The quest begins in your classroom.
A tabletop role-playing workshop built for the classroom — where students learn storytelling, worldbuilding, and collaboration by rolling dice and saving the day together.
How a workshop runs.
One class period. No prep, no rulebooks, no experience needed. Just a room full of storytellers who don't know it yet.
Make a hero
In minutes, every student builds a character with three simple stats. No math anxiety, no character-sheet dread — everyone's playing fast.
Create the adventure
Students design the rooms, traps, and creatures themselves. The story is theirs — I just help it hang together.
The grand finale
The class unites against one final foe, run live on the projector. Separate groups become one party — that's the moment it clicks.
What students walk away with.
Who I run them for.
Schools
Single classes or whole-day visits, tuned by grade — middle grade and up.
Libraries
After-school and program sessions that get kids creating, not just reading.
PD & Conferences
Teacher pro-D and division workshops on running tabletop storytelling yourself.
Two decades of countless workshops.
Since 2005, Jay McCann — who writes for young readers as James McCann — has led creative-writing and storytelling workshops across the Lower Mainland and beyond — for schools, divisions, libraries, universities, and writers' organizations alike.
“One of the teachers who supervised this workshop commented, ‘So many great writing ideas!’ When we dropped by to listen in for a bit, we could tell that Mr. McCann was prepared, encouraging, and responsive. A number of students volunteered that Mr. McCann’s workshop was one of their favourites.”— Deanna Brady, Kamloops-Thompson School District
Roll for initiative.
Tell me your grade level, your goals, and your dates — and we'll plan a session your students won't stop talking about.
Summon the Author →