No Harry Potter RPG?

[I'm A Banana]

In order to make Harry Potter d20, you'd either have to do disservice to the setting, cutting and rearranging so that it can squeeze in where Redhurst fits naturally, or you'd have to do a lot of cutting, rearranging and addition of the d20 rules themselves.

You don't make Harry Potter D&D, you make Harry Potter d20. The two are quite different. Rules-light is all about how detailed you make the combat.

Redhurst made Harry Potter D&D. Harry Potter d20 would be different. It would have a different magic system. It would probably alter the combat to emphasize magic. It would have a balance with the assumption of magic for every creature (without being a Wizard or Sorcerer or other d4 blasting paper tiger). It would be a different game than D&D, it would play different, feel different, and have different challenges. It wouldn't be kids fighting orcs in merry olde England.

To truly do justice to HP in RPG form, you need to capture the sense of myth and legend about the world and reality of HP. You need to have darkness and mystery just beyond the walls. You need to play with the idea of having magic but not getting everything you want with the wave of a wand. Play with issues of maturity, growing, pain, loss, and ability. D&D is a sublimely designed system for killing things and taking their stuff. HPd20 would be a game designed for facing the dangerous world behind the everyday. And there's no reason d20 would be any worse at doing this than any other system, straight out the box.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I haven't read the Wheel of Time books, and I've never read or played the game. But almost every WoT:RPG Reveiw I've read said that the magic system, based on the d&d system with several tweaks, does a poor job of emulating magic in the books. I worked in a game store for two years and never saw anyone buy the book. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning that they were playing a WoT game, in person or on these boards. Only two products were ever produced for the line. And all of this despite the incredible popularity of the WoT books.

Ironically, I've played in a d20 Wheel of Time campaign, despite never reading the books.

That's "never reading" as in not in the past, not now, not ever. Jordan's a crappy prose writer, and I can't get past that for love nor money.

Maybe money.

 

[wingsandsword]

I haven't read the Wheel of Time books, and I've never read or played the game. But almost every WoT:RPG Reveiw I've read said that the magic system, based on the d&d system with several tweaks, does a poor job of emulating magic in the books. I worked in a game store for two years and never saw anyone buy the book. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning that they were playing a WoT game, in person or on these boards. Only two products were ever produced for the line.

1. The license to make the Wheel of Time was a limited license to begin with, limited to only two books ever.

2. I've known of two WoT d20 campaigns in my gaming club since the book came out. The only reason it hasn't been played more is a desire by fans to wait until the last book is out so they know more about the world, and there are so many other games to play.

3. It isn't perfect, but the WoT RPG did a pretty decent job of turning WoT channelling into an RPG magic system. WoT magic is a literary device, first and foremost, a novice channeller could fight a small army singlehandedly, and a talented master might be able to truly wreck all of time if they tried with Balefire. A few innovations originally developed for the d20 WoT game worked their way back into D&D, like the Wilder class (originally for channellers who learned naturally instead of being formally taught). Just like turning Gandalf's and Sarumans's magic or Jedi powers into game stats will have a few problems, so will WoT channelling.

Harry Potter could easily be converted into a d20 game. I'd go with d20 Modern personally, and make your "blood" a facet of your Occupation (occupations for Muggles, Mages, Squibs, Half-Bloods, ect), basic magic could be a skill/feat system with advanced classes and prestige classes to specialize in certain aspects (like an Auror or Animagus Prestige Classes, or a Dark Wizard advanced class).

 

[Ranger REG]

No, I don't have something negative to say about redhurst. But while the inspiration is clear, I think it's a disservice to both Redhurst and Harry Potter to say that they're the same thing.

Redhurst was designed to fit within the Pre-existing D&D rules. It uses the eight specialist schools where HP uses the four houses. It teaches a class in Magic Missile.

In order to make Harry Potter d20, you'd either have to do disservice to the setting, cutting and rearranging so that it can squeeze in where Redhurst fits naturally, or you'd have to do a lot of cutting, rearranging and addition of the d20 rules themselves.

I have no problem with tweakiing the rules to fit the setting. In fact, I advocate that.

As the saying goes, "D&D is d20, but d20 is not D&D."

 

[glass]

What the...?

I thought land was at a premium in England!

When a flat goes for a million pounds in London, I find it hard to beleive that, say, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle alone couldn't generate more than 250 million.

bizarre.

The Queen doesn't own Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace, any more than the PotUSoA owns The White House or Camp David.

EDIT: As others have pointed out ages ago.


glass.

 

[glass]

3. It isn't perfect, but the WoT RPG did a pretty decent job of turning WoT channelling into an RPG magic system. WoT magic is a literary device, first and foremost, a novice channeller could fight a small army singlehandedly, and a talented master might be able to truly wreck all of time if they tried with Balefire. A few innovations originally developed for the d20 WoT game worked their way back into D&D, like the Wilder class (originally for channellers who learned naturally instead of being formally taught). Just like turning Gandalf's and Sarumans's magic or Jedi powers into game stats will have a few problems, so will WoT channelling.

I think the biggest problem with WoT chaneling is that chanellers have fixed and hugely variable potential power, which is difficult to model in a level based system (or indeed any RPG system with extensive advancement).

And that is really the only thing that the WoT RPG doesn't model. Everything else is pretty much spot on, IMO.


glass.

 

[WizarDru]

And that is really the only thing that the WoT RPG doesn't model. Everything else is pretty much spot on, IMO.

A quick glance at the reviews here an ENWorld show 1 3-star and 3 4-star reviews. Pretty good. One even specifically cites what a good job the designers did adapting the difficult "will and the way" magic system.

 

[Hairfoot]

So, what's a good, simple RPG system which could cover Harry Potter?

I have many friends who consider D&D to be shamefully geeky, but immerse themselves thoroughly in the worlds of HP and Buffy without a trace of irony. I'm trying to win some converts.

D20 would be a turn-off. It's more suited to keen and/or experienced gamers. I need something which is fairly easy to GM, doesn't require the players to juggle loads of statistics, and could carry the HP world of wizards and muggles.

Any suggestions?

 

[Lord Rasputin]

My understanding of Jo Rowling's position on a Harry Potter RPG is that she thinks there is already enough Harry Potter merchandizing as it is. I can't see her having problems with RPGs -- many folks have homebrew Harry Potter RPGs as it is, and Rowling has to know about them, being as she reads the major fan sites (Mugglenet, the Leaky Cauldron, Godric's Hollow and others) and there are many mentions of Harry Potter RPGs on those.

As for a dislike of other folks "putting words in her characters' mouths," this can't be true. She has also said that she reads and likes Harry Potter fan fiction.

Anyhow, as for playing it in a game, there is an excellent GURPS Harry Potter conversion. It regrettably shows a bit of rust -- it was written two Harry Potter books, three Harry Potter movies and one version of GURPS ago -- but all of this is easily fixable, and the work is extensive.

I'm a die-hard GURPS fan, so obviously I'm biased to this conversion, but were I looking to make a simple version for an RPG, I'd use Fudge. Heck, my daughter will need a good RPG introduction in a few years, so maybe I'll take the time then.

One final bit. Thomas Barnes, the author of the aforementioned GURPS Harry Potter, writes this as his opening graf:

Several months ago, I finally broke down and read one of the Harry Potter books. Like everyone else, I became addicted. I quickly read all four books in the series in quick succession and then re-read them. As I read, I kept wondering if J.K. Rowling was a former gamer, because the parameters of her world were so carefully thought out. Underneath the prep school fantasy, there was a tautly constructed world with its own internal logic that begged to be further fleshed out.

Food for thought.

 

[Justin Bacon]

To truly do justice to HP in RPG form, you need to capture the sense of myth and legend about the world and reality of HP. You need to have darkness and mystery just beyond the walls. You need to play with the idea of having magic but not getting everything you want with the wave of a wand. Play with issues of maturity, growing, pain, loss, and ability. D&D is a sublimely designed system for killing things and taking their stuff. HPd20 would be a game designed for facing the dangerous world behind the everyday. And there's no reason d20 would be any worse at doing this than any other system, straight out the box.

The only trick I see with Harry Potter D20 is the magic system. Half the problem will be getting a designer who won't try to "balance" it with a fatigue system or something. The other half will be trying to get decent gameplay out of a system which, in the novels, doesn't feature any kind of meaningful counterspelling techniques (beyond expelliarmus).

I'd probably split Potterverse spells into two categories: Those spells with physical effects that have to hit you, which prompt a Reflex save; and those spells with mental effects, which prompt a Will save.

Counterspelling wouldn't look like D&D counterspelling at all. You're not so much using magic so disrupt magical energies as you're casting a different spell to disrupt the caster's spellcasting (by taking their wand away, silencing them, etc.). To add a bit my dynamic to magical duels, I'd probably look at a system where you can ready a counterspell as a standard action and definitely get it off (disrupting the opposing spellcaster unless they make their save) or you can ready a counterspell as a move action, which requires an opposed Spellcraft check to get it off. Needs some tweaking.

There'd be two classes: Wizard and Muggle.

And you'd need some really solid potion-making rules. I'd probably be looking at a simplified version of the ritual magic system from R&R for the more complicated potions (like polyjuice).

Simplifying the D20 system down to an appropriate level for the Potterverse is simplicity itself:

- The skill system is reduced to a list of skills with the generic difficulty DCs. The only skill that might get particular attention would be Spellcraft (for obvious reasons).

- Combat is stripped down to its most basic elements without a lot of the optional rules for handling specific maneuvers. Attacks of opportunity would be stripped out. The grapple rules would be streamlined through the simple expedient of removing most of the conditional modifiers (so the only thing you have to worry about is: Am I grappled? Am I pinned?), and I'd probably look to include a simplified set of bull rush mechanics into the grapple rules (since the ability to push other people around is vital).

You could get the actual rules for such a D20 game to fit into about 15 pages (not counting spell descriptions).

Justin Alexander Bacon
http://www.thealexandrian.net