Children With Wands vs Hogwarts: An RPG

Compare Children With Wands and Hogwarts: An RPG side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Children With Wands	Hogwarts: An RPG
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Rules-Light, Family-Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Cozy, Collaborative, Comedy, One-Shot Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules	Magic School, Licensed IP, Family-Friendly, Mystery, Rules-Light, Roll to Cast, One-Shot Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules
Core Mechanic	To cast a spell, the player says what they want it to do, and the Narrator sets a Spell Range from two values. Effectiveness rates how well the spell suits the task from 0 to 3, and Strength rates how much magic the goal needs from 1 to 20. The range runs from Strength minus Effectiveness up to Strength plus Effectiveness. The player then rolls a d20, and a result inside the range casts the spell cleanly. A roll outside the range still fires the spell, but mis-scaled into a complication. High rolls overshoot with too much power and low rolls fall short.	Roll 2d6 + trait (Bravery, Cunning, Intellect, Loyalty, or Magic). On 10+, full success. On 7–9, success with a cost or complication. On 6 or less, fail but mark Experience. Moves are triggered by the fiction: Basic Moves cover danger, stealth, persuasion, and knowledge; Magic Moves handle spellcasting, potions, dueling, and magical creatures; Quidditch Moves resolve matches.
Dice	d20	2d6
Complexity	Very Low	Very Low
Availability	Free quickstart	Free core rules
Runnability	4 of 5 book tools	Book tools not listed
License	CC BY-SA 4.0 (core rules text)	CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (original non-Harry Potter content and rules only; Harry Potter IP/trademarks excluded)
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Not yet researched
Publisher	Dinosaur Pirate Games	David Brunell-Brutman
Year	2026	2020
Languages	English	English, Czech, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian
Best For	Families introducing younger players to tabletop roleplaying, and convention one-shots where everyone needs to be making characters and playing within minutes. The cooperative, low-stakes structure suits mixed-age tables more than groups after tactical depth or character builds.	Harry Potter fans who want a rules-light, narrative RPG for playing out original stories at Hogwarts: especially groups with younger or first-time players
Highlights	Players roll to determine a spell's power rather than its success, so a high roll overshoots the intended band just as badly as a low one. The Narrator announces each spell's range before the roll, letting the table weigh a clever but risky idea against a safe one as an open choice instead of a blind gamble. Spells that miss their range still go off and spawn fresh problems, turning failure into the engine that drives the session rather than a dead end.	Complete 16-page game with character sheets, spell lists organized by school year, Quidditch match rules, and setting reference: all free. Mysteries mechanic drives story forward with player-generated questions. Friends & Rivals system creates immediate inter-character drama. Conditions track both emotional and physical harm with distinct recovery paths.
Considerations	Setting each Spell Range is a real-time Narrator judgment of a spell's fit and power, so the game leans heavily on a confident improviser to run well. Casting a spell is the only way to resolve a real challenge, leaving groups who want to settle problems through mundane skill or social play without a subsystem for it. Every child shares the same resolve pool, single die, and short perk list, so characters distinguish themselves mainly by which spells they know.	Unlicensed fan game with no official support from the IP holders. No structured character classes or playbooks: characters differ mainly by trait scores and House. Advancement is slow, tied to accumulating four Experience. No rules for combat beyond the Duel magic move: physical conflicts use the same basic moves as everything else.