The Aurors: A Fate Accelerated scenario set in the Wizarding World

A couple of years ago we finished listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks (and watching the movies and visiting The Making of Harry Potter) and ever since I've wanted to run a game where the PCs are Aurors hunting dark wizards. This summer I got my act together and prepared a one-shot which I ran for my daughter and her cousins, and then at Furnace.

Me (right) and five Aurors

While I'm sure there's a space for an improvised game where you come up with a dark wizard with a sinister plan, I don't really work like that so I wrote a more traditional investigative scenario. I based it around a dark wizard’s wand, added some classic Harry Potter locations, monsters and characters, and there you have it.

Much of it is canon - and some of it isn't. According to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Harry really is head of the Aurors, and Hermione is the Minister of Magic. The villain isn't canon though, and I made up the bit about the dementors' origin.

I used Fate Accelerated for my game system partly because it seems eminently suitable (one of the sample characters is from a wizard school) but mostly because it's the system I am most familiar with.

Characters

My initial plan was for the players to create their own Aurors. I prepared blank character sheets and a simple worksheet that took them through character creation.

While this was fine for the first run, some of the characters were a bit random and didn't really work as a group. So for the second run (at Furnace) I prepared a set of pre-generated characters that were more coherent and in the event worked really well.

I also answered the question one of my nephews asked - "Why do we need so many Aurors for this?" So I turned it into a training mission - with two experienced Aurors accompanying three trainees (although in terms of "power" they were all equally competent).

The real reason I had five Aurors is because that's how many players I had . But I'm pleased to have a more "realistic" reason - and in the second game the players really ran with the whole trainees idea.

Setting Grid

Death Eater masks

I created a setting grid (used for Backstory Cards) with some pre-defined questions so that I didn't need to bring the cards with me. I seeded the grid with people and places that were relevant to the scenario, which I think is the right way to use a grid for a one-shot.

Unfortunately my original questions were based too much on the Backstory Card questions, and they didn't do the job that I wanted them to: to tie the characters together and into the setting.

So after the first adventure I adjusted the questions so that all of them involve another character in some way. (I ran it for five players at Furnace - I got them to answer one question each, creating a bond between them and the player on their left. That way everyone had bonds to two other players. You can read how that went here.)

One thing that helped is that I seeded the setting grid with places and people that would appear in the story later on, and so for a one-shot it worked really well to bring in characters or places that had already been established.

Game files

• The Aurors scenario
• Blank character sheet
• Instructions for creating an Auror
• Five Aurors (two senior Aurors and three trainees)
• Aurors setting grid

Furnace 2019

I’m writing this in the middle of October and that means that it was Furnace last weekend. This is I think the fifth Furnace I’ve attended, and the third time I’ve run a game. It’s always a friendly convention, although that’s partly because I now know so many of the regulars.

The Garrison hotel from a previous Furnace

And this year the quality of games seemed particularly good…

Although Furnace officially starts on Saturday morning, many players arrive Friday night and hang out in the bar or play boardgames. However, I missed all this as I’m only a 50 minute drive away it seemed a bit extravagant to stay overnight. One day I’m sure I will, as I know I don’t get the full Furnace effect without staying at the Garrison.

Slot 1 (Saturday morning)

Assault on Irondelve (D&D5e), run by Neil Gow. I played Kromm, a 4th level dwarf fighter in D&D 5e. We were dwarves and our under-mountain realm was under assault from an enormous army of goblins and orcs. Defend the city!

I don’t play much D&D, and I think this was the highest level character I’ve ever played. Unfortunately I think the fact that I don’t play much D&D hindered me a little bit - I obviously lack system mastery which might have made playing Kromm a bit more satisfying.

Afterwards I realised that my lack of mastery also spreads to the background. I don’t play many fantasy games, and strangely enough I had a hard time grokking the world. What’s a dwarven city like? How many entrances are there? Where are the weak points? Neil gave us permission to invent the details that we needed, but that didn’t help. As an example, it took me a while to think that what we really needed to do was send help to the dwarf king and just hold out long enough for the cavalry to arrive. Obvious in hindsight, but looking back it took ages to realise that.

I liked how Neil used magnetic disks instead of miniatures - much more portable and I can imagine doing that if I used miniatures in games. (But I don't and I’m not sure that’s what I want from my RPGs - everything always becomes a bit boardgame-y when the miniatures come out. I like boardgames, but not while I’m roleplaying.) Neil explains how to create his disks here.

I also struggle with a very rules-based system like D&D. At one point I wanted to cut an Ogre’s arm off in combat, but because D&D’s combat system doesn’t obviously give you permission to do that, when it was my turn I just rolled to attack. (Which is stupid - I just needed to ask Neil!)

Slot 2 (Saturday afternoon)

Beneath the Stones (Liminal) by Paul Mitchener. I was really pleased to play in this - I backed the Liminal Kickstarter but hadn’t played or run it. And this was my first Liminal game.

I played Eve, a fae illusionist. I imagined her very young, just out of school. Liminal is a modern-day British urban fantasy setting (and very similar to the Other London games I’ve been running and talking about), and I felt very comfortable with the setting.

The game itself involved the disappearance of Haltwhistle, which we was reported on the news and we went to check it out. When we found it we found a circle of mist (impenetrable to ordinary folk I think) and we found dark goings on involving a stone circle and a Fae realm.

Some nice moments I enjoyed: some good banter amongst the players; getting to drive the werewolf’s van even though I hadn’t passed my test; facing down the Hunter (and getting speared for my efforts).

There were a couple of oddities - I would have expected some encounters with BBC film crews or other reporters on the outskirts of the mist. I think the main issue for me was Liminal’s concept of the “crew” (or the adventuring party) and our reasoning for investigating. It felt a bit like we were investigating because we were playing Liminal, not something that arose out of our characters. That’s a fault of many other games as well, of course.

As for the rules system, it was fine. Roll 2d6 and add your skill level - try to beat 8  (normally). It was very reminiscent of the old GDW Traveller rules, with a few tweaks here and there.

But more on Liminal later.

Slot 3 (Saturday evening)

I skipped slot 3 because the slot finishes at midnight and I don’t fancy driving home at that point. Another reason to one day stay overnight.

Slot 4 (Sunday morning)

I ran The Aurors, a game set in the Harry Potter Wizarding World using Fate Accelerated. The players were Aurors and had a dark wizard to chase.

I wasn’t sure how a Harry Potter game would be received, but in the end I had three pre-bookings and a full game. Everyone knew Harry Potter and seemed to enjoy being Aurors chasing a nasty dark wizard.

The game in full flow - is that an acromantula I can see?

I structured the group with two senior Aurors shepherding three trainee Aurors (although in Fate Accelerated terms there was no difference between them) and that worked really well, with the senior Aurors marking the others and taking notes.

I started with a setting grid and some questions from Backstory Cards. I seeded the setting grid with locations and people from the scenario, and I liked how that gave some scenes a bit more resonance when they appeared in the game.

My players were great. They really got into the game and seemed to enjoy being experienced or trainee Aurors. Due to time constraints I did have to skip a couple of scenes as I wanted to make sure we ended up with a climactic battle against a powerful dark wizard. One of the things I really like about Fate is when the players get the opportunity to set an ambush and they can create aspects in advance. So in preparation for the final battle we ended up with:

• Dark shadows
• Where’s my box?
• Not where I put it!
• Giant spider hiding in the ceiling
• Look at me, I’m a white crow!
• Not where I put it.

I appreciate that this isn’t to everyone’s taste, but with the dark wizard, a couple of dementors and some henchmen to deal with, the Aurors needed all the bonuses they could get and the scenario ended with the dark wizard vanquished and our heroes triumphant.

I finished the session by asking everyone to describe what we see their Auror doing as the credits roll, which is always a good way to finish off a one-shot.

I’ll post the files up here before too long, along with some more thoughts about the game.

Slot 5 (Sunday afternoon)

Oh, before I get to the game, I won The Mouse Guard RPG in the raffle. I haven’t looked at it in detail yet, but it looks interesting.

Five for Silver, Six for Gold (Liminal) by Matt Nixon. My second Liminal game, this time we were all members of P-Division (the supernatural section of the police), and I was an ex-marine Detective Inspector in charge of the group. I was non-magical this time, which was a change.

Our team was more focused than Saturday’s, which I felt helped the scenario (although, for whatever reason, the banter between the players was better in the previous game). For me, I think giving the “crew” more of a focus definitely helps - particularly for one-shots.

We battled motorcycle ghost-zombies, explored lost underground stations and ended up battling more zombies. We discovered that Liminal can be brutal - we nearly died in the final encounter (against four zombies). Partly that was due to a lack of system mastery on our part as there were things we could have done (magically warded weapons to do more damage, for example) that we didn’t do. Even though we had used warded weapons in a previous battle, we didn’t think to use them this time. As it was, we just scraped through.

And then we found out that we’d trodden on toes that we shouldn’t have, which was a really nice twist and would have lead neatly into further adventures. As the “leader” of the group I found myself getting very cross with our bosses and the NPC from MI6/MI5 or wherever, which seemed about right for the game.

Back next year

And that was Furnace. I thoroughly recommend it - friendly weekend convention in Sheffield. I’m already thinking about what to run next year.