Note: Although this review primary concerns HarnMaster basic rules, it also covers some of the material presented in HarnMaster religion and HarnMaster magic.
Presentation
The good: One of the best I have ever seen in a roleplaying game and a unique idea by the publishers. Instead of paying for binding and a hardcover, they give you a card cover and loose notebook punched pages within that you can put in your own notebook. Be as fancy or practical as you like. It saves them money and is practical for you. You can put your own notes, maps, house rules etc. between the pages. Each page has a wide margin for HarnMaster options (included in text) or for your own ideas and options which you can write in.
I have never, ever had a hard time trying to find anything in this book. It is easy to read and has a very good index.
The second edition is very beautiful and practical with full color printed on card stock. I hear that the third edition isnt in color.
The bad: Rules are presented in three books instead of one. Basic rules contain no little or no information on religion or magic. These books must be purchaseds separately and I do not really consider them to be supplements. Also, for many years the publishers have been promising a bestiary. I have yet to see it even though it is advertised in the Second Edition. Now the Third Edition is coming out and a Bestiary still hasn't been published (to my knowledge). On the website there are books like horses and dragons available in the bestiary section...but no one book that describes animals and monsters. They may never publish one. A severe disadvantage to both the publishers and to you.
I thought I should mention that most of the game world of Harn is presented in a sketchy, non-detailed manner with little discussion of politics or cultures. The little island of Harn and its countries are very well detailed with almost every city described in some detail, but it is just a small part of the planet.
Also HarnMaster uses a LOT of abbreviations and strange words such as SI, EML, CML, etc. and sometimes they are only explained on one page.
Game Mechanic
All tasks and tests are resolved by rolling percentile dice (or two d10s of different color). If the result is less than or equal to the character's effective mastery level (EML), which is the skill of the character plus or minus any modifiers, the character succeeds at the task. A dice result in which the "ones" die is a 5 or 0 indicates a critical result. If the character failed his test, it is a critical failure. If the character succeeded at his test, it is a critical success. That's all folks. Anyone who can read percentile dice can sit down without knowing anything more than this and effectively play the game with a premade character.
The good. Its a very simple game mechanic which is easy to conceptualize and learn.
The bad. Die result do not produce a nice bell shaped curve like 3d6's do. That means you have just as much chance of rolling a 95 as rolling a 05.
How the bad is compensated for. Rising Effective Mastery Levels give more chances for successes and critical successes and less chances for failures and critical failures.
Character Creation
Character Creation is the weakness of the system. It is lengthy process which could easily be remedied. Characters come from one of 6 different cultures: Tribal, Viking, Feudal, Imperial, Sindar(Elf), or Khuzan(Dwarf). GMs have a choice of allowing players to determine Birth attributes such as species(race), sex, sunsign(optional), and culture with either Character Points or by random dice roll. If HarnWorld is used with HarnMaster, birthplace can be a place on the map with population, ruler, shire and country all described for the character. If birthplace happens to be one of the described towns or cities of Harn with a map, more information can be provided to the player of the character's birthplace.
Attributes can either be rolled or bought with character points. There are many attributes, eight of which are primary or key attributes: Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Aura, and Will. Secondary attributes are height, frame, weight,eyesight, hearing, smell, voice, initiative, endurance, comliness, morality, psyche, and piety. Admittedly, all of these could be used during the course of play, but dealing with them all makes character creation a longer process.
Characters either choose, roll for, or buy their professions with Character Points, depending on the GM. Profession is a quick way of describing the character's background and the skills he begins adventuring with. It has little bearing on the character after play has begun, except for the social status of the profession. Each profession lists skills and multipliers by which skill bases are mulitiplied to arrive at a Mastery Level.
Skill bases are determined by averaging the three relevant attributes together for that skill (usually arriving at a number between 1 and 18). This takes a lot of time and a calculator is handy. Once character creation is done, the problem is not over with. Every time an attribute is increased (because of magic or blessing) or decreased (due to magic, curse, or injury) all the skills that have that attribute in them must be looked up an recalculated. I would recommend choosing one relevant attribute for each skill and using that, although purists will not want to alter the system. Another possibility is to just apply a temporary penalty (or permanent penalty) to each skill equal to the amount that one of the skills is reduced by. For example is Agility is decreased by 1 decrease all skills by 1 that contain agility in the skill base rather than recalculating them all.
No advantages or disadvantages are provided. The game is written and designed for experienced role players who would either create their own based on their attribute scores or make them up, themselves based on their background. Ambitious GMs could import a system of advantages and disadvantages from a game like GURPS and expand the Character Point system to include these. If this is done only non-level advantages and disadvantages should be used and their cost in GURPS should be divided by 5.
Many options are provided for GMs to do character creation in practically any way imaginable. GMs must read through all of the rules and create a character creation system before sitting down with players to make up characters.
Skill Improvement
Every character gets 30 skill maintenace points per month to try to improve skills with. This is based on the idea that a character has approximately one hour a day to devote to improving a skill. Every 10 skill maintenance points allows the player to make 1 skill development roll. To make the roll the player rolls percentile dice and adds the skill base of the skill he is trying to improve to the result. If the result is greater than the current Mastery Level, it can be increased by 1 percentile.
Learning new skills requires an investment of time which is detailed in the rules.
Combat
Combat uses a table, the attack tables can be memorized fairly easily with experience. The aiming zones and the effective impact tables can also be memorized to a large degree. GMs who have these tables memorized will greatly speed up game play, although careful players, who want to check the GMs memory may slow the game back down. The attack tables are cross indexed for Critical Success, Success, Failure, and Critical Failure with the attacker on the rows and the defender on the columns. Columns are divided into sections that say Block, Counterstrike, Dodge, and Ignore, depending on how the defender wants to defend himself. This requires a roll to be made by both the attacker and the defender for all attacks. This is doubling the amount of rolls than for most role playing games, but it provides more realism. Successful attack results are indicated by a star followed by a number. This number is the amount of extra d6's that can be rolled in addition the amount indicated for weapon damage. Strike locations are divided into high, mid, and low body, depending on where the attacker wants to strike. A roll needs to be made on this table to determine where the strike hit. Now all of the dice for weapon and attack result are rolled to find out what the effective impact is. These results are conveniently arranged by strike location and indicate minor )bruise, cut, stab), serious(fracture, cut, stab), grievous (fracture, cut, stab), or kill/mortal wound and also a number that adds to the Universal Penalty to all actions. Every time a wound is incurred a player rolls 1d6 for each point of Universal Penalty. If the result is greater than or equal to his endurance, he passes out. A player can die of shock by taking twice or more his endurance in Universal Penalty or by a kill/mortal wound result.
Magic
There are schools of magic called convocations. Magic schools called chantries usually specialize in one convocation. The resources of the school and the quality of teaching determine the student's Convocational Mastery Level. This is considered to be his skill for all magic of that convocation. When he casts a spell the base chance for casting successfully is equal to his Convocation Mastery Level minus 5 times the level of the spell. The amount of fatigue accumulated depends on the success of the spell. A critical success results in losing no fatigue, while a critical failure results in 2 Fatigue being lost. A critical failure results in a spell misfire, the result of which is determined by the spell misfire table. Some of these results are very deadly and dangerous.
Religion
Each religion has rules and ceremonies to be followed. A member of that religion can gain Piety Points for religious service. These are cleary marked out on the Piety Gain table. When a worshipper calls on his or her diety for help each Piety Point counts for a 1% increase in chance of intervention by the diety being called. The GM assesses the call as worthy, neutral, or unworthy. A worthy call begins with a base chance of 20%, a neutral 0%, and unworthy -20%. Clerics and priests can perform ritual invocations which are resolved exactly like spell resolution with the option that the cleric may use Piety Points to increase the chance of a successful intervention. These ritual invocations result in miracles performed by the diety of the character. A character has a Ritual Mastery Level for each diety in the same way that a character has a Convocational Mastery Level for each school of magic.
Psionics
Every character has the potential of being psionically gifted. The GM rolls for this when the character is created, but he keeps the result a secret. Periodically throughout the course of adventuring, the GM rolls for psionic incidents that may happen to characters who are thus gifted. Each time such an incident occurs, the GM makes a skill development roll for the character. If it is successful, the skill is improved by one point. As soon as the talent reaches a Mastery Level of 20, the character may attempt to control the talent and develop it. Any GM who doesn't like this system could very easily change it to be used like magic skills are used with a Mastery Level for each talent. However, I strongly advise that GMs keep the system described, because it is very realistic and entertaining.
Game Play
Harnmaster play is slow and very descriptive. When I am a player I get the feeling that I am actually in a real life situation. To anyone who gets excited about this, think about it for a moment. It can be very frustrating. I can place my attacks wherever I want to, but so can the NPC. Magic use can become very powerful but I must spend a LOT of time studying and perfecting my skills before I can cast spells without serious consequences. I can become a powerful priest for my diety, but I must work hard and perform service to Him or Her if I expect to be heard or to call on my diety for divine favor or help. When I am playing Harnmaster I can imagine every attack made to my body and I experience the agony of battle. When I try to use my psionic abilities I get headaches and nosebleeds, and many times for very little result. The GM can alter these consequences to make the game more fantasy like, but then why not just play a less complex game? The creators of HarnMaster have put a lot of work into making every detail of the game world come alive so that the player can experience it. Anyone who wants this amount of detail and the roleplaying experience of gritty realism should purchase this game.
