Roleplay / Hogwarts By Night

Hogwarts by Night - For Voldemort and Valor!- is a Play-by-Post Game. Founded in 2003, the game was a Long Runner that closed in 2011, but was rebooted after a six year hiatus.

• As of Feb 14th 2020, HBN no longer supports NWOD/OWOD. It is set in an alternate timeline from the Wizarding World and has a separate forum for Call of Cthulhu. **

Welcome to Hogwarts by Night, a self-driven RPG & Community.

Please take note:

• We strive for player driven storylines.
• We play on a Message Board Forum.
• We do not roll dice in our game.
• We are not following the normal Wizarding World Storyline.
• We believe in friendship, honesty, and Real Life First.

If you are still interested, please visit http://www.hogwartsbynight.com to learn more about our game, and setting. If you still have questions, please ask!

There is an active player community on Discord Chat

If you like stories about clever and reasonably attractive dark wizards and witches, backroom deals, Eldritch Horror, and things that go bump in the night, if you have the courage of a hero or the sinister mind of a villain, then please have a seat and start reading.

The game boards can be found here.

This game provides examples of:

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: While the game otherwise makes all efforts to keep it as 'realistic' as possible, major, open-to-everyone events Hand Wave reasons why characters from other continents can take part, despite travel time or geographic distance.
• Adaptation Distillation: Due to the fact that the Order of Hermes does not exist in this universe, Clan Tremere's origin story had to be changed. Most notably, the First Massassa War never happened, and the founding members of the Clan were witches and wizards instead of Hermetic Mages.
• Ambition Is Evil: In a game that includes vampires of the Vampire: The Masquerade variety, this trope is always going to be a given.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Among the Kindred. "Good" characters in this game tend to either be witches, wizards, or muggles, particularly "mentally unstable muggles" who have been exposed to the goings-on with Call of Cthulhu.
• Big Fancy Castle: Besides the obvious example of Hogwarts, Castle Vampyre counts as well.
• The Bus Came Back: When the game officially restarted six years after it closed, several characters, including Callista Redthistle, returned to the game after a rather hefty Time Skip.
• Dating Catwoman: Aisha Ria, the Hogwarts Transfiguration Professor, becoming romantically involved with David Alexander, a Son of Discord and a new recruit into the Sabbat. Less than a month later she was blood-bound and Dominated.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Sabbat declaring war on Rene's group. To a lesser extent, Quinn joining in, as well.
• I Hate You, Vampire Dad: David's relationship with Rene is one of the better examples in the game.
• I Love You, Vampire Son: David embracing Aisha, whom he had married beforehand. Overlaps with Eternal Love.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Pretty much any kine who willingly gets involved with the Sabbat. Of course, the moment they find out why, it's already too late.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Enforced. The game outright warns you that attempting to feed on or otherwise harm wizarding students will be discovered by the authorities eventually, and will earn a harsh in-character response from them.
• Morton's Fork: A Keeper's use of Eyes of the Past at a murder scene that looked a little too close to a botched Thaumaturgy ritual for comfort revealed that it wasn't a kindred that had performed the ritual (and broke the Masquerade), but a wizard. This left her and Nikolaus with no good options: A, they tell the Aurors (as they should, according to the treaty), and risk them learning about Thaumaturgy, or B, try to find Max themselves. The Tremere Pyramid would obviously prefer option B, so that they can find his source and wipe all knowledge of Thaumaturgy from Max's mind before turning him over to the Aurors (or just kill him themselves), but if the Aurors find out, they'd have some explaining to do.
• Nightmare Fetishist: After the Ministry of Magic began trying to reach out to sentient magical creatures in the wake of the Second Wizarding War, including vampires, several witches and wizards (especially the more rebellious wizarding students) became more and more fascinated by them. Kindred have responded either by seeing this as an opportunity at a power grab or seeing it as just plain annoying.
• Not Your Problem: What the Camarilla, and to a lesser extent, the Sabbat thought of the Second Wizarding War when it started. And then they found out some Kindred got involved anyway...
• Player Versus Player: Downplayed. The Guardians actively discourage this except in special, plot-relevant circumstances, but concede that certain actions by characters can bring this on themselves. Instead, opposing characters are encouraged to engage in Xanatos Speed Chess, rather than open violence.
• Poor Communication Kills: Rose Belmont telling Jillian Penrose that if she wants to learn more about the Tremere, she has to show that she's willing to learn on her own, and not expect to just be handed it on a silver platter. And no, she can't just go ask a certain (Lasombra) teacher, either. Cue Jillian going out late at night again, looking for more vampires, only this time she was attacked by neonates, only to be saved by David Alexander. Whom, of course, interpreted Jillian's story to be that Rose intended for Jillian to do something so foolish all along, and even wanted her to get killed just for the sake of making the Sabbat look bad, a cartoonishly evil plot whose risk to the Masquerade no Tremere (least of all one aspiring to become Prince or make inroads with the Ministry of Magic) would ever take.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Generation is ignored in vampire character sheets. In exchange, all vampires automatically have their clan disciplines capped at five dots, with clans that use Thaumaturgy and Necromancy allowed to have a secondary path capped at three dots, and the potential to earn more in-game.
  • Clan Tremere had their backstory changed, due to Mage: The Ascension not being a part of this universe.
  • Due to the fact that the game takes place in modern times, Gehenna did not happen yet. The Guardians did confirm, however, that the Antediluvians are, indeed, out there somewhere...
• Pragmatic Villainy: The Last Rites pack of the London Sabbat, being well aware of the risks of drawing the wrong kind of attention from the Ministry of Magic, have had to take a much more cloak-and-dagger approach to their activities. They even entered into a truce with Clan Tremere, knowing that so long as the Tremere are living in Knockturn Alley and are playing politics with the Ministry, they are effectively untouchable.
• Prison Riot: Or as they call it at Azkaban, "Tuesday."
• Realpolitik: The reason why Clan Tremere (currently the only organized Camarilla presence in London) and the "Last Rites" Sabbat pack in London formed a truce. Open conflict wouldn't end well for either side given the positions both Maria Del Belmonte and Rose Belmont have staked out for themselves in the Wizarding World. Rose also points to this as to why she, as Tremere Regent in London, is willingly abiding by the Ministry's laws (for the most part): Clan Tremere's current goals would be much, much harder if they make an enemy of the Ministry.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Due to this game being set in modern times with Real Life time corresponding to dates in-game, Real Life events can be and are referenced in-game, including everything from the summer heatwave in Europe of 2017, to the Grenfell Tower fire in London and Brexit. The Guardians only ask that such references not be used in an inflammatory way.
• Truce Zone: The unsubtly-named Castle Vampyre, a Pocket Dimension, serves as a global elysium for all of the game's kindred. Enforced by Elezandra, the Inconnu Keeper of Elysium, who could very well be a Methuselah. Meaning, behave yourself.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Mary Del Belmonte. Beloved teacher at Hogwarts, a close, personal friend of Headmistress McGonagall... and a Sabbat Lasombra who leaves dead bodies on kitchen floors.