Harry Potter Tabletop General #4 /hptg/

>>50442129
>Rowling is a hack
Agreed. I've actually read better HP fanfiction than the actual books.
Yet somehow I still find the books riveting, in spite of them having more plot holes than pages.

First time in these sorts of threads, but even if you don't plan on using the system, GURPS has a supplement called Back to School. It covers the mechanics for learning in the system, but it also includes a rather large system-agnostic section on simply running a campaign in the school, ranging from "school is the focus of the game" to "school is a minor annoyance in our adventuring." Probably worth a read for anyone that wants to run a game in Hogwarts proper.

>>50442463
>>50442129
She's a good world builder that can write relatable characters and keep the overall mood light and enjoyable even when things are pretty grim. She has her flaws but I think she's pretty good, that being said I think recently she's been trying to become more relevant again which is killing her reputation somewhat.

>>50442804
JK seems to have looked at George Lucas as her primary inspiration.

>>50442804
>She's a good world builder that can write relatable characters
But those are easily her worst flaws: the world is pure mcguffin, the baddies are saturday morning cartoon material, Harry Ron and Hermione are insufferable.
She's brilliant with her storytelling, prose and mood setting tho. Also while the world building is completely lacking in coherence, it's also spectacularly aesthetic.

>>50442848
They do seem to have the same strong and weak points, that's for sure.

>>50442879
Yeah the villains are dumb, but it started out as a children's book that became a YA book. Somethings carried over or couldn't be changed, like Voldy being full-on Cobra Commander evil.

>>50442879
She nailed popular elements of YA fiction. HP was particularly evocative because it really invites you to try to self insert into the world. Sure, logically the world building isn't very sound, but the elements are still there to be taken advantage of.
The house sorting bit, spirit animals (2 if you count a patronus and animagus separately), wand types, that's like 3 personality quizzes rolled up. Then you can further customize with pets, magic specialties, etc.

For those not on the discord, the 1d4chan system just updated for the first time in a year and a half. Almost double the number of perks are now available.

>>50441902
more like poopyjuice potion LOL

>>50445645
Soon we will have a HM, soon.

I feel like this could be useful for the inevitable discussion about whether or not Method of Rationality is completely worthless or not:
https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/

>>50447090
Nice to see a review that actually breaks down the retarded bias LessWrong applied.

>>50441902
Here are some Harry Potter RPGs I've found :

Broomstix and its update Brommstix and Kauldronz :
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_QEws739Q9Ba01fZVhNd1Z5WW8/edit
>blog here : http://broomstix-n-kauldronz.tumblr.com/ (I love people using websites totally not designed for the task to host rpgs...)

In french :
http://couroberon.free.fr/Harry.html (BASIC system)
http://jdra.eklablog.net/harry-potter-r-p-g-a1530509 (rule-light homebrew made by a belgian professional)
http://www.limbicsystemsjdr.com/category/jeux-de-role/bienvenue-a-poudlard/ ("Welcome to Poudlard" - Focused on school; idk much about it)

I can translate some bits if you want me to, tell me what kind of elements or subsystems you're interested in.

Also a shitton of deadlinks (great job calling it "harry potter rpg", that way youre sure that nobody searching it will ever be able to find it again.) and a pile of homebrew of dubious quality.
Scribd seems to a have a lot of those.

I'm making an alternate HP world; but changing some things to make it more "mine" and not be constrained by the canon.
One thing that I want to change is the thing about magic being something people is born with. I just don't like to think about magic about some midichlorians in your blood that make you binarily able or not to use magic.

The alternative that i'm using is that some children are more attuned to this power; and that there are some kind of "orientation controls " in common schools, led by mysterious enterprises, to find the children that are more worthy of training. Then, some guy appears in your home and explains your parents that you have to go to wizard camp or something.

>>50448165
That's an awful analogy, the Force is in everybody in Star Wars.

I don't think magic is really binary in Harry Potter; Neuville has really poor magical abilities, Filch is able to see dementors even if he has no powers, and so on...

A muggle could probably be able to pass as a wizard in Hogwarts simply by saying that he has lost his wand and by doing well in other areas like Potions or Herbology.

It could even make for a valid character build for a face or a skillmonkey.

>>50448387

Nevilles poor magical ability is apparently due to him using his fathers waand and having low self confidence. He gets confidence from DA and loses his wand fighting death eaters in the minister of magic. After that he gets decent at magic.

>>50447090
I know it's only a minor thing, but the ancient and noble houses shit pisses me off to no end, because it proves a complete lack of reading comprehension.

I know the guy only uses the books as wank material, but the noble house thing was blatantly there to show that the Blacks were a cut above the usual arrogance of pure blood society, not because there actually was a nobility.

The idea that people like Malfoy or Voldemort wouldn't be lording it over people if they actually were noble in title is plain retarded

>>50448387
>A muggle could probably be able to pass as a wizard in Hogwarts simply by saying that he has lost his wand and by doing well in other areas like Potions or Herbology.
I've thought about playing a character like this before.

>>50448387
A muggle in Hogwarts would be hit by all the antimuggle wards. Plus there's a lot of magical shit that muggles can't even perceive, he'd get found out in a second.

>>50448387
>>50450690

Isn't the school invisible to Muggles anyways

This is the dealbreaker here

>>50450759
It maybe invisible from outside the grounds.

Muggles would never get accepted in Hogwarts, the automatic wards that detect underage magic use wouldn't ping to send them the invite.

>>50450759
>invisible
I'm pretty sure they just see it as an abandoned ruin.

>>50449270
There is tons of shit where hpmor is atrocious. And as he says, the author uses Calvin ball rules to make Harry seem clever, not actual clever writing.

>>50450856
Writing geniuses is hard, making all other characters complete idiots to make your supposed genius look smart is easy.

>>50450817
Yes. And once you get close, you remember you have something else to do.

>>50450896
>Ooooh, a piece of candy!

>>50450817
>>50450896
Wouldn't being exposed to magic (as a poser would be) negate the spell? Like how the Grimmauld Place house was unsafe once someone grabbed Hermione when she entered.

>>50451283
Using logic when talking Harry Potter is a bad idea. Magic is barely explained and rarely coherent with itself in the books.
Regardless, Grimmauld Place (btw "grim old place"? Jesus Christ Rowling, you're better than that) is a very peculiar example: the only thing that was invalidated is the Fidelius charm, because Hermione (a secret keeper like everyone else who learnt of the place from Dumbledore since his death) "told" him about it by side-along apparating him. Hogwarts isn't under the Fidelius afaik (and no shit, what's the point of hiding a place every kid over 11 years of age is gonna be invited in anyway?), its wards aren't explained in any way. If it worked like the Fidelius or thereabout, the muggles would need the headmaster to tell them "willingly" about the school, kinda voiding the point of them being hidden.

>>50451490
That could be the point of the letter they get. Making it so the muggle kids can see/enter the castle.

Imagine a muggleborn going near Hogwarts when he's 6. His parents have no knowledge of the dangers, and he's not affected by the spell ("Ho, a giant castle just behind this nice forest, I'll get a closer look" "Damian, what are you doing? Please come bac... I suddently feel the need to go elsewhere")

And as noted above, Filch can dust Hogwarts eeven if he has no magical power.

>>50451598
Filch isn't a muggle, he's a squib. They have the same "magic sense" as wizards (the cat lady could see dementors, unlike Dudley).
Regarding muggle kids, the letters are addressed to the prospective students, not the parents, so I don't think they qualify as invitations. Besides, parents aren't supposed to get to Hogwarts regardless.
We're definitely approaching unmapped territory tho, there's no point discussing stuff Rowling herself likely never considered and certainly never explained, especially when you consider that Rowling's world-building is plot driven.

>>50451724
I could imagine shenanigans allowing for such a scenario. Fantastic Beasts briefly touched on how the muggle community would interact with the wizarding world.

So, what period do you want to explore in a Harry Potter rpg? First or second wizardry war? Modern times? 19th century? Earlier? Near future cyberpunk?
At hogwarts or outside?

>>50456092
Shadowrun HP could be interesting.

>>50456092
desu the premise of the coming movie sounds interesting. Hunting/capturing magic monsters, the time period wouldn't matter much to me.

>>50456092
Modern days or Belle Epoque seem the best options for the HP setting. Playing during the Voldemort wars would feel really shitty, because the baddies are shit tier.
As far as the type of game, I'd say the choices are Law Enforcement game (Auror or wars), Adventurer game (Magizoologist or Curse Breaker), School game (Hogwarts)

>>50456214
You could also just hunt artifacts or tomes.

>>50456514
That's basically a curse breaker's job.

>>50456214
You could conceivably run a political intrigue piece as well. Though that falls more on the roleplay half of an rpg.

>>50456092
Marauders Era would be terrific fun imo. A good blend of mischief without getting too grimdark off the bat.

>>50456179
Thr movie is already out and the book has been out even longer. The movie felt more polished but its appeal in large part came from the cgi.
Though, for a monster movie it was underwhelming.

>>50461357
The book has nothing at all to do with the movie. The book is literally just a supplement that tells you about magical creatures.

>>50461357
Aw crap.
But yes, wasn't the book just a fake encyclopedia?

>>50456214
>Belle Epoque
You have good taste.

The opposition between muggles switching to a society of industrial production and the wizard world would be very cool to play with.

>>50463092
Yeah.

>>50459673
Wasn't Voldemort killing people left and right during the marauder's era?

>>50471012
The "war" lasted eleven years and started the same year the Marauders joined Hogwarts, Voldemort was probably just considered a random evil wizard at the beginning and not quite the darkest of dark lords until a few years in. Likely he didn't have as many followers and allies early on as when he died the first time.

Also Hogwarts had a younger Dumbledore at the time, and Voldemort was afraid of him. Probably the best and safest place to be, until you got a letter saying your parents died, I guess. I can't remember if they talk much about that in the books. I mean, we have Lupin and Sirius who lived through it and probably talked about it.

>>50471156
The Order of the Phoenix was founded in 1970, and Voldmort was already talked about and had followers during the 60s (it's mentioned that he was accompanied by death eaters when he went asking for a teaching position at Hogwarts).
I think it's pretty safe to say the 70s were a shitshow.

>>50471156
I think the Lily/Snape thing would have ended mufh earlier on if Voldemort was already at his peak in their school years. It wouldn't have been long before shit hit the fan after.

>>50473291

>>50450759
That's why I like Worst Witch.
It's a mixture of magic and "real life" (which probably makes a strange class workload)
and also has a branch of higher learning at Cambridge.
JK pretty much just ripped off THE BEST (and most translated) British author., Enid Blyton.
She took the whole "Twins at St. Clairs" and mixed it up with the other Adventure books and threw in magic.

Side note. I have friends from Korea, Japan and Shri Lanka and one of the things we all have is Enid Blyton.
She's racist as fuck in only the way someone from "the Empire" can be after the war and also the books are rife with food porn. I think it was probably due to the rationing.

>>50451598

What happens if a letter gets misdirected?
Owl gets caught in a storm.
blown off course.
letter is either found on wounded owl or perhaps blows out of it's talons and the letter (no real genius) "finds" the closest kid.

>>50451724
>>Besides, parents aren't supposed to get to >>Hogwarts regardless.

Parent teacher interviews where parents go to Hogworts n stay the night.

>>50479449
Owl mail is weird. It seems to always find its recipient. And remember the shenanigans at the beginning of the first book? Though that was probably Dumbledore fucking with the Dursleys.

>>50479424
Worst Witch could have done so better were it not girlish

>>50479617
That was kind of the point though.
Although there was a boys magic school as well.
That's were JK either got it right with a mixed gender school but that might have either been modernity or marketing.
Also, girls can slip into boys rooms at Hogworts but not vice versa hmmmmmm

>>50450885
Yeah, I've always come across this problem when playing a character. How are you supposed to get into the mindset of a character who's smarter than you?
I mean, I'm smart, but I'm not nine-digit multiplication in my head smart.

>>50447090
Holy fuck, when the review can easily be TLDR-ed, there is no way in ice-skating Hell I'm reading MoR now.
I mean, for fuck's sake, P versus NP is a super goddamn ambiguous problem to the point where it's been 'proved' in both directions by tons of dudes. P DNE NP, by my own interpretation, but obviously I can't give a hamfisted declaration that this must be so, especially in a FICTIONAL MAGICAL UNIVERSE.

>>50479449
They're magical owls, Anon. They'll get through it all.

>>50480188
You'd need the GM's complicity, or the other players, for it. And maybe asks if anyone'd be okay if the group's good ideas came from your character, story-wise.

>>50451490

>Grimmauld Place (btw "grim old place)

Holy fuck how did i not realise

>>50451598

I think muggle parents can go to hogwarts if invited. Im sure hermiones parent go there at some point.

Also how did hermione (or any muggle student) get on platform 9 3/4? Did she figure it out or have a guide?

>>50482658
It was probably mentioned in passing in one of her textbooks.

BTW, it's implied Hermione has perfect memory recall. She can recite Dumbledore's speech about Cedric from memory one year later.

>>50482658
From Molly, I guess wizards look for kids and parents who look lost?
Or maybe when teachers visit muggleborn kids they explain it? I mean Hagrid kept forgetting things or that he wasn't supposed to talk about others, he probably just forgot to tell Harry even though he was supposed to.

>>50479449

Dumbledore knew that harry wasn't getting letters and knew where the dursleys were running to before they arrived (they go to a hotel before the island shack and one of the staff instantly tells them that there's like 15 letters) so there's probably a spell on it that can tell if the letter has been received and opened by the correct person. There is also probably a spell that will make the letter destroy itself if it somehow got into the hands of someone else (as in, someone who's not a relative of the student).

Also I think that for muggle students who had literally no knowledge about the magical world a teacher would be sent, its just that dumbledore assumed the dursleys would tell harry and only sent hagrid when it was clear he was being prevented from opening them.

>>50482713

I would have thought they send teachers to muggle born students.

If a muggle born parent saw the hogwarts letter they would assume it's a joke. It would be better to send a teacher who could do some basic magic to prove it's real.

>>50482755
>maybe when teachers visit muggleborn kids they explain it
They do send teachers, m8. It's in the books.

>>50482755
>>50482770
Imagine the poor kids who get Snape.

>>50482770

>tfw a stranger didn't arrive at my house to magic me off to a private school in the middle of nowhere

>>50482780

I doubt they would send the head of slytherin to muggles.

More like imagine the poor kid who got trelawney.

>ok prove you're a witch, do some magic
>you're going to die a very painful death! The tea leaves shaped like a frog prove it!

>>50482780
>>50482812
Top fucking kek.
Wonder how many kids they lost because of those two.

>>50482795
>tfw no letter from Beauxbatons.

>>50482812
To be fair most of the times she was predicting that stuff about Harry, who was always in mortal danger and did briefly die at the end of the series.

>>50482833

If you throw shit at a wall enough eventually some will stick.

>>50482833
But McGonagall said she did that for one student in every third year class since her first year of employment. It's not like she foresaw anything about Harry, she just picked the obvious choice of the class for her yearly routine.

File: london-metro.jpg (58KB, 369x486px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 369x486px

>>50456092

Serious question, how would wizards in 21st century Britain maintain secrecy with surveillance cameras everywhere? Maybe have the same magical effect that disrupts technology at Hogwarts cause digital cameras to go haywire whenever something explicitly magical is in view?

>>50483082
Doesn't the first Half-Blood Prince chapters implies wizards have infiltrated the British government? They can probably pull enough strings to keep things undercover while they obliviate everyone.

Also, there doesn't seem to be that many wizards in Britain, and most of them probably don't spend a lot of time in places with Muggle cameras.

>>50483082
>Serious question, how would wizards in 21st century Britain maintain secrecy with surveillance cameras everywhere?
They wouldn't. Short of some preventive electronics disruptive spell existing and hitting a wide area for a long time (and that would still make trouble with muggles wondering what the actual fuck is causing all these issues), there would be no way to retrieve every smartphone in a given area, and a great many cameras stream live to multiple points, so good fucking luck reaching them all.
This discounting the fact that HP wizards are fucking luddites who don't have any understanding of muggle tech, and as such wouldn't even be aware of the danger.

>>50483082
IIRC, the series was set in the 90s, where infiltrating the government would have been enough to keep the books straight.

Good luck keeping that up in the era of smartphones and YouTube without a dedicated task force who actually knew shit about technology and worked with various world governments

Consider this: Harry Potter game set in WWII, where you play as wizards preventing the infiltration of the british government by Nazi's/Grindewald's forces.

>>50485424
Could be fun but I'd prefer an Inglorious Bastards twist on it rather than playing it straight.

>>50485424
>>50487199
One problem is that you'd have to be careful about how OP Grindelwald and his cronies get to be. If he doesn't fit what players expect they'll bitch.

>>50487379
That's a thing, you're not able to beat him in duel side he owns rhe else wand the shitfest new movie be damned. Technically you can't beat him at all because of canon and he loses only to Dumbledore.

>>50441902
>What would be your ideal campaign in the HPverse? Edition
As odd as it may sound, probably not school. I have no idea how to do a Harry Potter school campaign which is both interesting and not literally just the plot of the books all over again. I'd kind of like to do an Aurors game - CSI Magical Britain, with occasional magic combat showdowns

>>50487451
I suppose that's why >>50487199 was referencing IB, which is basically the "fuck canon, do what feels more fun/cathartic."

>>50447090
The only discussion I want to have regarding HPMoR is whether you could run a reasonable game as Aurors trying to break a catastrophic spell cast by some dark wizard which turned the Potterverse into HPMoR.

>>50487729
>BBEG pulls a time turner out of his ass every 10 seconds
>He's got some malignant spell that makes whatever he thinks to be right a universal law

How would one defeat such a beast?
I assume you'd have to make sure every tactic you use falls in line with something he believes, just so he doesn't warp the universe and change it.

>>50488496
Trap him in his own twisted logic, find the bais and analyse it. He's the locus of the spell so get him talking and thinking, when he ignores enough holes the universe will notice and snap back on him like a rubber band.

Flick him right off the face of existence.

Fuck that sounds more like how you beat a Doctor Who villains than a HP one.

>>50488496
Well, the classic approach is tricking him into thinking something that you then use to beat him before he can change his mind, ideally by relying on his own arrogance. There's also the Bill and Tedd approach, which is to have your own Time Turner and trick him into thinking he's in control until he falls into your trap. Then there's the Index approach, which is to get him to be afraid of you and think you're able to defeat him. At which point, you are.

>>50488986
Fuck time turners

>>50492419
Plot hax are fine in moderation

Bamp.