Welcome to the latest in a new series here at Young Dragonslayers called Meet the Dragons! Here, we take you behind the screen to meet the Game Masters behind our games. Today, we’re featuring Liv Larbi, a former middle-school teacher, a graduate student, a clinical researcher, and an escape-room enthusiasm. Liv is a pro at turning groups of excited, high-energy kids into cohesive adventuring parties. Her campaigns run the gamut from mild-mannered to gloriously chaotic, but they’re all warm, inclusive, and welcoming to players of all stripes. Game Master Jaclyn got to talk with them about the project-management of being a Dungeon Master, the community built over a campaign, and their love of telling stories through rolling dice.

Many kids struggle with taking another’s perspective, understanding their emotions, and responding with compassion – in another word, empathy. This struggle was only exacerbated by the lack of social interactions during the pandemic. Many parents are searching for a fun, accessible way for kids to work on their empathy. Some have turned to roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. But can these actually help your kids learn empathy? We’re a group of educators and therapists who have run hundreds of Dungeons and Dragons games, and we can say for certain that DND absolutely does help kids learn empathy. We have seen children take leaps in their ability to see things from another’s perspective, understand what others are feeling, and know how to act to make others feel better. But how does this actually work? 

Pelican fanatic and top-tier TikToker Hank Green is a powerhouse. He’s crafted a book series, a #1 app, two merch companies, a TikTok presence, an educational video nonprofit, an annual charity event, a popular online-video convention, a hit podcast for teens, and more. Hank Green also has ADHD. While going through items from his childhood, he found an old diagnosis that he shared in a video on his personal channel (My Childhood Learning Disability). In the video, he reflects on how he's been able to thrive with ADHD, his pride in who he is and how far he’s come, and the support that in his childhood that helped him get there. We work with a lot of teens with ADHD and autism, and we haven’t been able to stop thinking about Hank’s video since it came out. His career is a brilliant example of a boy with ADHD getting support, growing up, and doing amazing things, and it exemplifies some important truths about ADHD and the people who have it.

Many people – including us – recommend starting to play D&D between ages 8 and 10 at the youngest. But there are kids younger than that who want to play, whether they grow up in gamer families, hear stories about fantasy adventurers, or see older peers engaging with the game. Enter Little But Fierce, an inclusive family-friendly rewrite of Dungeons & Dragons’ rules by teacher and RPG writer DC Bradshaw. We got to chat with him about the game, how it was made, and the inspiration behind it – as well as something near and dear to our hearts: the importance of accessibility and inclusion in roleplaying games.

Dungeons and Dragons can be hard to get into for the first time. There are piles and piles of rules, all this jargon and slang to learn, and finding an in-person or online DND group can mean getting matched with people who seem to know way more than you – and aren’t willing to teach you how to start playing DND. That leaves lots of DND hopefuls wondering how to get into DND for the first time, searching for online Dungeons and Dragons groups for beginners, or trying to learn to play DND alone. We’ve been teaching kids and teens how to play Dungeons and Dragons since 2020, so we have answers for every question you can think of, and then some! To help beginners learn to play DND, we’ve compiled all of our articles on how to start getting into Dungeons and Dragons: what the game is, how people play, the rules of the game, nuances for new players, how to make a character, all the jargon you need to know, and how to get started playing DND online or in person. 

Many kids struggle with confidence, especially today. Confidence in children is at an all-time low, having fallen 22% since just 2016. Studies have found a pattern: confidence declines gradually around ages 7 or 8, then has a sudden drop-off at ages 10 or 11 as children enter middle school. Kids themselves have even recognized this; 60% of kids aged 7-11 report wishing that they were more confident. With this confidence crisis, many parents are at a total loss for how to help. We’re a team of therapists and educators, so we have seen these low confidence levels in children and understand how to help children improve confidence. Through our facilitated social groups, we have helped many children unlock a new, self-assured part of themselves and face life with a new outlook.

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.