Strixhaven got me off my @ss... to make another video.  https://youtu.be/NbYwEbNYAdE

(Watch if you want, it won't hurt my fee-fees either way)  TL:DW Mostly I shit on the newest splatbook and question why on earth you want to roll skill checks to pass tests, and what the other classes are going to do in a wizard school before getting to the main point:  make sure your rules support your campaign style.

Serendipity, there's threads about GURPS, I totally missed the Wheelchair in the art
but y'all didn't: (https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/the-chronic-fatigue-barbarian-is-a-real-not-parody-new-dd-subclass/msg1186414/#msg1186414)
and LORD that book looks terrible.

I try to be positive in my vids, and keep 'em short, so I barely touched on it...  in that same vein, do you use magic schools?

I do think a Unseen University/Hogwarts/Whatever school could be an interesting part of a campaign; if your world supports it.  (MAYBE in the Great Kingdom on Oerth, probably on Faerun or Krynn, but a lot of settings are Master/Apprentice and a WHOLE LOT of secrecy.

Looking at real world history, the great colleges of Europe were often a real headache to rulers, and quarreled with the church - speaking of which, throw in the real-world power of say, the Knights Templar and a lot of kingdoms wouldn't want the trouble, or be jealous of them - that means they'd want to run them perhaps a la the Megalos Imperial Legion on Yrth: http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=440 (I brought it back to GURPS!)

In my old WoG campaign, it was more akin to ancient Greek schools of Philosophy... they'd be built up around a particular teacher, and maybe his first apprentice would carry it on, but they usually weren't these big English style Universities.

What do y'all use?

I've used them, I'm playing in an AD&D2e campaign where the GM uses them, as in you're a wizard, you had to go to wizard school, and maybe you go back once in a while to pick a higher level wizard's brain.

As Hogwarts? No, never have, not sure I would enjoy it.

Unseen University in the Wizard's tower of Ankh-Morpork was fun.

" The great river Ankh was a robust substantial river. It was the kind of river you would never fall into during a thick night fog as the smell would give it away. It was, to be honest, a river that could do with a bit more water to loosen things up. It was the sort of river where someone who, in a moment of despair, jumped into it from one of the many bridges spanning its width, seeking a quick end to a troubled life, they might expect to bounce a few times before they began to sink. It was a river that made loud sucking sounds every now and then. A fine old river."

In my homebrew world, magic was reigned in due to several factors at play, magic nearly drained away due to the gods being stuck in their avatar's which the kicked off the godking wars.  The wars altered the world after 500 years of fighting between them and a lot of shenanigan's later magic started to slowly come back into the world. 

Various Kingdoms decided to make sure history wasn't repeated so they attempted to outlaw magic outside kingdom ran organizations thus if you wanted to learn magic, you had to join the Mage Guild, Bardic Collage, Priestly Order or Druid Circle.    Some kingdoms only allows Priestly orders and Druid circles but the Druids didn't care one wit about the kingdom, they just did they own thing as usual.   In some area's if your not a member of a sanctioned Order, then you could be fined, imprisoned, banished from the kingdom or simply killed.   

As you can imagine with power consolidated into theses Orders and the power imbalance it always brings.... over time the rulers of these kingdoms are the very Wizards, Priests, Bards and Druids that was pressed into these Orders    

Today, the common spells are limited to 2nd level only.   Higher level spells have to be researched and/or rediscovered and those with the knowledge of these higher level spells guard that knowledge jealously.   Delving into old ruins to find magic from the time before the godking wars is a past time that adventurers were born for.   

I have eight different home-brewed settings, each with their own magic system.
My answer would be this - I sometimes use magic schools.

Quote from: LiferGamer on September 16, 2021, 09:50:50 PM
Strixhaven got me off my @ss... to make another video.  https://youtu.be/NbYwEbNYAdE

(Watch if you want, it won't hurt my fee-fees either way)  TL:DW Mostly I shit on the newest splatbook and question why on earth you want to roll skill checks to pass tests, and what the other classes are going to do in a wizard school before getting to the main point:  make sure your rules support your campaign style.

Serendipity, there's threads about GURPS, I totally missed the Wheelchair in the art
but y'all didn't: (https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/the-chronic-fatigue-barbarian-is-a-real-not-parody-new-dd-subclass/msg1186414/#msg1186414)
and LORD that book looks terrible.

I try to be positive in my vids, and keep 'em short, so I barely touched on it...  in that same vein, do you use magic schools?

I do think a Unseen University/Hogwarts/Whatever school could be an interesting part of a campaign; if your world supports it.  (MAYBE in the Great Kingdom on Oerth, probably on Faerun or Krynn, but a lot of settings are Master/Apprentice and a WHOLE LOT of secrecy.

Looking at real world history, the great colleges of Europe were often a real headache to rulers, and quarreled with the church - speaking of which, throw in the real-world power of say, the Knights Templar and a lot of kingdoms wouldn't want the trouble, or be jealous of them - that means they'd want to run them perhaps a la the Megalos Imperial Legion on Yrth: http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=440 (I brought it back to GURPS!)

In my old WoG campaign, it was more akin to ancient Greek schools of Philosophy... they'd be built up around a particular teacher, and maybe his first apprentice would carry it on, but they usually weren't these big English style Universities.

What do y'all use?

Subbed! Good video. I'm actually working on some stuff concerning magic schools - and you hit on a lot of good points. Since I don't buy 5e products from WotC, I'm not surprised at their silly take on things. I don't think they're particularly concerned with big-picture conceits of their designs, and from what you showed I feel safe in my assumptions.

My take is if your setting has "magical schools" there is probably very little about that school that doesn't demand the implicit need for non-casters to do the day-to-day stuff to keep the place going. I mean from a design perspective that's almost as important a concern as what the casters are going to be doing too. If the centerpiece for the campaign is going to be set in a literal Magical School, it should packed with stuff that spellcasters simply aren't/can't do for "reasons" that allow you to plug in the non-casters. Those "reasons" should be modular where GM's can tune up/down the needs for those non-casters as they see fit. This allows maximal customization for GM's to fit it into their campaigns.

When I was writing for Dragon back in the day, I always made sure when I was doing those Campaign features to make sure I illustrated as much as possible for what all classes would do in campaigns where the emphasis might seem to be leaning towards certain classes. But as always the devil is in the details. The problem with this book you're reviewing is those details seem to be silly, and not really the kind of adventuresome material people of our vintage expect.

Yeah this is a kind of a specific thing that may not be appropriate for every campaign - but it COULD be awesome with the right design to include rules for a magical school's creation and scale it around the availability of magic in the world.

Hey! thanks for the shoutout at the end! I'm glad you dig Fantasy Craft. Looking forward to more vids from you.

I prefer the Great School of Magic in Glantri.  Wonderfully cutthroat in a nation that is already famously dysfunctional. Teachers are more concerned with their own studies and the students aren't above removing rivals.  Throw in child labor and regional grudges and it's Harry Potter meets Hunger Games

Gotta say, I've warmed on BECMI in general thanks to this community, and Mystara in general thanks to Mr. Welchs videos.

Glantri is a real vipers nest of fuckery that would make a far more entertaining setting for a mages school than the Kumbaya that Strixhaven is bound to be.