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:

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.