I’ve been wrestling with the combat mechanics of the Hogwarts RPG, mostly because combat(in an in-game sense) isn’t really meant to be a matter of life and death. So I thought, and the obvious answer was subdual damage. But that just seems like an excuse to replace “Killed” with “K.O.ed” for a PG rating and that feels like a cop out. So I brainstormed for a bit, and came up with a couple of ideas, the first of which will be playtested next week, but here it is.
To do this, begin with standard Health values, whatever the character has. This Health is considered, for the purposes of all spells that do not deal direct damage, is the fatigue of the student in the face of the spells cast upon him. Each time a spell is cast at the student, subtract one, until the Health value drops to 5 or below.
At this point, the character starts making yield rolls of 1d6 versus the health value. If the roll is higher, the student is overcome and yeilds to the opponent. However, if the character has WIL or STR at 5 or greater, he can reroll once on each yeild check, provided the hit is not a critical hit. A yeild does not imply anything greater than the effect of the spell cast at the player, simply that the effect was so extreme as to be disabling for the normal duration of the spell.
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).
First of all, I’d love to thank Dice Monkey for all his kind words about the Hogwarts RPG project. I really appreciate support, especially right now. As I stated yesterday, I recently lost a loved one. What I did not state was that I was totally responsible for his well being and that he, quite literally, died in my arms. Before you ask, it was my cat, and he had diabetes and I did not know. I loved my cat, and he has been with me through some of the worst times in my life in the past year, poverty, near-homelessness, (me)eating less than 3 times a week to afford to live. I loved my cat, and through all that, he never went hungry. People tell me not to blame myself, and that is not what I need to hear anymore. There is little way I could have known, unless I had seen him with symptoms, most of which are also symptoms of being a cat. Nonetheless, I have come to doubt my ability to cater to the needs of others. This would be OK if I wrote novels targeted at the counterculture, but I’m not trying to do that anymore. It caused me nothing but rejection and isolation, and alienated everyone I cared about. Now I am content to put pen to paper only for schoolwork, gaming, and the occasional short fiction. Of course, this brings about it’s own issue, whether people like what I do. Whether people want to use what I create is one measure of the value of my work. I will work on anything until I am satisfied, but sometimes I still get C’s. I think it’s a fact of existence, I think, that some things we will work hard at and not live up to the expectations, or even the needs, of others.
Now that I am creating a derivative of what is rightly one of the most popular works of fiction of all time, I have come to realize that I have a dillema as a designer. There is little in-action or academic description for many of the spells students learn at Hogwarts. Fantastic resources like the Harry Potter Lexicon and their Encyclopedia of Spells and in many cases offer well though descriptions of what the spell probably does, based on context, but often there is no canon data besides the name of the spell. When I have encontered these spells, the trademark example being the Curse of the Bogies, I have endeavored to research independently to make up my own effects for these spells in thematic keeping with the spells of the Harry Potter Universe.
So, the point I have been beating at is, Do *you* think that this is an acceptable? Unacceptable? Favorable? Blasphemy? My feelings will not be hurt if you hate it. I’ll just fix it, and that is that.
BTW, you can just put a fake name and e-mail in the comments if you don’t want me to know who you are. I don’t believe in logging my individual visitors, and I won’t be able to find out who you are.
Sorry for the lull, I recently had a death of someone very close to me and have been unavailable.
Potions:
Taught by professor Snape througout most of the series, potions was the class all but the Slytherins dreaded attending. Given Snape’s disciplinary policy, I would imagine that some students only dreaded the punishment for not attending more than attendance. However, the subtle art of potion making can achieve effects mere spells cannot, bottle fame, glory, or even put a stopper in death.
Brewing potions can require from 1 to any number of checks, but a good guideline is to use 1 check for easy potions, 3 checks for meduim potions, and 6 checks for hard potions. If a character fails more than one check to create a potion, the potion is useless unless otherwise noted.
