HARP: Martial Law and College of Magics

So when I got Rolemaster, I just picked up the base HARP book - to check it out. I seen reviews saying HARP was the simplified Rolemaster, and got it as a fallback book in case Rolemaster was too complex to learn given my time and projects.

I liked what I saw in HARP, it was different, but the very few crit charts (plus Rolemaster's evil magic) pulled me more towards Rolemaster than this game.

Then I picked up HARP: Martial Law.

Roughly Equivalent in Crit Results

Wow, a surprise when I counted charts and results and realized HARP plus HARP: Martial Law gives you roughly the same amount of crit chart results as Rolemaster. Now, the weapons charts are still a point of difference, there still is "one chart per weapon" in Rolemaster and HARP aggregates weapons into classes, but that feels like less of a huge difference now.

So HARP isn't as limited on crit chart results anymore? I see the base game as a "starter book" like RMFRP's base book, and they give you a choice between the first book's crit charts and this one's. If I played, I would use these.

This was a huge issue keeping me from this game, and now it is gone. This plus the ease of character creation may win me over - but I am still learning Rolemaster Classic because I feel that game is worth the effort and a true classic played and loved by many.

Evil Spells?

Another big difference between HARP and Rolemaster is on the assumption of magic being neutral, versus it having sides like good, neutral, and evil. HARP assumes all magic is neutral and the use and/or culture determines good or evil. Rolemaster assumes there is evil magic, thus there could also be good and neutral magics.

I picked up HARP: College of Magics and they have a spell design system which could be used to simulate all of Rolemaster's evil spells roughly equivalently. It will take some work but it is doable. I am not normally a fan of spell design since I like working with a toy-box full of choices, but having it and using the base game as a starting point and filling in the gaps as needed with spell design is a compromise that works for me.

And another reason to not try HARP is gone. The two games are mechanically similar but different in implementation and focus, so I could see myself getting started with a hero or two in HARP while still working through Rolemaster. To me, Rolemaster's spell lists are a huge box of fun to dig through and master, years of fun had by players around the world. The game is worth learning and playing.

Equal but Different

This is a strange choice. I like both games, and after reading this and learning what I did, I like HARP a lot more than when I started writing about the system. Times change, so do people's minds. Yeah I know it's only been a week.

There is a sweet spot for Rolemaster for me, the sandbox experience with no assumptions of heroes or villains, and the wide variety of results on crit charts for lots of surprises. These two extra guides fill those needs nicely while allowing for the easier to learn and play game that HARP provides.

There still are some mechanical differences, plus a higher low-level character power, but those were not as huge of preference impediments as the two I mentioned were when I started reading Rolemaster. I still have a special place in my heart for Rolemaster, having loved Spacemaster long ago, but HARP now is stepping up and proving it is just as flexible and expressive as its classic forefather.

Very interesting indeed. HARP articles shall be forthcoming as I read more.