How would you design a magic system for a Harry Potter style of play?

[DM-Rocco]

Here is some Harry Potter spells to get the juices flowing

Harry Potter Spell Glossary - Spells and Charms

Curious about all the spells that Harry Potter and his friends learn over the years? Here's a list of the spells and what they do.

Accio
A spell to bring an object back into your hand. It can be used to bring a certain object, such as in Accio Butterbeer.

Alohomora
This spell opens a locked or closed door. The opposite of this is Colloportus.

Avada Kedevra
One of the three Unforgivable Curses, this spell causes death.

Colloportus
This spell locks a door shut. Hermoine uses this to cover their escape at the end of Book 5.

Crucio
One of the three Unforgivable Curses, this spell is the Cruciatus Curse and causes great pain. Umbridge tries to cast this on Harry at the end of Book 5.

Diffindo
The spell used to rip open tapestries and such. Used quite a bit in the computer game based on Book 2.

Expecto Patronum
This spell creates a silvery protective creature, a patronus. Harry's patronus is a stag; Cho's is a swan. Hermoine has an Otter.

Expelliarmus
One of the more simple spells, and the first spell that the D.A. group works on in Book 5. This disarms your opponent.

Finite
A spell to cancel the effects of another spell. Lupin uses it on Neville to get him to stop dancing at the end of book 5.

Flagrate
A form of fire spell, Hermoine uses this to mark an "X" on doors in the Mysteries area in book 5.

Flipendo
A simple spell that flips something over.

Impedimenta
This spell causes a person to freeze for about a minute.

Imperio
One of the three Unforgivable Curses, this allows a wizard to take total control of another person.

Impervius
A spell to cause an invisible wall to form. Quidditch players use this to keep the rain off their faces at times.

Incarcerous
Umbridge tries this on the centaurs in book 5 - to wrap ropes around them - but the centaurs easily shake them off.

Incendio
A spell to cause a fire to burn.

Legilimens
A spell to extract memories and feelings from another person, to in essence look through the memories another has.

Levicorus
A nonverbal spell to hang a person in the air by one ankle.

Locomotor
The locomotor spell causes something to move in a given direction. For example, to move trunks along with you, you would command Locomotor trunks. To cause someone to freeze stiff, you use Locomotor mortis.

Lumos
This spell causes the wand tips to glow and give off light.

Morsmordre
A dark spell that causes a dark mark - the sign of Voldemort - to appear.

Muffiato
A spell that fills the ears of anyone nearby with buzzing, so that conversations are not overheard.

Nox
A spell to cause darkness, the opposite of Lumos. Interestingly, the name of a fun computer RPG.

Obliviate
A memory erasing charm that Professor Lockhart was extremely fond of.

Petrificus Totalis
A spell to cause someone to freeze completely. It seems there are several different spells that cause this same effect

Portus
The portus spell creates a portkey that allows people to move from one destination to another easily.

Protego
A spell of protection, to ward off magical attack. Harry uses this at the end of Book 5 to keep a sphere that another is casting "Accio" on.

Reducto
An assault spell, reducto causes damage to what it is fired at. The students use Reducto to blow apart bookshelves at the end of Book 5.

Reparo
A simple spell to repair an object that is broken.

Riddikulus
An anti-boggart spell, that causes the boggart's scary shape-changing ability to be mediated. Mrs. Weasley has trouble with this one at the beginning of Book 5 when a boggart torments her with sights of her family dead.

Scourgify
A cleaning spell, James uses this on Snape when they are young to clean Snape's mouth out with soap.

Silencio
A spell to cause something (or someone) to become silent. As Hermoine instructs Ron, this spell is done with a sharp jab of the wand, not a wave.

Stupefy
This spell should freeze an object in place, but when Umbridge tries to use it on an escapee firework, it explodes instead.

Tarantallegra
A Death eater uses this dance-causing spell on Neville during the final battle in Book 5.

Wingardium Leviosa
Harry uses this to levitate tentacles away from him at the end of book 5.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Actually, its already around and has been for a long time- Ars Magica. Magic is split into forms and techniques. Forms include things like Animal, Aquam (water), Auram (air), Corpus (body), Herbam (plant), Ignem (fire), Imaginem (image or illusion), Mentem (mind), Terram (earth), and Vim (magical power). Techniques are how you act upon the form- the techniques are: Creo (creation), Intelligo (perceive or understanding), Muto (change), Perdo (destroy), and Rego (control).

Each form and technique is treated as a separate skill, and when you can to cast a spell or create a magical effect, you combine a form and a technique. For example, to cast a charm to make someone more predisposed to you, you'd use Rego Mentem. To snuff out a fire, Perdo Ignem, and so on. Wizards know some spells by heart, called formulaic spells. In addition, they can also improvise spells on the spot using their magical skills. Spellcasters can cast unlimied spells per day, but they run the risk of becoming fatigued, or suffer a spell botch, which can have serious consequences. Its the best approach I've ever seen to magic in a game.

Sounds cool, can you post some rules?

 

[Gothmog]

Sounds cool, can you post some rules?

Well, considering the game is owned by Atlas Games, and has been around since about 1990, I don't know if I can verbatim post rules. But here is the general idea:

Lets say you have a Rego score of +7, and a Mentem score of +8, and you wanted to make someone obey your commands for a short period of time. You're in a magically neutral area (some areas make it easier to cast magic, others inhibit it); and you're not previously fatigued, so your Stamina stat is +1. Your casting score for this spell would be +7 + 8 +1 = 16.

If your character knows this spell (called Confusion of the Numbed Will), then the difficulty to cast this spell is 20. Your character rolls a stress die d10 and adds his casting score. If he rolls 20 or more, it works. If its 20 or less, the spell fails. A stress d10 is one where if you roll a 10, the attempt is a potential botch. The GM will have you roll a number of d10 as botch dice, and if any of them come up 10, then there is a botch. If a 1 is rolled on the initial die, you roll the die again and double the result (treating 10 as a 10 now). If another one is rolled, roll the die again and quadruple the result and so on.

If you don't know this spell and want to improvise the magic, you halve your casting score, and roll the die, adding a +8 in this case. If the roll is 20 or more, the improvised spell works. Its a very simple system, and its very speedy in play.

In addition, Ars Magica has extensive rules for foci (like wands), laboratory research, spell design, familiar creation, and Certamen- which is a kind of magical duel where two wizards use their force of will and skill with Forms and Techniques to batter down each others willpower and magical defenses until one submits or is knocked unconscious. In addition, the Ars Magica game is set around a Covenant, which is a wizard's stronghold where several wizards, their apprentices, servants, and grogs (warriors) live and work together- almost identical to the HP magic academies. Now that I think about it, JK Rowlings HP books are almost identical to Ars Magica- basically if you made the wizards in Ars Magica kids and made the Ars Magica world a little less grim (Ars Magica is based on medieval Europe), you'd end up with Harry Potter.

Actually, you can download the 4th Edition of Ars Magica (they are up to 5th Edition now) for FREE on RPGNow. Check it out- its one of the most innovative yet simple systems out there.

http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=774&

or

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=AG0204

 

[DM-Rocco]

Pretty interesting. I will check it out later tongiht when Iget a chance, thanks

 

[Bayushi Seikuro]

My vote would be for one of two things:

Ars Magica. If I recall right, the magic system boiled down to [verb] [noun]. Like my personal favorite: Creo Igneum, Create Fire. After that it boiled down to shaping it into effects, if I remember right. It has been many years since I've played it after all.

My other suggestion would be from the Black Company campaign. Magic falls under a Magic skill, you have an effect (let's say an attack spell), it has a base DC. You raise the DC to do things like add targets, increase damage dice type, increase the # of damage dice used, increase the save DC etc.

Again, I think a key point too would be to determine why certain spells are charms or potions, and if they can be used in another form; I've never read Harry Potter, so I don't know how much of an issue it is.

 

[WayneLigon]

I was thinking about this while reading the last book.

It's difficult to really come up with a comprehensive system because we're only seeing a small slice of the Wizarding world in the books: the magic used by barely-trained kids. I get the distinct idea that adult wizardry is a lot different than what we get shown, just by some of the comments the teachers make (especially Harry's talks with Remus).

Almost all spells, and all the combat spells, have a chance to miss a target either by being deflected/counterspelled, or by the target not being there. Objects block many spells.

Spells obviously require learned skill to use. Some people never master some areas of magic. Others, like Hermione, are natural prodigies. Some spells are more complex than others. There are consequences for failure to cast some spells. Force of will seems to govern some spellcasting.

Wands. Wands seem to amplify and expand a wizard's power greatly. Most seem incapable of most magic without one. The last book contains some interesting details on wands that I won't go into here. Wands must be used in a particular way, as well; gestures with them need to be precise and controlled.

There doesn't seem to be that much in the way of summoning spells. They don't call demons or djinns or bring other creatures in to fight for them. All controlling magic seems to fall under the Imperius Curse.

Some 'wild magic' seems to exist. Some are inate inborn abilities, like Parseltounge, or the magic that a budding wizard does. Predictive magic seems to be almost an inborn thing. The ability to command and ride a broom might also come 'naturally'.

 

[wedgeski]

There is an absolute ton of new information in the final book that would be required to create an authentic Harry Potter magic system, but I don't think we want to turn this into a spoilerific thread. Suffice to say that those rumours which claimed JKR didn't want an RPG of her world created until everyone had the complete picture probably weren't far off the mark.

Book 7 is great BTW, I literally couldn't put it down.

 

[zen_hydra]

I think for the d20 system that EN Publishing's Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth would work very well at emulating Harry Potter's style of magic. It (and Elements of Magic - Revised) seems to be inspired by the Ars Magica magic system. Spells are cast using several different magical skills, or a combination of several. Spell creation can be both free-form, or ritual based. Magic does not cause fatigue or negatively impact the caster unless they are casting above their level, or have a casting mishap. There are much simplified magic item creation rules. It is a quite excellent product.

 

[Nebulous]

I think for the d20 system that EN Publishing's Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth would work very well at emulating Harry Potter's style of magic. It (and Elements of Magic - Revised) seems to be inspired by the Ars Magica magic system. Spells are cast using several different magical skills, or a combination of several. Spell creation can be both free-form, or ritual based. Magic does not cause fatigue or negatively impact the caster unless they are casting above their level, or have a casting mishap. There are much simplified magic item creation rules. It is a quite excellent product.

That's what i was going to say, Ars Magica. You can take the 4th edition rules (available free on .pdf) and adapt them to d20. Or Mythic Earth might work well too. What it needs is something REALLY freeform. And the ability to create magic that can have unexpected results.

 

[Ace32]

I concur with the Mythic Earth recommendation. The mix-and-match spell creation + skill-based magic really fit the setting. I'd like to see a house rule treatment to round off the rough edges, but otherwise it seems right.