Why Didn't Harry Potter Change the Game?

Fantasy is now much more mainstream, so it's easy to forget how influential the debut of the Harry Potter franchise was on the genre. And yet despite the blockbuster success of the franchise we never got an official Harry Potter tabletop role-playing game -- for Dungeons & Dragons or any other system.

[h=3]Yes, Harry Potter Was a Big Deal[/h]Author J.K. Rowling's tale of a young boy who would fulfill his destiny at a school for wizards sent shockwaves through the book publishing industry when it debuted. Kids started reading again, and adults read along with them. The numbers give a sense of scale to the enormous impact the Harry Potter series had on publishing, movies, and fantasy worlds in general.

To date, the book series has sold over 160 million copies, grossing $7.7 billion. The movies actually performed worse than the books, grossing $7.2 billion so far. It made Rowling a billionaire and the actor who played Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, a millionaire. In addition to the books and movies, the franchise generated $7.3 billion in games and toys. All told, the franchise is estimated to be valued at roughly $25 billion.

D&D and Harry Potter have quite a bit in common. They both systemize magical systems, categorize fantastical creatures, and gradually advance the characters' power throughout the series. And yet there was never a Harry Potter role-playing game. Why not?
[h=3]Harry Sneaks In[/h]There's are certainly benefits to being affiliated with the Harry Potter franchise. Universal Studios' Orlando theme park's attendance surged 30% when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2010. A Harry Potter-branded tabletop RPG would like experience a similar sales bump from the name affiliation alone.

There were tabletop gaming attempts to ride the Potter fandom. Redhurst: Academy of Magic, written by Matt Forbeck, applied D20 rules to a Harry Potter-esque school setting, complete with a traitorous spy scribbling in the margins:

REDHURST ACADEMY OF MAGIC is a world of a traveling wizards' school. You are one of its students set to learn about the wonderful world of magic and explore the world under the tutelage of some of the finest arcane minds in the Known Realms. Redhurst is a magical wondrous place where the surreal and mundane share the same table, and the fantastic is in every step of the grounds, every brick of the walls, and every classroom.

There is a widely-spread rumor that J.K. Rowling was not interested in a role-playing game, which is sourced to Ryan Dancey, then VP at Wizards of the Coast:

I’m starting to see a lot of Harry Potter-related merchandise — a lot of it decidedly tacky — but one thing we’ll apparently never see is a Harry Potter role playing game. According to Wizards of the Coast’s Ryan Dancey, series author J.K. Rowling “has flatly stated that she’ll never approve a role playing game in any format.” That’s okay. People will just go on making their own Potter RPGs online.

Wizards of the Coast was undeterred and launched their own line of hardcover books inspired by Rowling's stories, including A Practical Guide to Wizardry:

How do you make a magic wand? Why does a wizard wear robes? What goes into a potion of invisibility? Arch Mage Lowadar invites you to join his school for talented young wizards and explore the magical world of wizardry. In this fully illustrated guide, readers will learn all about what it takes to become a great wizard--from the gear and magic items you need to the secrets of writing your own spells in the language of magic.

The book is a fascinating take on what might have been. It tweaks some elements of D&D (magic items are required to navigate the school and quite common, wands are a core implement for every wizard) and details other elements of spellcasting that have never been officially codified, including detailed descriptions of how verbal (actual phrases along with a pronunciation guide), somatic (drawings of wand gestures), and material components work.

David F. Chapman recently pitched a Harry Potter RPG to Warner Bros. It didn't get as far as he hoped:

I originally wrote most of the above posts a couple of years ago, shortly after we'd started talking to Warner Bros. about the possibility of doing a game, and only getting so far (it wasn't something they were considering at the time). Since then, the thoughts of a Harry Potter RPG have always been lingering in my mind. However, recently (and hence the new post) there was the announcement on Pottermore that Warner Bros. Interactive had launched a new gaming division called Portkey Games. A new division whose only purpose is to develop mobile and console games in the Wizarding World.

The promise of a RPG-like world will be realized this year.
[h=3]A Mobile "RPG"[/h]Potter fans will finally get a role-playing game in the form of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, a mobile RPG developed by Jam City in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's Portkey Games:

In “Hogwarts Mystery,” players progress through their years at Hogwarts, participating in the magical classes and activities Potterheads have come to love, including Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, and Duelling Club. The game is actually set in the 1980s — before Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and friends have matriculated at the wizarding academy — although according to WB and Jam City, Albus Dumbledore and most of the iconic Hogwarts professors will appear in the game.

Given the enormous amount of enthusiasm and homebrewed role-playing games available on the Internet, it seems Rowling is finally coming around to the idea of approving a role-playing game in SOME formats. But even if there never is an official RPG, the franchise's influence is felt in the spread of Potter fandom, who are surely part of the renewed interested in D&D.

 

[Von Ether]

Numerous companies have approached Rowling to license Potter for an RPG. Rowling has put the kibosh on it every time. Something to do with creative control - she doesn't want other people writing Potter material.

Sounds like if you couldn't directly play as Potter and his pals in rooms and areas that were already established, she got nervous.

 

[Kobold Boots]

Lord of the Rings number of copies sold WW: 150 million (source Google)
Hobbit number of copies sold WW: 100 million (Source Google)

Number of JK Rowling Potter copies sold WW: 450 million (source Google)
Game of Thrones copies sold WW: 70 million as of 2016 (source Google)

Only threw the GoT stuff in there for modern relevance. I'd say JK is being difficult because she's got a lot to lose. Her sales dwarf the "competition" so to speak and she's got the liquid capital not to care about making a buck here and there.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There’s also the oddly-named Pigsmoke RPG, where you essentially play the professors at Hogwarts-with-the-name-filed-off.

I can think of a number of magic school-oriented RPGs, but few of them seem to have that much traction. I imagine an official license would have more of an impact. Just look at all the various official Star Wars RPGs.

 

[WayneLigon]

Big-name licensing has been tricky in the RPG world for a long time and I suspect that's a factor here too - on top of the author's rejection, of course.

- In the middle of Lord of the Rings movies we had the one short-lived Decipher RPG and then nothing for 7-8 years.

- In the middle of the Marvel Cinematic explosion we had the one MWP Marvel RPG for not even a year and nothing new since

- Reasonably and perpetually popular Star Trek had no active RPG after 2003 and even after the new movie series started up in 2009 there was no RPG until last year.

This is despite all of these universes having long-lived, successful RPGs in the 80's and into the 90's for some. I think the IP holders have become far more strict about terms and costs have surely increased.

I agree that Harry Potter is a huge missed opportunity, particularly regarding potential new players. I'm not sure there's any reason to be more optimistic about this changing right now. Maybe if there's a new book or movie series or some other main line re-ignition of the universe they will be more interested and open to an RPG.

I also think that there was an attitude in many quarters that tabletop RPGs were too old a thing to bother with. I suspect that the success of D&D the last few years may have changed that in a lot of those places too. If there is a reason for optimism right now, I'd start there.

Also possibly the 'fault' of the license-holder. The Tolkien estate is famously hard to deal with. In the past Marvel has wanted exorbitant amounts of cash for the license, and has never liked the idea of having character generation rules in the game, forcing you to play already-statted Marvel heroes. Except for the first game, chargen has been absent or bare-bones that it hardly existed.

 

[Morrus]

There’s an issue with large media companies not knowing how to value an RPG license, or not wanting to do the work involved in quality control. A lunchbox makes ten thousand times more money and doesn’t require anybody to read a book. Plus for a lunchbox they’ll ask for an advance on royalties big enough to bankrupt any non-large RPG company. The likelihood is that for most properties, enquiries are met with a standard procedure with far too many zeros on the end and nobody who really understands or cares what RPGs are.

A lot of licenses come about because of personal contacts.

 

[TrippyHippy]

JK Rowling is a bit prissy when it comes to fantasy as a genre. She was notably rebuked by Terry Pratchett** after she wrote some article complaining of her embarrassment of being associated with the genre, and it's not a stretch that the boy dominated fantasy roleplaying hobby isn't something she wanted to be associated with either. Roleplaying games don't really generate enough revenue for some execs to really care enough to persuade her otherwise, and the Harry Potter franchise racks up more revenue than a small country anyway.

**Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4732385.stm

 

[redrick]

I guess I'm not surprised considering the death like grip Rowling has on her IP. People making their own stories in her sandbox? How dare they. It's her IP, so it's her right I guess, but damn, even the Tolkien estate isn't that bad.

A big difference is that Tolkien is no longer writing material. Rowling, in keeping the setting to herself, is not only protecting the works she has already published, but also protecting the works she has yet to write or publish. It gives her free reign to develop the setting exactly as she sees fit when she sees fit.

While I appreciate the appeal, from an RPG gamer or developer side, of wanting to have a Potterverse RPG, I also appreciate her desire to keep the setting to herself.

And since it's not a shockingly novel setting in of itself, there's not a whole lot lost to gaming beyond the brand recognition.

 

[jgsugden]

You'd be better off with a different system if you want to emulate the books/movies. Something with a spell failure chance, as well as a potentially unlimited spellcasting as a basic structural element.

 

[Shasarak]

Not many realise that the World Health Organization banned Rowling from creating a Harry Potter roleplaying game on the grounds that millions of people who suffer from what is popularly known as "Linear Fighter, Quadratic Wizard" syndrome would die of apoplectic stroke. So it is for the best really.

 

[MarkB]

Yeah, D&D isn't a good fit for Harry Potter - I'd far sooner use something along the lines of Fate Core or Dungeon World. However, I always felt that it was a shame WotC didn't do more to adopt the Potterverse style of magic wand, as a universal tool for enhancing spellcasting rather than a specialist spell storage device. 4e went some distance in that direction, but 5e mostly abandoned the concept, though I suppose its remnants are there in the Spell Focus concept.