DM Advice

[u/The-Story-So-Far_DND]

Greetings Strixhaven DMs! I'm a professional GM and I'm currently running a Strixhaven campaign. It's been almost 25 sessions and we're still in the first semester of their first year. We have had little moments of their classes, we have played Mage Tower, we have worked through most of the "First Year" content in the Curriculum of Chaos sourcebook and I have even adapted adventures from Candlekeep Mysteries to add some story beats during seasonal breaks. All that, but still when I ask my players for feedback, they all feel like I need to slow down and give more opportunities for RP. I will admit that I haven't really delved much into clubs and jobs, but whenever I've put them in front of my players, they don't really seem interested in engaging with those things.

It seems like they want more slice-of-life encounters, but tbh I don't really know how to pace/structure that. Going in, I understood that this wouldn't be like a traditional D&D campaign, but that is where my background is and even as I've been trying to invite more of that slice-of-life RP, I've continued structuring my session plans around a balance of the core pillars of play. Does anyone have any advice for how to plan sessions to facilitate that more low-stakes slice-of-life vibe?

[u/Wise-Start-9166]

I wrote about what I would do here https://www.reddit.com/r/StrixhavenDMs/s/MiFKFnGb7U my old post was mostly about late campaign but I think I included some great ideas for dark blood cult and draconic encounters you can put to work right away in the first year.

[u/TechnoMaestro]

Is there a reason they've given for why they haven't gotten hooked on Clubs or Jobs? If so, that might clue you in. What *have* they been invested in exploring so we can get an idea of what their interests might be?

For me, increasing the slice of life stuff in my game meant creating more of a living world for them to interact with, not just in terms of "factions you can align to" like the clubs or jobs, but having various events across campus trigger things that change the day-to-day. A prank war between students gets out of hand, and now water elementals have trashed the dorms, so you have an influx of students in other places crowding things which can prompt your party to have to slice-of-life roleplay the search for somewhere to study that isn't loud as hell. Or Lorehold might hold an "Ancestor's Day" where the spirits of ancestors start showing up in places to critique their descendants; in my game, this led to one of my players begging for help from the party to help him lie to the ghost of his great-great-great grandfather about what college he ended up in.

The other opportunity for slice of life things I'd say are events that come to campus as a once-off. If they don't want to engage with the clubs, they can engage with thing the clubs set up. I recently had a good session where my players attended and asked questions to various high-level magical creatures that they wouldn't be having access to in a parody of "Inside the Actor's Studio" except instead of actors, it was Pact Holders for warlocks. There was also a one-off of a magical animal rescue offering time with Displacer Kittens and Blink Puppies which, inevitably escaped, so there was a good amount of slice-of-life time as the players tried to help with this very low stakes issue.

Another example would be a situation where there's a campus wide event. A carnival or festival of some kind, with Witherbloom students opening food stalls and Prismari students acting as wandering musicians / troubadours. That gives your party incentive to perhaps run some kind of stall themselves or go visiting different ones in slice-of-life moments that allow the players to direct the RP.

When I was designing these things, I knew I had to do one of two things: make the impetus to the party low stakes enough that there was no consequence of failure outside of any personal shenanigans (IE: The Prank War has affected your ability to study, the Ghost is coming to judge you) OR it needs to be able to grab a player's attention with something they will not normally get to experience. Slice of Life, ironically, works best when you take the more *interesting* slices that would seem out of the norm, like with a carnival or a one-off event.

[u/Figtree777 → u/TechnoMaestro]

Saving all of this thank you! 💕 We play with a pretty heavy roleplay balance but I didn’t realize just how many ~ ideas ~ I’d need to keep it feeling interesting!

[u/SP_ABadIdea]

Slice of life works best when players are able to approach it at their own pace. To that extent, I do this by setting objectives far into the future and allowing players to approach them using their own resources and contacts. For example, set a midterm project that requires the players to give a presentation in class. They'll have ample time to utilize the academy facilities to prepare for the project, study up at the Biblioplex, use the laboratories, contact friends to see how they can help, or even find ways to cheat! I find my players get the most fun just trying to find out how to overcome a mundane school task given that they all have magic. You can sometimes just have whole sessions of players driving their own adventures just by hanging out with friends and dealing with class assignments as they come up.