What Is the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh? Dungeons & Dragons Adventure

Hello! My name is Daniel McVicker and I teach Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPG) like Dungeons and Dragons to learners like you (or your learner)! 

D&D and TTRPGs can be a great way to learn and experience:

* SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING with cooperation, empathy building, and teamwork.

* CREATIVITY with improvisation, imagination, and world-building.

* PROBLEM SOLVING with reading comprehension, lateral thinking, rapid arithmetic, and logic.

I began playing Roleplaying Games when I was in middle-school and they helped me in all of these areas and more. Being an active and autonomous participant in your imagination with other like-minded players can truly be a rewarding experience.

I have been playing and Gamemastering TTRPGs for over 30 years and I bring a wide variety of professional experience to the play table, most recently in the Information Technology field. I hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Most importantly, I have played in or run thousands of hours of tabletop games. 

NAVIGATING MY CLASS OFFERINGS:

-AGE RANGE-

Ages 8+: I will run a simplified version of D&D for these learners. (Please note that simple is not worse! My adult players frequently gravitate to these simpler rule-sets because they allow a lot of flexibility)

Ages 10+: I will typically run 5e for these learners. Important caveats about these sessions: due to COPPA regulations and Outschool policies, I cannot share links to many useful resources to these learners. I will have an entire screen dedicated to what your learner can see, but I will move all tokens for them and help them manage their character sheets. 

Ages 13+: I will typically run 5e for these learners. From a technical standpoint, these players will get an identical experience to the adults I play with, but the experience will be tailored to their developmental needs and desires. I will share links to and freely discuss all useful online tools like Roll20, dndbeyond, and others. 

-EXPERIENCE LEVEL-

BEGINNERS: Have played in fewer than three sessions, do not know how to make a character. Depending on the class we will be focused on the very basic rules, navigating the character sheet, and understanding the concepts of roleplaying games. These classes will be paced to the learner who has the least amount of experience in the class. No prior experience is necessary!

INTERMEDIATE: Have played in three or more prior sessions and know how to make a character. These learners have a basic understanding of roleplaying and the layout of the character sheet, the names of each die, and so on. At this level, we tend to work on deepening the understanding of character dynamics (playing "in character") and mechanics (advanced rules interactions and character 'builds') as well as understanding some of the software (e.g. Roll20, D&D Beyond) that can help make playing online a deeper, more rewarding experience. 

ADVANCED: Have played in a campaign or multiple single-session games, are running or planning to run their own games. At this level we will mostly be discussing topics like preparing a game or session, dealing with player dynamics, improvisation, voice acting, and world building. 

ALL LEVELS: I use this to describe when a class is appropriate for beginners to advanced - typically we will play with a simplified game that is easy to learn, teach, and create characters for for a "one-shot" game that is intended to be experienced entirely in a few hours.

Systems I currently run games in include:

DUNGEONS and DRAGONS 5e - Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition is the current version of the world's most popular tabletop roleplaying game. We can play with 2014 or 2024 rules, or a modified ruleset. 

RETRO DUNGEONS and DRAGONS - the B/X (Basic and Expert) version of Dungeons and Dragons. First published in 1981, this version of D&D is a fan favorite and is a darling of the OSR (Old-School Renaissance) scene that publishes hundreds of fantastic modules and settings today. Access to the OSE SRD will be provided that contains all the mechanics of the game. 

SHADOWDARK - Shadowdark is what old-school D&D would look like after being redesigned with 50 years of innovation.  Shadowdark RPG is fast, familiar, intuitive, and deadly. It’s built for sword-and-sorcery adventures where fell monsters slither in darkness and ancient gems glint upon forgotten thrones, waiting to be discovered.
In Shadowdark RPG, real time comes into play. A torch only holds back the looming darkness for one hour of actual game time! There isn't a moment to spare when your only light source is guttering low... a Shadowdark quickstart set will be provided to all learners. 

MICRO-DUNGEONS are one-shots that are meant to be experienced entirely within a few hours of play and will typically be run using "Maze Rats" or "Knave",: cousins of D&D that have been heavily playtested with 4th and 5th graders and are simple to learn and play. Maze Rats and only requires raiding a board game like Yatzhee! or Risk for dice. Rules will be provided to all learners.

DELTA GREEN is a mash-up of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos with the X-files. Characters take on the roles of investigators who work for a secret government organization dedicated to keeping the knowledge of the supernatural out of the public eye... at any cost. For the RPG aficionado, Delta Green was originally a setting for Call of Cthulhu, but has branched out with a simplified ruleset. Due to the themes of this game, I only run this one with kids who are 13 and older. 

If your learner or group is interested in playing any kind of tabletop RPG, please reach out. I will put together a custom session, short multi-session adventure, or ongoing campaign and work with them to play almost any kind of game they can imagine.

Other games I have played and/or run include:

Pathfinder 1e & 2e, World of Darkness (Vampire the Masquerade/The Street Fighter Storytelling Game etc.), D&D 3.0 and 3.5, Shadowrun, Star Wars (multiple versions), Blades in the Dark, Apocalypse World/Powered by the Apocalypse/Dungeon World, AD&D (1e and 2e), Mutants and Masterminds, d20 Modern, Old School Essentials aka B/X D&D, other Retroclones, Palladium Games (Rifts, Robotech, After the Bomb, Ninjas and Superspies, TMNT and other Strangeness, Heroes Unlimited), Call of Cthulhu, Mothership, Kids on Bikes, Tales from the Loop, Lady Blackbird, Scum and Villainy, Lasers and Feelings, Fallout RPG, Eat the Reich... and many more!