DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
4WindsWriters
HTML https://4windswriters.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: D and D Games
*****************************************************
#Post#: 31--------------------------------------------------
Create Your Own Harry Potter Themed D&D Campaign
DIR By: Penny
Date: July 8, 2022, 3:56 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://sordbord.com/create-your-own-harry-potter-themed-dd-campaign/
Create Your Own Harry Potter Themed D&D Campaign
Every Harry Potter fan wishes to live in the Harry Potter
universe, the world-building in the books is so good that it
makes you want to visit Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Dungeons and
Dragons can provide a great foundation for creating a game set
in the Hogwarts universe, as well as the ruleset and structure
for players to follow in order to play.
This article will cover how to create a Harry Potter themed D&D
campaign, using elements of the first four books’ storyline as
an example, so if you haven’t read the books or watched the
movies yet, you may want to skip this article to avoid spoilers.
This article serves two functions:
To teach you how to write a good campaign
To demonstrate how to modify a campaign to fit your favourite
fantasy world (in this case Harry Potter)
My son and daughter are both huge Harry Potter and D&D fans, so
I just had to create a campaign that combined the two. I can
assure you that being a dungeon master is a lot of fun because
it’s like writing your own stories for Harry Potter, and the
players had a great time as well.
Can All the Players be Wizards?
When playing a Harry Potter-themed campaign, the first question
that will arise is whether or not all of the players can be
wizards. The good news is that they all can – there’s nothing in
D&D that prevents a group of wizards from playing together. It
may not be the most balanced party, but D&D is about having fun,
so if it’s thematic and the level of encounters are tailored to
suit a slightly weaker party, the players won’t notice. Other
spellcaster classes, such as sorcerer, cleric, and druid, are
all very thematic as well.
Having said that, when we played, my daughter still wanted to be
a fighter because she finds all of the spells that come with
being a Wizard a little difficult to play. In the game, she did
this and still went to Hogwarts. t was never mentioned that she
did not cast any spells, and she still had a lot of fun.
The Five Elements of a Good Campaign
Regardless of the plot, there are a few elements that must be
present in order for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign to be
successful. They are as follows:
Have a good story arc – What is the main reason for the
characters to be here? Are they leading an insurgency against a
bad teacher? Are they attempting to recover a magical artefact
in order to save the world? In general, your story requires a
bad guy (such as Voldermort) whom your characters want to keep
from doing something (such as getting the sorcerers stone).
Determine the tone of your game – are you running a serious or
light-hearted game? You’ll want to create a story and setting
that complements the tone of your game.
Create a world – You’ll need to create the world in which your
campaign will take place. Because we’re using Harry Potter as an
example, you’ll want to incorporate elements from the books in
your descriptions to make it feel like the players are in the
Harry Potter universe.
Create memorable characters and settings – memorable characters
and settings make a story memorable. You don’t need a
complicated plot to keep the campaign interesting if the
characters are interesting and the locations are unique. If your
players are playing well-known characters like Harry, Ron, or
Hermoine, they may already have this, but if they are playing
brand new Wizards, make sure they each get a bit of spotlight.
Campaign and Adventures
A campaign is the overarching story that may take many sessions
to complete. Some D&D campaigns can last years. This is similar
to the entire Harry Potter series.
The adventures are individual stories that are played over the
course of a single gaming night. These are individual movies (or
episodes of a series, as there are usually many of them) that
make up the movie series (or season).
Planning your Story Arc
You want your overall campaign to have a large story arch that
covers all of the adventures in the campaign. In most cases,
this takes the form of:
“Someone wants ______________ but they can’t have it because
__________”
For example “Voldermort wants to rule the muggle and wizarding
world but can’t because Harry Potter is destined to stop him”.
Plan out the Main Plot Points
In the campaign, the players are playing to resolve the problem
above. For example, Voldermort wins and kills Harry Potter,
thereby gaining control of the world, or Harry Potter kills
Voldermort and everyone lives happily ever after.
However, the overarching plot hook doesn’t necessarily need to
drive every action in the main plot points, there can be
subplots and sidequests throughout.
When planning a campaign, I like to divide it into 4-5 major
plot points, which can then be subdivided into adventures. Using
the first four Harry Potter books as an example, these would be:
The heroes must prevent Lord Voldermort from obtaining the
sorcerers stone (an elixir of life).
Voldermort possesses a student, causing her to release a
monstrous snake intent on harming muggle-borns, and the heroes
must stop the snake.
Sirius Black (who is suspected of murdering Harry’s parents) has
escaped prison to hunt down Harry, and the heroes must ensure
that he survives.
Voldermort enters Harry’s name into a competition in order to
transport him and take his blood to be able to get his body
back, the heroes must devise a plan to defeat Voldermort.
We’ll stop here and assume that the big bad boss fight at the
end of the tournament is where the heroes defeat Voldermort, but
obviously if you wanted a longer campaign, you could do more
than the four movies.
Now keep in mind that you may have a predetermined ending in
mind (for example, Harry teleports and fights Voldermort on his
own), but your heroes may come up with something completely
different (eg. Lure Voldermort to Hogwart to fight before the
tournament, or use magic to each become the other competitors
and go fight Voldermort together). You must ensure that your
plan is only used as a guideline for how the story could go and
that you allow your players to live out the story through their
own imaginations and actions.
Break Down the Main Plot Points into Adventures
For each one of these main plot points we have outlined, I then
like to break down the main plot hook into adventures (think
episodes of a TV show or chapters in a book). I like fice or so
adventures per major plot point and generally create a table
outlining what will happen in each adventure.
Keep in mind that there are four main types of plot hooks used
in adventures, and you should choose one to be the main reason
for the adventure. The four types of adventure hooks are as
follows:
Discovering something – for example, discovering why Voldermort
wants the sorcerers stone
Stopping someone doing something – for example stopping
Voldermort from getting the sorcerer’s stone. This could be
achieved in a number of ways, for example through talking them
down, capturing them or killing them
Obtain an object – for example getting the key to unlock the
secret door to the chamber where the sorcerer’s stone is kept
Taking something or someone to a certain location – for example,
they need to rescue Ginny and take her to safety (another
example may be to take an important item to someone)
For example for the Sorcerers Stone adventure (note that some
details have been changed or simplified to adapt to what could
be a D&D adventure, which is fine because your players are
likely to play through the plot differently than what you expect
anyway):
Plot Point
1. The heroes have to protect the sorcerers stone (which is an
elixir of life) from getting into the hands of Lord Voldermort.
Adventure Hook
a. The heroes find out they are wizards and need to make their
way to wizarding school.
Adventure Hook
b. There is a troll released in the grounds and the heroes go to
get their friend who is stuck nearby to safety. While hiding
they find out about a 3 headed dog protecting a trap door.
Adventure Hook
c. In a sports match, Harry is jinxed and almost killed, the
heroes need to investigate if it’s got to do with the trap
door.
d. The heroes find out the sorcerers stone is an Elixer of life
that Voldermort wants, and try to protect it but face a series
of obstacles getting there.
e. The heroes get to the stone and have to face Voldermort. He
can’t hurt Harry because he’s protected so his spell backfires
and the heroes get the stone, but Voldermort escapes.
Plot Point
2. Voldermort possesses a student to let out a monstrous snake
that wants to hurt muggle-borns and the heroes have to stop the
snake.
…
Plan out What will Happen in Each Adventure
Plan out the Storyline
When planning an adventure, think of it like a movie plot:
there’s an opening scene with a plot hook for the adventure, a
middle section where things happen (e.g. fighting monsters), and
a conclusion (eg. fighting a bad guy or finding a treasure).
You’ll want to map out the areas and encounters that might occur
in each of these scenes. These encounters can be social, where
they meet interesting people and learn interesting things or
combat encounters.
Picking Monsters for Combat
For combat you want the villains to be appropriately themed for
the story, so for example in a dungeon under Hogwarts you might
find rats and snakes, in the Forbidden Forest you might find
giant spiders and unicorns. I like to stick to the official D&D
monsters that are appropriately themed rather than making my
own, as then you can use something like kobold fight club to get
the right balance for monsters that you’ve chosen.
Develop Interesting Characters and Locations
Consider the locations where each adventure will take place. For
the most part, they’ll be simple because if you’re familiar with
the books, you’ll already be describing areas you’re familiar
with. However, feel free to add your own twist to make them even
more epic.
Throughout your campaigns, you should plan out a few epic
locations and write down the details. Making things big is a
simple way to make them epic. For instance, the final chamber
containing the sorcerer’s stone could be described as follows:
A huge chamber makes the characters feel small, they’re not even
sure how this can fit under the school
There’s a high ceiling with intricate carvings on the ceiling
Echo’s whenever you talk
Is completely empty room except for a mirror sitting in the
middle of it
Making NPCs
Because there are so many memorable NPCs in Harry Potter, I
recommend using them rather than creating new ones, as it will
add to the feeling that you are in the Harry Potter world. To
make it feel like the characters from the movies, I like to
describe a few distinguishing characteristics of the character
and then act the character out using body language or voice
whenever I’m DMing as them. Even if there’s not something unique
about the character that is present in the movie, I’ll still
choose something distinctive to represent the character and
their motivations. For example for professor Quirrel in the last
chamber I might use:
You can’t see his face because he’s wearing a hood. It’s almost
as if he’s being followed by a dark mist.
He’s trying to be friendly, but he appears to be desperate for
something.
I hunch over my shoulders and speak in a raspy tone when I act.
An Example Adventure
I like to jot down some notes for my adventure so that I have
something to refer to while DMing. But nothing too detailed, as
this allows me to go with the flow as the characters interact
with the game, and it keeps my preparation time to a minimum.
For example for 1d above, I might decide that it looks as
follows:
1d. The heroes find out the sorcerers stone is an Elixer of life
that Voldermort wants, and try to protect it but face a series
of obstacles getting there.
Introduction
The players need to investigate what the sorcerers stone is.
They go to the library and have to convince an NPC to let them
read the off-limit books.
They find out it’s an Elixer of life.
The players need to make it to the trap door, without being
stopped by the teachers.
Once the players get to the trap door, they need to solve a
puzzle to open the trap door
Once through the door they then have to crawl through a dungeon
fighting a set of spiders and then rats before arriving at the
main chamber.
When they get there an NPC (professor Quirrel) they thought was
good is there in front of a mirror, who says he is here to
protect the stone.
The players need to talk to the NPC and they figure out that
something is up and fight the NPC.
Just as they’re about to kill the NPC he summons Lord
Voldermort, who suddenly possesses him.
Monsters, NPCs and Locations:
Locations:
Library, huge, full of books old and new
Librarian – old tall wizard, strict and wants to keep everything
quiet. But she has a loud booming voice and keeps yelling at the
characters to keep it down.
Encounter 1 – 5 rats
Encounter 2 – 10 spiders
Encounter 3 – 2 giant rats
Chamber:
Huge chamber that makes the characters feel small, they’re not
even sure how this can fit under the school
There’s a high ceiling with intricate carvings on the ceiling
Echo’s whenever you talk
Is completely empty except for a mirror sitting in the middle of
it
NPC professor Quirrell:
Dark figure with a hood, you can’t see his face. It’s almost as
if a dark mist follows him.
He’s trying to be friendly but he seems like he really, really
wants something.
When I act I hunch over my shoulders and speak with a raspy
voice.
NPC Lord Voldemort – use the Necromancers ability but run away
when damaged enough rather than killing the characters.
Add your own Sidequests
In the same way that playing quidditch or arguing with Malfoy
isn’t absolutely necessary for defeating Voldermort in the
movies, I like to include sidequests in between adventures.
Generally, I keep these to only one or two per main plot point.
These could take a variety of forms, including:
For a secondary plot, you could create an adventure centred on
the heroes’ feud with the bullies (Draco and company).
Something unique to a character (usually tied into their
backstory or obtaining a defining item) – for example, stealing
Harry’s father’s cloak from Dumbledore’s office could be an
adventure.
While many of my above plot points revolve around a single
character (after all, the book is called Harry Potter), you
should make sure that you have something special for each of
your characters throughout your campaign, so that they all feel
like the campaign was tailored specifically for them.
Closing Thoughts
As you can see from the examples above, we’ve taken Harry Potter
and transformed it into a D&D adventure. We haven’t followed the
plot to the letter, but it is very similar to the plot of Harry
Potter.
Playing this was honestly some of the most fun I’ve had playing
D&D. I found it relieves the DM of a lot of the pressure of
having to world build because you already have a world and a
story plot created for you, and the players enjoy being a part
of a story they already enjoy.
Now it’s up to you to create your own epic Harry Potter
campaign!
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1