Confused about movement in a round

[Garby]

Hi Folks,

Just started running a HARP game and I and my players are loving it. So far it's a lot clearer than I recall MERP being. But, slightly confused about movement in a round. Combat chapter says 'Move Base Movement Rate (x Pace)' = one action and then there the 'charge' action which adds +1OB/ft moved at the expense of equal amount of DB. Both sound reasonable for a 2 second round.

The pace table on p30 has walk, run, fast run, sprint, dash at pace modifier x1 to x5 and 'normal maneuver difficulties listed. It's not clear whether you can fast run, sprint or dash in a round (and if so can you go x3, x4, x5 pace. Seems unlikely in a 2 second round) and what the maneuvers its referring to are (e.g. jumping or acrobatics while moving?). I recall MERP has a general 'moving maneuver' roll when you were doing anything tricky while moving like running to determine you if you made the distance or fell down etc, but I don't see that mechanic in this game. 

I appreciate any suggestions.

[Sai]

If it helps, this is what I wrote for HARP Subterfuge (page 197).

Getting Up to Speed

It is hard to picture a runner starting off their block at the maximum movement rate. Without going too deep into the physics of running and acceleration, let's assume an unencumbered person (carrying 0–30 lbs.) can start out at a Run (2x BMR) and accelerate two pace categories per round. This means that for round 1, they would be at a Run, for round 2 at a Sprint (4x BMR), and by round 3 a Dash (5x BMR). Characters lightly encumbered (31–60 lbs.) could start out at a Walk and accelerate 1 Pace category a round, up to the max of a Sprint (4x). Medium encumbered characters start at a Walk (1x) and increase 1 Pace category every 2 rounds, up to a maximum of Fast Run. Heavily encumbered characters start as a Walk and increase one pace category every 3 rounds, up to a maximum of Run, so they wouldn't hit the 2x running speed until round 4.

Encumbrance	Walk	Run	Fast Run	Sprint	Dash
None	--	Rd. 1	-->	Rd. 2	Rd. 3+
Light	Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4+	n/a
Medium	Rds. 1-2	Rds. 3-4.	Rds. 5+	n/a	n/a
Heavy	Rds. 1-3.	Rds. 4+	n/a	n/a	n/a

[Garby]

Excellent, hadn't seen that. I was thinking something similar (a realistic build up of speed per round) but thought it might be too complicated. This schematises it quite well though.Thanks a mill!