Revisions and Errata: I have updated the posts on Ancient Runes and on Part 5 to include some things that I forgot.
Defense Against the Dark Arts
The cursed post, held by no teacher for more than one year since Tom Riddles was denied the professorship, Defense against the Dark Arts is one of the most danger-fraught classes, which is why many of the adventurous students of Hogwarts consider it their favorite subject. Unfortunately, the first two years of Harry’s education, he was instructed by incompetent and ill-willed teachers, Professors Quirrell and Lockhart. The class teaches countercurses and imparts knowledge of dark spells and creatures for the benefit of students should they ever find themselves in need of such knowledge(wink).
Chapter Two: Characters Whether we be old and bald Or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with filling With some interesting stuff, For now they’re bare and full of air, Dead flies and bits of fluff, In the Hogwarts RPG, the most versatile and fun to play characters are students. Almost all the characters you will play will be students and the game is oriented toward playing students. The reason for this is that growing up in a world of such amazing power offers far more choices for good or ill than participating as a professor, or auror, or ministry employee, or Stan Shunpike of the Knight Bus. As students, you are offered several choices and will be affected by several events outside your control(Tradition and the adult world, to name a few) in the creation of your character. Still you have many options to use when creating your character. Step Zero: Conceptualize. Each character in the Harry Potter universe has a consistent moral compass, however skewed (Such as the cases of Professor Snape, Draco Malfoy, and Even Lord Voldemort). Each character has fears, desires, anxieties, joys, and even hobbies. Fred and George Weasly valued laughter and family above school and authority, for example, and consistently chose according to this. Remember that you are taking on an important role at Hogwarts. The most important role, as a matter of fact, for if there were no students, the teachers would be elsewhere, finding other kinds of jobs or guiding other students at other schools. It is therefore important that you know your character has his own thoughts and feelings. Some suggestions I might make to get you started are: Is your character Muggle Born or Wizard Born? Which house did his or her parents belong to? Did he or she agree with his or her parents choices? Does he or she have any favorite pastimes or hobbies? Does he or she have any relatively unusual talents? Who are his or her friends? What is his or her physical appearance like? Does he or she like animals, or have any pets? What are his or her aspirations or goals? Be careful how you create your character’s personality, as well. It will affect what opportunities are available to him or her, what house he or she belongs to, et cetera. This is a very important step, don’t skip it!
Once again, Thanks to Vulcan Steve. I had to roll back my wordpress install, so I’m reposting. I had an alignment shift!
I Am A: Chaotic Good Human Wizard (3rd Level)
Ability Scores: Strength-15 Dexterity-15 Constitution-17 Intelligence-18 Wisdom-17 Charisma-16
Alignment:Chaotic Good A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit. However, chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment because it disrupts the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.
Race:Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.
Class:Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)
As I sit here, petting my kitten, listening to Dark Side of the Moon, watching The Wizard of Oz, and pondering the nature of love and kindness, it occurs to me that a lot of attention is payed to the conflict in RPG’s, while very little is often paid to negotiation. While I enjoy a good beatdown as much as the average capitalist pig, I think that the peace negotiations process has been undervalued in role playing game source materials. After all, how many times, do guys like me meet Slobodon Milosovic and say, “Man, I understand that you’re upset, but all that genocide was a bitch move. Let’s see if we can’t work something out here twixt you and the Croats. BTW, we’re probably going to kill you for war crimes.” Never, huh? I can’t even think of something appropriate to say here, probably because I don’t watch enough C-SPAN to bullshit that well. Sure, you can just use a skill check, or even a series of skill checks, but then it is just a dice game and there’s no story or any adequate outcome. This is too bad, because mechanics can solve this problem with negotiating peace treaties. The problem with negotiating peace treaties is most of us don’t know, offhand, how much more or less difficult it is to negotiate terms of surrender of various degrees of extravagance. We can take a reasonable guess and maybe get close, but can’t really say one way or another.
But your character might. So here’s a homeopathic remedy for the peace-negotiation RP blues, that ought to be flexible and supplementable enough to work for any GM’s educated guesses.
Country stats in the Nnaccs include the four baselines Territorialness, Nationalism, Economic Commitment, and Diplomatic Prowess, and Flexibility, a universal stat that affects the four baselines. Baselines represent the country’s emphasis on this aspect of its national identity, and how much it is willing to sacrifice on that point without a check. These scores range from 0-30(Either choose as GM, or as a party if the characters are the rulers, or roll 5d6) and take a great deal of difficulty to change. Flexibility represents the country’s willingness to alter its stance based on current factors, like losses in the war, public unrest, or the death of a leader. Flexibility ranges from 0 to -20 and can be chosen from the following rubric.
After describing each country in this way, a peace treaty is drawn up by the country with the higher flexibility score, tagging each term with whichever baseline stat most effects it. The terms are rated from 1-5 on severity, and the severity is then added to the baseline stat, and for each term there is a roll of -1×1d6, minus flexibility. The total is subtracted from the baseline stat + term severity, and if the result is less than 0, the term is accepted without argument. If the result is greater than 0, the negotiation process begins, where each team role plays the concessions and tradeoffs that can be agreed upon, and the roll is made again based on the new severity, minus 1.
So, peace negotiation mechanics work in this order
Describe the countries in terms of its baseline stats and compute flexibility.
The country with the higher flexibility designs a peace treaty, and the GM rates the terms on severity and the baseline stat they rely on.
Add the baseline stat and the severity, subtract flexibility and subtract 1d6.
If the result of #3 is less than 0, the term is automatically accepted.
If the result of #3 is greater than 0, the term is negotiated in role-play.
Repeat steps #3 and #4 or #5 with the new severity and a -1 modifier.
