D&D 5E Strixhaven Table of Contents

Strixhaven's table of contents has appeared on Reddit. The book contains 7 chapters, plus an appendix, including four adventures.

1. Basic setting information, about 20 pages
2. Character options, about 22 pages
3. 4 adventures organized in a unified campaign, about 32 pages per adventure (plus general campaign organizational tools which take up about 20 pages)
4. NPCs & monsters, about 42 pages

D&D 5E - Strixhaven Previews Start to Appear

It's that time in the D&D pre-release publicity phase where previews of the upcoming book start to appear across the web on various sites. It looks like each site is getting a different college to preview -- Screenrant has Prismari, and Polygon has Silverquill, for example. There are 5 colleges...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Strixhaven's Monsters: Groffs, Mage Hunters, & Oriq Recruiters

Gizmodo has a preview of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, showing off some of the new monsters in the book. The Oriq Recruiter is an agent of a dark mage cult; a Groff is a canine swamp creature; and a Mage Hunter is a spider-legged drone. The article also talks about trudges, daemogoths, the...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Strixhaven Has Exams, Jobs, & Extracurricular Activities

It's IGN's turn to preview part of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, taking a look at exams, extracurricular guilds, and jobs. An example of an exam includes the Magical Physiologies exam, and a success gives them an advantage when fighting those creatures. The exams have a studying and a...

www.enworld.org

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But anyway I'm totally unable to understand why people needs this amount of different monsters in their game.

TBH, most of the monsters in my adventures are custom jobs anyway.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sword Coast Adventuers's Guide is, at least, adequate and a major seller to boot. I wouldn't expect a replacement, maybe in 2024, but even maybe nor then.

The Ravenloft book is a good counter to your concern: it is more in line with the Eberron or Ravnica books. The reality is that WotC will probably make these decisions on a case by case basis.

I think SCAG is underrated - I certainly find myself referring to it sometimes. But I do support it with material from FR Wiki, my 3rd edition book, and lots of experience.

Likewise, I think that if you know the settings well from MTG, the Ravnica and Theros books work, but without that supplemental info they feel very sparse.

Ideally, a good setting book stands on it's own. And by that criterion, only Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount stand up.

Stryxhaven is different to any of those, in that the world beyond the college isn't much fleshed out even in MTG, so we have one small part of a world in great detail. I would call it a "bubble" setting - one designed to support a single campaign. Which is not to say there isn't anything generally useful in it. We already have an Owlin PC in our game, the Stryxhaven backgrounds are a handy fix for underpowered sorcerers, I'm sure the maps could be handy etc..

Full disclosure, I was planning on buying the digital Stryxhaven on D&D Beyond in the sale, and am really really bummed that they have excluded preorders. I reckon it's worth $20 but not $30.

 

[MockingBird]

I think SCAG is underrated - I certainly find myself referring to it sometimes. But I do support it with material from FR Wiki, my 3rd edition book, and lots of experience.

I agree, I use it fairly often combined with basic FR knowledge. I do find myself wanting a bit more, something on par with the 3rd edition FR book or a 2nd edition like box set (I own that one).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My main concern is that this appears as a “setting” book that doesn’t offer the same amount of material for multiple campaigns. How much does this portend future “settings” books?

With settings like Eberron, Wildemount or Forgotten Realms, an imaginative DM could easily spend a lifetime developing adventures and campaigns. However, with the scant material of this book, multiple campaigns would almost be like starting from scratch. Maybe I’ll feel differently once I see the books, but I this feels like a one-and-done campaign setting.

I could make multiple campaigns just from the preview material.

 

[Parmandur]

I could make multiple campaigns just from the preview material.

One thing I have heard about people playing Ye Ollde Tyme modules was that they were highly replayable.

This frankly feels like a campaign that could be replayed happily, with different events and outcomes.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

One thing I have heard about people playing Ye Ollde Tyme modules was that they were highly replayable.

This frankly feels like a campaign that could be replayed happily, with different events and outcomes.

Indeed. I also suspect that one could premise a campaign on each individual college.

 

[Parmandur]

Indeed. I also suspect that one could premise a campaign on each individual college.

Intergenerational campaigns would take a bit of work, but would also be pretty neat: after I've campaign, move the timeline along, and make the old students faculty, create some new NPCs and situations.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Intergenerational campaigns would take a bit of work, but would also be pretty neat: after I've campaign, move the timeline along, and make the old students faculty, create some new NPCs and situations.

Man I’d love some rules for legacies in 5e. It’s a thing I’m working on in my TTRPG Quest for Chevar, and it’s a bit of a thing in The One Ring, but I’d love to see a setting or AP that uses Legacy as a premise and does some Theros/Strixhaven improved backgrounds and starting feats stuff around Legacy.

 

[Parmandur]

Man I’d love some rules for legacies in 5e. It’s a thing I’m working on in my TTRPG Quest for Chevar, and it’s a bit of a thing in The One Ring, but I’d love to see a setting or AP that uses Legacy as a premise and does some Theros/Strixhaven improved backgrounds and starting feats stuff around Legacy.

I want to say that Pendragon had something like that, but I may be misremembering.

 

[darjr]

Huh. Could do one campaign that is in the book. And a second one based in Strixhaven but using content like Candlekeep. And I’m sure DMsGuild will have some folks add stuff to Strixhaven specifically

 

[BookTenTiger]

Huh. Could do one campaign that is in the book. And a second one based in Strixhaven but using content like Candlekeep. And I’m sure DMsGuild will have some folks add stuff to Strixhaven specifically

It would even be fun to do two concurrent campaigns. Every other adventure, the players are playing as students, and every other adventure they're playing as high-level professors.

 

[darjr]

Professors!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I want to say that Pendragon had something like that, but I may be misremembering.

Seems like a good system for it.

I use it in Quest for Chevar because QfC has multiple eras of play, and the group/GM determine the state of the world at the beginning of a campaign, much in the same way that the McElroy's did in The Adventure Zone: Ethersea.

In their case they used The Quiet Year, but in QfC I'm building a system that speaks to the basic mechanics of game, and puts things like Contacts, Favors, and Relationships, front and center. Basically the players (which includes the GM at this point) determine how the major big events and conflicts of the previous era and several decades before the campaign played out, what the starting position of several factions are, what the state of play is in terms of relationships between the Hidden Folk and the Wise (humans who are wise to the other worlds), etc.

So if you play a campaign set in the 90's, influenced heavily by Buffy, you'd start by determining how the shadow war in the 1890's through 1930's played out, what supernatural factions are dominant in the region of play, how much major world governments know, and then zoom in further and further geographically while determining more and more recent events, until you're establishing the very recent history of the town in which the first adventure begins. If you know what basic tone of game you want, or even a type of threat you want to be prominent early on, say a teenage drama tone with vampires, you can make choices in the course of play that lead to a few different vampire cabals having risen to power in the past few decades, because of a First God who grants vampiric gifts (or even better, multiple who give very different vampiric gifts) having been nearly freed 100 years ago before a team of Rangers stopped the vampiric cultists from fully freeing these dark entities, and have PCs who are related to that old cult, to one of the First Gods, to the Rangers who stopped them, etc.

As you zoom in on Sunny Vale, CA, you can establish a string of short-lived mayors, or a guy who looks way too young for his age who has been mayor for 60 years, and one PCs mentor is the high school librarian, etc.

OTOH, you can play this part of the game without this forethought, and just see what happens.

It's a bit ambitious, and I don't know if we will get everything I want in it, but I'm pretty excited about it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One thing I have heard about people playing Ye Ollde Tyme modules was that they were highly replayable.

There are two main reasons for that: they where largely map based, rather than story based, so "spoilers" weren't a problem, and the high mortality meant that adventures often ended with the party dead before the adventure was completed.

Neither of those seems to apply to Stryxhaven.

This frankly feels like a campaign that could be replayed happily, with different events and outcomes.

You could certainly retain the structure whist changing the main adversary, but I'm not sure that would be enough to keep the same group of players entertained. It would work if you had a player who had read but not played the adventure though, or where DMing it for a second time with different players.

I suspect that even played straight, it would benefit from being supplemented with additional sidequests. It seems to go through years and levels PDQ.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It would even be fun to do two concurrent campaigns. Every other adventure, the players are playing as students, and every other adventure they're playing as high-level professors.

You could extend it: the players reach level 10 and graduate. Next year they return as professors. There are a couple of higher level adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries that could distract the PCs from lesson planning and staff meetings.

 

[Parmandur]

There are two main reasons for that: they where largely map based, rather than story based, so "spoilers" weren't a problem, and the high mortality meant that adventures often ended with the party dead before the adventure was completed.

Neither of those seems to apply to Stryxhaven.

You could certainly retain the structure whist changing the main adversary, but I'm not sure that would be enough to keep the same group of players entertained. It would work if you had a player who had read but not played the adventure though, or where DMing it for a second time with different players.

I suspect that even played straight, it would benefit from being supplemented with additional sidequests. It seems to go through years and levels PDQ.

The big reason this seems repayable to me are the procedurally generated elements, auxh as relationships. That can be gone over again with drastically different experiences. Seems more like a "journey, not the destination" Module.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The big reason this seems repayable to me are the procedurally generated elements, auxh as relationships. That can be gone over again with drastically different experiences. Seems more like a "journey, not the destination" Module.

I've never been one to play again just to romance a different character. Frankly I can't see that aspect holding much appeal for my group.

 

[Zarithar]

This is the first D&D 5e book that I have pre-ordered and then cancelled. Literally nothing of use to me in WotC Hogwarts.

 

[Magister Ludorum]

I am more excited for this one than any other setting since Eberron. I rarely run adventures, but I am willing to run this one. I'm hoping someone else in the group does so I can play.

Still don't see the Hogwarts connection so many people are assuming.

 

[darjr]

I see the hogwarts thing but I kinda think it’s a lame complaint. It’s like complaining that the wheel of time is a copy of Lord of the Rings. Or Lord of the Rings is a copy of Nibelungenlied.

It is, to me, all of an obvious statement, an unconvincing argument against it, and a gross hilarious overstatement.

Like OK? So?