D&D 5E New Group, 4 New Players

[Xeviat]

Hi everyone. I might finally be able to run a regular D&D game again! In a 5 person group, it looks like 4 of my players haven't played before, so that's going to be interesting. They're all veteran CRPG players, though, so they understand the tropes.

I wanted to run something a little more open and a lot more social. So, I was thinking of running an officer's academy setting (playing off the whole groups' familiarity with the recent Fire Emblem game). I was also thinking of using the longer rest variant, with short rests being a night's sleep and a long rest being two days of light activity. I think the longer rests will let me pace things better, so that casters don't dominate slow days with their magic.

I'm also going to use a tried and true idea of having each of the characters already knowing one or two of the other characters.

Has anyone else run a school setting? Any tips?

Thanks.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I drafted a campaign based on Valkyria Chronicles, where instead of a tank, the players had control of an old model of shield guardian that they could improve by spending some fund in the R&D department at base.

Anyway, let your players use the downtime from xanathar, using the foils to create interesting opposition for the students. Use them as mini-games with fun NPCs at schools.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Has anyone else run a school setting? Any tips?

Nope, but I've played in 'em.

In one D&D campaign, we became faculty of the "School of Adventuring" in a wizard's university - the equivalent to being coaches in a school renowned for it's math & physics departments, I guess. So, running in a school doesn't have to mean playing students is the takeaway, there. You could have faculty, staff, custodians, & parents involved, too.

The other was an episodic, low-grade super-hero game, rather than a campaign, set in a (gag) high school. What worked well in that game was that the PCs filled classic high-school drama stereotypes, the nerd, the jock, the mean girl, etc.... but with the occasional twist, and, of course, with lots of interpersonal drama.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I was also thinking of using the longer rest variant, with short rests being a night's sleep and a long rest being two days of light activity. I think the longer rests will let me pace things better, so that casters don't dominate slow days with their magic.

FWIW, we did this last year for a while. I posted the idea of the short rest being a night's sleep and the long rest the equivalent of the weekend off. It worked well for the most part, but we've since learned the actual length of rest periods never matter unless you have a time-sensitive game. All it is really there for is a basis for how many encounters you want to run (basically how hard do you want your game) before the players get a reset.

Anyway, sounds like a fun game! Good luck.