Jobs with Magic

[Greyfeld85]

I'm building a campaign, and I need some ideas on something.

I'm doing the typical "bulletin board" job design, where the players pick a job from a listing, register for the job, then go complete it. The problem is, I'm having a hard time coming up with actual jobs for this game.

In the setting, the PCs will have access to elemental magic, but most people that live in the city proper will not. Everybody is human and monsters aren't actually a thing, so the whole "kobolds are stealing my cabbages!!" approach isn't really going to work.

Since the PCs will be students, I need job listings that are too hard for your average mundane, but not so difficult/dangerous that somebody with more authority will step in to handle it.

Thoughts?

[Ulysses WkAmil]

So not really much fighting at all is involved then? Theifs or Bandits require someone with more authority, and fetching Magic-Wildgrass wouldn't have any monsters, so based on this I'm guessing its more skill-challengish or thinking problems? What sort of world do you have here, how common is combat, magic, traps, extremities and such? I can't think of too many non-mundane things that don't involve combat, or at least some sort of authority.

[Greyfeld85]

Hmm I suppose I should have gone into more detail in my OP. Alrighty then.

I'm going to be using the Dresden Files RPG system to create a "magic academy" type game. The academy the PCs will be attending will have a rival academy in the same city, and both schools will be running off the same job board, doing odd jobs for people in the city.

Combat may happen, but it's more likely to happen between the opposing academy students than due to the jobs themselves.

As for the jobs themselves, in-game they're supposed to be sort of like "field experience" that you would use for college credits. So the jobs should encourage use of magic... you know, being a magic academy and all.

The magic itself is going to be all elemental. All characters will be attuned to one of the four major elements (later on, they'll be able to attune to a second element if they want).

[NichG]

I'm planning to run something that will have a vaguely similar situation, so this brainstorming is useful for me too. Here are some ideas:

Divination jobs:
- "One of my children is a big liar, but he said something recently that was kind of serious and I need to know if its really true."
- "Where should I plant my crops this Spring? Help me find the best spot!"
- "My pet went missing and I don't know where she could be. Help me find her?"
- "I keep feeling like everyone is laughing at me behind my back. Am I going crazy, or is there really something going on?"
- "I need to know the location and extent of every cave within 10 miles of this fort we're building, so we can avoid sappers. We need people to help map them out."

Other unsorted jobs
- "I need to clear these boulders from my field."
- "We're planning an expedition to climb Mount Freezywinds. Make us potions and charms so we don't die."
- "I'm such a klutz, I keep breaking stuff around the house. Can you help?"
- "We're building a castle on a swamp. Help it not sink before its even done."
- "Can you get this letter to Vesper (a thousand miles away) before tomorrow? Its urgent."
- "My son is undergoing a rite of passage. It has some risk to it. Please make sure he doesn't die."
- "A strange little man said that my daughter would never marry unless I gave him the perfect word, a child's surprise, and the down of an alligator. Help!"
- "Is my house haunted? What does the spirit want?"
- "Can you tell me why all of my food gets insect-infested around March? It doesn't happen to anyone else I know."
- "I think I've been cursed. Can you help?"

[Grimsage Matt]

Water- Drowsing for a new well, calling for rain, setting up a water purifier.

Air- Calling for rain/deflecting bad weather, send a long distence message, fix the air conditioner.

Earth- Find a new vien of metal ore, Find lost earthen or metal objects, help the fields.

Fire- The forge needs help, the local guards want help in training for a magical attack, help with a "lighter then air" ship.

[ScubaGoomba]

Alumni of the schools may set up challenges to either make easy points for their school or to sabotage their rivals. Also figure that people might move near the academy because they know it's there and want to take advantage of the cheaper magical labor. Professors might create jobs for their students that aren't necessarily demanding but exist for the sake of the "art of casting." Menial labor to acquire certain ingredients for a potion might not be challenging, but it forces the students to learn how the potion came to be.

Also, you don't have monsters, but if this is in a "real life" kind of setting, remember that we have our own monsters. Maybe you won't be clearing out a nest of Dire Rats, but how different is a Dire Rat from an opossum? Kobolds can't eat cabbages, but groundhogs can. Local zoo loses a tiger overnight.

The jobs can become hooks for further adventures. Pace things out so that, when a hook is bitten, it's not just a job. Maybe they have to get rid of the groundhogs that are eating cabbage, but upon clearing them out, they realize that the groundhogs are there because the wolves have been acting strangely and ran them out of their usual burrows. Then they find out that the wolves are acting up because some earth wizard from one of the academies has been manipulating them as a way to practice his craft. A scuffle breaks out between the students, which then creates a potential nemesis, ally, or maybe just a one-off that's deeper than a simple quest.

[Greyfeld85]

Good thoughts so far :) I'm still up for more suggestions!

I'm also going to need some scaling difficulty jobs. As the PCs graduate from one year to the next, the jobs are going to need to become harder and more complex.

[Hexalan]

On scale from easy-ish(^) to hard-ish(v).[(scales!) means you can easily adjust the difficulty by modifying the people involved, terrain, power level, changing adjectives, etc.]
"Need help building this large, unnammed, possibly important in the future building at this unpleasant, but safe (i.e. marsh) location."
"Help, my pet cat/bird/pig/chicken(s) has disappeared! I think it ran off into the nearby desert/forest/mountain range/lava field/ocean/etc.!"(scales!)
"Local mine collapsed, need excavators."
"Lost contact with remote outpost, couriers needed."(scales!)
"Generic inter-school supposedly friendly competition!"(scales!)
"Nearby town struck by earthquakes/tornadoes/floods/wildfires, help deliver supplies/investigate mysterious circumstances/apprehend perpetrators."
"Loud noises and bright, high lights coming from forest."(scales!)
"Investigate mysterious series of deaths."
"Apprehend criminal!"(scales!)
"Infamous criminal nearby, capture alive for large bounty."
"Escort high-profile celebrity through dangerous territory."(scales!)
"Colony of foxes/wolves/bears/generic annoying animal discovered in cave system. Rewards available for proof of death."
"Corrupted magical abomination monster thingy sighted in city sewers."
"Test-breakout of new prison for high powered criminal mages!"(scales!)
"Join the military and fight in this large, not remarked upon but assumed that everyone knows about war that takes place in the background."

[ScubaGoomba]

How do these tasks reflect the culture of the setting? I'm getting a very Harry Potter vibe from it, especially with the four elements and the competing schools, so I'm curious how much you're drawing from that series and how you're making adaptations to the setting to make it more unique. The relationships of neighbors with the school will play a lot in determining what kinds of jobs will be brought up.

How many years are students in school? Do they start these jobs immediately or do they have to reach a certain year first? Do the professors come up with the jobs to test the students or are they created by locals?

[Greyfeld85]

How do these tasks reflect the culture of the setting? I'm getting a very Harry Potter vibe from it, especially with the four elements and the competing schools, so I'm curious how much you're drawing from that series and how you're making adaptations to the setting to make it more unique. The relationships of neighbors with the school will play a lot in determining what kinds of jobs will be brought up.

Aside from "school of magic," this game idea shares exactly zilch with harry potter. And I'm sort of curious how "four elements" relates, since there are no elemental... well, elements... in the harry potter series.

The academies aren't just "competing schools," they're schools that pull their magic from two completely different sources, which essentially creates an ages-old blood feud between them.

I didn't really want to map out the history of the world itself, because I don't feel it's necessary for this thread, but since you asked...

Millennia ago, Asgard and Utgarde waged war on one each other, fielding an enmity whose roots have been lost to the ages. In those days, magick was far more common, and far more powerful. It's said that every person could reach into the arcanum.

The arcanum was said to exist between the two worlds as the source of all magick.

After eons of fighting and death, a group rose up on each side of the arcanum, tired of the eternal slaughter. The two groups bent their wills upon the arcanum and split it asunder, revealing a new world between the two. The groups who wished for peace moved to this new world and called it Yggdrasil.

With Yggdrasil as a buffer between Asgard and Utgarde, the two worlds could no longer wage war with one another, and the arcanum, sundered as it was, came to reside within the two worlds, flooding each of them with magick previously unknown. Those on Asgard and Utgarde were forever changed, but those on Yggdrasil knew peace, and the war no longer raged.

The knowledge of magick grew old and became forgotten through the ages, except for a select few who found that they could still reach out to Utgarde or Asgard to touch the arcanum. And through those individuals, the war threatened to rage again, as their touches upon the other two worlds opened a way that those who used to be like one people, but now were as angels and demons, might slip through into Yggdrasil.

The knowledge of magick rose once again, and the wars began anew on a much smaller scale, but raging across a world once dedicated to peace. The world itself would have been ripped apart had it not been for a handful of arcanists (for that is what those who may touch the arcanum call themselves) stood in the way and declared they would no longer fight. They would no longer contribute to the bloodshed.

Many rejoiced at their message of peace, even if a few continued to wage their wars. The arcanists of Asgard and Utgarde decided to each build an academy that would teach students of the arcanum in a peaceful environment, where they could learn of their gifts and not be tainted by the eons of hatred plagued by those other worlds.

And so, the two academies were erected on Yggdrasil Island, where the world first emerged from the chaos of the arcanum, and where magick is said to be at its strongest.

However, despite the grand intentions of the academies' founders, some enmities are not so easily forgotten...


How many years are students in school? Do they start these jobs immediately or do they have to reach a certain year first? Do the professors come up with the jobs to test the students or are they created by locals?

I haven't decided the specifics yet, but the students are going to need to spend some time within the school grounds, hammering out their basics, before they're allowed out into the city (especially to do jobs). I'd say, probably 6 months or so before they can start doing jobs. In the end, I decided that students would attend their academies for 3 years before graduating.

I could probably manage a few jobs from teachers and such, but the wide majority should come from the city population. The city will have a steady population of around 3,000 or so, with arcanists flitting on and off the island from time to time, visiting the "center of power" and all that. I want to create a sort of system where the city is sort of self-sustaining, because instead of having to pay taxes toward a lot of public services, the students are hired out to do those services, as a way to gain their yearly allotment of "work credits" or whatever you wanna call it.

[Greyfeld85]

Yeah, person asks for more information, then doesn't post again after I give more info. I'm not surprised in the slightest.