Herbology

Professor Sprout’s Herbology class is concerned with the identification and handling of herbs that are used in spells and potions. Most of these plants are safe, but some, like Mandrake and Venemous Tentacula, are highly dangerous. The herbology greenhouses house many, many of these plants, but students won’t generally be allowed to take them without permission or supervision.

*Author’s Note: As I couldn’t really justify calling a goat a magical creature, I elected to include the identification and administration of a bezoar in this entry.

1. Identify Mundane Herbs 1(Easy Skill, roll greater than 7 to succeed) This skill allows the student to identify herbs that are common to the muggle world and possess  some virtue in magic.*
2. Identify Mundane Herbs 2(Easy Skill, Roll greater than 9 to succeed) This skill allows the student to identify herbs that are rare but unremarkable to the muggle world and possess  some virtue in magic.*
3. Identify Venomous Tentacula(Medium Skill, Roll greater than 10 to succeed) This skill allows the student to identify and fend off the venomous tentacula plant.
4. Identify Mandrake(Medium Skill, Roll greater than 11 to succeed) This skill represents knowledge of the Mandrake and the steps to prepare a Mandrake Restorative Draught.
5. Identify Boomslang Skin(Medium Skill, Roll greater than 12 to succeed) This skill allows the student to identify boomslang skin and prepare it for use in potionmaking.
6. Identify Bezoar(Hard Skill, Roll greater than 13 to succeed) This skill represents the ability to identify and administer a bezoar, a magical stone to counteract poisons taken from the stomach of a goat.
7. Identify Gillyweed(Hard Skill, Roll greater than 14 to succeed) This skill represents the identification and use of the herb Gillyweed.

*Appendix arriving tomorrow

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.