Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => HARP SF => Topic started by: lazarus on March 28, 2007, 08:13:36 PM
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Marking down everything from my initial skim of the PDF (more when I get a printout bound and read through). These are dealing with version 0.1.1.
- Page 28, Table 4.1 has column lines in weird spots (Stat Bonus | DP Stat | Bonus DP) a more appropriate columning would be (Stat | Bonus DP || Stat | Bonus DP) or (Stat Bonus DP | Stat Bonus DP)
- The Magic and Psi RR and PP stuff is odd to see all in one place - I would prefer to see the Magic stuff in a downloadable document, or at least a reference to other HARP books ("see 3007 The Codex or 3003 College of Magics for more detail on magic in HARP"). In addition, I would like to see the Psi stuff added to all the HARP fantasy races, in that same document. Actually, I'd like to see a big large document with all the available PC races so far for Fantasy and SF ;)
- The table on page 36 has "S [tab] heer folly"
- I like the choice of culture packages, but I'm not very fond of the abbreviations used in the adolescent skill table.
- The master skill list on p.43 has no shading on alternate rows, unlike the rest of the tables in the book
- There's some images ("Introduction", and the dagger note on p.43) that have pixellated and coloured backgrounds that render the text nearly unreadable. I presume this is going to be fixed ;)
- The table on p.59 ... I prefer Name|Cost|Name|Cost to Cost|Name|Cost|Name ... having the name of the talent on the far left aids in locating the specific talent. Admittedly, talents are often purchased in a "I need to spend x points" way...
- Table on p.72 has incorrect formatting
- I hope you guys figure out a better way to display the formulae. Also, I've normally seen them as v_f = v_i + at where (_) indicates a subscript. The variables are also normally lower case, rather than upper case. (Incidentally, I'd love to see a full "Hard Sci-Fi" supplement including the full-scale calculus for 4-d interactions, as well as including the Lorentz factor, and figuring out what that means for hyperspace and so on)
- Table 10.2 Fumbles has inconsistent formatting with the rest of the tables
- The tables on page 114 don't have bolded headers
- Neither does the table on page 115
- Nor on 117, nor on 119
- Table on p.120 missing cell lines
- Table on p.122-123 missing bold headers and formatting looks inconsistent with other tables.
- Actually, just look at all the tables (p.125 has same problem) and get them consistent with each other ;)
- Table 11.3 missing all formatting (Shields)
- Critical tables, again, formatting (and all the other tables in Ch. 11)
- Cyberware chapter has "sub-sub" headings (ex - Cyberfoot:) these should be bolded or otherwise separated visually.
- The AI Race table is given twice (190 & 194)
Well, that's all the formatting stuff I saw :p Now for the rest of my comments:
I can definitely see this as being useful for Battlestar Galactica or Honor Harrington (especially the Honorverse, actually).
I would love to see guidelines on creating new species - things like how much bonuses to spread around, how much in terms of talents to give out, that kind of thing.
I can definitely see myself playing this - looks good so far, and I can only assume that a lot of the formatting inconsistencies may be a problem with using different software packages that don't quite talk to each other?
[edit]I also want to reiterate my want for a fully math-accurate hard sci fi supplement ;) I really want to see the physics taken fully into account in a game somewhere ;)[/edit]
Oh yeah, a small request: is it possible to colour the beta pdfs, in terms of what's changed? As in, "changes from the last version are coloured red" for instance ... at least, for the time being. Either that, or a listing?
Laz
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Formatting -- To be truthful - the initial formatting was a rush job to get it into PDF form in order to put it on sale when we did. It took longer than I thought it would (I did it myself), a lot longer than I thought, so there were bound to be errors in the formatting. Next draft that Nick turns in, I will take more time in pagemaking it and paying more attention to the formatting overall as I will be preparing it for more final/formal pagemaking (which I won't be doing). I don't want to do anymore updates until Nick has a chance to work a bit on what rewrites he has to do.
Race Creation - you will see that in the SysOps Guide, the second book planned for this game. Not before that, sorry.
There has only been one update so far, and the only real changes were better images of the formulas, and a Table of Contents -- the next update is going to wait for Nick's next draft, I think.
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Formatting -- To be truthful - the initial formatting was a rush job to get it into PDF form in order to put it on sale when we did. It took longer than I thought it would (I did it myself), a lot longer than I thought, so there were bound to be errors in the formatting. Next draft that Nick turns in, I will take more time in pagemaking it and paying more attention to the formatting overall as I will be preparing it for more final/formal pagemaking (which I won't be doing). I don't want to do anymore updates until Nick has a chance to work a bit on what rewrites he has to do.
Figured that was the case. Just thought I'd let you know where I saw some errors.
Race Creation - you will see that in the SysOps Guide, the second book planned for this game. Not before that, sorry.
Well, it's going to be done, that's all that matters :) Hopefully it will be useful for HARP Fantasy, too? ;)
There has only been one update so far, and the only real changes were better images of the formulas, and a Table of Contents -- the next update is going to wait for Nick's next draft, I think.
Still, if it is possible to take a diff of the text (I think Open Office can do this with its versioning features) and colour it different for the changes, that would help things - that way people won't have to read the whole book again :p
I've been playing around with the Open Office spreadsheet character sheet thing, and I'm liking what I see so far with the system. I will definitely want to be playing/running this eventually ^_^
Laz
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Race Creation - you will see that in the SysOps Guide, the second book planned for this game. Not before that, sorry.
Well, it's going to be done, that's all that matters :) Hopefully it will be useful for HARP Fantasy, too? ;)
I just used the guidelines from HARP Monsters A Field Guide with just a minor modification to cover Psionics or something like that. I'll have to check my notes.
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Personally, my initial impression of HARP Sci Fi is that it looks very nice! However, it seems quite a bit more complex than HARP Fantasy. I suppose that it is inevitable that a sci fi game would be a bit more complex, but I think that stuff like the large mathematical equations are going to scare off the people who prefer the simplicity of HARP fantasy.
I am just an average guy with no degrees in physics and whatnot, so I find HARP Sci Fi a bit more daunting to play where I find the fantasy version quite comfortable and easy to run/ play.
I have one player with a learning disability who is able to handle the fantasy HARP, but was totally floored by HARP Sci Fi.
My suggestion: Lots of dummy rules! lol Anything that will keep this product more simple along the lines of HARP Fantasy. I wish I could offer better suggestions than that, but I'm not entirely sure what to say to compete with all of you smart people on here! LOL
I can only say that I think that HARP for fantasy settings is perfect as far as the complexity levels. :P
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Personally, my initial impression of HARP Sci Fi is that it looks very nice! However, it seems quite a bit more complex than HARP Fantasy.
Hi,
My theory is that HARP SF is not more complex, it just offers more
rulings because there are things that do not appear in HARP (maintenance, low/high pressure) and its structure could be improved.
For example: I am currently in the process of generating a summary of HARP SF (because I can't handle 235 pages as a GM during a session) - and Vehicles incl. Maneuvers and Combat is 3 pages (without the critical tables).
When I had finished that part, I was totally enthusiastic because of the simplicity of the rules. But it took quite some tinkering with the structure and also simplification of descriptions before I had reached that point.
BR
Juergen
Remark: For obvious reasons I will not send the summary to anyone except Rasyr and Nicholas. Pls. don't ask.