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AdversusVeritas
2007-07-30, 02:48 PM
I’ve been reading Harry Potter and playing Psychonauts and Fable on Xbox , which has me thinking of a new game I want to run. The PCs will be young, probably only 15 or so, and they will be starting off as apprentice level (from the DMG 3.0) while attending a sort of adventurer’s school. The students are going to get assigned to adventuring parties and have to complete so many hours of adventuring before advancing to the next grade.

The only thing I'm borrowing from Harry Potter is the idea of houses. Each house will be devoted to a different philosophy of adventuring: one teaches that the purpose of adventuring is self-perfection (basically min/maxers), another that the purpose is to serve your alignment, another that the purpose is to inspire others to greatness, another that the purpose is exploration and discovery, and another teaches that only adventurers have proven themselves worthy to be leaders in society.

Now, the really fun thing is that none of the players so far have chosen to play an arcane caster. Even better, OOC they really don’t know much about arcane spells at all. I’m not planning on using this to screw them over, but I think it would be fun to give them a few surprises. For example, during the first adventure I think they are going to try to sneak our of their rooms after hours, and the schoolmaster’s prying eyes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/pryingEyes.htm) roaming the hallways will give them in a panic both IC and OOC (I’ll probably fudge their hide roll and the PCs’ spot checks so that they can catch sight of them). They will probably assume that they are some sort of monster.

Does anyone have more suggestions for the game in general, or for fun arcane spells to mess with their heads? Should I do anything to update the apprentice-level rules for 3.5?

Bassetking
2007-07-30, 02:56 PM
http://www.sigilprep.com/index.htm

You're Welcome.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-07-30, 03:05 PM
Beaten to the punch.

I heartily second the above site, and also GURPS IOU (Illuminati University) is a good official setting for GURPS in the same vein.

Let's see. Pimping SP? Taken care of. Pimping Steve Jackson and/or Zork and/or Buckminsterfullerenes? Check. My work here is done.

TheAlmightyOne
2007-07-30, 03:24 PM
Wow. I hate to break it to you but I had the idea first. except we used it as more of a joke (rogue 101, etc). But nice one on taking it further. (I know you didn't steal the idea from me so please don't bother saying you didn't. I just like it when other people think the same as me. Except zombie Roy. I had that idea first!)

AdversusVeritas
2007-07-30, 03:41 PM
Wow. I hate to break it to you but I had the idea first. except we used it as more of a joke (rogue 101, etc). But nice one on taking it further. (I know you didn't steal the idea from me so please don't bother saying you didn't. I just like it when other people think the same as me. Except zombie Roy. I had that idea first!)Heh, reminds me of the first time I saw a D&D game. I was in early junior high, and I had been reading those Choose Your Own Adventure books; after that, I started coming up with a way I could turn these books into a game that I could play with my friends. As far as I was concerned, I had invented the idea of cooperative storytelling. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a company called TSR had stolen my idea.

That was okay, though, because me game was going to have druids. Those losers at TSR had probably never even heard of . . . ah crap.

Dairun Cates
2007-07-30, 03:48 PM
Read the Rincewind-based Discworld books. Unseen University is a wonderful example of what you're looking for.

AdversusVeritas
2007-07-30, 03:57 PM
I think my BBEV is going to be an aboleth mage who has been dominating students and faculty into bringing him spellbooks and scrolls from the school so that he can copy them (especially newly researched ones). It will be fun for the school to have a legendary "monster in the lake."

Stormcrow
2007-07-31, 08:19 PM
I'm currently working on a "snap-in setting" with a similar concept set in a chain of islands that serves as a school for adventurers. Mostly staffed by refugees from broken kingdoms who were given a home in exchange for their knowledge.

The place is self-sustaining with the druids and the rangers growing crops and tending animals while the rogues and fighters (who all have a trade/craft) build and repair the grounds. Its got lessons in culture and climate as well as combat and magic thanks to Magicaly sustained Islands denoting climatic extremes. This also assists with planar refugees.