Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 got_bruce Aug 02, 2011 14:37:37	[Harry Potter HATERS need not TROLL!] Now that the Harry Potter films have come to an end, there are many fans (my wife in particular) who are starving for some continuing adventures or expanded universe material. If there EVER was to be a Harry Potter Role Playing Game, WotC would probably be the likely candidate to get the licensing, cinsidering they had the "dueling" card came whenever Sorcerer's Stone came out. I just wanted to start a thread of the upsides and downsides to a venture such as this. As of now, I have more downsides due to the tyrannical copyright restrictions of Rowling and Warner Bros. Anyways, I will get this mutha started... UPSIDES WEALTH of material to reference (especially if JK Rowling completes the encyclopedia) Would definately get people to roleplay who had probably never gamed before A product like this would sell very well and give WotC a nice shot in the arm financially RPG would allow fans to continue their own adventures and stories DOWNSIDES Compiling all of the information from the books/movies/encyclopedia would take FOREVER Third party adventures just would NOT be allowed to exist -- regardless of gaming license, it would have to go through Rowling (=shut down) Every player would be a human magic user, which limits your race/class options -- it would have to be re-worked for adequate diversity WotC might find the "fine line" they have to walk more trouble than its worth Who knows? It might be cheaper to have Rowling develop an "American" environment for the game, or come up with something similair but just different enough to avoid copyright infringement, and just pay Rowling some reduced royalties... Any thoughts? B
#2 pogminky Aug 02, 2011 14:44:10	I guess a venture like this would be too expensive - both in terms of the name/rights and in staff - for the expected return.  The best time for a HP RPG would've been after the last book, before the final films IMHO. That said, I think you could home-brew a HP RPG if you wanted - keep the basic rules/maths, overhaul the wizard class, and maybe wing the rest with decent narractive roleplaying.  My suspicion is that it'd be fun for a few sessions to play teenage wizards at Hogwarts foiling some Death Eater plot, but after that there would be little to do.  I'd do a few sessions of this, but not perhaps a long-term game.
#3 Damon_Tor Aug 02, 2011 15:05:20	There are other races - goblins, house elves and so forth. Not to mention half-breeds.  The series features half-goblin, half-giant, and half-fairy wizards. That said, the game should be simple as possible, and having it be a game with no racial selection would be helpful there. However - issues would be advisaries. Now that voldly is gone who's the BBEG?  There's no shortage of dark wizards.  Set up Durmstrang as a rival academy, it's students/faculty as the go-to villians.  In doing so, you could adapt Slytherin house out of the role, making four viable choices of houses for characters to pick from.
#4 Tony_Vargas Aug 02, 2011 15:18:03	Two issues: 1) An RPG exclusively liscencing a popular property doesn't /need/ a good system.  2) Magic in the Harry Potter universe is not very consistent or quantifiable, it mostly follows the needs of the plot, and expanded with each book to keep it feeling at all 'magical.'  It'd be hard to adapt to an RPG in a way that'd please fans or RPGers.
#5 Damon_Tor Aug 02, 2011 16:12:23	Magic in the Harry Potter universe is not very consistent or quantifiable, it mostly follows the needs of the plot, and expanded with each book to keep it feeling at all 'magical.'  It'd be hard to adapt to an RPG in a way that'd please fans or RPGers. That's true as well.  One nice thing: TPKs could almost never happens, since the first guy that die could just claim he sacrificed himself for the others, rendering them all invulnerable to dark magic. Or... something.
#6 Finarvyn Aug 03, 2011 13:09:28	1. I remember years ago when the Harry Potter card and board games were put by WotC. At the time there were huge rumors of a RPG, which didn't pan out for some reason. A real shame, since I think that the RPG market for HP is really a hot item and clearly an untapped market. Looking around on the web, one can find that lots of folks are trying to home-brew their own RPG system and I'll bet that many of them would gladly support an official RPG if it was produced. 2. As far as lack of TPK, I see no reason why going to 0 hit points couldn't be "knocked out" instead of "dead." I don't see how this would at all diminish the RPG experience and it certainly would match the stories better. 3. As far as the magic being hard to quantify, that's true for almost any form of literature since the author doesn't have the same restrictions as a RPG designer. What I'd suggest is to find out which book contains the first mention of a particular spell, and use that as a basis for the spell level. (If it was easy, Harry and pals would have learned it earlier.)
#7 Garthanos Aug 03, 2011 13:53:24	1. I remember years ago when the Harry Potter card and board games were put by WotC. At the time there were huge rumors of a RPG, which didn't pan out for some reason. A real shame, since I think that the RPG market for HP is really a hot item and clearly an untapped market. Looking around on the web, one can find that lots of folks are trying to home-brew their own RPG system and I'll bet that many of them would gladly support an official RPG if it was produced. Somebody said she didnt want to encourage anyone telling stories with her characters....