Notes towards a Harry Potter RPG

[avram]

That last entry reminded me of some half-formed ideas I had for a Harry Potter role-playing game:

Inspired by School Colors from Out of Space (or “What if Rumiko Takahashi Went to 0 San Before Writing Urusei Yatsura?”), each character would have a pair of attributes corresponding to general cultural knowledge of muggle and wizard societies. Either the two would by inversely paired (the higher one is starting out, the lower the other must be), or the lower starts out capped at some fraction of the higher. A special advantage could be purchased to build characters like Hermione, who can have high values (arbitrarily high, or just a higher fraction?) in both.

Other special advantages would give the characters bonuses when acting from certain motivations. Any character could buy any advantage, but each starts out with the advantage associated with his or her house for free — acting bravely for Gryffindors, seeking knowledge for Ravenclaws, seeking power for Slytherins, and bringing things up to counts of four but otherwise staying offscreen for Hufflepuffs. (Do other schools have houses? If so, what traits are associated with them? The game should have more than four, but characters probably shouldn’t be able to buy more than two or three at most.)

Comments

[cadhla.livejournal.com]

Gryffindor: Bravery. You can ignore frightening or life-threatening situations if it means you will achieve a goal or save a friend.

Ravenclaw: Wisdom. You can make connections that others miss, often causing you to find the answers other Houses overlook.

Slytherin: Adaptability. Nothing throws you for long. You can react quickly to new and strange situations, keeping you on top of the world around you.

Hufflepuff: Dedication. Once you set yourself to a task, you finish it. You are the unswerving rock, and neither pain nor exhaustion will sway you from your goal.

[avram]

I think you've bought into Slytherin propaganda. On the other hand, from a role-playing POV, it would be pretty cool to play an all-Slytherin game under the assumption that the books are presenting a distorted view of the house.

Maybe Slytherins can take either Adaptability (bonus under new circumstances) or Power-Hungry (bonus when seeking power), but to balance out this greater flexibility, they get the Considered Harmful disad (nobody trusts them; penalty when trying to convince any non-Slytherin of something).