Due to recent teaching strikes and parent’s evening clashes, the school Dungeons & Dragons Club hasn’t met in 5 weeks. Tonight, we got back to the table and I was delighted to see the students in action.

Although there are two D&D5e groups playing, one DM’ed by a Year 7 student and the other by a Year 9, I felt genuine pleasure from having two Year 9 chaps who wanted to give Simple Dungeon GURPS a bit of a go.

Neither had any knowledge of experience outside of the Pathfinder RPG they started with me back before the last holiday. This was the perfect opportunity – if two newbie 13/14 year-old students with no knowledge of GURPS could make a character, this might just be working.

We didn’t have character sheets. Here’s what they came up with in about 20 minutes:

From there, we played a quick test fight with a couple of GMShadow‘s Goblins, teaching the players how to make Success Rolls, how to make attack and defence rolls, how to roll damage, and the basics of 1-second combat turns. They defeated the Goblins in no time and – the best moment of all – could tell me afterwards how to resolve a combat turn with all three dice rolls.

There was a great deal of buzz and energy around the classroom today. One of the Year 9 girls has taken over DMing – adding yet another DM to their group of seven – and they reported it being loads of fun. The Year 7 DM was also having a blast, telling me after that, “I mostly made it up on the spot but we had a good game!”

This is why I roleplay. Bringing these games to new young minds is deeply rewarding and I hope we can keep it going long into the future. Plus it doesn’t hurt to playtest your own ideas into the bargain.

Game on!