I have a renewed interest in Rolemaster, which brings HARP into the discussion. HARP is essentially a simplified Rolemaster, built to replace the old "Middle Earth" game (now not supported and licensed). HARP is a worthy game, it gives you the Rolemaster hit without all the math and layers of complexity.
Against the Darkmaster cloned the old Middle Earth game and went its own way. This is an excellent game, and it laser-focuses on the cinematic experience of "battling the evil magic overlord" and the overall world plot. HARP is on its own as the "B/X" simplified version of Rolemaster and a solid game.
Why play HARP if you have Against the Darkmaster?
HARP is your game if you are interested in Rolemaster, like the idea of critical charts, and want an easier-to-learn, more straightforward system with a complete set of books. Also, while we wait for Rolemaster to get its full set of books, this system is fully supported and a "complete library" game with its eight-volume core set. HARP is also easier to modify to support your custom worlds since the rules are straightforward and simple, and the concepts transfer easily.
Against the Darkmaster is like playing endless Lord of the Rings movie clones. That is a great thing, and I love the concept! It takes a strong game concept and expands it with random charts and different bad guys, and all of a sudden, you are playing your own epic story.
With HARP, you are more in generic fantasy. The story will be up to you. You can make this about your own " Middle Earth" style story or do whatever you want with the game. You take a few steps back from the Middle Earth inspirations and move towards generic fantasy stories and tales. You don't need a Darkmaster or an epic arc; your stories can be as small or grand as you want.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7Y8ju1AXW0
HARP is a complete game that is still supported and in print. Three months ago, the video (the one I covered earlier about the 2025 releases) covered the Iron Crown convention table with Rolemaster and HARP books. HARP is being sold as the "easier" Rolemaster, where you don't need to worry about the high levels of customization and complexity. You can see in the screenshot that the table is covered with HARP books. This system is still viable, supported, and being sold (even the SF version, which will be more on that later).
HARP is a skill-based system where your levels of skills and how you choose to raise them determine character power. Your adventures will be completing tasks requiring skill use, exploration, combat, interactions, and managing resources carefully. Skills will be at the center of everything.
More importantly, the degree of success matters. Trying to convince a village there is a troll raid coming? The degree of success of your dice roll will determine if one guard with cloth armor and a spear is added to the town watch or twenty heavily armed soldiers are on the ready with leadership.
HARP also has the critical hit charts for Rolemaster in the HARP Martial Law book. They are not 100% the same as Rolemaster's charts, but they increase the variety of special effects by a considerable degree and handle them in a shade more simplicity without sacrificing variety.
The expanded HARP critical hit tables in Martial Law have similar numbers of entries as Rolemaster Unified (195 to 200 for crushing). Still, HARP puts the top chart axis as "hit location" instead of A to E severity. HARP still has the "high-end" results, but fewer of them, and a more granular progression of location-based injuries covering more low to middle-end wounding results.
With any chart result, you can always change them or improvise, so the argument of not having one or the other specific result is meaningless with a bit of imagination. An "elbow damaged" result could easily be shifted to the wrist, hand, or shoulder, so now you have four potential results inside one. An "ear cut off" result could be a nose or teeth knocked out. A "leg torn off" or "lower leg bone break" result can be interpreted in many gruesome ways.
If I use this method, a chart with 200 results quickly explodes to over 1,000 per attack type. In fact, HARP makes it easier to improvise and customize results like this because one chart axis is hit location, and the higher numbers are severity. I can go side-to-side and replace or add effects to the hit, so a severe arm hit could knock someone down (or unconscious). My over 1,000 chart results can have various similar-magnitude effects, as needed, increasing variety by another fivefold to 5,000 results.
Watch horror movies and use your imagination, and you will have more results than you will ever need. HARP could be modded into a "Terrifier meets D&D" game quickly, and by default, it can play like that. Simpler games are more straightforward to mod.
The HARP Bestiary is a fantastic book with nearly 500 pages of monsters. It is a thick tome (and in color), as seen in the video. This book is why the Rolemaster Unified Bestiary will be a two-book set. The monsters are "different" from the shopworn D&D and OSR standards, which I like. You won't know what to expect, and even human enemies are dangerous if they get a few serious critical chart results on you.
The HARP Folkways book is an excellent discussion on "races in fantasy settings" and opens the door for you to create your own worlds and those who inhabit them. There are sections describing the inspirations of HARP, which are:
- Middle Earth
- The Book of the New Sun
- The Farseer Trilogies
- Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
- A Song of Ice and Fire
- World of Warcraft
HARP developed the "race plus culture" character creation method in 2003, a generation before D&D figured it out. We stepped back from Middle Earth, but much more is now available. Imagine a HARP-ized World of Warcraft setting where orc tribes battle with brutal critical chart results in tribal combat for leadership in challenging times under Alliance assault. You can even do this without WoW and just use that as an inspiration.
But mixing Middle Earth, Game of Thrones, and World of Warcraft is a tremendous inspiration and subset of fantasy genres. This is a "peanut butter plus chocolate" blend of genres, and I could get decades of gaming out of my own world built along these themes.
Where Rolemaster does Rolemaster well, HARP is the more straightforward game that does everything else better. I can mod a simple game to be anything. With Rolemaster, I see it doing the same thing as HARP, but with a lot more work and understanding needed of the core system. Also, Rolemaster is in development, and I am waiting for the bestiary. HARP has a fantastic bestiary of monsters waiting to be used as foes.
HARP also has a science fiction game that feels like a simplified Spacemaster. This provides critical charts for modern weapons in a streamlined format, but the book does tell you to customize and elaborate on the hits so they do not get repetitive. The game gives you a hit location chart, so take a "rolled effect" plus "hit location" and invent a realistic damage effect (based on severity). The critical charts from HARP Martial Law are also usable. I would love to have new critical charts for this game but expanded like Martial Law.
The races and campaign setting are okay, but I would create my own or stick with humans only. An "Extreme" add-on book gives rules for starships and vehicles. Is it worth playing and compelling in 2025? If you like Spacemaster and the ICE systems and want something easier to run, then yes.
Also, all of the above HARP books are usable with it, especially the bestiary. Reskin all those beasts, and you have a science fiction game that is more than complete.
This game feels like "Generic 1980s Science Fiction Movie: The Game, Direct to Video Edition," which is glorious. Staying away from modern burned-out sci-fi corpo-franchises and using your imagination is good, especially nowadays. After all, many of those who did were taking "Cowboy Movie" plus "Samurai Movie" plus "Adventure Serial" and adding lasers and robots. Conversely, we have "Benevolent Navy Drama" on "Interesting Planet of the Week." Or how about "Space Monsters Meet Evil Corporations?"
It is all formula, people.
The franchise name does not matter, and your game does not have to be a sequel.
HARP is worthy, complete, in-print, and supported. Like Castles & Crusades, it was released in the early 2000s and has a pedigree and robustness few other games have. Try HARP if you bounced off Rolemaster due to complexity or want something faster and easier to play.
Being easier does not mean "lesser."
In fact, easier means the game is more open to your imagination.
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