Harry Potter and the Death of Magic

[Shaun Hately]

I've already posted this to another list, but I thought it might 
amuse here.

Last weekend (the Easter weekend) I attended a games convention - 
Conquest - in Melbourne, Australia. This convention occurs each year 
and is a place for people to get together playing various games - 
most notably roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons, and 
wargames of various sorts. I've been attending this convention for 
fourteen years now, and I've been running games there since the late 
1990s. For the last five conventions I have run roleplaying sessions 
set in the Harry Potter universe. As I did this year. And I've 
written up some notes on how things went this year, which I thought 
might interest some people here.

First of all, yes, it was fun, but yes, it was also a *lot* of work. 
Not as much this year as in the past in some ways - this is the 
fifth consecutive year I have run a Harry Potter game at this 
convention and a lot of the material from previous years (mostly the 
maps I have made of different places, and the floorplans I've 
constructed on Hogwarts) remain useful and relevant, but I still had 
some prop making to do in advance. In particular for this year I 
created laminated character sheets describing each of the available 
characters (six this year - I create these sheets every year). 
Basically an image taken off the net, a 'blazer pocket' style badge 
- because a lot of people in Melbourne have been to, or at least 
know of schools based on British traditions, I play that up quite a 
bit in my games, so I had badge pockets made up with Quidditch 
colours and things - and a short description of the character. I 
also created statistics based on the D20 (D&D) game for each of the 
six characters and had to make up lots of those on paper for use in 
the game. The biggest prop I did this year though was a scrapbook of 
articles from the Daily Prophet - most of them were articles from 
the books but I had to write three of my own to bring the players up 
to date on events that have occurred since the end of Half-Blood 
Prince - this years game was set in the summer holidays between 
sixth and seventh years for Harry - so was obviously totally 
speculative - and I needed to have a way that people could know the 
major events of the game world... they were the fact that McG had 
been confirmed as Headmistress, Hogwarts would reopen, Arthur 
Weasley had been put in charge of magical law enforcement, and 
Dolores Umbridge had been put in charge of magical education and 
underage affairs and her first action had been to raise the Age of 
Majority to 18. I really had fun with that article.

Hang on - I'll paste that one in.

*****

AGE PARITY SHOCK

In a shock move, the Minister for Educational Affairs and Underage 
Concerns, Mrs Dolores Umbridge today announced that, with immediate 
effect, the Age of Majority for Wizards and Witches has been 
increased from 17 to 18 years of age. This will effect all Wizards 
and Witches under the age of 18, even those 17 year olds who until 
now were considered to be of age.

Mrs Umbridge stated that this decision has been taken out of a deep 
concern for the welfare of our children.

"17 year olds may think they are adults, but my experiences as 
Headmistress of Hogwarts indicated to me that this was a serious 
mistake. This mistaken and indulgent view meant that I found myself 
unable to discipline two young men who were sorely in need of it, as 
they decided they were now old enough to decide for themselves 
whether or not they should continue their education."

When it was pointed out to Mrs Umbridge that the Muggles also 
believe that children become adults at the age of 18, she stated 
that even Muggles have a sensible idea once or twice a century and 
it would be blatantly prejudicial not to do something just because 
Muggles do it.

When asked how she would deal with the outrage of young Witches and 
Wizards about this decision, she said:

"Don't you understand - the whole point of this decision is that we 
no longer have to listen to the outrage of a whole new group of 
young Witches and Wizards. This will make it much easier to 
introduce many other educational reforms - such as returning 
meaningful punishments to Hogwarts."

Professor McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts, declined to comment 
on these changes."

*****

I had so much fun writing that. (-8

Anyway, that was the inititial preparation for the game. Now to the 
game itself.

Actually not yet - I must tell you about the place the convention is 
held because it's really a very nice location to run a Harry Potter 
game.

The Conquest convention is held at Melbourne High School - so it 
held at a school - and the school looks quite a bit like a castle.

http://tinyurl.com/mgthe

for anyone who wants to see a picture. It's quite cool running a 
Harry Potter game in that type of environment.

OK - the game itself.

I ran eight sessions of the game during the con (I think it was 
eight). I had between three and six players each session, with 
probably an average of around four or five - at a guess I ran it for 
between 35 and 40 people.

Each session starts out the same, but because the game develops 
based on what the players do, each session is quite a bit different. 
I do have a loose plot and most groups stayed fairly close to it - 
but it differed quite a bit.

The game was entitled 'Harry Potter and the Death of Magic' and the 
available characters were the six students who fought the battle in 
the Ministry of Magic at the end of 'Order of the Phoenix' - Harry, 
Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna. Harry, Ron, and Hermione 
were in all sessions, Ginny was the fourth character in sessions 
where I had four (it was easier to explain why she was there than 
for the other two) with Luna and Neville being interchangeable as 
the fifth and sixth characters.

The game opened during the summer holidays with the assembled 
characters all being at Grimmauld Place. They were all moved here 
early in the summer holidays for their own protection - the Order is 
using it again. They have basically found themselves cleaning the 
house again, while it is being used for Order business - the Order 
has meetings a couple of times a week but the characters are more or 
less excluded from the meetings, despite their best efforts. Even 
though Harry has informed everyboy he's not going back to school, 
all the significant adults left in his life seem to be assuming he 
is going to. It's quite frustrating really - though Harry has had 
some indications from Mr Weasley and Lupin that they do have 
something for him to do, just not yet, and so far this has kept 
Harry reasonably co-operative (the fact that Mrs Weasley is hard to 
disobey also helps...) And the other characters have been going 
along with Harry.

As the adventure begins, the characters have just read the latest 
issue of the Daily Prophet with the article I've quoted above. 
Basically I start the game by giving them the chance to interact in 
character about the article. The general way people played their 
characters was fairly much what you'd expect - a group of teens 
suddenly told that they are too immature to be trusted by a woman 
they also hate and despise... well, the reaction is spirited.

Then I introduce the owls - an owl arrives for each of the PCs. 
Bearing a note from the Ministry. Informing them that they have an 
appointment with Umbridge the following morning.

More time to react in outrage, anger and horror. And then when I 
want to move things along again - an announcement over the Wizarding 
Wireless Network. An emergency. A muggle train has somehow managed 
to get onto platform nine and three quarters at Kings Cross and has 
collided with the Hogwarts Express. All able-bodied wizards are to 
report to Kings Cross immediately to assist the ministry.

All the charactes went in every session - and basically found 
themselves involved in a massive effort to obliviate the memories of 
all muggles so the Ministry could later modify their memories to 
maintain secrecy. A lot more than just that is required - the 
illusions and other spells that keep the platform secret have failed 
and need to be restored, but the Ministry in handling that - the 
characters basically are just assigned to basic first aid, triage, 
and memory wiping. Virtually every wizard and witch they have ever 
known is in the area - so from a gaming perspective, it was good 
because they could seek out people to ask questions - most tried to 
find out why Umbridge might want to see them. Most asked Professor 
McGonagall who didn't know but told them to be careful and to not 
provoke Umbridge.

Eventually as the situation is brought under control they are told 
to go back to Grimmauld Place by Molly and to get dinner on because 
the Order is going to meet.

They do so - they are excluded from the meeting (Fred and George are 
members of the Order now but the others are still too young). Most 
groups tried to spy on the meeting in some way - all failed. If they 
came up with a really good idea, I had it foiled by Fred and George. 
The meeting doesn't last long, but basically we move onto the 
following morning.

The following morning they find Fred and George at breakfast looking 
rather annoyed - they are living at the shop now, but for some 
reason they seem to pop in for meals quite a bit (Molly's cooking!) 
and normally they are in a better mood. Especially seeing this is an 
especially wonderful breakfast.

After breakfast it emerges why they are grumpy. They've been given 
an assignment by the Order - babysitting. They have to keep an eye 
on the characters.

Their first task is to take them to the Ministry and it emerges that 
Fred and George have luxury cars. They are really moving up in the 
world and embracing some Muggle ideas (Arthur seems to have rubbed 
off on them). They take the characters to the Ministry and the 
characters go in for their meeting with Umbridge.

Her secretary - fawning and obsequious - is Percy Weasley. A number 
of groups had some fun tormenting Percy. And then the part of the 
session that was normally the most fun for me (in some sessions, 
there were other great moments, but this was in every session).

The meeting with Umbridge.

I think I played Umbridge well. She greeted the characters by saying 
'Good morning, my children' and playing up the fact that she is now 
minister with special responsibility for them. I played her in the 
most horrible chilling, nasty fashion I could - but also coming 
across as if she was actually pretending to be nice.

"I would appreciate your help with my reforms at Hogwarts... it 
would be a shame to cancel all those OWLS, wouldn't it, Miss 
Granger?" Things like that.

Really nasty, really evil, vicious, foul.

And then just as I reach the peak - and hopefully I have the players 
seriously freaked out - her voice chances.

"Wotcher, Harry."

And her hair turns pink.

I *loved* doing that! Loved it!

Anyway, Tonks has now revealed herself (and has to deal with the 
characters) response, but ultimately she tells them she has a 
mission for them ("Don't tell Molly.") . The reason the illusion at 
Kings Cross failed is that magic is being disrupted near London - 
and they've traced the source to the Department of Mysteries. They 
think the problem started about the time that Sirius was killed, and 
they need to check it out - but they want to avoid introducing more 
variables into the environment, so it's best to use people who were 
there at that time ("But don't tell Molly!") So if the characters 
will go in ("Don't tell Molly.") that'd really be helpful. It 
shouldn't be dangerous ("But don't tell Molly.") but they can't be 
sure so they need to be careful ("And don't tell Molly.") If there 
is danger, they can call for help but at all costs they must keep 
Harry alive because he's so important ("And if you are going to die, 
call me, so I can die with you so I don't have to tell Molly!").

At this point, every session became somewhat different - because 
people could do what they liked. All identified the problem - some 
tried to solve it straight away, others returned to Hogwarts to 
research there - it was all quite different).

Highlights...

Well, I've already mentioned the Umbridge scene. Other good scenes 
that developed that were fun to play...

Hermione asks how Fred and George's car drive themselves - given 
that they've just told her that the cars are too sensitive to use 
magic on. Fred and George become very evasive. Hermione discovers 
the house elf chauffers in the boot. 

Ginny has been using polyjuice potion to turn herself into a 
voluptuous stunning blonde of about twenty. Molly demands to know 
where the hair came from.

"I got it from Fred's pillow."

There's silence for a moment and just as Molly opens her mouth to 
begin making her views known, George throws a swinging punch at 
Fred.

Neville asks what a taxi is and gets a very vague description. He 
finds a car that seems to fit and drives it back to Grimmauld Place 
(the concept of how taxis work should have been better explained. 
The concept of driving would have helped as well). Later that 
evening people watch on as the residents of 11 and 13 Grimmauld 
place try to explain the badly dented police car outside their 
houses.

Harry's horror as (because the player wouldn't have Harry go to 
sleep and time was getting tight - I only had three hours for each 
session) he wakes up and realises Molly must have slipped a sleeping 
potion into the cocoa she gave him the previous night. That's not 
what inspires the horror though - he realises that somehow he is in 
his pyjamas.

Harry suddenly realises that Pansy Parkinson is actually polyjuiced 
Draco - and lashes out with a punch to the chin. Hermione says 
"Harry, you can't hit a girl!" and Harry says "But it's Draco."

Hermione lashes out with a second punch and then has to be 
restrained by everybody in the vicinity when she draws her wand. 
After a struggle, the fact that Pansy came into the prefects 
bathroom the previous night while Hermione was in there is revealed. 
At that point, Ron punches him. McGonagall finally arrives and Draco 
demands to be handed over to the Aurors for his own protection - but 
McGonagall speaks.

"First of all, Mister Malfoy, we have something to discuss. Because 
letting Death Eaters into this school is definitely a violation of 
the school rules."

Just a few of the fun highlights.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia


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