School Daze Playtest Information

High School sucked, and it sucked for everyone. We all came out of those years with scars. School Daze isn’t about revisiting those things. School Daze is about using High School to tell awesome stories. It’s about Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Brick, The Breakfast Club, American Pie, Glee, and any other expression of the interesting times that happen between the ages of 14 and 18. So, don’t be scared. This game is wicked fun, but each group should be a safe place in which you can tell your character’s story.

Be awesome.

 

Mechanics

Conflicts are resolved using the roll of a single d6. 5-6 is a success. 1-4 is a failure.

 

Characters

All players take the part of Students that attend Trowbridge High. The Administrator plays the parts of all the other high schoolers, as well as the teachers, parents, and various other people the Students will interact with.

All characters have the following on their Permanent Record:

 

Name

Favorite Subject (+2 to rolls within that subject)

Ranks (+1 to rolls for the Good, and -1 to rolls for the Bad)

Motivation (What makes the character get out of bed and come to school every morning. This usually changes with each scenario.)

Relationships: Pick three relationships to character that are not other players at the table. This gives each character some ties to people in the game world, and gives the Administrator an idea of who they have to work with.

Note: Teachers, parents, or any other adults don’t have Ranks in anything. They’ve (usually) outgrown what defined them in High School. They do still have a Favorite Subject.

 

Gameplay

School Daze is a narrative game designed to see interesting stories told in a high school setting. In each scenario, the Administrator has plot seeds to work with, but will need the characters’ relationships and motivations to drive the game forward.

Narrative control is shared between the players and the Administrator throughout the game session. The Administrator needs to make sure that each players is getting equal time to explore their own character’s story, as the individual narratives may only be linked in a loose manner.

The players need to feel free to add to or embellish on the game world. If a player asks the Administrator is something exists in the world (a person, an object, etc), the Administrator’s response should prompt the player to answer that question for themselves. If what the player desires is outlandish or beyond the score of what the Administrator believes could be easily obtained by the character, the Administrator should call for a roll of the dice to see what the outcome will be. (See: The Core Mechanic below).

Permanent Record – Trowbridge High

Name: ________________________________________

 

 

Favorite Subject: _________________________________

 

 

Ranks In: ____________________

 

 

Motivation: ______________________________________

 

Relationships

 _______________________________________

 

_______________________________________

 

_______________________________________

 

Gold Stars

 

[] [] []

Favorite Subjects

Every student has a favorite subject. If a student is making a check that involves their Favorite Subject, they get a +2 to their roll.

Subjects

English

Foreign Langage (Any)

Choose one foreign language. Languages offered at Trowbridge are: Spanish, French, Mandarin, German, and Latin.

Math

History

Science (Any)

Choose a specific discipline of science. Choices at Trowbridge are: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Anatomy.

Arts (Any)

Choose a specific form of the arts. Trowbridge offers: Art, Choir, Band, and Theater.

Phys Ed

Shop (Any)

Trowbridge offers both of the following. Choose one: woodshop, or auto-body.

Technology

 

Ranks

If a student has Ranks in something, then they have a physical, social, or mental characteristic that can both help and hinder them. There are no numeric values associated with Ranks. Stating that a character has “Ranks in ____” means that the character has the positive and negative aspects associated with that thing.

 

If a student’s Ranks in ____ would help them in a situation, they get +1 to their roll in that situation. If their Ranks would hinder them, they get -1 to their roll.

Bank

Good: Student can afford nearly anything they desire.

Bad: Student is spoiled, and demands instant gratification.

Blank

Good: When you don’t want to be noticed, you’re invisible.

Bad: When you want to be noticed, nobody cares.

Clank

Good: Student excels with electronic and mechanical devices.

Bad: Student over-focuses on minutiae.

Crank

Good: Student can get their hands on drugs easily.

Bad: Reputation as a druggie.

Dank

Good: Comfortable in small, cold and dark spaces or situations.

Bad: Creeps people out with strange obsessions.

Drank

Good: Student is the life of every party.

Bad: Student is often hungover.

Flank

Good: An excellent wingman/friend.

Bad: Knows too much, and will tell embarrassing stories about others.

Frank

Good: Will always tell it straight, never beats around the bush.

Bad: Honesty without tact.

Gank

Good: Can always get what’s needed.

Bad: Compulsive thief.

Jank

Good: Can be stylish with few monetary resources.

Bad: Can easily come off as cheap.

Lank

Good: Tall, slender, can reach high, run fast.

Bad: Clumsy, and awkward.

Plank

Good: Always up on the latest online memes.

Bad: Limited real-world knowledge.

Pranks

Good: Can always come up with a distraction.

Bad: Can’t resist an opportunity to humiliate someone.

Rank

Good: Excels in competitions.

Bad: Overly competitive.

Shank

Good: You are the king of unexpected attacks.

Bad: You telegraph your blows like Alexander Bell.

Shawshank

Good: Student knows a lot about movies/film.

Bad: Student is often regarded as a flaky thespian.

Skank

Good: Physical Charms get student what they want.

Bad: Reputation as player or slut.

Spank

Good: Student is great at embarrassing others.

Bad: Student is useless when actually confronted.

Stank

Good: When you want people to go away, they do.

Bad: You’re the Smelly Kid in Class.

Swank

Good: You are excellent in your interactions with members of the opposite sex.

Bad: You can’t resist flirting, even when it’s detrimental to you.

Tank

Good: Student is big, either physically imposing or strong.

Bad: Everyone assumes student is dumb.

Thanks

Good: You’re known as being nice.

Bad: You’re a kiss-ass.

Wank

Good: Student knows a lot about a lot.

Bad: Student is a pedantic know-it-all.

Yank

Good: Can diffuse situations with humor.

Bad: Often cracks jokes at inappropriate times.

Conflicts and Consequences

Not everything goes smoothly in High School. In fact, little does. Here is how you handle the inevitable conflicts that will arise.

The Core Mechanic

Any time a character wishes to achieve something and there’s a chance they will fail, the character must roll to see what happens. They roll a d6, adding bonuses or penalties from their Favorite Subject, and/or their Ranks. Any result of 5 or higher means the character gets to narrate the effects of their success. Any result of a 4 or lower means that the character doesn’t get exactly what they want. Maybe it’s outright failure, or maybe it’s a sub-optimal choice. In this event, the Administrator narrates the outcome.

Keeping Failure Interesting

School Daze works the best when the players are willing to see their character be as imperfect as real high school students. This means embracing failure if it happens. The key to this concept is that the Administrator must work to make failure interesting. Simply telling the character that they fail is boring. However, telling the character that they succeed, but with a twist, now that’s fun.

Example: Richard is trying to find out more about the girl he is taking to the prom, in hopes of discovering what will make his prom night “special.” He misses his roll, getting a 4, even though his Favorite Subject is Drama, and he has Ranks in Swank.

Bad failure narration: “She doesn’t answer your question.”

Great failure narration: “You find out that she’s ultra-conservative, and is saving herself for marriage.”

The great failure narration provides a roadblock for Richard, but doesn’t prevent him from continuing to pursue his goal. The twist to him finding out the information he wants keeps the narrative moving.

Conflicts

If characters are in conflict, the conflict is resolved with a single roll of a d6 on the part of all characters involved in the conflict.

If the character rolls a 1-4, then they fail to attain the results they want from the conflict.

If the character rolls a 5-6, they achieve the results they want from the conflict, usually in the form of imposing a consequence on one other character in the conflict. You can attempt to impose a consequence on more than one character in the conflict, but you take a cumulative -1 penalty to your roll for each person you try to give a consequence to.

Note: All sides of a conflict could roll successes. If this happens, all parties get to impose consequences, meaning things didn’t go quite the way anyone had anticipated.

Example: Bob challenges Fred to a fight. They both roll. Bob rolls a 5, and Fred rolls a 3. Bob gets to impose a consequence on Fred. If Fred had also rolled a five, he would get to impose a consequence on Bob, as well.

Conflicts in High School rarely remain isolated between two characters. If a large group of people is involved in a conflict, roll one d6 for the entire group, just as you would for a character.

Example: Bob gets jumped by a group of jocks from the football team. Rather than rolling for each jock individually, roll once for the whole group to see if they are able to beat the tar out of Bob.

Consequences

Consequences come in three categories: Physical, Social, and Mental. Each time a consequence is imposed as a result of someone being successful against you in a conflict, the character with the success chooses the type of consequence they will impose. Consequences fade after a day or so of in-game time, or can be removed by using a Gold Star (see below).

Consequences are tracked by the Administrator. When a character is in a situation where their consequence would cause them trouble, the Administrator applies a penalty of anywhere from -1 to -3 to the character’s roll in the conflict. The penalty is described in a way that makes it clear why their consequence is affecting their roll.

Example: Cynthia got into a fight during lunch, and lost a heated verbal altercation. Her opponent chose to embarrass Cynthia, giving her a Social consequence. If Cynthia is in a situation later in the day where her consequence would affect her, the Administrator describes why, and applies a penalty to her roll.

Gold Stars

Everyone loves gold stars. They’re a mark of prestigious achievement, and even though you’re in high school now, you still get a thrill from getting one.

Gold stars are given out by the Administrator for actions that drive along the narrative, especially those that involve succeeding, or failing in an interesting way. The most gold stars that one character can have is three.

Gold stars can be spent by the players to aid them in their goals. This may mean a player gets to establish something out of the ordinary without having to roll, give a bonus of no more than +2 to their roll in a test or conflict, or other benefits that are similar in narrative scope to the previous examples. Gold stars can also be used to remove a consequence. A narrative explanation must be given for how the consequence is removed.

Gold stars are designed to be used if a given play group is not as comfortable with embracing failure. Gold star allow the characters to succeed more often, but since they are only given out for actions that drive the story forward, they still reinforce the idea of crafting a good narrative together.

Character Advancement

School Daze is designed for one-shot games, or an ongoing campaign. For an ongoing campaign, the character advancement is primarily story-driven. Characters will grow and change over the course of their time in high school. If a given campaign group would like mechanical change to occur, the suggested route is to allow characters to change their Favorite Subject, Motivation, and/or what they have Ranks in after major story milestones, or character development milestones.

For example, in the movie 16 Candles, the characters change over the course of the movie, but by and large, they remain within the confines of how high school defines them. Their Ranks may change, but they haven’t grown much.

In The Breakfast Club, all of the characters experience major growth and development, even though the movie only takes place over the course of one day. Those characters effectively grow out of their ranks, and move toward being adults. This kind of change would be the kind a group could experience at the end of a multi-session campaign, or after a particularly deep single session.

If your group needs more direct guidelines, every school year, from Freshman to Senior, the characters may change their Ranks, their Favorite Subject, and/or their Motivation to reflect how they’ve changed from one school year to the next.

Scenarios

Scenarios in School Daze take place over a set period of time. Many take a single week (five school days), some take a as long as a month, and others happen in the course of a single day. Each scenario contains a Class Roster with a description of the major NPCs in the scenario, along with their motivations, and a Syllabus that details the overarching plot of the scenario.

The scenarios in School Daze are designed to be largely improvisational. Take the plot hooks and characters, and run with them.

Creating Your Own Scenarios for School Daze

Creating a scenario for School Daze is a simple process. The steps are as follows:

1. Choose a theme. Homecoming, Spring Break, a zombie outbreak, etc.
2. Choose NPCs. Make up some students, teachers, parents, or friends who will be part of the scenario. Adults get one Favorite Subject and one Motivation. Students get one Favorite Subject,        Ranks in one area, and one Motivation.
3. Set a time frame. The scenario will come to its natural conclusion in a day, a week, a month, a         grading period. You decide.
4. Play it!

Running  School Daze Scenario

Scenarios in the School Daze are highly improvisational on the part of the Administrator. With the shared narrative control that exists in SchoolDaze, it is possible for character to do things that the Administrator did not anticipate at all, including the addition of people, things, or locations that were introduced by the player.

Because of the need for the Administrator to be able to think on their feet, a good feel for the themes of a high school game is vital. Think of your favorite movies or books that are set in a school. Saved By the Bell, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Brick, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are all examples of stories that played out using high school as the frame. Think of the relationships that play out, the friendships, romances, and rivalries.

If you find yourself stuck, just grab the Trowbridge High Student Roster, or go to the tables for random scenario generation at the back of the book. (NOT PRESENT IN THIS PLAYTEST DRAFT).

Scenes in School Daze should move along quickly, never lingering on one character for too long, especially if a given character’s plot line doesn’t intersect with the plot lines of the other characters.

The scenarios are also designed to last a specific amount of time. If the characters have all achieved major goals, and it feels narratively appropriate, fast-forward the timeline to the climactic moment of the scenario. In the included scenario, if the players have gotten everything done they want to before the event, move right on to prom night.

Prom Night – A School Daze Scenario

It’s Prom week. Hopes and hormones are both high as the students navigate the social waters surrounding this hallowed event. What kind of night will it be for you? You’ll always remember it, but how fondly?

Timeframe: One week

Class Roster

Mrs. Morp, Harried Senior Prom Advisor

Mrs. Morp just wants Prom done and over with. She doesn’t care about the crepe paper, the lights, or how many pounds of glitter that the cannons need. She just wants this nightmare to end.

Favorite Subject: Engish

Lance A. Lot, Teenage Hearthrob, Extrodinaire

No one knows if Lance is straight, gay, bi, or other, and no one really cares. All anyone knows is that Lance is gorgeous. Lance’s one true desire is for someone to see past his face to the person he really is inside. Sadly, Lance’s insides aren’t as great as he thinks they are, but he still wants someone to see them.

Favorite Subject: Foreign Language (French)

Ranks in Bank

Motivation: To find the perfect date to the Senior Prom

Morgan L. Fey, Like, The Most Popular Girl in School

It’s a complete scandal that Lance hasn’t asked Morgan to the Senior Prom yet. At least, Morgan thinks it is. She’ll stop at nothing to get her claws into Lance.

Favorite Subject: Arts (Choir)

Ranks in Skank

Motivation: To go to the Senior Prom with Lance, no matter what

Syllabus

It’s five days before the Senior Prom, and everyone who doesn’t have a date (any a few who do) want to go to the Prom with Lance. Some kids want something even more simple: to see Morgan crash and burn. She’s the meanest girl in Trowbridge, and she’s got no end of people who wish she’d basically die in a fire.

Then there’s Mrs. Morp. She just wants this nightmare to be over. In fact, her Math classes are pretty sure that the quadratic equation doesn’t include the word glitter. She needs prom to be planned, done, and finished.

At the beginning of the week, things will be mild enough, with students leaving notes, texts, and wall posts trying to get Lance to go to the Prom with them. As the days go on, and Prom gets closer the students, especially Morgan, do more and more desperate things to try and be seen with Lance on their respective arm come Saturday night.

Possible Character Motivations: To see the mighty fall, to ruin Morgan, Lance, or both, to help Mrs. Morp, to have a perfect Senior Prom, to mess Prom up for everyone else