> I am hoping that someone in one of your lists could give me some
> informed opinions to help guide my choice.
> My basic questions are: Which system is best? and: Why?
This is obviously like asking PC and Mac user's which system is best. It's more or less a religious issue...
I'm definitely biased, I have almost all Harn stuff, and it's the only system I've used for many years. I never GM'ed RuneQuest, and it's many years since I played it last.
Still, I have played and read many different frp rules and modules, and no other stuff compares to the Harnic stuff in quality. First of all, HarnWorld is superb. There has gone several years when I didn't play or GM at all, but I never stopped reading and learning and fantasizing about Harn. It's really very special. What ever set of rules you decide to go for, and what ever world you finally decide to use --- buy as much Harn- stuff as you can find. If you for instance buy HarnWorld, Kaldor and Cities of Harn, I'm pretty sure you will feel that you made very good buys. (Although I won't refund you if you disagree :-)
The HarnMaster rules are the most logical and realistic rules I've used, and they are not as bad as some claim when it comes to complexity. Compared to for instance 'Chivalry and Sorcery' or 'Aftermath', they are reasonably straight forward. The main issue of critizism agains HarnMaster is that combat it to complex and time consuming. This really depends though. If you like the kind of game where all the PC's wear plate mail and constantly fight large orc-swarms --- then you'd better stay with AD&D. If you prefer games with gritty realism, where you want the PC's to fear death in and after each battle, then HM is better for you. I've actually never had any PC die in battle in my game, but one died after a battle due to gangrene due to a wound, and another --- a mage --- died from a shock he got while trying to perform battle magic in a combat when he was already exhausted. (Five PC's have drowned. :-)
My players like the many choises they have in HarnMaster combat, and I don't think they would have it any other way. Although, in a very combat oriented game, it might be a bit much. Most Harn-gamers don't play that kind of game though. (I think.) Basically Harn melee goes like this:
You decide to attack me with the edge of your broadsword in my torso. (The sword has a blunt, an edged and a pointed aspect, and you can go for head, arms, body or legs.)
I choose to block it with my round shield. (I could also have dodged, grappled your weapon, or made a counter strike --- well, tried to anyway :-) A sword attack (attack class 3) vs a round shield defence (defence class R) gives me a defensive bonus of 15% according to the Weapon modifier table. Just like in RuneQuest, there is basically a per cent based skill system. Skill levels are adjused depending on encumberance, injuries, fatigue etc. Let's say we both have 10% penalty due to the encumberance of what we are wearing. Then you end up with -10 penalty and I end up with +5 bonus, since my round shield is a good choise against a broadsword.
Now, we both make skill rolls. Your skill level is (let's say) 68 - 10 = 58%, and mine is 53 + 5 = 58%. You roll 43 on your 1d100, which is a moderately successfull roll. I roll 75, which is a critical failure. (A failure because it's more than 58, and critical since it ends with 5 or 0).
Now we look at the melee attack table, and see that you got a 2d6 strike.
You roll 1d100 for location: 78 = right hip.
Lucky me, both my fur coat and my leather pants cover the hip, so I get 3 + 4 = 7 points of armour protection against edged attacks. Your plain broadsword gives a basic impact of 5 points plus the two d6. You roll 11, giving 5 (broad sword edge) + 11 (2d6) - 7 (leather and fur) = 9 effective points of impact, just enough to give me a serious cut.
I see that in the injury table, and besides the fact that a serious cut implies 10 + 1d10 (roll 4) = 14 injury points, I can see that this level of edge impact in the hip gives me a 3d6 roll against agility to prevent me from falling, and a 2d6 roll against endurance to prevent me from falling unconcious. Depending on impact, location and type of attack (blunt/squeeze, edge/bite/claw, point or fire/frost) there are different consequences. Besides giving injury points, hits can cause fumbles (dropped weapon), stumbles, shocks, excessive bleeding, amputation of limbs or instant kills. There is a well made table giving 285 combinations of injuries. Hits in the arms are likely to cause fumbles, hits in the knees are very likely to cause stumbles, and a stab in the eye might kill you on the spot and so on.
There isn't any hit point rating as in D&D in HM, but the sum of my injury points etc will act as a penalty on my skill rolls, and sum of injury, fatique etc divided with 10 will be added to my die-roll when I try to avoid shocks, stumbles or fumbles, so obviously, it's much easier to kill me if I'm injured before. Excessive injuries to limbs (>15 points) will also render them useless. Then there is the dreaded after effect of infections in open wounds. :-(
There are also other special effects such as knock-back etc.
This was a lot of numbers, and it might all seem intimidating, but all data is either on the character sheet or in two pull out pages in HarnMaster. It all gets clearer when you see the tables of course. A bit cumbersome the first times, but reasonable when you get used to it.
The big advantages are that the system is much more realistic than most others. For instance, you can decide where you want to hit me. If I only have protection on my torso, you can try to hit my arms, and if I wear scale mail, you can choose to stab me rather than to /swing/ the sword, since a stab is more likely to penetrate the scales. (5 points less protection.) I can choose the type of defence that suits my constitution, my skill and my estimation or your attack's severity. Injuries are not just a number, but as realistic it can get without giving me real physical pain... :-)
You also loose the abstract mathematical feeling that simpler systems cause. There will surely be calculated risks, but no one will be completely sure that he will survive the next hit, just because he has this many hit points left. I a recent fight, one of my PC's critically failed a counterstrike against a little orch who got a critical success hitting the PC's knee. This happened on the first strike, and the PC was completely disabled by this. Fortunately, they where close to Kiraz, and some time later, they managed to find this strange pink cube that... well never mind.
If you still don't like this combat system, there are several simpler ones, for instance the battle lust system, which is compatible. Or use RuneQuest combat if you must, but keep the rest of this superb system. Although my recommendation is to make the effort to get used to the HM combat system.
'nuff of that.
Another thing I can tell you is that Robin has made his stuff with the basic assumption that GM's will want to add their own flavour and details to the game. While there are heaps of details in the modules, the adventures are still basically foundations that the GM is supposed to spice up to his own taste. Expecting them to be complete will make you disappointed. (It would also make GMing more boring.)
This stuff really do inspire the GM though, and I could hardly think of a better foundation.
For more info, check out Jamie's web-site:
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~jamie/harn/HarnPage.html
The HarnFAQ contains an appendix with 'reviews', and there is a lot of other interesting stuff on that site, including (as you've seen on the list) parts of the not yet published HarnMaster 2nd ed. rules --- if Jamie just makes them available...
The issue of HM 2nd ed might possibly be an issue if you are in a hurry. I don't know if you can still get the 1st ed rules, and the 2nd ed is still some months away from the shops I guess... unless you can persuade Robin to share the rest of his word files... :-)
Happy Harning
Magnus
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Magnus Lycka, Magnus.Lycka_at_tripnet.se, http://www.tripnet.se/home/mly
Stortfjallsgatan 12, S-431 35 Molndal, Sweden. Tel: +46 (0)31 87 35 40
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