Sign at the gate, with the new motto.
The fey city Ydalir is home to the oldest known university and the madrasah of the City of Brass educates creatures from across the planes who can survive voyage to the city, while for most students the University in Kadath is an unattainable dream. More accessible – though no less reputable – is Ouroboros University, located in the player character’s home city.
What People Know
A character knows the following information about Ouroboros University with a successful Arcana, History, Streetwise and Religion skill check.
DC 12: Ouroboros University (OU) is a point of pride for the city, a 500-year old institution of higher learning. An alliance of a wizards’ college, a fighters’ academy, a seminary for clerics and paladins, a school for bards and a general trade school forms OU. Here students learn many useful skills that might otherwise be unavailable to them. However, gaining entry to OU as a student requires a person have a patron, such as city hero, noble, influential merchants, faculty member (1). There are a number of similar universities across the world and on other planes.
DC 14: OU engages in expeditions to lost cities, ruins, foreign nation and other dimensions, as well as testing new tools, weapons and magic – and OU hires adventures to for protection and assistance in all of these activities. Notices for such employment are on the campus and at a local coffee shop.
DC 16: There is an exchange program, where students from OU attend an allied school for a semester while that school sends a student to OU. Also notable are immersive studies, where a student lives with goblins or something like that. OU has also produced a number of living constructs over the years, some of which are currently students.
DC 18: An endowment by a gold dragon created OU 500-years ago, funding the work of the wizards’ college, fighters’ academy and seminary provided the three schools pool their resources and worked together. The musical school and trade school joined later. A stylized image of the dragon appears on the OU crest (2).
DC 20: There is a tradition for professors who have just received tenure to deliver their next lecture without trousers. A walled campus, the gates are only guarded during a war and closed if the city is undergoing an invasion or a decent soccer riot. The campus pays for the raising of any students killed by professors, except during final exams. Some people assert the university is on a downward spiral after 200 some of years of high standards. The damage may be irreparable.
For the Players and the Game Master
Colleges and universities, in one form or another, have been a part of Western Europe since the middle ages. For example, the University of Constantinople dates to 425 CE, the University of Salerno to the 9th century, the University of Bologna to 1088 and the University of Oxford to 1167. As such, they were a part of life in some cities during the so-called “Dark Ages.”
Further, universities play in a roll in mainstream science fiction and fantasy fiction. Examples include Miskatonic University from Lovecraft’s fiction and the Unseen University from Pratchett’s Discworld books.
Given the history of universities, and their presence in fiction, it is possible to have such an institution in a fantasy game without it being an anachronism and to use it as a source of adventures.
Forthcoming installments in this series will detail important sites associated with OU, both on and off campus, important people involved with OU and the kind of trouble only a fantastic university attracts and creates. This includes the campus library, martial training grounds, theater and salons, haunted tunnels under the campus, a shifting hedge maze (3), two new races, weird campus traditions (4), dangerous people.
While this series presents OU as a single institution, a GM should cherry pick locations and adventures in a way that best fits their campaign world. Likewise, the series will map only important locations, to make the facility more flexible for home campaigns.
All of this will give the player characters will test the phrase, “You can’t beat a good education.”
Game System
The series will nominally be in 4E D&D, though much of the material is system neutral and articles present mechanical alternatives.
Savage Worlds: Appropriate skills include Investigation, Knowledge, Persuasion and Streetwise. At a standard difficulty, a successful skill check reveals the paragraphs above, one paragraph per successful check.
Pathfinder: Appropriate skills include Diplomacy, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (engineering), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local) and Knowledge (religion). Knowledge (arcane) reveals information only about the wizards’ school. Knowledge (religion) reveals information only about the seminary. Starting at standard difficulty, a successful skill check reveals the paragraphs above, though subsequent paragraphs increases the DC by +1.
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1. Or someone capable of getting away with giving a thorough thrashing to a city hero, noble, influential merchant or faculty member.
2. Missing for ages, the whereabouts of the founding the golden dragons – and its reasons for establishing the university – are a popular subject of speculation on the campus.
3. There is a stable gate to another dimension at the center of the maze, among other things.
4. Such as polo from the backs of giant chickens.
