Roll For Kindness

Step one: Don't do this.About five months ago, I was approached by a high school teacher who was teaching a January term course on recreation, and had heard about the work I was doing with teens. Intrigued, she asked me to come in as a guest speaker for her

Undertale is a great example of a game that can be used to teach kindness, and remains a huge inspiration for what I do. (Source: Undertale)One thing I hear a lot is, “Wait, you aren't a therapist?” to which I have to explain, while I have a master's in

Warm up questions are the D&D equivalent of stretching before a jog. (Source: Lifehack)One tool that is helpful with any D&D group is a sort of starting ritual, ice breaker, or some type of thing to get the group in the mood. In college, I had a

Getting into D&D for the first time can be a little intimidating. (Source: Freaks and Geeks)Session 0 refers to the pre-session, where the players roll up characters, chat about the world, and build up chemistry. It's a really great way to flesh out your characters with their relationship

Good classroom management is good table management. Would have loved to play a game run by Mr Feeny. (Source: Boy Meets World)While I've talked a lot about table management and pedagogy, there are a few things I want to highlight that transferred from my time teaching that are also

Choosing the perfect system can be a nightmare given how much is out there. (Source: Wizards of the Coast)When running a social skills group, one of the things to take into consideration is what system you should use. Practically everyone I know of uses 5e, although some are using

You can learn a lot about being a good DM from looking at good teachers (source: Boy meets World)There's a lot of ways that teaching and DMing have a great deal in common, and one of those key areas is classroom/table management. Keeping the kids engaged and behaviors

Rule number 1: Keep the cat off the tableOne of the key things to establish early in a campaign is the table culture, and I've found that setting rules for your table (especially in any type of formal group) can help establish this. When thinking about what rules you want

Always important to stock up on potions of caffeine before DMing. (Source: Nintendo)Being a DM is hard, and having a weekly session that pairs social skills development AND Dungeon Mastering can be a lot to handle, especially if you struggle with anxiety, as I do. However, I've been doing

D&D is for everyone. (Source: Wizards)There have been people on the LGBT spectrum playing D&D since its beginnings, and the benefits for identity exploration, wish fulfillment, and escapism are huge, but all of that can only be reaped at a table that celebrates and is intentional about

As any Ettin will attest, two heads are always better than one. (Source: Blizzard)When running groups, it's generally assumed that you will run it by yourself, which puts you into a position of complete control, but also a lot of pressure to perform. While doing regular social skills groups,

Mr Rogers remains one of my favorite guides for children, ever. (Source: reddit) I've been given a lot of freedom in my D&D groups, and while I always make the focus of these groups social engagement and learning various social skills, there's so much in this game that can

Welcome to Roll for Kindness. This is a blog outlining advice for running games for good- whether that be developing kindness, being inclusive, or encouraging healthy socialization. This does not teach any therapeutic practices, or any formal skillset- instead these are all lessons I've learned from my 20+ years of