Hero High Design Journal #4: School Days
What would a teen superheroes campaign be without school? It’d be great! Well, for the kids, anyway. However, for the players, not so much. After all, the trials and tribuations (and triumphs) of high school form a big part of the Hero High experience (the “High” part, for those of you keeping track at home... no, not “high” like that... c’mon, people, focus!).
Fortunately, Hero High provides plenty of ideas on how to include the teen heroes’ school as a character of sorts in the game. Since teens are ostensibly in school to learn something, let’s take a look at some of the lesson plans for our super-students, shall we?
Serious Classes
The school is serious and professional, with a curriculum that might shame Ivy League Universities. Part of it has to do with the nature of its students, who in one way or another might rank in humanity’s top percentiles physically or mentally. So the institution is out to challenge its students and force them to rise to expectations. This might mean schools with course selections found in first or second year university. Physics leads to Particle Physics or Temporal Mechanics. Ethics might lead to the study of Law in relation to supers. History might contain classes on the History of Earth’s Secret Societies or The History of Heroes. Religion and Theology might have discussions on the presence of mythological figures among heroes or even guest lecturers from former pantheons. The classes are exciting and colorful even though they’re treated like any normal class.
Class Suggestions: Understanding Super Sciences, Household Magic Spells, The Ethics of Heroism, Heroes in Mythology, 4th Dimension Physics, Heroes & Villains in WWII, Alien Languages, Protection Against the Mental Arts, Laws and Heroes, Combat Gymnastics, Tactics, Xeno-Biology, Dimensional Incursions.
Quirky Classes
These schools have their serious moments, but there are plenty of classes that are quirky or odd. It may be indicative of the institution, but more than likely, it’s the nature of the teachers themselves. What makes the class peculiar isn’t just the subject, but how it’s handled. In the normal world, nobody would hand you radiation mitts and teach you how to handle spent uranium fuel rods. In these classes, it’s always a possibility, but there has to be something in the environment or in the nature of the school that minimizes accidental death. It might be that the crazy or outrageous antics are counterbalanced by a luck field that the teacher built.
So yeah, the lessons might be otherwise lethal or catastrophic, but they somehow work out in the end… mostly. That said, the classes offered in this environment have their serious and useful sides, but the approach is out of whack. You might deal with dangerous situations and you might handle dangerous items. If time travel is dangerous, they may give a class tour into a world where time travel destroyed a civilization. If the class is about defending yourself against mental powers, then a mentalist might be brought in to use you as a puppet. Regardless, the key here is that the class is an adventure in itself.
Class Suggestions: Time Travel Dos and Don’ts, Puppetmaster Theater: Now Everyone’s In Your Play, Super-Science and MacGyver, Disarming Super-Weapons 101, Building Super-Weapons 101, Everything You Wanted to Know About Gamma Radiation, Ectoplasmic Sculptures, Quantum String Basket Weaving, Holo Gym, Alien Languages.
Absurd Classes
The school is one of those out of the way locations with some fantastic element attached to it. Magic schools in forgotten parts of the country, floating institutions orbiting the planet and extra-dimensional campuses are just some examples. As a result of the school’s strange nature, the classes might be likewise skewed, but it seems normal to the people who attend.
The teachers treat the classes with all-due seriousness, and the students treat the subject matter much the same. But it’s still fun attending class because you never know what might happen. Somewhere along the way, students somehow learn the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic, but they never actually study those disciplines specifically. The classes are whimsical, but they do involve an element of real danger. In fact, entire adventures might revolve around the daily curriculum, with students emerging singed from Dragon Handling 101 or wet from their jaunt to the ruins of Atlantis.
Much like quirky-style classes, however, it’s in the nature of the school that few students are actually killed unless it’s a plot point. Hurt, however, is a definite risk, and the school’s history and roster of teachers are filled with stories and examples of the seriously scarred. This, however, should merely be a remainder to the students that messing with powers and abilities well beyond their own is always fraught with danger. Now, while the students and staff may accept the strange curriculum and the nature of the campus without batting an eye, the fact is that the outside world would not be as accepting. In fact, the outside world is relatively “mundane” and would never know such places exist. In class, however, anything and everything is possible.
Class Suggestions: Dragon Handling, Popular Battle Cries, Radiation Sickness & You, Handling Dark Artifacts Safely, How to Talk to the Old Ones, Building a Better Shark, A Mile in My Shoes: Switching Powers Class, Trash Talking in Battle, How to Dodge Meteor Strikes, Sex Ed.: Why Faster Than A Speeding Bullet Isn’t a Good Thing, Making Your Own Costume, Things to Know For Your Next Alien Invasion, 101 Ways To Change the Past Without Changing History.
Adventures in the Classroom
Given the nature of some teachers and the classes they might teach, here’s a list of classes and their potential adventures.
Art: You’ll have to speak up… Dali is deaf in one ear; The reason why you should never try sculpting elementals; Why won’t the painting stop screaming -- sentient paints & you; You’re out of frame -- bringing paintings to life; I see dead people -- haunted portraits; Reasons you should never use the clay of life to make pottery; Painting the future for profit and comic books; Wood carvings using the World Tree, Ygdrasil.
Computers: Now what you have here is the launch codes for China’s nuclear arsenal; Anyone want to see what a pan-global blackout looks like?; Who here thinks we can’t reprogram the human brain using this PDA?; Today’s assignment is tracking down that mega-virus I accidentally released on the Net; Uhm, who broke the Internet?; The keyboards will discharge a mild electric shock for every answer you get wrong; It’s an MMO called the City of Champions… now let’s see what happens when we digitize ourselves into the game world.
Geography/Geology: Let’s go visit the Villain Isles, shall we?; This is what an erupting volcano looks like up close… now where is that damn portal; And that’s the tidal wave that destroys Atlantis -- wow it looks big from down here; This meteor rock was responsible for devolving *snort* Freedom’s Vindicators *snort* … ugh, meat!; Now what happens when we momentarily reverse the Earth’s orbit; Now if anyone asks, we have no idea who triggered that last earthquake.
History: Class, we’re about to bring Genghis Khan into the present to speak to us… now nobody startle him; Was Napoleon really that short? Let’s find out; Time to visit the future… Professor needs to bet on a winning horse for once; Did someone say Sabertooth Tiger?; Could you have survived for a week in the Dark Ages? We’re about to find out; Okay class, the holo-casters are set to show us the Battle of Stalingrad, but be warned, the safety protocols are erratic.
Math: In today’s pop quiz, you have one hour to mathematically disprove the existence of God… go!; Now the following Euclidian formula was thought to open a gate to the parallel dimension of dark things; I’ve just released a fast-acting strain of Ebola Zaire into the classroom… those of you who properly plot the infection vector for the school will get the cure; 18, 4, 72, 98, 423… discuss.
Music: Let’s see if we can find the proper harmonics to shatter bone, shall we, class?; In today’s class, Mr. Jericho was nice enough to lend us his trumpet; And so ends today’s lesson in playing a Lendaro Cat, the musical instrument and official pet of Cetis IV; Now before we begin, I must stress the importance of soothing the Frost Yeti before it can fly into a homocidal...
Science: Nobody move… I’m sure I dropped that sub-atomic black hole here somewhere; C10H14N2 … determine what the poison is and I’ll administer the antidote to Mr. Fluffles the Bunny; Class… Commander Lazarus has kindly volunteered to be dissected today; Remember, students, you have to grab the Antilles Rage-Fang by the nose ring with both hands before you can milk it; Now we’ll see what happens when you splice this mystery DNA into Mr. Fluffles.
Sex Ed.: We brought in Jimmy’s mom today for our section on the female orgasm… wave ‘hi’ to your mom, Jimmy!
Technology: Egon teaches you why you should never cross the matter streams; Wait… if this safety switch isn’t in the device, shouldn’t it be malfunctioning now?; Okay class, you may glow for a few hours, but it’ll be totally worth it; now it’s important you don’t head into the light before we have a chance to resuscitate you; Wow… it’s never done that before… where do you suppose we are?
