WBW Gaming Club: D&D and Other Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs)
What's included
1 live meeting
1 hrs 45 mins in-class hours per weekHomework
1 hour per week. Learners will be required to keep their characters up-to-date, which may take a bit of time between sessions (no more than 20 minutes per week).Class Experience
This is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game club. We play some Dungeons and Dragons, but we also spend time learning and playing other TTRPG systems like Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, and others. CURRENTLY: Thursday: Our group finds itself with nearly no briefing, cleaning up an investigation into a former Delta Green Agent who left some nasty surprises at his Cabin in the swamps of Louisiana. Delta Green is a modern horror game in the vein of the X-Files or Fringe TV shows, where normal(ish) people encounter strange supernatural happenings while working for a shadowy government(?) organization known only as Delta Green. Our D&D sessions are on hiatus as we make some choices about where the campaign is headed going forward. Other sessions: Starting a new gaming club! Write your own legend in the annals of the Dungeons and Dragons Multiverse. WAY BENEATH THE WITHDRAUGHT Strange things are afoot in the small town of Helix. The dead walk the moor nearby and strange travelers have arrived from far-flung worlds, drawn into *thinnies* in the world, places where the line between realities blurs. Emerging from holes, caves, drainage ditches and into the hollow of a tree, these strangers have been drawn together by fate or happenstance. Will they attempt to solve the mystery of the thinnies, or use them to their own end? THE LONG LINE Beneath a nearby river lies the remains of an ancient sewer system -- The Long Line. Each turn seems to have a thinny, connecting *here* to somewhere else. The villagers seem unaware of this, but the arrival of the travelers from different worlds seems to point to a change in the way in the workings of the Long Line. Has someone reactivated an ancient magic? Or has it been activated by accident, time, or decay? Was this the Long Line’s original purpose? THE EXPERIENCE Way Beneath the Withdraught Gaming Club is homebrew Dungeons and Dragons campaign that will be different for every group of learners: a multiversal experience of plane-shifting where a Cowboy, a Gnomish Mage and an Alien Space-traveler can meet and adventure, either trying to discover why fate has brought them together or figure out ways to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the ability to shift between realities. The founding group had a Ninja Turtle, a Gunslinger, an Elven Barbarian, and Napoleon Bonaparte (yes, that one) as player characters. One week you may be trying to foil a train robbery in a fantasy version of the old west, while in the next you may find yourself trying to stop a World War, or retrieve a talisman of ancient power from a fey realm of magic that itself defies belief. Our Dungeons and Dragons Gaming Club features a sandbox game and the world(s) you interact with respond to the players actions, dastardly or heroic. The background that you imagine and write for your character will shape and inform one (or more) of the worlds that exist in the game, so players will have an unusual amount of narrative control over the course of the game. Factions, areas, monsters and characters that begin as a simple sentence of description can become fleshed out over the course of the game to become critical to the future of the campaign, with maps, art, theme songs, and more. DETAILS Safety tools will be provided to keep the game fun and enjoyable for everyone. Individuals will make their own goals - and be rewarded with special quests that materially benefit their characters. If you decide to forge a magical weapon of great power, each step along the path will be rewarded with boosts to your character. Topics and Themes of the class include: history and alternate history, connection, improvisation, cooperation, goal-setting and imaginative play. The core concept will be stretching Dungeons and Dragons to see just how far we can take it! This is an incredibly interactive experience, where learners will have many chances to explore the kinds of adventures that they've always imagined with other like-minded learners. I will use Virtual Tabletop Software to enable art, maps, drawing, tokens, dice, character sheets, music, and more, sharing a screen to show the table if needed. (If learners' hardware allows it, I may set up a private, self-hosted server that learners can join). I will use some slides and discussion as well to handle specific topics or as requested. If your learner is younger, I have a version for ages 10+ as well.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
Dungeons and Dragons can have violent content but safety tools will be provided in order to ensure a positive experience for each player. Our first session will include explicit discussion of how to handle uncomfortable topics in a group setting. We'll then revisit those topics when new players join or we need a refresher.
Supply List
* A character sheet (optional - can be printed from the https://dnd.wizards.com/charactersheets site) * Notebook * Pens/pencils * Polyhedral Dice set (optional - dice may be rolled online on the VTT). Can be purchased at a game shop or online.
Language of Instruction
English (Level: B2+)
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Sources
* Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (Player's Handbook) provides the core rules to our experience
* Adventures will be tuned explicitly to the learners' in-game goals, but may be sourced from 50 years of D&D history, other roleplaying games, books, movies, art, comic books, TV, video games, and our shared imaginations.
Teacher expertise and credentials
Bachelor's Degree from University of Colorado
3 years on Outschool! Currently a "Star Educator" with several long-running classes (campaigns). Over 30 years of playing tabletop roleplaying games. I run or play in 7 or more sessions per week.
Reviews
Live Group Class
$33
weekly1x per week
105 min
Completed by 15 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 13-18
1-6 learners per class