Role Playing Class

[Oreosforlunch]

Hey, I came up with this crazy idea and a friend of mine gladly agreed to be my partner in this. After tons of frustration of not finding quality roleplayers in my area, I noticed that a lot of middle schoolers are trying to learn to roleplay, but have no one to learn from. So what me and my friend are going to do is start a role playing class. Basically it will be more like a club, I was gonna start everybody off with an introduction to LoTR, I didn't want them to learn from 3rd DnD for it's lack of character depthness, nor from 2nd AD&D with it's insane math systems. LoTR also seemed like the best choice because it would be what most of the participants would be familiar with.

Basically, what we're going to do is teach the participants the system and then narrate and guide all the participants together. He and I are both co-storytellers in this, we are both composing the storyline of the chronicle together as well. We don't want to steer the participants toward a certain kind of roleplaying, as long as it reflects an actual character and a story. Now does this sound like an insane idea or what?

Now I could us some suggestions and ideas on this to help out, anyone got anything? I could use some chronicle ideas, prefereable War of the Ring time period

[Balok]

I think your choice is a good one; the CODA system is more cinematic and therefore somewhat simpler than a "more realistic" system like HERO (the math of which can be daunting).

One suggestion would be to examine the rules carefully. Then determine in which order you would like to teach them. Explain that, in the beginning, you'll be playing a simpler version of the game. Then, each time, add a new rule and run an encounter that emphasizes it.

Players like magic. But magic systems are tricky because of their potential to unbalance the game. So you'd introduce magic in a later class. But you might select one or two spells for a few characters to have, that have well defined effects.

The trickiest part is the part some game masters never get right: you have to show how the story is the most important thing (at least in my view), but the mechanics are also vital because they support the story. The best stories are those where no one knows the outcome -- and this is where the mechanics enter into it, providing a way for characters to grow and develop, and to pit their abilities against antagonists. Also, teach them that changes to the mechanics are fine, if you come across something you don't like -- but generally you want to play the game a bit, first: the assumption being that the designers (and in many cases the playtesters) worked the worst bugs out before publishing it.

[Oreosforlunch]

Thanks for the suggestions. Anyone else?