Redhurst Academy of Magic

[Silver Moon]

....it's a great setting and if you've ever thought about running a Harry-Potter-esque magic school campaign you should definitely pick it up (the hardcover is worth the $). D20 may not be the perfect system for this sort of campaign, but Redhurst manages to pull it off pretty well with D20, and of course you can port any rule set to the setting. The sidebars are really fun.

My thoughts exactly. Anybody who has ever gamed with me as the DM/GM will tell you that I'm rules-light, role-playing-heavy in my approach. The key for me is to have a great setting to facilitate the players having fun in. With a group of high school aged players that is all the more important.

So I guess what I'm asking in this thread is what specific types of encounters and/or specific Dungeon Magazine/other modules have you run in conjunction with this magic school and/or what have you seen that might work well for the "field trips" for a group of low-level magic students?

 

[boerngrim]

Wow!
I went to the Redhurst site. That looks like a really cool setting. It's going to the top of my list of must haves.
Thanks.

 

[Mamacat]

I really like Redhurst, and have had a lot of fun using the setting in various ways. And I LOVE the book! Now, if I could only FIND it...it's been a year since we moved, after all!

I would also recommend (spell? Having Mom-nesia atm) Blue Rose by Green Ronin for HS age folks. You could also try their Mutants and Masterminds as well.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

This thread made me pull out the book and start eying it for Spycraft. (Academy as Agency....)

The Auld Grump

 

[Andor]

This thread made me pull out the book and start eying it for Spycraft. (Academy as Agency....)

The Auld Grump

That is twisted.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Pardon the thread necromancy, but I was thinking about using Redhurst Academy of Magic for an upcoming game.

My youngest son has been reading the Harry Potter books lately, reading through them like gangbusters. I'm surprised, as he's only 10. He's quite the imaginative boy, and he really liked the sound of D&D. Meanwhile, my other son, who is 14, has for the first time shown interest in D&D as well. My wife usually doesn't play D&D, but she'll join in on games once in a while.

So I'm thinking about a family game.

My youngest son wants to play a wizard of some sort, kind of like Harry Potter. Kevin Kulp reminded me tonight about Redhurst Academy of Magic.

So, a few questions...

1. Can I use the Castles & Crusades rules with Redhurst? I'd like to use a rules-light system for my boys.

2. What settings would Redhurst work best in?

3. What are your experiences using Redhurst?

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Well, I used it with True 20 fairly easily.

If you have the spoiler free PDF then hand it out to your stude, err... players.

I would suggest a two plot adventure - something going on inside the school, and something going on outside the school, though they can be tied together. (The short series I ran had the kids on a field trip, where they were attacked by a trio of harpies - two using nets on the students, the third shot the teacher with a couple of poisoned arrows. One was custom made - dealing 1d3 Str damage for every level of spell the poor fellow tried to cast, the other a straight up bog standard Con poison. Then stealing his School ring. The kids, all level 1 wizards, had to get the teacher back to the school. If they had managed to take down a harpy they might have found that she had been sent by somebody at the school....

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* Free Redhurst material can be found here. Well worth getting!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would use Redhurst as 99.9 percent of the setting, especially for Harry Potter fans -- I don't think the travelling thing adds much to it, in play. You can certainly use the setting with C&C, although you should probably print out the 3E wizard spell list, just as a cheat-sheet for which school teaches which spells.

I'd also grab WotC's Practical Guide to Wizardry, which is really a complimentary work for Harry Potter-izing D&D, with a lot of stuff about wands (make them a required component for all wizard spells, IMO), words of power and so on.

I'd go with the plot that seems to suggest itself from the DM's version of the book: Some evil arcanists are plotting to destroy the school and have one or more spies who've infiltrated. Even the nominal good guys are pretty mysterious and have their own agendas, and just free-forming it through a few semesters would work.

I'd probably take a page from Harry Potter and, once you know what school the player characters are studying, and what dorm they're in, create some rivals, some friends and have them brush up against the edge of a few of the school's mysteries. I suspect they'll develop the plots on their own for you.

Arguably, you should figure out who the school's archenemy is, and what exactly he wants, just so you can make the schemes the kids uncover fit together properly. I've always thought an Eberron-style changeling would make sense for the infiltrator. Not as powerful as a doppleganger, but able to stay undercover for an extended period of time and still be dramatically "unmasked" by the players eventually.

 

[Crothian]

Redhurst should work well with any system. I'd go with a system that you know well enough to adapt to to the setting.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

I thought about doing it with Mage: the Awakening, because I have friends too emotionally invested in the Mage: the Ascension background and hate the new one. I just have to find a way to incorporate two new schools of magic because MtA has more Arcana than D&D has Schools.