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02:58, 19th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Harry Potter RPG ideas.

Posted by Bastian
Bastian
member, 49 posts
Tue 8 Jun 2021
at 23:12
  • msg #1

Harry Potter RPG ideas

Hello everyone, I’m playing a HP RPG with my daughter at the moment (to keep her interested in TRPGs) and while she really enjoys it I’m starting to run out of side quest ideas.
And that’s where you good folks come in, do you have some extra side quests ideas for the 1st and 2nd year ?

She’s in her first year at Hogwarts, at the same time as Harry Potter (she’s his classmate) and halfway through the main quest: Find Toblen’s Goblet which magically creates any drink asked.

Side quests she already did:
- Collected Flobberworms for Hagrid and Professor Pomfrey
- Find lost books and potion ingredients for Professor Flitwick and Snape respectively
- Collected unicorn hair in the forbidden forest (her own side quest)
- Passing/failing several practice tests
- Defeated an Egyptian giant cat (With a rope acting as strong)
- Played a prank on Slytherin

We haven’t reached Halloween yet but I’m planning to skip forward.
praguepride
member, 1829 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Wed 9 Jun 2021
at 15:38
  • msg #2

Harry Potter RPG ideas

I love using other RPGs of similar styles/genres/tones to pillage side quest ideas. For example the My Little Pony RPG I feel is the same overall style as you are going for.

Off the top of my head I remember an adventure where two sentient books got into a fight in a library. One recruits the players to help him stop the other. The other meanwhile is using its own pages to create an origami army of paper soldiers, dive bombing paper airplanes, and even pesky little paper animals that give you nasty paper cuts when you're trying to climb bookshelves.

There is also a whole series of adventures where you get sucked into the books in the library so have to work your way through a childen's fairytale, a science fiction alien invasion, a teen romance twilight-esque book. No real "danger" in the blood and violence sense but its just puzzles of how do you get to the ending of the book as quickly as possible.

In the end the players realized that the two fighting books are actually two volumes of the same story and are actually, essentially, brother and sister so players have to play family therapist to get them to reconcile and live happily as a little family once again.




If you want a little more danger I think The Magicians tv show is basically a cross betweeen Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia. Off the top of my head some adventure side quests are

- While learning to master transforming into animals they get stuck in animal form and lost in the wilderness
- While trying to do a spell to talk to ghosts they accidentally unleash one on the school. Having a troublesome ghost pranking them ala poltergeist seems fitting
- Discovering a secret portal to a fantasy fairytale land that has its own heaps of problems and troubles like a great withering curse drying up all the farmlands that they have to quest for 7 magical keys...that one is basically an entire season.
- Accidentally making the moon itself angry (long story) so it starts causing magic to go haywire until they can appease it. Again, that is like half a season and they end up destroying the world a bunch of times in the process.
- Rescuing santa clause. He was imprisoned by a group of buzzkills for being too nonsensical. Good for a holiday inspired mission. Turns out Santa Clause is just a magician :D
- Stopping bullies is always a classic school tale.





Finally don't skip Halloween! That is an awesome time to have a quest where everyone dresses up (what will she be? What will her friends go as?) and finding a group of troublesome skeletons who turn out to be actual skeletons! Make it a revenge from Slytherin or something.
Bastian
member, 50 posts
Thu 10 Jun 2021
at 07:53
  • msg #3

Harry Potter RPG ideas

In reply to praguepride (msg # 2):

Great ideas! I especially like the Halloween Skeleton idea and the library one. Sadly most of the other ideas are a little too tough for her current skill level, though perhaps I can tweak them a little.

To be honest I didn't even know that there is a "My little Pony RPG". I'll have to check it out if there are more great ideas hiding.
witchdoctor
member, 195 posts
ᏣᏔᎩ
Thu 10 Jun 2021
at 08:14
  • msg #4

Harry Potter RPG ideas

There's always the option of having her travel (by magical mishap) back in time to help solve the various problems preventing the founders of Hogwarts from coming together to found the school.  She'd have to help them without tipping them off that she's from their future in order to be able to return.  She'd know she was instrumental in the founding of Hogwarts but couldn't really tell anyone about it.  There could be Easter Eggs left behind to insinuate her involvement -a statue that looks exactly like her or her likeness in a painting with the Founders.

She could help a dementor that wasn't like the others (and didn't want to make people afraid or sad) to find a new path.

She could discover that someone has kidnapped the images of famous wizards & witches from the cards that come with the chocolate frogs and track down the mystery of where they went and who kidnapped them.
Greymist
member, 16 posts
Fri 11 Jun 2021
at 00:31
  • msg #5

Harry Potter RPG ideas

Bastian, are you using the Wizards and Wands rule set?

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LsXE64qLDdLgBczM2kA

Coincidentally I ran across this last week, and then I saw your post!

I like withcdoctor's ideas of getting her character involved in Hogwart's itself. If time travel is too complicated, maybe just things like:
  • the annual scavenger hunt for 1st and 2nd years
  • receiving detention due to her nemesis and meeting the house goblins in the kitchens while doing chores
  • discovering clues to a mini-Chamber of Secrets, without all the death and dark magic!


I would probably consider setting each adventure a few months after the last one, throughout the school year, so one for September to Halloween; one leading into Xmas vacation; one for January to Spring Break and then maybe a summer vacation one that takes place in Muggle-world.

Sounds like fun, enjoy!
Bastian
member, 51 posts
Fri 11 Jun 2021
at 06:45
  • msg #6

Harry Potter RPG ideas

@witchdoctor:
The time travel one sounds like fun, it's going to take me some time to make a suitable adventure for her.
I'm loving the Dementor that doesn't want to hurt others. I'm totally gonna do that and we'll have to play charades to communicate.
The last one seems more like a police matter than a 1st year student (She doesn't want to advance too quickly)

@Greymist:
Actually I'm using the "Harry Potter and the Tabletop RPG" rules. I didn't trust myself with the Wizards and Wands rules and wanted to learn it by being a player first.
The annual scavenger hunts sounds awesome! I'm gonna have it start after Halloween.
She has just begun reading the books and doesn't know too much about house elfs. I'm not sure if I'm gonna do that one. And since she's friends with Harry, Ron and Hermione she'll play a part in the chamber of secrets and the philospher's/sorcerer's stone.
Gaffer
member, 1692 posts
Ocoee FL
45 yrs of RPGs
Fri 11 Jun 2021
at 12:26
  • msg #7

Re: Harry Potter RPG ideas

praguepride:
Finally don't skip Halloween! That is an awesome time to have a quest where everyone dresses up (what will she be? What will her friends go as?) and finding a group of troublesome skeletons who turn out to be actual skeletons! Make it a revenge from Slytherin or something.

Cribbing a little for Hallowe'en from Nightmare Before Christmas might be fun. And steal from Buffy where the costume makes you that person for the night and a bit of it carries over to the real world. Like going as a doctor or nurse gives some medical knowledge in future episodes or dressing like an acrobat gives some acrobatic ability. You could prompt that with a 'Dress Like a Muggle' theme for her year and house.

You don't say how old your daughter is. Mine was about ten when I started running adventures for her. We're still at it now that she's grown.
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