A quest-based security awareness program
The Security Guild Toolkit
Security awareness training fails because nobody wants to sit through it. So run a campaign instead. Recruit champions, send weekly quests, put them through red team trials they consented to, and finish at a table rolling dice. Everything you need to run it is here — 23 files, already written, yours to rename.
Licensed CC BY 4.0 — share it, adapt it, run it commercially. Just keep the credit.
How the campaign runs
- Read the Quick Start Guide (30 min)
- Customize the materials for your org (1 hour)
- Get leadership buy-in with the Program Guide
- Recruit 3–5 champions
- Run Session Zero
- Send the weekly quest briefings
- Run red team trials
- Play The Shattered Shield (75 bonus XP)
- Celebrate your Security Champions
Roughly twelve weeks end to end, at a few hours a week for whoever plays Guild Master. I wrote about running my own in Session Zero and The Campaign Is Alive.
Before you start
Start Here
The roadmap, the adaptation guide, and the full program in one document.
Open this first
Quick Start Guide
Read this first. Your 7-day roadmap from zero to a running program.
Read the Quick Start Guide end to end before you open anything else — it tells you which of the other documents you actually need. The Program Guide is the long one; you only need Part 1 to get a yes out of leadership, so do not try to read all of it up front.
Also in this folder4 files · 59 KB
- Customization GuideHow to adapt every document in the kit to your own organization.
- The Security Guild Program GuideThe complete program: leadership proposal, 57 quests, handouts, ranking system, and GM materials.
- Champion Recruitment GuideBehavioral traits to look for, where to find candidates, and who not to recruit.
- READMEContents listing and the nine-step quick start, as plain text.
Kickoff week
Session Zero
The kickoff meeting — script, slides, and the checklist that keeps it on rails.
Open this first
Session Zero Script
A 30-minute presenter script for the kickoff meeting.
The script and the deck are meant to be run together — the script is timed to the slides. Do a read-through out loud once before the meeting. The checklist is the part people skip and then regret, because it covers the follow-up that turns attendees into champions.
Also in this folder2 files · 318 KB
Every week after
GM Operations
Running the guild week to week, with the emails already written for you.
Open this first
GM Week-by-Week Guide
Your weekly operations manual as Guild Master.
This is the folder you live in. The Week-by-Week Guide is your operating rhythm; the Quest Briefings are twelve weeks of email already written, so weekly upkeep is closer to fifteen minutes than an afternoon. Set up the tracker in week one — retrofitting XP later is miserable.
Also in this folder4 files · 62 KB
- Weekly Quest BriefingsTwelve weeks of copy-paste email content, one briefing per week.
- Guild Master Email TemplatesRecruitment, follow-up, and milestone emails ready to send.
- Trial Notification TemplatesLeadership heads-up memos and champion alert emails for red team trials.
- Campaign TrackerPlug-and-play spreadsheet for up to 8 champions: roster, XP, trials, metrics, and the weekly briefing log.
Weeks 4, 8, and 12
Red Team Trials
The safe, consented tests that turn awareness training into practice.
Open this first
Red Team Implementation Guide
Copy-paste phishing emails, phone scripts, physical test setups, and three ways to run them — free Gmail, link tracking, or GoPhish.
Run trials only after Session Zero, and only with the leadership heads-up from GM Operations sent first. The guide gives you three ways to execute — start with the free Gmail option, and move to GoPhish only if you need real metrics.
Hand out as you go
Guilder Handouts
Printable one-pagers to hand out, pin up, or attach to a briefing.
Open this first
How to Spot a Phishing Email
The tells, in the order a reader actually encounters them.
One handout per quest topic, not all five at once. Pair each with the week it maps to in the Quest Briefings. The certificate is for the end — print it on something heavier than copy paper.
Also in this folder4 files · 50 KB
- Lock It Down: Passwords and MFAPassword managers, passphrases, and why MFA prompts get pushed.
- Physical Security ChecklistTailgating, badges, clean desks, and the unlocked-screen walk.
- Social Engineering HandoutPretexts, urgency, and authority — how the ask gets made.
- Champion CertificateA fillable certificate for guilders who finish the campaign.
The capstone
The Shattered Shield
The D&D capstone — a two-hour one-shot that ends the campaign at the table.
Open this first
The Shattered Shield — 2hr Edition
Step-by-step DM script. Two hours, 3–8 players, no tabletop experience required.
You do not need to have played D&D. The 2hr Edition is a script you read from, the characters are pre-generated, and the DM Kit has everything you would otherwise have to improvise. Print the cards for a casual table; print the full sheets if your players want to keep them.
Also in this folder3 files · 5.8 MB
All 23 files come in one download — folders and all, laid out exactly as they are described above.
⬇ Download the whole toolkitThis is the program behind Solo Campaign, my talk at the SANS Security Awareness & Culture Summit — the same 12 weeks, packaged so you can run it yourself.
Built by Liz Gore — The Cyber Bard. If you run a guild of your own, I would genuinely love to hear how it went: come tell me on Discord.
Credit line for adaptations: Liz Gore · The Cyber Bard · lizgore.com