We are a Boston-based organization aiming to provide a safe, welcoming place for the young people of Boston to play tabletop roleplaying games after school. Tabletop RPGs offer a number of benefits for teens (and adults!) They:
Are collaborative, not competitive: Players work together to achieve a goal and tell an amazing story. If you’re playing, you’re winning.
Teach problem-solving skills: Players encounter a variety of challenges and foes, and they must meet them with different approaches. Battering down a door without checking for traps first can be a deadly mistake.
Are creative: Game masters create interesting scenarios and players help build a story around the scenario. Players advance through the scenario using methods that are only limited by their imaginations. This is unlike video games, where only the solutions planned by the game designers will work.
Are not screen-based: The action of tabletop RPGs takes place entirely in the minds of the participants (though sometimes game masters may use maps to help players visualize their surroundings). As concerns about screen time grow, this offline entertainment becomes even more valuable.
Most importantly, tabletop RPGs offer a safe environment in which to take risks and succeed as part of a team. Students who are interested in sports and performing arts (and whose schools offer them) can do this within those activities. But students who don’t participate in these due to lack of interest and ability or whose schools have had these activities cut still need an outlet in which to test themselves. Tabletop RPGs offer this. To everybody.
We can't wait to bring this program to Boston's young people. Boston Public Schools have endured years of budget cutting, and the kind of supplemental programs that better-resourced systems take for granted have been cut to the bone. Boston's young people need opportunities to take risks, feel successful, and have fun in a safe, supportive, welcoming environment. Please help us make this dream a reality.
We've set a goal of 10% of our projected annual budget. Your support will help us get started and will demonstrate the power of this idea to the kind of big donors that can help sustain the organization long term. (if you are such a donor, get in touch!)
Any amount at all is welcome, and we really, really appreciate your sharing this campaign with anyone you think might be interested to help us build a big, powerful network to support this project. Thank you!
