We started up our first of our weekly lunchtime 'Tabletop Gaming Club' at the school today.
There was a lot of interest with about 25 kids turning up to my classroom at lunchtime for miniatures games - run by myself - and Magic the Gathering and one or two other boardgames.
Even a super dedicated group of D&D players turned up to continue their campaign.
I also manage the school's D&D group on Tuesday lunchtime and it's a much bigger group. We had almost fifty D&D players this week. It's a lovely little community of kids spending their lunchtime sitting around telling stories and having a laugh.
What's not to love about that.
But on to our ten player, Fistful of Lead "Conan' inspired game. Not for die hard Conan fans of course...you don't get Dwarves, Elves in The Savage Sword of Conan...but you do get wizards, cultists...the undead, and the occasional Genie.
As this week's theme was CONAN & Fantasy...it prompted me to finish up painting the Gripping Beast Arab Spearmen. Conan needs a bunch of scallywags to slay after all. Those Gripping /beast figures are just lovely and so easy to paint. I will definitely acquire some more later in the year.
Fistful of Lead is our go-to-game, and it was great to see the old gang from last year turn up and start teaching some of the newer kids the game.
It just scales up really well for a bunch of kids, flows quickly and as it's the perfect 'tool-box' system...I can just get creative, roll with the flow and crack on.
As a teacher, flexibility is one of those muscles you have to work.
We had ten players busy moving about the tabletop, and that meant as the game-master I had to keep on my toes.
In the scenario, Conan and his band of roughnecks had to enter the temple...find the hidden gold...and try not to wake or summon the Genie.
We had:
* Conan - Barbarian rolling d12s
*Red Sonja rolling d12s - I had young female student smashing heads with the lads and having a good time
*A dwarf
* An elf
*A wizard
*A Genie
*A bunch of Skeletons
*A bunch of Cultists (spearmen)
Altogether just a smash em up, 40 min game in which Conan died, the dwarf killed a few spearmen, Red Sonja smashed two skeletons to bits...
..but the cultists held out and the Genie woke up and just slayed Conan...
Game over.
The kids had great fun, and they all helped to pack up as well.
All the best.
Comments
I’ve never played fistful of lead but maybe I ought to give it a read. If it’s suitable for Conan then I guess it could be used for Lotd of the Rings (my main fantasy).
There was nothing like this when I was in school. I think it’s very cool. 😀
I started in the 2000s then took a big long hiatus from it and got back into the profession after I left Darwin. One thing I've noticed is that there has been a recognisable shift and pivot towards the 'pastoral care' role of teachers. Building positive working relationships, creating places where kids feel safe and want to go.
It's been fun to be able to take a passion project - like gaming - and share it with the kids. Other staff run art & craft classes or sports in their lunchtimes as well.
There were a lot of kids playing Magic in the session, plus a few onlookers. Magic seems to have had a bump in popularity, for some reason heaps of kids seem to have picked it up this year.
You could definitely use Fistful of Lead for Lord of The Rings, depending on how you want to scale it. Our games have tended to be skirmish sized and I use the 'core' rules, they're really simple & fun. But the caveat is that FFoL is a fast, bloody, hollywood style of game...FFoL is not a 'chin scratching' style of game for ultra competitive types. The rules do scale up with 'Bigger Battles' so in theory you could pull off some larger games.
You could use it with your dark age troops as well.