Henry said:
My opinion was mixed; it was fascinating to sift through, and try to figure out, never having seen Rolemaster, which parts were similar to Rolemaster, and which parts were brand-new. It definitely seems like it plays smoother than I had been led to believe - and Rolemaster style percentile rolls were definitely different from what I imagined (At first I had thought them more like CoC or Runequest).
Had never thought that might be an issue. Just to make it absolutely clear for anybody else who might have this same issue, HARP uses a roll-over percentage mechanism. This means that you roll, add your bonuses (i.e. total skill bonus) and modifiers (difficulty modifiers normally, all are multiples of 20, both positive and negative) to this roll, and then determine success (or degree of success if using one of the columns from the Maneuver Table - most skills just require a 101 or higher to succeed with no table look-ups).
Henry said:
What I do like, is the piecemeal approach to building a character through feats and skills (like what Mutants and Masterminds does for superheroes, this does for fantasy). I could build pretty much anything I wanted to similar to a D&D 3E character, through the skills and talents, albeit slower than such is given in D&D. At first I was thinking the Development Points (DP's) were excessive, but then realized they were nowhere near enough!
Good balance overall, however, and much finer gradations of success, not just through the percentile system, but through the two or three different means of resoution mechanics.
Thanks! I wanted to allow for different kinds of maneuvers without making it complicated, yet also wanted to make sure that what was allowed for also allowed for resolution of anything not covered by the rules. The three main columns of the maneuver table (Perecntage, Bonus, & RR) can be used to resolve almost any sort of situation. Combined with the default All-or-nothing method, this allows for any conceivable situation to be covered, even those highly unusual and complex situations that PCs like to get themselves into.
Using that table, the next time a PC says " I want run on the pile of orcs we knocked down, and jump up and swing across the room on the chandelier to the door on the other side", all you would have to do is say, "Ok, that is going to be a comlpex action, so we will use the Percentage Column of the Maneuver Table. It is also going to be Extremely Hard to accomplish, but you do get to use any Acrobatics skill that you have." and boom! instant method to resolve it!
Henry said:
What I DON'T like, is the Percentage system of success - it really bugged me the way it worked, and I can't put my finger solidly on why. Perhaps it's the examples I read, because it seemed like to figure out what percentage of something you've accomplished, it maps out directly to the result on your percentile roll, with no modifiers for skill, which doesn't seem right.
When you can put your finger on it, let me know, okay? For the most part, the system works in muhc the same way as d20 for resolution (just uses different dice), especially if you think of the difficulty modifiers as "DC modifiers". Thus instead of telling a player that they get a -20 to the roll for a Hard Maneuver, just tell them that they need a 121 or higher, or don't tell them at all and just ask for their total (and apply the difficulty mod yourself).
Henry said:
The only other thing that bugs me slightly is the dependence on two scores instead of one for skills; "dependence" might be a strong word, but it may take a while to get used to skill defaults in this system.
That is likely from being not fully used to HARP yet. To me, two stats beign associated with a skill is natural, and having only one stat asociated isn't. Then again, I am more used to HARP and to Rolemaster before it (note: the current version of Rolemaster has 3 stats for each skill... hehe).
Henry said:
Other than that, the only other thing that put me off were the number of modifiers for combat; for the sake of excitement as well as accuracy, there seemed to be an overwhelming number of them.
Which you can easily pair down to what you like.
Note however, that if you are referring to the Combat Actions, I would most definitely leave Full Parry, Parry, and a couple of others as well (Parrying is extremely important in HARP!)
Henry said:
The final thing to HARP is the flavor - forget Hackmaster, THIS is the game that catapults me to the feelings I had when I used to play 1st edition D&D - kind of a nostalgia/novelty hybrid feeling that had me interested in reading the rules and wanting to set something up with them for people to play. An Idea is forming in my mind about a series of one-shots of different game systems - Some of my players are already wanting me to run a Continuum game for them, I wonder how they'd feel about a HARP one-shot or two-shot. Hmmm...
Huzzah!
Henry said:
But overall, the system screams playable at first glance, as well as amazingly customizeable, and much lower-power than D&D gets at higher levels.
Glad that you liked it overall.
