School campaigns

[Kilmore]

A former DM of ours liked to run campaigns where the PC's are enrolled in a school, like a sword fighting school or a magic school (something like Hogwarts). These were fun.

I'm wondering if anyone else has done this, and more importantly, if they have any suggestions for me running my own.

I'm thinking of doing something in a public academy, where in addition to their book learning curriculum, they also have classes in fencing, magic, and so on. Not sure what to do about the rogues...

Perhaps an actual military academy would be a good place to teach a variety of classes, rogues falling under Intel and Espionage.

Opinions?

 

[Crothian]

I think it would be a lot of fun, but haven't done anything like it.

 

[Brisk-sg]

I think Swashbuckling Adventures would be perfect for a campaign based around a school. Theah (the default Swashbuckling Campaign Setting) has several Academies and Universities in most countries.

The setting is patterned after 17 century Europe, a time of higher learning (in comparison to the medieval and dark ages).

Just a thought.

- Josh

 

[Brisk-sg]

Also, rogues should be easy to fit into a campaign, as long as they are not thieves. Or at least not obvious thieves.

 

[Christian Walker]

Boy Scout Commandos

That's a very cool idea you have there. Having run a game like that myself, I can guarantee you lots of fun.

My game was based in Steve Jackson Games' Car Wars setting. The characters were high school students and members of the Boy Scout Commandos. Think modern day Boy Scouts, but with AR15s and grenades. A character could earn merit badges in subjects like demolition. It was pretty sweet.

The campaign lasted about a dozen sessions. Sadly, it ended when one of the characters failed horribly when tossing a grenade. He was trying to chuck it through a window. He hit the wall instead and it bounced back at the group with devastating results.

Another highlight of the game involved a foiled robbery at a fast food joint the scouts were eating at. The perp pulled out a Mac 10, ordered everyone to hit the deck, and began emptying the register. When he tried to make his escape, the characters pulled out various 9 milis and sub machine guns out of their book bags and let the guy have it.

*sigh* memories.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Also, rogues should be easy to fit into a campaign, as long as they are not thieves. Or at least not obvious thieves.

Any university worth it's salt is absolutely swarming with thieves. Some of them more obvious than others, of course.

And, as I've mentioned before, the Bardic Knowledge mechanic is great for modelling scholars... "Man, I know I read about that... It's in here somewhere..." --Roll to see how much pertinent info is still rattling about in your over-stuffed brain.

 

[Agback]

G'day

I have both run and played in campaigns centred around schools. I remember a couple of such campaigns in 'Bushido' campaigns (set in a romanticised mediarval Japan), for instance.

I have also both played in a run such campaigns in my fantasy setting Gehennum, where the theory of education encourages different sorts of things to be studied together. (Scholastics and gymnastics are complents in the Gehennese theory of education.) Indeed, if you looked at it right, it might turn out that both the campaign I set in Thundering Vale were essentially centred around a school.

I think that best advice I can give you is that you ought not to compromise your campaign concept to fit in with players' expectations of what a D&D campaign ought to be like. Because if you run a campaign that is different and consistent it is likely to be better and memorable. So if your campaign concept suggests to you that all the PCs ought to be, say, either monks or clerics of Nysalor, go with it! Let your players discover that characters can still be different from each other in interesting ways even if their capabilities are very similar, and that it is inclinations rather than abilities, or in short personality rather than stats, that makes a character fun to play. If someone wants to play, say, a ranger, and a ranger doesn't fit, tell the player to save up his ranger ideas for the next campaign.

Another piece of advice, not quite so definite, is that you place your school in a large city where there is a lot going on and where the school is a comparatively small interest group, rather than setting it out in the country where it is more isolated and comparatively more powerful.

Happy hunting!


Agback

 

[Corlon]

oh, I thought this would be a thread about playing in school

teacher walks up:
PC: I use the diplomacy check to see if the noble king will rescend his order to arrest J-walkers
teacher nods approvingly and walks away:
DM-nice natural 20, you don't even have to confirm, your sword slices the kobold cleen in two.

sorry, I couldn't resist