Last year–our first year–had about 6 players. This year the children promoted the club themselves and we started with 19! We're down to about 16 (mostly 5th graders). But it's packed!

Anyway, our first adventure was a primer to get the new ones oriented to the system: The Creatures from Zebulun! This is a Catastrophe adventure found in the New York, New York supplement.

To make a long story short, they blew it. They tried fighting the aliens. Black Panther started to reason with them, but he wanted to punch some aliens, it seems. Wasp, however, was much more inquisitive. She wanted to get more answers. When the aliens left the "gift," the children realized the mistakes and learned ALOT about communication and assuming things. It's was a perfect moment.

Next: Breeder Bombs.

Glad to hear things are still going well and that was a nice simple adventure to go with, plus something like that story could confound even seasoned gamers since it's a cultural misunderstanding and looks like an attack of some sort. At least it's not as bad as what happened with Banner first day back from Rocket Raccoon's homeworld and stopping an 'invasion' of aliens who were actually here to usher in an age of bountiful food for everyone but couldn't learn English fast enough to explain it in time.

Thanks!

Glad to hear folks are having fun, and that there's so much interest.

Please keep us up to date as things progress.

Breeder Bombs is an awesome module. In my first time through that module (so many years ago) one of the mutagenic bombs went off, converting the residents of a small town into altered humans with powers. It became the "origin point" of quite a few new homemade characters.

We have just finished Campaign and Battle 1 of Chapter 1. Below is the playlist for our adventure.

Ericb007, You have one of the most diverse groups I have ever seen! And to boot they know little about the Marvel universe. I'm pleased and impressed! Looking forward to your continuing updates via video. Way too cool man

Thank you so much! That's a big reason why I work with this group. It's such an honor to hook them into RPGs and delve into the fantasy hero world. They are starting to research their characters on their own.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned we're doing Breeder Bombs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2010 07:25PM by ericb007.

Amazing stuff - running games for teens or adults can be rough enough, but doing it while wrangling younger kids AND keeping moral lessons in mind...wow. Serious kudos. Love the way you delegate a lot of the little stuff (keeping track of time passage, etc) to the kids to keep their attention.

Given your obvious love of superheroes, and your role at an Islamic parochial school, are you already familiar with 'The 99'?

How did the kids decide who they wanted to play, by the way?

And I have to ask: are/were there any particular sensitivities you had to address (or foresee addressing) given the club's locale? Conversely, anything in particular you're looking forward to doing or including to take advantage of running a game at a parochial school (tying an adventure to lessons or whatever)?

Thanks VectorSigma. It can get a little rough in there. I've had to edit out some minor chastisements. But yes, I run a real tight ship. 16 children! I'm a photo retoucher. Not a teacher. But I have my own children and good behavior is rewarded generously

Thanks to Johnn Four's GM newsletters and website, I formulated a point system, contracts and assigning jobs for players in each group. We alternate between Wizards' Star Wars and MSH every week.

Yes I'm familiar with The 99. Very cool stuff. I actually want to integrate some of those characters in a future campaign. But time is soooooo limited. So I'm squeezing in GM training for some of them through mandatory rules quizzes. If this club grows any larger–which I think it will–training some new GM's is mandatory. Not all want to GM. However, I want to have 2 games running at the same time and eventually let them run the show! We have ambitious goals for our club.

You'll start to see how I have them check the Feat chart and figure out what's allowed. I want to work something out with the school to keep this going in the summer.

I actually gathered heroes from the Secret Wars adventure and let them choose from that pool. I wanted to start with Secret Wars, but I changed my mind because I wasn't sure if a bunch would drop out. However, all have stayed. So the regular adventures, like Breeder Bombs, doesn't have enough slots for everyone. You'll see me do alot of ad lib! Also, some of the children are "veterans" from last year. So they were allowed to make their own characters. Now they are helping the new ones. Eventually, I think they will all have their own heroes.

Yes, I am intentionally working at this school to help the children stay out of trouble and learn about teamwork. Also, I attend religious services at the mosque connected to the school. I also do other civic and volunteer work with them in the northside of Chicago. So I'm familiar with them. When I ran it by the principal 2 years ago, he saw me do a demo and was sold. I have 100% support of the staff. It's Amazing!

Nearly all of my players were born to immigrant parents. So there is a huge cultural gap which they are forced to bridge. Stuff happens in those gaps–especially for Muslim American youth. So before each game we briefly review review religious ideals that are relevant to the game and their eventual graduation into adulthood. I don't allow them to kill anyone without severe consequences. Those who incline towards firearms and punching NPCs find themselves in situations where they cannot use them "properly" and they must resort to using their brains and not brawn. I use the Karma system ALOT.

I hope that helps answer your questions. I plan to have Ch. 2 of the Breeder Bombs up tomorrow if I can squeeze it in between work. I'll be sure to post here!

Here's the video of the Creatures from Zebulun mini-adventure (from the New York, New York supplement). IYou can click on the buttons at the sides of the screen to skip throughout the different parts:





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2010 04:58PM by ericb007.

Here's chapter 2 of the Breeder Bombs. I had to modify some of the technical 1980's things. Otherwise it's true to form. One of the heroes clobbered the Fixer pretty quick.

I wanted to update everyone that we no longer alternate between Star Wars and MSH. We run both each week. I have a recently-trained GM for Star Wars. He's an enthusiastic little fella! MSH is a little more complex for role-playing. So I'm taking my time with finding the right Judge/GM.

I'll be sure to not litter this topic and post the recent videos in the Videos section of the Forum.

Surprisingly, one of the MSH girls is really gung-ho about being a Judge. She got the Battle and Campaign Book from me and made her own 3-ring binder. I get email messages from her asking about particular characters and rules. She happens to be the best at improvising too. I have discussed a summer school "Gamemaster Training" class. So my hope is to train this young lady and others with simple adventures and then throw them in the deep end with a full adventure. I would like to just supervise and run the camera by the 2010-2011 school year.

Very cool to hear

Keep up the good work. =)

This is really a great way to cultivate the imaginations of the young. I think this is a very worthy and honorable endeavor. i salute you Eric, great job!

Wow just wow, no link but by description i must say kudos to you and the future players.

It's there. Here ya go! [www.youtube.com]

FYI, we didn't have any club this year. The school did not respond to my offer to hold it. Oh well. Maybe another year. Either way, you all have many hours of great adventures to watch.