Campus Adventures?

[Starfox]

I am playing the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path set in the World of Greyhawk (substituting Karlstad for Korvosa, with a much larger population) and using a LOT of filler. So far in 20 sessions, we have only done half of the first scenario, so the filler is about 90% so far. The rules are a homebrew that is classless but encourages DnD-esque play.

The premise is that the players are student at the Theumanexus College, and I would like some more adventures focused on campus life, intrigue, and politics - but have a hard time coming up with any. I thought I'd ask the board here.

The players are now seniors. In DnD terms they are about 3rd level, but with a wider selection of abilities. I can easily adopt adventures with a level range of 2-8 or thereabouts. There is a second, much more powerful mage school in town, as well as a regular university and numerous magical masters and groups, so almost anything can be presumed to exist.

So, does any interesting scenarios suitable for this setting exist? Do we have any good ideas? Afraid I'm kind of drawing a blank here.

 

[Gilladian]

So, does any interesting scenarios suitable for this setting exist? Do we have any good ideas? Afraid I'm kind of drawing a blank here.

There was a product out called Redhurst Academy that focused on a "school experience" for players. If you can find it (pdf?) it might help.

Other suggestions I can think of:
1) sporting events - many problems such as riots, cheating scandals, doping investigations, cheerleaders gone missing, weirdness in the locker room (old team member haunts new team member?)
2) rush week - getting into the frat or sorority of your choice could involve all sorts of pranks and "tests". PCs could be the rushees or just on the sidelines when something goes wrong.
3) lab experiments gone wrong - explosions, escaped lab animals, stolen notes, etc...
4) horrible assignments - field trips to museums, trips to the haunted forest.

Ooops, gotta go.

 

[Krensky]

2) rush week - getting into the frat or sorority of your choice could involve all sorts of pranks and "tests". PCs could be the rushees or just on the sidelines when something goes wrong.|

It should be remembered that at it's heart a fraternity, sorority, corporation, nation, etc is primarily a mutual aid society. One of the main reasons the first ones in the US came about was so students could afford to eat and buy books.

 

[billd91]

Depending on how you've got the school set up, Harry Potter can be an interesting inspiration, particularly because it's set up like your typical British boarding school. Inter-house rivalry as well as rivalry between class years can bring interesting events to the table as MANY coming-of-age British novels can attest.

Since you called them "Seniors", I'm guessing you're set up more like an American 4-year college. But even then you've got inter-year rivalries as the upperclassmen almost certainly have more privileges than the underclassmen and more opportunity to take advanced coursework and symposia. For an arrogant but highly talented underclassman, that's sure to rankle.

For other ideas:
a faculty member who is a lich (great for librarian)
a magical item construction lab (a way for the college to make money on low-level items made on consignment)
illicit field trips to the cemetery for the necromancy department
summoning classes gone horribly awry as a student disrupts the magic circle
political infighting with a magic-disapproving church

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

There was a short thread here not long ago "A Magical University Town" that might have some useful suggestions.
Or at least a lot of beer-drinking jokes.

 

[Starfox]

There was a product out called Redhurst Academy that focused on a "school experience" for players. If you can find it (pdf?) it might help.

Redhurst sounds interesting indeed - sadly I cant find it as a pdf. There are some web enhancements.