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NRSASD
2022-11-15, 12:03 PM
A friend of mine is looking for help stocking a random table of events for a campaign she’ll be running, so I thought I’d ask here.

The players are 14 year old students in a magic academy, run by a group of arch wizards who have decided train up the next generation of wizards. Said archmages are more interested in getting a leg up on their rivals (each other) or doing research rather than teaching students, so it’s an accidentally, unintentionally dangerous place. Deaths are rare but not unheard of, magical disasters are almost weekly.

Speaking of which, I’m looking for minor to major events that could happen while the PCs are trying to study/sleep/survive. These are intended to be background hazards to make life difficult rather than the actual adventures. The setting is still being designed so I’m just looking for fun ideas. I’ll start us off:

1. Due to the recently risen banshee outside the school, all students in the North Wing need to sleep in the cafeteria until that gets sorted out in 1d4 days.
2. No food today! The porridge is staging an uprising.
3. Flora and Fauna is canceled today due to the curriculum escaping. Unrelatedly, if you see any toads wandering the halls or mysterious, eye-level acid scorings, please let us know immediately!
4. Please budget an extra hour to ensure you make it to class on time today. The janitor has rearranged the halls again. Remember, being trapped in a labyrinth is no excuse for tardiness!

Palanan
2022-11-15, 02:26 PM
Originally Posted by NRSASD
2. No food today! The porridge is staging an uprising.

Student project: develop a cantrip able to detect oozes with the porridge subtype, to help with cleanup and disposal. Must be done before the porridge oozes get into the alchemical storerooms.

Glimbur
2022-11-15, 03:36 PM
1) Everything tastes Purple. Seems harmless until you get to alchemy class and realize it all smells Purple too.
2) Time is a bit... off. Some areas are going faster than others, and where is how fast changes sometimes. Good chance to sneak in a nap, if you don't mind the risk of a mini rip van winkle.
3) Crossover! With any property you like: Charles Xavier's students wander in, or a boy with a lightning bolt scar, or even a local high school or shared school experience irl.
4) Emotions are now written above people's heads in beautiful calligraphy. Hide your crush, don't let the history teacher know what you think of their class, challenges abound.
5) Dire Platypus.
6) Everyone is disappearing. This is actually non-magical, they are working on a surprise party for one of the PC's.

Saelethil
2022-11-15, 05:32 PM
1) A poorly scrawled rune in Theoretical Arcana has resulted in a fog of wild magic covering the entire campus. It is advised that students use magic sparingly until it clears up (2d6 hours).

2) Somebody’s Alchemy homework was spilled in the Herbology compost bin and there are now an unknown number of giant earthworms (grick stats) roaming the grounds.

3) You wake up to find that there is no sound. As it turns out, the upperclassmen have covered the dormitories and dining halls in Silence bubbles to ease their hangovers.

4) An envoy of telepathic snails has come to meet with the head janitor whom they believe to be your peoples greatest warrior.

Ameraaaaaa
2022-11-15, 06:33 PM
1. Someone seems to have summoned a bunch of techno angels. They will politely ask for food. If given food they grant a techno blessing that makes any roll involving tools get a bonus. They are also adorable.

2. Some turtles seemed to have mutated and trained in martial arts.

3. Everyone except maybe the arch mages have swapped bodies!

4. The school is now dealing with levitating sharks!

5. No gravity!

6. Everyone shrunken down to the size of ants.

7. Someone made a seinent golem lady who is now looking for books on the world. She's very strong and can help out in a pinch.

8. The books are talking.

9. Everyone now is blind.

10. There's doppelgangers in the school now!

Pauly
2022-11-16, 01:32 AM
There’s a doppelgänger loose in the school. An escapee from one of the teacher’s experiments. It doesn’t want to harm anyone, but school security is making it hard for it to escape. It is now impersonating students and starting to enjoy studying magic. Some students’ marks have improved when the doppelgänger has doubled for them.

Bohandas
2022-11-16, 05:08 AM
The furniture is being repaired. Mimics are filling in for the furniture.

Lord Torath
2022-11-16, 12:52 PM
Pop Quiz! Everyone's favorite!

Quertus
2022-11-16, 01:00 PM
The players are 14 year old students in a magic academy,

Well, that rocks! I’ve got a friend who would be jelly. Forget the game, just having your players tell tales would be awesome. If such players wanted to teleport into one of my games, I’m sure they’d be welcome.

Ahem. I’ll see if I can contribute to the thread now that that’s out of my system. Because it’s an awesome setting for characters, IMO.

NRSASD
2022-11-16, 01:09 PM
Well, that rocks! I’ve got a friend who would be jelly. Forget the game, just having your players tell tales would be awesome. If such players wanted to teleport into one of my games, I’m sure they’d be welcome.

Hahaha oops!

Quertus
2022-11-16, 01:19 PM
Someone’s Masters project was to rewrite the laws of reality… and they succeeded! Congratulations, you’re now playing 2e D&D. Next week, you’ll be playing M&M. When you find a system you like, shut down the project. Big money, no whammies, Stop!

Due to a magical mishap, smiles are now contagious. Or freckles. Or hair color. Or maybe someone’s entire appearance. Is the cute worse than the disease? It may depend on who “patient zero” was.

Everybody is operating at 110% today - which would be fine, except that they’re operating at 10% even when at rest! The head pyromancer is constantly aflame, and has burned the swimming pool. The head Chronomancer is constantly “adjusting” the flow of time. The head Cerebromancer is in your head - she can’t help it. Whatever the PCs are good at, they have to deal with constantly doing that. While attending class, of course.

Invisible clothes, that actually turn invisible with you, are all the rage. There’s just one slight problem… they don’t distinguish who the wearer is when the caster is touching them.

School dance! Dress to the 9’s, show ‘em that you’re Magical. What’s your style? (Mine is trained Animated Object clothes to dance for me, and my hair is on fire.)

Pauly
2022-11-16, 05:24 PM
School inspection.. The inspectors are coming and the school needs to look perfect and highly illegal experiments hidden.

MutantDragon
2022-11-16, 06:16 PM
One of the instructors requires all students complete a magical experiment...on necromancy. Doing a second project to include demon summoning earns extra credit.

Jay R
2022-11-16, 07:54 PM
Doesn’t anybody else read the historical documents?

“Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death.”

“Now if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed - or worse, expelled.”

“Troll! In the dungeons! Thought you ought to know.”

“A pity they let the old punishments die. Was a time detention would find you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons… God, I miss the screaming.”

Quertus
2022-11-16, 08:34 PM
Doesn’t anybody else read the historical documents?

“Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death.”

“Now if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed - or worse, expelled.”

“Troll! In the dungeons! Thought you ought to know.”

“A pity they let the old punishments die. Was a time detention would find you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons… God, I miss the screaming.”

(Snape’s voice) “Obviously.” :smallamused:

But like when someone plays a Jedi in D&D, and another player doesn’t get it, it’s fun to see what people come up with when their thoughts aren’t colored by such RP-destroying preconceptions.

Bohandas
2022-11-16, 11:21 PM
*we lost the Tarot cards, Cards Against Humanity cards will be used instead until we can find them

*gravity is backwards today

*everything is in black and white

*the sun and the moon are loudly arguing

EDIT:

Half the team is back here riding mops (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-2ZxldMO-M)