greywulf
First Post
Good review!
We've been playing HARP for around two months now alongside our regular D&D campaign, and the players have resoundly given it a thumbs up - even the staunchest D&D addict
I think it's character generation that really did it for them. Generation isn't a ten minute thing - you're planning the PC's adolescence and the first few adult years of their life here, and each valuable skill point or talent can trigger a backstory in your mind. Here's an example - the first character I generated was the staple 1st level fighter. I aimed for a very straight Broadsword plus Shortbow kinda gal, decked in studded leather. Very clean, very D&D. Somewhere along the line though she picked up an urban package to reflect her city upbringing and a reasonable apothecary and herbalist skill from her parent's business. I even pictured her gaining her climbing and hide skills (and respect for the law) from having fallen in with the wrong crowd for a while as a teenager. Notes taken, and there's a few pieces of her past ready to pull into the game when the time is right. Yes, you could do this in D&D too, but the triggers for this kind of imagining are right in the game in HARP.
My players have all done the same thing too - I've a swashbuckling spellcaster, a diletante elven Harper and a handful of others, all playing a very, very tight game.
Combat is something of a shock for D&D players though. There's no "this is balanced because it'll take 20% of your resouces" silliness here. Combat is dangerous and even the simplest of encounters can be deadly. My players like that kind of risk; we keep combat to a minimum in-game (perhaps just two or three combats per session, if that), and when it happens, the players know that tactics, teamwork and clear wits rather than the right feat selection wins the day.
Combat, by the way doesn't end when the last critter is dead - hits per round and bloodloss after the event is a real risk to life; it's fun to watch the players do the post-combat mop up, dressing wounds, applying herbs or using prescious spells, comparing notes and joking past the tension of the previous few minutes' action. Very true to life, very good role-playing.
HARP is very much a "role" playing game - the character generation helps ot fix the character's personality in your mind, and the excellent skill building system means that the character can develop in a meaningful way too.
We're not going to stop playing D&D for a second - hack and slash, fast generation and Fun Four Colour Feats (tm) have their place in our hearts. But for pure "serious" role-playing, HARP strikes a chord.
We've been playing HARP for around two months now alongside our regular D&D campaign, and the players have resoundly given it a thumbs up - even the staunchest D&D addict
I think it's character generation that really did it for them. Generation isn't a ten minute thing - you're planning the PC's adolescence and the first few adult years of their life here, and each valuable skill point or talent can trigger a backstory in your mind. Here's an example - the first character I generated was the staple 1st level fighter. I aimed for a very straight Broadsword plus Shortbow kinda gal, decked in studded leather. Very clean, very D&D. Somewhere along the line though she picked up an urban package to reflect her city upbringing and a reasonable apothecary and herbalist skill from her parent's business. I even pictured her gaining her climbing and hide skills (and respect for the law) from having fallen in with the wrong crowd for a while as a teenager. Notes taken, and there's a few pieces of her past ready to pull into the game when the time is right. Yes, you could do this in D&D too, but the triggers for this kind of imagining are right in the game in HARP.
My players have all done the same thing too - I've a swashbuckling spellcaster, a diletante elven Harper and a handful of others, all playing a very, very tight game.
Combat is something of a shock for D&D players though. There's no "this is balanced because it'll take 20% of your resouces" silliness here. Combat is dangerous and even the simplest of encounters can be deadly. My players like that kind of risk; we keep combat to a minimum in-game (perhaps just two or three combats per session, if that), and when it happens, the players know that tactics, teamwork and clear wits rather than the right feat selection wins the day.
Combat, by the way doesn't end when the last critter is dead - hits per round and bloodloss after the event is a real risk to life; it's fun to watch the players do the post-combat mop up, dressing wounds, applying herbs or using prescious spells, comparing notes and joking past the tension of the previous few minutes' action. Very true to life, very good role-playing.
HARP is very much a "role" playing game - the character generation helps ot fix the character's personality in your mind, and the excellent skill building system means that the character can develop in a meaningful way too.
We're not going to stop playing D&D for a second - hack and slash, fast generation and Fun Four Colour Feats (tm) have their place in our hearts. But for pure "serious" role-playing, HARP strikes a chord.
