Game Idea--"This One Time at Bard Camp..."

[Amaril]

Woke up with this phrase running laps around my brain, and it made me chuckle. Then it occurred to me "hey, this might be a fun thing to work into an actual game."

What do you guys think? This give you any ideas?

[Lupus753]

"...I studied Glibness, letting me fool people into thinking I went to Bard Camp when, in fact, I found a Glibness scroll in a dumpster next to the bench I sleep on. Also, you didn't hear what I just told you."

That's the only thing I can come up with today.

[Fri]

A ragtag bunch of misfits from the Bard Camp must defeat the snotty elitist kids from the Wizard Camp in the annual inter-camp rally to save their camp from eviction.

[JediSoth]

Dan the Bard has a song that's relevant to your interests.

[AttilaTheGeek]

Dan the Bard has a song that's relevant to your interests.

I have a feeling that would be amazing if I could understand more than every third word.

[JediSoth]

I have a feeling that would be amazing if I could understand more than every third word.

It's much better on his CDs. That's the problem with phone videos.

[Slipperychicken]

Rogues, Rangers = Dealers and dropouts, who smuggle illegal herbs/substances, naughty pictures, and all manner of contraband into the camp for sale. One can also enlist their services as lockbreakers, thieves, detectives, and infiltrators. They are often used to sabotage other Bards.

Druids = Hippies. When they aren't high (a rare event indeed), they bother people with their "Save the Trolls" campaign, complete with posters with saddening illustrations of emaciated, wide-eyed Troll children. They have a nature camp deep in the woods, and engage in occasional eco-terrorism. Their Animal Companions get into all sorts of trouble when Fighter camp mistakes them for food to hunt, and they might ask the PCs to obtain a rare hallucinogenic herb in a dangerous locale (guarded by a Dire Bear, perhaps?).

Fighters, Barbarians = Jocks, bullies, army kids. They go to Boot Camp and Sports/Hunting Camp. Not sure how to involve them, though.

Clerics/Adepts = Religious students. Attending an excessively-strict and boring Pelor Camp. One quest might be to sneak into their quarters, and somehow prank them. Another might involve somehow overcoming their ambitions so they all enjoy a wild party.

[Shadowknight12]

I am just seeing "Glee" when I read the premise of this thread.

Sorry.

Terribly sorry.

[Kadzar]

Rogues, Rangers = Dealers and dropouts, who smuggle illegal herbs/substances, naughty pictures, and all manner of contraband into the camp for sale. One can also enlist their services as lockbreakers, thieves, detectives, and infiltrators. They are often used to sabotage other Bards.

I don't know, wouldn't it make more sense for the Rangers to be in some sort of scout camp? The rest is excellent.

[maxriderules]

Fighters, Barbarians = Jocks, bullies, army kids. They go to Boot Camp and Sports/Hunting Camp. Not sure how to involve them, though.
.

For the fighters, sabotaging a sporting event, maybe. Or helping the barbarians on a hunt for a rare creature.

[Socratov]

rangers are there for survival camp.

Bard camp is all about facilitating other camps with what they *ahem* need together with the rogues which ofcourse ends in pranks, contraband and allround fun thrown around. Oh, and band battles, poetry contests, storytelling (with smores) and the seductory arts (any bard worth his/her salt should be able to get nookie, a lot, preferably one of every class/letter of the alphabet).

[Zahhak]

Rogues, Rangers = Dealers and dropouts, who smuggle illegal herbs/substances, naughty pictures, and all manner of contraband into the camp for sale. One can also enlist their services as lockbreakers, thieves, detectives, and infiltrators. They are often used to sabotage other Bards.

Druids = Hippies. When they aren't high (a rare event indeed), they bother people with their "Save the Trolls" campaign, complete with posters with saddening illustrations of emaciated, wide-eyed Troll children. They have a nature camp deep in the woods, and engage in occasional eco-terrorism. Their Animal Companions get into all sorts of trouble when Fighter camp mistakes them for food to hunt, and they might ask the PCs to obtain a rare hallucinogenic herb in a dangerous locale (guarded by a Dire Bear, perhaps?).

Fighters, Barbarians = Jocks, bullies, army kids. They go to Boot Camp and Sports/Hunting Camp. Not sure how to involve them, though.

Clerics/Adepts = Religious students. Attending an excessively-strict and boring Pelor Camp. One quest might be to sneak into their quarters, and somehow prank them. Another might involve somehow overcoming their ambitions so they all enjoy a wild party.

I disagree on several grounds.
Barbarian/Fighter: Jock
Bard; band kids
Cleric/Paladin: There's always religious organizations in schools and "christian athlete" groups
Druid: Hipsters. There are no more hippies.
Monk: Got me.
Ranger: JROTC/Boy Scouts.
Rogue: Drop outs/stoners/gangsters
Sorcerer/Wizard: the brains
Various monsters: Teachers/opposing cliques
Principle/Admin: BBEG.

And we have a framework for setting a DND campaign in your typical American high school

[Slipperychicken]

I disagree on several grounds.
Barbarian/Fighter: Jock
Bard; band kids
Cleric/Paladin: There's always religious organizations in schools and "christian athlete" groups
Druid: Hipsters. There are no more hippies.
Monk: Got me.
Ranger: JROTC/Boy Scouts.
Rogue: Drop outs/stoners/gangsters
Sorcerer/Wizard: the brains
Various monsters: Teachers/opposing cliques
Principle/Admin: BBEG.

And we have a framework for setting a DND campaign in your typical American high school

Looks awesome to me, except Sorcerers should be the hottest/most popular kids and Wizards/Archivists/Artificers would be the nerds. For a bit of meta, you could have the Wizards playing a game similar to d20 Modern or Shadowrun (and then arguing about why they can't build magic items in-game to reduce their Fax Machine Failure Chance).

[Lupus753]

Do camps have martial arts clubs or whatnot? I can't think of anything else for Monks.

Also, Samurai and Ninja are anime nerds.

[Amaril]

Do camps have martial arts clubs or whatnot? I can't think of anything else for Monks.

Also, Samurai and Ninja are anime nerds.

Actually, Monks could be this too, now that I think about it...if you flavored them right.

[Zahhak]

Looks awesome to me, except Sorcerers should be the hottest/most popular kids and Wizards/Archivists/Artificers would be the nerds. For a bit of meta, you could have the Wizards playing a game similar to d20 Modern or Shadowrun (and then arguing about why they can't build magic items in-game to reduce their Fax Machine Failure Chance).

Oh Slippery, you so silly sometimes!

[Lupus753]

No, the game they play should be exciting. Like...uhh... The World Wars! Yes, it is a well-regarding game for its accuracy in recreating warfare while still being fun. However, it's often criticized for the many flaws in its default setting, such as absurd idea of two worldwide wars occurring only twenty-one years from one another.

The psionic classes are the nerds who study psychology.

[Slipperychicken]

However, it's often criticized for the many flaws in its default setting, such as absurd idea of two worldwide wars occurring only twenty-one years from one another.

Not to mention there's only one plane, the inhabitants never developed even the most basic magic-use, and the absolutely ludicrous idea that people could worship the same god and still gain popular morale bonuses from declaring religious wars on each other.

Also, the endgame Nuclear bombs are overpowered and turn the game into Rocket Tag. The developers did not intend for people to use Rocket Delivery to launch them halfway across the globe in an hour.

[Amaril]

Looks awesome to me, except Sorcerers should be the hottest/most popular kids and Wizards/Archivists/Artificers would be the nerds. For a bit of meta, you could have the Wizards playing a game similar to d20 Modern or Shadowrun (and then arguing about why they can't build magic items in-game to reduce their Fax Machine Failure Chance).

Reminds me of that one quest in Fable III where you join these three nerds in their tabletop game and get shrunk down to the size of a mini on the table while they DM you through their adventure. The rest of the game was pretty bad, but that one quest was awesome purely by virtue of being frickin' hilarious Go look it up on YouTube if you haven't played it--it's even funnier if you can find someone doing it with a female character.

[Deffers]

Maybe the monks are the kids even the nerds won't go near? Like, that one kid who kept eating all the sticks of Elmer's Glue in the back of the class? Even though he knew it wouldn't get him high?

EDIT: Whoops, no, that's the lone Truenamer.

Yeah, monks as anime kids would probably be best. Wish there were a way to represent their MAD as a sort of characterizing thing.

[QuidEst]

Hmm… my view on class roles:

Fighters are the jocks and football team. Paladin is the star player good-guy.
Barbarians are the punks that always get in trouble.
Rogues are troublemakers who know enough to not get caught. If you need next week's test answers, look no further.
Bards are class clowns and band/theater kids. A few of them are the ones running for student council and headed for politics. Frequently annoy the Wizards with their love of really obscure useless trivia.
Clerics tend to polarize between religious kids and goth kids. Plan on going into pre-med or mortuary science respectively.
Druids are environmental activists buying fair-trade, or else they're big pet enthusiasts that plan on being vets.
Sorcerer/Sorceresses are the popular kids. They breeze through classes on natural talent, and don't really study much. They let the Bards hang out with them, especially for help on homework.
Wizards are nerds, but of the well-organized science club type instead of the nerdy loner type. Several of them are probably already making money off of stuff they designed.
Rangers are hunting enthusiasts. The paranoid ones are already prepared for the collapse of civilization.
Monks are foreign exchange students. They haven't quite adjusted to their new setting, but their parents made them take tons of self-defense classes. (Anime nerds makes sense too.)


Bard Camp:
•Campfire songs are serious business. They start the campfires.

•There's a trivia tournament. If you can't list all the Presidents by order of height and give their favorite food, you shouldn't bother entering.

[Slipperychicken]

Barbarians are the special ed punks that always get in trouble.

With Illiteracy and "screaming blood frenzy" as class features, and Intelligence as a dump stat, it's hard to ignore the fact they're clearly mentally-impaired

Rangers are hunting enthusiasts. The paranoid ones are already prepared for the collapse of civilization.

Also could be racists/rednecks, depending on how you interpret the fluff of Favored Enemy.

[Kerrin]

Bards - clearly drama club members