Welcome to the first in a brand-new series here at Young Dragonslayers called Meet the Dragons! This series takes you behind the screen to meet the Game Masters behind our games. First up is Jesse Edmonds, also known as Doc Palindrome, a podcaster, improv comic, pop culture blogger and proud Girl Dad. A self-described “old school nerd,” Jesse has been rolling dice since 1985 and they have a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of roleplaying games, comic books, and classic editions of D&D. Game Master Jaclyn got to talk with him about his game design, being a dad, favorite stories from his games, and the origin of all his geekiness at the ripe age of 2.

Online DND games for teens are thriving. The rise of digital tools for teens playing Dungeons and Dragons online and popular shows streaming people playing the game lay the foundation for geek-minded teens to hop online during the pandemic and play games together. That’s how we got our start running a virtual DND club for teens, as a way for our founder, therapist Katie Lear, to help her young clients feel less alone and build social connection without the support of in-person groups. Though the depths of the pandemic are over, online DND groups for teens are more plentiful than ever, joined by libraries, Discord servers, online courses, game-finding sites, and more. If you’re a parent or teen hoping to find youth DND games online we know a thing or two! In fact, we’ve written several blog posts breaking down what teen DND online groups are, how online DND classes for teens work, and how to find virtual DND groups for teens. Here’s a highlight reel of what you’ll need to know. 

Making friends with ADHD can be difficult no matter your age, but it can be even more fraught for kids, tweens, and teens with ADHD making friends. At that age, everyone’s trying to figure out how social dynamics work, and making friends with ADHD sometimes brings an added challenge to an already tumultuous time. As a parent, it can leave you saddened that your ADHD kid has no friends, left in the land of what-ifs: “What if my ADHD child can’t make friends?” “What if no one likes my ADHD child?” or “What if all kids with ADHD are loners for life?” As a youth worker and a parent, I feel you. It hurts so badly to watch incredible kids be rejected by their peers, desperate for any kind of connection, and wondering if there’s something wrong with them. But there is good news. ADHD kids can make friends; I’ve watched (and, on occasion, helped) them do it for years. Like many other things, kids making friends with ADHD works a little differently than for their neurotypical peers – but those little shifts make a big difference. Here are some ways you can help your ADHD child make friends. 

Tons of parents out there are looking for activities for their kids to develop social skills. Whether they’re general social skills activities for teens and kids or specific activities for kids with social anxiety, it’s important to us that our children learn how to interact with their peers, regulate their own emotions, deal with the messiness of being around other humans. But what kinds of activities actually work to do this? We’re a crew of therapists, educators, and others who work with youth to build social skills, and we’re here to share strategies to find activities that will help your children build these essential skills.

Mark Seifter and Linda Zayas-Palmer are Paizo veterans who spent a total of nearly two decades on the design and organized-play teams. Now, they use their experience crafting fantastic and creative Pathfinder supplements with young players in mind. We got to hear from them about their nerdy childhoods, their experience developing tabletop RPGs, modifying Pathfinder for kids, and why they think the medium is so good for bringing young people together.

Delicious in Dungeon, also known by its original name, Dungeon Meshi, is essentially a Dungeons and Dragons game in anime form. The Delicious in Dungeon characters are all classic DND builds, like Fighter, Cleric, and Rogue. And the show itself is literally a dungeon crawl: they fight monsters, find treasures, and survive the dungeon as they delve ever deeper. So when I got the chance to run a one-shot for the Young Dragonslayers holiday-break games, I decided that I would craft my own Delicious in Dungeon DND homebrew for my players. I built a self-contained dungeon crawl with two goals in mind: collect ingredients and cook a delicious dish. My players and I had such a good time that I wanted to share it with you. I present to you: Delicious in Dungeons and Dragons!

In the past few years, lots of people have been researching the benefits of Dungeons and Dragons for kids, tweens, teens, and beyond. They’re studying the benefits of DND for children, testing if DND is good for mental health, and exploring the social benefits of DND. We’re Young Dragonslayers – a crew of educators, therapists, and parents with a shared goal: running well-crafted DND games and creating a safe, supportive space for teens and tweens. We’ve been running games since 2020, but we’ve also been sharing about the benefits of DND: at game conventions, in interviews, and on our YouTube channel and blog. So we decided to collect everything we’ve shared about the benefits of DND – from education to mental health – in a singular compendium. Whether you’re a parent, educator, gamer, or some combination of the three, we hope this can serve as a resource for you.

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons are a happy little pair. Fans of Stranger Things play Dungeons and Dragons; fans of Dungeons and Dragons watch Stranger Things, and we get a Venn Diagram that looks a whole lot like a circle. And we are no exception. As we await the finale of Stranger Things season 5 DND is on our minds, and we’re on the edge of our seats to find out what happens! So in honor of the occasion, we decided to bring all of our Stranger Things DND content in one place. If you’re a newcomer wondering if Stranger Things is based off of DND, what DND characters are in Stranger Things, how Stranger Things is connected to DND, or you’re a Stranger Things superfan hoping to know more about Stranger Things season 5 DND references, we’ll point you in the right direction!

It can be tough to find a good Christmas gift for teens and tweens. They’re branching off into their own interests, which can mean struggling to keep up with pop culture, fandoms, and more. Plus, the things young people want most aren’t easy to wrap and stick under the Christmas tree: friends, confidence, meaning, or belonging. We’re a group of educators, therapists, and youth workers here to humbly offer a unique gift for a tween or teen in your life: the gift of friendships, social skills, and, most of all, fun! 

Finding gifts for Dungeons & Dragons fans can be tough, especially if you’re not a DND fan yourself! Lots of folks out there are wondering what’s a good gift for someone who plays DND or searching for a 2025 DND holiday gift guide to help them decide. But a lot of these recommendations end up looking very similar. Dice. Official D&D books. Gaming accessories. Many DND players have these things already! Plus, it’s always nice to put a little extra thought into picking out a gift that’s truly unique. With that in mind, here is Young Dragonslayers’ 2025 DND Gift Guide!

DND in the 1980s is a bit of an iconic era. But not everybody who plays the game today got the chance to play Dungeons and Dragons in the 80s. This leaves them wondering what DND edition was played in the 1980s, whether DND was popular in the 80s, how DND changed over the years, when DND was at its peak, and, of course, what’s up with the 80s DND controversy. We’re here to answer all these and more as we share about the progression of Dungeons and Dragons from the 1980s to the 2020s. 

Lots of people are poking around the internet for DND Thanksgiving one shot ideas. And why shouldn’t they? Dungeons and Dragons and Thanksgiving have a lot in common. Both a joyous occasion of friends and family gathered around the table to share something together. A DND Thanksgiving adventure is a great way to bring together your loved ones for a shared experience you won’t soon forget! Just to make things fun, we’ve come up with our own Thanksgiving DND ideas to share with you and yours this holiday season. 

The Kids on Bikes RPG is a wildly popular tabletop roleplaying game inspired by the show Stranger Things. As more and more people hear about the game, especially from the world of Dungeons & Dragons, they have questions. What’s the Kids on Bikes RPG about? What age is appropriate for a Kids on Bikes game? What is the setting of Kids on Bikes? And, of course, how do you play Kids on Bikes? We’re a crew of professional Game Masters who run games like Kids on Bikes, XCrawl, and DND for tweens and teens, and we got to sit down with Jonathan Gilmour-Long, co-creator of Kids on Bikes, to hear more about how to play Kids on Bikes. 

Dungeons and Dragons is a key element of Stranger Things. The characters not only play D&D in the show, but the game impacts their relationships, how they see the world, and even what they call the monsters they encounter! There’s also just a lot of natural crossover between Stranger Things and DND. Both have a team of heroes who investigate strange happenings, fight both monsters and humans, and save the day. I got to chat with Jonathan Gilmour-Long, a game designer and Stranger-Things fan who co-created his own DND Stranger Things game called Kids on Bikes. Here’s his story, from exploring the woods and reading DND books as a teen in the 80s to designing games in the 2000s and beyond. 

The game is filled with spells, familiars, and other timeless witchy elements, so of course there are witches in DND. Many players have already modified the core rules to create DND witch classes for their characters. But what about the non-player characters? It turns out that there are plenty of witch DND stats in the official materials, not to mention the rich Dungeons and Dragons witch lore to go along with them! We picked 5 of the coolest witches from the many worlds of DND and dug through their stats and lore to give you the highlight reel of famous witches in DND.  

Halloween is the ultimate holiday for Dungeons and Dragons fans. It’s filled with classic DND elements like witches, monsters and ghosts  – plus, it’s the perfect excuse to dress up as our characters! So, naturally, young DND enthusiasts are on the lookout for DNDHalloween books, spooky DND campaign ideas, or the perfect one shot for a Halloween Dungeons & Dragons game. Over the years, we’ve gathered lots of resources for spooky DND games and we’re here to share them with you.

Going toe-to-toe with wild creatures is a staple of Dungeons & Dragons. And while the classic DND creatures – like beholders, owlbears, and gelatinous cubes – are awesome, there's something more realistic and uniquely exciting about facing fearsome creatures from our world. And dinosaurs are, quite possibly, the coolest creatures to walk the Earth. While dinosaurs do exist in DND, the dinosaur DND stats, while cool in concept, don't have the depth of real dinosaurs (and, as we discovered, are sometimes straight-up inaccurate)! But a team of paleontology research scientists set out to fix that; we’re here to tell you about their efforts.

We're officially in spooky season now, which a perfect time for a Halloween DND one shot! A spooky DND game is perfect for Halloween parties (or even just an excuse to get some friends together). And there are so many great resources out there: DND horror one shots, spooky DND campaigns, and a plethora of Halloween DND one shot ideas. Here are a few of our favorites we recommend for your DND Halloween game!

Running Dungeons and Dragons combat encounters that are exciting, engaging, and fun can be a difficult task – believe me, I know! There’s so much to keep track of, from the DND combat rules to initiatives, hit points, and resources – plus, your players will inevitably throw a wrench in your plans and do something totally unexpected. I’ve learned from experience what works (and what doesn’t) when building and running a DND combat encounter. So here are some examples (pulled from my actual games!) to help you build your own DND combat encounters.

For players of all ages, there are a ton of benefits to Dungeons & Dragons (and games like it). But this is even more true for young players, who are in a prime stage to learn social emotional learning skills. Unfortunately, not all kids are ready to play D&D proper. They may be afraid of the dark or monsters. They may have a hard time sharing the spotlight, taking turns, and tolerating failure. They may not have the cognitive or mathematical skills to grasp the rules and make meaningful decisions in the game. My toddler, for one, doesn’t have the alphabet all the way down; there’s no way they could read a D&D character sheet! But, with some clever modifications, I was able to get them in a game. Here’s how I did it, with help from fellow Young Dragonslayers Dungeon Master and writer of TTRPGkids Steph Campbell.