Creating a HARP Fantasy character is easy! By following the six painless steps below, your character will be complete and ready for action in no time.
All right, let's put that to the test. We want to create a character and get up and play quickly. Considering that I wrote an article on Rolemaster, where I could not get past the skill advancement system, this one will put me to the test.
Let's design a simple fighter, Lug.
Step 1: Choose a Profession
Lug chooses fighter! Picking a class is easy, so let's figure out the rest.
Favored Categories
The first thing we see is "Favored Categories" on page 13. I can feel the panic setting in! This isn't D&D! I want to run back to the d20! Let's chill; we want to figure out how to play this game and make a note of them:
- Athletic: 2
- General: 2
- Combat: 8
- Physical: 8
From the book:
So when creating a Fighter, you have 2 initial skill ranks to assign to the Athletic category, 2 to the General category, 8 to the Combat category, and 8 to the Physical category. Once these free skill ranks have been assigned, any additional skills desired in any of the four favored categories are purchased at 2 points per skill rank. Skills in categories outside of a Fighter’s favored categories, such as the Subterfuge category, are purchased at 4 Development Points per skill rank.
Oh. These are starting skill ranks? What is a skill rank? It is like a zero to N skill level. You do not have the skill; it is rank zero. The skills gained during character creation are free skill ranks in those areas, not development points (earned during level-ups).
All skills start at level 0 - unskilled; everyone has every skill at level zero. Putting one skill rank gets you skill level one. This is not like most 2d6 systems that force you to "buy" a skill at level zero and introduce another level below that of "unskilled."
Zero is no skill - simple.
Development Points (DP) work differently than skill ranks. At every level, you get 50 DP. Since our fighter has four Favored Categories of skills (athletic, general, combat, and physical), all skills in those groups cost 2 DP to buy a rank increase, while those outside those four categories cost 4 DP to buy a rank increase.
So, the DP costs of skills in Favored Categories have nothing to do with the skill ranks gained during character creation. Good to remember!
So, do not need to spend those two free athletic skill ranks on one skill - they are not DP! You get two free athletic skill ranks, one skill at level 2 or two level 1 skills. Skills are one of the big stumbling blocks here, but once you understand the difference between the free skill ranks you are given and how Favored Categories determine how many DP it takes to rank up a skill in that area, you will get this easy. This does come up later, and you will be getting free skill ranks from other sources (not spent like DP), so understand the difference!
Buying Skills
There is a table in the skills chapter, and our maximum rank at level one is a +6. So we will pick:
- Athletics (2 total): Climbing+2
- General (2): Perception+1 and Resistance(Stamina)+1
- Combat (8 total): Long Blades (Long Sword)+2, Bows+2, Brawling+2, and Disarm Foe+2.
- Physical (8): Armor+2, Endurance+2, Jumping+2, and Swimming+2.
That was not too hard! It's far more accessible than picking Pathfinder 1e skills. Note that there is a box on page 35 listing the most important skills and what they are used for, including the Endurance skill, which determines hits. There are many good ones. Read this and see what they do.
Also, note that we had to make a few mandatory subskill picks. These skills are noted with a cross symbol on the skill chart on page 36. Weapon skills are unique in that Lug is skilled primarily with his long sword, but all other weapons in the long blade group are at a -10 from his total skill.
Resistance(Stamina) is not like weapon skills, it is a saving throw, and the other Resistance specializations are unskilled (will & magic). Resistance(Stamina) is just like a fortitude save, so saving throws (and hits) are leveled up as a part of the skill system in this game. This is a massive difference between this game and B/X and 5E!
Endurance+2 is his "hit points" skill, and the level of this will affect Lug's total final hits. You do not get free hit points as you level; you need to buy skill levels in Endurance.
Armor+2 reduces the maneuver penalty to all agility and quickness-based skills and abilities to its minimum.
Perception+1? Not falling into traps!
This is how HARP works: saves and hit points are skills that can be improved. Armor penalties are reduced by skill levels. And as you will see later, you never roll under an ability or skill score. HARP is a d100 exploding roll-high system. You never roll under. You almost always try to get a 101+ on a roll to succeed. In a sense, it is like a d20 roll-over system but percentage-based. And exploding!
I am already liking this system.
Key Stats
Next, we have a section called Key Stats, and they are:
- Strength, Agility, Constitution, Quickness
These are just informational for character creation and give you a guide of where to prioritize your ability score point allocation. Focusing on these four areas will make a good fighter. So this is a free "min-max guide" and nothing you need to write down.
Professional Abilities
Next, we get to choose two Professional Abilities.
All Fighters may choose two abilities from the following list: Close Shot, Lightning Reflexes, Shield Training and Speed Loader.
These are listed under the Talents & Other Options on page 56 of chapter 7. We will choose Shield Training and Lightning Reflexes. He can now "use the trained bonus for the shield" and gets a "+5 Initiative." Flipping later in the book, shields have two defensive values, a better one for trained and a worse one for untrained. Noted. We will be using shields, so we want the training bonus.
Level Bonuses
After this, there is a paragraph listing bonuses gained at different levels.
Beginning at first level, and then every fifth level thereafter (5th, 10th, etc.), Fighters gain a +10 bonus to any Combat skill of their choice. No Combat skill can have more than a +30 bonus from this ability. Beginning at first level, and then every third level thereafter (3rd, 6th, etc.), Fighters also gain a +5 bonus to any one skill from the Athletic or Physical categories. No skill may have greater than a +25 bonus from this ability.
So we only get two of these:
- A +10 in any combat skill we choose (we picked Long Blades).
- A +5 bonus to any skill from the Athletic or Physical categories (Endurance).
We Are Done!
That is it for class selection. I think the hardest part was figuring out how the skills work, but once we realized they were all "free skill ranks in these areas" and unrelated to development points, it became really easy to understand.
Also, note the section for totaling skill bonuses on page 35! Skills have formulas for determining their percentages, and most skill totals are modified by two ability scores (or one twice). Our class also gives us a special bonus for two skills (noted above). We haven't calculated anything yet since we don't have ability scores. This is a different system where you make skill and unique ability picks before stat generation and design a fighter subclass to begin.
This was not as hard as I expected. I needed a few key pieces of knowledge to make good choices based on my class and that chart on page 35 (note "Power Point Development" for casters). Once you get used to the "key skills" different builds need and the concept of free skill ranks versus development points, you can easily sail through this step of character creation.
We now have our class, a list of favored skill categories, our skill list started, and two professional abilities. Step one is done, and we will move on to step two next time!
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