Rolling With Advantage: Volunteer as a pencil and paper RPG game master for at risk youths.

[astroblastro]

Short description of the idea (140 character tweet):

Rolling With Advantage: Volunteer as a pencil and paper RPG game master for at risk youths.

What is your project concept or idea? What challenge or opportunity will it solve?

Rolling with Advantage is a Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) inspired social project that seeks to facilitate the collaborative play of pencil and paper role playing games (RPGs) between at risk youths, in places like juvenile detention centers, and volunteer game masters (GMs). "Rolling With Advantage", is inspired by the DnD 5th Edition rule where players with "advantage" can roll twice instead of once and take the roll with the higher value. We think this is a great metaphor for second chances needed for at risk youth.

Pencil and paper RPGs like DnD may seem like wastes of time on the surface, but they are effective tools for teaching improvisation, cooperation, problem solving, and storytelling -- important skills for at risk youth populations. On top of all of those benefits it is a fun and fulfilling pastime that sparks the imagination and creates an interactive universe where almost anything can happen within the context of the game's rules.

RWA would like to find a way to match up willing volunteer game masters with facilities in need of support. We believe it is essential to make a service that allows for facilities to request a game master to volunteer their time and, likewise, provide a point of entry for game masters that want to volunteer their time. There would ideally be a website and/or app that connects conveniently to social media platforms.

Who will benefit from your project? Describe the humans at the center of the problem - who are they?

Populations of at risk youth will benefit from RWA. This could include young people in juvenile detention centers or mental health facilities. The concept could be further expanded to other arenas including after school programs, hospitals, or senior facilities.

How would they benefit? Can you tell their story?

The at risk young people would benefit from the socialization, improvisation, problem solving, and storytelling skills that pencil and paper RPGs help to foster. This will give these youths an avenue for self expression and imagination in facilities that often have few outlets for these skills. In addition, it’s just fun!

Do you have photos of them? Or quotes?

At this time no. We are still in a conceptual stage. Also, since this project deals with at risk youth, we would want to preserve their privacy.

Issue area(s) relevant to your project idea:

• Arts & Culture
• Children & Youth
• Education
• Health
• Neighborhoods

What is the current state of your project idea?

RWA is currently in the conceptual stage of a solution, but we have not yet prototyped or tested it.

Tell us more about the current state of your project idea.

We tried to do a grass roots version of this idea via Reddit and Facebook and got zero traction. We think there needs to be a bigger service/organization surrounding this idea to validate it and simplify matching up facilities in need of volunteers and Game Masters in the area.

Do you have any links to news articles, text, mockups, code, or data?

RWA has some social media and online presence.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rollingwithadvantage
https://www.facebook.com/RollingWithAdvantage

We have made a very rough framework of what we think a website of this nature could be.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9mAXH0SRsHKYWk5b0pjbkZEYVk/view?usp=sharing

Tell us about yourself.

Phillip Johnson (Austin, TX), has been developing video games for about 8 years. He has degrees in computer science and philosophy from Millersville University in Millersville, PA. He is a Co-founder of Rolling with Advantage. Creator of BATTLESLOTHS and founder of indie game studio Invisible Collective. Engineer for Max Play Inc.

Alexander Jenkins is a Ph.D. in Communication, Culture, and Media from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. He specializes in video game players, emotion, and morality. He has been playing pencil and paper RPGs for about 20 years. He is also a co-founder of Rolling with Advantage

What is your background? Why is this challenge important to you?

Phillip was listening to a podcast and at some point they were discussing prisons that are involved in book donation programs and that a good deal of prisoners were asking for Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) books. A light bulb above his head turned on, and he thought what if there was some sort of organization that more or less facilitated this sort of volunteer work with pencil and paper RPGs.

Are you representing a group in submitting this project idea?

Yes, Rolling with Advantage.

[JenniferBullard]

I think this is a great idea! Roleplaying filled a huge social need during my college years and helped me make lifelong friends. I used D&D 2nd edition to teach my sister, who was struggling with math, basic math skills. After a summer of playing D&D she didn't have any trouble with math thereafter because she realized how it could be used in fun settings. If we could figure out a way to connect GMs like me with at-risk kids I would absolutely run a regular game for them!

[astroblastro]

awesome, that's exactly what this is setting out to do. We want to essentially make a match making site of sorts... where facilities can raise their hand and say "i want a RWA volunteer" and GM's could list themselves as available red (way to busy), yellow (already running a group) or green (freely available) and the sort of games they want to run.

so... its part match making... and part providing a common space for resources for new DMs and easy to follow materials for new players.

I will admit... although I enjoy DnD i'm a bit of a charlatan... this idea was sparked from my desire to start running a campaign and not being to find participants. I decided to bring it to ATX H4C because I determined that I was way to busy to build this idea by myself.

[ssharif1]

ACTION NEEDED

Hello Project Champion,

Please provide the following:
Full Name + Email Address
You can comment here or send to [email protected]

We are going to be sending out a note + newsletter to our 345 (as of May 18) attendees sharing our submitted projects before the event and your hackers will want to know who you are. Additionally, we have PC-specific communication that we want to make sure that you are included on.

Thanks,
ATX H4C Staff

[danielhonker]

Thanks for submitting your project proposal @astroblastro . We are happy to inform you that your idea has been accepted to be pitched at the 2016 ATX Hack for Change!

Now that your project has been approved, here are some things we suggest you do next:
https://github.com/atxhack4change/2016-project-proposals#once-your-project-is-accepted-here-are-some-things-we-suggest-you-do-next

As @ssharif1 mentioned above, please send us your name and email: [email protected]

You will receive an email in the next few days regarding your speaking slot for the Saturday morning pitches. Please let us know if you will no longer be able to champion your project at the hackathon.

[danielhonker]

@astroblastro - you should have received an invite to join Slack. If you haven't already joined the team and seen the Slack channel for your project, it's #roll-advantage. We'll be sending out an email with details on pitches soon.

[jeremygaither]

I think this is a great idea. There are so many ways that role playing games can help young people, especially those at risk or with special challenges. From building teamwork and social communication skills, to building imagination... All important skills for all youths, not just those with challenges.