I found this great freeform system called Eldritch Ass Kicking that I think would make a great basis for the HP World. my group has expressed interest in playing the game, but being my neurotic self, I don't want to just wing it, I want to codify the rules. I have a good idea on the mechanics, I just need some ideas for magical spell, skills, and merits/Flaws. Between the wiki and the Lexicon I have a good grasp of canon, but I don't see why I shouldn't add some FanFic stuff to the mix. You guys are some of the most creative people around and I wanted to get some of your ideas. So what are your favorite fanon spells, magical skills, merits, flaws, races, etc. I'm looking for stuff that would fit in a RPG so nothing to broken like Dragon buddies or Godlike Harry stuff, but I know I'm missing some great ideas. Here is what I have so far:

Harry Potter the Rpg

Playable Wizards:

Muggleborn: least starting magical arts, moderate stats, most bonus points (anything is possible with these guys)

Halfblood: mod magic, mod bonus points, best stats (all around decent)

Pureblood: Best magic, least stats, least bonus points (inbreeding sucks but grew up around magic)

Attributes:

Physique—Strength and Stamina

Agility—Dexterity and speed

Mind—intellignece and problem solving

Perception-senses

Focus—magical strength, determines strength of lasting effects, wards, etc

Presence—Charisma and social skills

Arts: Magical skills—use for spells

Transfiguration: Transforming one object to another

Charms: Altering the qualities of objects

Potions: Creating magical drinks

Cursing; Offensive magic (hexs, jinxes, curses)

Defense: Defensive magic—wards are high level defenses

Advanced Arts: Not available to beginning characters without merits

Dark arts—requirement for dark magic. Usually combines with traditional arts

Light arts—requirement for light magic. Usually combines with Traditional arts

Healing

Apparation

Occulmency

Legimency

Nonmagical skills

Flight

Herbology

Astronomy

Ancient runes—wizarding foreign languages

Arithmancy—used to create new spells,

Muggle studies


Merits (Physical-p, Social-S, Mental, M, Magic-Ma)

Half Races—Giant, Veela, Vampire, Goblin (P)

Great Physique (P)—very strong and tough

Pureblood (P)—grants social bonus to other purebloods

Quick (P)—fast, good initiative and movement rates

Attractive (P)

Athletic (P)

Old Family (S)

Mastered Spell (M)

Great Researcher (M)

Metamorphmagus (Ma)—gives acess to metamorph skill

Elemental (Ma)—gives acess to elemental skill

Necromancy—gives acess to necromancy skill

Iron Willed (M)

Natural Art (Ma)—gives acess to advanced art

Prodigy (art or skill) (M or Ma)

Wandless magic—lessens penalties for wandless magic (Ma)

Wordless magic (Ma)

Traveler (M)

Wealthy (S)

Contacts (S)

Fame (S)

Good Luck (Ma)

Prophet (Ma)

Animagus Potential (Ma)

Child of Prophecy (Ma)

Excellent liar (M)

Stealthy (P)

Inventor (M)

Flaws

Reckless (M)

Ugly (P)

Slow (P)

Near Squib (Ma)

Talentless (M or Ma)—less skilled at one skill

Weak Willed (M)

Frail (P)

Obesssion (M)

Cursed (Ma)

Werewolf (P)

Poor (S)

Arrogant (M)

Bad Reputation (S)

Cassandra (Ma)—accursed Prophet

Class Enemy (S)

I know I'm not thinking of all the best merits and flaws, so if you have any ideas especially for those, please give them.

 

Personally I would make the Mud/Half/Purebloods each best/mod/least in one area. As it is your pureblood prejudice is showing through because they are the WORST class to play unless you are a purely social/influence character (what good is magic without the means to use it well?) and halfblood is hands down the best. Each one needs to be balanced in benefits and flaws.

Another thing to consider is having the flaws cost different point values depending on the class. A Pureblood (should be Fullblood by the way for the pure magic class) shouldn't pay as much for the "pureblood" or "old family merits" because of their background. A halfblood trying to buy them might need some sort of "infamous sire" flaw and more points because that sort of social boost to signify his father went slumming with a muggle or muggleborn. A muggleborn buying the "inventor" merit ought to be a bit cheaper as well since the muggle world relies on a lot more innovation than the wizarding world. This will make the char-gen process a lot more balanced and flexible, not to mention every character more unique.

Suggested flaws/merits
Luck (Ma). Forget Good Luck or Bad Luck. This is a GM plot device worth a few points (as if it were a flaw, but not very many) that is both good and bad. At critical times (for either the player or GM, no more than once per session each) Luck can be used to sway or influence the character's results/direction/abilities, usually in the form of a reroll for the last challenge. The reason it gives points is that the GM can really hurt the player by forcing rerolls of those "once in a lifetime" shots or similarly fudging the numbers. Arguably Harry Potter possesses this trait, he always gets the absolute worst luck but somehow miraculously recovers.

Infamous Sire (S). One or both of your parents are notorious in the Wizarding World for their actions. Depending on the point value the seriousness of their crime may range from breaking an arranged marriage in favor of a muggleborn up to being the child/grandchild of Voldemort himself.

Sight from Beyond (Ma). Another Catch-22 merit/flaw, muggleborns pay for it due to it's increased usefulness, purebloods get paid for the distraction, halfbloods get it free since it is both a blessing and a curse. You see impossible things and hear messages from no one. Not nearly prophecy, your insights might cause you to be distracted at a critical time or they might warn you of impending attack an instant before it happens. Not all of the impressions and messages/visions are useful however and people with this trait tend to find it much easier to believe in bigfoot and aliens.

Enemy (S). Someone really hates you, and they are doing everything in their power to get you. It might be a kind old headmaster who wants you to go to Azkaban and learn the error of your ways or it might be a Dark Wizard who wants to torture you slowly before he kills you. Either way if they catch you, game over man! The point value of this flaw scales in relation to the power/resources/influence of your enemy. A muggle wizard hunter scoping out your neighborhood and asking questions at the pub is not worth much but the Minister for Magic deciding you should be Public Enemy #1 is worth considerably more. Sure a fair trial might exonerate you from the latter but who says you won't "resist arrest" and have an "accident" before that can happen?

Mentor (S). Someone really likes you and wants you to succeed. They might share some of their library and train you or they might do you a favor now and then. The point value of this merit scales with the power/resources/influence of the mentor. A character's father might not be much help beyond a place to crash and a few little secrets he picked up over the years, but having Nicholas Flamel in your corner probably guarantees success in all but the most extreme circumstances.

Haven/Chantry/Lair (P). You have a place to lay low when the heat is on or to recover from your wounds. Purchasing this merit at it's basic level might just mean a small flat tucked away in the muggle world, but it does convey some manner of privacy and secresy rather than crashing on your parent's couch. At higher point values it might be a small warded cottage with a few medical supplies and a decent stock of food just in case. Unless spread over multiple characters (and GM approval), this merit should never be used to justify an "impenetrable fortress of doom" or a fidelius enhanced manor with enough supplies to survive a seige.

Exile (S). You are not welcome in the Wizarding World. While not a wanted criminal to be arrested on sight, no one is willing to deal with you. What money you have is not welcome in any shops or inns forcing you to resort to black market merchants or healers who care more about the coin than fair business or legality. Finding shelter or supplies is nearly impossible or very expensive. For balance reasons this flaw is worth significantly less for muggleborn characters than it is for purebloods to whom magical exile is crippling.

 

Is this your first RPG? Cause you've got a lot you'd need to code in there, it'd be a big job for your first one. Spells wise you should check the DLP Spell List, its got some of the best spells we could come up with.

Other spells wise, you've got blasting curses, spleen expelling curses, the throwing up jinx, bone breaking curses, head exploding curse, creating inferi (ritual or spell), the infamous crucio and a whole lot more.

Aekiel

 

I shudder to say it but if you want a practical magic system take a look at the sphere magic outlined in "Mage the Ascension". I'm not really a fan of it's storyline but the magic system is the best I've seen outside of the D&D style level/spell name system. Basically you'd buy ranks in each school and then combine them for any custom spells you need. Well defined spells like a stunner or a disarming jinx are still covered in their respective disciplines but you can combine them for truly unique and flashy results.

Instead of just "I cast a level three spleen rupturer curse" you get "using my skills in transfiguration and charms I turn a piece of wood into a wild boar and have it attack" or "using my healing and battle magic skills I stop the blood to his brain." Clearly it's harder to deal with a wild boar than it is a simple stunner and slowly losing consciousness from blood flow problems can be a might bit tricky to escape if you don't have your own skills in healing. Using this type of approach gives you more variety in your spells and allows the player to create their own on the spot if they need to.

 

Ok, there was a good practical magic/skill style set up in a MUD I played a while back. It had you go to certain places (depending on class - e.g. thief would go to a different place than a wizard) where you would pay money and experience to practice a skill up to about 20% proficiency, then you'd have to use it over and over to become adept at it.

Of course you'd have to retrofit it a bit, maybe change the experience into time and limit the amount of time (or limit the number of lessons) you can spend in Hogwarts (or whatever centre of learning you choose), meaning everyone gets a good basic education, but you have to go around learning the higher class spells from different sources. It'd make specialisation more prominent, cause you don't get to become an expert in every field.

One question, what platform is this going to be on? MUD? Browser based? Java? Cause it makes a whole load of difference depending on which one you choose.

Aekiel

 

I have a question:

What's your storyline?

Story is probably one of the most important things to an RPG. Will this be freeform or on-the-rails? Who do you play as? Do racial bonuses and penalties apply? (Ex. Vampire is an outcast and suffers sun aversion.) How fast can one level? What are the limits? Is it MMO PvP? What prevents a strong player from killing everyone else off? Have you thought about any of this?

....Jesus I'm a buzz kill.

 

Could be wrong, but I think he meant more of a table-top type thing. Don't know why I got that impression though.


RPGs like you're talking about here are highly subjective things. Primarily you need to keep in mind three things (imo): Setting, Purpose, and Function. No matter what aspect of your game you're working on it comes back to those three things.

Does the {character class, ability, spell, etc.} fit into the setting of the game?

What purpose does the {character class, ability, spell, etc.} have in the game. What need/hole does it fill?

Finally, how does the {character class, ability, spell, etc.} function in relation to the other aspects you've already designed. Does it conflict, overlap, out-date, etc. anything previously designed?

Just a few quick thoughts.

 

Yeah, its a table top game. I don't like MUD's and online games. I want to feel the dice in my hand and have my friends around the table.

As for the story, They will be going to an exclusive magical school in the California that caters to the South Western US and North West Mexico. The idea is they go through the seven years of school dealing with a rising dark lord based on an Aztec motif and the reincarnation of Quetzacouatl.

Catiff, thanks especially for the thoughts on merits and flaws. My players are interesed in the following characters:

Male Luna Lovegood type--A prophet in the mold of Cassandra.

Female Draco type--prodigy in Transfiguration

Male Metamorphmagus but a borderline Squib in everything else.

A wannabe Bellatrix Lestrange with talent for Water Magic and a taste for fighting

and finally a Classic Type Hero in the mold of Harry

I have a good idea for the mechanics, its in the broad nature of HP magic that is frustrating. should I go with having them learn specific spells or should the magic be much more broad? Perhaps a combination of both with something like a Generic Transmutation spell at various levels with specific spells dealing with stuff like the Animagus Tranformation?

What do the people think about the various character types. How should pureblood, halfblood and muggleborn be balanced with each other?

keep sending those merits and flaws too. I can always use more

Jon

 

You mean you're not gonna make a game the DLPers can play? I feel so cheated.

 

Bah.. even if a few technophobes wann play with real dice and shit, you could always use IRC and scripts to simulate and play online.

Speaking of, since you are asking for our assistance, are you gonna share this creation with us?