The Leaky D20 is a Campaign Comic based on the Harry Potter films. Written by Arkbrik and posted on DeviantArt, it tells the story of Catherine (the GM) and Dan, Robin and Emily (who respectively play Harry, Ron and Hermione). Posting intermittently at the moment, it is partly through the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
The first strip can be found here
.
This series provides examples of:
- Acting for Two (In-Universe): Harry's player, Dan, also plays Vernon Dursley, and he really likes roleplaying Harry's abusive childhood.
- Adaptational Villainy: Vernon Dursley is much more abusive in the comic, often threatening Harry with snakebite.
- Snape really did try to kill Harry during his first year.
- Gilderoy Lockhart is the heir of Slytherin, and he caused the attacks during the second year to take control of Hogwarts.
- Among the founders of Hogwarts, Godric Gryffindor was the one who wanted to rule the school.
- Adaptational Heroism: Voldemort is portrayed as keeping a fair balance between the Vampires and the Werewolves, at least until he was overthrown.
- Marge Dursley is reasonable, friendly to Harry, and a ranger; averted by Harry and his Fantastic Racism.
- Alternate Character Interpretation (In-Universe): To be expected, seeing as the plot runs quite differently from the source material. Lucius Malfoy and Mr Weasley are friendly coworkers, and Draco is far nicer than the original. Conversely, Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall are far nastier, with the last one wanting to eat the protagonist because she is a werecreature. Marge Dursley is not only friendly toward Harry, but is (at first) the new teacher of Care of Magical Creatures. Neville Longbottom is genuinely competent and respected, coming from a long line of heroic vampire hunters. Voldemort has arguably pure motives. And the protagonists are generally a bunch of unliked jerks because they're acting like self-centered adventurers.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Emily points out several times that the main problem of their party is having three mages. She tries to fix this by creating alternate characters for herself: a felineborn fighter/rogue (Hermione after taking the 'polymorph' potion) and a ranger (Tom Riddle).
- Decomposite Character: Tom Riddle is a separate character from Voldemort.
- Deus ex Machina: When the Ford Anglia turns up to rescue Harry and Ron from being eaten by spiders, Ron announces, "See? There is a god! Of the machines!"
- Evil Gloating: Subverted. Not only are Voldemort's motives not entirely evil, his monologue keeps getting interrupted, and Harry escapes before he can finish.
- Fantastic Racism: Harry hates monsters (whether were or vampire) and sorcerors.
- Fur Against Fang: Snape and his vampires against McGonagall's tribe of werecreatures.
- Game-Breaker (In-Universe): Emily's constant use of feats.
- Knight Templar: Harry will happily antagonize or even unprovoked attack anything that is considered evil (werecreatures and vampires), rumored to be evil (sorcerers, like Dobby), or somehow associated with someone who he considers evil (such as his aunt, who is a friend of McGonaggal). Discovering that his father was a werestag causes him to shut down for a while trying to figure out where that puts him. And even then, learning that the man was good and moral only caused Harry to conclude that "My father was the one good werecreature" (a statement he made in front of Remus Lupin) rather than reevaluate his own beliefs.
- Low Culture, High Tech: Emily uses a computer to search for information on Nicholas Flamel. Then when Catherine asks her to justify her Out of Character Knowledge being used by her character, she says "I used a Computer. Duh.", implying that Hermione had gone home for the holidays and simply run a Google Search. If only all Muggle-Borns were that smart.
- Master of None: This is basically how Dan's spell selection is decided at the start of the Campaign...
- Off the Rails: Within the first three pages.
- Oh, Crap!: Poor Colin Creevey — Harry, chased by a Bludger, tries to Wronski Feint the bludger into Colin to Make It Look Like an Accident. There's a picture of Colin's terrified face as the DM rolls and declares Colin successfully dodged the bludger.
- Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Catherine does this in Chamber of Secrets when the others question her plot.
- The Roleplayer: Dan/Harry, of the Drama Queen variety. He routinely speaks in Purple Prose, relishes an opportunity to angst and mope when the others go to Hogsmeade without him, and insists on playing up his abusive childhood with the Dursleys... despite the fact that everyone else is profoundly uncomfortable with it.
- Signature Move: Levitate Object is the party's all-purpose spell.
- Spit Take: Robin comes up with a plan to use Dan's character Harry as bait, which is presumably startling, given how the text is paired with a picture of Harry spitting out his potion.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After the final battle of the first campaign, Dan/Harry asks Dumbledore if the villain he fought was Voldemort (a character from Harry's backstory). Catherine decides to accept this idea.
- Token Evil Teammate: Emily.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Hagrid, at first. When it turns out that the players can't work out what he's saying, though, Catherine decides to drop the accent for him and it's never really mentioned again.
- You All Meet in an Inn: The planned beginning of the campaign.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Moaning Myrtle talks like this. After Robin points out that she died only fifty years ago and should speak as though she died in the '60s, she blames Communists.
