Self Published
2002
Alright dumbledorks, buckle up because today I will be reviewing a fan-made Harry Potter RPG. Why? Because the official Harry Potter RPG has an annoying habit of continued non-existence—presumably because J. K. Rowling doesn’t like the idea of a bunch of nerds having sexy Hogwarts adventures in their basement.
Broomstix is the earliest noteworthy fan-made Harry Potter RPG—coming all the way from ye olde year 2002. A genre that actually has surprisingly few entries. There are a few others, which I may review at a later date.
If it seems like I’m being uncharacteristically kind in this review, it’s because this is a fan-made freely-distributed game. And I’m not going to hold it to the same standards as a commercial product.
Setting: N/A
Broomstix is set in the “Wizarding World” of the Harry Potter franchise—or at least the first four books, given that the rest didn’t exist yet. I believe it is more-or-less assumed that anyone who is going to track down and play a fan-made Harry Potter RPG already has at least a basic understanding of the setting, as little-to-no setting information is provided.
Character Creation: 2/5
Players are given 5 points to distribute between Athletics, Knowledge, and Intrigue, with an additional Magic attribute which is always equal to the character’s year. Attribute values solely serve as level caps and prerequisites for skills. Next however many points have been put into each attribute are put into skills related to that attribute. Each attribute has several general skills groups. Most of which are broken into “specialties.” Unfortunately the rules are a little unclear as to when skills are taken as general or specialty skills, as both are referenced throughout. Players then choose—or are given—one of the houses—although the rules suggest not allowing players to be Slytherin as they are the “bad guys.” Each house provides a somewhat nebulous bonus, such as granting a +1 bonus to Gryffindors on “any action involving bravery or daring,” or to Hufflepuffs on “any action where they show their loyalty or determination.” This may actually be my favorite part of the game as it encourages players to play to type, by granting bonus not based on what you do, but why you do it. Characters also gain a “unique situation,” which are either story-related—such as coming from a prestigious family—or grant mechanical effect—like getting a +4 bonus to Muggle Studies for being muggle-born—or you could be an animagus, because apparently it’s a very easy thing to do and is completely unregulated—see Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire. Players must also select a wand, with the option to gain a +1 bonus to one type of magic at the cost of a −1 penalty to another. And then your young witch and/or wizard is ready to go off an almost die while not learning maths.
Mechanics: 3/5
The core mechanic of Broomstix involves rolling a d20, adding the related skill bonus—plus any relevant difficulty modifiers—and comparing to a chart to determine an outcome form “You couldn't have done worse if you tried,” to “A smashing success beyond all expectations.” There’s very little in the way of hard rules, instead relying on the indicated success/failure level interpreted by the Headmaster—because what else would you call the GM in a Harry Potter game? Once again this is something I like, loose rules lose a lot in depth but I think they make up for it in speed and simplicity. This is especially true when dealing with magic, since you really need to either say “magic can do exactly these things,” or “magic can kinda do whatever.” My biggest complaint is the exceedingly slow advancement. Characters’ Magic score increases by +1 each year after first, they gain +1 to any other attribute every 3 years, and get 1 skill point on their birthday—yes, it actually specifies that you get it on your birthday. Meaning that if you played a full seven-year Broomsix campaign your character would gain a +6 bonus to Magic, two +1 attribute bonuses, and 7 skill points—or 6 if your birthday is in the summer.
Writing and Presentation: 2/5
Rules are clear overall, but of the quality you’d expect from a non-professional writer—odd sentence structure, missing punctuation, etc. There also seems to be a massive editing error, as the house descriptions specify what kind of things each house’s students earn experience for, despite the game lacking an experience system. Layout is decent, a lot of fan games tend to be very “text on white page,” but Broomstix has a distinctive level of Harry Potter teeming with weathered parchment page backgrounds and little touches like a snitch on the page numbers.
Content: 1/3 [−]
Content is fairly low, there’s lists of school supplies up to year four—because this was written in 2002—and some basic rules for Quidditch. However, there are no spell lists or descriptions—once again, it’s likely assumed anyone playing this game is familiar enough with the universe to do without—and no monsters or guidelines on creating them. On that last point, they’re not entirely necessary since in general you just need to make a successful Magic check to cast a spell on a troll or a Fly check to ride a hippogriff, but there are situations where monster stats would be necessary and there’s nothing to provide that.
Summary
Broomstix isn’t deep or extensive, but it is a Harry Potter role-playing wen there was no official one. It’s clearly geared more towards Harry Potter fans than tabletop RPG enthusiasts, and that’s exactly who I’d recommend it to. Biggest drawback is the amount of Harry Potter knowledge that would be required to run the game, but as I keep pointing out, there’s pretty good chance that anyone who wants to run this game knows a thing or two about the Harry Potter. Overall, it seems good for people new to tabletop role-playing, or just new to being a human. More experienced and “serious” players may have trouble with the lack of hard crunchy rules.
Base Points: 7
Character Creation: 2/5, Mechanics: 3/5, Presentation: 2/5
Adjustments: −1
Setting: N/A, Writing: +0, Content: −1
Overall Score 40% (6/15 Points)
A Harry Potter RPG for Harry Potter fans, but maybe not RPG fans.
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