Topic: A question for HARPers

[movalmedic]

I have long dreamed of getting a HARP game going.  Math seemed to be the biggest obstacle as the average D&D player just whines the first time they have to add their OB to an open-ended d100 roll and subtract the enemies DB.  So, I discovered roll20 and thought I had come to the promised land because all of the math could be done by roll20 at the click of a button.  However, there is no HARP character sheet in roll20, so now I'm trying to teach myself HTML so that I can make one.  All of this is a long winded set-up for the following question I'd like from veterans of HARP before I spend weeks making this thing work.  So, HARP veterans, how does the game hold up to long / epic campaigns?  The kind of campaigns that start with a low level group of nobodies and lasts 2 years of real time (or more) with players having grown into renowned hero's that help shape the world they live in, possibly ruling nations or at least advising rulers of nations.

[ImaginosMusic]

I have a campaign that has been running for almost 18 months now. It is getting to be more fun as it progresses. My character group started out weak, idealistic and willing to do anything to help the larger society. Over the course of the campaign they have grown wealthy, powerful, cynical and mean. Most are heavily scarred and many a Lifegiving spell has been performed as almost every one of them has run out of fate points at one point or another. Despite these changes, they still manage to mainly be of positive service to the society.

I converted my group from D&D when the group began complaining about how limiting the game was in terms of character development. I intended to take them to Rolemaster or Stormbringer, but found HARP and decided to give it a try. The first session was a disaster, but once I got the hang of what needed to take place to run combats, I was sold. The group took a little longer and the main selling points for them are the flexibility of character development, the one hit kills and the magic system.

I agree the math can be quite a chore, but you can use spreadsheets or other tools to do the math for you. You could also have each player figure out final mods etc. while other players are having their turn.

Macros on roll20 are pretty useful for doing the math, but the setup is a pain. There is also the fact that there is no Harp character sheet for the tool. I currently am working on converting one of the HTML character sheets that I downloaded from the vault to take input. I am not going to begin working on the macros until the start of next year. I am currently not a subscription user and will not be until then.

[movalmedic]

I was looking through the character sheets on roll20 yesterday.  You should look at the rolemaster sheets, there are lots of macros in them that you can probably make use of with some minor modifications.  Just make a new campaign and set that as the sheet for the campaign to play around with it.

[ImaginosMusic]

I'll be looking at several of them. It is going to be a while before I get it done. I will need to have a good grasp of how the macros work, and not having the editor until I get a subscription is not going to help me with getting the actual sheet looking good. As I understand it, the style sheets and the html have too be separated and there is no support for java script. That will limit the cool factor, but that is ok. In the mean time there is some functionality that my group has been using that I put into the default template. It's not a pretty sheet but it is functional and the macros work with it.

[Glenn_Gould]

Two active campaigns: One is running since 2008 for roughly 70 sessions, the other one since 2013 with about 30 sessions. 10 year anniversary is coming in November . Two different group members are running the campaigns, so we have different flavors. Character Levels are around 19 and 11, currently. It's still fun and there's still a lot to develop and to discover.

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

HARP Fantasy campaign from 2nd level to 13th or so level. HARP SF campaign from 3rd to 14th or so level. Each lasted a couple of years and completed when the plot completed.

Best wishes,
Nicholas