{"id":2755,"date":"2017-06-26T12:11:54","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T11:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/?p=2755"},"modified":"2017-06-26T12:39:54","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T11:39:54","slug":"library-activities-role-playing-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/or\/stromnessacademylibrary\/2017\/06\/26\/library-activities-role-playing-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Library Activities – Role Playing Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The role playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, has been played in the school library now for over 15 years. What started as a suggestion by pupils has grown from an initial group of 5 pupils and the school librarian, to over 25 pupils earlier this session. As the term and school year draws to a close, we now stand at 16 D & D players and 7 Magic the Gathering players coming to the library for Friday afternoon activities. D & D also has been running on a Tuesday after school for more experienced players. We also run short (25-30 min) games on a Thursday lunchtime.<\/p>\n

As with all school extra-curricular activities, Role Playing Games fits with a number of Curriculum for Excellence outcomes across Literacy, Numeracy, and Health & Wellbeing. Further details are here<\/a>, in particular connected to D & D.<\/p>\n

Over the years we have also \u00a0played a little Warhammer (including a miniature painting competition), the Warhammer RPG, Call of Cthulhu, d20 Modern, and Vampire the Requiem, as well as Magic the Gathering and D & D in 3e, 3.5e, 4e and now 5e editions.<\/p>\n

\"\"Our Friday activities are now only 50 minutes long (used to be 1hr 10min) so effectively we are lucky to have \u00a040-45 minutes of game time which can prove somewhat restricting in the world of D & D. However, we have adapted and it means pupils and DMs (Dungeon Masters who lead a group) have to be disciplined in terms of time keeping and keeping on task.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since the introduction of 5th edition we have been running the modules, published by Wizards of the Coast. Lost Mine of Phandelver<\/em> (in the Starter Set) has been used for beginners’ groups, Curse of Strahd<\/em> is run on a Tuesday after school f\"\"or more experienced players, and Hoard of the Dragon Queen<\/em> is run on a Friday. On a Thursday ‘drop in session’ the players are being run through The Mines of Madness <\/em>which is a very typical ‘dungeon crawl’ and is proving relatively suitable for a short time slot. Two pupils run their own adventures using d20 Modern or 3.5e D & D.<\/p>\n

The modules are great, but it takes a LONG time to get through them due to the short sessions. As a DM, this school librarian is (slowly) adapting her style to cope and is actually ad libbing more and trying to make encounters shorter and snappier. Running a full campaign such as\u00a0Curse<\/em> or\u00a0Hoard<\/em> is looking like it will take several years at this rate so a more ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ style is needed.<\/p>\n

Next session, the Role Playing Games<\/strong> activity will be running in the same format offering Roleplaying Games:<\/p>\n