So How Do We Begin?
To misquote Nike, we begin by just doing it.
Although it is helpful to know what you are doing, it is not required. I certainly had no idea how to play RPGs when we started our first club, a girl centric friendship group called the Slay Queens. The greatest lie of running an RPG is the idea that you have to know all the rules. I promise, the D&D police haven’t come for me yet, so you are likely safe.
With Stranger Things in the middle school pop culture universe, Dungeons and Dragons is the RPG most kids have heard of. Is it the best RPG? Or easiest to learn? Is it the most fun? Probably not, but it is the one they are most likely to come across in the real world, so you might want to start with it.
We have also had a lot of fun with the Mouse Guard RPG, Kids on Bikes, Quest and homebrew rule systems based on the one page RPG Lasers and Feelings.
Here are some tips to get you started on your own adventure with a party of middle schoolers…
"Dungeons and Dragons" by davipsilva is licensed with CC BY-NC 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/