A role playing game set in Harry Potter universe

[LoPan]

The advantage of Harry Potter as an RPG setting would be its focus on magic, something Harry Potter is not actually about. Not sure what it is about to be honest, read the first book and though there was an obvious setup for explaining how magic worked the author just skipped past it and went on her way, wantonly referring to magic as spells, charms and enchantments, some using words and some using nothing (willpower?). In Harry Potter, magic is just a variable deus ex machina, but I never read more than the first book so perhaps she decided to explain it later on in the series.

The universe itself doesn't seem very interesting or unique, the only interesting idea is the use of a school as a sort of Recettear-like time restraint, as mentioned by laclongquan.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

I'm pretty sure than even the worst crappy license ever like "Married with children" or "Wheel of fortune" is a much more potentially interesting environment for a true RPG than "Harry Potter" can ever be.

 

[deuxhero]

Shit, I'm surprised they haven't announced a Harry Potter mmo yet. Just think the amount of cash they'd pop-out!

Create your own young wizard! Explore Hogwarts throughout all 7 years! Play Quidditch! Duel with friends or foes! Create your own legend!

Although, truth be told, I'd much rather play a plane RPG, that would actually sound interesting. MMOs are starting to lose their charm, most of the hype behind the genre has worn-out, now it just feels like one of those boring grinding jrpgs, bleh.

Except they did.

Time management game
+ Your limited resource is time. you can spend time on lots of activities but once you spend it, it's gone.
+ Your ultimate goal is the story's quest. And in that quest you will have multiple ways to solve them, utilize various skills/path. If you dont have enough skills... so much for the Boy Who Live.
+ Your journey is the way you build your skills in game. Go to classes a lot, learn lots of different feats: anti-enemyclass, general skills, ... Or skipping school to do sidequests to build skills through practical applications of spells, and learn unique adventure/quest feats.
+ You collect your feats, and extra info, and extra characters.

Truth be told Harry Potter could be a good game, RPG or not.

So... Persona 3/4?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It's a series meant for kids and teens, I don't get why internet neckbeards have such strong opinions about it.

 

[LoPan]

Me neither, as I said I've read the first book and even as childrens' fiction goes, comparing it to such novels as Matilda or The Hobbit, it is barely literature, and as literary style and narrative goes I'd put it down there with Dan Brown. Actually read a Dan Brown novel once for the same reason I read the first Harry Potter book, they were both around by circumstance and I did not feel quite well resenting them without proper investigation.

Now I just trust Stewart Lee's opinions instead of investigating them, saves time and nausea.

 

[laclongquan]

Never play the Persona series, so I cant say. I am thinking of a modified version of Academagia system, with more 2D or 3D graphic.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

 

[LoPan]

 

[Erebus]

A Harry Potter CRPG is almost as bad an idea as a Wheel of Time CRPG.

 

[laclongquan]

A Harry Potter CRPG is almost as bad an idea as a Wheel of Time CRPG.

Depend on how you goes about it, it could be good. WoT is perfect for a time-limit, Turnbased Strategy, Sandbox game.

 

[Kz3r0]

HP is for faggot pedophiles

Poor Crispy.

 

[Untermensch]

It could work. Harry Potter's world is (oh gawd) somewhat interesting, especially compared to yet another generic fantasy shithole.
As someone already said, I'm surprised no-one is working on a HP RPG. Probably because Harry Potter is aimed for kids, and if you put all of the quality features of an RPG game, like romances and gore, it would land HP a 17+ rating.

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

Years back when I was still in the Harry Potter stage of my life I would always imagine what it would be like to play a Harry Potter RPG. Adventuring through the Forbidden Forest, fighting against/joining the Death Eaters, going for equipment in Diagon Alley, etc. The good thing about the Harry Potter universe, in contrast to other famous fantasy series, is that it is restricted to a handful of places, meaning that all of these places were fleshed out to such degrees so as to make designing a game based on it very easy. Character sheet would also be easy to do, just basing it off of the classes that they teach in Hogwarts.

In terms of developer... I can see Obsidian doing a pretty good job with this.

That much is true, and even that could probably make for an interesting RPG if handled well. A really interesting game however would take some of the much less fleshed-out parts of the setting, place the story entirely outside Hogwarts, and play with the underused themes of mundane Englishness and everyday greyness of the "wizarding world". This is something that is heavily alluded to in the books (where most wizards need to take nine to five jobs, worry about the payroll and appear to be subject to stricter government surveillance and restrictions than even the "muggles") but is easily overlooked if you concentrate purely on the adventures and the conflict between good and evil. A low-key plot line that would focus on characters like Mundungus Fletcher, the lower strata/underworld of the wizarding society and deconstruction of some of the concepts that the general audience take for granted without ever really stopping to think about, is something I would personally like to see a lot more than another run-of-the-mill Forgotten Realms, Elder Scrolls, Gothic/Risen or (Bethesda-style) Fallout setting. (Of course, this is hardly ever going to happen, as it's something most Harry Potter fans wouldn't really care to see at all.)

 

[Kaol]

In some ways the universe lends itself to an ARPG.

- Limited locations that are well explained in both books and films.

- Darkside/Lightside theme, either be a good wizard or join the death eaters and kill and torture people.

- Well explained magic system with lots of spells

- Well crafted lore

Just add same-sex romances and i think it would do very well.

 

[Surf Solar]

I'm pretty sure than even the worst crappy license ever like "Married with children" or "Wheel of fortune" is a much more potentially interesting environment for a true RPG than "Harry Potter" can ever be.

A "Married with children" game? Wouldn't that be totally hilarious, I would spend a shitload of money on it.

 

[LoPan]

Years back when I was still in the Harry Potter stage of my life I would always imagine...

That much is true, and even that could probably make for an interesting RPG if handled well...

This goes pretty heavily into fanfic/extended universe territory though. If an RPG where to be made of the Harry Potter lore then you'd probably have to extend it, but from my knowledge, which is admittedly limited, there is not much to extend from. If you look into Harry Potter at all the whole thing starts to crack and fall apart, not to mention it comes across as a ruthless, cruel and immoral universe. To play on this would indeed be interesting but I doubt the realities of the HP universe are what makes it 'fun', or whatever the purpose of those books are.

If you're extending the lore to the extent you'd have to you may just as well go off and write a unique world with the concept of wizards living secretly in modern times, and set it somewhere more interesting while your at it, like South Korea or Finland. The HP universe is insulated in an exaggerated parody of English culture, but not the funny Wodehouse kind, and is very dependent on this atmosphere. To move the setting to even so much as Scotland or Wales would already make it begin to strain, which, if I am right about this, is good proof against the alleged versatility of HP's 'interesting' setting. The only benefit of England is to have funny sounding names, something a Finnish setting would naturally supply.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this one, I'll ignore my prejudice against Potter-fanciers.

In some ways the universe lends itself to an ARPG.


- Well explained magic system with lots of spells

- Well crafted lore

Just add same-sex romances and i think it would do very well.

Explain these things, the lore is just rehashed old myths and legends, like D&D but more limited, and what is the explanation of the mechanics of magic in HP?

 

[SerratedBiz]

It could work. Harry Potter's world is (oh gawd) somewhat interesting, especially compared to yet another generic fantasy shithole.
As someone already said, I'm surprised no-one is working on a HP RPG. Probably because Harry Potter is aimed for kids, and if you put all of the quality features of an RPG game, like romances and gore, it would land HP a 17+ rating.

Wikipedia tells me the first Harry Potter book came out in 1997. That means that whoever has followed the series from the start is 15 years older than when they first read it.

I'd say that's the perfect target audience for a game.

 

[Kaol]

Years back when I was still in the Harry Potter stage of my life I would always imagine...

That much is true, and even that could probably make for an interesting RPG if handled well...

This goes pretty heavily into fanfic/extended universe territory though. If an RPG where to be made of the Harry Potter lore then you'd probably have to extend it, but from my knowledge, which is admittedly limited, there is not much to extend from. If you look into Harry Potter at all the whole thing starts to crack and fall apart, not to mention it comes across as a ruthless, cruel and immoral universe. To play on this would indeed be interesting but I doubt the realities of the HP universe are what makes it 'fun', or whatever the purpose of those books are.

If you're extending the lore to the extent you'd have to you may just as well go off and write a unique world with the concept of wizards living secretly in modern times, and set it somewhere more interesting while your at it, like South Korea or Finland. The HP universe is insulated in an exaggerated parody of English culture, but not the funny Wodehouse kind, and is very dependent on this atmosphere. To move the setting to even so much as Scotland or Wales would already make it begin to strain, which, if I am right about this, is good proof against the alleged versatility of HP's 'interesting' setting. The only benefit of England is to have funny sounding names, something a Finnish setting would naturally supply.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this one, I'll ignore my prejudice against Potter-fanciers.

In some ways the universe lends itself to an ARPG.


- Well explained magic system with lots of spells

- Well crafted lore

Just add same-sex romances and i think it would do very well.

Explain these things, the lore is just rehashed old myths and legends, like D&D but more limited, and what is the explanation of the mechanics of magic in HP?

You are right about the setting in England being important. Also i got the feeling HP isnt really set in the modern world either. It pretends to be, but there is very little mention of human technology like the internet, air travel, weapons technology etc. Then you have the fact that wizards basically don't use technology becasue they have magic, but then they have a steam train that takes the students to Hogwarts. Definately has a steampunk feel to it.

Magic in HP? Well you need a wand and then you speak whatever pseudo-latin name and you cast it. Typically needing practice/inate ability to get a good result. I think in one of the books they introduced the ability to cast stuff without a wand but much weaker and maybe without speaking too?

Of course it dosn't really make much sense why speaking latin allows you to cast spells, after all did the Romans invent wizardry? But hey its Magic!

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

Years back when I was still in the Harry Potter stage of my life I would always imagine...

That much is true, and even that could probably make for an interesting RPG if handled well...

This goes pretty heavily into fanfic/extended universe territory though. If an RPG where to be made of the Harry Potter lore then you'd probably have to extend it, but from my knowledge, which is admittedly limited, there is not much to extend from. If you look into Harry Potter at all the whole thing starts to crack and fall apart, not to mention it comes across as a ruthless, cruel and immoral universe. To play on this would indeed be interesting but I doubt the realities of the HP universe are what makes it 'fun', or whatever the purpose of those books are.

If you're extending the lore to the extent you'd have to you may just as well go off and write a unique world with the concept of wizards living secretly in modern times, and set it somewhere more interesting while your at it, like South Korea or Finland. The HP universe is insulated in an exaggerated parody of English culture, but not the funny Wodehouse kind, and is very dependent on this atmosphere. To move the setting to even so much as Scotland or Wales would already make it begin to strain, which, if I am right about this, is good proof against the alleged versatility of HP's 'interesting' setting. The only benefit of England is to have funny sounding names, something a Finnish setting would naturally supply.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this one, I'll ignore my prejudice against Potter-fanciers.

I'm not sure whether I understand your point (my apologies if I don't), or to put it differently, whether you understood mine, as it would seem you have limited knowledge of the books (which while I'm not a big fan of, I have at least read). That is an observation, not a slight, mind you. Anyway: I don't think you'd need to extend the lore very much at all. Everything I mentioned is pretty much already there, except of course the emphasis is different. You could probably create a plot line of the sort I suggested without having to invent anything (radically) new or contradicting the existing lore at all; all you'd need to do would be to provide a different point of view and perhaps flesh out certain ideas. Now of course you could come up with a similar setting free of the perceived shortcomings of Harry Potter (and move it outside England if you wanted to), but that's beside the point: the proposed game would be made interesting precisely by providing a different take on the HP universe and playing with its stereotypes (including its take on the English culture). That at least would be interesting to me. I can understand if someone cannot stomach Harry Potter at all, but that's a question of personal preference and has little to do with what can or cannot be done with the setting.

 

[laclongquan]

The problem is not the setting, the problem is the fans. The devs, whoever they will be, will design the game to attract the most players, which will number a huge amount of HP readers which are teens and early adults... Can you spell casual and shallow, hum?

Not that they cant do a fine job, but that the game is of dubious quality quite easily if they choose that route.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Better to create your own semioriginal/clonic setting with more grimdark and less emokiddie stuff.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

The problem is not the setting, the problem is the fans. The devs, whoever they will be, will design the game to attract the most players, which will number a huge amount of HP readers which are teens and early adults... Can you spell casual and shallow, hum?

I think that when you're making a game for involved fans, you can afford complexity.

 

[laclongquan]

Really doubt it. Involved Fans of certain games/novels/genres share certain characteristics of each group. Considering the novels' content and their targeted audience, I highly doubt a complex game will go over well.

I mean, the novels? Do they contain any complicated matters or complex issue? Do your Evil Overlord do some EVILNESS? Real mass killing?philosophical musing?

 

[Infinitron]

Really doubt it. Involved Fans of certain games/novels/genres share certain characteristics of each group. Considering the novels' content and their targeted audience, I highly doubt a complex game will go over well.

I mean, the novels? Do they contain any complicated matters or complex issue? Do your Evil Overlord do some EVILNESS? Real mass killing?philosophical musing?

I think Awor's point is that the books have such a large fanbase, that there's bound to be a significant amount of people within the fanbase who are eager for something complex set in that universe. The large fanbase makes the complexity financially viable.

Another example: D&D isn't rocket science, but the fanbase was large enough for a PS:T.

 

[laclongquan]

Look, huge fanbase is the bane of cross-platform media. They want to appeal to the least common denominator, therefore they make popamole.

They can make good game for rabid Wheel of Time fans, because only rabid ones stay with it through 14 huge bricks of pretty complex text.

They will find a hard time to make a good game that appeal to that minute-attention-span of a group of ADHD teens.