Post originally by Jay at 2004-07-02 15:23:53
Converted from Phorums BB System

I think the only place you would have problems with the d20 scale in HARP is precisely where you mentioned. The skill rank progression table could be redone like this however:

...

8...+8
9...+9
10...+10
(skip 11 and 12)
13...+11
(skip 13 and 14)
15 +12

...and so on.

Players would need to understand that when they got into skill ranks above 10 that they would not get a +1 bonus for each skill rank. Sometimes they would put 2 or 3 ranks into a skill before they would see an improvement.

This is what I am doing with my d20 version of HARP, but I am concerned that players used to the d20 version will balk at the number of experience points it now takes them to rise to a new level. I have already talked to a few potential players and they have expressed disappointment at the higher experience point costs of levels and the fact that there are no Feats for them to get at various levels. In other words, a gamer used to d20 looks at HARP scaled to d20 and says, what does this game offer that my d20 game doesn't already offer me?

To this I reply that the Rolemaster material is rich in depth that you don't find in the d20 system. The earlier Rolemaster supplements (for the first edition) covered practically anything (and much more) that a gamer could potentially want or do. Right now, for instance I am looking through the Rolemaster III companion. It offers in depth rules for creating Arcane societies and uses societies in Shadow World as examples. They give detailed rules for simple societies, moderately complex societies, and very complex societies. They state rules for admission to "the Order of the Librarians of Imperial Eldea, the Navigators, and covens. The companion also lists detailed rules for death, trauma, and brain damage. It gives magic for witches such as Allurement, Household Magic, Brewing Lore, Wax Magic, Mending Ways. It also gives some interesting Arcane Spell lists such as Plasma Mastery and Nether Mastery. It gives plasma critical strike tables, acid critical strike tables, depression (mental) critical strike tables, and stress (physical pain) critical strike tables. The depth and flavor of this approach to witchcraft has only to be compared with a D&D Bestow Curse spell to make a current player of the d20 system realize how limited his choices are by the system.

While it is not impossible to try to convert the earlier wealth of Rolemaster material to the d20 system, it would involve a lot of work. It is much easier to use that material with the HARP system. Little or no conversion is necessary.

However, if the HARP system were to stand alone, rather than on the shoulders of Rolemaster, I don't think I would find enough about it to switch from playing d20 to playing HARP. It doesn't seem to offer that much in the way of variation to me.