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.

 

[Celebrim]

I'm not sure that your assertion is true, but it's not important enough of a matter to debate.

By that standard, we should shut the EnWorld forums down.

 

[Yaarel]

Here's the thing: Harry Potter is lethal. The risk is real -- as the movies progress, the risk of bodily harm finally becomes enough of a concern that the goverment gets involved -- but there are always wizards behind the scenes keeping them safe. Or to put it another way, there's always an adult claiming, "they were never really in danger all along!"


But yeah, people die in the Potter books.

I get that, in Potterverse the challenges are dangerous.

The difference is, Harry Potter is gaining ‘experience points’ by overcoming challenges, rather than by the number of creatures that Harry Potter kills.

In D&D, it is possible to advance levels nonlethally, but D&D does this less well.



I want D&D to be excellent for nonlethal advancement, anyway.

 

[Yaarel]

Not unlimited numbers - unlimted uses of the 1-8 known cantrips one might have from 1 or 2 classesCertainly nothing like the way it works in the books.

I suspect the upcoming Psion class can model well the atwill magic of Harry Potter.

Even so, I feel four cantrips plus rituals, covers most of the feel of spells and potions.



Maybe even a variant rule, that one can cast any known cantrip as a ritual, can help.

 

[Aldarc]

By that standard, we should shut the EnWorld forums down.

Upon thinking about it - more than I should for a trivial matter - I'm not sure that it is an either/or scenario.

 

[billd91]

I get that, in Potterverse the challenges are dangerous.

The difference is, Harry Potter is gaining ‘experience points’ by overcoming challenges, rather than by the number of creatures that Harry Potter kills.

In D&D, it is possible to advance levels nonlethally, but D&D does this less well.

I want D&D to be excellent for nonlethal advancement, anyway.

It is my assertion that D&D does this just fine - and has ever since story awards were introduced in 2e. The problem isn't that D&D can't do this, it's that too many published adventures haven't incorporated this. I don't necessarily blame them too harshly for this. After all, combat-heavy D&D is an easy common experience to shoot for to maximize sales.

 

[Sunseeker]

It is my assertion that D&D does this just fine - and has ever since story awards were introduced in 2e. The problem isn't that D&D can't do this, it's that too many published adventures haven't incorporated this. I don't necessarily blame them too harshly for this. After all, combat-heavy D&D is an easy common experience to shoot for to maximize sales.

I think 4E proved D&D can handle non-combat events just fine, and I don't think there was anything unique to 4E about the way they approached them.

It's just that yes, by and large D&D doesn't bother to include or reward non-combat, and this is reflected by the number of tables that will include social and exploration events, but reward you nothing for them, even though they are required hurdles to progress many quests and campaigns.

 

[tuxedoraptor]

As it has been mentioned, the potterverse is rather...combat sparse?...I can't think of a better word for it other than slightly boring. I would not run any game set in the potterverse for that reason alone. I suck at social interactions and most of my players enjoy magic to do things that aren't possible, like burning a man alive from the inside by staring intensely at him. If there was a D&D styled potterverse RPG, there would need to be a lot more ways to gruesomely murder people for my players to be happy.

 

[billd91]

As it has been mentioned, the potterverse is rather...combat sparse?...I can't think of a better word for it other than slightly boring. I would not run any game set in the potterverse for that reason alone. I suck at social interactions and most of my players enjoy magic to do things that aren't possible, like burning a man alive from the inside by staring intensely at him. If there was a D&D styled potterverse RPG, there would need to be a lot more ways to gruesomely murder people for my players to be happy.

Wouldn't that depend on the focus of the campaign? The Potterverse isn't just about going to school. There are aurers at the Ministry of Magic and magical criminals about. There are giants in remote areas of the world that could stir up trouble, as well as vampires, werewolves, fugitive Death Eaters. Rather like a Star Wars campaign (or virtually any campaign based on licensing some other story), you're better off playing in the margins around the core story - students in other houses/years at Hogwarts, students at other magical academies, other aspects of magical society, other eras like Voldemort's initial rise or the days of Grindelwald. You could ultimately incorporate as much combat as you wanted.

 

[Sean3DGuy]

Compared to video games, board games and card games (areas where there have been licensed Potter products - some quite successful)the revenue from a licensed RPG would generate for her is (let's be honest) peanuts.

Also - the audience she's selling to primarily the YA and family market. Licensed products for cards, video games and board games make sense for that sort of target demo.

RPGs - eh, not so much.

I was working at WotC around the time the second and third books came out. I saw some of the HP RPG manuscript (I worked in the copy center). One of the things that they were having issues with was the target audience. If it's kids, will it be easy enough to understand. If adults, will it be too simplistic. Also are adults going to be interested in playing kids? It's a weird thing, but I think it was a big enough issue that held the RPG back from getting past just basic design stage.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Also - the audience she's selling to primarily the YA and family market. Licensed products for cards, video games and board games make sense for that sort of target demo.

RPGs - eh, not so much.

LOL What!?

I literally guffawed when I read that.