The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons / Magic: The Gathering crossover book Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos covers a lot of ground when it comes to designing an adventure around a mage school.

An excerpt from the Exams portion of Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos.

Amanda Hamon: The Exam encounters that take place during the Strixhaven book’s adventures are pretty varied, but in general, all of the Exams that happen “on camera” [editor's note: this refers to scenes played out at the D&D table rather than being glossed over as exposition by the Dungeon Master] during each adventure are tied to a single class that plugs into other parts of the adventure in some way.

For example, in the freshman-year adventure, the students take Magical Physiologies, and three separate times they are tested on the habits, abilities, and behavior of a special magical creature.

Characters can study and recall this knowledge in ways that are described in the book, but once the Exams are resolved, (spoilers!) there’s a good chance that students who did well on the Exam will have an edge when they actually fight one or more of those creatures later on in the book.

AH: Exams consist of a Studying phase and a Testing phase.

James Wyatt: This book is a notable departure from our past Magic–D&D crossover books (Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica and Mythic Odysseys of Theros) in that this is primarily an adventure book rather than a setting book.

Of course, there’s plenty of information in the book that DMs can use to craft their own adventures at Strixhaven, but the goal was to provide an adventure set at this magical university which you can drop into any campaign setting.

AH: The jobs offered on campus are as diverse as Strixhaven itself, and the book provides a list that’s certainly not exhaustive, but does give lots of options.