Wizards vs Muggles, Signup Bravo

What's this about?
Wizards Vs Muggles is a role-play set in the Harry Potter universe now in its second year, and still running active. The reason there's a new signup thread is that the old one is obsolete by now. Overtaken by events, we'll say. The game's evolved pretty far from what it was originally intended to be.

Back in 2010, Hungry Joe set the game up and let it run. However, he dropped out of the game soon, and I've been the GM for the vast majority of those two years. Since that time, it's evolved into a love letter to the Smiley trilogy by way of Harry Potter, The Dresden Files, The Laundry Series, and Rainbow Six (just to name some major influences).

In other words, it's become quite different from what Hungry Joe envisioned, and since I've not seen him about recently, I can't go back and edit his original post. Hence this new thread.

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What's the game like?
We have two teams of players, the wizards and the muggles, naturally. Both teams are essentially taking a mix between espionage and paramilitary duties.

Backstory
It's late 2018 as of this writing, and the wizarding world's masquerade has been shattered permanently. As you might imagine, most muggle governments haven't taken kindly to the news that there's a second shadow government administering their territory and parts of their population. New conflicts flare up around the world; old conflicts are reignited in a blaze of new factions and allegiances. The result is a world in turmoil, and a kind of conflict (depending on where you are) somewhere between a cold war, an insurgency, and a full-fledged high-tempo war.

The Muggles: Team Occulus
The Occult Coordination Command Unit Liaison—Unconventional Situations, "Occulus" commandos for short, is a joint British-American venture built up around the old Rainbow counterterrorist teams, for intelligence, liaison, and direct-combat roles in this new world. The Occulus roster currently stands at five active-duty PCs among a lot of NPCs. They're closed for now; applicants will be deferred.

Players are advised that applicants should ideally be from a NATO or EU country, or a major ally thereof; in-universe international relations and political considerations prevent me from easily justifying the addition of a Russian Alfa Group or Vympel officer without a lot of work, for instance. (What, did you think geopolitical considerations would suddenly vanish in the presence of a potential common enemy?)

The Wizards: Black Magic
Technically unnamed, the wizard faction once received the nickname "Black Magic", which stuck more or less by default. While the Ministry of magic bureaucracy is currently in a state of mess, the wizard team seems to have drifted under the banner of the newly-formed intelligence service, led by an espionage veteran known only by her first name, Karla. They are recruiting.

Wizarding players have a lot more choice about their character's origins; the wizards are recruiting practically whoever their can get their hands on. Our wizards like to play dirty, though; the Harry Dresden approach of keeping a wand on one hip and a pistol on the other seems to be popular.*

We will be basing out of Britain for the most part, so keep your backstory with that in mind. Also keep in mind that a) underage students 17 or under will be accepted only reluctantly, as the player will have to justify why they're out of Hogwarts or whatever their school of choice is, and b) wizarding characters are not limited to wizards alone (we have a Veela), although wizards are heavily encouraged, since centaurs and the like have trouble blending in on the London streets.

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Keep in mind that the plot will play out in a much more low-key fashion than, say, Modern Warfare's crash-and-grab approach to intelligence gathering. A major theme we cover is world-building. To put it nicely, JKR did a lot of things well with the series, but world-building is not one of them, especially on the inevitable interactions between the two worlds—social, technological, and political. The possible involvement of wizards and witches in historical events will be explored: what happened at Innsmouth? At Tunguska in 1905? In the Grindelwald Conflict concurrent with the Second World War? Hopefully, questions like that will be answered as the game progresses.

Players are advised to play patiently. The posting schedule is slow and sedate; you won't typically have to worry about missing big events—especially with split parties. Recaps of important events are available upon request, but a summary of how things went are on the game's trope page. Beyond six players per team or so, the game becomes difficult to effectively manage, so should players join a team with six players in it they will be waitlisted. If they want it, players are also encouraged to contact the GM about setting up future events to explore and develop their characters further.

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Signup Template

• Name.
• Age.
• Nationality.
• Appearance, gender, physical details, general attire, et cetera.
• Backstory, fairly brief.
• Personality, also fairly brief. Keep the other factors in mind when you write this.
• Equipment and magic. This is where it gets complicated.
  • If you're a muggle, your loadout will have the chance to change significantly throughout the plot. The equipment you list will be a default list, more or less; think of it as a reflection of what your character specializes in. You won't have to list absolutely everything.
  • If you're playing a wizard, you get your wand, and potentially a few pieces of enchanted equipment: this is up for bargaining with the GM. Also, you get a couple of spells: see next sections.
• Perks and Spells: Muggle or Wizard, this is where you'll list your character's perks and abilities, especially any areas of specialization; in addition, wizards should use this section to mark down the spells that they're proficient in. This will really help with more advanced stuff like Apparation or Shielding. Wizards can still cast advanced spells without proficiency, but expect unreliability and fun to set in. Alternatively, posting simpler spells here will allow you to cast those spells with more power or precision than they otherwise will. This is also to place to list things like, for instance, broom proficiency. It's as much for flavor as it is for mechanics; I'm not providing a hard-and-fast number of points to spend, but you'll still have to clear everything with the GM first.

The signup template will provide you a starting point, more than anything else. I've seen lots of characters develop and diverge from what their original intent and ability might otherwise suggest. It's my job as GM to drop you into the world.

Have fun, and welcome to the team. The conversation thread and game thread are both there.

Addendum: also, do try to keep to some semblance of proper spelling and grammar. Occasional mistakes and typos are fine; we try to repress our inner grammar Nazis here. But do keep it reasonable: capitalize, punctuate, avoid wanton abuse of the common comma, and all that.

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Current Active Roster
Commandos

• Warren Peace, American SF medic, played by Kino
• Alex Fields, ex-National Guard CQB man, played by Firock Finion
• James Damon, British sniper, played by Deadbeatloser22
• Arthur Clark, CIA field officer, played by Wysp
• Olivia Browning, American military medic, played by Rena The Archmage
• Ruadhri O'Connell, Irish automatic gunner, played by Geek Code Red.

Wizards

• Lita Garza, Spanish Hogwarts student, played by Faramir
• Czeslawa Szymanska, Polish all-around wreaker of havoc, played by Hotelkilo
• Paxton Nott, British wizard and metamorphmagus, played by Popcorn 815
• Grace-Ann May, American veela, played by Windee

edited 16th Apr '13 6:13:40 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Name: Lita Garza.

Age: 17

Nationality: Spanish.

Appearance: Brown hair and eyes, Mediterranean/fair-ish skin, about 1.60m tall. Somewhat bookish. Non-threatening and non-notable looking. Easy to ignore.

Backstory: Born of muggles in 2001, with a magical(and british) grandfather on her father's side who owns a Little Shop That Wasnt There Yesterday. Was discovered to be a witch when she was 9 and her grandfather went on to try to teach her as much as he could before starting school. She went to Hogwarts to study, learn English, etc, in the year 2012. Got sorted in Ravenclaw. Not into many extracurriculars and is a very indoors person. Showed great talent and dedication in her magical studies. Troubled by the muggles and wizards conflict. Was recruited at the beginning of the game.

Personality: Lita is generally enthusiastic and friendly to people, though she doesn't have too many friends and is not any kind of social butterfly. She's the kind of person who can spend a good few weeks with nothing but a slew of books, notebooks, and maybe an internet connection without feeling particularly lonely. Relatively easy to boss around and manipulate, and likes helping people. She Doesn't Like Guns, is inexperienced regarding war, death, and protocol, and can sometimes be a bit naïve regarding the realities of the world. She tends to hold the view that if everyone just sat down and talked it out then things would be better in the world. She sucks at flying broomsticks horribly.

Equipment and magic: Her wand, Larch, twelve and a half inches, Dragon heartstring, bendy. Pensieve. Bigger on the Inside backpack with a few potions and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes inside. A wand "holster".

Perks and Spells: Apparition. Patronus Charm. Wandless magic. Fiendfyres and incendios. Shield charms. General spellslinging. Aresto momentum. Healing charms. Is generally able to do charms and create magical objects— though being vaguely competent and being good at it are two different things. Also, musical talent.

For any wonderful new players, I'm the GM assistant/ secretary/ record keeper/ research minion, and general Girl Behind The Man(cue dramatic music and thunder) and I'll be happy to help with any worldbuilding concerns or secret plots you may want to talk about whilst obeying Rule Zero of the Grand Tabletop Rules List.

edited 26th Jan '13 1:24:43 PM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

• Name: Alex Fields
• Age: 27 (Might actually be 28 by the current time of the RP? Haven't worked that out yet.)
• Nationality: American
• Apearance: Caucasian male, short brown hair, green eyes, average military build.
• Backstory: Formerly in the National guard, Alex was offered a position in R&U (Former designation of Occulus) due to his performance record and participation in an incident involving a Wizard in the Salt Lake riots following the collapse of the masquerade. He took up the offer after he realized that the fighting probably wouldn't stop until one side won, and the wizards certainly wouldn't let him on their side.
• Personality: Alex doesn't have anything against magic-users personally, (In fact he suspects his younger sister might be one, since she went missing since the conflict started.) although he gets annoyed at the thought that they would consider themselves better than everyone else simply because of magic. Tries to remain friendly out of combat, but as soon as the shit hits the fan he's all serious.
• Equipment: A tan t-shirt & cargo pants, black combat boots with brown soles. Police style light kevlar and padding to keep less hindered. Primary weapon is an FN P90 LV with a lowered rate of fire to decrease recoil and ammunition waste. Sidearm is a Colt M1911.
• Perks: High situational awareness and reaction time, trained in Krav Maga fighting style, and excels at CQC situations.

• Other/disadvantage: Is less adapted to long-range combat, and can be a bit... Dull, at times.

And, um, Faramir's last paragraph is gonna make me look bad by comparison, uh- uh- I know! I can like, stream games sometimes!

... -facepalm-

Also, this:

edited 26th Jan '13 3:49:35 AM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

• Name: Terrance Walker
• Age: 29
• Nationality: American
• Gender: Male
• Personality: Takes pains to preserve a kind demeanor and a solid moral compass, even in the most compromising situations. This can lead him into a sort of over-idealism in situations that might require moral flexibility for the sake of success. Believes firmly in the customs an rules of war, also leading to the mentioned conflicts. A deeply religious Presbyterian, though that's not necessarily his entire reason for fighting this war in the first place. Not entirely.
• Backstory: Born and raised in south-western Pennsylvania, John joined the U.S army at the age of nineteen after struggling to finance his college education. Though excellent field performance, he qualified for further training in Heavy Infantry tactics. He was deployed into Afghanistan three years before the Wizard war started. During his campaign, he came to blows several times with his commanding officers over the legal legitimacy of both their operations and the definition of acceptable collateral damage. When the war broke out, things didn't get much better in that aspect, a good number of wizards and witches in the region being especially pressed by local culture to hide their abilities. Despite his quality work in the field against the wizards, John swiftly demoted to scrub-work and oddjobs of varying degrees of dignity due to having nearly gotten in a fistfight with his commanding officer. Not a month later from that point, he'd gotten an invitation from Occulus to put his rigorous training to good use again. It wasn't even a week of scrubbing mess halls or running mail before he took to the opportunity and hauled keester.
  • 'Physical: An African American , somewhat heavily muscled, but too stout in the middle regions to appear military. He's light skinned, with makes a noticable contrast with his deep-black beard, which tends to take up most of his face up to his cheek-bones depending on his mood. He shaves himself bald.
  • Field Clothing: Type-IV body armor, colored depending on environment. While heavier than standard combat vests, it provides a wider, more consistent coverage, incorporating ceramic plating woven together by kevlar-like fabrics to stop the heavier assaults, spell or rifle round. Wears a Kevlar helmet at all times, and black combat boots.
  • Civilian Clothing: A variety of hoodies, jeans, and heavy boots. Wears the hoody to obscure the outline of a thin, kevlar-made tactical vest.
• Equipment: Binoculars (capable of night-vision), short distance radio, uitility knife, water-proofed map, identification card, three days of dehydrated food-rations, large-mouthed canteen, water purification tablets, spark-stone, back pack.
• Weaponry:
  • Primary: An M240G medium machine gun, with a front mounted bi-pod, belt fed from a cloth box-magazine attached to the gun's side. Two of these magazines are slung into his backpack.
  • Secondary: A Mac-10 machine pistol, with two spare magazines.
  • Close Quarters: A Mercworx Goliath knife.
• Perks: Very physically powerful and enduring, with his arsenal and armor catered to what he can comfortably carry. Not prone to combat stress or anxiety, allowing him to operate effectively in positions of varying danger. Extensive Heavy-Infanry training.

edited 27th Jan '13 7:04:22 AM by goodisgood

To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by.

Application received, probably approved, but gimme a little more time to think on it (I'll be AFK for a good while today). I can probably slot you in with the majority of the Occulus unit now fighting for their lives in Otis ANGB.

I doubt the "dishonorably discharged" thing would really work out, though. I can see him getting some kind of career-ending reprimand and being shuffled out by a vindictive officer into some piddly side program or another, and surprising the hell out of everyone when Occulus accepts him.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Also, I think carrying a 240-Golf and an MP5 at the same time is a bit unworkable. Hell, I think a 240-Lima might be pushing it a bit.

Also, there's a very good reason why you don't mount a belt-box under a 240, despite what Call of Duty would have you believe.

edited 26th Jan '13 2:18:33 PM by Deadbeatloser22

"Yup. That tasted purple."

New guy! Hi! Awesome!

Question: He's religious— what IS his religion? Is he Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist? Lots of religions out there, and even Christianity alone has like a few thousands of subgroups, and there are a lot of people who are "spiritual" but not really affiliated with any formalized group or church.

I really like the idea of a deeply religious character and look forward to R Ping with you in the game.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

And before anyone complains about me chewing someone out for having two long-arms when I do too, I would like to point out that the combined weight of a C8CQB with the bells and whistles (Say about 4-5KG) plus an L118A1 (6.5KG) is about the same weight as the M240G (11.6KG).

"Yup. That tasted purple."

I know nothing of Harry Potter, but I like the idea of guns vs magic. I would want to play a commando, but you mentioned that there can only be six players per team, and it already looks like you have five commandos, and a sixth signup for one, so... yeah. However, I am probably just misunderstanding something, since I guess you wouldn't make a signup you can't sign up for... so... can I join? *

My favorite type of character is the Fish out of Water, so I would like them to not know anything about fighting magic before joining this team, is that okay? I know you said the masquerade has been shattered, but I am guessing that that mainly relates to "wizards exist" and not like "this is a book of SOP's for dealing with over 9000 types of spells." *

Basically: Good at their job, now they have to do a similar job that now involves dealing with magic - sort of like Warehouse 13, if you've seen that show

That's a pretty good description of how it is, yeah. I dunno whether they'll let you on our side, though I'd be glad to have you.

If you know any HP fans, point them our way, would you?

Incidentally, here's my profile.

• Name:Arthur Clark
• Age: Unknown. Mid to late 20s.
• Nationality: American
• Appearance: Male. About 5'6" tall, with ice-blue eyes and slightly tousled black hair. He has been trained to alter his physical appearance when necessary. Wears whatever blends in, but a three-piece suit when on official business.
• Backstory: Mr. Clark is a field officer of the CIA, assigned to Project Stargate, the primary intelligence-gathering apparatus of the CIA in all things wizardly. Known to its employees as "the X-Files", the Project gathers information by recruiting low-level bureaucrats in the Ministry For Magic and funding Squibs to run magic-item shops, taverns, and other miscellaneous front businesses. Actual CIA field officers rarely enter the wizarding world personally, instead receiving reports from their agents in place. Clark himself has been in the CIA since 2011, and has served all around the world in various positions. His outstanding record eventually landed him in Project Stargate, where he found himself easily outclassed by most of the current agents. He ended up having to work his way up, and he is currently only still a short way up his climb. However, his degree in psychology has served him well in this position, and he has several valuable assets in the wizarding world.
• Personality: Very focused on his work, probably a workaholic. Doesn't talk much about his personal life at all. He is very good at reading other people, determining their buttons he can push, that sort of thing. He is also something of a long-term planner and the "damage controlman" of the OCCULUS team.
• Equipment: Colt M1911 w suppressor, encrypted cell phone
• Perks and Spells: Clark runs a spy ring of low-level agents in the Ministry and in Diagon Alley.

edited 26th Jan '13 3:44:49 PM by Wysp

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

No complaints on my end, just some edits. How's a machine pistol, instead of a sub-machine gun?

edited 26th Jan '13 3:47:42 PM by goodisgood

To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by.

@Nman: Yeah, "by the way, wizards and magic exist" is more or less what the general populace know by this point.

Last I knew, though there was some discussion about canon-shifting so I could be mistaken, was that the masquerade got shattered by an extremist group of wizards dropping a magic nuke-equivalent on a city in the US;*

this being followed by the Ministry of Magic's attempts to cover it up going tits up and at least one wizard who was sent to wipe the memories of the event from important politicians getting captured instead.

edited 26th Jan '13 4:37:59 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

What ever happeded to that O'Connell guy?

@Deadbeat: Box magazine on a 240? Technically possible (with tape and chicken wire) but highly impractical. Thats what soft ammo bags are for.

Yes, but not one mounted underneath the weapon like this◊. Keep in mind that the MAG ejects shell casings downward out of the bottom of the weapon.

edited 27th Jan '13 3:38:49 AM by Deadbeatloser22

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Well no, that looks like a box mag for the SAW. Now I'm not sure how your variants work, but with the 240B/L the links go out the side.

And this is my point. He said "underslung box mag", which doesn't work on an M240, which ejects shell casings downward and links out to the side. On real 240s boxes mount to the side of the weapon if one is used at all. Most photos I've seen of MAG variants have the belts used loose.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Ok, I just reread his post. For some reason I thought he was talking about the 249.

Honestly, I think a Mk.48 would probably be better for him than a 240 anyway.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Yeah, but :

1) We already have a guy carrying it.

2) The 240 can be carried by one man, and his character seems big enough.

I'm not convinced he's even still playing anymore.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Alright, I'll make the change. Honestly, I was having some trouble finding the name for that sort of magazine, so where it was placed was a secondary priority. Thanks for the note.

To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by.

I'm interested in this RP, but I'll need some time to think of a character... not the biggest HP fan, so I'll have to refresh my mind and all that.

Don't worry, the Harry Potter Wiki is conveniently at your service whenever you're wondering about something.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

Goodisgood, Terrence is accepted, pending drop-in, which I can handle. It'll be a hot LZ, so have fun with that.

Nman, it may be a while before I can get your character into the game, depending on how things turn out, but it should have a good chance of happening if you can get a full sheet up and running.

Anyway, sorry for the delay, folks. The influenza came down like a wolf on the fold, and I'm still convalescing; that's in addition to upcoming Econ tests, German poetry essays, and polisci papers. I'll recommit my attention soonest.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Time for glorious repost.

• Name: Czesława Szymańska
• Age: 26
• Nationality: Polish
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: tallish, dull grey eyes, shorter dark brown hair (neck/jaw length), numerous piercings in both ears,
• Backstory: Member of a not exceedingly prominent family of Polish wizard scholars largely concerned with studying the fading power of magic in their home country. Not terribly interested in matters of magic, she slacked her way through studies in Warsaw barely scraping through her final tests. She then proceeded to eschew wizarding employment for a job with the muggle Policja. When the magical world was outed worldwide so was she, forcing her to flee the country separate from her family. She eventually ended up in England but has no idea where the rest of her relatives are and for all relevant purposes doesn't care. Actually more intelligent then she ever appears. Despite not applying herself to magical studies she does speak two languages fluently in addition to understanding an understanding of government, law, prose/poetry, the history of magic in Europe, ancient runes, as well as some magical theory and music. Hardly ever uses any of the more academic skills since they're 'embarrassing' or 'silly'. Did have a poem in Russian published a few years ago. 'Volunteered' for special assignment after punching out a Magical Law Enforcement Patrol agent upon her stressful arrival in England.
• Attire: brown wool overcoat, blue long sleeved button up shirt, skirt apparently held up by leather belt, bike shorts, well worn pair of army boots

• Spells
  • Alarte Ascendare (launches things into the air)
  • Expelliarmus (disarms an opponent)
  • Confringo (blasting charm)
  • Expellio Viscus (entrails expelling curse)

• Abilities: Apparition, limited English, Speaks: Polish and Russian, muggle law enforcement training

Let God do His work, we will see to ours. Bring in the candles.