Tips and tricks – TTRPGkids

Tips and tricks: all-ages friendly TTRPG festival challenges

This article is to help give some ideas for all-ages-friendly festival challenges to include in your TTRPGs! Festivals are great plot devices for having a special holiday game, adding to the culture of your fantasy world, or just because, and there’s a ton of options for creating festivals that are exciting, engaging, and fun for any age and player.

TTRPGkids on Ludology Podcast, Episode 4: Creating an engaging TTRPG setting that kids will enjoy

In this episode of TTRPGkids on Ludology Podcast, I discuss how to create a TTRPG setting that fits the interests of young players! While these tips can be used for any age, they’re particularly important for using with youth who may have some pretty different fandoms and story preferences from grown ups who are running the game.

TTRPGkids on Ludology Podcast, Episode 3: Using TTRPG safety tools with kids

This episode of TTRPGkids on Ludology Podcast is all about using safety tools and setting ground rules in TTRPGs with kids – these tools are critical to making sure everyone feels comfortable and wants to come back to the game AND it’s important to make sure that young players can understand them and use the well.

Tips and Tricks: Non-violent TTRPG environmental challenge ideas

This article has a whole bunch of ideas and examples for creating environmental challenges to try out in your games! I receive a lot of questions or comments about how to give more action-packed but non-violent encounters for young players, and environmental challenges are one of my favorite go-tos.

Using TTRPGs to teach resilience in life and in school

Resilience is a critical skill that affects how we handle life’s twists and turns, and, while it is important for adults to learn too, it is imperative that kids have the opportunity to pick up resilience skills to help them later in life, in handling their current school load, and more… And TTRPGs are an excellent way to practice handling failure and dealing with life’s nat 1’s.

TTRPGs for kids: The “Good Enough” session

I have read about, received messages from, and talked with several families and educators who are hesitant to start TTRPGs with their kids because they’re stressed about getting all the steps right.

While some concern is great (because it means that you’re thinking about it and trying to do well for the kids), it is also sometimes better to have a “good enough” session that actually happens versus a “perfect” session that stays in the planning phase.

How TTRPGs have helped my 5yo kid and me

How Tabletop RPGs have helped my 5yo kid and me

In 2021, I posted an article about how TTRPGs have helped my kid (then 3yo) and me. At that time, we had been playing TTRPGs for about 6 months and had tried out 8 games. Now, we’ve been playing TTRPGs for 2.5 years and have tried out close to 80 games together! With that growth, I think it’s about time to give an update on how TTRPGs have continued to help both my kid and me.

TTRPGkids on Ludology Podcast, Episode 2: What to do when kids go “villain mode”

In the second episode of TTRPGkids on Ludology Podcast, I chat about how a kid’s behavior in game can mean something totally different from what you’d expect and how to turn “villain” choices into something positive for later.

Practicing the engineering problem solving process using tabletop RPGs

As an engineer and engineering professor, I know how critical problem solving skills are for work, students, and just life in general…. and tabletop RPGs are a great way to hone and practice those skills in a very fun way that fosters a positive outlook when faced with a challenge! Read on for a discussion on problem solving skills, a fun example about a dragon lair heist, and how TTRPGs apply can help develop these skills through practice!

How to propose classroom tabletop RPGs to your school

Almost as often as I see people talk about the benefits of using tabletop RPGs to teach, I see people talking about how difficult it is to get it approved for classroom use. This article goes over how I was able to get some TTRPG elements approved for my class and gives ideas to help you submit a successful proposal to your administration.