Post originally by ttsgosadow at 2004-01-23 13:14:31
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This product is similar is some ways. But it is not an upgraded MERP of some kind. The magic system is totally different (better in my opinnion), and the characters have way more options!
If you look at HARP, and at MERP, MERP is just a step simpler.
Post originally by JoeGKushner at 2004-01-23 13:48:41
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I don't know about MERP being simplier. There were some crazy rules in MERP, especially with the spellcasters and the chances to attract evil and the fact that you could use Rolemaster style magic in Middle Earth to begin with.
I think that HARP is similiar to MERP but in some ways, more streamlined, especially in combat with it's elimination of armor type (AT) as a factor and the critical hit and damage with a single role.
Post originally by Shumway at 2004-01-23 14:08:09
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GURPS' supplements don't change game mechanics in most cases, and it's perfectly posssible to run a game with only the core book (or even just GURPS Lite, which is free). Yes, you'd probably want to pick up GURPS Magic for a fantasy campaign, but there are quite a few spells in the basic set, and I'd be quite surprised if HARP isn't expanded upon with its own book of additional spells (assuming ICE survives long enough to create such a thing).
This isn't a major point in the review, but it's annoying to those of us who like GURPS to see this misinformation spread further.
What I'm curious about, and something the review doesn't explicitly address, is where the simplifications over RMSS have been made, if any.
Post originally by Jamie Herbert at 2004-01-23 14:34:25
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Savage Worlds is another great system which can be used from one book with no additional supplements (not that they aren't useful of fun,) but there is no "You must have supplement X to run Genre Y" kind of thing.
Post originally by Talysman the Ur-Beatle at 2004-01-23 16:02:45
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I agree with the idea that you could handle a fantasy (or ANY) setting with just GURPS Lite, if you so chose. one GURPS concept (buried in the Bestiary, although it should have been mentioned in the main rules) is that you can "file the serial numbers off" of anything you have stats/rules for and describe it in any other way. need magic? you have a modifier chart for ranged weapons which you could adapt to a quick-and-dirty spell system. make an Occultism roll, plus or minus ranged modifiers, -1 per reaction bonus or die of damage, and choose the description of the spell (ball of flame, phantasmal hound, glowing cloud) as a special effect. change the total negative modifier to a positive number for a fatigue cost. for time elements, use distance, but treat hexes/meters on the range chart as seconds; you can use this to modify duration, add delays, and so on.
all that's left is to decide whether to allow increasing energy cost to decrease die roll penalties and vice versa. not a beautiful system, and it requires more GM intervention, but it can work.
Post originally by Tom Pigeon at 2004-01-23 17:25:15
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I think you help make the reveiwers point. GURPS is a robust enough system where an experienced GM could take the core rules far, without any supplementation. However, someone knew to RPGs would likely take the core GURPs book and say, "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"
I tried GURPS, and though it isn't for me, I thought it had lots of merit. However, even with the spells contained in the book, I would never have felt I had a complete system with just the core rules. Let's face it, too, that's there point: they did a skillful job taking the game just up to the point of usefullness, but to really get the full effect, you need to shell out more for another book.
Post originally by JoeGKushner at 2004-01-23 20:05:27
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I love GURPS but come on man, without GURPS Compendium I at the least, your not playing the whole game. And books like GURPS Space (and the promised revised GURPS Fantasy) are going to be vital to any game in that genre.
As far as simplifications, less hassle on combat. Less hassel in spell lists (customization as opposed to spell lists), simplification in background options, etc...
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