At the moment, I'm more gauging if there would even be any interest in a game of this nature. Since it's a select universe, and a rather heavily-tweaked AU of that, I know that it might not be what people are looking for. However, it was the first means I could think of to skirt the whole 'pedo/child-porn' issue, and still have a fun plot.
First of all, a basic Timeline.
Halloween, 1980 -- Voldemort kills James and Lily Potter
1991-1992 School Year -- Sorcerer's/Philospher's Stone (Book 1)
1992-1993 School Year -- Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)
1993-1994 School Year -- Prisoner of Azkeban (Book 3)
1995-1996 School Year -- Goblet of Fire (Book 4)
1996-1997 School Year -- Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)
1997-1998 School Year -- Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
1998-1999 School Year -- Currently Untitled Book
This is where we deviate from the canon... since the seventh year has not been published yet. The storyline will assume several things:
1) Those who have died in the books are well and truly dead.
2) Harry and friends will defeat Voldemort. We will not ICly know if he is truly dead, however
3) The majority of 'feature characters' will be dead, retired, or missing in action.
And here's the twist (which will be written up far more beautifully later on:
- During the final battle, something occurred... a major ritual took place, and our heroes weren't able to stop it in time. Nobody, however, knew at first what it did.
1999-2000 School Year -- Attendance is down, but spirits are high. MacGonagall sends a note to the Ministry, indicating that her typical scrying techniques to mark magic-born children doesn't turn up any leads. Assumption is that objects used for such scrying have been broken during the war.
2005-2006 School Year -- Pureblooded families begin to panic, as children born during or after the year of Voldemort's death do not show any of the typical warning signs of capability to use magic. Not a single report of this on the Muggle side of things occurs. Rumors of 'a generation of squibs' abound, although the Ministry attempts to squash such things.
2010-2011 School Year -- The first children born during the year of Voldemort's defeat come to Hogwarts -- only to discover that they are incapable of using magic. Wands do not react. Spells won't even cast. A quick study determines that every child born after the ritual is completely incapable of performing magic. After much deliberation, the choice is made to phase out the current students of Hogwarts, and reevaluate how to teach this new, magicless generation.
2011-2012 School Year -- Ritual Squibs from magic-using lines (as they come to be known) begin private training at home or in small schools, learning the basics: History of Magic, Arithmancy, Potions, and Muggle Studies. Other subjects are based on current Muggle education systems, with the help of Mixed and Muggle-born teachers.
2015-2016 School Year -- Assuming they will have no further students to teach, Hogwarts closes its doors at the end of the school year.
January, 2017 -- The first Ritual Squib 'erupts', experiencing a sudden surge of magic upon their 18th birthday. Although before incapable of performing magic, they suddenly find themselves at an uncontrolled level of power equal to that of a normal 18-year-old wizard or witch, without any training on how to control it. The ritual only held back the ability to use magic -- perhaps in a hope that the resultant chaos of 'eruptions' would spread terror once more.
2017-2018 School Year -- Through the help of Ministry funds, and a desperate need to control these neo-adults' budding abilities, Hogwarts is change. No longer a primary school, it is transformed into Hogwarts University... where children once thought without ability, now adults, can learn to use and rein in their abilities.
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And there we have it, a basic timeline. Obviously, the general concept is that, due to a ritual cast before Voldemort's defeat, children do not start expressing their magical abilities until the age of 18.
Hogwarts is now a 4-year University, with an accelerated learning programs designed to ready young adults to enter the Wizarding World. It is a very chaotic place -- and, of course, given the age of the students, far more that would have never been allowed behind its walls has become commonplace. Much to the teachers and administrator's chagrin, of course.
Players fall into one of three camps: Teachers, Staff (Maintenance, Grounds), and First-Year Students. All new students applied will be 18-year-old firsties. At the time of the start of the game (the 2017-2018 school year), there are no upperclassmen. As the game progresses, and years pass, new applicants will be sorted into the first year as well, leaving veteran players as the upperclassmen.
Thread styling will be different here, rather than location, I prefer to use individual threads to outline scenes. Thus, when two or more characters wish to interact, they ask the GM for a thread to be opened for them. There will be three types of threads: Closed (Opened by a single player, with specific persons allowed in -- additional players cannot join without permission), Semi-Open (Meaning the thread requestor still has say over the theme, time, and overall storyline of the thread, but anyone can join who wishes to), and Storyline (Open threads initiated by the GM to further the storyline of the game). Threads will be running concurrently, meaning players can be involved in more than one scene at once, as long as the timing doesn't conflict.
The GM position will be mostly administrative, as I want to give the players as much control as possible over the movement of the storyline. There will be hard and fast rules, of course, but for the most part, this will be about having fun.
A note: there will be no canonical characters involved in this game, primarly due to the inherent adult nature of the game, and JKR's stated position on adult fiction including her characters. As such, no 'relations' with canonical characters will be allowed, either.
That said, does this spark any interest? I will request a board once I get 5 solid interested parties.
