Hello, ye curious player. What you are reading now is WiWi's staff Development Diary. Essentially, this is a place where we will post information about upcoming developments and changes being considered for the game. This could mean anything from system and rules changes to alteration and new additions to the lore that we haven't yet decided on. For obvious reasons, plots and other secret stuff won't be discussed here.
The idea here is transparency, so that players aren't surprised by big changes, and have a chance to give us input on them. For feedback, we will open a thread on the Discussion board in game for each Development Diary entry.
Entry 9: Combat System
Posted: September 14, 2014 • Updated: November 13, 2014
While the FS3 system has combat code built in, it was not designed with magic in mind. As such, we are unable to use it in most instances. We're looking to create a new combat system that we can use here, keeping the following tenets in mind:
- Keep it simple: Combat systems have a way of getting really convoluted. Including magic is going to be tricky enough. The mechanics should be streamlined and easy to understand, and combat should run smoothly without the need for eleventy-thousand rolls every turn.
- Don't make the system fit magic, make magic fit the system: Magic is the big rule-breaker, anyhow. The spells weren't written with this new system in mind. If the spells need to be adjusted to fit the new rules, so be it. But trying to write a system that will perfectly fit the spells as written will likely be impossible.
- Combat, not duelling: This is a system to handle all kinds of combat, not simply magical duels. Revised duelling rules will come after the basic combat mechanics are figured out. We want duelling to be a refined form of combat. We do not want combat to be an expanded form of duelling. So there is nothing sacrosanct about any previous duelling rules.
Update 1 (November 13, 2014): Our intent is for this to eventually encompass mass combat as well, to help in running things like dogfights for our RAF characters. This would be a variation on the Quidditch Table rules (or rather, a return to that table's roots, as it is based on the Mass Battle Table from Legend of the Five Rings). In fact, we are strongly considering whether a more universal Conflict Table could be created that would apply to all forms of combat and similar conflicts.
Entry 8: Wandlore (COMPLETE)
Posted: November 9, 2013 • Completed: February 4, 2015
We have long considered whether to have actual rules in place regarding different wand types and what effects they could have in game. In truth, we're still not totally certain that we want to get that specific with the rules, but some players have shown an interest, so it's on the table.
We do have a Wandlore page in the works, but whether this will be a page for wand rules, or simply for fluff about wands, remains to be seen. PLEASE NOTE that this page is not official material right now. The woods are all canon and perfectly usable, but the cores beyond the "big three" are not (and, in fact, we've hidden them for the time being).
Update 1 (April 13, 2014): We have decided that the game will benefit from an official list of available wand woods and cores. The Wandlore page is still a work in progress, but we are starting to flesh it out. Woods and cores will have some mechanical benefits in game, though relatively minor ones. Some rarer cores will likely cost Cookies to have.
The philosophy behind core design is that the big three (unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, and phoenix feather) really are the best cores overall. More unusual cores won't be as effective in general, but will have something specific that they do especially well. For example, a Veela hair wand might suffer a penalty to most spells, but gain a bonus to Mind spell cast on humans.
Update 2 (October 8, 2014): We are right on the cusp of going live with our wand rules. So now is a good time to look at Wandlore and see whether your characters' current wand woods and cores will cost Cookies or not (or if it will exist at all), and look into alternatives if you cannot or do not wish to spend the Cookies. Please note that, just like when the spell list went live, wands will not be "grandfathered" in.
Update 3 (November 13, 2014): The costs and system effects should be final (barring future need to tweak them). The only thing holding these rules back from going live is the need to lock down the code for setting wand options so that only staff can change them. Hang tight. We'll get there!
Entry 7: Potion List
Posted: September 12, 2013
Much like our list of Spells, we are also in the process of creating a comprehensive list of official Potions. Stay tuned for more details.
Entry 6: Project: Celtic Knot (COMPLETE)
Posted: September 7, 2013 • Completed: November 24, 2013
Attention: PURE-BLOODS! It's starting to get noticeable that with 116 pure-bood characters very few of them are from a canon pure-bood family. For a strong theme choice I think it is very important that the pure-blood community feel like a tight Celtic Knot when it comes to family trees. In an effort to get this feel to the game, I am giving this plea/beg/hope for everyone from an original pure-blood family (especially the lone members) find a suitable name from the list of canon pure-bood families (seen below, or in +bbread 1/26) and get together with me, da Boo (and SeanCee) during Office Hours or via +request to see about getting yourself adopted into one of the families below. It will be so much nicer having a more tightly woven pure-bood community. There are so many canon families to chose from, adding so many original names creates an unhealthy bloat.
During this process we'll also be tidying up characters. If there are original characters that are languishing on the roster, we might just retire them and also let those retired characters that have long since been gone fade out completely and free up their Actor if they've made little impact or have been gone a very long time (over 6 months).
In the end it is my desire and dream to be able to look at our pure-blood wiki page and see all the names below with maybe a maximum of 5 original names, instead of the reverse of that it is now. This is not mandatory, but co-operation will be rewarded. Please see below or +bbread 1/26 for the list.
+Requests should please have Celtic Knot in the subject. Also remember to include your current surname, desired surname, and any other bits and notes we should probably be armed with to make an accurate decision. Thank you!
We should also note that this can extend to half-bloods as well. Plenty of half-bloods come from families that are otherwise pure-blooded. The exceptions would be families that are noted to be "purist," as well as the Sacred Twenty-Eight. There may be exceptions in certain Sacred Twenty-Eight families.
Key:
#$ = General Family Wealth Level
1$ = Poor 2$ = Comfortable 3$ = Well-To-Do 4$ = Rich 5$ = Opulent
O-> = Male characters only, unless they married in.
Alumni Heavy: (G)= Gryffindor (H)= Hufflepuff (R)= Ravenclaw (S)= Slytherin
#Closed# - Requires Staff approval first. If you want to play one check +Roster!
Top Priority - Please use these Surnames!!
Medium Priority - Not too small, not to large.
Low Priority - Family is getting pretty full. Please consider another name.
SACRED 28 Families: (http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Sacred_Twenty-Eight)
Abbott (H) 3$ Avery (S) 3$ #Black# (S) 3-4$ Bulstrode (S) 3$
Burke (S) 2$ #Carrow# (S) 2$ Crouch (S) 2$ Fawley (H) 2$
#Flint# (S) 3$ #Gaunt# (NPC) (S) Greengrass (S) 4$ Lestrange (S) 5$
Longbottom (G) 2$ Macmillan (G) 3$ #Malfoy# (S) 5$ Nott (S) 2$
#Ollivander# 3$ Parkinson (S) 3$ Prewett 3$ Rosier 2$
Rowle 3$ Selwyn 5$ Shacklebolt 3$ Shafiq 3$
#Slughorn# (S) 3$ Travers (S) 3$ #Weasley# (G)O->2$ Yaxley 3$
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bletchley (S) 3$ Blishwick (S) 3$ Brown (H) 1$ Cornfoot 3$
Crabbe (S) 3$ Dippet (S) 2$ Donnelly 1-3$ #Eibon# 5$
Fudge (G) 3$ Gamp (S) 2$ Gibbon (S) 2$ #Goshawk(R/H)2$
Goyle (S) 3$ #Hawthorne# 3$ Higgs (S) 3$ Lovegood(R)2-3$
Lowe 3$ MacDougal (R) 3$ #Macnair# 5$ Max 3-4$
Meliflua (S) 3$ Merrythought 2$ #Montague# 4$ Moody 2$
#Mulciber# (S/R) Orpington (H) 2$ #Peverell# (NPC) Potter (G) 1-3$
Prince 5$ #Proudmore# (G)2-5$ Pyrites 2-3$ Quinn 1$
Rashley 2-3$ Summerbee (R) 1-5$ #Sykes# (S) 2-4$ Thurkell 1$
Tripe (S) 3$ Umbridge 2-3$ Urquart 3$ #Vengal# (NPC)
Weaver 2$ Wilkins (S) 3$ Zabini (S) 3-4$
---Foreign Pure-Blood Families---
Africa: ((These cost 150 Cookies to play.))
Kwaito
Native American: ((These cost 150 Cookies to play.))
Begay
Cardinal
Deloria
Echohawk
Harjo
Mankiller
Nakos
Toothaker
Shenandoah
Sickafoose
France: ((These cost 150 Cookies to play.))
Bonaccord
Bonnesante
DuBois
Moreau
Rousseau
Northern European: ((These cost 150 Cookies to play.))
Schrader
Agrippa
von Glockenspieler
Eldritch
Vogler
Helstrom
Grindelwald
India: ((These cost 100 Cookies to play.))
Jadu
Dilraj
Akaal
Italy: ((These cost 150 Cookies to play.))
Bellarosa
Coccotti
Issani
Lipazi
Marcone
Yakavetta
Sweden: ((These cost 150 Cookies to play.))
Solomon
Russia: ((These cost 150 Cookies to play.))
Yakuskin
Petrov
Dolohov
- Note: The Black Family are a very well defined family tree and are not open for insertions.
Name Change Log
As people join the project and adjust their characters, we will list the changes here to make it easier for other players to keep track of who is going where.
| Character |
Former Surname |
New Surname |
| Adie |
Wynter |
Selwyn |
| Agustine |
Dauphin |
Rousseau |
| Ahnaliese |
Hockley |
Brown |
| Ajax |
Dawn |
Selwyn |
| Archie |
Smythe |
Mulciber |
| Artemis |
Le'darre |
Meliflua |
| Astraea |
Lunaris |
Lovegood |
| Balthazar |
Blackstone |
Lestrange |
| Brei |
Issani |
Montague |
| Camilla |
Grey |
Fawley |
| Carmichael |
Carmichael |
MacDougal |
| Ceridwyn |
Maiden: Llewellyn |
Lowe |
| Clover |
Weaver-MacCurry |
Weaver-Macnair |
| Dean |
Driscoll |
Hawthorne |
| Demetrius |
Bennett |
Orpington |
| Douglas |
Anderson |
Macmillan |
| Elijah |
Crane |
Lovegood |
| Est |
Howell |
Prince |
| Estelle |
Turner |
Avery |
| Eupraxia |
Diggory |
Pyrites |
| Hadrian |
Maxwell |
Higgs |
| Helene |
Howell |
Prince |
| Hephaesta |
Smythe |
Mulciber |
| Jack |
Hawksworth |
Tripe / Dodderidge |
| Jackson |
James |
Potter |
| Janette |
Seton |
Abbott |
| Kalyx |
Oliver |
Umbridge |
| Kaylee |
O'Dwyr |
Donnelly |
| Lillian |
Bishop |
Yaxley |
| Mikhale |
Lewis-Steele |
Carrow |
| Musidora |
Moon |
Lovegood |
| Phil |
Leighton-Hart |
Rowle |
| Soleil |
Brewster |
Parkinson |
| Thomas |
Lewis-Steele |
Carrow |
| Tim |
Murphy |
Moody |
| Veronica |
Wallace |
Ollivander |
| Victoria |
Breckenridge |
Summerbee |
| Virgil |
Morse |
Goshawk |
| Wolfgang |
Cosca |
Montague |
| Zephyr |
MacCurry |
Macnair |
Entry 5: Arithmancy (COMPLETE)
Posted: September 4, 2013 • Completed: September 12, 2013
This is a relatively small project, but an important one, and something we're very open to ideas on. Right now, Arithmancy is very poorly defined. It has something to do with numerology, and might be usable as a kind of divination. But we'd like to get a bit creative with it and come up with some use for it that has actual mechanical benefits for having the skill. Ideas so far include:
- Predicting the future. It would have stricter rules than Divination, but would also be more accurate and specific.
- One way to represent this in the system is to leave the predictions themselves vague, but allow for Arithmancy rolls to provide bonuses to be used at a later time. Essentially, the character would be prepared for a specific set of circumstances, but wouldn't be able to recognize those circumstances until they came about.
- Arithmancy might be used to improve the casting of spells. For example, applying a somewhat scientific approach, applying numerology to determine the exact perfect time, location, etc. to cast a given spell, in order to grant bonuses to the casting roll.
Entry 4: Bestiary
Posted: September 1, 2013
It has occurred to me that it would be helpful to have a working bestiary of various statistics for animals, magical Beasts, and other Beings that characters might encounter. This is primarily intended as a tool to facilitate player-run plots, but should also be helpful in any scene involving one of these creatures. — SeanCee
The Plan
So far, I'm thinking that I'll represent creatures in a stat block, with a simplified set of statistics. This will include some creature types that are available for play, such as house-elves and vampires. But these simplified stats would be for generic NPCs only, and would not represent how a PC's stats would look.
Attributes
Creatures will have the same four Attributes as a PC: Body, Mind, Presence, Reaction
Skills
Creature skill lists will be condensed, and look something like this:
- Awareness
- Fighting
- Magic: Used for magical abilities (e.g. the Dementor's Kiss, house-elf levitation, etc.).
- Marksmanship
- Stealth
Special Abilities
Most creatures will have some sort of Special Abilities. Sometimes these are perfectly mundane, such as flight, claws, an armoured hide, etc. Sometimes they will be magical in nature, such as a natural Apparition ability, or the power to breathe fire. There may be some standardized abilities, but others will be unique to certain creatures.
Keywords
Like spells, many creatures will have Keywords attached to them, such as Dark, Beast, Untameable, etc. These keywords will help to identify how other abilities and effects interact with the creature. For example, a spell that only affects Dark creatures will only work if the creature actually has the Dark keyword.
Entry 3: Quidditch Table
Posted: March 8, 2013 • Updated: November 13, 2014
Our poor red-headed stepchild: the Quidditch rules. We had one system that was sort of functional, but ridiculously time-consuming. It was developed literally overnight to fill a demand. But it ended up costing us more time just to run it and patch it up when it wasn't working, than it would to actually create a new one. So that one hit the scrap heap, and we started from scratch.
The new system is intended to handle Quidditch games in much broader strokes. Rather than trying to run them round-to-round, action-by-action (which takes forever no matter what system you're using), we are looking toward a more abstract way of running a match. Our primary inspiration for this is the Mass Battle Table used in the Legend of the Five Rings, 4th Edition tabletop role-playing game.
Essentially, each round will cover a large chunk of time (probably about half an hour), during which each player decides how aggressively they're playing, then makes a roll on the Quidditch Table to see what results from it. Those that play more aggressively stand a better chance of getting hurt, but also improves odds of scoring or otherwise helping the team. It also improves the chances of getting a "Star Moment," in which the game zooms in to focus on that player (and possibly one or two others) for a round to give them an opportunity to shine as an individual.
While the spell list has taken precedence, once that is finished, it shouldn't take much longer to get the Quidditch Table operational.
Update 1 (August 30, 2013): Progress! Boo has a first draft of the Quidditch Table put together, and we're presently fine-tuning it.
Update 2 (August 30, 2013): Our first playtest of the new Quidditch rules was a big success! Please take a look at +bbread 7/4 and give us feedback. We'd like to have these rules refined and ready to go well before the Hogwarts Quidditch season starts.
Update 3 (November 13, 2014): The Quidditch Table has been a resounding success. We intend to get it coded up to work even faster and more smoothly. But bear in mind that code needs might require some tweaks to the system, so for now this entry remains open and "in development".
Entry 2: Spell List (COMPLETE)
Posted: March 8, 2013 • Completed: September 12, 2013
As many know, we are working on a comprehensive list of Spells. This will serve as an official list, and will not include every spell in Potterverse lore. We'll have the majority of the canon spells, though some have been dropped for reasons of simplicity or a lack of clarity about what the spell actually is or does. We'll also selectively include spells from other sources, such as the films, card games, and video games. It is also important to note that we have renamed those spells that have previously been known only by their incantation (e.g. "Ascendio" is now known as the Ascending Charm). So if you can't find the spell you're looking for on the list, search for its incantation, and it'll probably pop up under a different name. We've also invented incantations for spells that lack one. So don't rely on this list to be an official source for the Potterverse in general; it's just official for WiWi.
We didn't initially want to have a magic system that was this specific. We wanted to keep it loose and more story-driven. But we have found that many players want specific answers to how magic works, and a list like this should hopefully clarify those issues once and for all. But it's an extensive and time-consuming project, so please bear with us as it is developed. This is our number one priority right now, as it affects nearly every character on the grid.
Update 1 (May 31, 2013): This project has been on hold while I try to gain a better understanding of the FS3 combat system, so the spells could be better integrated into said system. However, Real Life™ has reared its ugly head and distracted me greatly from both endeavors. At this point, I feel it's more important to have the spell list complete than to have it sync perfectly with the combat system. So I'm gonna try to hammer out the rest of these spells as quickly as possible. In the future, I may have to come back to them and re-tool some for combat purposes. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. — SeanCee
Update 2 (August 11, 2013): Chugging along. It's taking longer than expected, but I'm getting back into the groove of it. I would estimate I'm at the halfway point. Some days see more progress than others. Keep an eye on things. When I've got a full list, I'll be opening it up for feedback, in case some things need to change. You can see the full grimoire so far at Spells, as well as lists organized by keyword and by training. — SeanCee
Update 3 (August 21, 2013): Almost done (I hope!). So I've decided to go ahead and open things up for feedback. See +bbread 7/3 in game for details. — SeanCee
Update 4 (August 23, 2013): Woohoo! The first draft of the spell list is finally done! Now is when we really need that feedback. So check out +bbread 7/3 and let us know what issues you find with the spell. There are bound to be plenty of kinks to work out. — SeanCee
Update 5 (August 26, 2013): I haven't gotten much feedback, so it must be perfect! I kid, of course. It's a lot of material to go through. But I think we'll just have to find the bugs with time and patience. I'm officially declaring the spell list to be "live". But as with all things, the spells are subject to change, and I still want any feedback people have to give. I'm sure there are broken spells that need fixing.
This does mean stricter rules about what spells a given character can know. Keep in mind that just because your character has cast a spell in the past, it doesn't mean they know that spell now. Chalk it up to a lucky magical outburst, or just sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn't happen. Or, if your character can meet the requirements to learn the spell, spend some Cookies and buy it! — SeanCee
Update 5 (September 12, 2013): At this point, I'm declaring this project complete. This doesn't mean there will never be changes to the spell list. I can pretty much guarantee there will be. But it's up, functional, and I think the only way for further refinement to happen is for people use the spells and submit bug reports. — SeanCee
Entry 1: Skill Revision (COMPLETE)
Posted: February 15, 2013 • Completed: April 10, 2013
As those that participated in or read the Magic Discussion know, Skills are undergoing a bit revision right now, particularly in the realm of magical skills. As we've already seen, we've scrapped the Craftsmanship skill in favor of more specific crafting-based Background Skills. Once we realized Craftsmanship had to go, we decided to go over the entire Action Skills list to see what was needed, what might be redundant, and what could be revised.
Action Skill Changes
Here are the changes under consideration. Keep in mind as you read these what the purpose of Action Skills is. Action Skills are meant to handle the majority of the game's conflict. In addition, they provide us with a static list of skills and skill names, which is useful for writing rules and code.
- Awareness: No change.
- Broomflying: To become a Wizarding Skill (see below).
- Craftsmanship: Abolished. Crafting skills handled as Background Skills focused more on individual fields (e.g. Mechanics, Electronics, Toymaking, etc.).
- Deception: Abolished. See Persuasion, below.
- Fighting: No change.
- Healing: Abolished. Healing is going away to make way for "Medicine" (see below). Magical healing will be done with Wizarding Skills (see below), and most healing spells will only be available to those with actual Healer training (i.e. studying at St. Mungo's).
- Marksmanship: No change.
- Persuasion: Abolished. Social skills will be relegated to more specific Background Skills, such as Acting, Salesmanship, Intimidation, etc. These will help to define a characters style of social influence, and would not be as broadly applicable as Deception and Persuasion. We hope this also takes the emphasis off of rolling for social interaction. This isn't to say that the system should never come into play in social interaction, but excessive social rolls can interrupt the flow of RP.
- Stealth: No change.
- OM: Abolished. Other Wizarding Skills (e.g. Charms, Conjuration, etc. — see below) will be used to cast offensive magic.
- DM: Abolished. Other Wizarding Skills (e.g. Charms, Conjuration, etc. — see below) will be used to cast defensive magic.
- Driving: NEW! The ability to drive Muggle land vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, lorries, tanks, etc. Characters with a Driving Background Skill will have their dots transferred to the Action Skill version.
- Medicine NEW! Well, sort of new. With the abolishment of Healing, Medicine will fill the gap for Muggle-style healing (e.g. first aid, surgery, etc.), and is not magical at all.
- Muggle Lore: NEW! This Skill will serve as a gauge of how knowledgeable a character is of Muggle culture, history, and politics. Note that while Muggles will have less need to roll this Skill, they still need it to have a general knowledge of their world. Many characters will have more specialized areas of knowledge, represented by Background Skills such as World History, Indian Culture, or Theology. This is not exactly a replacement for Muggle Studies (which was always an iffy skill, as knowledge gained in that class is sketchy at best), but should be taken by those characters who want to have actual, useful general knowledge of the Muggle world.
- Piloting: NEW! The ability to pilot Muggle aircraft. Characters with a Piloting Background Skill will have their dots transferred to the Action Skill version.
- Wizard Lore: NEW! This Skill will serve as a gauge of how knowledgeable a character is of wizard culture, history, and politics. Note that while many wizards will have less need to roll this Skill, they still need it to have a general knowledge of their world. Many characters will have more specialized areas of knowledge, represented by Background Skills such as Magical History, Goblin Culture, or Pure-blood Lore. Note that any Muggle character with this Skill will need reasonable justification in their background.
The final Action Skill list will look like this: Awareness, Driving, Fighting, Marksmanship, Medicine, Muggle Lore, Piloting, Stealth, Wizard Lore
Wizarding Skills
Wizarding Skills will be a new category of Skills specifically related to magical knowledge and practice. Rather than having a semi-standardized list of magical Background Skills (which sort of goes against the grain of what Background Skills are supposed to be), this will be an entirely standardized list of skills. They are similar to Action Skills, but only wizards can take them without special permission. Their XP cost will be higher than Background Skills, but no higher than Action Skills (final costs are yet to be determined).
Note that most Hogwarts classes are on this list, the notable exceptions being Astronomy (which is a Muggle science as well) which should be treated as a Background Skill.
Of particular interest to many will be the way Charms and Transfiguration are being handled. Each field of magic has been split into two distinct Skills. This is due to the sheer breadth of both of these fields. Splitting hairs a little allows us a bit more balance in the magic system, and also provides system incentive for a bit more specialization. For instance, a wizard like Gilderoy Lockhart whose only magical talent rests in Memory Charms would take a very good "Glamers" Skill (see below), but would suffer in just about every other Wizarding Skill.
- Apparition: Right now, there is no gauge for determining whether a character is good or bad at Apparition, or if they can do it at all. Likewise, there is no method for determining if splinching occurs, or whether a wizard appears in the right place. This skill will regulate all of that.
- Broomflying: A wizard's ability to handle a magical broom, and an essential Skill for Quidditch players.
- Charms: The branch of Charms dealing with corporeal effects, such as Stunning Spells, levitation, unlocking spells, etc.
- Glamers: The branch of Charms dealing with mental effects, such as Cheering Charms, Memory Charms, the Imperius Curse, or sleeping spells. (For the record, "glamer" is a real word of Scottish origin, and the spelling was chosen deliberately to distinguish it from other uses of the word "glamour".)
- Transfiguration: The branch of Transfiguration dealing with altering the physical shape and nature of a thing.
- Conjuration: The branch of Transfiguration dealing with creating something out of nothing, as well as Vanishment.
- Ancient Runes: Used for a variety of spells with permanent and semi-permanent effects. Also useful for translating ancient wizarding texts and documents.
- Arithmancy: Can be used like Divination, but for determining the probability of specific events occurring. Requires less interpretation, but can only be used for short-term prediction, and cannot account for unknown factors affecting outcomes. Also used for enhancing other forms of magic (not on the fly, though…it takes preparation).
- Creature Lore: Knowledge of magical creatures (learned in Care of Magical Creatures class).
- Dark Defense: Knowledge of how to protect against and fight the Dark Arts (learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts class).
- Divination: Knowledge of the various methods of soothsaying and fortune-telling.
- Herbology: Knowledge about the magical properties of plants.
- Potions: Creating magical elixirs, draughts, and other mixtures for a variety of effects. One of the few ways to delay magical effects.
How Will This Be Implemented?
So far, only the abolishment of Craftsmanship has taken place. The rest is being left alone until such time as the official Spells list is complete. We want to see the final list, and get an idea of the breakdown of which Wizarding Skills will be used with which spells, before implementing anything. This should give players plenty of time to give us feedback on our plans.
When the changes actually occur, many of these skills will be automatically adjusted. Every "Dark Defense/Dark Defence/DADA/D.A.D.A." Background Skill will become the "Dark Defense" Wizarding Skill, every "CoMC" will become "Creature Lore," and so on. The current plan is for Charms and Transfiguration to shift over the the Wizarding Skills of the same names, but players that want to tweak their points to branch into Glamers and Conjuration will put in a +request to do so.
Skills that do not have an analogue will be refunded in the form of XP, which can then be spent as the player desires. When this transition takes place, there will be a period of time in which the normal "cooldown" limits on XP expenditure will be suspended.
The Plan
Here's a more detailed step-by-step of the implementation mentioned above. Note that this is all being handled by staff. Players don't need to do a thing (except at Step Five, but that's voluntary), but you're going to want to read this anyhow.
Step 1: Skill Conversion
Convert old Skills that have new analogous Action or Wizarding Skills into the appropriate new Skill.
| Old Skill |
Type |
» |
New Skill |
Type |
| Broomflying |
Action |
» |
Broomflying |
Wizarding |
| Muggle Studies |
Background |
» |
Muggle Lore |
Action |
| Magical History |
Background |
» |
Wizard Lore |
Action |
| Driving |
Background |
» |
Driving |
Action |
| Piloting |
Background |
» |
Piloting |
Action |
| Charms |
Background |
» |
Charms |
Wizarding |
| Transfiguration |
Background |
» |
Transfiguration |
Wizarding |
| Ancient Runes |
Background |
» |
Ancient Runes |
Wizarding |
| Arithmancy |
Background |
» |
Arithmancy |
Wizarding |
| CoMC |
Background |
» |
Creature Lore |
Wizarding |
| Dark Defense |
Background |
» |
Dark Defense |
Wizarding |
| Dark Defence |
Background |
» |
Dark Defense |
Wizarding |
| DADA |
Background |
» |
Dark Defense |
Wizarding |
| D.A.D.A. |
Background |
» |
Dark Defense |
Wizarding |
| Divination |
Background |
» |
Divination |
Wizarding |
| Herbology |
Background |
» |
Herbology |
Wizarding |
| Potions |
Background |
» |
Potions |
Wizarding |
Step 2: Raise Maximum XP Pool
Normally, a character cannot store more than 100 XP. For three weeks after this Skill revamp, this cap will be raised to 1,000 to allow for the potentially large XP refunds many character will get (not that we expect anyone to get anywhere near 1,000 XP). After three weeks, the maximum XP will drop back to 100.
Step 3: Skill Refunds
Some Skills have been abolished entirely. These Skills will simply be removed, and the character awarded an appropriate amount of XP equal to the total cost of the Skill. Players are advised to take note of their +sheets now, as these Skills will disappear, but they may with to spend their refunded XP on Background Skills to replace them.
| Abolished Skills |
Notes |
| Deception |
See Persuasion |
| Healing |
Healing, which previously covered both magical and mundane healing, is going away to make way for "Medicine", which is entirely mundane medical ability. Magical healing will be done with Wizarding Skills (see below), and most healing spells will only be available to those with actual Healer training (i.e. studying at St. Mungo's). Characters without Muggle medical knowledge should not take Medicine. |
| Persuasion |
Social skills will be relegated to more specific Background Skills, such as Acting, Salesmanship, Intimidation, etc. These will help to define a character's style of social influence, and would not be as broadly applicable as Deception and Persuasion. We hope this also takes the emphasis off of rolling for social interaction. This isn't to say that the system should never come into play in social interaction, but excessive social rolls can interrupt the flow of RP. |
| OM |
All offensive magic will be handled with Wizarding Skills. |
| DM |
All defensive magic will be handled with Wizarding Skills. |
The XP refunds will look like this:
| Skill Rank |
XP Refund |
| 1 |
1 XP |
| 2 |
3 XP |
| 3 |
5 XP |
| 4 |
9 XP |
| 5 |
13 XP |
| 6 |
17 XP |
| 7 |
25 XP |
| 8 |
33 XP |
| 9 |
41 XP |
| 10 |
53 XP |
| 11 |
65 XP |
| 12 |
77 XP |
When re-spending XP, be aware of the new Skills that have been implemented. The new Skills are as follows:
New Action Skills: Driving, Medicine, Muggle Lore, Piloting, Wizard Lore
New Wizarding Skills: Apparition, Glamers, Conjuration
Step 4: Remove XP Cooldown Timer
Normally, a character can only spend XP once every 6 hours. For three weeks after this Skill revamp, this “cooldown” timer will be removed, allowing characters to spend XP freely, without restriction. After three weeks, the timer will be put back in place and the maximum XP will drop back to 100, so be sure to spend those Experience Points!
Step 5: Requests for Sheet Fixes
If a player is unhappy with the way their Skills were automatically converted, they may put in a +request to have things tweaked. For example, if they had their Charms points moved to the new Charms Wizarding Skill, but wanted to specialize in mental magic, they could request that those points be put into Glamers instead, or some into Glamers and some into Charms, etc.