I love HARP - up until the combat system.
I ran HARP at a game day. I really like the system, and have many of the books.
The character creation is a thing of utmost beauty. Everything is a skill - including spells. So, if you put more ranks into "fireball" you can do more with the spell, like increase its damage, increase its duration, increase the required save, etc. Each spell has different things that you can do with it once you increase it. Some spells make little sense to increase, like Knock - once you can open locks, there's little reason to be amazing at that. So, while some spells perform great with just the minimum number of ranks, others really shine when you dump a lot of points into them.
This is cool because wizards end up only knowing a handful of spells - they'll be really good (and deadly) with their trademark spells, and they'll probably have a small ensemble of utility spells that they know at the most basic level.
Furthermore, you can create a fighter who knows a little bit of magic. Or, maybe a rogue who can actually cast knock himself, so he can devote points into other skills. It's extremely versatile. Additionally, you can forego EVERYTHING in lieu of arcane power. So, as a wizard, you could completely forego things like hit points (hits is a skill in HARP), saving throws (also skills), your ability to dodge stuff or even hit the broadside of a barn with a quarterstaff - all for more and more mana points. In d20 terms, this would be akin to making a 20th level wizard with +0 to all his savings throws, 4+con hit points, and a +0 BAB. You could do that in HARP. I don't recommend it, but it's cool that it lets you do that.
Also in HARP, races get great treatment, and you can make a seafaring dwarf, and get appropriate modifiers because of that, or a urban gnome, or whatever.
Character creation takes a lot longer, because you can really min-max your character, but you end up with an extremely customized character.
Where HARP really falters, IMHO, is the combat system. If you like Rolemaster's system, you'll like HARP. Everything is a table. So, if you cast a lightning bolt, or use a bludgeoning weapon - each of those have a table. You roll your skill check (yes, you roll a check when you cast a spell), and you check the chart to determine the outcome. The outcome might be great - your spell might work twice as effectively, or it could fizzle in your face. Characters in HARP also end up becoming "Stunned" which means they get penalties when hit, and all-in-all, combat is much more lethal, and much more complex.
I really like d20's - you hit, roll damage kind of system. It's fast and simple. One of the Harper's Bazaar issues, Rasyr (the author) actually tried creating a system (specifically for me, in fact) that replicated d20's combat system using HARP rules. So, you might check out all the older issues of Harper's Bazaar if you look into it.
HARP Lite is probably still available as a free PDF, so check it out - it gives you all the basic rules.
what?) - the only reason I can think of that they mightn't be present now, is all the 4e. . . stuff flooding the site. That, and associated dramuh of course.
And that's true - it keeps some of the quirkiness and charm that 3E removed, and 4E has restored for me.
