High School Hijinks

[Omega Girl]

I don't know if people will hate me for this or think it's awesome, but I'm thinking of putting together a micro-campaign of 3-4 missions for my players to get them used to Spycraft, and here's what I'm thinking:

High School!

I want to get them out of the D&D Hack & Slash mindset with a campaign where combat will always be a last resort and they'll have more fun focusing on skills and roleplaying. I'm thinking something along the lines of Scooby Doo or Josie and the Pussycats, where they solve local mysteries and debunk monsters.

Any suggestions on the campaign qualities to use here?

[baud]

read back to basics, its' system is kinda geared towards this sort of thing.

[Psion]

Well, if you haven't seen it, grab the "childish things" article in the downloads page (near the bottom).

If you don't want to go all Buffy and Agent Cody Banks with the pcs having full agent classes, you might try the Back to Basics supplement.

[Omega Girl]

I did like the "Childish Things" article. That's partly where the idea came from. I only have the core book, but I have placed an order for "Shadow Play" through my local source, which I'll be seeing in a week or so.

[glimmerrat]

My wife wrote that article - i'll ask her to chime in later and offer her opinion.

[Psion]

I did like the "Childish Things" article. That's partly where the idea came from. I only have the core book, but I have placed an order for "Shadow Play" through my local source, which I'll be seeing in a week or so.

You may already know, but Back to Basics is included in Shadow Play. 

[Girlfriday]

The Childish Things article contains a few ideas for kid-centric campaign qualities. If you want to go with something a little more grown-up, just tailor it for the feel that you want.

I think Black-and-White, Revolving Door and Soap would work well for a slightly more 'grown-up' game, but then I do fluff, not crunch, so feel free to disregard everything I say... 

[RusVal]

<snip>
I think Black-and-White, Revolving Door and Soap would work well... <snip>

Hmmm.  While Soap is a given (I mean, come on, it's high school), I'm not so sure that Black-and-White and Revolving Door would fit the OP's game.  For one thing, mysteries require some form of ambiguity to retain the... well, mystery.  Not to mention High School is very often the place where childhood naivety starts giving way to harsh reality.  In fact, Tense would be a very good quality to use to represent this transition that many people go through trying to cope with the new world called adulthood.
Or, if you prefer a less serious game (with the inspirations being Scooby Doo and Josie & the Pussycats, this is likely) try Comedy Of Errors, since many teens are trying to get used to their new skin, so to speak.

As for Revolving Door, it might be a bad idea for a number of reasons, the key problem being that PCs would be more likely to get into fights.
"I'm gonna be revived after this anyway, so here we go!"
To solve this problem, I would like to suggest a few things:
1.) Remind your PCs that they are civilians, and killing anyone means that a high-level SWAT team is going to mug them almost immediately.
2.) While death would be a bit harsh for this type of story, make "incapacitation" actually mean something besides the body disappears to reappear later fully healed.  A house rule combining Bang, Your Dead! and No I'm Not! might be an idea.  Basically "Either you lug his body to the nearest hospital now, or you roll a new character, and this one returns as a hostile NPC.  Why would he be hostile?  You just left him for dead in a place where there might be monsters!  Who wouldn't be hostile after that?!"

However, if they do end up in a "last resort" situation, a combination of Fragile and Bulletproof might be wise.  That way the PCs wouldn't have as much room for error, but still have a chance to recover afterwards.

Finally, with the focus being on skills, and considering that during High School, most students are often forced to learn as much as possible in a number of fields of study, Jack Of All Trades will help, especially for those PCs whom insist on more physical characters.

[Krensky]

I've threatened this in the past, but here it is:

Too Much is Too Much (+0 XP)
Like reality, we reward mediocrity by grading on a curve. At the beginning of a session, the GC should roll 1d10+5. Anytime a character succeeds at a check by more then this number, their check backfires. They still succeed, in fact they over-succeed in a humorous and possibly inconvenient fashion. This rule applies on threats, and it applies on criticals at the GC's discretion.

Lifted shamelessly from Teenagers From Outerspace. Adjust the die roll to get the chances you want.

[glimmerrat]

That's... interesting. Care to drop us a few examples?

[Krensky]

First, it helps to remember that TFOS is emulating anime shows in the vein of Urusei Yatsura.

For some examples:

Talking up a guard during an infiltration causes them to fall madly in love with the PC. They begin following the PC everywhere scaring off other love interests.

The Kei and Yuri effect from Dirty Pair would qualify as well.

Results should be funny, but undesirable from the player's perspective.

[Psion]

I've threatened this in the past, but here it is:

Too Much is Too Much (+0 XP)
Like reality, we reward mediocrity by grading on a curve. At the beginning of a session, the GC should roll 1d10+5. Anytime a character succeeds at a check by more then this number, their check backfires. They still succeed, in fact they over-succeed in a humorous and possibly inconvenient fashion. This rule applies on threats, and it applies on criticals at the GC's discretion.

I'd make it take an action dice from the GM. In a game with a lot of skill rolls, this could come up a lot, and the GM may not want to harass the players again if there is already one irritating NPC in play.

[glimmerrat]

the GM may not want to harass the players again if there is already one irritating NPC in play.

Yeah, I had a good long think about this statement, and I can't see harassing my players ever getting old... and if you're going for that 'anime' feel, well, I may have to steal this.