Interview with Shelly Mazzanoble, D&D curriculum creator and senior brand manager at Wizards of the Coast

While at SXSW EDU 2024, I had the amazing opportunity to meet and talk with Shelly Mazzanoble about D&D in the classroom!  Check out our chat here to learn about Shelly’s XP at Wizards of the Coast and see what educational resources she’s been part of making!!

Shifting from “educational” to “classroom ready” TTRPGs

With a wider community acceptance of the idea that games provide players with benefits to skill development, many publishers are releasing educational TTRPGs.  However, for these games to be widely accepted in a classroom setting and to actually be accessible to educators who are stretched on time and resources, it’s important to make sure that your game is not just educational but that it’s also classroom ready.  

Talk audio (Teaching Kids Core Life Skills with TTRPGs) from TTRPGkids at MC3 fall 2023

TTRPGkids made another appearance at Motor City Comic Con for their fall 2023 show and did a talk about Teaching Kids Core Life Skills with TTRPGs! Find the talk audio here in case you weren’t able to attend, and check out the resource list that supports points from the talk while you listen!

Review of The Library Game, an adventure for learning about libraries!

The Library Game by Open Story Games is a TTRPG/LARP where players learn about library organization while acting as researchers trying to prepare for a catastrophe that’s about to befall the building! Collect magical words for creating your solution before time runs out!

Tips and Tricks: Using Journaling Games to Grow Writing Skills

Journaling TTRPGs have been becoming more popular and offer a plethora of opportunities for solo-gaming, developing writing skills, introspection, fostering journaling habits, and more.  However, not everyone sees themselves as a writer, and, when playing these TTRPGs with young kids, not everyone can write yet. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try though!  In this article, I breakdown ways to use journaling games at any skill level (even if players can’t write yet) and show how they can benefit players at any stage in developing these powerful skills.

Review: ArithMagine, a numeracy practice TTRPG system

ArithMagine is a TTRPG system, made to pair with Stories RPG, for practicing numeracy skills!  It’s a fun ruleset for playing with math in a dynamic and creative way that connects with the story that you make together.  It’s also easy to fit into a class or school program with its rules-lite set up and flexibility to fit with any adventure.

Review of Let’s Roll: A Guide to Setting up Tabletop Role-Playing Games in your School or Public Library

Let’s Roll is a guide for librarians to introduce youth tabletop RPG groups in their communities and schools!  This book is written by a librarian for librarians and explains everything from how to propose a program to what TTRPGs you should try with your group to how to run your first game.  Check it out for tips, case study examples, and more!