Advice/Help Suggestions for incorporating classes into school-based rps?

bastion

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Clarification: I am specifically looking for tips for text roleplays and how strong writing about classroom activities and be made interesting for all participants.

I have a fondness for school-based roleplays, whether they're just fantasy / supernatural slice-of-life or something more action-based such as a superhero school. Something I've always struggled with is figuring out to actually work the classes into the roleplay. I managed it a little with a D&D campaign I helped co-GM a while back that was an adventurer school, but even then it was a struggle to figure out how to make potion-making and spell-casting interesting.

Have you managed to incorporate school lessons into your roleplays in a way that's interesting? Is there a way to use classes as more than just a backdrop for characters interacting?
 
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I think playing out a full class may not be very interesting, unless something happens during the class that can be relevant for story progression.
Some examples I could think of:
- event happens that helps to progress story (could be anything from introducing a new student/teacher character to a zombie attack during class)
- dialogue between the characters that may be started in relation to what happens in class
- the class itself gives relevant information for the characters to use shortly after
 
So make the class action oriented.

The two best examples of classes used in roleplays where both action based roleplays.

1. So for instance the class might be something like gym, home ec, infiltration, wilderness survival, ya know depending on the type of school.

2. Anime got this shit on lock by the wonder of school festivals or sports type activity. Basically have kids band together to do a physical thing at specific points in the day/year. It has the added bonus of built in time skips

3. If you are doing magical or super powered school you can also add in “people learning to do extra ordinary shit.” That’s also super fun.
 
I have a roleplay I anticipate on planning that will include student chosen courses and the basic mechanic will include dice to determine success for certain academic events. Players would have the option to judge how to handle unwanted results of course.
 
It's honestly best to pass them up unless as noted by Onmyoji. I concur with most of what they say. Having a class for the sake of having a class is normally a bad thing as I've found over the years more rp'ers are reactive than proactive. In addition to what was said by Onmyoji, I in my attempts at gm'ing on other sites have used classes as a "free time" option. Like once a major arc or event has happened, I've used classes as a IC reaction thread to allow the PC's time to process what happened or do their own development. Needless to say an actual class never happens during this. These normally have an ooc time limit so it doesn't drag on.

It is possible to do classes like you want but it requires constant efforts of the GM.
 
I would incorporate card games or "mini-games" into the background. Texas Hold 'em for example is a great analogy for how a class is shaping up (you could start out very strong but somebody else could get lucky late in the hand to steal the win, for example)

I use a deck for a game called "Diamant" which is a push your luck kind of game where people get points the longer they "stay on task" without hitting obstacles. There are four different types of obstacles, and the round ends when everyone backs out OR the same obstacle is drawn a SECOND time. I don't want to bore anyone discussing all the rules, but there are SO MANY quick and elegant card games that could be used metaphorically for how a class is conducted and some require skill, some require chance, some a combo of both.

I encourage you to try pairing a simple card game with the class narrative, I see a lot of potential for it!
 
I would incorporate card games or "mini-games" into the background. Texas Hold 'em for example is a great analogy for how a class is shaping up (you could start out very strong but somebody else could get lucky late in the hand to steal the win, for example)

I use a deck for a game called "Diamant" which is a push your luck kind of game where people get points the longer they "stay on task" without hitting obstacles. There are four different types of obstacles, and the round ends when everyone backs out OR the same obstacle is drawn a SECOND time. I don't want to bore anyone discussing all the rules, but there are SO MANY quick and elegant card games that could be used metaphorically for how a class is conducted and some require skill, some require chance, some a combo of both.

I encourage you to try pairing a simple card game with the class narrative, I see a lot of potential for it!
I appreciate the suggestion, but I'm thinking in terms of text roleplay, and how classes could be made interesting for everyone to write about.
 
Also to expand on my earlier point when it comes to action based classes it’s best to have (for lack of a better word) a lesson plan in place before you start.

The roleplays I’m thinking of were superhero schools but the core idea can be used for anything.

Basically come up with like twelve-ish activities you can complete within the classrooms.

Ex. class 1 (home ec) students have to bake cakes in a mini competition

Ex. class 2 (health) oops seems like we have some food poisoning going on

Ex. class 3 (gym) we’re missing some of the best players so the skinny nerds have to participate in idk dodge ball or whatever.

Now obviously these are just super simple examples but the idea is you have a set number of subjects your playing with and you set them up to time skip through either a school year or a school day (depending on how you want the time passage to work).

If you need help coming up with specific activities for your school I’m happy to help.
 

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