I personally was under the impression Strixhaven was more in line with like, a setting book, more so than an adventure module.

Man, this sounds really fun. I would love to play a game with a real roleplaying and narrative driven story. I’m in a group that is that “get info from the npc and move on quickly” group and I find myself feeling like I’m on the other side of a window. I never get the chance to explore my character or learn how to improv and roleplay. I’d love to be in a game like Strixhaven. Guess I just have to find the right table.

Davvy Chappy vs. XP to level 3, the review rivalry we've all been waiting for

As a DM that loves changing everything about an adventure to match my players and their characters, this sounds like my kind of campaign book. You seriously got me pumped to run this with my siblings! Thanks for the video. :)

I've actually been running a game set in a magic school for almost a year so I was really excited to hear that they were coming out with a source book about a magic school. When the book came out I was delighted to get my hands on it and it has been exactly what I need. Magic items that fit students' life, rules for clubs, jobs, hobbies, relationships with NPC students, it's perfect points of inspiration

8:54
Why would anyone need the book to explain to them how a robot that fetches books works?
It is a robot that brings you a book. What possible narrative function could possibly be served by having the book explain how it gets you the book?

I don’t think everyone’s problem was that the story was not detailed I think there just wasn’t a lot of source material for a source book and people paid for a source book, not for inspiration for a wizard school, that already exists for free

Funnily enough I love Strixhaven as I almost never do modules as they are always so in depth and I can't memorize it all. Strixhaven is perfect cause it feels like it has a solid jumping off pointbut AI still get to homebrew stuff

I was really excited to run Strixhaven as a new Dungeon Master, but there really wasn't enough for me to build something. Maybe when I have more experience, I'll be able to do it

Our Strixhaven sucked because people weren't into the roleplay, so we committed murder and now, it's an evil campaign and we're recruiting an army of monsters to crush strixhaven under our boot.

I hope to see a whole Strixhaven campaign from you in the future. Imagine having to pass a certain number of classes a semester and then graduating or failing with your friends at the end of the campaign.

I'm gonna be honest... I wish they had an approximate timetable and an example of a typical day at the college. Being able to say that the first exam takes place (X) weeks after the orientation is nice, but they leave that vague enough that I don't know if it's just a simple exam, a mid-term important test or something I should emphasize a study montage about so the players can all find out more about the subject matter.

For example, the teacher giving the test is a Witherbloom teacher, and while it is set up that the characters will all have her class because it has to be there, it doesn't go into any information on what the other available classes are, nor how long they typically take in a day, or anything about the other classes.

Just having a couple of example schedules for a typical day and the timetable for the year would be amazing. Just saying that a typical schoolday is 8 hours long, with an hour block in the middle for a meal would mean that you could have each character take four classes in 2 hour blocks or have each of them take a class from each college and the generic class to give them six 1 hour classes and 2 study halls in the biblioplex or 2 free periods on the campus grounds, etc... would eliminate the need for them to choose a limited number of classes that not all of them might attend.

Though I might actually implement that last one myself.

I think the main difference is that Jacob ran it for fun with his friends, while from what i understand Davvy had to run it multiple times for different people as a job. That's probably why experience differs so much. It's one thing to come up on the fly with your friends with something and completely another if you are trying to be professional, if you catch what i mean.

I want to rescue a point that Jacob made during the video "It becomes YOUR Strixhaven", I believe that THAT simple statement should apply to all of D&D, we're currently running hoard of the dragon queen and after almost a year of playing it, we finally reached chapter 7 (no spoilers please, we are starting the chapter... today february the thirteen 20222 :u). Maybe it isn't the best written campaing, but we've made it really interesting with our backstories, the encounters, the roleplaying (which is for most of us in the campaign the most important part), making it our OWN hoard of the dragon queen.

Our DM made us the chosen champions of gods (each from a different pantheon), we were Volo's guards while travelling to Waterdeep (he ended up giving us an older version of volo's guide to monsters), when we arrived we met Elminster who showed us Elturel's Fall (kind of telling us that our DM will probably convert DiA into a lv. 15 to 20 campaing to finish it with our characters), and at the end of Castle Naerytar in chapter 6 we fought the Adult Black Dragon Voragamanthar, who my character met in a nightmare (I chose the apocaliptic dreams bond). Our cleric sacrificed a level to revive the fighter (a decision that rolewise is amazing and we loved, but I question every single day :u).

In the end it all resorts in: If everyone is having fun, then it's a good campaign, doesn't matter if stuff outside the book happens. Try to make it yours somehow.

I think the main issue is that you are buying a product, that compared to previous pre-written books, is just...bare bones. While yes it is interesting that you can fill in the blanks as a DM, a lot of DMs just buy these pre-written books specifically to not make up stuff because all of that stuff is taken care in the books. While some may enjoy this, other's wont, and that's fine, it is all about personal taste at the end of the day,

Stryxhaven seems a lot like Eberron, providing a solid structure while leaving lots of questions for the DM to answer and weave together as they see fit. I find that prospect of personalization really fun.

Quick bit on the trapdoor scenario, easiest fix without changing NPC motivation that I use: just tell the players the tables were swapped AFTER they find the trap door / descend. I've had similar situations many times before--correct it after it's been resolved, as long as the end result is the same, you can adjust how they got to that point.

Full disclosure, haven't gotten Strix nor do I plan to.

It sounds like Strixhaven is more friendly to Theater of the Mind. It does seem a questionable value though, since it if it's sold an adventure module, it's a bit too barebones to justify its cost, and if it's more a source and setting book like you're describing, 60% of it is dedicated to the barebone adventure. (Which seems like a weird ratio. You'd think if it takes up a majority of the book it'd be a bit more fleshed out.) Like, personally, I dunno how much I'd need a book to help me lay the groundwork for a lot of the systems mentioned, and it'd be better to use the adventure section more for NPCs and setting information and stuff to drop in the world (maybe with a short overview of an adventure idea instead, with some tips on how to craft an adventure).

14:14 How my druid would use skywrite. "Hey it says gullible in the sky." "Oh hey it actually does" Meanwhile they're casually scoring a goal with their duck familiar they summoned.

huh I guess it's up to the DM's style of prepping. I tend to BS my way through my sessions, but having KEY elements planned out before hand. Thus allowing my players to freely go and do things. So I LOVED Strixhaven. Gave the key elements of the world but gave me and my players the creative agency to fill in how those elements affect them and the world. Great book honestly.

I don't use pre-mades but the way you describe this book sounds a lot like how I write my own campaigns. A series of lore and guidelines, but not a strict linear story.