It is a board game, not an RPG

You searched for something like “Harry Potter: Defenders of Hogwarts RPG” and it is not an RPG.It is a 2–5 player board game (asymmetric deck-builder, 2–5 players, 13+, official 90 minutes [official]) by MinaLima, the design studio behind the graphic props of the Harry Potter films. There is no roleplaying in the story: you take side as house players or as the Dark Forces player and you race for two shields. That is the honest answer.

Where the “RPG” label came from

The confusion spreads from two outlets. Collider’s 2026-06-10 headline (“Forget ‘Hogwarts Legacy 2,’ the Next Harry Potter RPG Is Officially Here”) and CBR’s 2026-06-11 piece (“It’s Official, There’s a New Harry Potter RPG”, full of “tabletop RPG”) both landed days after the campaign was reported by ScreenRant, whose headlines called it “RPG” at least five times. The mislabel propagated to Dutch-language media as well. [second-hand]

Meanwhile, at least one outlet corrected itself: ScreenRant’s 2026-09-28 piece describes the game as a “tabletop strategy experience” [second-hand]. TechTimes called it a board game from the first sentence on 2026-06-11. The rulebook itself never says “RPG”. [official]

What kind of game it actually is

• A deck-builder: you start with a 7-card spell deck and acquire more as you play. [official]
• An asymmetric one-vs-many game: 2–4 house players on one side, a single Dark Forces player on the other. [official]
• A goal race, not a group defence: house players need 2 defence shields to win, and only one house player can win — captured by the rulebook’s own victory condition and a designer statement on BGG. [official + second-hand]
• 90-min official playtime on the box; BGG community data lists 90–180 minutes depending on player count and familiarity. [official + BGG]