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[Neonivek]

So let it be known that I love the highschool setting. I love "Anything" Highschool.

Why?
1) in a highschool setting you have characters who are still coming to grips with their own emotions and learning how to do things
2) Highschool is a highly social setting about who you know, who you are friend with, who are your enemies
3) Highschool has clubs and activities that can divide the monotony up
4) Highschool setting also easily folds in peripheral characters like parents, teachers, and stuff who aren't necessarily the villains.

But what are the adult equivalent of those settings?

[Fniff]

Watching with interest. Any answers would be quite handy for an tabletop RPG I'm looking to run...

[Frumple]

... the job site. I mean, that's basically the continuation of the same thing, just with less learning, more kvetching, and lives being more thoroughly ruined by screwups. You've got the emotional instability and learning (those never actually go away, ever), you've got the office politics of hell, you've got off-work interaction and departmental shenanigans replacing clubs and activities, you've got peripheral characters such as family, competing/collaborating businesses, and higher ups. Same list applies.

[AlleeCat]

College?

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

College?

I am honestly wondering why this wasn't the first reply.

[AlleeCat]

1) in a highschool college setting you have characters who are still coming to grips with their own emotions and learning how to do things
2) Highschool college is a highly social setting about who you know, who you are friend with, who are your enemies
3) Highschool college has clubs and activities that can divide the monotony up
4) Highschool college setting also easily folds in peripheral characters like parents, teachers, and stuff who aren't necessarily the villains.

[thedrelle]

not really an exact match

the significant difference is that college is rarely mandatory. those four details are true, but much of the college experience can be avoided. a job is far more accurate, because almost everyone feels that employment is necessary for survival, which can lock a person into a hellaceous situation, just this the mandatory nature of school can force a person into a hellaceous situation. More often than not a person is in college learning a specific major because they wanted to, because it is something of interest to them.  If you are unhappy with your situation in college, changing your major is not too difficult.

[Fniff]

Oh, I know! How about a war with a lot of conscripts such as any of the World Wars or wars involving Sweden or Norway? Here's how they match up:
1) in a highschool setting you have characters who are still coming to grips with their own emotions and learning how to do things
Being in the middle of a war is pretty emotional, and even with boot camp you're going to have to do a lot of thinking on your feet.

2) Highschool is a highly social setting about who you know, who you are friend with, who are your enemies
Judging by how catty the various divisions of the army are with each other (And by the army, I mean every army) and the fact that these are the people who are meant to stop you from being shot, you definitely need to know who has your back or who doesn't care about you.

3) Highschool has clubs and activities that can divide the monotony up
There's a pretty big variety in army operations. Anything from convincing illiterate villagers that their hamlet being bombed is a good thing (Psychological operations) to basically playing videogames (Flying a drone).

4) Highschool setting also easily folds in peripheral characters like parents, teachers, and stuff who aren't necessarily the villains.
This might be slightly iffy, but it's not just the enemy you have to deal with in war. You have refugees, black marketeers, intelligence agents with no discernible motive, high command, those assholes in the Air Force who never have to deal with our shit, etc, etc. There's a lot of options and not all of them are (necessarily) bad guys.

Plus, unlike college, a war with conscription is mandatory.

So let it be known that any high school drama could be transferred to a wartime setting and you wouldn't have to change much.

[Teneb]

I'd say a college or university is the closest you could get to a high school, maintaining elements such as studying (or failing to), teachers and such. Just... less mandatory.

[RedKing]

A retirement home. Especially one for people with dementia/Alzheimer's etc.

1) You have people coming to grips with emotions (abandonment, fear, their own looming mortality) and having to learn how to do things they used to know but now have either forgotten or have to do differently.

2) Highly social setting with cliques, rivalries, friendships, etc.

3) TONS of activities and clubs, specifically for breaking up the monotony and keeping its inhabitants from turning into vegetables.

4) Lots of peripheral characters (staff, doctors, children, etc. Even ghosts of departed spouses that some of the inhabitants still talk to.)


On the downside, putting Grandma in a sailor suit isn't nearly as kawaii.

[NAV]

A mental hospital would work pretty well, in a similar way to a retirement home.

[Fniff]

So we have conscripts in war, in a mental hospital, in high school, in college, and in a rest home.
Aside from (maybe) college, the running theme seems to be 'the last place you want to be'.

[Zangi]

+1 to conscription in a war
Bonus points for child/teen conscription in a not as modern-setting.  Alternatively, in a society that has mandatory military education.

There is also juvenile detention... it would fit in modern times, considering that kids can be prosecuted for dumb things these days...

[Sergarr]

office workers tend to work pretty well, although they tend to not have teachers.

not that teachers (or subjects) are important in all those "highschool" settings or anything

[Fniff]

There should definitely be a variety of authority figures, none of which have any authority over each other.
Teachers do matter in high school settings, it's just that they generally seem to prioritize screwing over other teachers and students for petty reasons over actually educating anyone.