So I'm thinking of running a school based 5e game, but my question is how would it work? How do I make going to classes and taking tests mechanics? How do I relate it to the characters class and leveling? Any advice or resources you care to share?
How are you planning to make this more interesting than school - are the characters level one heroes in a school full of common folk, or are they being taught by Luke Skywalker in xaviers school of witchcraft and wizardry?
the mechanics for going to classes and taking tests would probably not be enjoyable if it's literally a maths test. Part of the fun of the game is escapism, I wouldn't want to roll for memorizing Pythagoras' theorem.
If you're dead set on making an RPG for going through school, perhaps the best approach is to use it as a statistics building device - give all the players base stats of 12, and then engineer the lessons to be related to specific stats - strength, dex and con from 3 branches of physical education, and then intelligence and wisdom from lessons and charisma from the lunch breaks.
Then arrange a set of perhaps 3 encounters per stat block (18 total, perhaps 6 per session for a 3-session introduction to the world). Each encounter has the ability to increase or decrease the characters stat in that area by 3, 2 and 1. the first pass gives +3, second +2, third +1. the first failure gives -1, second -2, third -3. So if you pass 2 and fail 1, you get +5 and -1, so +4, stat becomes 16. If you pass 1 and fail 2, you get +3 and -3, so 12. If you fail all 3, you get -6, so 6. If you pass all 3, you get +6, so 18.
Do this for all the stats and all the players, and you'll have a full set of stats for them to start an adventure with.
I don't think that a game where the characters have to constantly remain in a single location sounds fun, nor would I really enjoy rolling to see if I passed tests! What you really don't want to give them is a hum-drum life. D&D is about fantastic adventures, fighting monsters, saving the village/town/world and so on. It's not about making Intelligence checks to see whether you pass algebra. A little insert of stuff like this can be fun, but if you want to make your game about learning and school then do so - just make it epic!
Level 1-4: The characters are five young people who have been trained by a reclusive hermit in the hills, a hermit who once prophesised a great evil would need to be challenged (or did he? Maybe he's using them for revenge like in the movie Asuka). But the hills are under threat. To prove themselves worthy of going to train at the great academies, the hermit sets them a series of tasks defeating the evils. Their exams should be adventures like "enter Mount Darathis and bring back one of the moon eggs."
Level 5-8: The heroes go to the great academies, where they have to train but also have a series of other cool tasks to do. If you have a bard, a cleric, a wizard and a fighter, then the city they go to has a musical academy, the great temple, the mage university and the warrior's proving grounds as part of one compound, allowing them to train their specific skills. But foul things are afoot, and the BBEG will have noticed them and wants to see them dead.
Level 9+: The heroes have earned their right to go out in the world. Let them loose.
Yeah I'd also echo the comments made about putting some kind of interesting spin on this education that the players will undertake; the players will want some cool escapism.
The party could still have lessons and maybe ability checks to determine their success etc. but having a wider plot going on would be cool. Some examples to maybe take some inspiration from include: - Hogwarts (mysterious goings on, coming of age, BBEG a constant theme) - My Hero Academia anime (players develop cool skills and abilities during their initial education before being thrust into the action)
Having some exciting things going on interlaced with some learning is key to maintain the fun factor in my opinion.
One thing I would want to try is expanding the importance of downtime activities. Research, socializing, exploration, and mischief can all yield different benefits, and with your limited time in the average after-scoolday you can't do them all. Maybe you're playing a social character with aggressively middling grades but you've always got some fellow students you can rely on in a pinch. Maybe through all your research you're able to complete some cool invention, maybe through all the times you've wandered out-of-bounds, you have a comprehensive insight into the school's secret places? That kind of stuff.
I also thought it'd be cool to assign 'Research Projects'. Basically each player needs to try and create a homebrew magic effect or invention or something and the DM takes their end goal and works out what it would take to accomplish, and the players would have to spend the school year working on securing both the knowledge required to pull it off and the funding necessary to do it. (Funding could come from applying for academic grants that leverage your grades proportionate to how good they are, OR by braving through the secret, sprawling dungeon under the school that only the teachers and select few older students know about, for treasure). Maybe they could choose between Practical and Theoretical research, where Practical costs more but at the end you get a cool magic item or new spell at the end, while Theoretical projects let you delve more into developing an understanding of the fundaments of magic, requiring more research but offering more academic prestige or reputation, maybe even opening up the way to bigger Practical applications in the future. And this could work for if you're playing as students or faculty at a magic school.
I don't think that a game where the characters have to constantly remain in a single location sounds fun, nor would I really enjoy rolling to see if I passed tests! What you really don't want to give them is a hum-drum life. D&D is about fantastic adventures, fighting monsters, saving the village/town/world and so on. It's not about making Intelligence checks to see whether you pass algebra. A little insert of stuff like this can be fun, but if you want to make your game about learning and school then do so - just make it epic!
Level 1-4: The characters are five young people who have been trained by a reclusive hermit in the hills, a hermit who once prophesised a great evil would need to be challenged (or did he? Maybe he's using them for revenge like in the movie Asuka). But the hills are under threat. To prove themselves worthy of going to train at the great academies, the hermit sets them a series of tasks defeating the evils. Their exams should be adventures like "enter Mount Darathis and bring back one of the moon eggs."
Level 5-8: The heroes go to the great academies, where they have to train but also have a series of other cool tasks to do. If you have a bard, a cleric, a wizard and a fighter, then the city they go to has a musical academy, the great temple, the mage university and the warrior's proving grounds as part of one compound, allowing them to train their specific skills. But foul things are afoot, and the BBEG will have noticed them and wants to see them dead.
Level 9+: The heroes have earned their right to go out in the world. Let them loose.
Campaigns set in one location can work, I am running a campaign now which is set in the same town, every day at 2am an event happens and the day resets, so the players start every day in the same place, the same equipment, just there skills etc change as they level. they are currently trying to work out how and why it happened and having fun going through the town talking to people, sometimes the same people, trying to work out the right questions to ask and the right places to go, if they die they reset the same as everyone else so that leads to a different approach for game play.
now in terms of a school setting, I have done something similar, I didn't roleplay tests and lessons unless they where key to the adventure (maybe a history teacher gives a lesson on some aspect of the adventure), but, I did make the school day play a massive part in the players managing of game time, they needed to make sure they attended lessons, or at least came up with ways to get out of them "legally". No point trying to uncover the secret cave under the school if you have ot be in class in 20 mins. They had weekends to themselves as "free time" but during term time mid week they had to try and figure out how to get stuff done and get their 6 hours of rest in and attend classes.
So I'm thinking of running a school based 5e game, but my question is how would it work? How do I make going to classes and taking tests mechanics? How do I relate it to the characters class and leveling? Any advice or resources you care to share?
How are you planning to make this more interesting than school - are the characters level one heroes in a school full of common folk, or are they being taught by Luke Skywalker in xaviers school of witchcraft and wizardry?
the mechanics for going to classes and taking tests would probably not be enjoyable if it's literally a maths test. Part of the fun of the game is escapism, I wouldn't want to roll for memorizing Pythagoras' theorem.
If you're dead set on making an RPG for going through school, perhaps the best approach is to use it as a statistics building device - give all the players base stats of 12, and then engineer the lessons to be related to specific stats - strength, dex and con from 3 branches of physical education, and then intelligence and wisdom from lessons and charisma from the lunch breaks.
Then arrange a set of perhaps 3 encounters per stat block (18 total, perhaps 6 per session for a 3-session introduction to the world). Each encounter has the ability to increase or decrease the characters stat in that area by 3, 2 and 1. the first pass gives +3, second +2, third +1. the first failure gives -1, second -2, third -3. So if you pass 2 and fail 1, you get +5 and -1, so +4, stat becomes 16. If you pass 1 and fail 2, you get +3 and -3, so 12. If you fail all 3, you get -6, so 6. If you pass all 3, you get +6, so 18.
Do this for all the stats and all the players, and you'll have a full set of stats for them to start an adventure with.
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I don't think that a game where the characters have to constantly remain in a single location sounds fun, nor would I really enjoy rolling to see if I passed tests! What you really don't want to give them is a hum-drum life. D&D is about fantastic adventures, fighting monsters, saving the village/town/world and so on. It's not about making Intelligence checks to see whether you pass algebra. A little insert of stuff like this can be fun, but if you want to make your game about learning and school then do so - just make it epic!
Level 1-4: The characters are five young people who have been trained by a reclusive hermit in the hills, a hermit who once prophesised a great evil would need to be challenged (or did he? Maybe he's using them for revenge like in the movie Asuka). But the hills are under threat. To prove themselves worthy of going to train at the great academies, the hermit sets them a series of tasks defeating the evils. Their exams should be adventures like "enter Mount Darathis and bring back one of the moon eggs."
Level 5-8: The heroes go to the great academies, where they have to train but also have a series of other cool tasks to do. If you have a bard, a cleric, a wizard and a fighter, then the city they go to has a musical academy, the great temple, the mage university and the warrior's proving grounds as part of one compound, allowing them to train their specific skills. But foul things are afoot, and the BBEG will have noticed them and wants to see them dead.
Level 9+: The heroes have earned their right to go out in the world. Let them loose.
Yeah I'd also echo the comments made about putting some kind of interesting spin on this education that the players will undertake; the players will want some cool escapism.
The party could still have lessons and maybe ability checks to determine their success etc. but having a wider plot going on would be cool. Some examples to maybe take some inspiration from include:
- Hogwarts (mysterious goings on, coming of age, BBEG a constant theme)
- My Hero Academia anime (players develop cool skills and abilities during their initial education before being thrust into the action)
Having some exciting things going on interlaced with some learning is key to maintain the fun factor in my opinion.
I did a thread a while back on this topic (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/dungeon-masters-only/56715-how-would-you-run-a-magic-school) and there were some fun ideas thrown around.
One thing I would want to try is expanding the importance of downtime activities. Research, socializing, exploration, and mischief can all yield different benefits, and with your limited time in the average after-scoolday you can't do them all. Maybe you're playing a social character with aggressively middling grades but you've always got some fellow students you can rely on in a pinch. Maybe through all your research you're able to complete some cool invention, maybe through all the times you've wandered out-of-bounds, you have a comprehensive insight into the school's secret places? That kind of stuff.
I also thought it'd be cool to assign 'Research Projects'. Basically each player needs to try and create a homebrew magic effect or invention or something and the DM takes their end goal and works out what it would take to accomplish, and the players would have to spend the school year working on securing both the knowledge required to pull it off and the funding necessary to do it. (Funding could come from applying for academic grants that leverage your grades proportionate to how good they are, OR by braving through the secret, sprawling dungeon under the school that only the teachers and select few older students know about, for treasure). Maybe they could choose between Practical and Theoretical research, where Practical costs more but at the end you get a cool magic item or new spell at the end, while Theoretical projects let you delve more into developing an understanding of the fundaments of magic, requiring more research but offering more academic prestige or reputation, maybe even opening up the way to bigger Practical applications in the future. And this could work for if you're playing as students or faculty at a magic school.
Campaigns set in one location can work, I am running a campaign now which is set in the same town, every day at 2am an event happens and the day resets, so the players start every day in the same place, the same equipment, just there skills etc change as they level. they are currently trying to work out how and why it happened and having fun going through the town talking to people, sometimes the same people, trying to work out the right questions to ask and the right places to go, if they die they reset the same as everyone else so that leads to a different approach for game play.
now in terms of a school setting, I have done something similar, I didn't roleplay tests and lessons unless they where key to the adventure (maybe a history teacher gives a lesson on some aspect of the adventure), but, I did make the school day play a massive part in the players managing of game time, they needed to make sure they attended lessons, or at least came up with ways to get out of them "legally". No point trying to uncover the secret cave under the school if you have ot be in class in 20 mins. They had weekends to themselves as "free time" but during term time mid week they had to try and figure out how to get stuff done and get their 6 hours of rest in and attend classes.