Thulean Archives

Am I a Harper? Let's find out.^[1] As many of you know, I'm an old role-player. And I started out playing this game, Merp. Middle-earth role-playing.^[2] This system was designed to be an introductory system for Rolemaster, a more complex system.^[3] And when the Lord of the Rings films were planned, the company making this excellent game lost their license. "Iron Crown Enterprises", by the way. They lost their license, and they were no longer allowed to make this game. I guess they wanted another system, another game, to work as an introductory system for Rolemaster. And thus, they made this game, Harp. So, the question today is, is this system a good replacement for this? I've never seen these two games compared before, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct when I say that this game sort of replaced Merp. It's made by the same company, of course, "I.C.E.", and it is an introductory game for Rolemaster. That is, it's a real slight version of Rolemaster. It's a bit different, but it's 100% compatible with Rolemaster. In Harp, you can play a cleric, a fighter, a harper, that would be Bard, a mage, a monk, a ranger, a rogue, a thief, or a warrior mage. Or you can have multiple professions. And the first impression I got when I saw this system was that it was very much similar to First Edition AD&D in the type of fantasy game it is. It's a very generic fantasy game, and the class, the professions, or classes, as well as the races and cultures, are very, very similar to AD&D. The races here are dwarf, elf, gnome, gryx, which is a name for half orc, halfling, and human.^[4] So, basically, exactly the same as AD&D. And of course, you can't replace the Tolkien world, because they didn't have a license for it, so instead they went for a more generic fantasy setting. Instead of the Tolkien cultures that you have in Merp, here you have different types of cultures that are made up of the deep warrens, shallow warrens, sylvan, underhill, nomadic, rural, and urban. So instead of picking a culture, if you're a human, like you do here, you pick a cultural background for your character, regardless of race, by the way. The system here is a point-by system, just like Rollmaster. It's a little bit different from this, and I would say it's actually better. You have more freedom of choice, and you have more opportunity to customize your character.^[5] They have also added talents to Harp. We didn't have that in Merp. Combat in Harp is a simplified version, I would say, of this, and yet a little bit different. And it's the thing that I like the least with the Harp system.^[6] The magic and spell system in Harp is, I think, much better than the one you have here, because here you had spell lists, and in Harp you can pick individual spells, and also you can scale the spells. So, for example, if you want to cast a spell and want it to reach further, you can use more power points to make it reach further. Or if you want to add damage, you can use more power points to make the spell inflict more damage to the opponent, and so forth. Also, we have a very good herbs and poisons system here, very detailed. It's all made up, but it's fantasy, so that's just fine. And I think that's another thing they did very well with Harp.^[7] The worst part about this game, I think, is the combat section. The best part is magic and spells, as well as herbs and poisons. And the professions or classes and races and cultures, talents, as well as encounters and monsters and treasures, they are all fine. A bit generic, but I think the game is designed to be generic, so that wouldn't be a problem. One of the few things that Merp does better than Harp, though, is the character sheet. I like the character sheets better in this game, especially the skills section, where you have a better overview of your character's proficiencies in Merp. All in all, though, Harp, I think it's a great game, and if you're interested in generic fantasy games using a different system than the d20 system, then I would recommend Harp. Thanks for watching. Bye bye. If you wish to know more about HARP, please check the links in the video description below.

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1. A Review of HARP (High Adventure Role-Playing).
2. In 1985.
3. Do I miss those years? Yes...
4. Except there are no CULTURES in AD&D.
5. Well. It's a level system, but when you level up you buy improvements with points.
6. E.g. armour in HARP makes you harder to injure, just like in AD&D/D&D, instead of absorbing damage, which is my personal preference.
7. The skill system in HARP is basically just like in MERP, and that's a good thing. It works very well.