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I’ll go through the book a chapter at a time, explaining the basic contents of that section, followed by the pros and cons of it, in my opinion. I’ll finish with a few general comments and my reasoning for my overall scores.
Chapter 1: A 1 page introduction to roleplaying… a very common item, to be expected, and I’m glad not too much space was used on it.
Chapter 2: Character Creation Overview. These are 2 pages giving a quick guideline on how to create a character. It is a nice idea, but the overview is not enough to actually create a character from, it merely outlines the steps. In most cases, it says “See chapter so-and-so for more details”, but it doesn’t give a page number reference. Also, some steps are not mentioned in the overview, such as the need to figure out your Endurance and Power Points, or how to do it. (More on these later). Still, these pages give a decent introduction to what you can expect a character to look like (a mini version of the character sheet is shown, too), and I find that just looking at a character sheet and the general character creation process can often provide a reader with enough overview to get a basic idea of what the game is like.
Chapter 3: Professions. Four pages describing the various Professions in the game, how to gain multiple Professions, and how to gain levels. There are 9 Professions, covering all the typical fantasy archetypes. A Profession is not very restrictive or binding. It gives a price break on certain skills, but any character can still purchase any skill. It also gives 20 free levels in the skill categories most common to that Profession, but the player is free to divide those skill levels among the various skills under that category however they wish. For instance, a starting Thief gets 8 free levels in Subterfuge skills, but he can allocate them to any Subterfuge skills he wants… if he’d prefer a con-man, he can emphasize Trickery and Disguise. An assassin can put the points toward Sniping and Poisoning, while a tomb raiding thief may instead buy Locks & Traps and Stalking & Hiding. This freedom of choice is very nice to see, and goes a long way toward making each character unique, even if they are from the same Profession.
Chapter 4: Ability Stats. HARP has 8 stats, all rated 1-105. There are 3 methods given for determining stats: roll 1d100 8 times (rerolling any scores under 40), a 550 pt. point-buy method, and point-buy with a bit of randomness (500 + 10d10 points). It must be noted that stats are extremely important for character advancement, and the 8d100 method can produce completely non-viable characters (as well as phenomenally powerful ones). You see, your character’s stats also dictate your Development Points. The higher your stats, the more DPs you get improve your character, at both 1st level and every level thereafter that you gain. If all of your stats are 50 or less, you will never receive any DPs when you level up. Your character could never increase a skill, stat, talent, etc. On the other hand, if you are lucky enough to roll straight 100’s, you’ll get at least 80 DPs every level (and 160 more points to spend at creation, where you get 2x your normal DP.) By comparison, the average character should get about 35 or 40 DP/ level.
The concept of “the strong get even stronger faster, while the weak progress more slowly” may be somewhat realistic, but it just doesn’t sit right with me from a game balance standpoint. High stats will already convert to better bonuses on every relevant activity, but to also be the one and only determinant of DPs gained when leveling up seems too much. Even with the straight point-buy method, characters may vary from a low of about 24 DPs to well over 40, depending upon how they spend the points. Considering characters can reach 20th level and beyond, even this difference might eventually seriously affect play balance. For my own game, I’m planning to set a flat rate of 40 DPs gained per level for all characters, no matter what their stats, with 20 of those points allocated according to the Profession advanced that level (same allocation as the starting skill points for the Profession), and 20 points free to distribute at will. However, if all the players min-max their character’s stats pretty evenly, or having widely varied power levels between characters in the same party doesn’t bother you, the system will work fine for you.
Chapter 5: Races and Cultures. HARP has 7 races, all of the standards plus the Gryx, which are very much like Orcs. Your race gives you some stat modifiers, determines how many Health Points and Power Points you get for each advancement you buy in those “Skills”, and provides Resistance Bonuses. Each race also gets 3 special abilities. A dwarf, for example, gets Dark Vision (Greater), Dense Musculature, and Stone Sense. There are excellent and simple rules for racial hybrids as well. For 1 or 2 points, you can gain a bit of the blood of another race running in your veins. This allows you to exchange 1 or 2 of your racial abilities for those of another race. For instance, if a Dwarf character has some Gnomish blood, he might decide to exchange his Stone Sense for the Gnome’s Sense Magic ability! I love how easy this is, and lots of interesting combinations are possible. Because the player chooses which racial ability to give up, and which to take, many different varieties of hybrid are possible! You might even have “Lesser Blood” from 2 other races, creating a half-dwarf, ¼ Gnome, ¼ Human, if you wanted.
This chapter also details the various Cultures available for your character, such as Urban, Sylvan, Nomad, Deep Warrens, and more. You should choose the culture in which your character mostly grew up in, and this choice gives about 20 skill levels in bonuses that are appropriate for the choice. This means that the son of the Elven ambassador to an Urban human city will not have all the typical Sylvan background skills that many other Elves have, but he’ll instead have the skills learned while growing up in a city. However, for some reason, the number of skill ranks gained is not equal between the Cultures. Still, the differences are small, and easily changeable if perfect balance is desired. The separation of Race and Culture is a great idea, and provides a clear delineation between inborn abilities due to Race, and those skills learned from growing up in a certain Culture and environment.
Chapter 6: Skills. You’d think this is a fairly obvious chapter… it explains skills. Skills come in 4 main varieties: All-or-Nothing, Resisted, Combat, and Special. All-or-Nothing skills simply require a 1d100 roll + modifiers = 101 or more to succeed. Resisted skills are handled by looking up your modified d100 roll on the Maneuver Table to determine what results opponents need to beat your skill attempt. (You don’t compare rolls directly… if your modified percentile skill check is only a 12, let’s say, the opponent still needs a 55 to beat you! The gap narrows as you go up, meeting at 95, and from then on the amount needed to resist is lower than your actual roll.) Strangely, only 2 skills are listed as being Resisted (Duping and Trickery). Skills like Ambush, Pick Pockets, and Stalking & Hiding, which you’d logically expect to be Resisted (by Perception, most likely) are actually listed as All-or-Nothing. Combat skills include Weapon Skills, Martial Arts Styles, and things like that.
That leaves the Special skills, and a couple irritating bits. Two of the Special Skills are Endurance and Power Points. Buying levels in these “skills” increase your pools of hit points and spell points. That’s fine, but buried here in these skill descriptions is the only place in the book where you’ll find how to calculate your hit points and power points, how to recover power points, etc. These are very important bits of information, and they should at least be mentioned during character creation somewhere.
Next, the spell-casting system requires that every spell be bought individually, as a separate skill. Until you have a minimum number of levels in the skill, you can’t even cast the spell. Some spells have rather high minimums… a simple Light spell requires 6 skill levels in that spell before you can cast it, and Cure Disease needs 12 levels allocated to it before it may be cast. Deadlands 1st edition also required casters to buy each spell individually, and it was found to be too limiting on spell casters… all of their skill points went to buying spells, and they were completely incompetent in all other areas. The high minimum levels before you can even use the spell (and thus the skill levels invested), and the need for even higher levels in order to scale the spell up to a more powerful effect, makes HARP even harsher in this regard. Second Edition Deadlands revised things so that each spell caster had 1 skill used in casting, and each spell was then bought at a small cost and used at that full skill level. I’m wondering if something similar isn’t needed here as well… Weapon Skills are bought in groups (1-handed Edged, Missile, 2-Handed, etc), so why shouldn’t spells be as well?
Chapter 7: Talents and Other Options. These cover the Edges that many games have, but there are no Flaws that increase your character’s point totals. Most of the typical ones are here, as well as some fairly interesting supernatural abilities, such as Shapechanger, Regeneration, and Succor (a Laying on of Hands to heal wounds). Exactly how to justify a character gaining such fantastic abilities is merely glossed over, as the player and GM are simply instructed to work up some rational excuse, and have the events happen during down time/ training. Another place where the tight constraints of space are felt, I suppose. Fate Points and Training Packages are also explained in this chapter. Training Packages are an interesting item… you may take a max of 1 per level, and examples include Bounty Hunter, Sailor, Con Man, and Sage. The player decides if he wants to study with some group, tutor, guild, etc, and if so, the GM puts together a Training Package. It must follow a few specific rules, and in return for accepting the GM-designed package, there is a 25% discount in the cost. The remaining 75% is paid for out of the character’s DPs the next time he gains a level.
Chapter 8: Equipment and Money. This chapter is simply several pages of tables detailing the cost, weight, production time, etc for all the usual equipment in a fantasy game. There are no in-depth descriptions of the items, but none is needed really.
Chapter 9: Adventuring. This is where the rules of the game are explained. It begins with the Maneuver Table. It is used to find the results of a Percentage Check (used in haggling over prices and extended tasks), a Bonus Check (if a skill may provide a complimentary bonus to another skill or check, or several characters are working together to accomplish a task.), a spell’s Resistance Roll, and the results of casting Utility Spells. Utility Spells are uncontested spells used either upon the caster himself, or his willing companions. The modified spell casting result must be 71 or higher, or else such a spell fails. A high roll can double or even triple the duration or effect of such a spell.
A sidebar notes something called “The Drunkard’s Rule”. This rule says all rolls and numbers are rounded to the nearest 5. If you decide to use this rule (which should significantly speed up calculations), I see no reason not to use a 1d20 instead, and divide all bonuses by 5.
Strangely, under the description for opposing skill tests in this chapter, Stalking & Hiding vs. Perception is the sample used. However, as I noted before, this is listed as an All-or-Nothing skill, not Resisted. I don’t know which is correct, but if the example in this chapter is, I wonder how many of the other skills should also be Resisted?
The chapter goes on to describe fumbles, attacking an object, light and vision, falling damage, traps and hazards, and healing injuries. Most of the usual bases are covered, and the rules generally seem simple and clear.
Chapter 10: Combat. HARP’s combat system is a simplified version of Rolemaster. You make a 1d100 attack roll, add your offensive bonuses, subtract the target’s Defensive Bonuses, and if your total is 1 or more, you’ve hit. You then add a modifier to the previous total based on the weapon size (between -20 and +20) and look up that amount on one of 14 charts to determine the damage you’ve inflicted. There are no additional rolls to determine critical hits; these are all incorporated into the charts.
I have mixed feelings on the combat system. On one hand, there is not a lot of rolling, and attacks are grouped by general type and size, which is nice. If you are trying to determine the stats for a new weapon or creature, the examples and broad categories make it easy to say “It counts as a Medium Slashing attack” or “That’ll be a Large Internal Poison attack.” Also, practically any weapon can do a mere scratch all the way up to an instant kill. Just because your foe only has a dagger doesn’t mean he’s harmless! Finally, the descriptions given with each damage entry are generally fun and evocative.
On the other hand, there may be quite a bit of number crunching and figuring on each attack. For instance, you might roll 87, +56 Weapon Skill Bonus, +15 for flanking, -8 for the foe’s Quickness bonus x2, -45 for foe’s shield and armor, plus or minus another half dozen or more possible modifiers for cover, various combat actions, range, damage penalties, etc. That is all a bit much, with too many double digit odd numbers, for most people to do quickly and easily in their heads. (The Drunkard’s Rule looks good right about now, and I’m completely sober!)
Next, having to flip through a bunch of Criticals charts in the middle of the book for each and every hit is irritating and will slow down play. The players are unable to do this on their own, unless each one has a copy of the book, so the GM will probably have to look up damage for both PCs and NPCs. Also, many of the results can feature 3 different kinds of damage: simple Concussion Hits, Bleeding damage that must be subtracted each round, and Combat Penalties that must be kept track of (such as Stunned for 3 rounds). Altogether, this is just too much headache for a GM to keep track of if there are multiple foes. His paper will be covered with scratched notes, such as “Bleeding: -2 HP/rd!” and “-10 to all future actions from broken arm”. Some sort of Mook Rules to handle a simple encounter with 6 Goblins would have been very nice!
Third, balance is somewhat haphazard… it is mathematically far better to use a sword and shield than a 2-handed sword in most cases (unless you are doing an all-out attack, no parry). Falchions and Scimitars are 1-handed swords, but do damage as if they were large, 2-handed weapons. A Mace and a Morningstar are identical in every single way except the Morningstar has a Fumble Range 4x as large (01-08 vs. 01-02). There are quite a few instances similar to these, and together they mean that many weapons will never be used for any logical reason besides flavor… “I don’t care if I fumble 4 times as often; I just like using a Morningstar!”
Finally, I have a bit of an issue with some of the attack penalties affecting the damage result. Should smoke or partial cover reduce the damage of an attack, should it hit? I’m not sure… but the spell casting modifiers, such as for casting in armor or scaling up to a more powerful spell probably shouldn’t negatively affect the spell’s damage, in my opinion. (See below).
Chapter 11: Magic & Spells. There is a Universal Sphere of magic than any character may learn, plus Professional Spheres for Clerics, Mages, Rangers, etc. Each spell has several Scaling Options listed beneath it, which allows a more experienced caster to increase the range, duration, damage, number of targets, etc., in exchange for more Power Points and longer casting times. This makes the spell system very versatile, and a caster may use only the amount of spell energy needed. However, the effects of many of the spells are extremely short paragraphs, and sometimes they don’t give enough of an explanation in game terms. For example, the Invisibility spell should probably provide a cover bonus of some sort, or an attack bonus against foes that can’t see him, but none of these things are mentioned.
One of the most hotly debated issues on the HARP boards so far has been the scaling rules for Elemental Spell attacks. According to the rules, scaling causes a penalty on the casting check, and for Elemental spells, the casting check is identical to the attack roll. What this boils down to is that, for every +10 damage you do through scaling, you’ll suffer -20 on both the attack and damage (since damage is figured directly from the attack total, remember), plus spend more time and power points to do it! This simply makes no sense, and will require some sort of house rule to fix. For myself, I simply plan to say that the additional power points, time, and required spell skill levels are hindrance enough… scaling will not cause any casting penalties of its own.
Chapter 12 details Herbs and Poisons. The effects of some of the herbs are extremely concise; a mere few words each, such as “mends bone” or “restores organs”. These are practically useless for game purposes, especially since many of the critical hits fail to mention what exactly was damaged. Other herbs are much better described, though… it says Manu “heals 1-50 points of damage from frostbite”. The table includes cost, time to prepare, form of preparation, and a 3 letter/number code that describes where it can be found, and how rare it is.
Chapter 13: Encounters and Monsters. The chapter opens with several random encounter tables, followed by a chart with stats for over 40 creatures. Many common monsters are covered… generic demons and undead in 5 or 6 “classes of power”, plus griffons, goblins, spiders, trolls, gargoyles, and werewolves, among others. Each monster also receives a very short, 1 paragraph description. I think some sort of a stat block would have been easier to read and use than a single chart, but this style is a carryover from the old Rolemaster Creature and Treasure books.
Speaking of treasure, that’s exactly what Chapter 14 is about. Almost 150 magic items are described in very concise terms (usually 1 or 2 sentences each.). But you really don’t need to say much more about a simple +1 sword or a Potion of Haste. Most of the items seemed to be priced fairly well. However, some of the HARP forum members have questioned some of the different prices for items that provide an identical bonus… for instance, Bracers of Armor and an Amulet of Steelskin provide identical bonuses to DB, and neither of them may stack with armor. Yet the Bracers cost more… as much as 50% more for the highest bonuses. I’m not sure why this should be, but the author has assured the forum members that a formula was used and things are balanced. From a reader’s point of view, though, it makes no sense.
Chapter 15 is the last in the book, and covers Gamemaster Guidelines and Tips. It includes some good advice, though it will probably not be new info to experienced GMs. For some reason, the rules for Grenade attacks are also in this chapter… they really belong back in the Combat chapter, Also, the Language Table is included here, instead of with the Cultures section (which determines your starting language abilities) or the Skills section (where the Linguistics skill is presented). The chapter ends with a 2 page character sheet which is easy to read and very professional looking.
Unfortunately, that’s the end of the book… there is no index. For a game with so many important charts and tables that need to be quickly referenced during a game, and with information strewn in some rather unlikely places, not having an index is a fairly big penalty.
Style: 3
Style was a hard score to choose. On the one hand, the art is generally of very high quality… from the striking cover to the professional quality b&w interior art, including work by Jeff Laubenstein, Toren Atkinson, Kieran Yanner, and Jennifer Meyer, among others, it is a nice looking book. Many of the pictures are too light and too pixilated, but the author has said that it was a printing mistake, and the proofs they’d approved were not like that, so I didn’t take off any points for that.
However, the organization of the book, as noted throughout the chapter descriptions, is really not very good. It seems that space was at such a premium that very important sections were condensed or cut. An additional 32 pages or so, together with a slightly higher price ($28-30 maybe) would have gone a long way toward correcting this problem. Also, the information that is there is sometimes not where you’d expect it… hit point rules in the skills section, grenade rules in the Gamemaster section instead of Combat, and important tables throughout the book with no index or list of where they are for quick reference. Finally, some of the rules in the book seem to either make little sense (spell scaling penalties, damage for falchions and scimitars), are not as well balanced as I would like (advancement DPs tied to Ability scores, Cultural backgrounds, some magic item costs), or are not fully explained (some spells, creatures, herbs, skills, etc). So, I dropped the Style score to Average, 3.
Substance: 4
This is a case of simply cramming in so much, that you either need to take some stuff out, or better yet, increase the page count. There is so much here that is just very quickly glossed over in a single sentence or so. In some cases, like equipment and magic items, this is not a big deal. Most experienced players will know what these things are (though someone new to roleplaying may have a bit more trouble…). In some cases, though, the minimalist approach has not just cut the fat, but tissue, muscle, and is hacking away at bone too! I felt this lack of depth had to be reflected in the Substance score, thus a 4 instead of a 5.
Overall, I definitely like HARP much better than Rolemaster. It is faster and lighter, and yet has a ton of options and possibilities. I feel character creation, with its open, non-restrictive Professions, simple Races (including great hybrid rules), Cultural backgrounds, and interesting Talents and Training Packages will lead to an endless variety of unique and fun characters. It is definitely the high point of the system. Combat, with its numerous charts, lots of number crunching, extensive record keeping, and occasional odd quirks, is probably the low point of the system, but some fast, simple, non-chart mook rules would go quite a ways toward improving that, in my opinion. I definitely wouldn’t call it a “rules light” system, though… it is “rules medium” overall, and “medium-heavy” for combat. Hopefully, the lack of depth on many subjects in the main rulebook will be rectified with supplements. Several are planned already. Like most games, I'm going to add some house rules of my own to make it the game I want to play, but it's MUCH closer to my ideal than Rolemaster.
There is a fairly active forum for HARP and a page for downloadable resources. The 1st page of the introduction mentions the website no less than 5 times! It is www.harphq.com. A character sheet and some NPC professions are already available, and a character generator is coming soon. Good web support is always nice to see! If you are interested in the game, I recommend checking out the website!
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