Camp Carathir

Title pretty much says it all, doesn’t it. Except what the camp is, I mean.

Camp Carathir is a summer camp for people who really enjoy roleplaying, and want to have fun learning some skills in the process. And I really do mean learn some skills. The camp, which considers accepting children 13 and up and all ages of adult, centers around a renaissance-faire style summer camp which runs for 5, 7 or 10 days. When you start out you have your clothes and a pocketful of coins, after which you can learn a trade, do  a quest, learn to use a weapon, eat period food, explore, and more and more stuff every time I reread the site, which convinced me that this is pretty much the coolest place on Earth.  Over the course of the week the adventurers can learn period trades like glassblowing or blacksmithing, or learn music and play for his or her peers. Or you can be trained in combat, with pretty much everything from swords to crosbows to spiked gauntlets. Or in “Magic,”  which was just enough of a teaser to make me turn green with envy for anyone who manages to take part in this camp.

The camp itself takes place in Oregon, on the border of Deschutes National Forest. The camp itself is set up to look ike an authentic town in medieval times, with a bit of a fantasy twist from what the pictures show.

Their site says it much better than my rabidly salivating review ever could. I wonder how the U of O does with cognitive psych grad students. I can learn to like the rain.

And, conveniently enough, this is our blog carnival topic this month. Good thing too, people need to see this camp as much as possible. Good luck to all the leaders and denizens of Camp Carathir!

Conventions, Ren Faires, and Carnivals Oh My: Hosted by chgowiz

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.

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!