Also, if you’re interested in helping—please let me know. I will certainly need help making cards and moderating the forum.

So if you’re interested please leave a comment…feel free to leave your ideas/suggestions! This is still a maybe but it would be helpful to know if there is interest.

So, I’m going to put Hogwarts on a sort of working hiatus. The staff and I will be working to complete everything but any TCG-related stuff will have to be on hold. Pixels need to be made, the level requirements/list needs to be put up, spells and potions need to be created and well, there’s a lot. Hopefully everything comes together and there will still be interest—it seems like there are a lot of other HP TCGs in the works.

This will be a good time to regroup (especially since I think I lost a few staff members a long the way). I wanted Hogwarts to be unique but at the same time I think I rushed the membership. I would love to hear any ideas/suggestions you have for Hogwarts, especially about what I had said in a previous update about the complexity of everything. I certainly want Hogwarts to be different than the other HP TCGs.

Contests will be taken care of. If you would like to enter them and missed the deadline I’m going to extend the deadline.

Everyone may take a freebie for each letter of M-A-R-C-H (deck name does not have to start with the letter, just get cards from different decks)

Contest entries are due at the end of the day so please try and get them in. Forum games have been update so be sure to check them out.

Please welcome Kitty Nox to the staff, she will be helping me with pixels! This will definitely help me work on completing other stuff around here so that things can start to pick up.

I’m still in the process of switching over to CuteNews. I was hoping to find something for it to prevent spam but it looks like I’ll have to set it up for everyone to register.

Please let me know what you think!

Games
The Great Hall group has been updated.

Love Potion Number Nine And Three-Quarters will remain up for one more week. Don’t forget you can trade in old event points at the Recycling Bin.

Contests
The results are in! Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who participated. Don’t forget the deadline for new contests is February 28. Also, The Golden Snitch Standings have been updated!

Heather has been super busy so we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the contest badges.

Activities, Planned, Etc
I don’t know how much these will add to the game or if they will make things more complicated than need be but I figured I would put them out there anyway.

I’ve been thinking about the activities lately and what else to include or change. Unfortunately there’s so much more work to be done at the moment since pixels and potion types still need to be made. However, just so I don’t forget my ideas and also so I can get some feedback on them, I figured I would create a list of things that need to be completed/are ideas to be included:

• Gringotts Wizarding Bank—You can be a bronze, silver or gold member depending on how much stuff (not just currency) you are holding there. Then, based on bronze, silver, gold you will earn interest. Plus this allows you to not carry so much currency around.

• Games based on your level—I was thinking of including sets of games that you can only play if you are at a certain level. This would tie into the Marauder’s Map where if you have it you gain access to otherwise “hidden” places.

• Would everyone prefer just to collect the various items available or would you prefer they have some meaning in the game? Like earn Magical EXP or you can trade them in for other things.

• Potions/Spells—I’ve decided that potion-making and spell-casting will tie into your Magical EXP the most and only special potions and spells will help you earn things in the game (like help you will something such as double the freebies).

• Clubs/Organizations—It really depends on the club/organization. The only one I’m not certain about is the Dueling Club and how participation would be for it since it will in a way have members go head to head.

If you have any ideas/suggestions please let me know! I would really love for Hogwarts to reflect Harry Potter as much as possible.

Also, since it was Valentine’s Day on Saturday please head over to the forum for some freebies…with a twist!

Events
The Winter Event if officially over. If you didn’t trade in your star points (or if you haven’t traded in your pumpkin points from the previous event) please be sure to trade them in at the Recycling Bin. I’ll be sending out prizes from the event shortly.

Love Potion Number 9 3/4 is up and will be available for at least a week.

Puzzle Decks?
Would anyone be interested in collecting puzzle decks? How about if the decks were not only the regular poster ones but also blends?

Contests
Voting is now closed! Please stay tuned for the results. Don’t forget the end of the month (February 28) is the deadline for the current contests.

Forum
Trading Cauldron has been updated and there is a new game available (Wingardium Leviosa).

Please ignore the trade cards, card worth and Magical EXP for the Muggle Level for the time being. It will make more sense and will be explained further when the rest of the levels are posted.

Potions and Spells
Please head over to this thread at the forum. Suggest some spells/potions to help a long the process

Prejoin Cards, Badges
Mostly because a few prejoiners quit the TCG I figured it would be best to better keep track of what needs to be made (prejoin cards, prejoin badges) by having everyone repost their images. If you are a prejoiner and need either your card or badge created please head over to The Owlery (the comments form to post images will be under ‘prejoin’).

Games
The Great Hall has been updated and one new game has been added to that group. Also, your House common rooms (at the site, not the forum) have been updated

Contests
Voting will end next week. Please vote for your favorite entries if you have not already done so.

Valentine’s Event
We will be having a event for Valentine’s Day—Love Potion Number Nine and Three-Quarters.

Don’t forget to turn in your points for the Winter Event. The form will no longer be available next week.

Edit
For the unscramble game (Roonil Wazlib) there is a letter missing in word one. It is the letter “e”. I’ll update the page asap but figured I would announce it here (thanks to Wendy for catching that).

Muggle Level
Prejoiners…next week I will be putting the levels and level requirements up so please make sure you send me any of your completed phases for the level. Please remember this is for prejoiners only—the new Muggle level requirements will be available next week! Sorry for the massive delay with posting them.

Game Donations
After today I am closing the game donations so please send them in if you haven’t already.

A Hogwarts Carol
The Winter Event is over. Please be sure to pick up your prizes from Cribbage’s Wizarding Crackers and the Winter Feast.

If you donated a bulb during the event please add it to your trade post.

New Decks
Three new decks, both donated by Wendy! Everyone may take a total of three cards.

Wendy may take an extra card from 1amconversation, bouncingferret and goldeneggclue

Forum
I’ve updated Trading Cauldron with a new round and Collecto is still ongoing until all cards have been donated.

Contests
The voting form now has the submit button on it so please vote for your favorite entries!

New contests have been added so please be sure to enter!

Winter Event
I received a couple of e-mails asking me to extend it for at least another week. It looks like we were able to create the potion so that will be available to all of you who donated ingredients soon.

Games
The Great Hall games have been updated and the granted wishes for the Mirror of Erised have been posted. A new round for Mirror of Erised has started (a little earlier) so please be sure to wish for something!

Freebies
Please check the forum for freebies

Mirror of Erised will soon grant wishes so please be sure to wish for something soon!

Winter Event
The Winter Event will remain up since we still need two more ingredients for Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble. Next week the Feast and Cribbage’s Wizarding Crackers will be up and the event will pretty much end.

Contests
I have the voting form set up but I’m a little worried that not everyone’s entries are there due to the form issues. I didn’t add the submit button for you to submit the form because I would like all prejoiners to check to see if their entries are listed (if you of course entered the contest). I will give everyone a few days to check and then the form will have the submit button.

Please check your entries.

Comment to let me know all of your entries have been added. If not, let me know and then e-mail me at hogwarts(at)enchanted-rose.net with the missing entry/entries.

Also, Heather has been a little busy so there is a delay on the contest badges.

Forms
Allie will be handling most of the TCG-related forms. You will be receiving e-mails from the staff e-mail account for rewards, starter packs, etc. I will still be handling contest and activity forms…things of those nature.

Donations
I still need game donations so please be sure to send some in if you can. Refer to the posts below for information regarding donations.

New Decks
Three new decks created by Galanomne! Everyone may take a total of 3 cards, no more than 2 from the same deck.

Galanomne may take an extra card from the champion, gossip monger and helena b carter decks.

The main e-mail address for Hogwarts has been changed. Please note that all of my mail will be sent from hogwarts(at)enchanted-rose.net. You may still see some from the gmail account (like from the staff, their e-mail account has not changed).

I think the forms work. As in the problem fixed itself. I spent a couple of days just sending myself random forms from different computers and browsers and I received each one.

Contests
The voting form will be available next week as well as the new contests!

Winter 2008 Event
The Winter 2008 Event will end next week Sunday. Please make sure you get everything completed by then. Also, we need more ingredients for Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble. If you want to donate any of them please do so. There is now no donation limit so if you already donated you may donate as many ingredients as you would like.

Games
I actually have some games updated! While the page for the games does have a lot more listed you are currently only allowed (and probably able) to play games/activities under The Great Hall, Nitwit and Common Rooms groups. There are also some other things (such as a doubles trade) that you can use. Just stay away from Classes One and Classes Two I don’t think any of the links work anyway.

Game Donations
Please refer to the previous post for information regarding game donations

Staff
Please make sure all of you are signed up at the forum. I will be sending you a PM in the next week just to confirm what you’re doing in addition to any information you will need as well as staff payment.

I’m still looking for someone who knows how to make pixel graphics. If you would like to be a staff member and help me with the pixel graphics please let me know!

1. Replace all of the current forms with a new form script.

2. Automatic update script for most of the games. I plan to have weekly games for Wednesday and then biweekly/monthly for Sunday.

3. Give out all of the items, currency, etc.

4. Finish up on prejoin badges, make prejoin cards.

Contests
Due to the forms malfunctioning you will have until Friday (the 9^th) to submit your entries.

Game Donation
If you would like to donate any of the items below please e-mail them to me. Use the title/subject Game Donation. I would suggest that you e-mail me your donations all at once if you plan to donate more than one.

Puzzle Images
I need images for puzzles. They should be no bigger than 450 (width) x 550 (height). Anything related to Harry Potter and they can be blends or whatever. You are limited to three puzzle images.

For donating one puzzle image you will receive three random cards and currency.

Icons
Icons are also needed. I would prefer that the icons are made by you just so that it would be easier to credit and then I can place them in the graphics section. The icons should be 100×100. You are limited to 8 icons.

For donating four you will receive two random cards and currency.

Trivia Questions
Obviously this would basically be a freebie for whoever donates and has their question up for the round. Simply give me a trivia question that is either Harry Potter related (character, story/plot) or trivia pertaining to a certain subject (Potions, Charms, Herbology, etc).

You will receive one random card for every trivia question. Limit is five.

Favorite Quote
Just send a long up to four of your favorite quotes. Again, a given freebie.

You will receive one random card for every quote. Limit is four.

I’ve also received a few PMs at the forum and whatnot saying some of the games and such are acting weird plus getting to the site is sometimes problematic—hopefully it isn’t a big problem and isn’t reoccurring?

Basically if anything goes strange between now and tomorrow it will be me trying to solve any of the issues. I’ll try and have the real update for you and update this post with anything else.

Also, if you are having any issues that are constant please let me know because for all I know I could have broken something (scripts, games, etc)

If your join form comes in before the next update (January 4) you can come back to this post and take the freebies provided. I will try and send out starter packs as soon as I can but I figured I would allow this since it’s only fair if you join that you should be able to take the freebies from opening day.

I do have to say, look out for edits and updates between now and well, our next update. The major updates will be posted here as an edit and other things will probably be obvious. You may want to check out the forum for freebies…and look out for those random event owls!

While I’m making some of the last finishing touches (okay, so the pixel graphics are going to take a bit longer since it’s just me making them right now) please, if you have any suggestions for games or activities, post them now so they can be included!

To the staff
I just wanted to thank all of the staff members for helping me get everything together. I would probably still be working on everything without all of you and your help. I know some of you are currently on hiatus but I figured I would go ahead and post this anyway. I am working on your staff payment and plan a little staff appreciation thing for all of you as well.

Muggle Phase
The current level information for the Muggle level will not be available after January 4^th. I had originally planned on taking it down to replace it for the new members but realized I did not given enough notice. Please make sure you submit the phase completion form asap.

Contests, A Hogwarts Carol
The deadline for contests is this weekend. I have to ask that any new members do not participate. This final round is for prejoin only. A new round will be available this weekend for everyone!

Everyone may participate in A Hogwarts Carol. It should been available for another week or so.

New decks
We have new decks! Viktor Krum—Year Four and Stanislav Ianevski made by Galanomne, Murder Me Harry and The Yule Ball made by me. Everyone may take a total of four cards, no more than two from the same deck.

Galanomne may take an extra card from bonbon and stanianevski

As for special cards, I finally got around to making them since we decided on the template. Only prejoiners may take all of the cards. Everyone else may take event06 and event07.

Edit
If you submitted a join form please resend!

A Hogwarts Carol
Check the page for updates and remember: this event isn’t just for Christmas. There is also a new game (suggested by Syrenslure) that will eventually make its way into our regular rotation. Some bulbs have been added so be sure to donate your own bulb to help deck the Great Hall.

Also, I know many of you still have pumpkin points that you would like to trade in. There will be a shop available to you soon that will allow you to trade in event points (but the prizes will be different than the ones given out for the event).

Contests
All entries that I have received so far have been added. Don’t forget the deadline is January 5^th.

I believe Heather is still working on remaking the badges for everyone

Forum
Trading Cauldron has been updated and Collecto is still ongoing!

Movie Trailer Decks
I would like to start making some but wanted some input on whether or not to make them special decks or normal deck—please let me know what you think!

Dobby’s Socks
More socks have been added!

Please check the members list to make sure the information listed for your name is correct. Leave a comment with the information that needs to be corrected (if anything is incorrect).

A Hogwarts Carol
A few changes, nothing drastic. Since the currency being used in the events will most likely merge into the TCG, I’ve decided to use stamps as currency for events. Please swap out the currency you have now for the stamps (available on the event page). In addition, at the end of the event you will be able to use your currency to purchase a special stamp for the event (the stamp will only be available during that time and will be specific for the event and year).

Also, there will be no actual candy canes yet. Instead you will be receiving tickets to turn in later. Depending on how many you collect you will be able to trade them in for certain candy canes and amounts.

As for the event, there are updates and some new activities so be sure to take a look.

New Decks
Thanks to Allie’s donations there is a new deck (and more to come). We’re still collecting images for the Yule Ball deck since it will be split into multiple decks. I also made some new layout cards that I forgot to mention last week. You may either take one of the new layout cards (#05 through #12) OR two cards from the ollivanders deck.

Allie may take an extra card from the ollivanders deck

Feedback: Special Deck Template
Now that you’ve seen more of the special deck template used, please let me know if you like it or if you would like me to go with something different (I am leaning towards something different, which is why we lack special decks). If you would like to see something different please let me know if you would like the template to be similar to our normal card template or if you would like something completely different. I already have some premade on the off chance I wanted to change the template (since the gradient does tend to not stay the same and looks pixelated):

Contests
Don’t forget about the contests! The deadlines have been extended due to the holidays. I’ll be adding all of the entries I’ve received up to this point soon.

Games/Activities
The Mirror of Erised has been added to the games section. Other games have been added to the page as well but are not playable yet.

Collecto and Trading Cauldron will be back soon—Syrenslure has volunteered to manage them.

Edit
I am working on remaking the current special cards with the template I posted. Thanks for your feedback!

A Hogwarts’ Carol
The Winter/Christmas event is now available. Not everything on the page is available since some games/activities are for later. This event isn’t just for Christmas so it will certainly go into January. Don’t be surprised if things are added during the week.

Also, the Everlasting Candle’s puzzle is a bit bigger than the actual layout but…there’s a reason for that.

New Decks
We have new decks (not the Yule Ball yet, we’re still working on them)! Fleur Delacour and Clemence Poesy—both made by Galanomne. Please take a total of two cards:

Galanomne may take an extra card from the Clemence Poesy and Flower decks.

Contests
Contest deadlines have been extended until January 5^th. I may even throw in a special contest since this will be a rather extended amount of time for entries. Don’t forget Magical EXP will be given this time around!

Membership, Joining
Prejoining is no longer available but if you would like to join the TCG please e-mail me (hogwartstcg[at]gmail.com) with the following information: Name, E-mail, Site, Birthday and Collecting Set. I don’t want to open the form just yet and would like to limit membership while things are still being finalized but I understand it’s been awhile so hopefully this will do for now. This offer will be for a limited time only and you will not be able to collect prejoin freebies from previous updates.

Contests
So, contests. Not a lot of entries this round but I do have a few that still need to be uploaded. With Thanksgiving and now Christmas I’m thinking of keeping the contests open for December. Would that help?

Edit
Still no FTP but I just wanted to say that the contests will be extended at minimum for the whole month of December. I’ll also see what I can do about keeping things paced so that no one misses anything (the Winter Event includes activities that will need you to check the site on certain days or miss it) since the holidays tend to be hectic not to mention I’m sure many of you are taking finals for the Fall semester. I’ll see about the full update for tomorrow and we’ll go from there.

I do however still need staff members (permanent and temporary) so if you’re interested please let me know.

Edit 2
Just a general poll (or just any member, really). Would it be best to hold off on weekly games for the Winter/Christmas Event? I’m not sure if anyone is missing bi-weekly games but I do know many of you did not turn in pumpkin points from the Halloween Event (you will have an opportunity to turn them in for something else). Plus a number of staff members have either gone on hiatus or I just haven’t heard from them.

Basically I just need some input on how to manage everything so that everyone isn’t missing updates. I can hold off the update that was supposed to occur yesterday for this upcoming weekend (rather than just randomly uploading everything one day) since my FTP is malfunctioning.

Also, please head over to this post at the forum if you would like to suggest spells and potions.

Forum Games
Trading Cauldron has been updated! Collecto will not be updated until we’ve completed the decks. The current donation limit is four but if you wish to donate more cards please do because the limit is now unlimited.

The position for Trading Cauldron and/or Collecto manager is still available. Please let me know if you’re interested!

Contests
I will be extending the deadline until December 7^th to give everyone a chance to submit their entries since I’m sure many of you were busy due to the holidays. You’re prizes this round will include Magical EXP.

Heather is now in charge of making contest badges so the remade badges should be available soon.

Donations
We’re in need of donations, especially for decks. The staff positions for image collectors are still open but in the meantime we need donations for decks. I’ll be increasing the reward as well for the time being so please be sure to donate!

PS
I’ve received numerous e-mails expressing interest in joining Hogwarts but they weren’t sure if they could join due to prejoining. If you are interested please just e-mail me and we’ll work something out ;)

I’m thinking of having weekly, biweekly and monthly games. Biweekly games will most likely be updated on the weekend so any suggestions for weekly? It really doesn’t matter too much as far as I’m concerned but I figured I would offer suggestions.

Contests
Contest results are in. Thanks to everyone who participated and voted. I’ve also made the contest badges color coded for each round so that they aren’t all over the place. With that, I also noticed after the fact that the badges are missing the round numbers so they’ll probably wind up getting remade.

You can now find Contest Information and the Golden Snitch Standings on the contest page. Also, contest entries for this round are due soon so please be sure to submit them!

Magical EXP, Potions, Spells
I’ve finally gotten around to setting up the Magical EXP page.

A Guide to Potion-Making has been updated and the actual potions/ingredients pages are still being worked on.

As for spell-casting I would like to open suggestions to all of you on the various spells and how they would effect the game. So if you have any ideas on what certain spells can do for you please feel free to leave a suggestion. Since I’m not playing it would probably be most beneficial for members to suggest any ideas they have for the spells.

Staff
I’m looking for one staff member to make contest badges. You would be receiving the master list as well as their entries to make badges for. I don’t really mind if you even change the template of it. Please let me know if you’re interested. Or if you’re already a staff member and would like to take on the job let me know as well! EditPosition filled by Heather

Also, I’m opening another staff position (perhaps two) for image collecting. This is of course open to anyone, including those of you who are already staff members.

One (or possibly two) other staff positions are open. Barbara needs some help updating Collecto and Trading Cauldron at the moment. You could be in charge of either or both.

Staff Updates
Due to FanUpdate not allowing multiple user accounts (that I am aware of at least) I may have to change around the updating system to WordPress or CuteNews. It will probably be easier than having a separate updates page just for the staff.

Also, I am in need of another pixel maker so if any of you know how to pixel and are interested please let me know!

Activities
A new activity has been added: Amortentia (Member Favorites).

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble is finished and the Pumpkin Potion has been created! This will be a monthly activity so a new potion will be available next month.

Allie, Allison, Barbara, Bess, Kitty Nox, Heather, Nono, Phynix, Sam and Shen may take the potion.

Contests
Contest results are almost all in. There was something wrong with the form for the pixel contest so I will need everyone to vote for the pixel contest again. Results and contest badges will be available next update. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Pixel Contest voting form. It currently says you will get two random cards but since this is a shortened form I’ll only be sending one random.

Chocolate Frog Cards
Please take your card if you haven’t already:

Cards
What’s this, special cards? I finally decided on a template so hopefully it’s rather decent (there’s only four so if all else fails it wouldn’t be too difficult to remake them). Please take one from the new deck: Layout. As you can see these cards are from when Hogwarts was still called Imperius. You can master the Layout deck multiple times by just collecting the 4 cards to each layout.

Halloween Event
The Halloween Event is over so please make sure you turn in all of your pumpkin points. The form and the event pages will be unavailable next week. Also, just a heads up now—the event certificates are being remade since they are a bit on the large/clunky side.