Harry Potter d20 -need some help

[Xythlord]

Ok, so here we go!

For a little while now I have been putting together a Harry Potter d20 game as a special request from my gaming group (and some others). While I am familiar with some work done over on the WotC boards from awhile ago, and then in turn posted here on the EnWorld forums, I have decided to go away from that work and head in a new direction. While I do appreciate the heads up, that particular track has been covered. What I have managed to come up with so far is pretty substantal and seems to work with the little playtesting it has been put through. I am using d20 Modern as the basis for the game, and with a little tweaking the classes are matching up very nicely. I have changed the talent trees to better reflect the genre (and added a bunch from the Modern Players Companion) and tweaked the skills sections. While I haven't made any of the Advanced or Prestige classes (and I am still not sure exactly what classes may be needed, as the six basic classes are looking like more than enough) I have added a few feats and am working on some templates (gained through feats) for the Animagus, Parseltoungue (actually I have several different "toungues") and the metamorph.

Now I am on to the professions. In d20 Modern the professions are used to flesh out your character (with wealth, feats and skill adjustments) and better simulate his or her "job". Obviously this will not work for this game, as these kids do not have jobs, and at this age are still working on actually "fleshing out" themselves. What I have come up with is backgrounds -those things that help define what a character is. Now, while I do have a few prepared, I am looking for help with other concepts that I may have missed, widespread and generic enough to apply to several discriptions but unique (I am in brainlock right now and can't think of any others besides those I have listed).

What I have:
Athlete -just like it sounds, but includes "wizard" sports.
Artist -You know, drama, band, poet, etc.
Cheerleader -Not the pom-pom ones, more like the group leader, class president or organizer type. This is the guy (or gal) who finds a cause and whips up a campaign to save it.
Half-Giant -This one is a bonus to some attributes with the option of taking a 3 level racial class instead of the normal classes.
Half-Fey -Still working on this one, but it will also have the 3 level racial class and about 10 to 15 fey types to choose from with a specific "bonus" for each type and the 3 level class will become more feylike, closer to their type as they progress.
Muggle Born -Hey, had to do it didn't I .
Student -Poindexter, Nerd, Real Genius, etc.
Socialite -You know, "the man women want and men want to be, etc", the person who has it, knows it, or knows how to get it. Could also be a fixer type as well.
Troublemaker -Name says it all.
Wizarding Family -Well if your most distinguishing personal mark is that your family is wizards, then this is for you.

Thats it, any help would be greatly appreciated!! Also any questions regarding what I have come up with will be happily answered as I can .

P.S. -I do realize that this entire body of work in completely fruitless, due to the restrictions upon the copyrighted body of work by JK Rowling. I do not intend to infringe upon her license with this game modification or profit from it in any way......this is for myself, my friends and family only. With that said, any lawyers (armchair or otherwise) may go bugger off!

 

[RainOfSteel]

I wouldn't worry about lawyers (armchair or otherwise) given that you're keeping it to yourself.

I just came off a two year straight Harry Potter campaign, 7 school years and a 5-year school reunion mini-year. Approximately 95 or so sessions (including skip weeks). It was based on the d6 system. Since it wasn't for sale or publication, and will likely never be heard of again, none of us worried about copyright infringement.


As for issues, one of the toughest things is to create a useable roster of magic from what little is displayed in the books and movies (in comparison to a major RPG, the books and movies hardly show anything). This is made tougher in that as the books go on, magic and it's schooling become less and less a part of the books (whereas in the first book, learning about magic was huge).

Oh, yes. School scheduling. Our GMs (there were two, they ran alternating years) had the entire school enrollment written out, every name in the school for all seven years. There were some substantial problems in distributing the students into classes based on the known classes and the known teachers. It just didn't fit. The early books don't discuss scheduling much, and the most recent only confuses the issue IMO. Nevertheless, each PC did have a complete daily class schedule every single year (even though lack of planning and disagreement between the GMs mean that years 1-5 all had completely different scheduling systems).

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Does the magic system work the same? My son, who we practically had to hide the books from in order to get him to read other things for awhile, would go out of his mind for a d20 Harry Potter game.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Does the magic system work the same? My son, who we practically had to hide the books from in order to get him to read other things for awhile, would go out of his mind for a d20 Harry Potter game.

I'm curious about this, too. I was thinking about this the other day, and I thought that a skills and feats based system (or even something similar to channeling in the Wheel of Time RPG) would be an excellent match for a Harry Potter d20 game. Just a thought...

Nick

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I think the class system used in Masque of the Red Death D20 would be the right way to go. Plenty of diversification there.

 

[Shadow145]

There was a sourcebook awhile back called Redhurst Academy of Magic. It was supposedly really good. If I was running a harry potter game I would definitely look into it.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Masque of the Red Death d20

MoRD d20 was exactly what I feared that those RPGA writers would make it. Instead of a few generic classes that were easily modifiable into whatever you wanted to make them, we got specific classes for everything. And the power level was upped for soldiers (making them exactly like fighters), but not for the other classes (so the power gap between Mystics/Adepts and Fighters is much, much wider). The kits from the original could have easily been turned into Modern d20 occupations and you wouldn't need 20 fricking classes. Enough ranting. I'm done.

 

[Wikidogre]

You might want to check out the Grimm book from FFG.
It is already geared for a simple spell casting system that would work for the way magic works in HP.
Just a thought.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

...*cough*....

My group and I were keen on a harry potter game once. The GM at the time gave us some decent level wizards with a few spells.. opposed d20 rolls for some things, some damage..

but the best part is when we got a wooden stick, pronounced the words and flicked the wand about.


....

 

[Xythlord]

WOW my thread exploded while I wasn't looking

Ok, to each post:

RainOfSteel I was going to make my life a lot easier by not actually having my school in Hogwarts, but to adapt a bunch of the stuff over from Redhurst (teacher names and personalities, some class ideas, definately the map, etc.) My plan was to keep the HP universe with all its quirks, but allow me the freedom to create a game where my players don't have to live in the shadow of harry and gang.

DungeonmasterCal I have completely departed from the D&D spell casting system and gone to a skill based casting system. All characters start with the Wizard Born feat which allow access to the following skills as class skills (Charms, Conjuration, Counter-Jinxes, Dowsing, Divination, Dreaming, Glamour, Hexes & Curses, Healing, Legilemency, Occlumency, Potions, Scry, Spellcraft, Summoning, Transfiguration, Warding, Weather Witching). Spells are cast using a skill check and a standard action (usually -see spell discription). Each spell is automatically successful if the caster has a skill rank equal to the casting DC. The spell is successful if the DC is met or exceeded, may only be partially successful if it is within 3 pts of the DC [this requires a lot of DM judication but adds some fun to the spellcasting process]. A 20 is a critical effects and a 1 is a critical failure. If the spell check fails and the caster rolls within 3 pts of the critical failure number (more on this later) the caster is dazed (as per the condition) for 1d4 rounds, if again in that time he is staggered, and then stunned (this will be on a chart).

One addition to the above rules is that each spell may have a critical modifier. This is a +x number that changes the critical spell failure number than may be rolled. I have used this to simulate the danger of some of the more complicated spells. Oh and any spell can be cast without the characters wand, at a -10 to skill ranks

Spells are learned through the Spellcraft skill and can be learned through just seeing it cast (I based these rules off the WoT d20 Weavesight rules). Spells can be simple Cantrips (such as below) or difficult Incantations that use multiple magical skills (and skill checks), difficult components and long casting times. The basic number I use is 10 + the base spell level (squared), any modifications are added to the skill check DC equal to the original spells level, with the spell level being what I steal from D&D spells. 0 level spells have a base DC of 5.

Here is a sample spell.

Lumos
Lumos (lew-Mos)

Skill Used: Conjuration
Casting DC: 6
Critical Modifier: +0
Saving Throw: None
Target: Personal
Duration: Concentration
Description: This is the basic illumination spell allowing the caster to cause their focus object (normally the caster’s wand) to glow with a wane light. This light is normally a pale blue/white but can be changed to whatever the caster wants with a minor increase to the difficulty of the spell (DC 7). The light produced sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius (and dim light for an additional 5 feet) from the point of focus. The effect is immobile, but it can be cast on a movable object. Light taken into an area of magical darkness does not function.
Components: None


Skills are learned in class (with the classes chosen by the characters). A character who does not take a class may not put points into that skill.

Kajamba Lion Same as above.

Frukathka That's one of the reason that I went to the d20 Modern ruleset. The six classes are very versitile and can be combined to accurately represent a great variety of characters. The various class talents are also nice additions to make each character unique (I did end up modifying the talents and adding some from the Players Compendium [Game Mechanics]. I have been thinking of picking up the 22 talent trees PDF as well.

Shadow145 Great minds and all that, eh

Wikidogre What was the spell check failure rules for Grim if you don't mind me asking. I have been trying to figure out how to make mine a little more streamline and user freindly.

Arrgh! Mark! Ya, well thats half the fun aint it , you will notice in the sample spell that I have included the spell word and pronunciation as well. As for a stick of wood, take a look at this

http://www.alivans.com/welcome.htm

Hope this meets to your approval

Xyth