The only game
where you can insult
a cursed coat rack
and get cursed back.
Hogwarts Live is a free, fan-made, text-based multiplayer RPG. Which is just a fancy way of saying: brace yourself for a lot of reading, clicking, and poor life choices.
What even is this game?
Imagine if Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett got together and had a baby — and that baby grew up to create a Hogwarts-inspired fever dream.
That’s HL. You start as a lowly magical student (read: n00b) and must fight, scheme, and meme your way up the ranks. It’s text-based — meaning you’ll have to *gasp* use your imagination instead of relying on hyper-realistic graphics.
If that’s a dealbreaker, feel free to return to your hyperactive doomscrolling session. Our dedicated community of text-loving nerds doesn’t need you anyway. It’s been around since 2004, which means it’s survived MySpace, three global financial meltdowns, and multiple cursed reboots of beloved franchises. It’s also blind-accessible throughout.
This game is a fan-made, transformative parody. Listen — we absolutely love Harry Potter. But we also love not getting sued by Warner Bros. So: this site is a parody, not affiliated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any official entity associated with the Harry Potter series. We do not own Harry Potter, Hogwarts, or anything that might require a lawyer to write us a strongly-worded letter. All trademarks and copyrights related to the Harry Potter universe are the property of their respective owners.
Two Decades of Fun
“The friends I've made. It's a familiar place I know I can always return to. I don't have many avenues for socializing but this has remained a constant for over two decades.”
“Reconnecting with friends, playing through the fantasy in a cool, interactive, and efficient way.”
“Meeting my HL family in person!”
“After finishing the books, I had an uncontrollable longing for a letter from Hogwarts. While that never came, the next best thing happened: I found Hogwarts Live. It fascinated me just as much as walking into the Great Hall for the first time.”
“It's just a cozy little bit of nostalgia — both for the Harry Potter universe, and for the early internet/gaming in general. That's why I come back. It's one of my comfort games.”
“Probably all the people I've met.”
“The friends I've made, the beta testing I've done, helping new players, leveling. I've loved it all.”
“Being in middle school, knowing that despite any troubles I have at my actual school I could escape to a magical world where everything makes sense because nothing does.”
“The competition between players for the house cup.”
“I met my husband on HL.”
“The witty, clever messages whenever you defeat a foe!”
“Coming home from school and getting some time to just relax in the world I loved.”
Built by humans. Mostly.
Hogwarts Live is Based on the Legend of the Green Dragon by by Eric Stevens & JT Traub
MightyE tells you, “Legend of the Green Dragon is a remake of and homage to the classic BBS Door game, Legend of the Red Dragon (aka LoRD) by Seth Able Robinson.”
“LoRD is now owned by Gameport and they retain exclusive rights to the LoRD name and game. That’s why all content in Legend of the Green Dragon is new, with only a very few nods to the original game, such as the buxom barmaid, Violet, and the handsome bard, Seth.”
“LoGD (after version 0.9.7) is released under a Creative Commons License, which essentially means that the source code to the game, and all derivatives of the game must remain open and available upon request.”
“You may download the latest official version of LoGD at DragonPrime and you can play the Classic version at lotgd.net.”
“Users of the source are free to view and modify the source, but original copyright information, and original text from the about page must be preserved, though they may be added to.”
Game Category: Adventure · PBBG · Browser-RPG · Strategy · Text RPG · Turn-based MMORPG · MUD · RPG · Parody
Administrative
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
SU Priv and Dev Test by Kevin Hatfield - Arune,
Letter Opener by Sixf00t4
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
SU User Editor Only edit by SpinalRemains
Alley
Clan
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad and WitchyWoman
Commentary
Create
Darkhorse Game
Dwellings
Forest
Forest Specials
Edited by Alchemist Edmund
of Legendgard / Dragonprime
based on code from 4winz
modified by Eric Stevens & JT Traub
Necromancer by Colin Harvie
Edited by Nicholas Moline
Patched by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Edited by Nicholas Moline
Patched by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Updates by JT Traub
Edited by Nicholas Moline
Based on Pinata by Elessa and Talisman
Gardens
Idea by: Josh Elwell
Alignment Addins by Nicholas Moline
Patched by Danilo Stern-Sapad
General
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Graveyard
Based on Ramius' Blessing by Ben Wong
Graveyard Specials
Harry Potter
Holiday
Holiday Texts
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Inn
Heavily modified by JT Traub
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Inn Specials
w/ mods suggested by Jason Still
Library
Lodge
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad & Lonny Luberts
Maintianed by Lonny Luberts
Marriage
Pets
PQcomp
PvP
PVP
Races
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Specialties
Stat Display
based on idea by Dan Van Dyke
Travel
Travel Specials
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Underworld
Village
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
Custom Tats added by Lonny Luberts
Based on 'Maud' by Chris Vorndran
Modified by Danilo Stern-Sapad
based on code by Markus Wienhoefer
Village Specials
Voldemort Mods
Game Days
PvP
Expulsion Rules
Gringotts Bank
Owl Post
Creative Commons License
MightyE tells you: "We're going to take a few moments to try and explain this new license and the reasons behind it in plain English. The legalese for the license can be found online at creativecommons.org and should be read and understood in detail before you use this code."
"This new license was chosen because of a failing with the GPL. It only covered distribution of source if and only if binaries were distributed. In a web environment such as PHP, merely installing a game does not constitute distribution — so people were taking our work, making modifications, and not releasing the source code back to the community."
"The new license restricts public performance of the work unless the source code of the modified work is made available on demand. In plain English: if you put this game on a web server and allow people outside a normal circle of friends and family to play, you are publicly performing this work and MUST make any changes available on request, make arrangements with the authors for a special license, or remove the code entirely."
"We do recognize that people want areas of their game that are uniquely theirs. To that end, any module not modified from the base distribution AND which does not require modifications to core code may be withheld at the author's discretion."
"Version 0.9.7 was the final version released under the GPL. All versions starting with 0.9.8-prerelease are only licensed under the Creative Commons license."
Full license: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
There’s only one way to find out.
Create your character and see how long it takes before you’re swallowed by a sentient bog. Or don’t — just know you’re missing out on the greatest RPG experience ever created (period).