Post by blakeryan on Mar 12, 2016 23:10:06 GMT
I recently ran a Mystic College game, loosely based on Harry Potter and thought I’d let you know what I did in the hope of creating further inspiration and enjoyment in your games.
The characters signed up as 10 year olds (or equivalent) for 6 years at the Mystic College.
There were 3 orders, each had some divine and arcane casters (eg Order of Umbriel had Clerics of Oghma, Arcane Diviners and Illusionists). The orders have different ongoing goals (optional participation) to show their style, eg the Nature based Order had many long lived/low birth rate members, so one of their goals was recruitment. These Orders were also larger organisations outside the college, so you could put in local chapters of your own groups.
Study topics were Melee, Ranged, Arcana, Religion, World Lore, Monster Lore and History. Each half year they would roll to see how well their studies are going. Success/Failure gave opportunities to give/ask for assistance.
Each year in Late Winter and Late Summer there would be debates (optional participation) on Arcana, History, Monster, Religion and World lore with prizes and reputation for success.
There was also a soccer/English football club, board games club and hiking club, all were optional.
Each year in Mid Spring and Mid Autumn there was a hiking trip, usually the pcs and 6 others students going for 3-9 days. While this did lead to some combat encounters, it also lead to meeting strange critters. (For example in Year 5 the senior student PC’s were escorting the junior students, and met a beholder who was being hunted by a huge troll pack, they recruited the beholder as a researcher/librarian for the mystic college and then fought the trolls.
Since study was only 4 days a week, there was free time each week for whatever. Years 1-4 had 2 days a week as specific study, eg cleric training for clerics. Years 5 and 6 the PCs were studying 2 days a week, teaching 2 days a week, with the rest of the week as free time.
One thing I wish I did is if the players like the idea of teaching, you could get them to take turns talking in character about a topic, and the other players can briefly play their younger siblings/random younger students to hassle the teacher in a fun way.
Since on my world there are 4 huge festivals for commonfolk, they got to join in these each year as well.
Each year one of the teachers would ask them to go on a quest or two, but these were not long epic quests, they are still students and young after all.
If the students did well in debates, hiking trips and optional quests the teachers would adjust the end of year result for the most appropriate topic. Over time pcs became known for being good a certain topics, which gave them a more detailed reputation rather than just a general good guy/hero.
In the game I ran the pcs had siblings as some of the year above and year behind them, which created more allies, rivals and of course roleplaying opportunities.
Arcane class including using a crystal ball, using a flying broom, going to a wild magic zone etc
Some outside forces tried to tempt the pcs and their friends against each other, while others tried to get into the college to harm the students or steal the lore/items within.
Being a Mystic college there were leprechaun, lamia, medusa and mycanoid students (the nasty ones had necklaces preventing their more lethal abilities working). If a dual was declared (for fun, money or to sort a disagreement) then this was done in the courtyard, and betting was encouraged.
Because of the amount of things happening, I mapped out events by calender date when the regular things were occurring, to make keeping track of things easier. We did not get into birthdays for pcs or siblings/friends, but that could have been added.
At the end of each year they would go up 2 levels. I’d do a dot point recap of key events, and listed ongoing events (eg increasing undead sightings in the Umbral Wood). By year 6 they had a list of things they wanted to delve into further and at the end of the year would leave the college to go out into the wider world.
One player missed several sessions (due to real life stuff) in year 5, so I said his druid was off doing tree hugger stuff, she only gained 1 level at the end of the year, BUT had several quests to followup later, which would get her group experience points and herself status in the druid circle.
The characters signed up as 10 year olds (or equivalent) for 6 years at the Mystic College.
There were 3 orders, each had some divine and arcane casters (eg Order of Umbriel had Clerics of Oghma, Arcane Diviners and Illusionists). The orders have different ongoing goals (optional participation) to show their style, eg the Nature based Order had many long lived/low birth rate members, so one of their goals was recruitment. These Orders were also larger organisations outside the college, so you could put in local chapters of your own groups.
Study topics were Melee, Ranged, Arcana, Religion, World Lore, Monster Lore and History. Each half year they would roll to see how well their studies are going. Success/Failure gave opportunities to give/ask for assistance.
Each year in Late Winter and Late Summer there would be debates (optional participation) on Arcana, History, Monster, Religion and World lore with prizes and reputation for success.
There was also a soccer/English football club, board games club and hiking club, all were optional.
Each year in Mid Spring and Mid Autumn there was a hiking trip, usually the pcs and 6 others students going for 3-9 days. While this did lead to some combat encounters, it also lead to meeting strange critters. (For example in Year 5 the senior student PC’s were escorting the junior students, and met a beholder who was being hunted by a huge troll pack, they recruited the beholder as a researcher/librarian for the mystic college and then fought the trolls.
Since study was only 4 days a week, there was free time each week for whatever. Years 1-4 had 2 days a week as specific study, eg cleric training for clerics. Years 5 and 6 the PCs were studying 2 days a week, teaching 2 days a week, with the rest of the week as free time.
One thing I wish I did is if the players like the idea of teaching, you could get them to take turns talking in character about a topic, and the other players can briefly play their younger siblings/random younger students to hassle the teacher in a fun way.
Since on my world there are 4 huge festivals for commonfolk, they got to join in these each year as well.
Each year one of the teachers would ask them to go on a quest or two, but these were not long epic quests, they are still students and young after all.
If the students did well in debates, hiking trips and optional quests the teachers would adjust the end of year result for the most appropriate topic. Over time pcs became known for being good a certain topics, which gave them a more detailed reputation rather than just a general good guy/hero.
In the game I ran the pcs had siblings as some of the year above and year behind them, which created more allies, rivals and of course roleplaying opportunities.
Arcane class including using a crystal ball, using a flying broom, going to a wild magic zone etc
Some outside forces tried to tempt the pcs and their friends against each other, while others tried to get into the college to harm the students or steal the lore/items within.
Being a Mystic college there were leprechaun, lamia, medusa and mycanoid students (the nasty ones had necklaces preventing their more lethal abilities working). If a dual was declared (for fun, money or to sort a disagreement) then this was done in the courtyard, and betting was encouraged.
Because of the amount of things happening, I mapped out events by calender date when the regular things were occurring, to make keeping track of things easier. We did not get into birthdays for pcs or siblings/friends, but that could have been added.
At the end of each year they would go up 2 levels. I’d do a dot point recap of key events, and listed ongoing events (eg increasing undead sightings in the Umbral Wood). By year 6 they had a list of things they wanted to delve into further and at the end of the year would leave the college to go out into the wider world.
One player missed several sessions (due to real life stuff) in year 5, so I said his druid was off doing tree hugger stuff, she only gained 1 level at the end of the year, BUT had several quests to followup later, which would get her group experience points and herself status in the druid circle.
