Mail Room: HARP SF

Another from the mail room is HARP SF and the Extreme expansion, which came today. The Extreme book's first half contains the starship and vehicle rules, so it is pretty much essential. The other half of this book is dedicated to cyber-ware, AI characters, and robots.

The books are hard-cover, but like their HARP counterparts, the paper quality feels a little light to me. I would have liked a heavier grade paper for all of these books to be honest. This isn't going to get in the way of me enjoying these, but it is worth noting.

Why HARP SF?

I am still looking for that answer in the books. I assume this is because Spacemaster existed, but I found no real good explanation for the game in the introduction. We loved Spacemaster back in the day, so I assume this is here because of that, but the focus of this game feels slightly nebulous to me.

HARP SF also seems tied to a pre-made campaign setting referenced throughout the rules. It seems an odd choice, I would have rather liked this to be a more generic sci-fi game like HARP Fantasy, but the setting is easily replaceable.

Monsters and Mysteries Wanted

If that is the case...I want some space monsters. I know, I am harping on HARP for not delivering the goods when it comes to monsters in both versions of the game. I like the strange and inventive space bugs, odd lifeforms, and other mysterious lifeforms to be out there. Otherwise, why do we need scientists? Similarly for technical and engineering challenges, I think the last sci-fi game to get a lot of this right was the classic Star Frontiers game, which had cool and varied space creatures, and lots of things for the non-combat classes to do.

Without space aliens, the game becomes a lot more interpersonal, and the science professions suffer. When it comes to sci-fi, I like a balanced approach and a lot of unexplained phenomena. Otherwise this becomes, "modern genre...in space!" Like westerns in space, swashbucklers in space, corporate greed in space, or gangsters in space. Without the unknown and unexplained, all this could be done in other games and genres without the sci-fi chrome, and truer to the source.

What Would I Do With This?

This is a good question. I can't think of a world or a game I would like to play with this, in all honesty. I would likely need to pull in additional resources to pull a game together. From the looks of the art and the read of the setting, it feels really The Fifth Element to me, minus the Moebius art. Everything from the evil space lizardmen, to the fluid notion of what a character is, to the grav cars and constant backstabbing of the factions just feels like that movie. Plus you have entertainer as a class profession. Any sci-fi game with entertainer in there, yeah, you are doing Fifth Element or something Cyberpunk.

There are a couple video-game influences here as well, such as Halo or Gears of War. The game and the setting is an odd one, like here is a huge city in space, now figure out what to do with it. I honestly felt the same way about Spacefinder and could not really find a compelling theme for that setting either, other than, what happened to our memories? Why did the game designers do this to us? At least here everyone has their minds about them, but I feel I need more to be compelling.

The "so what" test is useful in essays and writing where you are presenting a compelling argument, and I don't see this setting passing that test. Space Opera, GURPS Space, Star Frontiers, Traveller, FFG Star Wars, and many other sci-fi games do "big city in space" well - plus a whole lot more.

The setting feels a bit all encompassing, like a springboard for any idea taken from a movie. I either wish this was more focused on a single conflict and planet, or the entire setting removed entirely and this more presented as a generic handle-anything sci-fi game like a Traveller. To me, the legendary Star Frontiers did a good job in limited space laying out a sandbox universe that wasn't generic, wasn't "fill in the movie here," and that had conflicts and factions built-in and meshed well with the game.

GURPS Space, Traveller, and even Cepheus Engine do generic sci-fi well enough too . Especially GURPS Space, since that can do hard sci-fi to science fantasy really well, and allows a variety of balanced character builds that mesh with any potential setting well.

HARP Hard Sci-Fi

If they continue the line, I would love to see a book more devoted to hard sci-fi. To me, the notion of a Rolemaster like system where interesting combat crits and deadly weapons are the name of the game begs for a more realistic setting and take on the rules for space travel and technology.

Science Fantasy is easy, because you can always come up with a new psionic power or new alien species to get interest. This is what Star Trek did for years, there was always something unexplained and never before seen the "space humans" had to figure out for the benefit of the galaxy. I know, put that way Star Trek does seem rather "human saviors" coming in and solving the universe's problems, but that was that show, even up to modern times. In a sense, there is not much you can do about it because...well...humans are still the audience for this planet's escapist fantasy.

With hard sci-fi, things aren't so easy. You get a lot of character motivations coming into play, like the backstabbing in Aliens or the drug-pushers of Outland. You do slip a lot into the Wild West stereotypes and plots, since those were also plots and situations driven by people with motivations - good and bad - and the conflicts that ultimately resolve them.

Stick with Science Fantasy?

In a sense, keeping this more science fantasy probably works better for a game like this, but I would like to see a more generic, space-roaming Guardians of the Galaxy or Firefly type feel to this that is starship-centered and mission and planet of the week. Something that goes with the mirror universe of fantasy adventures nicely. Give me a random chart that kicks me off...

An ice world...a remote colony...space pirates...a distress call...a mining team that found a strange temple and didn't report back...

...and giant evil space hamsters.