Hogwarts Roleplay Society

[Ainsley Lynch]

Spoiler: OOC

Hi!

This thread is.... an experiment, in the extreme, one that we've been discussing for almost a year now, and since the IRL campaign I've been running is about to wrap up, now feels like the time. We have no idea how long it'll go on, or whether it even has legs at all. It's quite obviously entirely non-canonical to the characters actual arcs on HNZ, this is just a Fun And Silly Game we thought would be interesting, and then I put far, far too much thought into.

The basic concept is; roleplaying our roleplay characters roleplaying their own roleplay characters in a roleplaying game.

Specifically, D&D 5E, since that's what I'm most familiar with. I have about a year's experience as a DM, Jasmine has a bit more as a player, both in one of the games I run IRL, and with the local RP society. There are a couple of other people who may be joining in later on & they're coming at this as total novices, so there'll be a lot of explaining to do.

We're going to aim to keep game mechanics being discussed IC to a minimum, since it'd get tedious to have 10 posts in a row that were just "roll your dice" "i rolled a 4" "ok now you roll yours" "i rolled a 7, and I have plus 2". When the DM calls for a roll, it'll be handled over skype and included in the DM's post, so we can keep things moving. This will also hopefully make the thread readable if you don't know much about D&D, since the primary focus will be the actual roleplaying.

Character voices to differentiate between IC and OOC dialogue will be denoted by different text colours. For example, Harley speaking as Harley would look like this, whereas Harley speaking as Temerity would look like this.

We're not going to try to stick to any specific posting order, except for when it comes to initiative, so we can keep things going at a natural (natural for D&D, so, chaotic) pace. The rules are significantly pared down in the interest of this being playable and fun and not awful. We may adjust things as we go, to make it work better. We may give up on this entirely. It may be the worst idea any of us have ever had. Hopefully it won't, and will be very fun instead!

If anyone wants to chat about the system flick me a PM any time. We want to keep this group small in interests of it not devolving to utter chaos, but if you're interested in learning more about D&D/giving it a go for yourself I am literally always available.

That is more than enough rambling. I hope this is fun to play, fun to read, and not the absolute worst idea of my entire life!

-Rowan

The maps were laid out. A screen of rules and notes separating her from her classmates. Everything was ready. There was nothing left to do but begin the game. And Ainsley was the only one who could do that. This club was the first thing she had ever been in charge of, and it was both nerve-wracking and thrilling.

"Alright!" Ainsley said, speaking louder than usual to cut through the chatter of her friends and schoolmates. "Welcome to the first ever session of Hogwarts's new roleplaying club. I'm Ainsley, and I'll be the Dungeon Master for this campaign. It's one I've written myself, I really hope you guys like it." Ainsley smiled shyly, and averted her eyes for a moment, glancing back down at her notes, before clearing her throat and resuming her introduction. "Let's go around the table and all introduce ourselves, and our characters, before we begin the game." Ainsley gave a friendly smile, gesturing to the younger girl next to her, curious to hear about the characters that would be inhabiting her carefully planned story.

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley, sitting next to Ainsley, grinned reassuringly at her friend. She had liked this idea since Ainsley first suggested it, and felt proud of her for bringing it to fruition, despite how nervous she clearly was about it. This was going to be totally awesome, and it was made even more so by the fact that Harley was sitting on the other side of her. Hayley's sketchbook lay on the table beside her character sheet; she was certain that some great drawings would come from this.

"I'm Hayley, and my character is a chaotic neutral dragonborn rogue called Onyx. She's an orphan with a mysterious past, who grew up with a gang of urchins and specialises in burglary." Hayley hadn't given much thought to backstory beyond a vague idea of tragic past, and for the name she had Googled semiprecious stones, thinking that was appropriate for a thief. Hayley flipped to the page in her notebook where she'd sketched the character, and held it up for the rest of the group to see: a scrawny (for the race) black dragonborn, wearing a dark hooded tunic, with a dagger in her hand, a sword at her hip, and a bow and quiver across her back. She had tried for a sardonic smile, but being unsure how a smile would look on a dragon face, let alone a sardonic one, hadn't really succeeded.

 

[Aurora Night]

Listening to the club-president-person-in-charge girl introduce herself, Rory wondered if she really knew what she had gotten herself in for when she had agreed to let Hayley drag her along to take part in this game. The name had sounded kind of cool, and making up a character to take part had definitely been a lot of fun, but now that she was here taking part she didn't really know what to expect, as she'd never played it - or really even heard of it - before. Hayley looked like she was having the time of her life introducing her character, however, and so once she was finished Rory took her cue from her friend and enthusiastically set about trying to explain her own to the rest of those that were gathered.

"Okay, I have a dwarf, and her name is... Slasher. Um, that's gotta be a nickname, but I have no idea what her real name is." Rory shrugged, then continued. "She's uh... chaotic good, super tough, a folk hero, and... has a trident." She nodded at revealing the last piece of important information, and then looked up from reading the character sheet in front of her. It all sounded pretty awesome to Rory, and even if she wasn't sure if she'd explained it right, she thought her character sounded decent enough. The point was to have fun, right? She was sure Slasher could beat Hayley's mysterious dragon-girl into the ground any day - although the fact that Rory thought this while admiring her friend's drawing of said character was lost on her.

 

[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

Flavio was initially nervous (and was still incredibly nervous to a degree) to take part in a muggle roleplaying game. It was foreign to him in general, and in many other ways confusing as he would need to understand the weight of a die roll and a magical perspective he was again foreign to, and also follow rules he was not fully versed with. However through it all, his love of fantasy and classic mythology shone through convincing him to take part in something far out of his comfort zone no matter how outlandish it was. For that he was excited to the point he could ignore his still lingering nerves for a moment and focus on the situation in front of him which was the other students introducing their characters to the group. He listened and nodded along to Ainsley first introduce herself as a Dungeon Master, then a girl Hayley introduce herself and show an admittedly detailed, impressive sketch of her character, then later another girl introduced her character as slasher, stating they were a dwarf. It was then Flavio's turn and he awkwardly cleared his throat before speaking, thinking about which traits of his character were important enough to mention.

"My character is named Pillan, he is a lawful neutral druid that sailed from far away, who can cast lots of spells that heal and make fire and he can talk to animals, too." He looked at each of the other students that were there and smiled politely, unsure whether he had given them enough information. His eyes landed on Ainsley last wondering what was supposed to happen next, whether the game was about to start or if any other characters were going to be introduced.​

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[Harley Tsuji]

This game was certainly not Harley's kind of thing. That was for sure. But Hayley had asked them to join in her friend's game, and Harley was never one to turn down anything Hayley promised would be fun. So she had sat patiently as the older girl asked questions and made her a seemingly nonsense piece of paper covered in numbers and scribbles and jargon that made no sense to Harley whatsoever. She listened as the others introduced their characters, eyes widening when she saw that Hayley had had the time and presence of mind to even draw her character. Why hadn't Harley done that? Beginning to doodle on the back of her sheet while the others introduced their characters, Harley idled away the time until it was her turn.

"What? Oh. Right." Dropping the pencil, she quickly picked up her piece of paper. "Uh, my character's name is Temerity..." She did her best to pronounce the fancy name the older girl had helped her choose. "She's a cool barbarian and she looks like a demon and stuff. She's got big horns and a tail. And, like three axes." Sitting back, Harley decided to be contented with that as an introduction, returning to the doodle of her totally cool demon barbarian that was now taking up the entire back of her character sheet.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

As grateful as Ainsley was to Hayley for inviting her friends to join them, it was slightly concerning to her just what kind of havoc they would wreak through her carefully crafted story. She already had notes on all their characters, having helped to make most of them, but she jotted down their names at the top of the page anyway, just to be sure she wouldn't forget. Once all the introductions were done, Ainsley cleared her throat. "Alright. If everybody's ready, our adventure will begin here."

Ainsley looked down at her notes, occasionally glancing up to see the reactions on her players faces as she set the scene. "The first thing you feel is the soft crackle of leaves against your face. The midday sun is casting down between the leaves to shine on you in patches, rousing you from your slumber. You have no memory of when you went to sleep, how you wound up here, or who the other strangers awakening in this forest clearing are. None of your possessions seem to be missing, only your memories of how you got here. The trees are sparse and golden autumn leaves scatter the ground, but at a brief glance around you can see no beings nearby other than the four of you. What do you do?"

[x]

 

[Hayley Elridge]

As the others in the group introduced their characters, Hayley started quick sketches of each of them on the page facing her drawing of her own character. Harley's character sounded completely awesome, even if she did seem a bit uncertain about it. Seeing that Harley had already started to draw her, Hayley held off on her own version. Rory's character sounded . . . okay, she guessed. She didn't really want to compliment Rory even in her own mind, not when teasing her was so much more fun. And then there was the Ravenclaw boy, the only person here she didn't know. He hadn't bothered to mention his name, or his character's race, but he did seem to have put rather more thought into his backstory than the rest of them had.

As Ainsley started to describe the scene Hayley looked up and paid attention. And now she had to admit, she hadn't really thought properly about the roleplay aspect of this. She'd thought they would be fighting imaginary monsters and doing cool stunts and stuff, but this sounded more like acting, which Hayley had no experience of. What would she do? What would her character do? She stared uncertainly at her character sheet, hoping the columns of numbers would give her some ideas. "Okay, um . . . I get up and . . . look around? See if I can see anything weird in this forest? Do I need to roll a dice for that?"

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley was relieved that Hayley took the initiative to start doing things right away. She nodded, giving her friend a relieved smile. "You do! Though when it's just one it's a die. Dice is plural. Anyway, you'll do a perception check for this, so roll the die with twenty sides, and add or subtract the number on the left hand side of your sheet where it says perception."

Hayley's roll: 17 (18 -1)

Ainsley nodded, looking over the result. "Hmm. You realise that it's odd that you can't see any tracks through the fallen leaves around you. If you had walked here or someone had carried you, there would be lines where the leaves were disturbed, but the leaves seem undisturbed in all directions. You can't see any beings or signs of life nearby, other than the other three people waking up in the clearing."

 

[Aurora Night]

As Ainsley began setting the scene for the game, Rory listened curiously. It sounded kind of weird... and intriguing. No memories of arriving there... well, Slasher would hate that. It wasn't something that Rory even consciously thought about, it just sort of arrived as an indisputable fact in her mind. Slasher liked fighting - maybe not all the time, but Rory couldn't even conceive of a character that was going to sit back and do nothing about what had just happened to them. If it had been her in such a situation, she was sure she would be up on her feet and giving everyone else the beady eye in case they knew something. Which was what Slasher was going to do, she decided. She had just opened her mouth to announce this, when Hayley spoke first. Rory watched the dice-rolling exchange happen with small amazement. She hadn't known that was something you could do.

"I want to roll a dice too," she announced to Ainsley. "For perception or whatever. Is there cooler stuff I can roll for?" Mostly she wanted to do it because Hayley just had, and Rory didn't want to let the other girl get away with having all the fun. "Cause Slasher wants to know what happened. She's suspicious of everyone else." Rory dropped her voice low, emphasising the word 'suspicious.' "So, she'll get up and say something like..." she paused for a moment, wracking her brain. "'Oi, which one of you did this?!'" Rory imitated an angry and annoyed face, pitching her voice gruffly. "'If any of you know anything, you'd better tell me.' And then like, wave her trident at them threateningly or something. Though she won't attack anyone, don't worry," Rory hastened to add. "I mean, if she even can. Am I allowed to do all that?" she said, turning back to Ainsley. It was probably obvious that she'd never played this game before.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley had expected Hayley's friends to be... somewhat spirited, but the sudden flurry of interactions from Rory was a little unexpected. Trying to process it all, she decided to ignore the request for a perception roll, since the girl seemed more interested in everything else she had said afterwards. She did shoot Flavio a pained glance at the word dice though, hoping she could trust him to use the right terminology. "Okay. Yes, you can definitely do all of that! Your characters can all talk to each other any time you want, that's what role playing is all about. Playing the role of another person. If you wanted to attack someone you could, but I would recommend working together with your party members to figure out what's going on." She smiled, pleased that at least the girl had taken good initiative to get the characters interacting.

 

[Flavio Morales-Tipene]

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<COLOR color="#000">Flavio listened as Ainsley introduced the setting, then watched as one of the girls decided to act first. He noted how the game worked and what Ainsley said after rolling the die, continuing to observe as another one of the girls acted. Smiling a little at her character's reaction to waking up in a clearing, and then at Ainsley's pained look towards him, Flavio decided to then speak up and contribute to the game in his own way. "'Well I do not remember a thing' Is what Pillan would say. Then he would, um, try to investigate the surroundings more." Flavio looked between the other members of the group, and then to Ainsley. "Does a die need to be rolled for that?" He asked. The game was still so foreign to him after observing a few actions. He hoped he was playing correctly and not making any stupid decisions.​

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[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley smiled and nodded, relieved that Flavio had listened to her about terminology. "Sure! You can do an investigation check, if you want to look around a little more thoroughly." She handed Flavio a twenty sided die to roll.

Flavio's roll: 6 (3 +3)

Ainsley smiled apologetically. "You look around the clearing, feeling the treetrunks and checking the ground, but you don't discover anything additional of note. It just looks to be a normal clearing full of trees."

 

[Hayley Elridge]

To Hayley's surprise, the scene unfolding in the forest was already generating clear images in her mind's eye. She smirked at Rory's request to roll for 'cooler stuff', seeing it for what it was, a particularly unsuccessful step in their game of one-upmanship. Her smirk turned into a genuine smile at the thought of Rory's dwarf angrily waving a trident at the other characters, who must be twice her height, and started a sketch with a few quick lines to remind her to draw it later. "So Onyx, um, rolls her eyes at Slasher and says 'Well, it looks pretty obvious to me that we got here by magical means,' and she explains what Ainsley said for my perception check." It sounded like a portkey to Hayley; were those a thing in D&D? Well, even if they weren't, there must be some kind of teleportation spell. "'And since the only magic user in the group' - I would be able to tell that, right? - 'seems as baffled as the rest of us . . .'" she gestured at Flavio, imagining Pillan feeling haphazardly around the clearing. "'I would say someone else is responsible for this.'"

 

[Harley Tsuji]

As soon as all the others started going back and forth talking about... forests, and investigating, and rolling dice all over the place, Harley felt lost. She could tell by the amount of notes Hayley's friend had that this game had a lot of rules, and they were all ones Harley absolutely did not understand herself. So she gave up on trying to follow what was going on with the others for the moment, staring down at the bit of paper covered in numbers that apparently represented her character. The older girl had tried to explain what they meant, but there was far too much for Harley to really retain. Looking over the numbers, one skill in particular stood out to Harley, and she decided to put it to use.

"Okay! I've got four intimidations, this says, I wanna intimidate EVERYONE here! I've got like, horns and a tail and axes and stuff, right, so I like, wave them around and roar a bunch. Can I do that? Do I have to roll any dices?" She explained, figuring that even if she didn't really understand the game everyone should definitely fear her character anyway.

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley listened to Hayley getting into the conversation with Flavio, and was pleased that they were interacting so well. It was a surprise then, when the roughest-looking of Hayley's friend finally spoke up, and completely misunderstood the way the game worked. She faltered, stumbling over her words trying to explain in how many ways the other girl was wrong. "That's... no, that's not how skills work. The four is the number you add to the die when you roll it. And you don't need to roll to intimidate team members, they can just... decide if they find your actions intimidating or not. They aren't... very helpful actions though, I think you should focus on the conversation they're having."

Sighing, Ainsley decided to throw in her next plot hook to get things moving again. "Once Temerity is done waving her axes around and roaring, there's a moment of silence and stillness, where it becomes clear for a moment how there isn't even a breeze in this forest. And then suddenly, something falls down from above you, you see four small shiny objects fall down and land softly in the leaves on the ground in front of you. When you look up you don't see anywhere they could have come from, but you realise there's some sort of netting hanging in the tree. It looks like it got tangled there and was abandoned by whoever was using it."

[x]