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When Wizards of the Coast nabbed the rights – at a premium, to be sure – to produce games based on J.K. Rowling’s brilliant series of novels about youthful wizard Harry Potter, it’s not a stretch to think that someone had an idea for an entry-level roleplaying title. For whatever reason, such a game never materialized, and though there were rumors aplenty, no official reason was ever given.

Thank goodness for the internet, because maverick game designer Jared Sorensen put together some copyright-violating goodness in the form of Broomstix, the very unofficial Harry Potter roleplaying game. Though original just a plain HTML file, Broomstix was reformatted into an attractive PDF by a talented fan. Though the original is easily found, the PDF edition reviewed here is a bit harder to get hold of.

Sorensen appears to have set out to create a game that was simple and fun, but not so simplistic as to miss the flavor of Rowling’s books. In this slender, 16-page PDF of Broomstix, he’s succeeded in doing just that. The graphic design is evocative of the Harry Potter schoolbooks Rowling produced for charity, with the pages having a worn-around-the-edges look appropriate to a wizardly tome.

There’s no bother with flavor text, or even setting material, as the Harry Potter novels serve that purpose perfectly well. Instead, Sorensen gets right down to it, establishing a point-based character generation system that allows a player to create just the First Year student he or she desires. Broomstix features a surprisingly robust selection of skills, including proficiency in magic and Quidditch. It’s all very straightforward, and perfectly fitted into the Potter milieu.

Students are sorted into the various Houses of Hogwarts (no Sorting Hat needed), and the players’ choice provides bonuses during gameplay in particular situations and an affinity for acquiring experience through certain actions. House Slytherin students, for example, get a bonus when being deceptive, and gain experience through cunning and betrayal. Though it might be pointed out that player characters sorted into Slytherin are forbidden from play, because the Harry Potter books are about being heroic, and the Slytherins definitely are not of that bent.

Textbooks, plus types of brooms and wands, are discussed with just enough depth to get a game going, but not in such a way that the text is bogged down. All of Broomstix is a marvel of efficiency. Complete rules for playing Quidditch take less than half a page! Even the core mechanic (roll a die, apply modifiers, consult a simple chart) is designed for maximum utility with minimum fuss. Everything from fighting a troll to casting magic can be handled with rules that cover a little more than a page.

Broomstix is a delight. Everything one could want or need for Harry Potter play is contained on these few pages. With style and affection, it’s a winner.