How to Roleplay HighSchool in a tabletop rpg

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

_Bubblegumshoe_ if you want a focus on the teen interrelationships and on mystery/problem solving. It's deliberately combat lite, but you could bolt on parts of other Gumeshoe settings like Mutant City Blues to handle powers and combat.

I was just thinking of that, Bubblegumshoe is specifically designed for the "Veronica Mars"/"Encyclopedia Brown" genre, and it has mechanics for things like relationships with adults in the characters' lives.

The old country was not the United States, so many aspects of the American high-school genre don't match my experience, but then most field agents don't end up flirting with the handsome probable-representative of a foreign power, or being chased by secretive assassins, or descending into Smiley-esque moral collapse.

[cptbutton]

In Nomine Anime has a bunch of stuff about playing in anime-style high school.

[Jariel]

I've always felt that we needed an IOU High School edition.
As others have said it depends on how involved you want the school to be and wether or not it's a normal school or a super/martial arts/magic school.
Aside from Gurps Social Engineering:Back to School there's Pyramid 3/107 that has the Young Hunters article. It has a new professional skill, advice for how to handle parents as patrons or enemies, and an expansion on social stigma: minor for younger children. It could be useful for dependents or other NPC's.

[YankeeGamer]

Students could be expected to take a Secret (whatever) and/or a duty to the school--usually non-hazardous.
Some scenes could be set in the school, and any high school has a tremendous amount of resources--a teacher or the principal (or even a member of the school board) could be a patron.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

In Nomine Anime has a bunch of stuff about playing in anime-style high school.

Is that a stand alone game or a supplement?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Is that a stand alone game or a supplement?

A supplement: playing In Nomine in an anime style.

[Rocket Man]

I currently GM a one-on-one GURPS Supers campaign where the PC is a 15 year-old metahuman, homeless, and attending school without the teachers or classmates realizing EITHER of her secrets. Some of the teachers and students have figured in the plot, but mostly to establish how little the administration is doing about the bullying of unpopular kids like herself. Classes have been skimmed over unless there's someone who needs to be talked to, something that needs to happen, or a Chekhov's Lesson that has to be acquired.

[Rocket Man]

Also, some useful advice can be found in Hero Games' "Teen Champions" and Green Ronin's "Hero High" supplement for the Mutants and Masterminds game.

[thorr-kan]

Originally Posted by johndallman

A supplement: playing In Nomine in an anime style.

But like most In Nomine supplements, the gaming advice is system agnostic. It could easily be used for a reference.

Once upon a time the old Pyramid boards playtested d20 Malls & Morons. Did anything ever come of that? It would have some of the required setting.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Is that a stand alone game or a supplement?

Originally Posted by johndallman

A supplement: playing In Nomine in an anime style.

Originally Posted by thorr-kan

But like most In Nomine supplements, the gaming advice is system agnostic. It could easily be used for a reference.

Actually I think INA doesn't have any stats or concrete rules at all. It lists and discusses standard anime plots, settings, and characters, and which kind of angels, demons, and superiors are suited to which.

Very similar in form to GURPS Screampunk, which was mostly about Gothic novels in a similar fashion.