WHEN DOES THIS GAME TAKE PLACE?
This game is set during the spring semester of what would’ve been the Trio’s final year at Hogwarts. Gameplay will span from January through May, in real time, with a modern time jump to 2023. So, January 1998 = January 2023, etc.
The game will open January 7, and our close date will be near the end of May, depending on how active things might be by that point.
IS THIS GAME CANON?
Yes, this game is canon. Everything that happened in books 1-7 is considered game canon, with the exception of concepts for the Hogwarts school year, some of which have been borrowed from previous games, some are just my own creative liberties.
We are NOT epilogue canon-compliant, so you can take or leave any relationships mentioned there, i.e. Neville & Hannah, or Draco & Astoria. Epilogue characters like Astoria Greengrass and the future Weasley clan don’t even need to exist if you don’t want them to.
IS THERE A CHARACTER LIMIT?
4 per player, and each character must be from a different house with no more than two characters from Dumbledore's Army or the Inquisitorial Squad. Ideally, a player's cast should be balanced with genders, but I also understand that not everyone is comfortable writing males.
WHAT ARE THE ACTIVITY REQUIREMENTS?
There will be no strict activity requirements or checks. Rather, I’ll post an interest check every three weeks, where you can let us know whether you’re doing fine with a character, or if you’re struggling and need some help. If you’ve done nothing with a character over the course of two interest checks (6 weeks), you’ll be asked to drop that character.
WHAT HAPPENED AT HOGWARTS DURING THE FALL TERM?
A fuck ton. Check out the timeline page for all the fun details!
WHAT'S WITH THE CHANGES TO THE CURRICULUM?
The Hogwarts curriculum has been given a modern facelift. O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams still exist, but the core subjects required from years 1-5 have been modified for a more rounded education. N.E.W.T. level education in years 6-7 is more career path-oriented and requires students to study within "clusters." You can read all about it on the Curriculum page.
WHAT IS THE ORIGIN STORY WITH THE JOURNALS, AND HOW DO THEY WORK?
The journals are an app students can download to their tablet. At the beginning of the year, each student is issued a tablet meant for note-taking, research, and submitting homework assignments. In November 2021, Ravenclaw Eddie Carmichael, along with his friends Marcus Belby and Michael Corner, invented what became colloquially known as “the journal app.”
Its original purpose was to help Carmichael cheat on tests and assignments, but most people started using it as a way to communicate with friends during classes with strict no-phone policies. The app has a very simple, forum-based design – everyone’s username is their first initial and their last name (i.e. mcorner), and there are no icons or profile pics.
The app’s magic works similarly to being on a wi-fi network – you can message anyone on the network, each year tends to post within its own network, and an update in spring 2022 allowed people to create wards/filters for added security. If anyone looks over someone’s shoulder while they have the journal app open, a cloaking charm makes it look like one of the educational apps installed on the tablet.
The app supports emojis, and anyone can attach images, including gifs. There is also a drawing tool, or anything hand-drawn on paper can be copy-pasted onto the app by using a wand to cast a duplication charm, much like air-dropping something.
CAN I CREATE A BACKSTORY WITH A MISSING STUDENT?
Absolutely. Head over to the Missing Students doc, which is open for everyone to edit, to read about each of these students. If your character has a previous relationship with that NPC, or you would like to add random trivia, feel free to do so. Just make sure that it doesn’t conflict with someone else’s backstory before adding.
CAN MY CHARACTER JOIN DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY OR THE INQUISITORIAL SQUAD?
Dumbledore’s Army is no longer recruiting new members. They added a few members in the fall, mainly 6th years whom Ginny and Luna felt they could trust. But after Halloween, the DA voted as a group not to recruit, as they felt the stakes were much higher than two years ago with Umbridge, and that it would be irresponsible to ask younger years to risk their own safety.
The Inquisitorial Squad, however, is always actively recruiting students in years 5-7. Their vetting process is far more relaxed, but each recruit still needs Alecto Carrow’s stamp of approval before receiving their badge, and she does a thorough check of past academic and disciplinary records, as well as considering the recruit’s family history and what’s motivating them to join.
CAN MY CHARACTER BE A NON-CANON PUREBLOOD? OR A MUGGLEBORN POSING AS A HALF-BLOOD?
No and no. Purebloods are a dying breed for a reason. However, your character is welcome to come from a family that values purist traditions and/or are trying to restore their family to a former pureblood legacy, etc. As for the latter, the ruse would be too difficult to maintain.
CAN MY CHARACTER BE RELATED TO ANOTHER CANON CHARACTER?
I’m not too picky about this one unless it contradicts canon. For example, a pureblood character is free to be related to any of the canon Death Eaters, especially as cousins, but I won’t accept connections such as Hannah Abbott being the half-sibling of Gregory Goyle. If you’re considering a canon connection, you can always message me and ask!
WHAT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY?
In 1996, Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad caught Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement and seized the official signature list of members. In theory, Draco Malfoy and any other member of the original IS would remember this list, but the DA has been more careful about covering their tracks this year. They've left no paper trail, invented code names & new means of communication, and there is no solid proof beyond rumors and speculation about who's active in the revived DA. So far, their rebellion campaign has mostly consisted of defacing Hogwarts property with anti-Carrows propaganda and taking a firm stance against the violence and purist rhetoric being taught in classes. Some are happy the DA is still around, others think they're vigilante do-gooders causing problems, but as the year goes on, most people live in quiet fear of being wrongly accused of being a DA member.
WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY LIKE IN THE WIZARDING WORLD?
Remember JKR's stupid philosophy that magic and electricity can't coincide? Yeah, not canon here. For the most part, magical technology and inventions are parallel to their muggle counterparts, which a few exceptions. There's always been a certain school of thought that muggles tend to create knock-offs of wizard inventions, i.e. household appliances like washers, dryers, ovens, and refrigerators have always existed in the modern wizarding world but run entirely off magic rather than any electrical component.
However, there are definitely wizard inventions that have been borrowed from muggles and updated with magic. The television is the most widely-used example -- while most muggle households had a TV set to tune into the BBC by the mid-1950s, the wizard television didn't become popular until the late 1960s when the WWN revamped its entire broadcasting network to include both radio and tv formats. The internet is one of those gray areas that people love to debate "was it muggle or magic first?", as both versions went mainstream in the mid-1990s. Most magical homes have a TV, a computer, and mobile phones, though there are still a few staunch purist families that continue to reject modern technology. Generally, though, most purists opt to simply funnel their money and support to pureblood-owned tech companies like Vulcan Inc.
WHAT IS THE MODERN HOGWARTS CAMPUS LIKE?
Locations and descriptions of places throughout the castle that were canon in books 1-7 are still considered canon here. For example, each dorm still only has 5 students in it; there were special prefects baths that are now only available to IS members; each common room has some sort of password system; girls can enter the boys dormitories, but magic prevents boys from entering the girls dorms.
I've added a few bonus locations that you might see referenced and are welcome to use IC. They are: a computer lab off the side of the library; a weight/training room with a half-mile track for quidditch players (or anyone) to work out; a recreation room with pool tables, two bowling lanes, and a drinks & snacks bar; a movie theater room attached to the rec room, where the Carrows now only allow wizard movies/shows to play on weekends; a meditation room that Intramural Sports sometimes uses for its yoga lessons.
HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION?
Message me directly or utilize the #questions channel on the game chat! And to let me know you've read all the questions and answers here, please message me with a number between 1 and 50.