Harry Potter - Fate Accelerated Hack

When I talk about licensed games, one of the IP that I always get questions about is Harry Potter. This setting has an immense, passionate fandom. Why is there no tabletop RPG? The answer to that is a lot of heresay plus my own conjecture. The follow up question is: Well, what system would you use to run a HP game? My answer is, inevitably, Fate. Specifically, Accelerated because I think its abstractness does a good job at modelling established fictional characters.

So, after years, of suggesting it, I finally decided to do it. It's not a heavy hack, which its why I shied away from it for so long, but the itch to design it finally irritated me enough to put it down on blog paper.

Follow my Harry Potter Fate Accelerated (Fate Accio?) hack after the jump!

Aspects

High Concept

This aspect sums up your character in a short, punchy phrase, such as The Boy Who Lived, Smartest Girl In The Room or Working Class Wizard.

School Aspect

This sums up not just what house or school your character is, but your relationship to it, such as Reluctant Slytherin or World Famous Beauxbaton Duelist. Zoom into houses if everyone's the same school, zoom out to schools for a international wizarding world adventure.

Wizarding World Aspects

Each character should have the same number of these aspects starting from 1 to 3. Each aspect represents the most noteworthy thing that happened to your character in a previous year. They can lean positive, like Aced My O.W.L.s or they could lean negative like Lost The Big Quidditch Match Singlehandedly. Even something like My Mother Was A Deatheater can be used for goo invokes and compels. First year students should start with one aspect, while returning students should start with 2. A group of adult characters should start with 3.

Approaches

These stay as per Fate Accelerated but just for ease of reference, are Careful, Clever, Forceful, Flashy, Quick and Sneaky. Each character gets one Good (+3), two Fair (+2), two Average (+1), and one Mediocre (+0)

I  considered school bonuses for these, but that felt too class-ish. Part of the joy of Harry Potter is watching the character push against preconceived notions of their house and school. All those times Harry though Snape was evil? Snape was enjoying delicious fate points from compels due to his Harsh Slytherin aspect.

Stress + Stunts

Stress stays as expected in Fate Accelerated. 

These should focus on your best classes or other advantages from the wizarding world.

Potions Teacher's Pet: +2 to Carefully Create an Advantage with Potions made in class.

Do You Know Who I Am, Mudblood?: +2 to Forcefully Attack an opponent who knows your family reputation.

Wingardium Leviosa!: +2 to Quickly Overcome an object's weight and sending it flying off in a random direction