Anyone homebrewed a d20 Harry Potter-style world?

[mikedidthis]

My daughter and son (ages 10 and 7) have shown an interest in learning D&D and they're really interested in playing in a Harry Potter-type of world. So, I have begun to homebrew a Hogwart's-style school with the idea that this school is another academy in the same world as H.P. I'm hoping to create a campaign that has a similar feel to the books without having to be directly tied to the events in the novels (though those events will exist out there in the world beyond the campaign area and there may be the occasional drop in by an NPC from the book). Additionally, I'm thinking I'll re-work the series of short adventures in the D&D Adventure Game boxed set as a set of starting adventures for the kids to help introduce some of the rules slowly while they learn to play.

So, my question is, have any of you developed anything similar? What elements did you find were necesarry to keep a Harry Potter feel? What kind of tweaks did you have to make to the d20 ruleset to keep that feel? And was your group young kids (like mine) or and older group? How did they like playing in your campaign?

Thanks!

 

[Vrylakos]

My daughter and son (ages 10 and 7) have shown an interest in learning D&D and they're really interested in playing in a Harry Potter-type of world. So, I have begun to homebrew a Hogwart's-style school with the idea that this school is another academy in the same world as H.P. I'm hoping to create a campaign that has a similar feel to the books without having to be directly tied to the events in the novels (though those events will exist out there in the world beyond the campaign area and there may be the occasional drop in by an NPC from the book). Additionally, I'm thinking I'll re-work the series of short adventures in the D&D Adventure Game boxed set as a set of starting adventures for the kids to help introduce some of the rules slowly while they learn to play.

So, my question is, have any of you developed anything similar? What elements did you find were necesarry to keep a Harry Potter feel? What kind of tweaks did you have to make to the d20 ruleset to keep that feel? And was your group young kids (like mine) or and older group? How did they like playing in your campaign?

Thanks!

I'd recommend looking at the Redhurst Academy of Magic. You can buy the book including the margin notes which sort of reveal a the workings of a hidden enemy of Redhurst, or download a copy of the book without margin notes at the link below.

Read the reviews and judge for yourself!

http://www.humanhead.com/hhgames/RAM/ram.html

Vrylakos

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

If you really wanted to get something Harry Potteresque, I think you'd have to rework the magic system pretty heavily. It seems more skills-and-feats based than anything else. A lot of the spells in the SRD would be potions (or something else) in Harry Potter.

What I'd do is go through the books and write down every jinx, curse and charm they cast, and what they do (Note: You may not have my abundant free time . Heck, neither do I). Get a feel for the overall power level of each and assign them target numbers. Use a new skill like "Casting" or something, and rule that if you miss by 5 or less something wonky happens, like your Expelliarmus curse misses your opponents wand and knocks a shelf over. Roll a natural one and something really kooky (read: disastrous) happens, probably to you. Every spell has a focus component of "Wand".

You may want to check out this thread.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Also check out www.hp-lexicon.org. It has a complete encyclopedia of all HP spells and how they're used.

 

[Stone Angel]

Yeah I made up a system a while ago for my nephews. The magic system was skill and feat based and such. You have to remember to keep it basic and you have to be very loose on the rules. Do a thread search by thread starter and you'll find some of the rules feats and skills that I used. This may be enough to get you started.

The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[Vrecknidj]

I was thinking of making prestige classes, basically, for all the wizarding schools--transmutations, potions, dark arts, etc. They should perhaps require some minimal prerequisites, and not be exclusive to one another. But, doing things this way means that if you're going to be an expert at one (such as Snape is with potions), you're probably not going to be an expert at everything.

Otherwise, no, I haven't done this.

Dave

 

[MDSnowman]

I'd say go with Redhurst. It'd be nice and the kids would think you're showing them a bit more of HPs world that no one else knows about, kids love that

I'd also come up with some kind of alternative to experience gain... kids have notoriously short attention spans and if you haven't noticed Harry Potter isn't very combat intensive... perhaps give out xp bonuses for going to class, investigation and the like. My main advice is to not be too tight fisted with anything, if you want to make D&D appealing to your kids try to downplay some of the byzantine book keeping involved (at least on their parts) while show casing the fun stuff (fireballs ect.)

Also I like the prestige class idea. Take a look at the Advanced classes from d20 Modern ...I think that'd be a good source for the ideas. If that doesn't work you can look at Green Ronin's Psychic's handbook for a nice skill/feats approach to powers/magic... with a little work it would fit nicely in a HP type of enviornment.

Whatever you do I think it sounds like a fun idea.

 

[snarfoogle]

Be sure to include a few elements from the movies as well: If it weren't for the 3rd movie, we wouldn't have HP metamagic!

 

[MDSnowman]

Be sure to include a few elements from the movies as well: If it weren't for the 3rd movie, we wouldn't have HP metamagic!

or HP chronomancy

 

[Treebore]

I combined Redhurst with Path of the Magi. It works well. Redhurst has a nice download that will work for your purposes.