For some reason I have recent been afflicted with the persistent idea of a Harry Potter-esque d20 game. For those who do not know, it would basically be Dungeons and Dragons, except with a Harry Potter "format", in that world, with the same magic systems, the same characters, etc. It would be based on the system of Dungeons and Dragons (3.5 Rules) with Dexterity affecitng how well you make wand movements, Constitution affecting how many spells that are draining you can cast, Intelligence how fast you learn the spells, and so forth.

I think that might might be pretty fun, however I am not sure if its just a rather half-baked idea. So I just wanted to hear from others on the forum about what they think of it.

Also, I put it in this category because it is HP-related, but if it should be in the real life discussion, sorry for my bad judgment...

 

I've never thought of that, there are few Forgotten Realms/HP crossovers. For this though you would have to create a whole world as backdrop, game mechanics can be decided on easily and improved as neccessary, but still a lot of work. Maybe a few people should get together and even attempt it.

 

I wonder, maybe the sort of cannon backdrop would be used and the players could make their own chars, not being allowed to use any people named in the books. Any time could be picked to start the campaign after harry was scarred. It wouldn't really be like "true" dnd, but maybe it would still work. Any thoughts?

 

The class system is going to be a problem, as is the creation of spells (level, damage, etc.), and lets not forget wands...

However the idea does have merrit and I am willing to help if wanted.

 

You don't have to stick exactly with harry potter anyway(probably a prudent idea), just use the modern world she has created and use it as a base for a template to create the backdrop, modify the class system to say up until level 7 there is only one class beyond that, the class depends on professions that are in JK or have been introduced in fanfiction. To manage spells do what is done in the epic levels, spell has a DC to learn and to cast which works well with HPverse. Break a lot old rules from DnD and Harry potter to create a combination. Or maybe these wizards are actually a secretive sect in the Forgottem Realms that do magic in a special way.

 

As for the class systems, I was thinking that maybe there would be a sort of split like between "light" and " dark" types classes, or the sort of neutral class that cannot access the highest light or dark. But yeah, the spells can prove a large problem. I am just sort of hoping that the DM would prevent outrageous things, but the problem is what is outrageous and what isnt. Using the glue spell (a cantrip i think) to glue somebody's lungs shut would obviously be overpowered, except it is limited to touch range and if the opponent has his hand shoved down your fucking trachea, you have bigger problems. I am sort of rambling though. Wands would be more like spell books in a way though.

Edit: sorry, didnt notice your post. erm, I am pretty sure it would be helpful for it to be in pretty modern times, so that way muggles could actually pose a threat. But yeah, it doesn't have to be in the locales of the book at all.

Edit #2: Wow, big idea. Maybe this is could be in a version where there was no Voldemort, and instead the problem was Muggles were learning of magic...that could be very interesting, what with wizard-hunters.

 

Light or Dark is kind of interesting because you don't necessarily have to make the distinction. But if is absolutely necessary use the players alignment to determine what spells they can or cannot cast and certain spells can be cast by anybody.

 

Yeah, thats true. About the spells though... would any spells be taken from regular dnd and maybe modified, or do you think new ones would need to be created? Some are roughly parallel though, like Charm Person=Imperio to a degree, and fireball=the standardly used version in fanfics....

 

One of the main limitations of harry potter is that we only see a spell being used in one way where there may be more applications and thereby you can generalize the spell give it a new name, and then say that on such and such page this spell was used by so and so but that is only one use, reducto is a common example of people messing around with spells. Any DnD spell that does'nt have a parallel in the hpverse should be fair game and viceversa, it's just that you will have specify further about all of them.

 

OK, I more or less understand all of that. What do you think about limiting the number of spells based on something like a bank of points of Con squared per day, with the level of each spell taken from the bank? Or is that way too high?

 

How about 2*caster level + abi. mod. depending on class. Maybe aurors class is con where as ... or maybe we ought come up with classes first.

Auror
Curse Breaker
Warder
Tranfigurer
Enchanter(charms)
Potions master
whatever

 

Pretty sure there should be a healer type in there. If the Muggles have a side, then there should be a tech class somehow. Sorry, got to leave the computer now though.

 

People have submitted bits and pieces of material for a Harry Potter D20(Modern) game on the forums at ENWorld, from time to time (in the D20 Modern subforum, of course). I saw homemade GURPS rules for Harry Potter somewhere once but I've never really cared much for the system. It's complicated and not many people (around here) seem to use it.

Some people have said that if you're wanting to run a D20 Modern Harry Potter game, then Redhurst Academy of Magic by Human Head Games is worth looking into. I, myself, know nothing about it. I guess I should change that, seeing as how (AFAIK) the entire player's guide, though not the GM material, is available as a free download on their site.

Here's an archived thread where people tossed around some ideas and suggestions...
...and another.
...and another.
...and there's also this which I haven't looked at but may or may not be the most productive link. HTH.

Edit: There is a rules PDF at that last link which may prove interesting.

 

I'd say that trying to adapt HP and D20 together would be very very difficult, if only because of how combat-centric D20 magic is vs how... household-centric? magic in a Hogwarts setting is. Even outside Hogwarts, say at Auror level and above, in most fanon there's not that much extra combat magic, let alone in canon. Plus there's the fact that basically every available class would have to be some sort of derivation of the wizard, making it hard to have a lot of diversity between characters.

Realistically, I've got very little experience with the GURPS system, but from what I have seen it's flexible enough that you could easily stretch it into running an HP game. Failing that, and my own personal preference (since I don't particularly like D20 and don't really know GURPS) would be to modify the rules for White Wolf's Exalted to fit the setting. You've already got a very diverse base of magic to draw from in the form of charms, which run from utilitarian to purely military in their application, the system's designed for flexible use of large amounts of magic (Bear in mind that even the average Hogwarts student has a spell repertoire easily on par with a Wizard in quantity, has the casting flexibility of a Sorcerer and the ability to throw off more spells in a day than both of them put together) and is more suited to the 'all magic draws off a single pool' attitude HP seems to have (As in you can burn all your essence casting a few powerful spells, and then not be able to cast anything else, whereas in D20 you can cast all your highest level spells, then have all your other spell levels to fall back on). It would still need very heavy modification be compatible, like changing essence costs/pool sizes/regeneration to allow for the amount of spells HP characters can often throw out, changing the charms themselves and most importantly removing the melee focus in the system, but I think the 'core' of the system, if you will, is more compatible with HP than D20 is.

I'm sorry that's not particularly constructive regarding the subject of HP d20, but while I know the system well enough to play in it I don't know it well enough to tinker with.