I’m a teacher at a middle school in Albuquerque NM. I have started a after school gaming program and I decided that Dungeon World would be the best game to teach them. What would be a good way to start? They are 6-8 graders but a lot of them are excited. We played some good ol dungeon just to have some fun but now I want to try the real thing. Any suggestions.
I’m a teacher at a middle school in Albuquerque NM.
I’m a teacher at a middle school in Albuquerque NM.
Use the first session procedures and the
“Teaching the game” section in the book.
What Tim said. I used those sections to teach the game to two nine year olds.
A fellow New Mexican! I’m from Las Cruces originally.
Anyway, the teaching the game section has most of what I can think of. 6-8th grade should be no trouble I’d think. Anything in specific you’re worried about?
Bonds and fronts…
Mainly fronts
Ask Ovy Ortega he does something similar in Nawlins.
I’ve run the game for kids in that age range. Works fine, no modifications necessary. You’ll probably have to emphasize the need for them to build up their skills at listening to each other, though. 🙂
Marcelino Soliz for the first session don’t even worry about fronts. They come later.
After the first session, look at what happened and pick out anything unresolved, those can form your fronts. If everything was tied up neatly in one session, you can just dream something up based on what the players seem interested in.
Maybe the easiest way to make fronts is to play your first session and then come back here, people will gladly help you build fronts. 🙂
Bonds are pretty simple. The players will likely do a lot of work for you. Just give them the basic instruction (“Fill in the name of another character in as many bonds as you like, the more times you have that character’s name the better you can help them.”)
Idea: players take turns filling in bonds and calling them out. Bonds can cascade!
Sequoia the Druid: “Bug the Thief smells like prey, not a predator”
Bug: “That’s okay, because Grunt the Fighter has my back!”
Grunt: “Bug knows a secret of mine.”
GM: “So it’d be good for you if Bug dies then.”
Grunt: “Yeah!”
And ask tons of questions about the bonds!
You may also want to reach out to Seth Harris. I know he’s played RPGs with his students.
I can share my experience with my middle schoolers and DW that it is a great combo. They take to it really well.
I spend a lot of time asking about their character’s intentions the first few times, and they I find that they play on par to some experienced roleplayers.
The fiction flows really well with DW, and having the moves in front of them gives them a menu of options. GM rules around soft moves before hard help me be more deliberate in my narration, especially remembering to telegraph consequences, which pays large dividends with this age set (not that they don’t with all age groups).
Sounds like a lot of great advice. We meet tomorrow afternoon. I will be printing all character and move sheets in the morning. I can’t wait.
this sounds awesome, good luck!