A super school

[quozaxx]

I have recently purchased the 6th Edition. I have been considering making a teenage superhero game.

 

But I need a super school. I was thinking of all the members being super powered like Sky High. However, I need a cool name for the school.

 

Also, I was considering having 4 homerooms. (kinda like Slytherin, Griffindore, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw from Harry Potter). But how should they be divided? Right now I'm thinking Couragous (Griffindore), Powerful (Slytherin) , Intellect (Ravenclaw) , and everyone else. (Hufflepuff)

 

What should their names be?

 

What else do I need for this school (besides the obvious rooms, teachers. staff)?

[Peregrine]

Re: A super school

 

Go get Teen Champions. Yes, it's for 5eR, but it has all that you would need in the way of GMing advice for exactly that kind of campaign.

[yamamura]

Re: A super school

 

Arcadia School for Gifted Students

Avalon School and Preparatory Academy (Homeroom Lancelot, Morgan, Merlin and Knights (Gawain?)

[kahuna's bro]

Re: A super school

 

Go get Teen Champions. Yes' date=' it's for 5eR, but it has all that you would need in the way of GMing advice for exactly that kind of campaign.[/quote']

 

this is correct

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: A super school

 

Instead of going for personalities, you might divide by origins: Mutant, Science, Technology, Magic, Natural. House Xavier, Reed, Stark, Strange, Castle.

[novi]

Re: A super school

 

Well, there are three main criteria. And just to check, is this a super high school. or all grade levels (as necessary)? One, what is the setting, since that may influence who things get named after, and to a degree why the kids have powers.

 

Another criteria to decide on is how many teen heroes there are, and if there all the students at the school. The main levels are less than a dozen, a few dozen, and hundreds. All can be done, and influence the type of story to be told.

 

Lastly, location. Are you thinking urban, suburban, or rural?

 

As to other things you need, how public is it, and what kind of relationship does it have with various authorities? Who funds it? What is it's stance on heroing and villainy?

 

Let us know what else you need.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: A super school

 

Homerooms: DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse

 

[Spence]

Re: A super school

 

I'm in the process of gearing up a new game and I am really leaning toward a Teen/Young Adult hero game myself. But I am not going the super-school route. Instead I have been tinkering with this idea. I will have 3 campuses that are directly adjacent. First is the University, an old well established ivy-league university. Second an equally aged and prestigious private high school where the students live on campus, wear uniforms, etc. The third is a slightly ambiguous Institute that performs 'advanced' research.

 

All of the PC's attend/work either the University or the High School and the Institute is a the front for a secret organization that secretly defends the earth from threats that fall outside of the mundane world. They recruit young exceptional persons and provide the scholarships to attend.

 

I'm still working out the details, but that is the general idea.

[quozaxx]

Re: A super school

 

Instead of going for personalities' date=' you might divide by origins: Mutant, Science, Technology, Magic, Natural. House Xavier, Reed, Stark, Strange, Castle.[/quote']

 

The problem with this separation. I want all the PCs in the same class. So if one wants to be a mutant and the other magical - they would not build a strong bond.

[Winterlord]

Re: A super school

 

I'd swear Hero did a book about this recently. It was based on a comic strip, or something.

I cannot remember the name, and I think it was for elementary school supers, but I would think the basic premise is similar. I only saw it advertised, but it was a stand alone with only basic rules for 5th edition.

Anyone remember it?

[SirViss]

Re: A super school

 

I'd swear Hero did a book about this recently. It was based on a comic strip, or something.

I cannot remember the name, and I think it was for elementary school supers, but I would think the basic premise is similar. I only saw it advertised, but it was a stand alone with only basic rules for 5th edition.

Anyone remember it?

 

Do you mean this book here? The name of the school is Ravenswood Academy, and is part of HERO's Champions University. It is situated not far from Millennium City.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: A super school

 

I'd swear Hero did a book about this recently. It was based on a comic strip, or something.

I cannot remember the name, and I think it was for elementary school supers, but I would think the basic premise is similar. I only saw it advertised, but it was a stand alone with only basic rules for 5th edition.

Anyone remember it?

i think it was PS328

[SKJAM!]

Re: A super school

 

Yep, PS238 is a good choice for looking at preteen superbeings in school, and has a quickie version of the Champions rules included.

 

You might want to look at whether the school is primarily a government operation, or a privately owned school. It will influence the way the children are trained and treated.

 

Homerooms: Sun, Moon, Star and Planet. With say, Sun as the "prestige" class, and the player characters all stuck in "Planet", to give an underdog vibe.

[Clonus]

Re: A super school

 

The problem with this separation. I want all the PCs in the same class. So if one wants to be a mutant and the other magical - they would not build a strong bond.

 

That's going to be a problem with personality separation as well.

[Haerandir]

Re: A super school

 

I would name the homerooms after 'iconic' characters (SuperDude, Princess Power, Night Watchman and Arachno-Lad, or whatever), perhaps the founders of the school. Thus, players assigned to a given homeroom would be able to find different thematic links to their 'patron', whether via origin, personality, combat/noncombat role, background and so forth. Students wouldn't necessarily be assigned to a given homeroom for a specific reason, it could just be luck of the draw, but each homeroom has it's own internal culture which is reinforced by the attitudes of the faculty and other classes. Even a player who insisted on playing against type could generate some interesting stories based on the tension between wanting to 'be themselves' and wanting to fit in with their classmates.

[SKJAM!]

Re: A super school

 

Hmm...all the player characters should start in the same homeroom...various possibilities--

 

Standard Old Style High School: Freshman, Sophmore, Junior, Senior. Everyone starts in Freshman and most get promoted per school year. Exceptions for child prodigies, the "slow" kid who got held back a year, and maybe a student who missed a bunch of schooling due to illness or injury will be older than expected. New characters transfer in at the appropriate age/grade level. Seniors tend to push the lower grades around, Freshmen are "newbies", usually less trained/not fully developed in powers, but there will be exceptions.

 

Perceived Competence: After the entrance exams, the students are sorted according to how well they can use their powers. Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron. Young supers who graduate with a Gold certification are heavily scouted by super-teams and can get lucrative endorsement contracts. Graduating with only an Iron certificate means that you are considered adequate at best. Progress (or regress) is supposedly based on merit, though some teacher bias is known to affect your odds. Gold students tend to be the big folks on campus, and getting promoted to Gold is a huge deal. Player characters should start in Iron, of course.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: A super school

 

Hmm...all the player characters should start in the same homeroom...various possibilities--

 

Standard Old Style High School: Freshman, Sophmore, Junior, Senior. Everyone starts in Freshman and most get promoted per school year. Exceptions for child prodigies, the "slow" kid who got held back a year, and maybe a student who missed a bunch of schooling due to illness or injury will be older than expected. New characters transfer in at the appropriate age/grade level. Seniors tend to push the lower grades around, Freshmen are "newbies", usually less trained/not fully developed in powers, but there will be exceptions.

 

That's pretty much how "Ravenswood Academy," the teen-super school described in Teen Champions, is set up. It's fairly thoroughly detailed in how it's laid out, the curriculum, and the staff and NPC students (although only the senior class has full write-ups, and there isn't much in the way of maps).

[ayinde]

Re: A super school

 

Maybe the school itself has no divisions but instead there are fraternity like brake downs. As far as the school goes the students are made into project teams and assigned an upper class men handlers. This way if your playing a “flat scan” your frat might be that of prestiges Guardians (a group made up entirely of relatively normal humans) but was assigned team Xavier (mostly mutants) due to his high test scores in leadership this could rub other mutants badly but its good for role play fun and you can explore your origin to its fullest with out drifting from your team

[csyphrett]

Re: A super school

 

the one campaign that I was in only had one class, four teachers, a X-men type grounds and school, and a local town around the grounds.

 

My suggestion is to find out how many students you are actually going to have in your class before you try to develop a whole setting

CES

[ayinde]

Re: A super school

 

Example fraternities.

Guardians: children of non-powered supers

traditions: children with supernatural origins

factors: inborn abilities

[JmOz]

Re: A super school

 

What about something as simple as homerooms, upon entrance to the school you are randomly placed in a homeroom. The players all just happen to have been randomly placed in this one.

[Haerandir]

Re: A super school

 

Random? But we went to all this trouble to build the Sort-O-Matic 9000 Student Assignment Computer!

 

Two fun facts about the Sort-O-Matic 9000:

 

I: The Sort-O-Matic 9000 Student Assignment Computer is NEVER wrong.

II: It does, however, work in mysterious ways.

[SKJAM!]

Re: A super school

 

You'll also want to consider if this is a school for potential superheroes, or for all metahumans. If the former, there would no doubt be some kind of evil counterpart for training young villains; if the latter, then you have ready-made conflicts as people who want to save the world, people who want to rule the world, and those who just want to get their powers under control so they can hold down a civilian job all take classes together.

[megaplayboy]

Re: A super school

 

"How many students?" seems like the first question to figure out the answer to. Less than 10 would tend to obviate the need for such a school, and more than, say, several hundred would probably be a bit of a logistical headache. I think somewhere between 20 and 200 students is probably the sweet spot, with the larger number tending to feature more superhumans with relatively minor levels of ability.

Most schools will have between 5-8 periods of instruction/subjects for the students to study, per semester. So you'd need several instructors. Assuming half of those classes are just general academic subjects, the other half would pertain to metahuman history, abilities, training, science, etc.

[quozaxx]

Re: A super school

 

First I wanted to thank everyone who gave advice. I'm still deciding on a lot of factors. Please note: I don't have Teen Champions anymore.

 

I was a little surprised though that only one actual person suggested a school name. Arcadia School for Gifted Students or Avalon School and Preparatory Academy. I'm leaning towards ASPA.

 

I love the idea of a Sort-o-matic. but Homeroom names would still be needed. Such as:

(Homeroom Lancelot, Morgan, Merlin and Knights (Gawain?)

Homerooms: DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse

homerooms after 'iconic' characters (SuperDude, Princess Power, Night Watchman and Arachno-Lad, or whatever),

After the entrance exams, the students are sorted according to how well they can use their powers. Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron,

Homerooms: Sun, Moon, Star and Planet. With say, Sun as the "prestige" class, and the player characters all stuck in "Planet", to give an underdog vibe.

 

This is a super high school, not all ages, and I was considering 20 new students per homeroom. Most of them background NPCs. But that's 80 students per grade X 4 grads (Sophomore, Freshman, Junior, and Senior) PLUS Staff. That's a minimum of 400 people (not including PCs.) I think that's a little much for me to handle.

 

I have to consider this more carefully.