By David Reyes
In tabletop role playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, there is a concept called alignment, which describes a character’s moral and ethical beliefs. It ranges on two axes. One goes from good to evil and the other goes from lawful to chaotic. It’s common for players to think of themselves and their actions in respect to these axes.
As educators, often concerned with classroom management, we tend to see chaos as a negative thing. But as I sit here writing this, I can’t help but bask in the joyful chaos that is the Gaming Club for which I am the adviser.
When I became the club’s adviser last year, we met once a week. This being 2020-21 school year, we met virtually. Students would hang out and talk about games, and we used the share screen feature to stream games to each other.
Eventually a student expressed interest in Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). I play a derivative of D&D called Pathfinder. I agreed that if he could get players for it, I would GM (Game Master) a campaign. I set up a separate day to run meetings with this small subset of the club. Pathfinder games generally take longer to run than our usual one-hour sessions, so these meetings would be about two hours. Over time this party of adventurers would become the most loyal and interested members of the club.
As we have moved back to in-person school days this year, I received a request from “the Champion,” “the Cleric” and “the Swashbuckler.” They wanted to run their own games. I was so proud. Not only were they liking their new hobby, they were pulling more people into it and taking ownership of it. As the adviser, I felt that this was a “hang out club,” and there was no real need for leadership beyond me. But all that changed around the time of the Club Fair.
Why am I doing this?
After spending an afternoon on Canva making posters for Game Club’s display for the fair, I had a thought: “Why am I doing this?” I sent out a message to the club inviting members to work on the poster board the next day, but only if they wanted to. The students who showed up were the Champion, the Cleric, the Wizard, the Swashbuckler, and a student new to the club, the Investigator. As we worked, I joked with the students, saying that even though our club did not need an executive board, I would gladly back up their claim to have served on a board if they wanted to add that to their college applications.
The Club Fair was in early October. I planned an escape room for Halloween. I deliberately avoided telling “the Party,” so they could participate in it. But when the Party found out that I had spent the day before working on the event until 7 p.m., they reacted like disappointed parents.
“Mr. Reyes, we could have helped you!” the Investigator chided. “Why did you take on all that work yourself?”
Shortly thereafter, the Party started taking on more responsibility. The Cleric became the vice president and would take it upon himself and to clean up after meetings. This eventually morphed into the entire Party cleaning up while I escorted the rest of the club out of the building at the end of the day. Soon after that we were having Party meetings at the end of the regular meetings and discussing ways to improve the club.
This brings us to now. The Party is currently planning a Karaoke night. They have subcommittees for advertising, music choices and technology. They plan to have a concession stand. They are doing all of this with very little input from me. My hand isn’t on the wheel. I’m like a driving instructor with the little passenger’s side brake. That’s all I need.
After a meeting where they explained that they were expanding their roles, the Cleric asked me, “Are you OK with this? Or are you just going along with it because it will make us happy?”
I told him that as they take power from me they also take some of the responsibility, not all, but just enough that sometimes I get to sit back relax and revel in the joy of chaos.
David Reyes is a teacher at Linden High School and adviser to the school’s Gaming Club. He is a member of the NJEA Early Career Network (ECN). Learn more about the ECN at njea.org/early-career.