Unique Setting, Need Encounter Ideas :)


Advice


I'm running a homebrew game based in Pathfinder rules, and the setting is a university. The players are students, all level 4.

The way we have it is they have a system for classes and studying 5 days a week, and 2 days a week they have free time. I have a bigger world plot going on but am having trouble conjuring up encounters for smaller, "filler" times so it's not just roleplaying until a big event.

Any ideas on what 5 students could do for encounters during "school?" I was thinking something like a noticeboard to earn a little money on weekends or maybe a professor asking for help on a project, but any other fun things? They can be serious or silly, as long as they make sense in a big university and near a small village environment.

If it helps... we have a Paladin, a Lore Oracle, a Summoner, a Rogue, and a Shield-Bash specialized Fighter.

Thanks in advance! :)


Once upon a time I wrote an adventure based on the idea that all the professors were locked up.

Only the wizards familiars were overlooked. So, using their familiars the students had to free themselves and then their Teachers.

Trouble in the University....

Grand Lodge

Oozes from the Alchemy Lab?

Living Books/Living Scrolls from the Library?

Mindslaver Mold in the Conservatory?

Demonic Invasion during an Assembly? Let the PC's handle the lackeys while the teachers deal with the big threat himself.

a tempermental Dryad/Nymph/Fey at the edge of the school grounds?

Ms. Frizzle takes them on a field trip to the various Elemental Planes, where they fight various elemental natives there.


check out the anime series RWBY by Roosterteeth, 1st season


There is always the greatest challenge of all. A pissed off love interest


Saboteurs from a rival school are trying to kidnap/steal this schools Mascot/Trophy/Sports hero, to demoralize them before a big game. While illegal, it is really just a prank so killing the rival school members would be very bad/also illegal.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Hellmouth.

Gotta keep a "baby" egg safe for a week. Some eggs are hatching monsters.

Foreign exchange student is a soul-sucking mummy.

Got bit. Now you're a werewolf, zombie, vampire, leper, whatever your favorite monster of the week is.

Students are going missing. Why don't the teachers care?

Someone cheated on or stole an exam, and the professor will fail the whole class unless the culprit is found.

The Band Candy makes the parents, professors, and all other adults act like sugar rush teens.

There is a ghost in the girls' restroom.

The prom queen gets sacrificed to a demon.

Werehyenas eat the principal.

A giant demon snake eats the principal.

An unpopular girl is so unnoticed, she becomes permanently invisible and blames the PCs. Rival assassin guilds compete for her membership.

Detention accidentally ends up on a prison plane of existence.

History class time travel lesson goes awry, fight a lot of dinosaurs.

A formerly nerdy student is now a super popular crime fighting jock musician martial artist regular artist fire fighting class president prom king.

Suddenly, the cafeteria food is AMAZING!!!!!! Everyone's happy, no one investigates.

SPOILER:
the school uniform company is trying to sell all new, extra large, uniforms!

Pretty girls go missing. They're being made into a flesh golem "companion" for a dead student by his brother.

Magic beer turns drinkers into cavemen.

Alchemist accidentally creates hyper intelligent constructs that want to take over the school--THEN THE WORLD!!!

It's Career Day! Who wants to multi-class or alternate multi-class or go gestalt?

Some kind of sportsball with flying brooms?

Mysterious clouds of poisonous fumes surround the school. Everyone gets locked in school.

Weird monsters surround the school. Everyone gets locked in school.

Dodgeball!

Even better: PARACHUTE DAY AT GYM CLASS!!!

Talent Show Night IS MANDATORY!!!

A magical disease inflicts the class--every time you sneeze, you turn into a different rainbow-colored cute and fuzzy animal!

The swim team is turning into sharks or sea devils.

A teenage witch coven loses control of a summoned demon.

Amy turns into a rat.

Love Potion shenanigans.

Each PC wakes up in the body of a different PC! "Pass your character sheet to the player on your left."

Rival school stole your team mascot--and it's going to be a full moon and your team mascot is a Were-Tarrasque...

A bully needs a comeuppance.

A stranger claiming to have a medical degree or advanced degree of some kind appears from a small blue box that wasn't there a minute ago. Creatures from the Far Realm cause trouble.

The headmaster's old friend visits, destroys the campus, headmaster becomes evil Head Master and uses psychic powers to cause mayhem.

Liberty's Edge

Babysitting

Every minute is a full AP

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

The Raven Black wrote:

Babysitting

Every minute is a full AP

Babies are the reason Perception is a class skill for commoners. :-P


cliche school bully incident?


Loving the ideas! Thanks everyone :D


SmiloDan wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:

Babysitting

Every minute is a full AP

Babies are the reason Perception is a class skill for commoners. :-P

Accurate.


All the tables in the Thaumaturgic Physics class are Mimics.

An older student that many look up to has suddenly become a bully, boorish and rude, and when confronted, he is oblivious as to why he's frustrated. People notice that he's been taking a long time in the showers and he's gone all night on certain nights of the month. (Even unknowingly to the older student, he contracted lycanthropy, either through a bite he doesn't remember, or being maliciously injected, or something else...)

A witch coven takes up residence in the boiler room, and uses wards, charms and magic to remain unnoticed. And students have started to go missing. The students are being held in various places that are "strategic" for drawing a campus-wide unholy sigil for the coven's upcoming ritual during a Blood Moon.

The nearest small village was ransacked by Gnolls! Most of the victims are thought to be alive, save for a few who died in the initial skirmish, but the Gnolls have captured many of the townsfolk and placed them in a slave colony.

A Professor and several students arrive at the school to attend for a semester. They are expert gryphon-riders and participate in a gryphon-riding sport called Mulanji. This sport is similar to water polo, except on Gryphons.

A new drug or inebriating beverage is created by students in Alchemy class, and the creators are selling it for a hefty price, and even becoming violent if their operation is threatened. The drug causes exceptional memory recollection, so everyone who uses this drug/beverage is getting A's without even studying.

All of the school's flags, banners and tapestries bearing their school's insignia have gone missing overnight. Weird tracks have been found in the quad and in various places where these items were stolen from. The current theory is.... hobgoblins, bugbears and goblins.

A doppelganger assassin has infiltrated the school and killed a professor for a mcguffin...


Going by what I have seen on campuses I have seen in the past decade:
Zombie Invasions
Assassins stalking students.
Civic Unrest
Criminal Activity
WAY WAY more drugs and alcohol than is wise.


Vampire Blood Drive

A succubi is ruining the cheer teams reputation. Or so they claim

An Asmodean has bought everyones student debt and is having fun with it

A teacher is trying to make everyone fail by giving tests over things not in the curriculum. They must steal the test so everyone can pass

A very dastardly dare. Preferably to do something that would get them expelled if caught

A spellcasting practical exam. Topic: Counterspelling'

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Counterspelling Bee!


An extremely rare earth/mineral/gem deposit is found directly beneath the school, and the mining dwarves guild has come to parley with the Headmaster. Basically, leave or die.

The Wizard's guild is having an epic feud with the Rogue's guild in town over a rogue who killed a wizard in a tavern brawl (the rogue was framed by someone), and this "war" is starting to bleed into school activities. Students who are rogues and wizards are fighting each other everywhere, even in classrooms and the hallways. Storyhook: Have the PC's meet the framed Rogue, he has no idea who framed him and wants the PC's to investigate.

A dark elf assassin tells the Headmaster that she is tracking an extremely dangerous dark elf rogue/sorcerer, and he's somewhere in the school. She tells the Headmaster that this dark elf rogue/sorcerer is a master of disguise. (There is no dark elf rogue/sorcerer. She needs to get steal a mcguffin and cannot enter the school without causing a massive uproar).

The mayor of Nearbytown is missing! In the middle of the night, he was kidnapped by demons. The mayor's son is one of the PC's classmates.

A vampire's home was raided by one of the students, and made off with a lot of loot. One of the items was a cursed ring, and the student put it on. It became a tattoo on his finger and he cannot remove it. It is a homing beacon; the Vampire knows where he is at all times, and can remotely view him at will.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / Unique Setting, Need Encounter Ideas :) All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.