{"id":2638,"date":"2016-10-03T11:09:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T10:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2016-11-08T15:10:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T15:10:02","slug":"of-dd-mtg-board-games-and-other-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/2016\/10\/03\/of-dd-mtg-board-games-and-other-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"School Library Activities: Of D&D, MtG, Board games and other activities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The library is as busy, if not busier than ever, especially during leisure times – in the morning before classes start and at lunchtimes. \u00a0Pupils can do a variety of activities at these times. \u00a0There are the regular activities, described below, as well as our annual events. \u00a0Our Poetry Picnic is this Thursday, 6th October to celebrate National Poetry Day<\/a>. \u00a0The theme is ‘Messages’. After the October Holidays we will have another lunchtime session of storytelling for Spooky Happenings.<\/p>\n

A small cohort of pupils come to the library before its official opening time, presumably because they want first dibs on the PCs, but they come on the condition that they help with shelving and shelf tidying. \u00a0Their ‘enthusiasm’ for this means the shelving trolley is usually not too full. \u00a0Sometimes books aren’t in the correct place, but this is a minor inconvenience. \u00a0Mornings are often the time when some pupils are frantically finishing (in some cases starting, I suspect) homework, or printing it out. \u00a0Others will read quietly, but in the main mornings are a gentle run in to the school day with a bit of a chat.<\/p>\n

Many will go on the computers to play games in the morning or at lunchtime, although those wanting to do school work will always get priority. \u00a0This system seems to work well, with only the occasional gripe when someone is asked to come off a PC to let someone work. \u00a0We keep an eye to the games pupils are playing as well as ensuring both games and any YouTube videos they watch are appropriate for viewing in the school. \u00a0Pupils are aware of and accept these limitations to use.<\/p>\n

Board games such as chess, draughts and Connect4 are popular at lunchtime. \u00a0These are kept on shelves so pupils can help themselves. \u00a0A new Draughts set has recently been purchased and donated by the Librarian as we only had one set. \u00a0One wonders whether there is scope for a peedie competition?<\/p>\n

Magic the Ga\"DSCN5566\"thering, an RPG card game where opponents battle each other is still very popular, both at lunchtime and during Friday afternoon activities. \u00a0It was introduced to the library in the late 90’s and has been played ever since. \u00a0We have also run a couple of tournaments in the past, and the time may well be ripe for another one. \u00a0Watch this space!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Friday afternoon Role Playing Games activity is also more popular than ever with 23 pupils attending. Eight play Magic the Gathering in the Upper Library whilst the rest play Dungeons & Dragons, in three groups. \u00a0This year we have 7 beginners which bodes well for the future of this activity. \u00a0The beginners group of 5 very enthusiastic S1 pupils is DM’d (Dungeon Mastered) by the Librarian, Mrs Sinclair, playing the published Starter Set<\/a> adventure, Lost Mine of<\/em> Phandelver<\/em> from Wizards of the Coast.\u00a0 \u00a0A<\/em>n S3 pupil leads two older beginners in his more experienced group of players playing a 5e D&D homebrew Sci-fi type of game. \u00a0A further group led by an S3 girl playing 3.5e D&D. \u00a0More information on the history of D&D at Stromness Academy can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

PC “Can I use toilet?”<\/p>\n

NPC “Outhouse is out back”<\/p>\n

3 min later same question<\/p>\n

NPC Same reply<\/p>\n

Pupil asks again<\/p>\n

DM “Oh YOU want to go”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"c0s\"On Tuesday after school a small group of five experienced D&D players meet. \u00a0This includes one of the pupil DMs so it gives him a chance to play as well. \u00a0Currently we are playing the\u00a0Curse of Strahd<\/a><\/em> campaign set in Ravenloft. \u00a0This adventure will be full of suspense, a little measure of horror and maybe even some hope. \u00a0The characters find themselves transported through mists to a different place to where they were the night before. \u00a0They are in a forest clearing near a road. \u00a0They have two options: go east into the mist (back to where they think they came from) or go west. \u00a0They find out that the mist is rather dangerous so go west along the forest track.<\/p>\n

Player: “How would I know I am in a forest?”<\/p>\n

DM: “Erm!” Looks at other players.<\/p>\n

Other players: Bemused! Roll eyes!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The characters\u00a0find their way to the village of Barovia where two little children ask them to chase a monster out of their house. \u00a0The players are now currently ‘stuck’ in\u00a0The Death House<\/em> (no it isn’t really as bad as it sounds – actually, yes it is!) which is an introductory adventure getting\u00a0them used to the emphasis on the role-playing aspect of this campaign, as opposed to the dice rolling of lots of combat. \u00a0It is making the players think much more carefully about their character’s actions, how they work together as a group and\u00a0how they affect the other characters in the group. For example, maybe hitting a group of statuettes with a maul, which\u00a0you saw briefly in the guise of\u00a0your adventuring companions, might have consequences! One of the party took a lot of damage!<\/p>\n

The main thing with D&D is that the players have fun. \u00a0The great thing is it also teaches pupils lots of skills in terms of numeracy, literacy and social skills. \u00a0More information is found on the D&D<\/a> page of this blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The library is as busy, if not busier than ever, especially during leisure times – in the morning before classes start and at lunchtimes. \u00a0Pupils can do a variety of activities at these times. \u00a0There are the regular activities, described … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320,324],"tags":[19918,346,13549,19934],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activities","category-games-gaming","tag-activities","tag-dungeons-dragons","tag-magic-the-gathering","tag-role-playing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2678,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions\/2678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}