The Complete Guide to Four Houses Quidditch

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

The Complete Guide to Four Houses Quidditch

Joining your house team
To join your house team, you must audition here.

Quidditch commentators
To become a Quidditch commentator, please contact Madam Hooch (username = hooch).

Quidditch captains
Each year’s Quidditch captains and Vices are decided by staff. See the House Team Rosters to find out who your house’s Quidditch captain is.

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Four Houses Quidditch system ©2010 Ashley, Izy and Catalina Cavales.

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Quidditch will be played in 24 hour rounds; this means that Madam Hooch will post the results of actions every 24 hours, after which the next round begins. Players may only post once per round. If a change to your character’s action is necessary go back and edit your post. As well, please only post actions for the round you are in! Actions for the next round (i.e. stealing the Quaffle from a person who is being passed to) will be considered void and not rolled.

This means in order to play Quidditch you only have to sign on once per day. If you cannot commit to posting once per day let your captain know as they may wish to substitute another character in while you are gone. If a character does not post within a 48 hour period it is up to their captain’s discretion to take them out of the game.

As well, please note that if a player does not post in a round where their character is required they will not get their skill points. For example, a keeper who fails to post defending the goals when the Quaffle is being scored will not get their skill points and is therefore unlikely to save the goal.

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All players will have 3 ability scores allotted to them at the beginning of each game. These stats are Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX) and Concentration (CON). Madam Hooch will assign these stats by random D6 (six sided dice) roll, then players can add their experience points (see later for explanation) on top of their rolls.

These three statistics will be added to dice rolls (explained below) to determine the success or otherwise of players’ actions.

DEX is applied when avoiding Bludgers, catching the Quaffle when it is loose, passing the Quaffle, intercepting the Quaffle, marking another player or avoiding being marked, defending the goals, and catching the Snitch.

STR is applied when stealing the Quaffle, defending the Quaffle from being stolen, scoring a goal, and hitting a Bludger, and defending a player from a Bludger.

CON is used for maintain your action after being hit by a Bludger and searching for the snitch.

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For players’ reference, here is a list of what players in each position can do in a round, originally created by our staff member Drake. In general, you get ONE move per round. So a Chaser may not attempt both to steal and intercept in the same round, nor may a Beater defend against two Bludgers in the same round. Avoiding a Bludger is a free move in that you may do that in addition to a normal action.

Chasers
If they have the Quaffle, they can shoot or pass.
If they don't have the Quaffle, they can steal, intercept, mark another Chaser or just post that they are open for a pass.
If the Quaffle is loose (at the beginning of the game or if it has been knocked out of a player’s hands by a Bludger), they can post chasing after it.
Avoid Bludger. (can do this AND one of the above)

Beaters
If there is an open Bludger, they can attack someone.
If there is a Bludger flying at them or someone from their team, they can defend, or defend and deflect to a player on the opposing team.
If a Bludger is sent IN THAT ROUND, they can defend, or defend and deflect.
If a Bludger is being deflected during a round, Beaters cannot do anything about it until the next round when we see if it was successfully deflected or not.

Keepers
Defend goals for THAT round only.
Pass the Quaffle if they have the Quaffle.
Avoid Bludger (can do this AND one of the above)

Seekers
Search for the Snitch.
Feint. (can do this AND the above)
Attempt to catch the Snitch.
Avoid Bludger. (can do this AND one of the above)

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Onto the game itself! The success or otherwise of all actions will be determined by dice roll plus the statistics above, posted by Madam Hooch at the end of each round. Please note, D4 is a 4 sided dice, D6 is a 6 sided dice, D8 is an 8 sided dice, and a D10 is a 10 sided dice.

All actions will get a roll plus the player’s statistics, the player with the highest result wins! Different actions get different dice rolls to account for the difficulty of the tasks. See different positions’ sections for the specific dice rolls used for each action.

e.g. Avoiding a bludger – D8 + Dex

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Chasers
Chaser-specific rules see below.

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Beaters
Beater-specific rules see below.

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Seekers
Seeker-specific rules see below.

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Keepers
Keeper-specific rules see below.

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Focus

Since players would naturally pay more attention at a moment in the match that really mattered, a player may ‘Focus’ to gain a +2 bonus only every time it is used. They may only do this up to a total of 5 times per match, and only for one roll per round (e.g. a Chaser could Focus either for dodging a Bludger or Scoring, but not for both actions in one round).

An example of a Focus:
Ivy chooses to focus when dodging a Bludger.
Ivy = Focus Avoid (D8 + Dex + 2)

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Hit points (HP)

The Basics
Every player has base 5 HP
plus a d3 roll
plus any experience points they add to their HP (maximum 4XP)
Minimum total = 6HP and Maximum total = 12HP

Losing Hit Points
Players lose HP every time they are hit by a Bludger. The number of HP they lose depends on the severity of the hit, which is judged by the point difference between the Bludger roll and the Avoid roll.
Minor Hit: 1 to 2 point difference = lose 1 HP
Major Hit: 3 to 4 point difference = lose 2 HP
Severe Hit: 5+ point difference = lose 4 HP
HP losses for dangerous stunts that could hurt your characters will be left to the discretion of Madam Hooch.

Penalties to ability stats
Once a player’s HP falls below the base of 5HP, they begin to suffer penalties to their ability stats. The penalties are as follows:
4HP = -1 Con
3HP = -1 Str (and still -1 Con)
2HP = -1 Dex (and still -1 Con and -1 Str)
1HP = -1 Con (in TOTAL, -1 Str -1 Dex and -2 Con)
0HP = unconscious for 5 rounds, then at 5HP after that
0HP for the second time = unconscious, wake up in the Hospital Wing!

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Experience points can be gained through attending practices and posting in games. Once a player has achieved 10 Quidditch posts they gain 1 experience point (XP), another 10 posts means another XP, and so on and so forth.

Points are accumulative over the years, so if someone ends off the year with 9 posts they will only need 1 more post in the new school year before they qualify for an experience point. However, experience points are given out after the games, not as soon as the player reaches 10 posts.

Full experience points are gained when players perform one of their two favoured positions, meaning positions they would train in. When players are in either of their two non-favoured positions, they only gain half their XP. Favoured positions are chosen before the team’s first game of the year; those positions are not changed through the year so choose them carefully! However, positions can be changed at the beginning of the new school year (September) because it is assumed that characters can train in the other positions through the summer.

Players are limited to gaining 12 experience points over their school careers. This is not to discourage people from playing too long, it is simply to keep things fun and fair, prevent anyone from turning into a “super player” who can do no wrong because their stats are so high.

On that same note, players are limited to a skill set of 6-6-6-12 even if it means they do not get to use all their experience points. In any one game, a player may assign up to 9XP to their ability scores (Dex-Str-Con) and up to 4XP to their hit points.

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OOC posting in games

In the past, we haven't rolled actions for players who haven't edited their posts with any IC content by the end of the round. Madam Hooch will now roll actions from posts that only have OOC content and no IC content at the time of the end of the round.

The OOC post must be made within the relevant round - a player may not specify their action for the next round in an OOC note in their post for the previous round (i.e. we are not bringing back 'one-ahead' posting). Furthermore, we do not intend to allow Quidditch to become merely an OOC game. Players MUST go back and edit their posts to include some IC content at the earliest possible opportunity.

Players will be given three days (72 hours) after the end of the match in order to finish their editing. Posts edited within this 72 hours will earn full XP. Posts edited within a further 48 hours will earn half XP. Each post that is NOT edited to include IC content by the end of this time will incur a -1 penalty to Quidditch posts towards experience points. (the first column of the experience points table)

To avoid seventh years playing their last game from exploiting this system, any penalty incurred through their unedited posts will be split equally amongst any other Quidditch-playing characters that player may have.

The idea of this rule is to enable more people to post in Quidditch. It can be time-consuming to produce an IC post every day, and we do appreciate people putting effort in simply to give us their character's action, even if they don't have time to write an IC post. Hopefully it will take away a little of the stress of Quidditch for everyone. Please try not to overuse this system, though, for the sake of other players who are also putting their best effort into the game. If you are able to put in the effort to write an IC post for a round while the round is taking place, it gives other people participating in the game more to respond to and is part of the fun of Quidditch.

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Temporary players

If there are not enough active players on a team to make up a full team of seven players, the team captain may opt to use temporary players to fill up the gaps. These characters do not need to submit a biography to staff, but may only be role-played in the Quidditch game for which they have been created.

Captains may substitute a temporary player into the game if another player has announced that they are leaving for a while (on the Vacation List), or has not signed on for at least 48 hours. A temporary player may not be used if there is an active permanent character who could take their place.

Temporary players do not earn XP. However, if a temporary player is later created as a fully-approved character on the boards, they are awarded any XP they would have earned at that point.

Anyone is welcome to play a temporary character in Quidditch if they wish to. You can volunteer by contacting Madam Hooch or the relevant team captain.

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Man of the Match
At the end of each game, one player is honoured in this way. See this post for details.

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Finally… if you have any questions about Quidditch, you are welcome to ask your team captain or Madam Hooch, they will be happy to help!

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

Chasers

Wow, you’re a Chaser! You provide the excitement in the game until the Seekers spot the Snitch. You’ve got quite a few moves to familiarise yourself with, but on the plus side, this position has the most variety of any in the game, so you’ll never get bored.

As soon as the game starts, one of the Chasers on your team needs to race after the Quaffle; one of the opposing Chasers will also race for it. Who gets there first is decided by ability score and dice roll (Catch = D6 + Dex) – whichever Chaser gets the higher overall score will get possession of the Quaffle. The same process is used if the Quaffle is ever loose during the game – for example if a Bludger has knocked it out of another Chaser’s hands.

If you end up in possession of the Quaffle, great! In Madam Hooch's signature there is a line denoting the 'Quaffle Passes' needed for your team to be allowed to make a shot on goal. When the number is 0 or more, you are allowed to shoot! You’ll post trying to score, and the other team’s Keeper will post defending their hoops.
Chaser = Score = D6 + Str
Keeper = Save = D6 + Dex

If the Quaffle Passes number is negative, that means that you need to pass to another Chaser before your team is allowed to make a shot on goal (Pass = D6 + Dex). This will increase your team’s number of Quaffle Passes by 1. You must specify which member of your team you wish to pass to. If a Chaser on the opposing team is in possession and they try to pass to another player, you are allowed to post attempting to Intercept = D4 + Dex their pass.

If a Chaser on the opposing team is in possession, you’re also allowed to try to Steal = D4 + Str the Quaffle off them. Of course, they won’t give it up to you without a fight – they get a Defend = D8 + Str roll. Again, whoever gets the highest overall score gets the Quaffle!

There’s one final thing that you can do to annoy the Chasers on the opposing team:

Mark Player (Block)

A Chaser may attempt to mark (i.e. generally hinder/get in the way of) a Chaser on the opposing team. If Chaser 1 marks Chaser 2 successfully, Chaser 2 suffers a -2 penalty on any moves he/she attempts to make that round.

Chaser 2 may attempt to evade Chaser 1’s marking in two ways. They may attempt to dodge Chaser 1 (‘Avoid’), using their Dex score, or opt to ‘Barrel’ past their opponent, using their Str score. If they choose to ‘Barrel’, there is a 1 in 4 chance that Madam Hooch will notice this as a foul and will take whatever action she deems appropriate!

The dice rolls for marking and evading are as follows:
Mark = (D4 + Dex)

Avoid = (D8 + Dex)
OR
Barrel = (D6 + Str)

NB: A Chaser may not mark another player while themselves in possession of the Quaffle, or while attempting to intercept or steal.

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If you’re being particularly annoying or troublesome by scoring lots of goals or always stealing the Quaffle off the opposing team, one of their Beaters may decide that you deserve a nice Bludger in the ribs. If this happens, your best hope is to post dodging the Bludger (Avoid = D8 + Dex). Dodging is a free action, so you can still carry on doing whatever else you were going to do, for example marking one of the other team’s players.

Being a good Chaser is not just about having high Dex and Str scores, although those do help! The most important thing is teamwork. Only one Chaser from each team can try stealing the Quaffle each round, only one Chaser can try to mark any particular opposing Chaser… the golden rule is that if another Chaser is already trying an action in a round, you can’t. The best teams of Chasers are constantly in communication – that way you can ensure that the Chaser with the best Dex does the marking and the Chaser with the best Str tries to steal the Quaffle, for example, although the best tactics inevitably change with the dynamics of the game! Bear that in mind – your position is the only one in the game for which teamwork is absolutely necessary, and it’s something to be proud of.

Finally, if you ever find yourself thinking that your small contribution to the score of the game is pointless… don’t be so foolish! Yes, the Seekers gain many more points than you, but it’s usually the number of goals scored that determine the overall winner of the Quidditch Cup at the end of the year. You are important!

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

Beaters

On the face of it, your job is pretty simple – all you have to do is whack the nasty iron Bludgers towards the opposing team (Bludger – D6 + Str) and keep them away from your own teammates (Defend – D8 + Str). But there’s actually quite a bit of tactical thinking required. Are you going to attack that Seeker you’ve already hit twice yet again, you sadist? Sounds like a plan. Or maybe you might use the odd well-timed Bludger to disrupt the other team’s scoring attempt, or ensure that your own team’s goes to plan... opportunities to make your mark on the game abound!

When you hit a Bludger at the opposing team, you must be specific about who you’re hitting it at. So, for example, if Angelina Johnson has the Quaffle and you don’t know if she’s going to pass it to Katie Bell or Alicia Spinnet, you can’t post ‘hitting a Bludger at whoever Angelina passes to’. You must specify either Katie or Alicia and take the risk that she passes it to the other Chaser. Again, if there’s a Bludger heading at one of your teammates, you should specify who you’re defending: ‘Defending Draco from Bludger’. If, horror of horrors, there are two Bludgers heading at Draco, you need to specify which ONE Bludger you’re defending him from: e.g. ‘Defending Draco from Fred’s Bludger.’

When you’re defending a player on your team from a Bludger, you have the option either just to defend (in which case the Bludger doesn’t end up flying at anyone in particular if you defend successfully , and any Beater can come along in the next round and hit it at whomever they choose), or to defend and deflect to another player, in which case the Bludger will end up flying at a player of your choice in the next round if you defend successfully. There is no difference in the likelihood of the success of your defence, whether you just defend or defend and deflect, so usually it makes sense to defend and deflect.

12-Hour Bludger Rule

This rule sometimes causes a bit of confusion, but it’s really fairly simple. The idea is to make sure that all Beaters have sufficient time to respond to Bludgers being hit at their teammates – the members of the site live in many different time zones. For example, if Madam Hooch is posting up the rolls in the morning in the UK, many people living in the USA will be asleep. It wouldn’t be very fair if one Beater living in the UK was able to post hitting a Bludger in the last hour of the 24 hour round, and we rolled it hitting the player during that round, without those of you living in the USA having a chance to respond. Therefore we have the 12-Hour Bludger rule to avoid these problems.

- Deflected Bludgers are rolled the round after the Beater posted saying ‘Defend and deflect’.
- Bludgers hit in the first 12 hours of a round (check against Madam Hooch’s post to see what time period a Bludger attack falls into) always take effect in the same round as they were hit in.
- Bludgers hit after the first 12 hours of a round take effect in the following round, if no Beater has posted defending against them.
- Bludgers hit after the first 12 hours of a round take effect in the same round whenever a Beater posts defending against them.

If you’d like any further explanation of this rule, please PM Madam Hooch or ask your team captain.

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People playing in other positions often forget how important the Beaters are, but you hold the balance of power on the pitch. Even if the opposition’s Chasers are dominating the game, you can stop them from scoring by sending lots of Bludgers at them. You can give your own team’s Seeker the advantage by keeping the other team’s Seeker on their toes (or the broomstick equivalent). Most of all, it’s up to you to keep your own team safe... they’re relying on you!

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

Seekers

While the Seekers will have the same three basic statistics, their dice rolls will be a little different from the other players’. Every round Seekers will post their actions, like everyone else; the Seekers will be searching for the Snitch. Seekers will not be competing against each other, looking for the higher result, though.

Before the game begins Madam Hooch will choose a random number between 1 and 25. To search for the Snitch each round, Seekers must have a Search roll (D6+Con) of at least 5. The Seeker must post searching each round for the Search roll to be made. Each Seeker will roll each number between 1 and 25 separately from each other until someone rolls the Snitch number (each number can only be rolled once by each Seeker).

Once the Snitch has been spotted, the Seekers post trying to catch it. The seeker who first saw the snitch will get a D12 + DEX Catch roll, the other seeker will get a D10+DEX Catch roll, and the Snitch will get a D10+Snitch Bonus(D4) Avoid roll.

If the Snitch gets a better result than both Seekers, it escapes and the Seekers go back to looking for it again. If the Seekers have a better result than the Snitch they catch it – the Seeker with the highest roll wins. In the event of a tie, the Seeker who spotted the Snitch wins. In the case that both seekers spotted together and had matching Dex rolls, the tie breaker will come down to a STR roll (D6+STR).

If the Snitch escapes, a new Snitch number between 1 and 10 will be randomly generated and each Seeker will roll between 1 and 10 when they Search successfully.

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Fake Dive (Feint)
(copyright Pyro Blackfire)

A Seeker may pretend to dive for the Snitch, even when they haven’t seen it, to fool the other Seeker into diverting his/her attention away from looking for the Snitch. The faking Seeker may still search for the Snitch in the same round as carrying out a feint, since they can still keep their eyes peeled during their fake dive. Only one Seeker may feint per round; each Seeker may feint up to 3 times per match.

The dice rolls for feinting are as follow:
Feint = (D4 + Dex)
Recognise Feint = (D6 + Con)

If a feint is successful, the Seeker who has been fooled will panic and dive for a Snitch that doesn’t exist. Therefore they lose their Search roll for that round. (If we are more than two weeks into the game, the Seeker will only get one Search roll that round rather than two). If a feint is unsuccessful – i.e. the other Seeker recognises it as a feint - nothing happens – both Seekers may search for the Snitch as per usual.

NB: The Seeker who is attempting to ‘defend’ their concentration against the other Seeker’s feint should not write that they are attempting to do that – the object of the dice roll is to determine whether they recognise that it is a feint and not the real thing. You may post your character trying to decide whether to follow or not, and of course you may role-play what they did in the round after the dice roll has decided the outcome.

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Further Snitch Rules

These are designed to make games a more uniform length, which we hope will make things fairer for players working towards their experience points, and stop games from being frustratingly short or tediously long.

If the Snitch is seen in the first week (first seven rounds):

- The Snitch gets an 'Early in the game' bonus of +10 instead of its D10.
So the rolls would be:
Seeker who saw Snitch (D12 + Dex)
Other Seeker (D10 + Dex)
Snitch (10 + D4)

- This still gives a small chance of the Snitch being caught - by either Seeker - but they'll need to get a pretty good roll and have a strong Dex score. It is more likely that the Snitch won't be caught, at which point we go to rolling numbers between 1 and 10 for the Snitch. So the game shouldn't be made too long by the Snitch not being caught early in the game.

If the Snitch hasn't been caught by the end of two weeks:

- Each Seeker gets two Snitch rolls every time they search successfully.
- Any Seeker who posts but is unsuccessful in their search roll (because of a Feint by the other player, not enough Con or because hit by Bludger) still gets one Snitch roll.

- The idea of this is just to speed the process up... because no one likes a dawdling Snitch!

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If all this sounds complicated... don't worry! There really isn't a lot to it. All you have to do is post searching for the Snitch, every round, and dodge the Bludgers that the opposing team just loves to hit at you - Avoid (D8 + Dex). Then when Madam Hooch announces that either you or the other team's Seeker have seen the Snitch, you need to post racing to catch it before your opponent. It's you who will win or lose the game for your team - no pressure!

[Madam Xiomara Hooch]

Keepers

Congratulations - you have landed one of the most relaxed roles in the game, but watch out! You need to keep aware of when an enemy Chaser has the Quaffle... if they shoot and you're not paying attention (i.e. you don't post) then your character will be left looking very silly indeed...

But don't despair! We have a system to let you know when your goals are likely to come under attack. In Madam Hooch's signature there is a line denoting the 'Quaffle Passes' needed for the opposing team to be allowed to make a shot on goal. When the number is 0 or more, they are allowed to shoot! If the number is negative, you're safe and can sit back and relax. But you're still welcome to post your player cheering on their teammates and booing the opposition... (all counts towards that XP!)

If that enemy Chaser is headed towards your hoops, they'll post trying to score, and you'll post defending your hoops.
Chaser = Score = D6 + Str
Keeper = Save = D6 + Dex

If you get a higher overall number than the Chaser, you save the goal! If not... well, you get to go and retrieve the Quaffle. Either way you end up with the Quaffle in your hands and need to Pass (D6 + Dex) to one of your own team's Chasers so that they can get it as far away from your goals as possible...

And that's it! Oh, apart from the odd Bludger. Hopefully you won't get too many of those heading your way, but if you do, just post dodging them - Avoid (D8 + Dex) - and hope for the best. Other than that - you've got one of the best seats in the stadium... enjoy the view!