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!