Off the Shelf: HARP

If you like Rolemaster, but you do not want the complexity, there is always HARP. With the HARP implementation of Martial Law, you get a good 75-85% of the Rolemaster experience with the crit tables, and you can always make up results similar to have more variety. But the rules are far easier to understand and manage than those of Rolemaster, especially for character creation.

What does playing Rolemaster gain you? You get the full crit tables, all the spells in Spell Law, and the original game experience. The characters are more flexible, and the system is far more robust and classic. Most players, I would say 90%, do not have the time to put into Rolemaster and enjoy the complexity and depth. Most players, especially those coming from OSR games and B/X, will enjoy HARP far more than Rolemaster. If you picked up Rolemaster, bounced off character creation hard, and gave up, give HARP a try. If you do not have the time for Rolemaster, honestly, play HARP.

Rolemaster does the best job of simulating the effects of specific weapons versus specific armors, whereas in HARP, this is all abstracted. If you crave that "weapon X versus armor Y" style of combat,  and having the effect or crits change depending on that interaction, play Rolemaster. There are optional rules that add this depth in HARP Martial Law, but they slow down combat somewhat and force adjustments to the numbers depending on target armor.

If all you want is to grab a sword and wander the hills to battle orcs and collect their loot, where story means more than simulation, play HARP. You will see the benefits of a more engaging simulation game than a B/X, and have the best parts of Rolemaster without the complexity. HARP is a good middle ground between B/X and Rolemaster, and perfectly captures that Tolkien-style adventure and storytelling, far better than 5E, which has lost its way and become a planar superhero game.

If you want the OG, mace versus chainmail, hard realism game of simulation combat, play Rolemaster United. If you don't want the complexity and just want a close-enough experience, play HARP. Both have a place, given your interest levels and time.

And HARP is a complete game, ten books (plus an adventure), and you have a nice-sized library. The secret to enjoying HARP is just starting with the core book, which has everything: monsters, treasure, magic, and more, and ignoring the rest of the library. The crit charts in the core HARP book may get repetitive, so pull in the expanded tables from Martial Law if you want a little more variety and complexity; otherwise, they are not needed, and you can just make up similar results.

The criticism of the original HARP book's crit tables stems from the fact that it lists 19 results per attack type. It sounds like a lot, but in large combats, the same critical results can happen twice. For example, a result of 51-60 on a crush attack gives us, "You broke his collarbone. Foe takes 15 Hits, is stunned 1 round, and is at -10." Keep rolling that versus orcs, and you have a lot of broken orc collarbones, and you start to break immersion. But we can avoid breaking immersion by simply choosing to break other things.

HARP, Hit Location optional rule, page 99.

Now, if we use the optional hit location rules, you have 10 locations to factor in on top of that. We could simply change that "collarbone" to "whatever we hit and break that." It does not matter too much; just reinterpret the result and perhaps force a roll to keep hold of a weapon or shield if a hand or arm is hit, or to avoid falling down on leg or foot strikes. Now, we have possibly 190 results per attack type, and the problem is far less than we imagined.

You could even add a d10 qualifier to the word "broke" to allow for a variety of interpretations, such as grazed, bruised, crushed, broken, broken open, or completely smashed. How bad is it really? Roll a d10; let 1 be the most forgiving, with 10 the least. Now modify the result by ±50 %, and you have 1,900 results per attack type, and you are starting to eclipse Rolemaster (and you are inserting your imagination into the tables). Perhaps the bruise is 8 extra hits, no stun, and a -5. Perhaps the smashed result is 23 extra hits, 2 stun turns, and a -15.

With 1,900 results per attack type, I would say that is an insane amount of damage results. Mind you, I am only talking about using the base book. I do not need Martial Law to do this. I am not adding in any of the expansion books, and the combats are already this good.

Perhaps the result of a 1 is that the blow is deflected and no damage occurs at all, or it hits an enemy next to the player, sending that insta-killing head blow meant for you into the nearest orc. Perhaps that 10 result is not even damage at all, but the blow sends the magic shield the fighter is holding flying off a cliff and is lost forever. Maybe the attack sails into the party's light source and smashes the lantern, spilling flammable oil all over the holder (or a nearby ally). "The worst possible thing" on a result of 10 can be interpreted in many ways, just as the "best result of 1" can be as well.

That d10 qualifier roll is a tool to introduce environmental, situational, material, physiological, story-based, or even psychological factors into the damage equation.

Just by adding a few drops of our imagination, and only using the basic game's "supposedly limiting" tables, we are beating Rolemaster in both variety and outcomes in combat crits, adding in environmental and situational dependent elements, while keeping HARP's simplicity. HARP was designed to be flexible like this, and it did not take me much tweaking to craft critical results that excite me to play this game.

Let Rolemaster be the wargame-like, X versus Y, medieval simulation game.

Let HARP flow with the story, and leave much of the interpretive work to you.

Rolemaster FRP, The Best Version?

Sometimes, the Rolemaster FRP system was one of the most bloated games ever created; other times, it was the best-put-together version of  Rolemaster ever made. In every section, they provide the formulas, offer relevant charts, and clearly explain them on the page.

This isn't obscure. Nothing is hidden, like in the paragraphs of Rolemaster 2nd Edition. It is on a page if you need to find a rule or know what a chart and formula do. The 2nd Edition is straightforward and simple, but RM FRP is laid out like a fantasy wargame.

There may be a LOT of it, but nothing is hidden.

I first reach for the FRP books if I need clarification on a Rolemaster rule. There are times when I play 2nd Edition, and I simply default to the FRP rule because the 2nd Edition rule is either nowhere to be found or is intentionally overlooked. RM FRP will clarify it; the procedure will be straightforward, even if the math is slightly different.

Yes, characters need four pages of skills. It's insane, but GURPS has hundreds of skills as well. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and this game share many similarities, including their shared "detailed characters and gritty combat" genre style. Rolemaster has more class direction and adjusts skill point costs depending on the chosen profession, whereas GURPS has a flat cost that remains the same for everyone.

Is there a difference between GURPS and Rolemaster?

Rolemaster features critical hit charts and a degree of role protection in skill costs per profession, enabling rapid progression in a few favored areas. GURPS features tactical hex combat, an open-ended skill system that allows you to develop your character however you want, and a detailed system for building advantages and disadvantages.

Both feature complex characters and intense combat.

If you think of RM FRP as "Advanced AD&D" that only uses a 1d100, you will be better prepared to understand it. It has less in common with GURPS than with a massively mutated, house-ruled, and extra rules-added version of AD&D that leans into Tolkien and classic fantasy novels.

Once you complete character creation, the in-game systems are more straightforward than those of D&D. It's all just 1d100. The charts are easy. Download the PDF and print out your weapon tables and critical hit charts. Every player is responsible for their own.

Best of all, the first book is all you need to play the basic game. They took the best of the best, including combat, magic, and spells, and you just need the first book to get started and support campaign play. Spells only go up to level 10, but then again, Rolemaster games rarely reach that point unless it is a hardcore group.

Rolemaster United is a bit wordy, much like the HARP expansion books, which often write essays on a subject and worry about the rules later. I appreciate the clarity and straightforward nature of RM FRP; it provides the charts and game rules, keeping the chit-chat to a minimum. I do not want a term paper or an explanation of "why this is" - I want the rules because I am in the middle of a game, and please do not waste my time.

RMU needs an editing pass by people who do not play the game and understand nothing. Every page needs a "top 10" question list written, and we must ensure those are answered before moving on. I've read the books, and I still have questions; it's tough to find answers quickly.

I like the new Rolemaster United, but it needs improvement in terms of clarity, conciseness, and artwork. It needs a "tightening up" pass, and all the formulas and charts should be pulled out and placed on the page first, with a short box explaining the rule and how it works, similar to RM FRP's 250 pages of tightly organized game rules. Writing a great rulebook is a lost art, and so far, only Shadowdark and Old School Essentials have managed to knock it out of the park.

I have high hopes for this version; I need to see the bestiaries and others. Until then, my heart is with RM SS/FRP. RM FRP is a complex system, but it is also very transparent about everything. I still have a few questions as I read through the book, but most everything is well laid out.

The Gamemaster Law book is excellent and included rules for "kingdom events" decades before other games recognized their existence. Like HARP, the RM FRP game contains numerous books and things to discover. This is a GM book written before the modern era, and it delves into many great world-building subjects and ideas. The GM book also includes race creation, perfect for building your campaign worlds with unique cultures and character backgrounds.

A hidden gem in the series is the book At Rapier's Point, which offers roleplaying in classic 17th-century Europe during the era of the Three Musketeers. The game's combat system and even HARP are ideally suited to this sort of swashbuckling game.

Whenever I pick up Rolemaster, I am conflicted. I like to support the new version and that vision. I like RP FRP and how complete and well-supported this version is. I get that "Unified" is trying to bring together fans of both versions and have one core, supported game. I also understand that the 2nd Edition is the easiest to play (once you know it) due to the lack of skills, in-depth calculations, and sub-calculations.

Rolemaster Classic will always be my AD&D of the system, the best-supported, earliest edition.

HARP has always been my B/X version; it is simple, fast, and fun. It is a complete game and a worthy D&D replacement, as the systems are simple yet offer an authentic Rolemaster experience. It features a ten-book core collection, all presented in hardcover editions. This is the game closest to Against the Darkmaster, but it's more suited for generic dungeon adventures. The "stuff collection" in this game is significantly more expansive and complete.

RM FRP is akin to my AD&D 2nd Edition, where the game offers more options and is complex, yet it still retains its charm and expanded play options. This is the "roleplaying" edition of the game, as its extensive skill coverage and numerous templates and build options allow you to play any character you can imagine. It is a comprehensive game with multiple books to purchase, so support is excellent and superior to HARP. This includes a 21-book core rulebook collection, but none of the books are in hardcover or print.

That is my wish: to see a Kickstarter campaign to collect all these books in hardcover, perhaps even premium editions with leather covers. This is also my first version of the game, which introduced me to Rolemaster, so it will remain one of my favorites.

Rolemaster United still needs to prove itself, and the game is incomplete. I support this, but I am holding off for now. Once the monster books are out, then we will see. All of these are offered in hardcover.

HARP SF is an anomaly. I have this, but I don't know what to do with it. It is sort of like B/X science fiction and exists as its own thing. You can get these in hardcovers.

Spacemaster is an SF game closely related to Rolemaster Classic. We actually played this back in the day, and it was a strange, fun, out-there experience. This is the more expansive "space opera" game style with battleships, tanks, power armor, and all sorts of tech and science fiction tropes. These are PDF-only.

Spacemaster Privateers is the RM FRP version of science fiction, and it is better suited for those who are more comfortable with RM FRP and the design concepts used in that game. I discovered this one recently, and I wish we had played it. It diverges in its own direction regarding the universe, and there is a recommendation to use Silent Death as the ship combat game for SM Privateers, which would be interesting since this would limit ship tonnage in the universe to 10,000 tons or under, with a focus on starfighters and small ships. Most are offered as PoD, with two exceptions.

We were big into Silent Death, and the rules are still available on DriveThruRPG. This would be fun to play on VTTs. It is also very playable with any Spacemaster or HARP SF games. The universe here is fascinating and varied, and many sleep on this for both a "Battle-tech style" divided universe and an interesting science fiction setting in its own right, with a faction for everyone. There are 22 books here, but they are all in PDF format.

I need to follow my heart in this regard, as I watch the new books and support them as they come out.

RM FRP is my game.

HARP is always a strong second choice.

Off the Shelf: HARP

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.

HARP books and creators! Please check out the video & give a like and sub!

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.

HARP: Spells are Skills

HARP has a unique spell mechanic, where each spell is a skill. This reduces the number of spells a character can learn, which is generally a good thing. The spells magic-using professions know there will be fewer, and characters will focus on a few to rise to higher levels of skill ranks.

In games like Against the Darkmaster (AtD) and Rolemaster, the focus is on each 'spell skill,' a list of spells that grants you more and different related powers as you level up. Among them, Rolemaster takes the crown for its intense spell system. Each spell skill reaches its pinnacle at level 50 of power, unleashing insanely powerful, world-changing effects that top the list.

HARP has spell scaling, where you can add effects from a list in the spell to add abilities, damage, functions, or targets to the spell being cast. Each of those costs extra power points, which raises the skill level needed, and also armor will add to the power necessary to cast a spell. Against the Darkmaster has these spell scaling effects, which they call warping. Rolemaster does not (AFAIK).

Against the Darkmaster's magic system is the most straightforward, offering a sense of simplicity and ease. With the least amount of bookkeeping required, players can focus more on the game and less on managing their spells.

Rolemaster is the most in-depth, with the most potent magic systems that scale insanely. Rolemaster is the "power caster" sort of game, while HARP is a close second when you factor in unlimited levels in both games. I feel HARP can scale power higher once spell scaling is appropriately abused. I say abused because that is the fun of the spell game with those scaling effects.

HARP is in the middle, with more bookkeeping since each spell is a skill. But this reduces the number of spells overall, with a suggestion of half-casters having 15 spells maximum while casters have 30. That is still a significant number of spell skills to track at higher levels, and I can see needing a supplemental spell sheet once a caster gets up past level 6.

HARP and Rolemaster have no maximum level, while AtD has a maximum of 10.

Other games that use individual spells as skills are GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy, though the level to cast and power point costs aren't usually changing as a casting factor, nor are they used to power up - though some you can cast with more power points to increase the effects.

I like spells as a skill and being able to level them up. If I play a wizard who specializes in fireball, raising the level of that high while mostly maintaining other spells at practical levels, that is my choice, and it makes my wizard unique.

In HARP, I can specialize in the arcane bolt spell, which costs 3 PP to cast for its 1d10 and 50' range, which takes a minimum skill level of 3 (matching the power points needed). For +3 PP, I can increase the damage by +1d10 (5d10 max). I can spend +4 PP to hit an additional target. Adding +1 PP will get me an extra 50' of range. So, at a skill level of 20, I could cast one mana bolt out to 500' doing 5d10. Or, I could do 1d10 damage to 5 targets out to 100'.

I paid the development points to make my arcane missile awesome; why can't I enjoy the benefit of specialization? A higher skill level will increase your chances of getting spell results that double or triple your spell's damage or effect, especially when modifiers are added to your roll for situational modifiers. That level 20 spell is a +70 modifier on the table, plus your stat bonuses and doubled effects start at a roll of 151+.

In HARP, becoming a gunslinger with arcane bolts and dishing out 10d10 or even 15d10 crits is not hard.

That is cool.

That makes me want to play a caster.

And unlike a game like Dungeon Crawl Classics, those high-end results do not need specialized random charts to create. These are built into the task resolution system.

How Do I Play This? HARP, Part 1

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!

Off the Shelf: HARP

HARP is another I just saved from the sell boxes.

For one, the long out-of-print bestiary is now available in print-on-demand, so we can have a hardcover monster book. The game is a simplified Rolemaster, and I recommended this to a friend who plays Rolemaster, but she does not have time to sort through all the rules.

HARP offers 90% of the Rolemaster experience with a fraction of the complexity. But what's truly exciting is the reintroduction of the expanded crit charts in the Martial Law book. These charts can serve as a springboard for your own creative results, allowing you to truly shape the game to your liking. It's like the B/X version of a Rolemaster game, offering more freedom than the full AD&D or 3.5E experience.

I still have Rolemaster Classic here, and while it's a nice set of books, the rules take more time than I have and far more time than she does. She was playing Rolemaster more loosely and making most of it up, which isn't bad, but there is a difference between winging the rules and actually playing the actual game with the correct characters and powers. I hope she likes the HARP rules, and they both simplify her experience and offer the full game.

HARP is the Rolemaster for everyone.

They are working on a new streamlined Rolemaster, but it feels early. We don't have an updated bestiary, and three books in the series have been released. At this point, HARP is a complete game.

Is HARP worth playing these days? Well, it is still supported; you can get PoD books for everything, and the game is solid. The last publication date was 2022, and an adventure was published recently. One big difference is that there are no psionic magic types, though psionics are in the HARP sci-fi books.

Why HARP when I have so many other great fantasy systems? Runequest, Dungeon Fantasy, Open Quest, Mythras Classic Fantasy - these are all fantastic games. None of them are Pathfinder or 5E, which gets me out of the d20 rut I have been in for the last year. HARP is the easier Rolemaster, and since my friend plays, I might save this game so I can play with her.

Also, the game has this very retro 2000s feeling, and it is strange to highlight that since these are now retro games. The "ages" of tabletop RPGs can be roughly split into 10-year periods:

• Golden Age: 1975-1985
• Silver Age:  1985-1995
• Bronze Age: 1995-2005
• Copper Age: 2005-2015
• Modern Age: 2015+

So, starting in 2003, HARP is more of a Bronze Age RPG born out of the MERP split from ICE.

But again, why play? HARP feels like a character-designer game, much like a GURPS. You put time and effort into building a character, something cool you can invest in, and that becomes your experience throughout the world. I like games with character creation that takes, time, thinking, planning, and a knowledge of the rules. Games with simple character creation seem disposable to me.

We will see where this goes, but I was happy to find these so quickly and get them back on my shelf.

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.

Mail Room: HARP Hardcovers

 

My set of hardcovers for HARP came yesterday and I am looking forward to diving into this one. I can see the market for this game, those who like Rolemaster's detail, but those of us who don't have the time for its endless complexity and multiple layers of detail.

I feel the critical tables in Martial Law go a long way to restoring some of the detail loss when moving from Rolemaster to HARP, and there seems to be a lot of fans of the magic system here over Rolemaster as well, so I need to check that out.

The books normal quality, not professionally bound but they seem sturdy enough and the paper quality is a bit on the thin side for my taste. I would like a heavier stock, and maybe some of the nicer bindings are spoiling me. They are hardcovers as well, which is a huge plus since it saves me clear Contact paper to cover them. I have softcover books covered in clear Contact paper that have lasted 40 years, so if you want to keep your soft-covers nice, look into this and learn how to cover them nicely.

The Books

I have the base rules, plus the four expansion books: Folkways, College of Magics, Loot, and Martial Law. Martial Law seems the most important, followed by the magic book. Folkways seems more relevant for campaign support, which loot feels the least needed out of the three, and both of these last two books feel optional to me.

The main rule book is, of course, everything you need to play, but without those expanded crit charts I feel combat could get slightly repetitive unless GM leeway is used to avoid duplicate crit results. Then again, GM leeway could be needed even with the expanded charts if the same result happens twice in the same fight. I would modify a result like that, either bump it up or down one, or make up a similar result.

Monsters?

And if I have a request...a cleaned up Monsters book is sorely needed! If some work can be done with the layout of that one, or even an entirely new one created off the existing Rolemaster monster guides, that would go a long way to making this game complete. Either that or I will start creating a conversion system from Rolemaster to HARP for monsters and do this myself. And it would be great if some of the OGR standard monsters could be added to the mix, just to show people this game can do dungeoning well too.

I can play a monster-light game where the focus is just on kingdoms, factions, and people - but a big draw of the fantasy RPG genre is the fantastical beasts and diabolical villains. I don't like it when Rolemaster Classic feels like the more complete game, and I want this game to be able to stand on its own merits and be fully supported.

GM Book?

While I am at it, I would like to see a version of the Gamemaster Law book for HARP. I know, the RMFRP version of this book is pretty generic, but until we have a POD version for this, both, or the Rolemaster series games in general I feel this needs to be said.

Rolemaster Light

Overall? I am happy with these. If I end up putting Rolemaster Classic aside I will always have this system to fill that niche and give me those play experiences. At the end of the day, having played and experiencing the game is more important than the complexity level of the rules you learn. Yes, I am still going for learning and playing Rolemaster Classic, but having this as an option will keep me busy until then.

Mail Room: HARP Monsters: A Field Guide

So this very rare and out of print book came today and I gave it an initial flip-through. My first impressions are the book is less of a hard-core stats book and more of a informative fan book. At one or more pages per monster, the book has a lot of flavor text with each entry and fewer monsters overall than something like the Rolemaster Classic guide.

The book is nicely long at 127 pages, with some full page charts and summaries and a lot of art throughout. It does have a lot of background information on monsters, almost a full essay on each important one, and I feel at times it goes a bit overboard in this area. Medusas have two pages of write up, for example. Some may like this, but I am a fan of a more concise format telling me exactly what I need to know, and then letting me fill in the blanks on the monster's ecology and nature of how it fits into my game world.

Is More Information Better?

Quality over quantity? I don't know, I wanted a complete set of monsters and what I got was more a selected collection of monster information with lots of background. Granted yes, if you just say this monster is a Aberaxitchect and stat it out without letting me know what it is, where it lives, and what it looks like that is pretty worthless. Stats alone do not make a monster, but I get a feeling a lot of the flavor text could be trimmed down for some of the more familiar monsters.

You know, like an orc, giant ant, or goblin could be pretty much well presented as a standard type of monster in a condensed format with just a couple suggestions on customizing them. You do have stats like those for some of the standards in the base HARP book, but I would like to see these organized and presented with options in a condensed, quick reference format.

Powers in Descriptions

Part of the problem I feel here is they are writing a lot of monster powers in the descriptions as special-case rules, and they have to repeat these or write new ones every time a new power comes up. These could be collected together in a power section, or integrated in the rules and the powers made a little more concise.

A turn-to-stone gaze could be used by a couple creatures and be handled as one power in the back of the book. Similarly for fire breath, acid spit, shape-shifting, or any other special power. To be fair, in GURPS they do this as well, where powers are done inside the monster descriptions, but they do it in a much tighter format in less space. I just found these special rules in the HARP monster book to be a bit on the long side and not as easy to read and use as I would like.

Wide but not Deep

They try for a wide variety of monsters, so the selection is broad but not terribly deep. There are a few monsters of each type covered in detail. That's depth, right? Deep for the ones chosen, it is like calling a river deep if there are a few deep holes here and there under the water. Overall, the river is shallow, with some spots where the fishing is good.

On second thought, I could shelve this book and go through and do my own monsters based on an OGL source. That is really what I want, a good, solid, comprehensive list of OGL style monsters with the standards and some unique ones to spice things up. That would take a lot of work, and I have a full list over in Rolemaster Classic that fills my needs.

The layouts too feel slightly off, some of the monsters start halfway down the page and end halfway down the next page. I would have rather had one monster (or group of monsters) per-page and edit or cut text to fit. As it is the book feels slightly messy in terms of layout, like the book was rushed or the flow just had to be the way it was and it got printed.

I get this feeling if the editing was tighter and the powers consolidated, each monster (or related group, like spiders) could fit on one page and the book would be easier to use, and you would have a better variety of creatures with more and varied powers. I do feel some monsters that should have special abilities are missing them, I could add them myself, but I would be house-ruling.

POD Version Needed, with Updates

If they are working on a revised version for POD I would like to see them base it on the Rolemaster Classic selection - that would be my ideal monster book for HARP.

This feels like an essential book to those playing HARP, but another part of me wishes for an updated version as print-on-demand and PDF. It is out-of-print and hard to find, which makes it sort of a reluctant purchase for me. This isn't all I wanted it to be, but it shall have to do. It does suck that most HARP players will have trouble getting their hands on it, and I am actively searching for alternatives to this that fill that "meat and potatoes" monster list I wanted for this game. This is okay for now, but not on the level of what I feel many OGL games (Basic Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord) provide in conciseness, organization, and variety.

I do want to see this out there as a POD though, even in its current form. This is an essential book regardless, and a great help for those looking for a variety of monsters that can get you started beyond what is in the base rulebook.

RM FRP and Skill Complexity

So out of curiosity, I picked up the Rolemaster: Fantasy Role Playing (RMFRP) base book's PDF (offer a POD please!!!). Mainly because it is hot here and digging through boxes to find my hard copy would take me at least 2 days of work.

Yeah, remember me saying a week ago, "...a year from now when I am playing RMFRP and changed my mind?"

Wow. I had forgotten how incredibly well laid out and summarized this game was. It makes Rolemaster Classic look like a confused pile of cords behind an entertainment center. This game? This game is like having a professional come in and do masterful cable management with colored zip ties and an artful placement of the cable bundles for maximum aesthetics. Check out just a part of the one-page summary of character creation on page 11:

The entire character creation process is boiled down into a one-page summary, with NOTES, table numbers, and PAGE NUMBERS. I dare say this game is better organized than HARP (way more complicated though). It is better organized and cross referenced than possibly even some versions of D&D and Pathfinder I have played. Anywhere I flip in this book, there is a easily found summary of the procedure I am looking for, and often with a short example. Take melee attacks on pages 216-217:

Part 1, a summary, and note all of the page and table numbers throughout:

Followed by 2 pages of rules for all the options, and ending with these two summary sections, defensive:

And offensive, again, if you need a table reference it is right here with a page number:

I have everything I need right here. I don't really need to write articles deciphering how to play this game. Now, RMFRP's skill bloat in legendary, there are so many tables it makes my tax forms look simple, and the character sheet is 4 pages long...but this game is so darn well organized it may just be easier to find things and play than Rolemaster Classic. There is a lot more bloat, but the game looks like it was rebuilt from the ground up by people who knew the system incredibly well and had a goal of making the experience clear and straightforward to follow.

RMFRP vs. HARP

Compared to this, HARP feels like an introductory game with some of the complexity we missed from  the earlier editions later patched in via add-on books. HARP is faster to create characters and play, and there are way less tables to manage and reference.

The needing to bolt-on expansion books in HARP to replace lost complexity bugs me. The crit charts from HARP's martial book are now a must-have. I am probably missing several other pieces in the other books I have that I did not read yet.

But is HARP too simplified? I admit, when I look for a Rolemaster style game I am coming in desiring the complexity of the classics. One must ask themselves the question, does the complexity do anything for me? It is like having a CRPG where you can adjust all sorts of builds, numbers, tweaks, and factors about your characters and party and you feel great about your well-oiled killing machine - and you later realize you miss a simpler game where the action and story was the highlight of the experience.

I look at these games and I wonder if there isn't some secret set of requirements I am expecting and a second set of what I really wanted that I really care about in a game like this. This is one of those things where I am going to have to read a lot more and ask myself some deeper questions about what is important to me in a solo fantasy RPG. I am going to need to make a list of my expectations and requirements for a game like this to make a final choice.

One of the questions will be, does the complexity add to the experience or take away from it? And...what do I expect?

RMFRP vs. Rolemaster Classic

This is where it gets tricky. RMFRP is dozens of levels better organized than Rolemaster Classic. It is like a word processing Gandalf came down from his tower, banged his staff on the ground, and cross referenced all of the kingdom's spell books with page numbers, table numbers, and summaries of how things work. RMFRP is so well organized it cleared up some things I have been wondering about in Rolemaster Classic.

But the bloat in skills and characters makes me hesitate. I like the more focused feeling of Rolemaster Classic, the sort of stripped down dungeon adventure focus of that game compared to "the god RPG of life itself" that is RMFRP.

The problem is, even with all the character design bloat in RMFRP, Rolemaster Classic feels like a game that is more difficult to play and learn - just due to organization and all the little gotchas I have been running into when looking for what X or Y means. Until...

The Big Downside of RMFRP

Is the skill system. I feel it is way too complex. In fact, this may be the thing which makes me play Rolemaster Classic instead of RMFRP. Reading more into this, when you create a character, you need to fill out TWO sheets for skills, a category record sheet to create a category skill bonus (note the +43 in Weapon 1H Edged):

...and a skill record sheet (see how the +43 for 1H Edged slots into this sheet for the Broadsword skill):

There are some very strange issues with a skill level contributing its level TWICE to a final skill total, one value for the category (first sheet) and a second number for the rank bonus (second sheet with the specific skills). For example, this character's Weapon 1H Edged skill of "6" contributes a +12 to the rank bonus on the first sheet, while contributing a +18 when it is used for Broadsword on the second sheet - and that +12 (now inside the +43 bonus) and +18 are eventually added together in the final +76 total, and it comes from this chart:

Note the two columns for standard bonuses, and the other special skill types denoted by the asterisk, cross, and double-cross symbols - those are used for the first skill category record sheet to determine category bonuses (along with the first gray column for standards).

Somewhere in my mind, the words "communicative property of mathematics" comes from the past from the words of a long-lost math professor of mine. Please make this one chart, one column, on one sheet, and make this a normal +30 for skill rank 6 like it is in RMC and HARP. Why split the number and add it twice, and create an entirely new chart with two columns for essentially the same modifier, split in two?

Rolemaster Classic Skills

It is at this point I run screaming back to Rolemaster Classic's skill system and suffer the insanity point loss for even trying to understand this. Rolemaster Classic has a simple, skill level X is percentage Y chart like so (and notice what skill rank 6 is):

...and a character sheet where you take that number and add it to your ability score mod like that:

My Perception skill is rank 2, that is a +10% skill rank bonus! My stat bonus for the perception skill is the average of my intuition (+10) and reasoning (+0) ability modifiers, or a ...+5%! That makes my bonus for using this skill a ...+15%! We are done. The math is simple.

This system feels a lot more straightforward, it is easier to level-up with, and you are not filling out two sheets and referencing multiple charts just to determine a character's bonus for a skill roll. I can see why they did the RMFRP system, when you have all sorts of selections from training, classes, and special bonuses applying to a skills "base category bonus" it can get confusing (first sheet). Then after that, characters can have item and other special bonuses that apply on top of that (second sheet).

But with over 300 skills...the system feels like a huge lead weight of percentage charts and complexity for every character I create. It makes me miss HARP. RMC is simple by comparison.

Worse yet, RMFRP feels like I need a computer program to manage my character designs (and to have any hope of doing the math correctly), and in these days of continuously losing access to these with every new rules addition or operating system incompatibilities - needing a computer program to create characters is one area I feel is a non-starter for me these days. If I don't understand character creation, how can I understand builds and the rules which these work with?

Also, note that for a level one character in RMC you are dealing with skill bonuses in the 10-30% range for a level 1 character, which feels like a low and manageable range. In RMFRP, the example skill sheet above for Varak, his broadsword skill for a level one character is +76%. That is a huge difference in the numbers you are adding and dealing with, and I find myself preferring the lower numbers in RMC and HARP than the up to +100% percentages built off of two sheets in RMFRP.

A RMC Organized like RMFRP?

What I would love is a Rolemaster Classic organized like RMFRP, but with the simplicity of RMC preserved. I am getting the feeling I am sticking with RMC for the time being, and using RMFRP for reference (and noting the huge differences). There are also some great ideas in RMFRP like training packages I would like to see in RMC, but more on those later.

I do love RMFRP's organization. It is FAQ-like, looks like the old Squad Leader game's rulebooks, and everything is presented cleanly and in one place. Nothing beats this style of organization, given the game's complexity. This was an odd article today, loving the game at first glance and then the "oh yeah..." kicked in and I felt happier with something a little more simple. There is a sweet spot with complexity I feel and RMC hits it more on target than RMFRP, even with RMC's obscurity at times.

For now, it is fun to have the version of Rolemaster I started with (RMFRP), and be able to compare it with the version I have yet to play and discover (HARP and RMC). More soon!

HARP: Monsters A Field Guide (2004 edition)

I hate doing this to people, but I found a copy of the HARP monsters book over on a hobby store site - the last copy there so I ordered it. I did not even know this book existed. Now, this book is from 2004 and likely the pre-POD version of HARP and likely has somethings change via errata in the POD version - but this is quite a find.

When it comes in the mail I will do a full review.

Why no POD or PDF version of this? It seems like a huge omission not to have a monster manual for a game available via even by PDF, and I do not see this on Amazon (sold out there) or DriveThruRPG (no entry) at all. I was wondering if there were 3rd party monster books for HARP, and then I found this.

I have plenty of monsters for Rolemaster Classic, three books of them across Creatures and Treasures I through III. RMFRP has a 200-page creatures book as well, but since I am holding off on RMFRP (all but the base book) so I have not got that yet.

More when this finally comes in the mail, and I will report back then. This is one I am happy to have found.