The Blast-Ended Skrewt is a hybrid creature bred by Rubeus Hagrid in the fall of 1994, by crossing Manticores and Fire Crabs. Whether Hagrid used magic or somehow got the two to mate is unknown. Newly-hatched Skrewts looked like pale, slimy deformed shell-less lobsters. Sparks flew out of their ends every so often which propelled them forward a few inches and the males had stingers and the females had suckers on their body to suck blood, presumably for food. Blast ended skrewts can grow to at least ten feet long and are very dangerous creatures.

Attributes

10 Health

• STR: 5
• WIL: 4
• INT: 1
• SOC: 1

Abilities

(+4) Explode(Strength Based, Roll greater than 11 to succeed) A blast ended skrewt can generate an explosion from it’s “End” and propel itself forward about the length of it’s body. Anyone caught in it’s path takes 1d3 Health Damage from the impact, and anyone behind the creature has a 50% chance of being burned for 2 rounds.

(+2) Sting/Bite(Strength Based, Roll greater than 10 to succeed) A blast ended skrewt can sting or bite for 1 damage and cause discomfort at the site.

Step Three: Schedule Classes

In almost all RPG’s, a characters special skills are enumerated by category. In the Hogwarts RPG, we instead use 2 skill types, “Classes” and “Experiences.” Classes are skills that you can pick up by taking a class in that field, such as Defense Against the Dark Arts or Potions. They are leveled up on a scale of 1 to 7(For each year at Hogwarts) using points recieved in game. More on character advancement later. Experiences are skills that are taken as a result of backstory(Step Zero Again!) or significant in game occurences and rarely change. For instance, being versed in muggle cleaning could be an attribute of the Weasley boys, since that was a punishment they received for their various mischiefs. Another example would be Harry Potter’s abnormal resistance to Voldemort’s curses. These are on a scale of 1 to 4 OR can be given a percentage value(17, 33, 50, 66, 84, 100), and typically involve a bonus or skill that would only be used in a specific and somewhat unusual situation.

To use a class, choose an ability from that class and roll 2d6. Add the relevant stat(Ex. Expelliarmus(Easy Spell, Will based, Roll greater than 6 to cast)) and the number of years your student has taken the class. If the number is equal to or higher than the listed difficulty, you are successful.

GM Sidenote: Experiences are a little tricky for new gamers, because as a game designer, I cannot possibly imagine the breadth of experience that a schoolful of wizarding children would have. I therefore include examples and rough scales, but not lists or mechanics. The GM must guage the validity and extent of the experience and how he is willing to allow it to affect his game. Here are some examples from before

Experience Example: Muggle Cleaning

1. The character was told to clean with muggle methods, by someone who had only a vague idea what those methods entailed.
2. The character is fascinated by muggles and study’s the innocuous details of their lives, but often fails to understand their method of cleaning without magic.
3. The character was raised by muggles and had a normal set of daily chores, and thus has some experience cleaning using muggle means.
4. The character was responsible for more than appropriate amounts of housework and has learned muggle cleaning thoroughly.

Experience Example: Spell Resistance(Imperius Curse)

• 17% The character can resist the Imperius Curse 17%(1 on 1d6) of the time because of repeated exposure.
• 33% The character can resist the Imperius Curse 33%(1-2 on 1d6) of the time because of familiarity.
• 50% The character can recognize the effects of the Imperius Curse in others as well as resist the curse 50%(1-3 on 1d6) of the time, due to repeated exposure and familiarity.
• 66% The character has recieved limited training in recognizing and defending agains the Imperius Curse, and can resist 66%(1-4 on 1d6) of the time.
• 84% The character has recieved special training as an Auror, Order of the Pheonix Member, or scholar(professor) of the dark arts and can resist 84%(1-5 on 1d6) of the time.
• 100% The character has a supernatural ability that allows him to ignore the effects of the Imperius Curse, either from a specific source or universally.

Step One: Assign your student’s ability scores.

In the Hogwarts RPG(as most other RPG’s), characters have two sets of stats that determine how well they perform at a given task. We use 4 stats: Physical, Intellect, Will, and Social that range from 1 to 9. You decide how to rank these scores by rolling 4 six sided die, adding the result of each roll, and assigning points to each stat until you reach zero. A normal human average is considered a 3 in each stat, with anything six or above seeming bizarrely high to others(Such as Hermione’s intellect, which is a 6 in game terms). Be careful in how you assign these scores, because they are very difficult to change for the better, and can oftentimes be changed for the worse. Such is the danger of High School.

Physical: A student’s physical stat determines the students physical ability to perform tasks without any kind of magical assistance. Cleaning house without magic, swimming in the lake, shoving a wand up a troll’s nose, whatever, this stat handles physical strength, stamina, and speed. Characters with high physical stats include Oliver Wood, Crabbe and Goyle, and of course, Hagrid.

Intellect: The student’s intellect reflects his ability to learn and reason, including the ability to learn spells. Solving the potions riddle guarding the mirror of Erised was a feat of intellect, as was brewing a Polyjuice Potion. Examples of characters with high intellect scores are Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Lord Voldemort, and Albus Dumbledore.

Will: Will is the measure of a students strength of character, and how difficult it is to make him deviate from that path. Determination would also be a good way to describe this stat. Please take into account that this does not mean that the character’s will will be good, remember Lord Voldemort was willing to cut his soul into pieces in order to become immortal. Characters with high will scores would be personified by Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.

Social: The students social stat is his innate degree of social standing, based on physical attractiveness, social acceptableness, and known history. Characters from the books with high social stats would be Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory, or Draco Malfoy.

Man, I just need to keep reading Vulcan Stev’s back posts. All kinds of good stuff there.

So, in my junior year of high school I wrote a game that formed the basis of all the other games on this site, in one way or another. It was an RPG focused on the Harry Potter Universe and designed to be played almost entirely upon the grounds of Hogwarts without being limited by relatively small material expanse. It never managed to get played, and is mostly lost to the endless crap I do to my computer, but I have found a few handwritten pages that survived and remember enough(and have a much more thorough grounding in system design) so I’m remaking it to serialize here, and eventually release as a PDF. On a less happy note, I’d like to remind the Intellectual Property Nazis that I am not using this fan created work for commercial purposes and it was created purely out of love for the novels. Please make your decisions about this game as such and do not sue the crap out of me. Please.

Dedication:

To Allison Moore, for convincing me to read them in the first place, and to J.K. Rowling for making it one of my better decisions at that point in my life.

1. Welcome to Hogwarts!

2. Characters: Students, Houses, Teams and Classes

3. The Grounds: The Chamber of Secrets and other Dangerous Places

4. The Drama: Professors, Politics and Prominent Players

5. Spells and Potions: From Levitation to Veritaserum

6. Magical Artifacts: Erised Stra Ehru Oyt Ube Cafru Oyt On Wohsi

7. Playing the Game

Chapter One: Welcome to Hogwarts

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts

Teach us something PLEASE,

Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby knees

Who, after reading the Harry Potter series, didn’t want to live a life of adventure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? The thought of learning to make potions or cast spells made Algebra a little less bearable, to be sure, but did you ever aspire to be a Professor of Potions or vanquish terrifying villains like Lord Voldemort with your magical abilities? Did you ever think of what you would do if embroiled in conspiracy at the ministry of magic? If you did, I think this is the game for you.

Every roleplaying book begins by asking the question “What is Roleplaying?” Roleplaying is a compound word consisting of the noun(abs) role and the verb playing. What that means is that you will be taking on the role of a character in the Harry Potter universe. This book serves the purpose of defining loose rules for how the game will handle your involvement, but in the end, the experience of Hogwarts is up to you. This game is set up to provide you with some basic ways to account for your interaction with the Harry Potter setting and encourage you to play the part of a student or adult resident of Hogwarts School.

If you have ever played popular RPG’s like Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons or White Wolf’s World of Darkness, you might be surprised or pleased by what you see here. This game is rules-lite, with simple math and a fast pace, and very customizable, but designed specifically to play at Hogwarts and it feels like a faithful Harry Potter RPG should. It uses only d6(standard six sided die, to the gaming laypeople in the audience) and there are no complicated and messy tables to figure out. Levels are defined in terms of semesters and years as a student. Your house, what classes you take, what friends you make, what campus organizations you belong to, all have a profound effect on your character and how he or shee makes his way in the wizarding world. I hope you will find joy in playing this game.