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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 8499117" data-attributes="member: 42856">All in all, I am thinking the relation rules are too mechanical to work and I'd probably drop them, not because of players being uncomfortable but because... they are bad. While I like the idea of student dice for extracurricular activities and an incentive to actually pass exams, so I might keep them, I think the incentive to keep relationships at rank 3, which are not limited in number, will result in PCs gaming the system "let's be a goody-two shoes and be nice to each and every moron in the school so we get daily inspiration from them as soon as possible".Onward to adventure 1...The campaign consists of 4 adventures, each taking place during a study year, taking characters from level 1 to 10. It incorrectly claim to use milestone advancement, but is using story advancement -- a common mistake even in published products, confirming the "Nobody reads the DMG thread! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />. The first adventures goes from 1 to 4, mirroring the rhythm of Kindled Magic in SoT.It starts with a part called Orientation. The use of the exact same name in Maabyanga and Strixhaven, planes apart, means that... it's a thing in US universities <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> [not that it's a bad thing, I remember when I arrived in university being a little lost as it was much less structured than high school...] The university holds many more students... at any given times, there are scores of them in the café or study areas.The adventure itself, on the other hand, has a very strong high school vibe to me:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">at no point the character are in danger, as if they flunk a battle, something that might very well happen at low level, a faculty member will save the day and imbibe them in healling potions ;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the task they are given feel targetted at teenagers more than young adults ;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs being dared... to get near somewhere spooky... and steal a confiscated item from its storage  -- ok, high schoolers, maybe, they'd be given a pass, but adults doing that? They might get expelled and charged with breaking and entering, theft, especially if they damage things with abandon... a reasonable student would... warn the administration that something, potentially dangerous, will happen, rather than taking part in it ;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the other students centers of interest... "let's organize a frog race before the teachers find out we've smuggled frogs on campus..." would fit more in a high school dorm than in a university ;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the café won't sell them anything other than tea and coffee...</li> </ul>The first exam is about slaads, then otyugh and owlears. Characters get to learn lore about slaads. Yet, there doesn't seem to be slaads in this adventure. Actually having the topic become relevant at some point to provide further incentive to ace tests would have been great. With owlbear, they can get advantage, but it's unrelated to the lore they got.Travelling on campus is also risky, since you might encounter an hostile basilisk at level 1. I guess that's why teachers carry this much healing potions! It's also very railroady, as character at no point in the adventure can get the opportunity to act on the clues they get about he mysterious substance that links the various bad events that happens.I am probably rating this part better than other, because I think some scenes can be cannibalized, but I feel it wouldn't be that fun to run as written.</blockquote>

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