Reflections on our 3rd DungeonFest in the Library!

 On Saturday, 15 June we held the 3rd DungeonFest in the Library.

It was another huge success. 

Here's how it worked:

It ran from 10 am - 3 pm in the library (yes, five hours!).

We had seven groups, each group had between 6-8 players, some had more but I tried to avoid this if possible.

Every group ran the same one-shot (a D&D adventure that can usually be completed in 4-6 hours).

Here are the materials I prepped:

The adventure was for 5th level characters, so I printed off a bunch of random 5th level characters as I wanted to attract players who were brand new to D&D and not just players who had their own characters at home. 

Dice, lots and lots of dice (luckily, a lot of our students bring their own dice and over the years I've amassed a big collection).

Pencils

Allergy-free snacks

Maps and handouts for the Dungeon Masters.

I also printed off the adventure for the Dungeon Masters so they didn't have to worry about bringing in their own.

DM Screens (foldable screens that allow the DM to take notes and prep privately so the players don't have the fun spoiled). A few of our players brought in their own to help me out. 

How did I promote this?

3 months before the event, I put out a call to teachers to ask for Dungeon Masters. Luckily, three teachers immediately volunteered and I had four other expert students ask to be DMs. 

One month before the event I created a PowerPoint advertising the event and sent it out to tutors of all year groups, asking them to show their students in tutor time / homeroom to start getting some traction, / excitement going. 

During this time I used our library lessons, where ages 11-13 visit the library once every two weeks, to promote the event. I paired this with a D&D creative writing lesson so they were completely immersed. 

This meant that twice in one month, I saw nearly 1,000 students and heavily promoted the event. Two weeks before the event I sent a letter home to parents and got all the permissions needed. 

I also spoke about this in staff briefing and added it to our staff bulletin. 

Prizes, I got a bunch of prizes.

I appealed to friends and used the library budget to get my own. I got some D&D related books, a dice set, a Starter Set and a bunch of other cool D&D related items. 

Every student who entered the library had their name placed in a draw to win one of the prizes.

I arrived at the library around 9:30 am, having set the tables and everything up the night before. 

Each table had:

Dice

DM Screen

Maps / Handouts

Pencils

I also provided a box full of completed character sheets for the students to use if they wanted to. Many did. My colleague in the library also created spell cards which described how the spells worked for each character sheet if applicable - these were also very helpful.

Once everyone had entered the library, I made a quick announcement, welcoming everyone in and wishing them luck on surviving the day! 

It was really amazing to see Year 11 students playing D&D with Year 7 students, teachers playing D&D with Year 9s, all of them laughing hysterically and all of them staying until the bitter end, where we pulled names out of the box to win the prizes.

Retainment is a term used in therapy - where the success of therapeutic sessions are measured through how many times the client comes back and engages in the programme compared to how many sessions are recommended. I'm not saying D&D replaces therapy, I'm saying that I've never really seen a programme in a library run on a Saturday for five entire hours and not have one student leave. 

The ages of the students who took part were 11-19 and we also had six teachers involved., some of them players, some of the DMs. Everyone stayed and compared notes at the end to see how they did compared to the other teams. 

There is something to be said for this, how, since Sept, our D&D club has only grown exponentially and has been attended over 1,000 times the last time I checked.

These Saturday events are a testament to how powerful this game is in bringing people together, to allow people to be themselves, be silly, make mistakes and experience pure joy. 

I DM'd for a group of year 7s, they were hilarious. They had tried to turn into a group of murder hobos (when the party simply destroys everything in their wake and ignores the consequences). The issue was I decided to introduce an end-boss character that was very tough, they were dropping like flies. When they realised they might not make it, they were leaning on the edges of their seats. All of the party was down, unconcious, esxcept one, the quiet wizard who used their last spell slot to cast Magic Missile. When I told them that it had killed the creature, they roared, they lept off their chairs and danced around the library. 

It was amazing to see. Parent feedback was also really heartwarming, they know how much the game means to them, how important it is. It's important to me, as well, because it's something that 11 year old me would have really liked - a group of friends sitting around, defeating the bad guys, saving the world, learning that mistakes don't matter, what matters is finding people to overcome challenges with. 

D&D can bring all of these things into focus and create a sense of community while doing it. It's a fantastic thing.