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Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:02 PM
System Introduction:

I am currently a college student working on a Middle Grades Education major. I've been doing field experience all week, and I'll be doing yet more of it next week, and somehow in the midst of all the craziness that is middle school I thought to myself: This would be so easy to turn into an RPG.

It's going to take time (a whole lot of precious time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_niy2ZM5Jo)), but over the next few months (or until I give up) I will be attempting to put together a full set of rules for taking Students from Kindergarten (Level 1) through their PhD thesis (Level 21). I will also provide rules for playing as school faculty and staff. Although either the faculty or the students can be played as NPCs, the ultimate d20 School (School20) experience is a PVP experience, pitting a party of test-summoning teachers and raging gym coaches against their ultimate nemeses: REAL LIVE STUDENTS.

I ask you to freely share your commentary and criticism as this game comes together. I guarantee it will be a better, more playable system in the end if I can call on the assistance of the Homebrewers in the Playground in creating and balancing it.

Primary Differences From 3.5 D&D:

Instead of unified BAB and AC, Students, Faculty, and Staff have separate Physical and Mental attack bonuses and armor classes (PAB & MAB, PAC & MAC). Under ordinary circumstances PAC is attacked with PAB and MAC with MAB, but certain spells and/or feats may modify this.

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:03 PM
Base Classes (Elementary School):

Athlete (Elementary):

Overview:

Athletic Students focus on physical abilities rather than mental abilities. While this may put them at a disadvantage in the classroom, they're kings of the gym and the playground, and if they can make it to high school they can pretty much coast from there on favoritism and athletic scholarships. It's getting through elementary and middle school that might cause them problems.

Game Rule Information:

Attributes: Strength and Dexterity are an Athlete's key attributes. High Intelligence can help the Athlete overcome his natural deficiencies in Mental Attack, and high Wisdom can help him bolster his Mental Defenses. High Charisma could help him play his natural popularity into a personality cult.
Alignment: Any, though the most successful Athletes are often Lawful, since they have to be wiling to play team sports.
Hit Die: d8

Class Skills
The athlete's class skills are Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge, Listen, Profession, Ride, Spot, Sports, Tumble, and Use Rope.
Skill Points at 1st Level: (6 + INT) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + INT

Athlete (Elementary):
{table=head]Level|PAB|PAC|MAB|MAC|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Popularity|Special

1st|
+1|
+1|
+0|
+0|+2|+2|+0|+0|Gym Teacher's Favorite, Bonus Feat

2nd|
+2|
+2|
+1|
+1|+3|+3|+0|+1|1st Favored Sport

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+2|+3|+3|+1|+2|Bonus Feat

4th|
+4|
+4|
+2|
+3|+4|+4|+1|+3|2nd Favored Sport

5th|
+5|
+5|
+2|
+3|+4|+4|+1|+3|Bonus Feat

6th|
+6|
+6|
+3|
+4|+5|+5|+2|+4|3rd Favored Sport

7th|
+7|
+7|
+3|
+5|+5|+5|+2|+3|Held Back (2)

8th|
+8|
+8|
+4|
+6|+6|+6|+2|+2|Held Back (4)

9th|
+9|
+9|
+4|
+6|+6|+6|+3|+1|Unteachable[/table]

Class Features:
All of the following are class features of the Athlete.

Weapon Proficiency: Athletes are proficient with all simple and athletic weapons.

Gym Teacher's Favorite: Athletes add a +2 Favoritism bonus to all mental attack and damage rolls in a class taught by someone with one or more Coach levels.

Bonus Feats: At each odd-numbered level an Athlete may select a bonus feat from the athletic feats list.

Favored Sport: At each even-numbered level an Athlete may select a Sport. The Athlete gains a +2 bonus to his physical damage when fighting against that Sport. If the Athlete selects the same Sport more than once, the bonuses stack.

Held Back: If an Athlete fails to graduate to Middle School by the time he reaches 7th level, he has been Held Back a grade. Being Held Back gives a +2 Size bonus to all physical skills and a -2 Shame penalty to all social skills. For the purposes of Held Back Intimidate counts as a physical skill. At 8th level these bonuses and penalties rise to + and - 4, respectively.

Unteachable: If an Athlete reaches the 9th level without graduating to Middle School, he gains a 30 ft Aura of Unteachability. The attitude of a Teacher within the aura automatically moves one step towards Hostile. When a Teacher leaves the aura his attitude immediately improves. A -2 Favoritism penalty is deducted from all of the Athlete's graded rolls. If the Athlete fails to graduate before advancement to the 10th level he must pass a DC 20 Parental Influence check or be immediately Expelled. If he passes the check he is considered graduated, and the affair is quickly swept under the rug. For each five points by which the Parental Influence roll exceeds the DC an objecting Teacher will be Fired.

To Be Continued...

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:04 PM
Advanced Classes (Middle School):

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:05 PM
Prestige Classes (High School):

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:06 PM
Elite Classes (Undergraduate College):

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:08 PM
Epic Classes (Graduate School):

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:09 PM
School20 Skills and Feats:

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:10 PM
Wiz Kid Magic:

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:11 PM
Faith Magic:

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:12 PM
Combat & Advancement Summary:

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Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:13 PM
Faculty & Staff Rules:

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:15 PM
Trials:

*Placeholder*

Ascension
2008-09-26, 08:18 PM
*Placeholder for Possible Expansion*

Malic
2008-09-26, 09:45 PM
Well it's certainly different. The fact that you've planned it this far shows your willing to see this through. I'd find it interesting at the very least.

Baxter190
2008-09-26, 10:43 PM
I find this very interesting, but I have a question. Will this be like our highschools, but d20? Or wil there be actuall spells, and classes like dueling 101, and A.P. Evocation?

TeeEl
2008-09-26, 11:05 PM
I am currently a college student working on a Middle Grades Education major.

Voluntarily?! :smalleek: Man, that takes guts. I would have settled for something easy, like Green Beret or a SEAL. I'd wish you luck, but "luck" does not even begin to cover what you need to handle middle schoolers. But I'll wish you luck on the design project, anyhow; that might actually do some good. :smallbiggrin:

Icewalker
2008-09-26, 11:38 PM
Looks fun. I'll keep reading as you create more.

So, 1-5 is grades 1-5, then 6-8 is middle school, 9-12 high school, 13-16 undergrad, and the rest grad?

Zeta Kai
2008-09-27, 12:06 AM
Well, I can't wait to see how this turns out <grabs popcorn>.

Ascension
2008-09-27, 01:10 AM
Looks fun. I'll keep reading as you create more.

So, 1-5 is grades 1-5, then 6-8 is middle school, 9-12 high school, 13-16 undergrad, and the rest grad?

Aww, shoot, thanks for calling attention to this. I forgot to allow for a Kindergarten level on the class I've done so far... Now I'm glad I got lazy and stopped after Athlete, if I had been forced to re-do all of the Elementary classes, that would have been awful.

The way it should work is 1-6 as K-5, 7-9 as 6-8, 10-13 as 9-12, 14-17 for undergrad, 18 and 19 for the Master's, and 20 and 21 for the PhD.


Voluntarily?! :smalleek: Man, that takes guts. I would have settled for something easy, like Green Beret or a SEAL. I'd wish you luck, but "luck" does not even begin to cover what you need to handle middle schoolers. But I'll wish you luck on the design project, anyhow; that might actually do some good. :smallbiggrin:

Even the actual middle school teachers I talk to say I'm crazy to follow them. Thing is, my middle school years were hell on earth, and I just want to do whatever I can to make life a bit easier for the next generation.

Suzuro
2008-09-27, 01:35 AM
Well, this definitely looks really cool, I'll keep an eye on it, and I'll help however I can...even if that is not very much..

Oh, and just a pet peeve of mine, it's Navy SeAL not SEAL, it stands for Sea, Air and Land.


-Suzuro

MisterSaturnine
2008-09-27, 01:37 AM
This looks really interesting--I'm definitely keeping my eye on it, and am excited to see how it progresses. :smallsmile:

Baxter190
2008-09-27, 12:23 PM
How about you give the itellectuals (I don't want to call them nerds or geeks) abonus ability, like letting them go into the next school early? Also, how are you going top do multi classing?

Zeebiedeebie
2008-09-27, 05:05 PM
Cool. Looks interesting. Maybe when it's done I'll run a campaign like this.

ForzaFiori
2008-10-01, 06:43 PM
How about you give the itellectuals (I don't want to call them nerds or geeks) abonus ability, like letting them go into the next school early? Also, how are you going top do multi classing?

That sounds cool. It could be like the opposite of the Held Back thing the Athletes have.

Ascension
2008-10-06, 04:23 PM
Bad news folks. As my lack of updates may have suggested, I've been rather more busy than expected in the last week or so... I took sick last week with a pretty bad cold/flu/something, I've got a few big papers coming up for midterms, and I've just been reminded that I've been neglecting a project which really can't be neglected.

Due to all of this, I'm going to officially place School20 on hiatus for at least a couple of weeks.

Now, despite what I just said, I might get a chance to update anyway... I'm just saying not to expect any hard-and-fast promises or anything. I've got several base classes outlined-but-not-completed and the only thing that's holding me back from posting an outline of how combat works in School20 is a concern that I might not have balance worked out properly yet.

While I'm here, a tentative list of base classes to expect follows... Advanced and prestige classes will be more diverse, and will introduce dual progression classes (ie Clique Leader (Popular/Nerd)). Multiclassing should be possible, even in elementary school... I'll probably change things so Held Back begins applying automatically on your 7th and 8th character levels regardless of how much multiclassing you've done in your first 6 levels. Anyway, that list...

Balanced:
Average Joe (A class without a real D&D equivalent... Okay at everything, but not excellent at anything)

Physically focused:
Athlete (Fighter equivalent, may require further editing from what I've already written)
Bully (Barbarian/Rogue equivalent)

Mentally focused:
Nerd (The mental athlete, basically. I'm torn between going for informal titles (Nerd, Jock, etc.) and more formal nomenclature (Athlete, Intellectual)... I've got one of each (Athlete, Nerd) at the moment, but the names of either or both classes are subject to change.)

Socially focused:
Popular Kid (The School20 equivalent of the Leadership feat)
Rich Kid (Harnesses the power of parental influence)

Casters:
Wiz Kid (Not really good at anything in particular by default, but has flashes of superhuman brilliance. Wizard/Factotum-esque)
Believer (Cleric equivalent, manages to cause the cosmos to favor him through sheer faith)

Other:
Cheater (Rogue/Spellthief-esque, feeds off of others' skill)
Band Geek (I want a music-focused class, but I'm not sure how it'll work mechanically yet...)
Boy Scout (Ranger equivalent, probably won't have an animal companion, spellcasting is doubtful.)

I'm open to further suggestions.

RoboGerbil
2008-10-06, 08:55 PM
Wheres the foreign kid?

Fri
2008-10-11, 10:35 AM
My friend homebrewed something similar a few months ago, but much simpler for our semi-freeform rpg. It's semi freeform because it got class and skills, but nothing like DnD or gurps.

I remember I'm playing the music player. Kinda similar with dnd bard. His class were Jock, Nerd, Geek, Goth, Musicman, Cheerleader, Religious kid, and the 'Emo' class for joke class (no actual advantage, a lot of disadvantage, and a special skill: 'suicide'). there're might be some more but I forgot.