D&D 5E Strixhaven: Orientation

WotC has released an overview of the upcoming Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, as adventurers of levels 1-10 uncover a plot against the university. Teased are activities like tavern games, a magical frog race, an improv festival, and other social encounters. You can also take exams to improve your skills, join clubs, or get jobs.

Also included is a bestiary of over 40 new creatures.

The Bibloplex contains most of the information in the multiverse. Plenty of other locations fill the book, such as Captain Dapplewing's Manor, a mansion built for the university professors. One adventure has the PCs breaking into the manor. Another adventure involves the main Strixhaven student sport, Mage Tower.

 

[Faolyn]

I like to bring up that book as an argument on how "REAL" magic schools should be, not like the nonsense that was Harry Potter. Where learning magic is not just waving wands and saying the words, where everything has a true name you need to learn, and where your teachers do not give you ridiculously deadly tasks like pulling Mandragora or going to woods where giant spiders can eat you... And where the one magic 'prank' that our protagonist pulls has deadly consequences that follow him for much of his career, not brushed off immediately.

I'd actually say that the bit about your teachers giving you deadly tasks is actually kind of logical for a "real" magical school... in a world like a typical D&D setting, where you're not expected to live in a magical town filled with magic users and stores that sell magic ingredients, but are expected to be moving out and into an incredibly deadly world where everything does want to kill you, and many of those things can make themselves look like perfectly mundane objects.

In the Potterverse, it's ridiculous. In a D&D 'verse, I can very easily see a magic school with a high student mortality rate.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I just want Mage Tower to play like its inventor understands sports

Unfortunately, the multi-classed Jock/Nerd is a rare thing. And even when you do find one, they likely only took a 1-level dip in Jock, just so they could try and fit into normal society and avoid the dreaded wedgie of doom attack.

 

[Azzy]

Unfortunately, the multi-classed Jock/Nerd is a rare thing. And even when you do find one, they likely only took a 1-level dip in Jock, just so they could try and fit into normal society and avoid the dreaded wedgie of doom attack.

My current DM has equal levels—he follows (American) football and coaches wrestling in school. Still, he is conversant in the ways of the nerd.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Isn't all sport just a bunch of people running pointlessly around a field for an allotted period of time? I don't care what the rules are, I just want to keep out of it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Unfortunately, the multi-classed Jock/Nerd is a rare thing. And even when you do find one, they likely only took a 1-level dip in Jock, just so they could try and fit into normal society and avoid the dreaded wedgie of doom attack.

They’re…not remotely uncommon.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In the Potterverse, it's ridiculous.

No, it's satire.

When I was in my second year at boarding school a boy from another house fell off a cliff during a camping expedition and died. A couple of decades later the sister girls' school had a couple of pupils drown trying to cross a flooded stream on a DofE expedition. When I found myself a teacher at a boarding school I was horrified at the blasé disregard for pupil safety - I didn't stay at that school long.

There is a lot of politics between the lines of Harry Potter.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I just want Mage Tower to play like its inventor understands sports

It is wild that 95% of Quidittch is irrelevant when you get like 100 points and end the game by getting the flying golden egg. I think there was like one match in the series where Harry couldn't catch it, because his team was losing so bad they would have lost if he caught the snitch and ended the game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It is wild that 95% of Quidittch is irrelevant when you get like 100 points and end the game by getting the flying golden egg. I think there was like one match in the series where Harry couldn't catch it, because his team was losing so bad they would have lost if he caught the snitch and ended the game.

It's a plot element in the Quidditch world cup match. Didn't make it into the movie. [does a quick memory refresh] Ireland** are too far ahead to beat, but Viktor Crumb, playing for Bulgaria, catches the snitch*, conceding defeat but retaining honour for his own team.

The thing about the rules of quidditch is they where intentionally written to be overcomplicated and unwieldy, because it is a parody of real life sports with overcomplicated unwieldy rules.

One assumes the rules of Mage Tower are intentionally written to work well with the rules of D&D.


*Snitch is English Public School slang for a tell tale/sneak/informer.

**Also political - implies a united independent Ireland.

 

[Azuresun]

It goes without saying that not everyone feels the same way, although I don't know if it is only a "tiny handful." I'm going by what I've seen on this board, and quite a few people have expressed some degree of what I'm talking about, whether with this product or Witchlight. Maybe you misunderstand what I mean by "friction." It isn't some huge offense, it is just feeling a sense of separation from this particular thread of WotC's output.

You're missing my point: Spelljammer came out 30+ years ago, and is thought of very fondly by older players (for the most part). I was using it as an example of throwing a bone to older players.

And (I say this with love) this board is the groggiest collection of grogs that ever grogged a grog.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Strixhaven was about as much inspired by Harry Potter as Harry Potter was inspired by Three's Acompany.

Both Harry Potter and Three's Company have humans in it. Both Jack Tripper and Harry Potter have best friends. Characters in both eat food. Jack Tripper has two hands and Harry Potter has two hands! The 3 main characters both live with other people. Jack Tripper handles ingredients and so does Harry Potter. Both have older authority figures. Both have music (if you count the Harry Potter movies) highly linked to them. Both Harry Potter and Three's Company has both males and females. The main characters in both have some level of previous education. Both in Harry Potter and Three's Company the characters speak English.

So clearly Harry Potter is based on Three's Company.