Tabletop RPG Classroom: In-Game Math Lesson for Middle School Kids
Continuing my series of in-class TTRPG examples/ideas, check out below for tips on how to structure a tabletop RPG around math classes! This second article in the math series will cover how to structure a classroom game for middle school kids to teach about order of operations in multistep problems.
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General structuring for math with tabletop role-playing games
First! Many well known tabletop RPGs use dice and stat modifiers that are added together so you can see if an attack hits or how much damage is done.
While that teaches some math skills, it doesn’t always reach into what’s needed for, say, a 7th grade algebra class.
This article is going to look at taking very specific math standards and building game mechanics and a story around teaching those particular skills. The goal is also to have it fully integrated into the game (so not just a side quest).
For middle school kids, this might be various stages of algebra, geometry, statistics, and advanced word problems.
Second! If you’ve already read my other TTRPG classroom posts:
Math lesson article:
Chemistry lesson articles
Social studies lesson articles
…much of this next explanation will be similar to the general structuring section in that post, and you can go here to skip ahead to the middle school math in-class example (the new part)!
Third! Before we get to the example, we’re going to cover some general tips for structuring your game around a lesson or educational goal. Much of this will be similar to any subject that you’re teaching (not just for math lessons and not just for elementary school kids). This means that if you’re here looking for general TTRPG classroom info, much of this can be applicable to any class, after school group, or game!
I’m covering this all before the middle school TTRPG example because it is important to understand the basics for how the example is structured and why we’re doing things the way we are (so that you can take this material and extrapolate it for your particular kid(s) and lessons).
Setting your game’s educational goal(s)
When it comes to setting up intentionally educational TTRPGs, before you start coming up with plots and mechanics and even educational content, you first need to figure out what your goals for your students are since this is going to be what we want to build everything else around.
You don’t want to be trying to shoehorn a concept into an existing game or story idea that doesn’t really fit… and then losing the focus on what you want to teach.
Pick one to three core goals that you hope to accomplish with the tabletop RPG that you’re introducing to your class. What is the purpose of introducing this game?
For math lessons with middle school kids, these concepts could be something like “reinforce order of operations for struggling students” or “learn how to take percentages resulting in fractional answers” or “solve for x using multiplication and division” or “solve complex story problems”. There’s a range here with topics being purely academic to topics that focus on general big picture concepts that will build a foundation for future lessons, so think about your situation and pick a couple that work for your group and that you think could be helped by working into a TTRPG.
Usually, you are going to want to pick a topic or two that your students REALLY struggle with because that’s going to be where your class could benefit the most from having a fun game to lighten things up and get extra practice.
Paying attention to your game’s focus
Next, once you have your goal to build from, you’re probably going to start thinking of the game system that you’ll use and the story that you’ll make to surround the topic(s) you chose.
As you do this, make sure to keep the focus on teaching your goal.
If you pick a complex game system that takes several weeks to learn, you could be diverting your students’ focus and time from the core goal (learning math) and instead putting it on learning about this particular game system… which is not your goal.
For some subjects (like in this interview with D&D teacher Kade Wells), systems like D&D can be great for teaching English and reading because they require critical reading skills to understand, and it provides necessary motivation, so that system meets the goals of the class. I also show how, if the group knows D&D off the bat, it can be a very good medium for teaching classes as well, like in my middle school chemistry lesson post that uses D&D.
When looking at math, if you want to focus on teaching addition and subtraction, D&D may facilitate that because it provides a solid motivation (playing a fun game) that does require addition and subtraction of dice, modifiers, health, etc to play. That said, a player may sometimes only make 5-15 rolls per hour of play, and much of the addition and subtraction will involve rolling 1d20 for a skill check and adding a modifier ranging from -4 to +5. For this, just consider if the pacing and math problems meet the goals you aim for.
When I look at making a TTRPG for teaching math, I look at existing math lessons and math worksheets then try to figure out a story or framework that can make those more interesting. With my kid (8yo, 3rd grade), they really did not like learning multiplication at the end of the school year, but, over the summer, I turned into a bit of a game with a multiplication grid to help solve silly word problems that had to do with kiddo’s favorite books and let us play with making up more story to engage with. After about a week, kiddo was into it and got over that learning barrier… because it was fun but still focused on math.
Adding the story to the math made it impactful and gave the problems in the worksheet/grid meaning besides “this will help later in life”.
For a class, also consider to keep the adventures for your lesson modular (you probably don’t have time to get into a ton of lore and still keep it within a typical class period), so run quick one-shots or have a few short sessions spread out over a semester or learning chapter… then end there. It doesn’t need to be a full epic campaign to get your educational goals across, and you want students focusing more on the educational concepts anyway.
Include multiple points of contact with the subject material in your TTRPG
If you look at stories ranging from fairy tales to present day children’s tv shows, when a new concept is being taught, it’s often presented at least three times (think of how The Boy Who Cried Wolf repeated its theme or how Bluey reiterates topics throughout the episode).
This is because we need to interact with something more than once for it to sink in. When teaching with a story or game, you should also reiterate some of the topics a few times to make sure they stick and students have had enough time to process and absorb the material.
When you look at the example below, watch for multiple points of contact and how they drive the core goal home over and over. Also, watch how they can progress between rounds of play to add more concepts as they gain familiarity with the original lessons (i.e. the first time you play, use a 1d4 for roll to keep the numbers low, then upgrade to a 1d6 the next round, a 1d8 after that, and so on).
Build your math class examples into each other and the TTRPG
With those multiple points of contact, you’ll also want to make sure that they are both built into each other (so they’re related and connected) and that they’re part of the story and/or mechanics that you have included in your tabletop RPG.
Tying them tightly into the game creates the connection that you’re looking for between your players and the material, and it’s the whole point of doing this! So, make sure that your story and your lessons match!
Now, this all can seem like a lot to watch out for, but it’s really a few very simple points:
- Determine your educational goal
- Keep your mechanics and story simple and focused on the goal
- Use your goal at least three times
- Connect your game ideas to the goal
To help show how to do this specifically for middle school kids, here’s an example lesson that teaches about order of operations and solving for x in different circumstances while fighting a creature!
Example TTRPG math lesson for middle school kids (approx 7th grade)
Goals, context, and mechanics for your middle school TTRPG math lesson
Context: Friday afternoon math period in the regular class schedule. 7th grade concepts were previously taught in lessons with some students struggling with core concepts of order of operations and others ready to move on to the next lesson (solving for x). Time limit of 45 minutes.
Goals: (1) practice order of operations for struggling students (2) introduce solving for x with multiplication/division to students ready to move on
Mechanics: attacking and defending with order of operations problems, healing with solving for x
Lesson(s): Survive the fight with the [insert villain or creature] by using your party’s skills to attack, cast defensive spells, and heal!
Introduction: Story, teams, and roles (and rolls)
Before kicking off the game, introduce the concept to your students:
For today’s lesson, you will be split into groups of 3-4 and will each have a role on the team as you try to defeat a… what do you all think we should be fighting? A dragon? That villain with the gauntlet from that superhero movie? The abstract concept of internet video brain rot?”
Let the class have some input about the baddie and split the teams up. You may want to have a list of teams to ensure that there’s at least one healer (one student who is ready to work on solving for x) per team. Then, let players know what their roles will be on the team and what the differences are.
Each team is going to need at least one attacker who will be solving order of operation problems to do damage with spells and weapons, one defender who will be adding parenthesis to problems to alter the order of operations and prevent damage to the group with their spells and shields, and one healer who will be solving for X in some more complex problems to heal the party and keep you going. If you have an extra person on your team, they are in charge of tracking the creature’s health and helping others on the team.
When I put a problem on the board for your role, you’ll roll dice to fill in the blanks and then need to solve the problem to do damage, defend, or heal. I’ll put the correct answer on the board after a short time so you can check if you’re correct and the move succeeds.
For the first round, we’ll roll a d6, and we’ll see if we can increase the die as we go so you do more damage and can block more!
The creature starts out with 1000 health and each of you has 300 health. Make sure to add and subtract this throughout the game.
See if you can defeat the creature before the lesson ends!
And that’s the explanation! You may want to have a character sheet/health tracker, a worksheet, or flash cards to help with tracking or giving out problems, but this can also be done if each player has a blank sheet of paper + writing tool and you have a board to write on.
First step: ATTACK!
The first round of problems is the ATTACK! phase. So, have the attacker player get ready to solve a problem by putting it on the board.
The first time you do this, either you roll 1d6 and fill in the blanks/letters or have players at a selected table roll 1d6 and fill in the blanks/letters on the board. Then, each table needs to solve the problem correctly to do damage equal to the answer of the problem.
Some examples of problems for this (and following) rounds are:
- (A + B) x C = ?
- A + B x C = ?
- Which is greater? (A + B) x (C + D) or A x B + C x D? Do damage equal to the larger equation.
And if you want to throw in some other math concepts or larger numbers in this or a future session, you could do:
- Do A% of the creature’s remaining health
- (A+B)/(creature’s remaining health) = ?
Make sure students subtract the answer from the creature’s health if they solve it correctly, then move on to the next round.
Second step: DEFEND!
The second round of problems is the DEFEND! phase. So, have the defender player get ready to solve a problem by putting it on the board.
The first time you do this, just like with the ATTACK phase, roll 1d6 and fill in the blanks/letters, then have each table solve the problem reduce the amount of damage coming into the party as much as possible
Some examples of problems for this (and following) rounds are:
For all problems, solve as is or add parenthesis in the right spot to reduce the damage! The final answer is the damage that the creature does to each member in the party!
- 80 – A / B – C + D = ?
- 150 / A + B – C = ?
- 300 / A – B + C = ?
Make sure students subtract the final answer from their OWN health if they solve it correctly. If they don’t put the parenthesis in the correct place, they may take more damage, so the answers for this could vary from table to table.
Third step: HEAL!
The final steph is the HEAL! phase. So, have the healer player get ready to solve a problem by putting it on the board.
The first time you do this, just like with the other phases, roll 1d6 and fill in the blanks/letters, then have each table solve the problem to get back the specified health for each problem.
Some examples of problems for this (and following) rounds are:
For all problems, solve correctly for X to give each player 100 health back!
- 2 x + A = 20
- 3 x – A = 5 x B
- 92 + x / 5 = A x B
Make sure that students add to their OWN health if their table solves it correctly. If they don’t, then their health can be unchanged, or maybe it backfires and heals the creature instead (it is up to you)!
Three (or more) points of contact
Once the first healing phase is done, repeat the three steps until the creature is defeated or too many parties are starting to go out. If the class is handling each round really well, start rolling a d8 the next round, then bump that up to a d10, d12, and so on so they’re working with larger numbers. You can also increase the problem complexity in a way that lets them do more damage or negate more damage to reward them for doing more difficult problems.
With each round, describe what’s happening with gusto to keep it interesting! If you’re fighting a dragon, play it up like it’s snarling at the party and snorts out gouts of flame that are hot enough to melt the rock in the cavern into dripping lava! If they’re fighting the concept of internet brain rot, say that a new cringey video has just landed and is doing psychic damage so great that the next class over can feel it! Be silly since the whole point is to make this fun and a bit goofy to take the sting of math practice out of the lesson. Try to make it last at least three rounds so they get that three point practice built in.
I would also suggest that, if attention starts to wane after 30 minutes or so, you could introduce a new challenge, like the creature getting a special finisher move, which equates to a group problem that the whole class has to solve, or a magical ally coming into resurrect fallen heroes and give one freebie answer, depending on what’s needed. This type of lesson can allow for a lot of flexibility, so it’s OK to adapt and pretend like you planned it that way from the start.
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What’s shown here can be modified to fit your class and other types of lessons, and it’s meant to be a springboard for other ideas. There’s tons of variations on this one example too! You could change the scenario to be about solving puzzles in a tomb and adjust the three roles to where each person is trying to solve problems on different walls. You could be besieging a castle and each have a different job (trebuchets that teach geometry, negotiators who use story problems to try to stop the fight, and managers who need to calculate incoming and outgoing supplies). Get creative and see what works for your class and your time limits!
I hope it helps to show a sample tabletop RPG lesson outline for either direct use in your classes or to spark some inspiration for other ideas, and let me know in the comments if you use this or have ideas of your own!
Stay tuned for future lessons as well – the next “Tabletop RPG Classroom” article, which will cover high school math lessons that feature different systems and subjects to help round out the examples and show how it can be scaled to fit the needs of older kids.
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