Quidditch Through the Ages

This page is an explanation of everything related to Pottercraft Quidditch.

## What is Quidditch?

**Quidditch**, formerly known as Kwidditch and Cuaditch, is a wizarding sport played on broomsticks. It is the most popular game and most well-known game among wizards and witches. The object of the game is to score more points than your opponents. Each goal is worth 10 points and catching the Golden Snitch is worth 150 points. The game ends when the Snitch is caught or an agreement is reached between the captains of both teams. Some games can go on for many days if the Snitch is not caught; the world record is six months.

There are four positions on each Quidditch team and three types of balls in play:

* Three Chasers, who pass, intercept, and attempt to score goals by tossing the Quaffle through one of the three hoops.
* Two Beaters, who handle two self-propelled cannonballs called Bludgers by hitting them with bats to direct them toward the other team's players
* One Keeper, who guards the three goal hoops and attempts to intercept the Quaffle.
* One Seeker, who remains on the outskirts of the pitch and focuses on finding, chasing, and catching the Snitch.

Each of the four houses fields a full Quidditch team headed by a team captain; alternates are encouraged but not required. All seven years may apply for the house Quidditch team, but first- and second-year students are strongly encouraged to either prioritize flying to the exclusion of all other studies *or* participate in pickup/ intramural games to hone their skills. A first-year prodigy may be able to challenge a below-average fifth year, but house teams whose starting lineup contains sixth and seventh-year students will have a much better shot at the Cup.

Any rules can be changed at any time if the players agree; this should not be done mid-year for things like the House Cup. Examples: The Snitch may be worth fewer points and does not automatically end the game, or it may be removed from the game entirely. Bludgers may autonomously target players, represented by a forced roll every X number of posts.

## Skill Basics

Every player has an actual year - their class standing - and an effective year, based on how good they are at Flying. The modifiers are as follows:

* Behind: actual year -1
* Average: actual year
* Ahead: actual year +1
* Prodigy: actual year +2
* Super-prodigy: actual year +4

(Remember that the total modifiers cannot exceed +4 across all subjects. You cannot be both a super-prodigy in flight and ahead in all your classes.)

In addition to this, every player has four skills they may increase by spending learn points: Chasing, Beating, Keeping, and Seeking.

When participating in a Quidditch game, roll the dice using the following structure:

* The **number** of dice rolled is based on your skill level.
* The **size** of dice rolled is based on your effective year +1.

Because of this, we encourage team captains to create house teams with years 3-5 on the relief team and PCs from years 6-7 as starting players. Team practices, team meetings, pick-up games, exhibition games (e.g. against Hogwarts alumni), and intramural competitions are all reasonable opportunities for younger students to build skill and work as a team across year and house lines.

NPCs may be used to fill gaps in team lineups, but you may not prioritize a NPC above a PC without a valid reason related to either OOC behavior violations or inactivity patterns. If you have concerns about this rule or any other, please reach out to the admins.

## Gameplay

### Chasers and Scoring: Like Football, Only Not

> *Ah, Chasing. The most important part of the game. Without you lot up there, passing the Quaffle back and forth, intercepting each other's passes, trying to get it through the hoops, and occasionally colliding in mid-air, there would hardly even be a game to Quidditch. So getting the mechanics right is important.*
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Someone on your team must roll at least three times against another PC or NPC before you can attempt to score. At least one of these rolls must be against a member of the opposite team. You may pass the Quaffle to another Chaser on your team at any time, but unless you roll against a Bludger or an opposing Chaser/Beater, you may not count this as one of the three rolls required to score.

To attempt to score, roll your Chaser and Flying skill against the opposing team's Keeper. If there is no Keeper, no roll is needed. If the Quaffle makes it through the hoop, the scoring team earns 10 points.

### Keepers: The Last Line of Defense

> *Ah, Keeping. The most important part of the game. Without Keepers, Quidditch would be... pretty much the same, except Chasers would score more often.*
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To defend against a Quaffle shot at the hoops, roll your Keeping score against the Chaser throwing the shot. If no Keeper present for the game, the Chaser automatically scores and the opposing team gains the Quaffle. If you fail to block the Quaffle, the opposing team earns 10 points and your team gains possession. If you successfully block the shot, your team gains possession and the score remains unchanged. If the opposing team wishes to intercept and prevent your team from gaining possession, roll your Keeping dice against the opposing Chaser's dice.

### Beaters: Let Us Win, But If We Cannot Win, Let Us Break A Few Heads

> *See the Bludgers section to know why you want to use your bats to hit malevolent flying iron balls at your opponents' heads, as well as why you want to hit them away from your teammates.*
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Between causing Chasers to drop the Quaffle and Seekers to lose sight of the Snitch, removing other players' dice for the rest of the game (and potentially the players), and forcing temporarily-halved dice rolls, a Bludger can do a lot of tactically advantageous damage.

While an Autonomous Bludger only rolls 1d20, a skilled Beater hitting a Bludger leaves their opponent scrambling to beat what may be a much higher Beating roll, which tends to yield a more predictable range of outcomes. It'd be fair to say that a Beater is responsible for delivering consistency of product, where the product is concussions.

Rolling to defend a teammate from a Bludger acting autonomously may seem mechanically useless, but it's not. When the Quaffle is in your team's possession, *anyone* on the team succeeding at an opposed roll helps your team move closer to being able to shoot the Quaffle.

### Seekers: Getting Your Hands on That Golden Whatsit

At the beginning of the game, you don't know where the Snitch is or what it's doing. The upside to this is, neither does the other Seeker. To locate the Snitch, you must roll higher than the Autonomous Snitch (which rolls a 1d20 by default) or than the other team's Seeker, if they've located it.

Either Seeker can fake having sighted the Snitch at any time, but they have to be clear OOC whether their character has actually seen it or is faking. The other Seeker must roll against the first if they do not currently know where the Snitch is; if they fail, they have been Faked Out and must follow the rules in the Bludger section. (This is a good time to RP a brief but exciting chase sequence, since neither the fooled Seeker nor the audience is aware that the first Seeker is faking.)

Once you sight the Snitch, you must now attempt to capture it by raising your Close score to 20 and beating one final roll against the Autonomous Snitch. Upon victory, you have successfully snatched the Snitch, won 150 points for your team, ended the game, brought glory to your ancestors, et cetera.

> Your Close starts at 0. Your Close *resets* to zero if you lose track of the Snitch. You can lose track of the Snitch by being successfully Blatched (body-checked) by another player, or as a possible outcome of being hit by a Bludger. If your Close dips *below* zero, you also lose track of the Snitch. Feel free, if you wish, to blame this on your teammates, or stray Bludgers, inconsiderately getting their silly Quaffle-Bludger nonsense game in the way of the true gentlewix's sport of Snitch-Seeking--instead of on the Snitch being a wily bastard.
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> To change the Close of your own volition, describe flying toward the Snitch and make a Seeking roll. Compare this to the Autonomous Snitch's roll. Add the amount yours is higher than its (even if this is negative) to your Close. (If this results in your Close going below zero, as previously described, you lose track of the Snitch and reset Close to zero.)
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> Your opponent may also be aware of the location of the Snitch and desirous of the fame and glory of catching it! In this case, *they* may make a Seeking roll to close in on the Snitch, comparing that to the Autonomous Snitch's evasive success. If the difference is in their favor, they straight-up subtract that from *your* hard-earned Close! And if that results in your Close going negative (and thus you losing track of the Snitch), they get to start *their* Close off with however many points you went below zero! Extremely rude of them. Better do the same back, but harder.
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> But your opponent's perfidy does not end there. If your opposing Seeker does *not* know the location of the Snitch, their Snitch-seeking rolls may be made with a bonus, that bonus being your current Close. At that point they may then seek to close in on it themselves as described above.
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> (It is considered rather unsportsmanlike to engage in this part of the Seeking game if your opposing Seeker is not online to oppose you, although no such consideration applies if they have been Bludged or Blatched out of the game.)
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> When your Close has reached 20, make one last Seeking roll against the Autonomous Snitch. If you beat it, you caught it! Game over.
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[The above glorious sequence is copied exactly as described by Gwen. Gaze on it and weep for joy at the sardonic humor displayed therein.]

## Complications

### Dropping the Quaffle

The next 4 players to post a RP with a Chaser roll compete for possession. Highest score obtains the ball. If none of the next 4 players to post is a Chaser, the next Chaser to post afterward simply scoops up the Quaffle and returns it to play.

### Getting Hit By a Bludger: Don't

> *The first rule of playing with Bludgers is not to let it catch you.*
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> *But if you tried and failed to follow that rule, you have to reckon the damage.*
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To attempt to dodge a bludger, you may either roll against an Autonomous Bludger (1d20) or against the opposing team's Beater. If your roll fails, divide the difference between your roll and your opponent's by the total number of dice you're rolling, rounding down to the nearest whole number. *(This ruleset also applies to being Faked Out for Seekers and being body-checked - Blatched - by any other player.)*

**If your resulting number is zero**, choose one of the following:

* Lose 1 die for the remainder of the game
* Make your next roll with half your current dice, rounding up if needed (half of 13 is now 7)
* If you currently hold the Quaffle, drop it
* If you are a Seeker and had located the Snitch, lose sight of it

**If your resulting number is one**, you must do all of the above.

**If your resulting number is more than one** (X), you must do all of the following:

* Lose X number of dice for the remainder of the game
* Make your next X number of rolls with half your remaining dice, rounding up if needed
* If you currently hold the Quaffle, drop it.
* If you are a Seeker and had located the Snitch, lose sight of it

If you lose all your dice, you are removed from the game (presumably sent to the Hospital Wing) and your relief must take over.

### Blatching and Penalty Shots

Hey, you know what sounds like fun to high school students piloting high-speed aerial vehicles? Smacking each other off in the middle of a game, that's what. Blatching is what happens when a player decides to impersonate a Bludger; therefore, if you are Blatched, follow the directions in the Bludger section.

If there is a referee present for the game, they may call a penalty shot after a character has been Blatched; if no referee, there must be consensus by the other players to allow a penalty shot. A penalty shot is a roll between one of the Blatched team's Chasers and the other team's Keeper. (This opens up a valid and interesting strategy - if your opponent's Seeker has located the Snitch and is Closing on it, you can risk the other team gaining 10 points to knock their Seeker off course.)

### The Snitch

Autonomous Snitches, by default, roll a 1d20 to evade sight and eventual capture. This behavior can be modified at the beginning of the game if the captains agree to replace it with a different size of die, or a simple set difficulty (e.g. must roll above 45 to spot the Snitch).

You may also decide to speed up a dragging game by subtracting the winning team's score (divided by 10) from the Autonomous Snitch's rolls.

## For Further Entertainment

1. ↑ https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Quidditch