It is our choices, Harry...

...that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities." - Albus Dumbledore

Sample character sheet (designed as Report Cards)
along with a wand sheet (as a receipt from Ollivanders)
[prototypes by D.F.Chapman]

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Harry Potter roleplaying game that I've always wanted to write, and how it would be a great idea that would build kids imagination as well as stay true and respectful to its sources. Then, last week, I posted the basic pitch, looking at the main game product and how it would be packaged and put together.

This week, continuing the topic, I thought I'd look at the actual game system and how it could work to replicate the feel of Harry Potter and the wizarding world.

When the pitch documents were first put together, the basic idea was to use the Vortex system I'd created for Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space for Cubicle 7 Entertainment. It seemed the easy thing to do, adapting the gadget rules to work for magic items, and so on.

But the more I thought about it, the more I reconsidered. Sure, the basic mechanic could remain, but it didn't necessarily need to. Working on my pet project, WILD, the RPG of dreamshare, creating a system for that naturally fired off some new ideas of how a game system would work for Harry Potter.

Let's look at the basics.

Most roleplaying games (Doctor Who included) use a basic Attribute and Skill mechanic. Add the two together, or one modifies the other, and bingo. Harry Potter would be similar, except the Attributes and Skills would be a little more broader ranging and less restrictive. 

Everybody can do everything, its just that some people are better at some things than others. Neville is brilliant at Herbology, and Hermione lacks the talent for Divination. But they can all do it.

Attributes, rather than the usual Strength, Dexterity, etc. would be simply the following four:

Brave, Cunning, Dedicated and Wise.

It's rare that something happens in the world of Harry Potter that wouldn't fit into one of those four. 

You'll notice that those four descriptors seem a little familiar. That's because those are the key words usually associated with the four houses of Hogwarts - Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw respectively. Students would have one of these "attributes" at 5, one at 4, another at 3 and one at 2. The high Attribute would determine the House the student it sorted into. Highest Attribute is Wise? Ravenclaw! Have your 5 in Cunning? Slytherin! 

But what about strength, or dexterity I hear you ask. Well, that's where the "skills" come into it. Instead of a long list of Skills like athletics, firearms, dodge and so on, it makes more sense to simply break it down into the classes that the students attend in Hogwarts. Flying is mandatory for first years, and the remaining classes (Astronomy, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions and Transfiguration) covers just about everything needed in the game. Hence the Dumbledore quote at the beginning of this blog post.

Once the students reach their third year, they opt to choose another two classes out of Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies and Study of Ancient Runes, just like in the school. 

Then, simply, you'd roll a couple of dice, add the suitable Attribute and the correct Class, and try to beat the difficulty of the task, just like Doctor Who.

But thinking of the Doctor Who system, the results of the rolls used to be split into three levels of success, and three levels of failure, using the very cool Yes, But, No, And style of gaming. 

Success Table from the 11th Doctor Edition of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space

You know what else has three levels of success and failure?

O.W.L.s.

Ordinary Wizarding Levels - the wizarding world exams.

It's like it was meant to be!  

How the Success Table would work just like O.W.L. results!

However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that you could break down the classes and group them into even more generic terms. I came up with the idea of just using five, named after places in Hogwarts -

Charms Class, Library, Quidditch Pitch, Common Room, Divination Class

Charms Class would cover all magic usage that involved wands,

Library would cover any research or information, or academic magic like Herbology or Potions

Quidditch Pitch would be for flying, or any athletics and physical activity.

Common Room could cover all of the social interaction, and

Divination Class would not only cover prophecies and divination, but also perception.

It would certainly make it simpler...

These broad definitions could be paired with report comments like "exceeds at the Patronus Charm", or "often suffers from explosive side-effects", which could give bonuses and penalties, like the Good or Bad Traits in Doctor Who.

Hmmmm...

A closer look at the character sheets, designed to look like Report Cards -
The corner is cut off, and it is a sleeve you can tuck the equipment cards into
for ease of storage.

With character sheets that look like report cards, wand sheets with information of the wand's qualities on mock Ollivanders receipts, the other options are endless... Broom sheets as receipts from Broomstix, or Quality Quidditch Supplies... and familiar sheets with stats for owls, toads or cats from Eeylops Owl Emporium or the Magical Menagerie on Diagon Alley.

Rough doodle for a possible Chocolate Frog Card

You could take the props route even further with a couple of other options for task resolution. 

Working on WILD, I've been toying with using cards instead of dice for task resolution, using Tarot to inspire not only how you succeed but also what happens. Something similar could be done for Harry Potter using Chocolate Frog Cards...

Four suits, equals each of the Houses / Attributes, and extra symbols on the cards could be used for extra effects or for a quick Quidditch resolution system. Major cards could represent the most common charms, and the symbols could even be used for wizard duelling...

For a simpler task resolution system, you only need to look to Cubicle 7's Lone Wolf RPG for inspiration. In a genius move, rather than using dice, you flip a counter into the lid of the box and it lands on a grid of numbers which gives you a result. Simple! Brilliant. What does that sound a little like?

Gobstones.

Using a printed counter that looks like a gobstone, you could flip them into the lid of the box onto a grid (that could look a lot like a gobstone playing field) to replace dice rolling. You could even have places on the grid that would be when the stone spits at you, indicating a disastrous result!

--

I could go into more detail about how Quidditch would work, wizard duelling, and more, but this is already a lot to take in. As you can tell, the Harry Potter RPG is constantly on my mind, suggesting new and exciting ways of running the game, talking to me like a Horcrux in the night.

Next post I may look at the supplements and expansions to the game, taking it to later years, and out into the Ministry of Magic, Aurors, and beyond.

Until then, stay multi-classy, and if you like what you've read, please share it far and wide - who knows, if the right people see it, magic could happen...

Put Your Cards On The Table

Tarot has always been a bit of an odd one for me. It has always fascinated me, even though I have very little belief in any "mystical" connections to it, I do feel that the symbolism used in the cards is incredibly clever. Not only does this mean that almost anyone can see themselves and their current situations in the cards, but this ability to relate to the cards can produce some incredible insight and help people who had previously become "stuck" in their situations.

I remember my first exposure to Tarot was through my love of James Bond. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was introduced to James Bond at an early age through my parents taking me to see The Man With The Golden Gun. From then, I was hooked and I have fond memories of keeping the blueprints and diagrams of the stunts from Live and Let Die that were printed in the TVTimes when the movie first screened on British TV. And it was from Live and Let Die that I first saw Tarot, in the hands of the lovely Solitaire.

Solitaire (Live and Let Die)

I hadn't seen Tarot before, so I was confused as to why the cards looked different to playing cards, and it was then that I discovered my father's passing fascination with the Tarot, and he let me see his deck. I don't think he'd ever used it - just bought it and filed it away. It was an old Tarot of Marseilles set that came with a book. A set I still have today.

Of course, when I started roleplaying, the interest started again when I started running the James Bond roleplaying game for the group, with SPECTRE replaced by TAROT.

The years passed, and I didn't do a lot with Tarot until the time I came to apply to do my degree at art college. As part of the interview process for that particular college (now university) they asked each applicant to produce a self portrait to bring along to the interview which would not only show off their artistic skills, but maybe also give the tutors an insight into the way their prospective students saw themselves.

For my self portrait I produced a set of Tarot cards. Just the 22 cards of the Major Arcana, but I used photos (some shot especially) and got creative, covering the images in paint, illustration and weirdness, interpreting the meaning behind each card to show an aspect of my life at that time. It was all very horribly angsty and personal, and I don't think many people have seen them outside of the interview. Luckily, they did the trick and I was accepted on the course.

Thanks to relocating for art college, and getting back into reading comics, I became a fan of the the weirder DC titles such as Sandman and especially Shade: The Changing Man. When these became part of that first wave of Vertigo titles, and they announced a special Tarot set illustrated by Dave McKean, I placed my order straight away.

Vertigo Tarot - 0:The Fool

The Vertigo Tarot was a lovely set, and the book was incredibly easy to use. I was inspired for the first time to actually use the set for the intended purpose, and after a few readings, the various friends I'd done readings for said that the results had been strangely accurate. It was odd, because I wasn't really reading anything special into the spreads. I didn't know the cards very well to begin with so most of the readings involved looking at the cards, and looking things up in books, and writing an interpretation for the querant. Maybe this was what produced the "accuracy" as it allowed the querant to interpret the results themselves, projecting elements of their own life - maybe elements they didn't realise were there - onto the results the cards had produced. It was odd, but it seemed to work, and the people I read for seemed to be inspired, motivated, and above all happy with the results.

I'd rediscovered gaming again after relocating for art college, and after playing Vampire: The Masquerade, we moved on to playing Mage: The Ascension. When they produced a set of Tarot cards, inspired by the cover image of the corebook, we had to invest. I never used them for the game, or for traditional Tarot readings, but it did sow the seeds of inspiration that the names and images on the cards could be tweaked to fit a specific setting - or in this case, to suit a roleplaying game.

Something that has obviously stayed with me over the years - for when I started to write WILD a couple of years ago, when I considered an interesting element for the RPG I immediately thought of the Tarot.

Initially, I wanted a set of random cards that could represent the 100 most common dreams. The traditional things like being late for an exam or test, being naked in public, descending into a dingy cellar, flying or floating around a room, losing your teeth... that sort of thing. Then I realised that these dream images also inspired Archetypes, and the more I researched, the more I discovered the connection between the Tarot, and Jungian Archetypes and dream imagery.

Very rough version of XIV

So I set to making another deck of Tarot cards. I took index cards and wrote the divinatory meanings of each on them, and took the 100 or so most common dreams and wrote them on post-it notes. Then it was a case of laying the cards out on the floor and matching the dream to the card it best suited.

But things started evolving as the game was being written. It was taking on a life of its own. The four suits seemed to fit the four Attributes of the game, so it was a logical choice to change out Coins, Cups, Swords and Wands to become Control, Focus and Vision. The court cards, if you took the Ace into account, also fit the five "Skills" of the game, so it worked if you took out King, Queen and Page and replaced them with the Skills, such as Deceiver, Creator and Operator.

As the NaNoWriMo novel took shape, and the background of the game was formed, detailing the events that would lead up to the creation of dreamshare technology and the dreams of the inventor's daughter, the more the imagery of the novel would inspire the cards, especially the Major Arcana.

The more I looked at the cards, and how they would be used in the game as a way of influencing events in the dreamshare, the more I realised that I was putting a lot of work into these cards for a device that wouldn't be used all that often. I put the cards aside, and I went back to writing the game...

The first few VERY ROUGH prototype cards

I went back to writing the character creation chapter, and, frankly, got a bit stuck. Until I thought of the cards again. Now the cards have become an integral part of character creation, and also a bit about the relationship-mapping between the characters. I won't go into great detail, as I don't want to spoil it, but I'm quite excited by how its worked out. However, it needs testing. And in order to do that, I needed the cards - complete with the imagery that I wanted on them. A load of index cards with notes and scribbles wouldn't do.

So, on a recent trip to London, visiting the Atlantis Bookshop, I picked up a deck of blank Tarot cards. A whole deck, Tarot card shaped, with a patterned back, but a plain white front. The only problem is, the cards are very glossy and the only thing that'll really stay on the cards is working directly in permanent marker pen. No pencils, just scribbling straight onto the card in pen and hoping for the best.

Some of the cards have come out better than others, and, if the game makes it to production, the cards would be illustrated by someone with a LOT more skill than me. But, they serve the purpose.

As of yesterday, I've completed the Major Arcana. Now, about to start on the Suit of Control. As you can tell, WILD is still a way off yet, but it's evolving and changing with every new development, shaping itself in a fluid form like the dreams it takes its inspiration from.