Kicking off a new series of in-class TTRPG examples/ideas, check out below for tips on how to structure a tabletop RPG around social studies classes! This first article in the series will cover how to structure a classroom game for elementary school kids to learn basics like map reading and how national animals or flowers can connect to an area’s history.

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General structuring for teaching social studies with TTRPGs
TTRPG social studies lesson for elementary school kids

General structuring for teaching social studies with tabletop role-playing games

First! If you’ve already read my TTRPG chemistry lesson articles (for elementary, middle school, and high school), much of this next explanation will be similar to the general structuring section in that post, and you can go here to skip ahead to the in-class example (the new part)!

Before we get to the example, we’re going to cover some general tips for structuring your game around a lesson or educational goal. Much of this will be similar to any subject that you’re teaching (not just for social studies lessons and not just for elementary school kids). This means that if you’re here looking for general TTRPG classroom info, much of this can be applicable to any class, after school group, or game!

I’m covering this all before the elementary school TTRPG example because it is important to understand the basics for how the example is structured and why we’re doing things the way we are (so that you can take this material and extrapolate it for your particular kids and lessons).

Setting your game’s educational goal(s)

When it comes to setting up intentionally educational TTRPGs, before you start coming up with plots and mechanics and even educational content, you first need to figure out what your goals for your students are since this is going to be what we want to build everything else around.

You don’t want to be trying to shoehorn a concept into an existing game or story idea that doesn’t really fit… and then losing the focus on what you want to teach.

Pick one to two core goals that you hope to accomplish with the tabletop RPG that you’re introducing to your class. What is the purpose of introducing this game?

For social studies classes with young kids, these concepts could be something like “read a map using a key” or “understand how a place’s history can be seen today” or “identify national symbols, like animals and flowers”. There’s a range here with topics being purely academic to topics that focus on general big picture concepts that will build a foundation for future lessons, so think about your situation and pick a couple that work for your group and that you think could be helped by working into a TTRPG.

Paying attention to your game’s focus

Next, once you have your goal to build from, you’re probably going to start thinking of the game system that you’ll use and the story that you’ll make to surround the topic(s) you chose.

As you do this, make sure to keep the focus on teaching your goal.

If you pick a complex game system that takes several weeks to learn, you could be diverting your students’ focus and time from the core goal (learning social studies) and instead putting it on learning about this particular game system… which is not your goal.

For some subjects (like in this interview with D&D teacher Kade Wells), systems like D&D can be great for teaching English and reading because they require critical reading skills to understand, and it provides necessary motivation, so that system meets the goals of the class. I also show how, if the group knows D&D off the bat, it can be a very good medium for teaching classes as well, like in my middle school chemistry lesson post that uses D&D.

However, for something like social studies, and especially with young kids, choose a game system that lets students focus on learning the social studies class goal that you set. This could mean just using a 1d6 system (like this example for elementary chemistry classes) or drawing cards from a deck of standard playing cards for randomization, and that’s OK. You can also go full story mode as well (like this high school chem class example… and what we’ll do here too).

When you’re creating your adventure, watch the story as well. Keep your lesson modular (you probably don’t have time to get into a ton of lore and still keep it within a typical class period), so run quick one-shots or have a few short sessions spread out over a few classes… then end there. It doesn’t need to be a full epic campaign to get your educational goals across, and you want students focusing more on the educational concepts anyway.

Include multiple points of contact with the subject material in your TTRPG

If you look at stories ranging from fairy tales to present day children’s tv shows, when a new concept is being taught, it’s often presented at least three times (think of how The Boy Who Cried Wolf repeated its theme or how Bluey reiterates topics throughout the episode).

This is because we need to interact with something more than once for it to sink in. When teaching, you should also reiterate some of the topics a few times to make sure they stick and students have had enough time to process and absorb the material.

When you look at the example below, watch for multiple points of contact and how they drive the core goal home over and over. Also, watch how they progress from taking map directions from a start point to finding a random map symbol to puzzling out a location based on clues.

Build your social studies class examples into each other and the TTRPG

With those multiple points of contact, you’ll also want to make sure that they are both built into each other (so they’re related and connected) and that they’re part of the story and/or mechanics that you have included in your tabletop RPG.

Tying them tightly into the game creates the connection that you’re looking for between your players and the material, and it’s the whole point of doing this! So, make sure that your story and your lessons match!

Now, this all can seem like a lot to watch out for, but it’s really a few very simple points:

Determine your educational goal
Keep your mechanics and story simple and focused on the goal
Use your goal at least three times
Connect your game ideas to the goal

To help show how to do this specifically for elementary school kids, here’s an example lesson that teaches about maps, map keys, and national symbols!

Example TTRPG social studies lesson for elementary school kids (<8)

Goals, context, and mechanics for your elementary school TTRPG social studies lesson

Context: Midday lesson in the regular class schedule. 2nd grade. Time limit of 30 minutes (quite short).

Goals: (1) Use a map key and directions and (2) understand the concept of national symbols, like an animal or flower

Mechanics: Storytelling only due to time limitations.

Lesson(s): Lift the curse on the national animal by finding the national flower. Students will be required to find the flower following map directions, take the flower to the potion maker, and find the national animal.

First point of contact: Lore, Quest, and Map

In this example, our first point of contact with our goal is going to be during the introduction to our story.

For this game’s story, we’re going to tell students that their characters have been recruited by Grand Counselor Percatitorious Makelroy III to lift a curse that Potion Master Bob accidentally set on the national animal (the Merjackalope) during his last experiment. Potion Master Bob is working on a remedy and needs the national flower as part of the recipe before he can finish the job.

The Grand Counselor gives you a map, some basic direction, and a pamphlet about the Merjackalope before being called into a meeting and leaving you to your job.

Read the following to your students about the Merjackalope:

The Merjackalope is an illusive and majestic creature, rumored to live just south of Town Town.
Legend has it, the Merjackalope saved a Prince from a sinking boat long ago and, because of that, the Queen declared it as the national animal to forever honor it.
The Merjackalope is now a symbol of bravery, and it is depicted on both the national flag and all boats made by this country.

If you are comparing this to your state or country animal, now is a good time to point out any similarities to that.

The directions from Percatitorious tell you that the national flower must be picked by tonight, so leave now! Follow the directions here to get to it!

Provide students with the map and the following instructions

Start where we are, City City
Follow the river, NOT THE ROAD, East for 3 miles
Then, go directly South to the nearest mountain to find where the flower grows

Encourage students to draw the path they take and walk around to see if they go to the correct mountain.

Second point of contact: The National Flower

You arrive at the mountain, and… OH NO! There are flowers growing all over the base of the mountain, and they are all different! You’ll need to recall what you know about the national flower to choose the correct one.

Let the class, as a whole, come up with some suggestions about the national flower to answer these questions. You may also directly use your state or national flower as a proxy if you want to focus the lesson there. This exercise will take the concept of a national symbol established in part 1 and will expand it to interaction.

You all know that the national flower, in this world, has a legend where it heals someone. What is that story? Why was this declared the national flower?

What does the national flower look like? What is unique about it so you can tell it apart from other growing here?

Why does the national flower only grow on this mountain? What is special about this mountain or this flower?

Once they are finished:

And… you choose the right one! Now, it is time to take it to Bob’s Potion Tower. Where is the potion tower on the map?

Allow students to locate the symbol, and maybe talk about how it has some similarities to the mountain symbol but it’s also totally different.

Third point of contact: Finding the Merjackalope

After your students have gotten to the tower, explain, as Bob the Potion Master:

“I am SO delighted to see you! Did you bring the flower? YES YES! I’m working on the remedy now… and I will say again, I am terribly sorry. I didn’t know that my experiment to try to grow the worlds most giant carrot for the town festival would… lead it to the Merjackalope eating it and turning orange and it’s hair poofing out in a giant fluff ball that would stop it from swimming! But I will fix it! One moment please!”

Bob goes into the tower, you hear several bangs, a crashing sound, and a big sneeze, then he returns with a small bottle of purple liquid.

“Take this to the Merjackalope’s lake and pour it in – this should neutralize any curses in the area and will not harm any of the animals! Now, good luck! I need to get back to my lab and finish my elixer for curing Gormath the Mini Dragon’s cold before he sneezes flames on my favorite chair again!”

He dashes back into the tower, and you now need to find the right lake to pour the remedy into. Use your clues about the Jackalope’s history and your map to find the correct lake. You can color it purple on your map to show that that’s where you pour the remedy.

It may help to re-read the clues from part 1 to the students at this point. Once they’ve all found the right lake:

As you pour the remedy in, you hear a noise behind you, and out from the woods comes a giant fluffy rabbit with antlers! It has a long fish tail wagging behind it like it is a puppy, and the fur on its body is all orange and poofed out like a huge puff ball! It sees the sparkly purple lake and jumps in!

The magical water splashes everywhere and the Merjackalope’s fur slows settles down, turns from orange to blue, and sparkles like rainbow scales! It swims up to the edge of the water and chitters at you (which you think means thank you) before it dives underwater into it’s home to hide.

Congrats!! You have save the Jackalope!

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What’s shown here can be modified to fit your class and other types of experiments, and it’s meant to be a springboard for other ideas. There’s tons of variations on this one example too – you could have a longer session with more map directions, clues that are a more complex for finding the Merjackalope at the end, and more ingredients to find (like a seed from the national tree or a feather from the national bird) to practice more map skills or touch on national symbol lore more. Get creative and see what works for your class and your time limits!

I hope it helps to show a sample tabletop RPG lesson outline for either direct use in your classes or to spark some inspiration for other ideas, and let me know in the comments if you use this or have ideas of your own!

Stay tuned for future lessons as well – the next two “Tabletop RPG Classroom” articles will cover middle school and high school social studies lessons that feature different systems and subjects to help round out the examples and show how it can be scaled to fit the needs of older kids.

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