Map: The Shore

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A new map, my first coloured one, and a mini-adventure location for your favourite role-playing game, complete with a bunch of adventure hooks. I’d love to see you adapt and use The Shore in your own games, tag me on @moniquefranzsen.

1 – The Marine Tavern

Flicking lanterns illuminate gregarious locals wearing distinctive woolen gambesons and battered oilskin dusters. They can talk all day about their nautical tattoos, but can be steered to other rumours if you get the next round. Banjax, a sentient pet crab, walks along the bar and banters with customers.

A Whale of a Tale – d4 rumours

1The next morning, folk will be throwing flowers into the sea from the slipway (5), to mourn the loss of Carrick, a local fisherfolk, at sea.
2The other stranger in the tavern is looking for crew to join her expedition to an island nobody has heard of before.
3The Fishery has employed a water wizard to bewitch the seas, making fish swim away from fisherfolk.
4Pascal claims that he has found a magic tin whistle that will summon a massive, spiked sea slug when blown at the end of the pier (4).

2 – Fisherfolk

The sea salt spray pounds these huts rhythmically, and seaweed is strewn about. A small group of fisherfolk still live on the beach, despite the crumbling ruins of former homesteads (6). They prise barnacles off of the hulls of their ships and swap tales of the sea. Dander is their chief – they maintain a vendetta against the Fishery, it’s the source of the world’s evils, according to them, and will eagerly suggest methods of closing it down.

3 – Fishery

Unsurprisingly, it reeks of fish. The sturdy wooden structure is newer than the rest of the buildings. Barrels of fresh and salted fish are packed by nervous fishery workers, who live up in the town proper. Supervisor Breen is the leader of the pack here, he speaks of modernising and improving folks’ lives. Access to the upstairs level of the Fishery is restricted and under guard.

4 – Piers

Ragged, unsavory youths lurk nearby, their laughter crashing against the salt-scoured shore. Their faces and fingers are red from the freezing wind as they look for the next cure for boredom. Steady on their bare feet, even on the slippery wooden boards, they scope out potential victims. At the end of the piers, one can see:

A Sight to See – d4 adventure hooks

1A shoal of fish glows under the sea. Are they spelling out a message?
2That large rock, jutting out of the waves, just moved. It’s not a rock.
3A merman, with a fish tail, is beached nearby. He looks injured.
4In the distance, a ship is being pulled slowly underwater by a giant tentacle. Some people are escaping by jumping into the water and grabbing onto the floating debris.

5 – Slipway

Salt and seaweed encrusted, the slipway lives up to its name. Watch your step. The fisherfolk use it to launch their rowboats. Two fishers, Gretel and Perle, perch nearby, mending nets, smoking pipes and keeping their eye on what goes on. Gretel dispairs of the dying fishing trade. Perle combs the beach and collects oddities.

6 – Crumbling Ruins

A strange, sweet, rotting smell is in the air here. Something ancient and dangerous is involved in the ruin of this beach. The sand is sticky and harder to walk through. Fisherfolk huts here are abandoned and sinking into the mire. The longer that characters spend in the ruins, the harder it is to shake off the feeling of unease.

Black and white inked map with The Shore as the title in the top left. The map is a top-down illustration of a seaside setting. There are 6 points of interest on the map.

Making Maps

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My brand new lockdown hobby, rather spontaneously, has been drawing RPG-inspired maps. I did a little bit of research, bought some mid-range pens and a dotted notebook, and got going. Have a look at some of the results! Click the thumbnails below for a full view.

Guides:

These tutorials from Paths Peculiar were especially helpful in learning the methods and I found them invaluable. Go and check them out!

The illustrious Dyson, who makes maps in this distinctive style, has some great help sheets here.

JP Covert has a detailed YouTube video on the mapping process – How to Draw Your Own D&D Town Map!

What I bought (Amazon UK):

rOtring Tikky Mechanical Pencil Set – I’m not totally convinced a mechanical pencil is necessary, but I bought one on recommendation. As a complete novice, I draw everything out in pencil, go over with my thinnest pen, and then erase the pencil afterwards.

Uni Pen 5 Piece Black – I use these for my lines. I use the thinnest, 0.1, for the little details, like cracks in the tiles, and 0.3 to reinforce walls and make them look thicker.

Spectrum Noir alcohol markers – I got 5 markers in a range of basic, bland colours as well as a blender pen (which isn’t actually for blending!). I’m still experimenting with these.

Rhodia Wire Bound Notebook – The dots are essential for me to line up my drawings.

I have found map-making quite absorbing, and it’s great to work on while listening to music or keeping one eye on a TV show. I’m very proud of what I’ve created, considering that, prior to this, I never considered myself capable of drawing – in fact, I would have said I’m quite bad at it! Drawing has also sparked my imagination in other ways, too. I am writing up some adventure hooks to go with my latest map. Watch this space!

Top Tips on D&D in a Club Setting

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Most recently inspired by a question by Ethan Gilsdorf which prompted a fantastic thread of discussion, as well as Erisaurus’s thread here, this is my own general top tips and advice on running RPGs in an after-school club setting:

A map from our latest after-school D&D game.

Pre-generated characters: Save time by having a bunch of pre-generated characters available for your players to chose from. Don’t be afraid to limit options – there is a reason that the D&D Basic Rules only covers the Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard. Your new players can wait until they are more confident until they try a more complicated class, don’t overwhelm them with choices straight out of the gate. I collect a large folder of level 1 pre-gens for this reason. If someone shows up without a character, whip out the pre-gen folder and let them play a fighter for today.

Teach only the basics: On Day 1, I have a brief slideshow which I use to go through the following points.

  • We make up heroes and go on adventures in a story
  • Different heroes are stronger or weaker at different skills
  • The DM tells the story and plays the other people
  • When we do something risky, we roll dice and add special numbers
  • The dice is usually a d20 but other dice used sometimes

Everything else they learn on the fly, with more experienced players helping out the newer ones.

Let your players add their own flavour: Leave space for players to invent a character name, appearance, and personality (traits, ideals, bonds and flaws). You can provide a list of names to spark their creativity, if you’d like. This allows even new players to feel an attachment and ownership over their pre-generated character.

Pacing: This is the primary constraint for my club. When working with a group, you are always going to need time to set up and pack away, especially if you are coming straight from the end of a school day. Most clubs are restricted to a set amount of time, not a few hours as a group of adults might have. Due to this, a one-shot module could last several club sessions. Have realistic expectations for what you expect to cover in a session, your group might not be ready for a full campaign adventure.

Be the Judge: As time is precious, don’t be afraid to make a rules judgement on the spot. I tend to make a call and then, if the player wants to check the rules, they can do that in their downtime. Often, the kids just want to play and don’t mind a bit of rules fudging. If I find out that a mistake was made, I retcon or, more rarely, award inspiration to the player if they feel like compensation is needed.

Using your (human) resources: Some kids might become hooked. You can identify these ones by them showing up at the table with their own dice, by cornering you at non-club times to talk about games, and by the fanatical gleam in their eye. If you have cultivated these kinds of players – use them! Use their willingness and train them up as assistant DMs. I let children track and run initative order, look up spells, help others with their character sheets, declare party decisions, draw the maps, keep notes… the list goes on.

Speed up combat: Combat in D&D can already take an age. Get a helper to run initative to keep it moving quickly. Encourage players to think about their turn before it happens so they know what they want to do. Use a timer if you feel it helps your group. I am considering running combat initiative in groups of players/enemies to see if this makes it faster. Expect a combat to last a whole club session, depending on the time you have. If the group aren’t enthusiastic about a combat, end it by the losing side surrendering or running away – enemies would fight to the death.

Encourage them: If your players are showing an interest in a particular element of D&D, embrace it. Provide ‘homework’ for those that want more, I have used Google Classroom to post after-game discussion topics and for players to ask questions. Let them write up character backstories or crunch numbers to create new characters. D&D Beyond has made character creation very assessible to kids, even 9 or 10 year olds.

How to Start a School RPG Club

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This is a writeup of my first few months of running Quest Club at my school. I hope this post serves as a guide for other teachers and adults who want to implement a roleplaying games club. I also hope it helps people avoid making the same mistakes that I did in the process! There is nothing like sharing your passion with kids and teaching them one of the best ways to explore a story, not to mention that a club setting is so vital for certain children.

Quest Club is the school name for an after-school roleplaying club that I started in 2019, aimed at children in older classes in my primary school: ages 9 – 13. I’ve run roleplaying clubs before at previous schools with a younger age bracket, using Hero Kids (which is brilliant), but this is the first time I have aimed Dungeons & Dragons at kids. I could write a whole other post about why I chose D&D, but that’s for another day.

Round 1: Critical Failure

Firstly, I want to be honest and tell you that my first try at starting a roleplaying club at this school failed. Here’s why:

  • I signed up to run a roleplaying club within the school’s existing after-school club system, and called it ‘Roleplaying Club’.
  • I didn’t reach out to any children about the idea or promote the club concept in any way.
  • I found out that the parents mostly sign their kids up for clubs without consulting their kids The children didn’t know about it, so didn’t bring the message home – the parents weren’t aware, so they just skipped it.

A few weeks later, the club co-ordinator came by and told me that zero children had signed up for my club. It was frustrating, but I learned a massive amount about how to approach it the next time. I gave myself a term off to work on how I was going to draw these children in to the idea of RPGs.

Round 2: Critical Success

When I tried again, I launched the idea of Quest Club way before the term even started. I approached Twitter. I learned a bunch from Scriv the Bard, Ethan Schoonover, Detentions & Dragons, HHS Librarians and Rich Oxenham. I was incredibly grateful to the community, who chatted to me, sent me resources and promoted my attempts!

Here are some of the strategies I tried:

  • I deliberately picked a catchy name that would appeal to parents and kids, and that sounded inviting/fun.
  • I designed and put up some posters and blurbs advertising the club and Dungeons & Dragons.
  • I spoke about my club idea with colleagues, and specifically asked them for children that might be suitable. This helped me reach children in year groups I don’t teach.
  • I approached specific children that I thought might be attracted to the idea.
  • I held improvised chat sessions at break-times, where I showed interested kids the dice, some D&D books and pitched my heart out.
  • I handed out flyers to take home to parents, explaining the concept of the club and targeted kids who enjoy video games, writing and fantasy readers in my marketing.

I signed up on the school’s system with the name Quest Club, having laid the groundwork better this time. I requested a maximum of 12 children, hoping that we would end up with a ‘big’ group of ‘only’ 6 to start the club. What happened was that the club co-ordinator contacted me, this time saying that the club was full, forwarding emails from parents asking for more spaces in the club, to be put on a waiting list, for a second session to get their child a chance to play. In the end, I agreed to running two afternoons in order to give more children an opportunity to join.

I was elated that the club was so popular this time around, but immediately daunted by the large group sizes, compared to the stereotypical RPG group of 4-6 players. I can write more about large kid groups, which is always a challenge, but I’ve already signed myself up for a group of 10 when school starts again in September.

The first round of Quest Club ran from April – July, with 7 attending on Mondays and 11 on Tuesdays after school. Attendance fluxuated slightly at the end as it was the end of the school year, so many children were on school trips. We had a great time, and I am super proud of the fact that 18 children have been introduced to Dungeons & Dragons. Some are definitely hooked, some maybe not, but I’m happy that I have been able to share such a beneficial hobby that I love with them.

Resources

When I was starting out this time around, I would have loved a collated list of resources to give me inspiration for organising my club plans. Here’s a small list of things that I found helpful in the actual setting up of the club or more generally giving me motivation to run with children. Please contact me and share more!

Why I Play RPGs with Kids

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Why I Play RPGs with Kids

Hi! Welcome to my blog.

I’ve been inspired to set up this blog based on the growing number of people I’m connecting with on Twitter who also run roleplaying games with kids. As someone who has been running games with kids and adults for a number of years, I can say that playing with kids is a unique experience.

Why do I play RPGs with kids?

For me, I absolutely love teaching children how to play RPGs because I want them to have a positive experience with the hobby and to feel that they are encouaged to belong in the RPG community – no matter what background, other interests or quirks they might have.

As I teacher, I enjoy teaching! I have personally been lucky enough to witness the fire in a kid’s eyes when they first realise that the game I’m teaching them is more than just a game, that they get a personal sense of real enjoyment from something RPG-related. It’s something special and, while not all kids get bitten by the RPG bug, it’s worth passing that knowledge on.

The RPG community can only benefit from having a multitude of new, excited young people enter the hobby with inclusive, respectful boundaries and models for positive behaviour at a gaming table. Just like when I teach my core subject, when I teach roleplaying games I explicitly model the behaviours and techniques I want my students to pick up. This often leads to some of them wanting to run their own games – which is one of my primary goals.

Stick with me here at this blog or on Twitter to read more about my experiences playing RPGs with young people.