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MERP and HARP
May. 10th, 2006 05:14 amI've been reading up on MERP, my old favorite fantasy system, and while MERP is long dead, Iron Crown having lost the Tolkien license, they have a relatively new game system called HARP (High Adventure Roleplaying) that in effect replaces MERP as a Rulemaster Lite system, while at the same time fixing the problems that MERP had. Granted, I'm more into modern/horror/sci-fi gaming, but I think if I ever feel like doing a fantasy game, HARP will fit the bill well.
As some of you know, I hate D&D with a burning passion, the kind usually felt by Linux devotees towards Microsoft. The major problems with D&D I have are the limited range of characters and classes available, the process of rolling stats, the shitty magic system, and the brain dead XP advancement system. The intention behind MERP, and now HARP, seems to be to provide a fantasy game system that preserves what little good can be found in D&D while fixing the errors. Here's how it works.
First off, the basic mechanic of MERP/HARP/Rulemaster is an open-ended D100. Your objective is to roll above 100. To accomplish this you roll D100, add your skill and various skill bonuses. This isn't as horrible as it sounds, as your attributes tend to be in the 50+ range. If you roll 96-100, you roll again and add it to the number. Alternately, if you roll 1-5, you roll again and subtract. These are the times you get to play with the fun crit tables.
Stat-rolling: If you do decide to roll up stats for your basic 8 attributes, you discard anything below 40, and keep the rest. You then assign them however you feel like. If, like me, the idea of rolling stats makes you retch, there is a point based system where you get 550 points to assign to your attributes. Up until 90, it's a 1 to 1 ratio for point cost, and since an equal divide between all 8 stats gives you a respectable 68, I'd say it works pretty well. Whatever your attributes end up as determine the amount of development points you get for skills, so knowing the class you want to play as helps.
Classes: There are the usual classes available, but due to the development point system, they are hella easier to customize. The classes basically give you discounts on point cost for certain skill sets, but any skill can be used by any other class. Multiclassing is relatively easy because of this. There are training packages one can buy which give even bigger discounts, but they are optional.
Magic: Magic is a matter of points and skill. Each spell is treated as a skill, and the number of ranks you have in the skill determine how powerful they are. ALL the spells are scalable, as well, so it's easy to customize area effects and what not. Everyone has the capability to learn spells as well, it's just a matter of buying them.
XP and advancement: While HARP does have level advancement based on XP, it isn't as brain dead as D&D because instead of just having automatic increases or new feats, each level gives you a number of points to improve your skills with, making it a skill point system masquerading as a level system, as far as I'm concerned.
Those are the basic improvements over D&D, as far as I'm concerned. HARP seems to be superior to MERP in a few ways, as well. In MERP, once you got past level 10, you had to move on to Rulemaster, as higher levels simply weren't covered. HARP doesn't have this problem at all, although it is designed to be compatible with Rulemaster if one desires it. I can't remember exactly how magic worked in MERP, but I do know that the HARP rules are much more straightforward.
While HARP doesn't provide a setting in it's basic material, they do have one that they've developed in another book. However, since Iron Crown seems to be pretty good at making things backwards compatible with Rulemaster stuff, old MERP setting books will probably translate pretty well directly into HARP, with minimal conversion, if any. MERP supplements covered huge piles of Middle Earth history. The MERP timeline is about 1000 years prior to the War of the Ring, if I recall correctly, although they certainly did LOTR time period stuff as well. I've looked at the newer LOTR RPG that came out after the movies, and it did nothing for me. If I get a jones for some Tolkien roleplaying, I think HARP will be the way to go.
As some of you know, I hate D&D with a burning passion, the kind usually felt by Linux devotees towards Microsoft. The major problems with D&D I have are the limited range of characters and classes available, the process of rolling stats, the shitty magic system, and the brain dead XP advancement system. The intention behind MERP, and now HARP, seems to be to provide a fantasy game system that preserves what little good can be found in D&D while fixing the errors. Here's how it works.
First off, the basic mechanic of MERP/HARP/Rulemaster is an open-ended D100. Your objective is to roll above 100. To accomplish this you roll D100, add your skill and various skill bonuses. This isn't as horrible as it sounds, as your attributes tend to be in the 50+ range. If you roll 96-100, you roll again and add it to the number. Alternately, if you roll 1-5, you roll again and subtract. These are the times you get to play with the fun crit tables.
Stat-rolling: If you do decide to roll up stats for your basic 8 attributes, you discard anything below 40, and keep the rest. You then assign them however you feel like. If, like me, the idea of rolling stats makes you retch, there is a point based system where you get 550 points to assign to your attributes. Up until 90, it's a 1 to 1 ratio for point cost, and since an equal divide between all 8 stats gives you a respectable 68, I'd say it works pretty well. Whatever your attributes end up as determine the amount of development points you get for skills, so knowing the class you want to play as helps.
Classes: There are the usual classes available, but due to the development point system, they are hella easier to customize. The classes basically give you discounts on point cost for certain skill sets, but any skill can be used by any other class. Multiclassing is relatively easy because of this. There are training packages one can buy which give even bigger discounts, but they are optional.
Magic: Magic is a matter of points and skill. Each spell is treated as a skill, and the number of ranks you have in the skill determine how powerful they are. ALL the spells are scalable, as well, so it's easy to customize area effects and what not. Everyone has the capability to learn spells as well, it's just a matter of buying them.
XP and advancement: While HARP does have level advancement based on XP, it isn't as brain dead as D&D because instead of just having automatic increases or new feats, each level gives you a number of points to improve your skills with, making it a skill point system masquerading as a level system, as far as I'm concerned.
Those are the basic improvements over D&D, as far as I'm concerned. HARP seems to be superior to MERP in a few ways, as well. In MERP, once you got past level 10, you had to move on to Rulemaster, as higher levels simply weren't covered. HARP doesn't have this problem at all, although it is designed to be compatible with Rulemaster if one desires it. I can't remember exactly how magic worked in MERP, but I do know that the HARP rules are much more straightforward.
While HARP doesn't provide a setting in it's basic material, they do have one that they've developed in another book. However, since Iron Crown seems to be pretty good at making things backwards compatible with Rulemaster stuff, old MERP setting books will probably translate pretty well directly into HARP, with minimal conversion, if any. MERP supplements covered huge piles of Middle Earth history. The MERP timeline is about 1000 years prior to the War of the Ring, if I recall correctly, although they certainly did LOTR time period stuff as well. I've looked at the newer LOTR RPG that came out after the movies, and it did nothing for me. If I get a jones for some Tolkien roleplaying, I think HARP will be the way to go.
