Sam Hayward has been running a D&D and miniature painting club at a secondary school in Derbyshire, UK, since September 2024.
DanDMadeEasy ran an interview with Sam about their experience setting up and running the club.
If you’re looking for support setting up a school 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 school club facilitators, there’s a dedicated channel for this on the DanDMadeEasy Discord server.
Dan: “Thanks for taking the time to share your story, Sam. First up, can you please tell me why you decided to set up a D&D club in your school? What is your experience with roleplaying outside the school, if any?”
Sam: “I have played boardgames and TTRPGs for many years now, playing with friends and family. For me, games like D&D have helped me gain confidence, make friends and develop my creativity. Games are my happy place.
I am in my first year of teaching after a career change, so September was a big start for me. I had completed a chunk of teacher training at the school I now work at, so I already knew the type of enrichment activities teachers provided. Students are regularly asked what clubs they would be interested in, and before the summer holidays many had requested a games club. Another teacher knew I played D&D and painted Warhammer, and mentioned it as something I might be interested in running as a club. I thought it was a great idea, so I decided to go for it!”
Dan: “Wow, you really jumped in at the deep end starting both your teaching career and the club in the same year, impressive! Can you share a few words on what the experience of setting the club up was like? What was involved?”
Sam: “I really did jump in at the deep end, I was too excited to get started once I realised setting up a D&D club was an option that I knew I had to make it a reality! It was really easy to set up. I just had to put my name down, describe the activity I wanted to run and when it would be. I even managed to get a small amount of funding for the D&D starter set and some dice.”
Dan: “It’s really great that funding was available, it’s often hard to come by! Can you tell me a bit about the kids in the club – what age range are they, and how many are there?”
Sam: “The club is open to all years at the school, so the ages range from 11 to 16, with the majority under 14. We usually get around 14 and 20 kids each week attending, with about 14 regulars.”
Dan: “That’s a really great attendance for the first year! How did you get kids interested in joining?”
Sam: “I really didn’t have to do anything. Every classroom has a poster with the days and
times of the different clubs. I was a little worried that no one would turn up on the first session, which was completely unwarranted as 26 students turned up to that first session! What has been especially great, is that the majority of the regulars attended that very first, chaotic, session.”
Dan: “As a seasoned TTRPG player, it’s great to see how much more uptake there is for games like D&D. It’s much more in the public eye than when I was a kid! So let’s talk about how you make games accessible to the kids. Are there any ways you help them understand the rules? Do you use any resources to help with that?”
Sam: “I’m really happy how D&D has become more popular, it really makes it feel so much more accessible than it felt for me.
To begin with, I tried explaining the rules before playing, but I quickly realised the kids learned quicker when playing. I wrote down some key points from the 2014 D&D player handbook, although this was primarily to help me explain things as we played.
I used your [DandDMadeEasy] reference cards, the free resources available from D&DBeyond, the D&D starter set, and some free maps from PathsPeculiar, Dyson Logos, and Sly Flourish.”
Dan: “It’s great that so many resources are freely available to support running TTRPG
games. I’ve been keeping a list on my website. D&D can be pretty complex, especially for younger players. Have you changed the rules of the game to better support a school setting? If so, how?”
Sam: “I am a big believer that D&D is as complex or as simple as you want it to be, fundamentally that is what makes D&D so incredibly versatile. I have always been fairly loose with the rules and I treat them as a guide rather than a list of musts and must nots. Consistency within groups and individual session is more important than falling into the trap of behaving as if there is only one true way to play. This approach has definitely helped me in a school setting as it maximises playing time for the kids, especially with the limited time we have. I absolutely love an intricate campaign, with notebooks full of worldbuilding, that will likely never be finished, but that isn’t right for this club. Ultimately, I will create, ignore and adapt any rules we need to maximise enjoyment.
I do make us stay in initiative the whole time and this is something I implemented by the third session as it is the easiest way to ensure everyone gets a turn. It became very obvious very early on that we needed to play in initiative constantly, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to hear each other.
We don’t bother with any movement restrictions. This was done as a time saving factor, but I actually really enjoy how it helps the game flow. Can they climb to the top of a cliff in one go? Let’s roll for strength and see.
Our number one rule is that we are on the same team. There is to be no stealing, injuring or double-crossing any other player. This has caused a few grumbles, but I have made it clear how it is important to make the game fun for everyone. Afterall, NPCs are fair game!”
Dan: “I like the changes you’ve made! There’s a line between allowing player agency and ensuring that all players have a great game, and I feel not permitting aggressive actions against fellow players is a great rule for games with kids. Now let’s talk about your games. Can you share a little about how they run – how long is each session? How many players are in each group, and how many groups do you have running?”
Sam: “We have an hour per session, which is approximately 50 minutes of actual play. This really isn’t enough time but we work with what we have. Currently, we have 2 games running, with 6-8 players in each. Then we have others drawing and painting characters or locations. The club starts straight after my last lesson of the day, making it quite a rush for me. Thankfully, the kids have gotten in the routine of moving tables together and getting the dice out. We do still need to work on making sure everyone helps to tidy up afterwards though!
I’ve realised that what the kids enjoy the most condenses down to arrive somewhere, fight something, find something. Fifty minutes is not long, so sticking to these three points seems to provide a good balance between story and action.”
Dan: “Yeah, 50 minutes isn’t long, and prioritizing what your players enjoy most is definitely the way to go. Do you have separate stories in each session (a series of one-shots), or do you have some kind of ongoing campaign?”
Sam: “In theory, each group has an ongoing campaign. This is super vague though, for example, the campaign I am running has the ultimate goal of finding the Platinum Dragon.”
Dan: “I think that’s a good way to go. Planning things in a lot of detail doesn’t work well for many reasons. So you have 2 games running - do you have kids running games? If so, how do you support them?”
Sam: “I am running one game and a student is usually happy to DM another game. I am still
trying to encourage more kids to DM to allow us to have more games running with fewer players in each. I feel eight players is too many, so I am hoping to get games of four players running. At the start of each session, I ask who wants to DM and then get the kids to move to the designated areas so we can start.
One of the kids who likes to DM sometimes is using the world of Skyrim as the location because he knows it so well that he can freestyle an adventure in it. I am really trying to encourage the kids to use what they already know. I think this is a key way to harness the kids’ creativity and something I am going to develop further with them.
The kids are incredibly creative, but they need support to help turn their ideas into a game. I have been experimenting with different ways to help support this, with mixed success. I want to create a resource the kids could use as a template for DMing a 50 minute long game. To support this, I have been making notes on what works and what doesn’t.
A year or so from now, I’d love to ask myself these questions again, and I am really intrigued at how things will have progressed. A year from now, how many kids will be running games? Will I still need to be a hands on DM, or will I now be more of a background supporter? I would love to be a player in a game run by the kids.”
Dan: “Yeah, I bet it'll be great seeing how the kids have progressed! How do you support kids in making and playing their characters? Are there any resources you’ve used that you can recommend?”
Sam : “We don’t do full character creation. Due to time constraints (as well as some cheating and sulking with dice rolls), I now have kids choose their character name and basic info, then I use fastcharacter.com to create the rest of their Level 3 character. This has helped to eliminate competition, as it brings a random element to character creations that is out of their control. Some kids provide more information, with detailed backstories, and it's great to see their creativity in action.
The kids needed no help at all coming up with names for their characters, and I love seeing the characters they have created. Some of my favourite names so far are Pickles (who is actually a Dragon, with an evil brother who happens to be a pickle!), Otso Rainberry, and Bob the Destroyer.
As part of a whole school activity week, I created an activity for the kids to create a D&D monster during form time. The response was amazing – some fantastic monsters, including some absolutely terrifying ones! It was great to see so many of the students engage, including ones that had no idea about D&D.”
The DandDMadeEasy reference cards have been incredibly useful in our games, in particular the flow of combat card. I have several print outs accessible during the session. In fact, your website was the first one I found when searching for advice on how to set up a school D&D club, so my resources predominantly came from you!
Some of the kids that come to the club are more interested in painting miniatures and Warhammer than D&D. Warhammer Alliance provide a free resource pack for school and community clubs, which I highly recommend as it includes some paints and miniatures.
As a school, we use Showbie for the students to access classwork. I set up a D&D Showbie group, making is explicitly clear that they couldn’t access it during lessons. This has allowed me to upload various resources I have, as well as their character sheets. For any educator wanting to set up a school club, I definitely recommend utilising any tools your school already uses to create a digital club space for kids.”
Dan: “That’s genius – it’s much easier to get the kids to use a system they already know than create something new from scratch! So you’ve been running the club for a little while now. One of the big benefits of playing TTRPGs is in social development. Have you seen any of these benefits realized in your games?”
Sam: “This is so important and I am particularly passionate about how games such as D&D can improve communication skills. Several of the kids who attend regularly are neurodivergent and can struggle socially. I am autistic, and D&D has taught me more about how to interact with people in the real world than anything else has.
A big part of social development is confidence, and I am really hoping to foster an environment that is accessible for everyone to have a go. Running the club has definitely helped my confidence! It has been great to see the kids develop confidence with sharing their ideas and I am starting to see more have the confidence to try DMing a session.”
Dan: “Thanks for telling us about the club and how you run it. Now let’s talk about how you’ve found the experience. First up, since you started the club with prior experience in roleplaying with adults, how have you found it playing with kids? Does it differ to playing with adults?”
Sam: “I love it. It is creative, chaotic and I am not always sure what is going on.
Kids are so much more bloodthirsty than the adults I’ve played with! They are evil masterminds! In my experience, adults tend to attempt to outwit the DM, whereas kids just want to stab everything. Or set things on fire. Or both! Kids aren’t as good at sticking to initiative as adults, but they are always ready when it is their turn, knowing exactly what their character is going to do.
Another difference is that a long, detailed campaign isn’t feasible with kids, so instead each session is more ramshackle and sessions are only loosely connected, if at all. I am a little disappointed that they wouldn’t appreciate a three year long Curse of Strahd campaign!
DMing for kids has definitely made me a funnier DM, and has developed my creativity. They absolutely love absurd extremes when rolling a natural 1 or natural 20. In one session, I had three kids roll natural 20s on an Investigation check when we were in a maze. So I let them find a map, narrating aloud how they avoided the monsters, found the book they needed and made it out in less than two turns. I had planned for the maze to take them the full session, but instead I let them find a secret tunnel leading to an abandoned laboratory. They loved that their dice rolls had ‘cheated’ the maze, and it worked brilliantly.”
Dan: “This is one of the reasons I don’t recommend overplanning – you never know what’s going to happen, and flexibility is key! That must have been a great session, I love improv! What’s your biggest highlight from your time running D&D in schools?”
Sam: “There are so many to choose from! Possibly, receiving a mini glow in the dark duck
from a kid as a Christmas present, as his character has become obsessed with a glow in the dark hammer. Or that a few kids write positive messages on my whiteboard at the end of the session. Apparently I run the best D&D club ever! Or seeing new friendships form and the quieter kids becoming more confident. An unexpected positive has been how it has improved some kids’ engagement in my maths lessons, especially for the few who struggle more with the subject.”
Dan: “It must be so awesome getting that positive feedback from the kids, but it can’t have all been easy sailing. What has been the biggest challenge when running D&D in schools, and how have you handled it?”
Sam: “Noise control. This is our biggest issue. It is great that the kids are so excited and engaged, but they can get a little loud with their excitement. This is a work in progress. They complain if they can’t hear each other, but they keep forgetting that they have to control the noise for that to improve!”
Dan: “I’d have loved to be in a club like the one you were running when I was a kid!
Hopefully, this blog can inspire others to set up a club – what would you say if a reader is on the fence about setting up a club?”
Sam: “Just do it! This is the best thing I have ever done.”
Dan: “Wow, that’s a really high bar! Thanks so much for your time, Sam, I’m sure it will help others that are interested in setting up and running a school club! If other facilitators want to reach out to discuss running D&D in schools, where can they get hold of you?”
Sam: “I am happy to answer any questions from anyone interested in running D&D in schools. I have so many ideas and enthusiasm for school D&D clubs, and I’m happy to help anyone! You can reach me at samhayward717@gmail.com.”
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