(campain Help) House of Heroes, AKA teaching a bunch of middle schoolers to play D&D

[shblj]

Background: I'm in 8th grade, and in my class if you are an 8th grader you get to teach a 1 week lesson in class (about an hour each day) to teach the class on how to do something. Naturally, i chose D&D. I am going to have a table of people (about 5) each control one char, total there will be 6 chars. I will have 2 experienced D&D players (my friends :smalltongue:) helping me keep the class in check as well.
For the campaign itself i need some help though, and i thought that it might be good to look towards the interweb for help! I don't know what to do for the story but eventually I want them to find their way to the HALL OF HEROES (dun dun duuuuuun :elan:) where they have to go through each room, and get a key to unlock the next room. Completing the H.O.H. gets them treasure, knighthood, bragging rights, etc. I have a epic last-room-challenge-thing where they fight a kracken but the rooms before that i need some help, assuming it should only be a 3ish campaign what do you think? how may rooms? how many challenges? how many traps? How much treasure? and what should i do with the story?
I'm eager to hear your ideas!

info (will update!)
Story: something something something something House of Heroes Treasure

House of Heroes Rooms and stuff!:
1.something
2.something else
3.Something else again
(more stuff)
Last room!: Kraken that comes out of the floor! (thin floor+water underneath+kracken=a fun time for the DM) the kraken can destroy parts of the floor too! >:D

[Manateee]

I am going to have a table of people (about 5) each control one char, total there will be 6 chars.
This sounds like a very bad idea.

You're probably going to have the best luck teaching another 2-3 people how to run the game ahead of time and splitting the class into 5-6 tables, each with one 'expert' DMing.

Don't try to make everybody learn the rules. They won't.

I would even strongly recommend avoiding D&D for this. If you're trying to engage a room full of people who may or may not be into the game, the last thing you're going to want is for DMs to be talking players through the Grapple or Turning rules, or waiting for uninterested players to level up.

I would recommend Dungeon World (http://www.dungeon-world.com/) for this - it's a dungeoncrawl hack to Apocalypse World. The rules are very simple to learn and adjudicate, so you can focus on what's probably the important element of teaching players to play D&D - teaching them to roleplay. Also, it's free and it's short, so you can print out enough copies of the rules and character sheets for 5-6 tables for like $5.

EDIT:
If you're looking for advice on the content to push toward them, I think it'd probably be easiest (and most telling) to go with the tired [In a Tavern]->[Hired to stop terrible monster]->[Trip to dungeon]->[Dungeon]->[Big Bad Monster]->[The end] structure.

I'd make more content than I'd expect the players to get through. Probably preparing 15-20ish interesting encounters (with a good mix of fights, traps, social encounters and monsters). More if they make enough headway to zip past that.

That way, you won't have to deal with dead time while some people are done with their game and just farting around on your presentation/demonstration time.

EDIT EDIT:
Actually, total tangent, but how do you expect this to go over? I'm having a hard time thinking of someone giving this presentation back in my middle school days without a healthy mix of derision, ostracism and possibly a religious objection or two.

[CapnVan]

Actually, total tangent, but how do you expect this to go over? I'm having a hard time thinking of someone giving this presentation back in my middle school days without a healthy mix of derision, ostracism and possibly a religious objection or two.

Ach! You were lucky! Back in my day, they'd kill us and dance on our graves!
:smallbiggrin:

But you do bring up an excellent point — tabletop role-playing isn't for everyone, anymore than dodgeball is for everyone.

And I definitely wouldn't go with something like a full-fledged 3.5 experience. If you're insistent on using that level of rule, look into something like the Pathfinder Beginner Box. Even better would probably be one of the old-school (and free) RPGs, like Labyrinth & Lords and its ilk.

Long feat chains and handling AoO may be great fun to the OP (and lots of us others!), but for kids with a distinctly limited attention span and not necessarily much of an interest in the genre, it's a recipe for disaster.

[Namfuak]

While I agree with some other posters that this may not be the best idea, I have to imagine that the rest of the kids are probably going to choose even more useless stuff to teach (like tying shoes and stuff) that are less interactive, so this could be interesting.

If you are deadset on doing D&D 3.5, here's what I would do. You said you have about 30 people to teach, correct? Get 5 assistant DMs, and have them each control a group of about 5 people. You should premake character sheets for everyone, with a mix of classes, as well as bring in enough blank character sheets that everyone can make their own character if they want. If your class all has computers, have them bring them - if not, you'll need at least a PHB1 for each table. Make sure all of your Asst. DMS and you have a computer (if your school doesn't allow laptops and there are no computers in the classroom, just give up because it will take the hour each day just to make all the characters/look up rules if you can only use 1 PHB for 5 people). Make 6 copies of your module and spend time with each asst. DM beforehand explaining how you would like it to be run, how the encounters work, etc. You could even let them come up with some encounters on their own, which would take some work off you. While in class, have people who choose premade sheets sit together, and those who make their own sit together (unless two people want to be at the same table, obviously, though the campaign would probably have to start while people making their own sheets are doing that if they are at a premade table).

One thing to remember when it actually starts is that your job in this is to be the head DM, not to get in on every squabble but rather to make rule judgements if the Asst. DM doesn't know what to do. Also, some people will not want to do this, plain and simple, although in my experience even doing something "stupid" is better than doing classwork or doing nothing to 8th graders (as long as everyone else is doing it), so most people will probably at least try. And if they don't like it, that isn't your fault.

[Slipperychicken]

3.5 is not something anyone can learn (or play) in one week, especially not 8th graders.

Tabletop RPGs are not for everyone. Middle-schoolers will tear you apart. I know these from painful experience. Leave the books at home, this isn't worth it.


If you're dead set on it, find the simplest and cheapest rpg (i.e. not 3.5) you can possibly get your hands on, one which your old, non-rpg-playing relatives could literally hear the name and start playing within 15 minutes, and use that. Pre-build characters, and fudge rules wherever they interfere with fun.

[Manateee]

Looking back at my post and some of the responses, I just want to clarify:

This could be a good idea. If you think it's worth a shot, go for it. My last question was just curiosity about how gradeschools take to D&D these days, what with the general acceptability of things like computer games and WoW - I didn't mean to say the presentation was a bad idea overall.

My hesitation was only about two things:
It's not going to be feasible to have a table of students running a single character each. If you want to keep the students occupied (and with 8th graders, you want to keep them occupied), you'll want to give every person in the classroom something to do. That's going to mean smaller games, rather than one class-wide session.
D&D is a terrible game for this. That's not to rule out Fantasy/Dungenoncrawl RPGs; the genre's probably the most stereotyical in RPGs, so it's probably a fitting introduction. Use a lighter ruleset. I recommended Dungeon World earlier because it's the best introductory RPG I can think of: it captures standard D&D archetypes; it guides character creation; it provides new players with an explicit list of actions they can try, as well as providing a solid framework for improvisational actions they might want; it's light enough to explain the gist of the rules in about a minute*; and it's free. Old School Hack (http://www.oldschoolhack.net/) could be another option for similar reasons.
So I'm not trying to poo-poo on the idea overall - just trying to point out a couple problems I can already see.

Good luck!

[shblj]

3.5 is not something anyone can learn (or play) in one week, especially not 8th graders.

Tabletop RPGs are not for everyone. Middle-schoolers will tear you apart. I know these from painful experience. Leave the books at home, this isn't worth it.


Well someone isn't a Negative Nancy :smalltongue: The reason I wanted to have a table of people control one char is so that the people who DONT want to play (for some strange reason) don't really need to wheras the people who DO want to play can take charge and get more involved. Anyway, I think i might have a idea on how to teach it from reading the not negative posts, but i still need help putting together a dungeon, after all my years playing D&D (bout 4) I could never put together a decent dungeon. I dont know why this is, but it usually ended up in a bunch of rooms with monsters in them connected by doors. If anyone has any advice on putting together a dungeon i would be VERY grateful. :smallbiggrin:

p.s. Im in a weird mixed grade thing (6th 7th and 8th), so its not like most cliched middle school. People in my class actually WANT to learn how to play D&D! No one says "thats gay" and things like that and are generally pretty nice to one another. Even if they all are kind of hipsters :smalltongue: so thats all cool.

[HailDiscordia]

This is totally awesome, one of the best ideas I've heard in a while. Good for you for trying it and introducing to a group of people who may not know anything about RPG's.

You mentioned having a couple of weeks to do this, so I would recommend building to the actual game slowly. Maybe a single encounter for each group is sort of the climax of the "teaching".

You should start by introducing what D&D is and how it works. Compare it to video games and other things that the group probably has a background in. Explain where it come from and make what is different, what you like about it, etc...You could also devote an entire one hour session to character creation and have everyone just roll up a character in class.

There is a lot that you could do with this. Good luck! The students in your class are in for a treat.

[onemorelurker]

If you're set on using D&D as your system, try to stay away from the more fidgety rules as much as possible (i.e., don't use monsters that trip or grapple).

Also, since you have time to prepare and are using premade characters, make up little cheat sheets that say what each character's abilities do, so people don't have to look stuff up in books all the time. In my experience, this speeds up play a lot.

[TheTick]

I ran (with almost no dice-rolling RPG experience) the Star Wars D20 'fastplay' game for friends to great effect. It's simplified as far as the rules go, has premade characters, and hey, it's a world everyone knows. 'Smugglers of Naboo' or some such. Might be worth a look for this situation.

[shblj]

If you're set on using D&D as your system, try to stay away from the more fidgety rules as much as possible (i.e., don't use monsters that trip or grapple).

Also, since you have time to prepare and are using premade characters, make up little cheat sheets that say what each character's abilities do, so people don't have to look stuff up in books all the time. In my experience, this speeds up play a lot.
exactly, with the kraken im going to stay away from all that stuff, and if i do have it grab someone ill just to a DC roll, (strength or reflex) instead of doing the whole shaboozy.

[Bhaakon]

I remember my first game back in the 6th grade. I killed the first shopkeeper I met to steal the vorpal sword hanging on the wall behind him, then disposed of the body by using said infinitely sharp blade to chop it into a fine powder. The character died when he ran too fast in dense underbrush, tripped, and impaled himself on a fallen tree limb. Good times.

The DM was also 11, and we were obviously more into the rule of cool than RAW. I'd recommend a similar approach. And don't be afraid to be sandboxy. In my experience, kids are more likely to go off on tangents than older players (who do it often enough already), and don't like being railroaded any better.