs to be solved.

Instead I am promoting this as a framework for, what we call, soft skills. Things like social skills, creative problem solving, teamwork, responsibility, leadership and conflict resolution. And 21st century skills: collaboration; communication; critical thinking and creativity. I think all of us that are exposed to this hobby can attest to how facing down a room full of orcs puts you in a mindset that somewhat heightens these abilities.

These skills are also quite difficult to target in education, particularity leadership, which is a focus at my school.

However, of course, maths and language are also being used, but I won’t be promoting those as the main reason to do this within a school, as there are many more traditional teaching techniques that are already well understood by teachers. In-fact I chose to keep with a d20 system over a d6 system (which is easier to resource) so it was a little bit more mathematically complex.

#4

This is essentially a specialized Project Management course. Outstanding!

#5

This is fantastic and I look forward to the results. How are you planning to measure the impact? Can we help support this in anyway?

#6

Hi @Adam_Boyes . Are you involved in education as well? I know they’re are a few of us here.

Soft skills are notorious to measure, that’s why they are often excluded from mainstream education, because you can’t sit a test on it.

I will be interviewing these students with a series of questions on leadership and creative problem solving and will again further into their journey.

This is largely anacdotal as the data set is so small, there is no control group and I cannot isolate just this initiative. Something to always be aware of with grassroots initiatives.

If you have any suggests on this I would gladly incorporate them.

I would absolutely like your help. Once I have done this over a couple of weeks and write up the first edition of the Dungeon Master School pack, I will post it for some feedback.

#7

Hi @Kreeba, yes I’m a University Lecturer and have an interest how RPGs may help students with communication, cooperation, problem solving, confidence and social skills. Also practicing conversations, ethics and values in a safe environment. I’m also interested in the potential of RPGs to introduce consequence to traditional linear case studies. Happy to help if I can. Any way the community could donate? Would that help?

#8

1
1.jpg4641x2631 3 MB

So in our third session we talked about resourcing. I gave them a set of dice, the printed quickstart and a set of target cards from @ChrisWolfie

We discussed a simple structure of an encounter and we spent time looking through and making minis from Printable Heroes. They have to find some heroes, some enemies that will be low level and then a BBEG.

DICE!

3
3.jpg5274x2752 2.41 MB

#9

Hey! I love what you are doing here. I am a behavioral therapist for children with special needs, many of which are on the autism spectrum. I have been trying to find a way to encorporate rpgs into my therapy sessions as a way for kids to experiment with social skills and problem solving. I would love to see how this turns out with your kids, and if it turns out really well, hopefully I can talk my supervisors into allowing me to start a group.

#10

So the last two sessions we talked about the Location and World they wanted to set their game in. One kid is doing a typical fantasy setting, the other is doing FBI Agents investigating aliens that abduct creatures and have a time travelling machine. It is mad.

For this simple first game I gave them a framework of having an encounter that has 3 locations or rooms that were connected together. For each location they need to think about the Threat of the room, the Timer and the Treat that can help the players or reward them for ‘completing’ the room.

The boy making the fantasy dungeon is using papercraft for the walls and furniture. He has a riddle that he wrote that needs to be solved to open a door, something about ‘which animal would win in a fight’

4
4.jpg5664x2752 2.93 MB

The boy who is doing the FBI Aliens has planned out his session on a big piece of paper that will act as his playmat. I recorded him talking to me about it:

Audio Clip (Remember his native language isn’t English)

5
5.jpg5664x2752 1.9 MB

In our next session they would have finished their encounter resources and we will go through the mechanics they need to play test their games. Then I plan to have them play test over the weekend with their families and make improvements.