Hogwarts: More Than Magical (Full)

[kckolbe]

System Rules: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=171632.0
Setting Info: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=171648.0
Approved Characters: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=171859.0

I want to run a Hogwarts game using a homebrew system of my own creation.  I know that most Hogwarts games are freeform, but I wanted a system because Hogwarts was so much more than a story about a magical world (hence the subject line).  There was competition everywhere, and danger about as often.  I have a system that allows for all of it.  Want to play an academically focused student, creating potions or deciphering runes?  Got it.  Want to master magic, learning advanced spells and maybe even creating your own?  Got that, too.  Want to play a Quidditch game?  You'll get to, with mechanics for every position, varying in complexity depending on your comfort with systems.  Want to just zip around on a broom, challenging others to races?  You can do that, too.  The rules for broom racing can be extremely simple, or augmented with the addition of obstacles.  Want to duel another wizard?  This took the most playtesting, but you can do it.  Finally, want to sneak around the school, exploring hidden areas while trying not to get caught?  Got that covered, too.  There are also rules for persuasion, lying, and other social elements.  I have playtested this system twice already, and made a couple of small changes with each attempt.  From past attempts, I can say that it is easy to learn, even by people completely new to systems. 

Of course, the system doesn't provide everything.  Part of the suspense was living through the eyes of the students, and never fully knowing what the various "adults" were up to.  For that reason, all staff members will be NPCs, played by myself or JaneStorm (co-GM).  I already have plot hooks involving multiple instructors, so the students will have plenty to wonder about as they are occupied by classes, events, and social interaction.

The only other thing that could keep players from getting to enjoy the setting fully is, in my opinion, being in the shadow of Harry Potter.  Well, he and his friends will have graduated many years ago, meaning that the cast will be OCs.  In addition to the competitions I mentioned above, there will be a couple of other plot elements that I intend to insert, and some classroom scenes as well, but I plan on allowing a lot of freedom.

I want a large group of people for this, as I really want Hogwarts to come alive.  At the moment I have a preference to run two PC Houses and two NPC Houses, but will consider having three or even four PC Houses based on the number of players I get.  I do want different Houses competing with each other 

What I am looking for from potential players:

-A willingness to coordinate OOC, particularly before the game starts.  Remember, your characters will have been at Hogwarts for years.  They will have opinions and some level of relationship with various PCs and NPCs.

-A desire to include others.  If something happens in the vicinity of your character, I will want your post to reference it, even if the reference is that your char

does not notice it for some reason.  In addition, if you notice that a player seems to have fallen through the cracks, look for ways OOC to get him or her involved.

-More than a bit of nerdiness.  EVERY subject in Hogwarts will come into play during the game.  While there is more information on some than others, it will help if you are the type to get a little excited learning about Arithmancy or different wand theories. 

-Flexibility with canon.  The game is set 8 years after Voldemort's defeat, and I changed nothing from the books.  However, to accomodate an adult setting, students will be 3 years older than is traditional for Hogwarts.  I provide justification for this.  I will also tweak certain things for the system/dramatic effect/etc.  The Room of Requirements may not be on the fourth floor anymore.  I promise to take even the smallest change very seriously, as I have a great deal of respect and adoration for J.K. Rowling's work, and I hope to increase your appreciation of it as well.

While I don't need a char concept right away, I would appreciate if you would at least say which gender you would prefer to play.  Char concepts are fun to look at, but I know some folks prefer to play it by ear, which is completely okay.

Character sheet template below:

Name:
Nationality:
Blood Status: (pure, mudblood, mixed.  If pure, how far back?)
Age: (16-20, please be willing to give or take one year within that range)
Year: (4th-7th, same as above)
House: (Leave Blank)
Description:
Personality:
Background:
Interesting Fact: (Optional)
Wand: (Willgo over later in OOC)
Pet: (Optional)

Agility
Athletics
Awareness
Cunning
Deception
Endurance
Fighting
Magic Expertise
Magic Projection
Marksmanship
Persuasion
Reflexes
Status
Stealth
Will

Classes:
Majors (Pick 2 Best)
Minors (Pick Any Other 3)
Others (Pick 4 Worst)

Qualities:
Drawbacks:

[persephone325]

Interested. Female character.

[Teo Torriatte]

Count me in as well!    Will be playing a female.. still thinking about her personality and such.

[Tamhansen]

might give this a go, depending on how it turns out.

[BruceTheCat]

Interested as a male character.

[TheHangedOne]

As I mentioned previously, I'm definitely jumping in. You can expect to see the return of Gustav, and maybe one other character.

[AmberStarfire]

I'd be interested in playing a female character, perhaps a Ravenclaw potions girl.

[Rogue]

I'm definitely interested. Deciding between being Slytherin or Hufflepuff, but definitely female.

[Blinkin]

I'm interested, although my initial idea for a female may fall to the wayside asthere's already 5 female characters claimed and only 1 male... poor guy

So, a guy, I suppose. More to come later.

[kckolbe]

Glad to see all of the interest.  The basics of the system are located in the link below, and I will be adding more information over the next few days.

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=171632.0

Don't worry about assigning Houses yet as available Houses won't be announced until we are much further along.

Blinkin, there may be some more males popping in soon.  I know of at least two that already were interested that haven't posted.  Also, there's me.  Still, good to have ya on board.

[JamesSureWould]

I'd be interested. So there's one more male

[kckolbe]

Glad to have you, and sure that Blinkin is delighted to be able to play his female concept.

[BruceTheCat]

Is there anything that you need from us character wise right now kckolbe? I'd kind of like to know a bit about what is going on in the world, and what House's we're going with before starting to throw down a character.

[kckolbe]

Here is a link to what happened between Voldemort being defeated and start of the game

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=171648.0

Don't worry about House yet. 

[Rogue]

Glad to see all of the interest.  The basics of the system are located in the link below, and I will be adding more information over the next few days.

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=171632.0

Don't worry about assigning Houses yet as available Houses won't be announced until we are much further along.

Blinkin, there may be some more males popping in soon.  I know of at least two that already were interested that haven't posted.  Also, there's me.  Still, good to have ya on board.

Okay. Do you want us to post questions regarding the system here or in the system? I had a question about some of the wording. *smiles*

[Sephiriel]

Hello everyone!

Here is my character sheet (a sketch) that might aid you in making one yourselves. For those of you who are as noobs as I am with system games, take note that you spend points for classes from the 20 points you have to spend on abilities. You can take 9 classes (2 majors, 3 minors and 4 others), but you can leave all 9 without spending points on them - in this case they remain at 2.

Name: Charlize Renard
Nationality: British
Pureblood (second generation)
Age: 17
Year: 4th
House: TBA
Distinguishing Features: shoulderlength curly red hair, amber eyes, full lips. Lean, slender constitution, a small chest, very long legs.
Personality: Charlize is likely to never be found standing alone. Always a small group around her, always in the middle of a crowd, among friends – which never seem to lack in number – or chatting casually with her teachers. Basically everyone seems to like her and she seems to love everyone. While not probably the most popular student at Hogwarts, Charlize is definitely amongst the privileged. Talkative, spontaneous, the life of the party, always in a good disposition. Not much of an athlete and also less fond of studying, she compensates through humor, charm and oratorical speech. One of her best qualities is the gift of storytelling and sometimes she tends to relate events in a better light than it actually happened.
Background: There isn’t much to tell about her family, except that she has two loving parents and no siblings. Her closest friend is actually her cousin, a non-magic who now works at Gringotts.
Interesting fact: Charlize is very fond of cute, small pets, but strangely frightened by anything not fitting into this category. Large animals and even medium sized ones are to be avoided at all times, according to her mindset.
WAND: Wood Macassar Ebony, Length 15 1/4 inches, Veela hair core
Pet:none

CHARLIZE IN NUMBERS

Agility: 3
Athletics: 2
Awareness: 3  - Empathy 1B
Cunning: 3      - Memory 1B
Deception: 3    - Disguise 1B
Endurance: 3   - Fortitude 1B
Fighting: 2
Magical Expertise: 3
Magical Projection: 3
Marksmanship: 2
Persuasion: 4      - Charm 1B, Convince 1B
Reflexes: 3
Status: 3     - Reputation 1B
Stealth: 2
Will: 4  -  Dedication 1B

Classes:
Majors (Potions, Divination): 3
Minors (Herbology, Astronomy, Ancient Runes): 3
Others (All Others): 3

Quality (1 Destiny Point remains):

Danger Sense: Prerequisite Awareness 3.  Reroll 1's for initiative tests, deny surprising opponent +1D to attack you.

Derived Stats
Intrigue Defense = 6
Composure = 12
Combat Defense = 5
Health = 9
Passive resistance = 12/16
Movement = 4 yards
Sprint = 16

[kckolbe]

Jane, you are using the old char sheet.

Feel free to post questions here.

[Kdyami]

I'm interested.  I'll put a sheet up tonight sometime if that's cool.  I'm glad to see you back Kckolbe

[kckolbe]

Welcome back, man.  Looking forward to seeing it.

[AidenWhite]

I'm interested. Is there like a character template that I could see?

[Meliai]

Oooooh, interested!

The system looks fun and the post-books setting information seems really well thought out.

I'll be submitting a girl, most likely an updated version of this character (I think KC was actually in the game I tried to play her in here! Too bad it crashed and burned so early), but might go in a different direction depending on what sort of characters other folks submit and/or my own fickle whims.

[TheHangedOne]

Okay, kc, I have a few questions  for you. I am torn between two ideas. I am defintiely bringing back Gustav (the Durmstrang student that had to switch schools to Hogwarts; I believe you will remember him from last time), but I want to play a second character, if you'll allow it... I am torn between two ideas for this second character, though. I'd like you to weigh in and let me know if either concept would work better in terms of the plot and such, or if there'd be a problem with either one.

First idea is a student that is a prodigy with animal handling  who is an animagus. A question for this, though: what is and is not allowed for an animagus form? Would magical beasts, for instance a griffin, be going too far?

Second idea is another prodigy student; this one, a natural born Seer who frequently gets confused, because of how much and how often he sees things. Also, how would getting glimpses into the future work in this system? DM fiat? Rolls? Something else?

[kckolbe]

Here's the format I want the numbers in.  Jane's sheet lists the other info I want.  I added a bonus die to Astronomy so you could see how those would be used (though she won't have the free point in game).  Hold off on House and Wand for now.  House will be decided later, and I will post more info on wands tomorrow.  I get all nerdy about wands.

Agility: 2
Athletics: 2
Awareness: 3  - Empathy 1B
Cunning: 3      - Memory 1B
Deception: 3    - Disguise 1B
Endurance: 3   - Fortitude 1B
Fighting: 2
Magical Expertise: 3
Magical Projection: 3
Marksmanship: 2
Persuasion: 4      - Charm 1B, Convince 1B
Reflexes: 3
Status: 3     - Reputation 1B
Stealth: 2
Will: 4  -  Dedication 1B

Classes:
Majors (Potions, Divination): 3
Minors (Herbology, Astronomy, Ancient Runes): 2  Astronomy 1B
Others (All Others): 2

Classes

*History of Magic
*Astronomy
*Muggle Studies
*Care of Magical Creatures
*Ancient Runes
*Arithmancy
*Potions
*Divination
*Herbology

Melai-She seems interesting, and it will be nice to have someone looking for trouble.  I believe she'll find it.  She and Petra seem familiar, but I don't remember actually playing with them.

TheHangedMan-I was a fan of Gustav, and look forward to seeing him.  I am not sure how the animagus would work.  Currently, the rules for animagus assume a form of equal or lesser physical strength.  I believe an exception could be made, but would require a quality in addition to the basic one for being an animagus.  So if you are willing to sacrifice two qualities for it, then yes, you could have a slightly stronger animagus form, such as a griffin.

As for being a seer, I already have that worked out.  Here's the quality required

The Sight: Requires Awareness 4, Will 3, Magical Projection 3.  You have the ability to see small glimpses of the future.  Anyone can make predictions.  The gift is in recognizing which are true.

I will add more info about divination in my next post, as this is another area where I was just amazed.

[kckolbe]

From the Harry Potter wikia:

"It is interesting to note that when Harry and Ron begin making up predictions in their Divination homework in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, they happen to predict, exactly, the dangers that await Harry in the Triwizard Tournament: first that he will be "in danger of burns" (the first trial of overcoming a dragon); next that he will "lose a treasured possession" (Ron, his best friend, whom he will have to recover from the Merpeople); then get "stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend" (his D.A.D.A. professor); and finally "come off worse in a fight" (clearly, his duel with Lord Voldemort in the Little Hangleton graveyard)."

In addition, many of Trelawney's predictions were correct.  In addition to the obvious plot ones, there were many other correct ones nestled throughout the books, most of which she never knew about.

For any PCs with this ability, I recommend just "seeing" whatever you want, and if one inspires me, then it will relate to the story, and I will give you a chance to interpret it more clearly.

[Meliai]

Oh yeah, the game I made that version of Vidya for was like...2 years ago or so? But it's the only Hogwarts game I've played on El and I remember you because you used to have that clown avatar that mildly terrified me