Rachel Archeron has been running a children’s Dungeons and Dragons Club program at a public library in Massachusetts since July 2024. She previously co-ran a similar program at a public library in Ohio from 2022 until January 2024.
DanDMadeEasy ran an interview with Rachel about her experience setting up and running a library D&D club.
If you’re looking for support setting up a school or library D&D club, there’s lots of free support out there, both from DanDMadeEasy and other creators. If you want to get in touch with other club facilitators, there’s a dedicated channel for this on the DanDMadeEasy Discord server.
Dan: “Thanks for taking the time to share your story, Rachel. First up, can you tell me why you decided to set up a D&D club in your library? What is your experience with roleplaying outside the library, if any?”
Rachel: “I’ve been playing D&D in my personal life for around eight years now. I started out as a player alongside my partner, but after several bad group experiences, my partner decided to Dungeon Master for our group. Watching them, I started to get ideas about games I would like to run if I were to be a DM myself, and from there I began to run my own games for friends.
I feel like playing D&D and also running games personally helped me with a lot of things such as creativity, problem solving, and building my confidence. I also love the storytelling aspect and how a group can create a shared, living story together within the framework of the world.
When my manager at my last library mentioned that they wanted to start a D&D program for kids, I was really excited and eager to work with her on it because I realized that the things that I loved and the benefits I got from the game could also apply to kids. I moved jobs earlier this year and one of the first programs I knew I wanted to set up at my new library was a D&D club!”
Dan: “It's great that you had the opportunity to set up a club in your new library! What was the experience of setting the club up like? What was involved?”
Rachel: “Setting up the club was fairly straightforward. I talked to my manager about the benefits of role-playing games for kids and she was very happy to let me set up a club here. We’re pretty lucky that our library administrators trust us to set up programs that benefit the community.
My main problems were trying to figure out logistics such as how often to host the program and how many participants to run it for. The hours that my current library is open are very different from my last library and I knew that that would cause some differences in how to format the program.
I also knew that I would likely need a second DM, especially if the club got popular. I asked if I could bring in outside help, and my manager confirmed that this was OK. From there, I asked my partner if they would like to volunteer their time to be either second DM if needed, or a player character to help nudge the kids in the right direction if they got stuck on something or started to go completely off the rails.
I run Dungeons and Dragons 5E at the library, specifically the 2014 version since I haven’t had a chance to look through the new one yet. I stick to classes and subclasses that are in the Player’s Handbook so that I can keep it ready during sessions. This also helps since I’ve structured the club as an introduction to D&D in many ways. I want to introduce kids to the game so that they grow to love it and might start games with each other or find a different group outside of the library where they can play more often or explore more options in the game.”
Dan: “It’s so great that you’re offering this opportunity to kids. I’d have absolutely loved to play when I was a kid, but I didn’t start tabletop until I was at University! Speaking of age, what age range are the kids, and how many are in the club?”
Rachel: “I have the program listed for ages 6-10. I think the average age has been around 8 years old. To avoid having too large a group at once, I set up registration for the program, which is capped at 12 participants per game. Over the months that I’ve run games, there have been a variety of different kids, some of which have stopped in for a single game and some that have come back every session.”
Dan: “I bet I’d have been one of the kids coming back to every session if I’d had the opportunity! How did you get kids interested in joining?”
Rachel: “I got kids interested in a few different ways. We put out flyers for our programs, usually about a month before they happen. These generate a lot of interest. Kids in particular like to go through them with their adults and point out program titles or graphics that interest them.
My colleagues and I are really good at promoting each other’s programs to kids that are picking out books or other library materials with a similar interest. For example, I know some of my coworkers told a couple kids about the program when they saw they were checking out a graphic novel that featured D&D, Dungeon Club by Molly Ostertang and Xanthe Bouma.
Our program room is also very visible in our children’s space, so we often have kids stop in to see what we’re doing after a program starts. The largest group I’ve had came about because of this. One girl heard we were playing D&D and was excited because she knew about it from The Adventure Zone. She brought in a group of four of her friends, some of which had never heard of the game before but were eager to try it out.”
Dan: “It’s great that TTRPGs including D&D are much more in the public eye than they were when I was a kid. It’s been really great for the hobby! Let’s move on to talk about how you run the games. First up, how do you help kids understand the rules? Did you find any resources helpful?”
Rachel: “I have tried a few handouts to help with rules so far but what I’ve found most helpful is just starting the game and explaining as we go along when different situations arise. For example, when combat starts, I find it helpful to remind everyone to roll their d20 for initiative.
One handout that I recently started using that has been helpful for some of the kids is a simple half page reference sheet that I found on the DM’s Guild website. It was created by Jon Grythe Stødle and is a simple overview of actions you can take during combat. Since there are so many options you can take, I’ve found that it really helps show kids what is possible.
In the future, I would like to make a sort of notecard reminder for the flow of combat in the future, especially for classes like Barbarian, where rage adds extra modifiers, or Fighter where they might get an extra attack. We played with my mother-in-law for a time and I made one of these for her and it really helped her know everything she needed to roll. I haven’t had time to sit down and make these for the library yet, although I hope to before the D&D Club starts back up in December.
I am also very excited to try out the character journals and trackers that you (DanDMadeEasy) licensed to me. I think it’ll really help kids to be able to write out their abilities in their own way and to personalize it more, especially since the rules as written can be a little dense sometimes. I also think that the kids will love drawing in them and really decorating them and making them their own. One of the most popular parts of the session for the kids is drawing what their characters look like on their character sheets.”
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Dan: “It’s really great that so many people make resources to help make the game more accessible, and I’m glad to help in that space! Speaking of accessibility, have you changed the rules of the game to better support a library club setting? If so, how?”
Rachel: “I have tried to stick to most of the rules of the game, but there are certain changes that I’ve adopted in some ways - either to make them easier for younger players or to help streamline games. During combat, I don’t allow reactions to help keep things moving. I also don’t allow some spells, such as Wish, because of the complexity in the spell's description and the potential consequences.
I also don’t allow for permanent death of player characters. I like to make games challenging and give the kids a sense of danger, but I try to ensure that they enjoy the experience and I don’t want to kill a character that they may have grown attached to. I know what losing a character in-game is like - it’s hard to process even as an adult. For a kid, where feelings can sometimes be more confusing or amplified, I think that this could be even harder, and not a good concept to explore during a library game. I fudge numbers during combat to help ensure that no one is permanently killed if needed. I also fudge numbers sometimes if time for the program is about to end and the enemy needs to fall so I can find a good stopping point.
The last major change that I’ve made involves limiting the maximum number of spells available to classes that prepare spells. For example, where a Cleric would normally have access to all Cleric spells, I limit the spells available to the number they can prepare for the day, similar to how spellcasting works for classes like the Bard or Paladin. Limiting things in this way really helps keep things more streamlined so the kids don’t have to choose spells each day, and it helps them grow more familiar with the spells that they have so they can use them more confidently. I also limit the number of wild shape forms for Druids in a similar way. I give each player 3 wild shape forms that they can shift into. If there’s time, I let the kids choose which shapes they can switch to, but if there are a lot of kids, the chaos means that I have to end up choosing for them.”
Dan: “The changes you’ve made to prepared spells and wild shape forms are similar to the ones made in the 2024 rules, so you must be onto something! I love freedom, but sometimes it can really impact game efficiency, and I find that most adults trip up over Wild Shape rules most of the time! Can you share a little about how your games run – how long is each session? How many players are in each group, and how many groups do you have running? Do you have separate stories in each session (a series of one-shots), or do you have some kind of ongoing campaign?”
Rachel: “Each session is an hour and a half, and at the moment I run a session every two weeks. I run a mini-campaign with about 4 or 5 sessions, which together tells a full story and is equivalent to a one shot. I then take a month off to plan more content and because this fits a little better with our programming structure. I try to keep it to no more than 7 kids at a time in each group, with myself running a game for one group and my partner running the second group with the same content I’ve prepared for them.
The first half hour or so of each session, I help kids level characters if needed, and get new kids set up with a character sheet. This part can get pretty chaotic. New players are usually very excited about playing and can take a moment to get focused and make choices about the kind of character they want to play. I’ve also found that (like with myself) names are one of the hardest things to choose. I found a reddit post by SirKahlfels where they combined name suggestions from the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook. I keep that ready for kids that could use suggestions for naming their characters.
After the character options are sorted out, I spend a few minutes going over the ground rules. I made the flyer shown below to give to each kid, but I also read it aloud to them. I mostly try to stress the importance of teamwork and cooperation and how we are telling a shared story. I also make sure to tell them that we need to respect each other and give everyone a chance to speak. After this, we spend the remaining hour playing.
For each mini-campaign, I either make up my own child friendly homebrew story or I find a one shot online and adapt it. Our current mini-campaign is my own story about a haunted house disrupting the peace in a quaint Halloween-themed village. The players are tasked with finding out what is causing the haunting and making sure that it is removed so that the village can have peace and quiet.
The most recent adaptation I’ve done was of A Most Potent Brew from Winghorn Press. The story is about a brewery that was built over the remains of an old Wizard’s tower, which is now causing problems during a renovation. I used most of the story and changed some of the details to make them more kid-friendly, such as making it a tavern that is trying to renovate instead of a brewery. We had used another Winghorn Press one-shot at my last library for one of the sessions there, so I was familiar with it already.”
Dan: “It’s really great that there are so many adventure paths and other resources to inspire our creativity when running games. Talking about inspiring creativity, do you have kids running games? If so, how do you support them?”
Rachel: “I’ve seen other libraries that allow kids to run games, but the ones I’ve seen have all been with teenagers. With the younger age range of the program I’m running, I haven’t tried it myself.
I ran a D&D 101 program at my last library, which taught a variety of D&D basics such as how to make a character and how to do combat. The last one that I held was teaching how to DM, and I would love to run that same program here to help empower kids to run their own personal games. I did one session of DM basics at my previous library, but I could easily turn it into an entire series.”
Dan: “Your D&D 101 program sounds really helpful! Are there any other ways you support kids in making and playing their characters? Are there any resources you’ve used that you can recommend?”
Rachel: “Right now I provide pre-made character templates with the background, race, and class information chosen ahead of time, but I allow the kids to choose their characters name, appearance, and personality. I’m pretty lenient on allowing cosmetic changes to races as long as there are no gameplay changes. For example, I have one player with a mountain dwarf that has wings aesthetically, but I don’t allow the character to fly.
Rachel stores materials such as character sheets for each player in personalized folders. (maybe that's a simple product idea for the future ~ Dan)
I always start by asking new players if they want to fight primarily with magic, weapons, or a mixture of both and go from there by describing the basics of each class so they can choose one that interests them. I think Ranger has been the most popular class overall because kids love having animal companions.
Starting in December, I’ll be doing a drop-in character creation session where myself and my partner will help kids create their own characters that they can use during the library program. I will be repeating this as a drop-in program a week or so before each new mini-campaign if it goes well and is well attended.
I plan to use DanDMadeEasy Character Journals during this program to allow the kids to personalize their gameplay experience and help simplify some of the rules and more complex aspects of the game.
As for getting kids more into roleplaying, when I see someone struggling to embody a character, I first make sure to address them by their character's name and then ask leading questions. For example, I might ask a child roleplaying a sneaky character, such as a Rogue, if they want to sneak up on an enemy group and if so how would they go about it? Something simple like this that might occur to an adult player might not always be something a child thinks of until it’s pointed out, and I’ve found that it can really help get them in the mindset of the character.”
A selection of character sheets for characters from Rachel's sessions
Dan: “I love that, and in my opinion understanding our players and their needs is one of the most important skills for any DM to nurture. It’s great that you can help kids learn and grow in this way. Speaking of growth, roleplaying can really help with social development. Do you have anything to say on this topic?”
Rachel: “This is honestly one of my favorite things to talk about in regards to D&D for kids. There are so many benefits to roleplaying and D&D that I love for kids in particular. It can help with socialization and teamwork and getting them used to working together as a group to create a story together. Especially for younger kids, homeschoolers, or those that might be an only child.
D&D can help with problem solving and finding creative solutions to puzzles or situations. It’s been especially interesting for me to see how two separate groups solve the exact same problems in the groups run by myself and my partner. In one of our earlier mini-campaigns it took my group two weeks longer to get through a dungeon than my partner’s group. The difference was that my partner’s group befriended a lot of the animal and bug enemies, completely skipping combat. I think it’s so cool to see kids realizing that they can talk their way out of a situation - or find other creative solutions - rather than fighting.
D&D can help with building confidence as kids see themselves reflected in the character that they are playing. As they level up and gain more skills, they gain confidence that they can solve problems and make a difference in the world. I think it also greatly helps those that are more introverted or shy. Playing as someone that is not yourself and reacting as they would can often bypass some of the insecurities that I think stop many more reserved people from speaking up. Since coming to my new library, I’ve also learned that D&D can help with a different kind of confidence. One of the mothers that has been interested in the club since the beginning was an immigrant when she was younger, and joining a D&D group helped her learn more English and become more confident with the language as well as herself. When she saw that we were starting a group here, she was really excited to share the game with her daughter and help her build confidence as well.
Lastly, I think that roleplaying can help with building empathy, especially since it can show kids diverse situations and perspectives than they might be exposed to on a regular basis. The children themselves that play are often from different backgrounds, cultures, or socio-economic backgrounds. Getting to interact with kids that are different is great and shows that not everyone's the same. I think the added layer that roleplaying adds helps to highlight diversity even more. Elves and dwarves may not be real, but if a kid roleplays as one, they can see things differently, through the eyes of that character, and then they can start to see things differently in real life and develop empathy for other ways of life.”
Dan: “Yeah, one of my favorite things about roleplaying is stepping into the shoes of my character and seeing how that affects the way I perceive different situations. I like to go all in and really immerse myself in my character. Speaking of immersion, I find that things like using props or player aids I’ve made myself, and wearing costumes or putting on voices can really help. Do your games tend to include any of these elements?”
Rachel: “I would love to wear costumes during each D&D session but since it’s at my workplace, that is a bit difficult to do every time. On our most recent session, which fell on Halloween, I dressed as an elf and the kids were delighted by the ears.
I do use props when I’m able to, and in the past I’ve had miniatures for each specific player. I also like to give out pictures of the loot players have, such as a picture of a potion bottle for a health potion. I also use miniatures or pictures of enemies when I can. I think the more visuals that you can give to players, especially kids, the more you can immerse them in the world they’re inhabiting and playing in.
The one thing that I wish I was better at is voices. I am terrible at accents, so right now I am mostly just able to do my voice but higher or lower. Maybe one day I’ll figure out a good accent that I can throw in.”
Dan: “I find voices hard too, and it’s one of those things that we can feel really cringey about. We’ve talked a lot about the kids, now let’s talk about you. How do you find the experience of running D&D for kids in general, and how does it differ to playing with adults?”
Rachel: “Adult players are chaotic, but with kids playing that is ramped up tenfold. I have never run a session with kids where I haven’t had to completely improvise an entirely new scenario because they’ve gone so far off the map or made choices that I never could have guessed they would make.
They also try to sabotage each other a lot. In one session I had a kid actively trying to sacrifice one of the other party members to some goblins. I have also had kids try to roll persuasion on each other a lot, which brings up the topic of player agency for kids. I try to explain it to them in terms of ‘would you like it if someone did this to you?’, which doesn’t always work - sometimes you get a kid that says that they would absolutely love being told what to do by someone else. So then I have to go into it a bit further and explain that in the game they are playing on the same team as the other kids and that they can roll against me as the Dungeon Master because that is part of the game.
I think one other major difference is that while I’ve seen some murder hobo adults while playing the game, there are so many more kids that just want to attack and fight everything, including each other. This is why the no PVP rule is a very important one for my games.”
Dan: “I don’t have a murder hobo mentality, but I actually empathize with kids that want lots of combat in their games. I’m that way too - I love the tactics and strategy of a TTRPG combat. The challenge is in making sure you don’t start fights just for the sake of it to test out your new Fireball spell. Speaking of challenges, what has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced when running D&D in a library, and how have you handled it?”
Rachel: “By far the biggest challenge is kids talking over each other and me. They get really excited to play and sometimes they can’t contain the excitement and want to narrate everything their character is doing the entire time, including when another player or myself are trying to speak.
I’m still trying to figure out the best way to handle this. I really try to stress the importance of letting everyone have their own turn to speak before we begin playing as I go over my flyer with them. I remind them that they want their own turn to speak and they should respect other players when it’s their turn as well.
During the excitement of the game, though, this tends to get forgotten. I’ve tried a talking stick as well as always being in initiative order but there are a few kids who still can’t contain themselves and end up talking out of turn. So now I’ve been trying to embrace the chaos of it and give gentle reminders as it happens during the game because ultimately they are all still having fun and enjoying themselves and that is what is most important.”
Dan: “I feel this can be a challenge with many tables, even with adults. While it’s great to have a spotlight moment to really highlight your character from time to time, we have to consider the other players too, and that’s an important part of maturing as a player. Speaking of highlights, what’s your biggest highlight from your time running D&D in a library?”
Rachel: “Getting to see all the different ways kids play and character choices that they make is definitely the biggest highlight for me. It’s so fun to see what they come up with and I have so many favorite moments and stories that it’s hard to pick just one. Overall, I just love seeing kids learning the game and enjoying it and wanting to play more. More specifically, I have two favorite player moments, one from my last library and one from my current one.
At my last library there was a player who gave his character the bond and ideal of ‘carrots’ on his character sheet. He explained that he had a carrot farm that was very important to him. His character also weighed just one pound.
At my new library, I have a player whose Dragonborn Fighter character is named SMOKEHUNTER, all capitals. They are a force of chaos and they constantly surprise me. They try to eat everything that is inanimate, including coat racks, coats, doorknobs, and rugs. My favorite thing that they have said though was that they are “a murderous pacifist.” Which was explained to me as “they are a pacifist for living, animate creatures but want to kill and eat anything that is inanimate.” The contradiction there made me do a double take and laugh when they first said it.”
Dan: “Oh, the creativity there is something you can only find in TTRPGs! It’s been great to hear about your experiences. If you could share just a single piece of advice or resource with other facilitators from what you’ve learned, what would it be and why?”
Rachel: “I really love DMing Dad. He provides a lot of resources as well as good advice for playing with kids as he plays with his own. I also make frequent use of his Family Friendly D&D Adventures for ideas or starting points if not for an entire session. He also has NPCs that you can use and has tips for DMs, including new DMs.
Other than that, I know it sounds cliche but I would say to have fun with it. There’s always going to be something unexpected that will happen, but it’s all worth it to share a fun game.”
Dan: “So true, especially if we’re sharing that game with kids and supporting their development. Speaking of which, if a potential facilitator were on the fence about setting up a library D&D club, what would you say to them?”
Rachel: “Setting up a library D&D club can be very rewarding and a great idea. It draws kids in, allows them to make connections with their peers, and promotes creativity and gamified learning, all of which I think libraries value.
Starting a library club doesn’t have to be expensive either. There are tons of resources available to find free content online as well as organizations that are willing to help provide supplies, including game mats or dice. I’ve gotten items to help from you (DandDMadeEasy) and Let's Quest After School, as well as educator resources from Wizards of the Coast. There are always people and organizations out there to provide advice and support and the benefits are so rewarding to see.”
Dan: “Yeah. It’s really great to see that so many of us are working hard to support D&D for youth work. I’ve been collating a list of free resources on my School D&D clubs page. Before we close the interview, if other facilitators want to reach out to discuss running D&D in libraries, where can they get hold of you?”
Rachel: “My work email is rarcheron@cwmars.org. I would be happy to discuss D&D and any more information that I can provide to playing it in libraries or school clubs or just with kids in general.”
Dan: “Thanks so much for your time, Rachel. It was an absolute pleasure hearing about your experiences and all of the great things you're doing, and I’m sure it will help others that are interested in setting up and running a library D&D club!”
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