Learning through play, especially with Dungeons and Dragons and Tabletop Roleplaying Games, is becoming increasingly recognised as a powerful tool in education, therapy and learning social skills. In this course, we will be working through elements of storytelling, worldbuilding, critical thinking, problem solving and tactical play in the mornings, and with a structured game with analysis and feedback in the afternoons.

AGE RANGE: TEENAGERS 13 TO 17YRS

11th-17th July

This year we are only running it for one week, but we hope that if it is popular, we can run it for other weeks and with different age ranges.

The course will run over 5 days. Each afternoon session lasts from 1.45pm-4.30pm.

For more details, see the course website (linked above).

The details below will make up the first 45-60 minutes of the session. The rest of the session will be taken up with a structured adventure, taking the player through different challenges before taking some time at the end to talk through and analyse how their could improve their critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Day 1

Character Building

The students will create a character thinking about motivations, backstory, links to the community, relationships with other party members. They will think about how their character fits in the group and how they can work as a team and cooperate in tactics to defeat challenges. They will look at some elements of psychology.

Day 2 & 3

World Building

Day 2 Countries

The students will create their own world, each designing their own country. They will think about the political structure of their country including racial and class make-up. They will consider the geography of the country and how it effects the economics and their relationship with other countries. They will invent historical events, learning and drawing upon understanding of historical events in the real world and think about how that will shape the history and people of their country. They will work with others to shape and refine their ideas of how their country interacts with one another.

Day 3 Towns

The students will create a town together, again deciding on how that town is governed, the class and racial structure, the location, the defences, the law enforcement, and the economics. They will consider real world festivals and celebrations and think about how creating the festivals and how it effects the culture of the town. They will then look at medieval culture to create a handful of characters that will populate the town, fleshing them out to make them come alive. Finally, they will consider the adventures that can happen in the town and the plot hooks that would draw the players into those adventures.

Day 4 & 5

Tactical Play 1

Day 4 Tactical Situations

The students will work through a handful of scenarios, both combat and non-combat, brainstorming and considering the best way that their team can overcome these difficult situations. They will run through these simulated scenarios and test their wits against planned obstacles and unexpected challenges.

Day 5 Team and Individual Play

The students will now test their wits against each other, both in groups and individually. This will include thinking strategically with elements of critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork.

Sam Cheung has a Mathematics degree from Imperial College, London.

He has taught at Wellington College, Latymer Upper School and is now at Marlborough College, Malaysia. He has been teaching for over 20 years, but also been playing and running Dungeons and Dragons and Tabletop Roleplaying Games for over 30 years. He is known online as the Educational DM, and has been writing articles about how D&D is a great educational tool and how you can proactively encourage the educational aspects of the game. He has also been working with other educators, psychologists and parents to actively promote this side of the games for the last few years.