Life at Strixhaven: Grade & Grudge

Life at Strixhaven: Grade & Grudge

Four years. Twelve trimesters. Five colleges, and a school that never forgets what you did last term, this is Strixhaven built entirely from scratch.

TYPE

Campaign

LEVELS

3–15

LANGUAGE

English

EXPERIENCE

Open to all

AGE

18+
1 NEEDED TO START
$15.00

/ Session

Details

1 player following this game

Weekly / Saturday - 5:00 PM UTC

Session Duration / 2.5–3 hours

2 / 5 Seats Filled

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This game will begin once 3 players have joined

Meet your party members

2/5

About the adventure

Four years. Twelve trimesters. Five colleges, and every single one of them matters. This isn't the official Strixhaven book run as written, it's an original take on the setting, built around what actually makes a magic university compelling. Rivalries carry across years instead of resetting each session. Your reputation follows you everywhere you go. Finals are real, tense scenes played out at the table, not a single roll of the dice. And casting a spell is a creative decision, not an item picked off a menu. - Martial characters get equal billing here. Earn college-tied relics through trials and coursework that sharpen your existing class features, a rogue or a monk feels just as central to the story as any spellcaster. - Live a real school year: classes, rumors, rivalries, romances, and the slow-burn dread of finals week. - Build a reputation that actually sticks@ the friends you make, the enemies you earn, and the secrets you're hiding all carry forward, term after term, year after year. If you want a Strixhaven game that plays like four real years at school, the good terms and the bad ones, the people you grow to hate and the ones you didn't expect to love, this is built for exactly that, session by session, term by term.

Meet the Game Master

4.2

(23)

LGBTQ+
Educator
Voice Actor
No Gen AI

2 years on StartPlaying

82 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, World Builder

About me

Hi, I'm Davi. I'm currently a university student from the UK and an unapologetic fantasy nerd. I started running D&D when I was eleven after falling in love with fantasy worlds where ordinary people could become legends. What began as running games for friends somehow turned into a huge part of my life. Seven years later, I still spend most days thinking about stories, worldbuilding, and the next adventure. Outside of tabletop games, you'll usually find me buried in fantasy novels, sketching out new ideas for settings, or disappearing down some obscure bit of lore that absolutely didn't need three hours of research. I'm also a player whenever I get the chance. I love being on both sides of the screen, and some of my favourite memories come from sitting at someone else's table and getting completely swept up in their world. More than anything, I enjoy meeting people through this hobby. Some of my closest friendships started because a group of strangers decided to roll some dice together. When I'm not studying or running games, I'm usually building something new, whether that's a homebrew system, a setting, a one-shot, or a completely unnecessary spreadsheet that seemed like a good idea at the time.

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Character creation

Creating your character

Start at Level 3, as an incoming first-year: undeclared, no college yet. That choice comes at the end of Year 1, once you've actually experienced what each one offers. Martial characters aren't an afterthought. You'll earn magical relics through trials and coursework that amplify your existing class features, not replace them. Bring three things: one rival, one mentor, one secret you're keeping from somebody at Strixhaven. That's the seed of your whole four years, I'll use all of it.

What to expect

Preparing for the session

You'll need Discord for voice, D&D Beyond for your character sheet, and a browser for Foundry VTT, no download, just a link I'll send before we start. Microphone required. Camera welcome, never mandatory.

What Davi brings to the table

A world that remembers what you did last term. Reputation, rivalries, and secrets carry across all four years, nothing disappears after one session. I run this closer to theatre than tabletop admin. Every NPC gets a distinct voice, scenes are scored with ambient music to match the moment, and I lean into Rule of Cool over Rules as Written, if your spell or ability is doing what it already says, just reskinned, it's free, go wild. If you're asking it to do something the book doesn't cover, we'll find a check together and make it real rather than shutting it down. Combat happens, but it's not the whole game; expect just as much time in rivalries, rumors, downtime, and the actual texture of school life. Spotlight gets rotated deliberately across the table; this is a long game, and everyone's arc matters across it.

Homebrew rules

Casting with Flair: Multiple times per rest, a spell can be reshaped in how it manifests (form, delivery, minor secondary effects) while its mechanics stay identical. This is a genuine rules modification: it grants a limited free-reskin action on top of standard 5.5e spellcasting. Potions as a bonus action: Drinking a potion (yours or administering one to an adjacent ally) takes a bonus action, not a full action. Modified critical hits: Instead of doubling all damage dice, a crit is max damage on all dice plus a normal roll. Death saves scale: Each failed death save below the first also costs you a point of exhaustion, so repeated near-deaths carry lasting consequences beyond just the three-strikes count. Inspiration as a pool, not one-and-done: Players can hold up to 2 Inspiration at a time, and it can be awarded for good roleplay, clever solutions, or leaning into a flaw, not just DM discretion at the end of a session. Short rests are 30 minutes, not a full hour, to keep trimester pacing from bogging down.

Equipment needed to play

Internet

Computer

Microphone

Headphones

Safety

How Davi creates a safe table

Session 0 covers lines, veils, content tone, and romance comfort as a group before anything starts. X/N/O cards live on the Foundry table throughout every session: use them, no explanation needed. Open door always. I check in after heavy sessions. This table is queer-friendly, neurodivergent-welcoming, and built on the understanding that feeling safe enough to actually play is the whole point.

Content warnings

Cults
Mind Control
Mind alteration

Safety tools used

Frequently asked questions