Topic: A couple of questions about talents, and one about certain half-breeds...

[Radimon]

Recently I got several of the HARP system books from a friend as a gift (basic rules, folkways, martial law, college of magics), and I like the system overall.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of things that raise small question marks in my mind, and while many have answers on this forum, some don't.

1) Greater Human (or Queequayth) Blood Talent: The fourth option gives 3 points to 2-3 of your stats. This is as compared to the similar options for other races, which improve stat modifiers, and therefore this yields a drastically different feel: choice versus value. On the one hand, it 'only' gives stat points, which immediately and in the long run are less valuable, but you can put them wherever you want. Is this difference intentional, or has it been misprinted?

2) From page 56 of the basic rules: gigantism is a word, and a real-world medical condition, usually caused by a pituitary deformation. 'Giantism' is neither a word, nor a medical condition. Moreover, if you increase the size of a creature by 50% in only one dimension, it will be roughly 50% heavier, not 100%.

3) Some talents are presented as having multiple levels, like regeneration or succor. Others that would seem to follow this same pattern are described separately, such as darkvision (lesser and greater), blazing speed and superior blazing speed, extremely nimble and wildly nimble, etc. By rules as written, it seems a character could double up on certain talents that affect the same combination of skills/effects, but not others. Why the difference? Is this intentional or unintentional?

4) Quiet stride, extremely nimble, and wildly nimble all state that they provide a bonus to stalking maneuvers, not stalking and hiding. Oversight, or intentional?

5) Just out of personal curiosity, can you stack accelerated healing on top of regeneration (minor) to recover 2 Hits/minute (1/minute, doubled by accelerated healing), or is its effect subsumed by the regeneration? If they're separate effects, due to being different talents, do you recover from other effects of damage (skill penalties, broken bones, and the like) at 2, 3, or 4 times the normal rate?

6) Why would anyone EVER take physick?! +10 to healing and all medical skills? Healing is the ONLY medical skill! Physick is a skill specialization masquerading as a separate talent, is what it is!

7) Someone should make isekai reincarnation rules.

[Zhaleskra]

I've always done it as stat modifiers, because as a full human it says between stat bonuses. After checking both HARP Fantasy and the previous printing of HARP -- not called fantasy at the time -- I get a feeling your question on point 1. is caused by a misprint.

2. You're approaching this from the understanding of a human living in the 21st century, not how a human from the middle ages or someone of any species in a fantasy world would think about it. There wasn't a lot of standardization of words in the middle ages, though it does seem that people did understand each other.

Anecdote: I made pregens with randomly rolled heights and weights. I got a final size on the warrior mage, who was a female human, of 4'4". One of my players mentioned her being a dwarf, and at the time I didn't realize he was talking about little people.

3. This is better defined in HARP SF, but Talents with multiple levels (Minor, Lesser, Major, Greater) can be purchased either sequentially or by level. Regardless, you have to pay the full talent cost. At the same time, SF also conflicts this. While in Fantasy, you can have a Gnome Mage who gets Magic Sense twice, SF is against talent doubling.

4. Convenience, I'd say. Not hiding while you're stalking is probably not a good idea. For the sake of convenience on my Excel sheet, these add the modifier directly to the Stalking & Hiding Spec bonus.

5. I see no reason not to stack them as they work different ways. Regeneration is a constant with a rate of x Hits/minute. Natural healing depends on complete rest. One is always on, the other is situation dependent. If complete rest would have a character back at full hits, ignore the regeneration, if not, calculate the minutes the character was resting.

6. SF comes in again, where Physician (which is exactly the same talent as Physick) gives +10 First Aid, Medical Practice, and Medical Science (also Healing for Science Fantasy crossovers). This is an accident of the timing of the book releases.

7. I understand what reincarnation is, but what is "isekai"?

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

1) Greater Human (or Queequayth) Blood Talent: The fourth option gives 3 points to 2-3 of your stats. This is as compared to the similar options for other races, which improve stat modifiers, and therefore this yields a drastically different feel: choice versus value. On the one hand, it 'only' gives stat points, which immediately and in the long run are less valuable, but you can put them wherever you want. Is this difference intentional, or has it been misprinted?

It should be stat *bonus* points. Missing word.

2) From page 56 of the basic rules: gigantism is a word, and a real-world medical condition, usually caused by a pituitary deformation. 'Giantism' is neither a word, nor a medical condition. Moreover, if you increase the size of a creature by 50% in only one dimension, it will be roughly 50% heavier, not 100%.

We are not claiming this is the medical condition.

3) Some talents are presented as having multiple levels, like regeneration or succor. Others that would seem to follow this same pattern are described separately, such as darkvision (lesser and greater), blazing speed and superior blazing speed, extremely nimble and wildly nimble, etc. By rules as written, it seems a character could double up on certain talents that affect the same combination of skills/effects, but not others. Why the difference? Is this intentional or unintentional?

Stylistic differences between HARP Fantasy and HARP SF dating back to the original rules set. Normally you don't allow double up, and in some cases it is unhelpful.

4) Quiet stride, extremely nimble, and wildly nimble all state that they provide a bonus to stalking maneuvers, not stalking and hiding. Oversight, or intentional?

Deliberate the talents are about movement, not being concealed.

5) Just out of personal curiosity, can you stack accelerated healing on top of regeneration (minor) to recover 2 Hits/minute (1/minute, doubled by accelerated healing), or is its effect subsumed by the regeneration? If they're separate effects, due to being different talents, do you recover from other effects of damage (skill penalties, broken bones, and the like) at 2, 3, or 4 times the normal rate?

You can have both, but it seems overkill.

6) Why would anyone EVER take physick?! +10 to healing and all medical skills? Healing is the ONLY medical skill! Physick is a skill specialization masquerading as a separate talent, is what it is!

In Fantasy, it would be legitimate to include Herbcraft as a medical skill. Physician is more straightforward in HARP SF.

7) Someone should make isekai reincarnation rules.

Don't know what this is.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[Radimon]

Thank you, both, for your prompt replies!

In answer to both of your questions, isekai is a category of manga/anime - and by extension, fiction in general - where the protagonist starts in the real world, and ends up in a different world, usually a swords-and-sorcery environment. Sometimes it's because they're the Hero (capital 'H', mind you!) summoned to protect the people from the Demon King. Other times, it's caused by reincarnation with memories of their life on Earth intact. Quite often, the populace of the world are described in game terms, like the hulking brutish one-eyed captain of the town guard being a level XX fighter, or the barmaids being level XY rogues... with one XY thief thrown into the mix!

I plan to put a new thread up in a while detailing my thoughts for this idea, so stay tuned to the forums!

[Radimon]

One last question: can you take the Bane talent more than once? It seems like it would be possible to be Bane against, for example, demons and trolls, or orcs and dragons. If you take Bane at level 1 against goblins, that might not be terribly useful once you're advanced enough that you never encounter them anymore.

[Zhaleskra]

I have a feeling you're coming at your approach to enemies in a way suggested by that other game. Never underestimate the goblins, kobolds, or really anything for that matter if the GM knows how to run them right.

As Bane does not specifically mention being able to be taken more than once, you can only take it once.

[Radimon]

Okay, yet another entry for the Stupidest and Most Pointless Questions file:

If you buy a greater blood talent and take option 4 (the stat modifiers), it says you should average the lifespans of the two races. Should this include starting age and age increment, also? In fact, somebody in my game last week found a combination where starting his new replacement character at our current level would mean he was dead of old age!

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Okay, yet another entry for the Stupidest and Most Pointless Questions file:

If you buy a greater blood talent and take option 4 (the stat modifiers), it says you should average the lifespans of the two races. Should this include starting age and age increment, also? In fact, somebody in my game last week found a combination where starting his new replacement character at our current level would mean he was dead of old age!

Yes, by the letter of the rules, but apply common sense.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[Zhaleskra]

Yeah, breeding with a Gordaz and starting at a higher level is a bad combination.

[Radimon]

Going back to the regeneration + accelerated healing question, non-lethal recovery (broken bones, sprains, and the like, but not hits) is halved by each talent. If you have both, do you recover in half the time (no overlap), one-third the time (+100% healing rate, x2),  or one-quarter the time (0.5 time x 0.5 time)?

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

These do not stack.

Best wishes,
Nicholas