HARP - Minatures and battlemap aids?

[MidKnight]

Hi all,

Long time RoleMaster player and GM, and early HARP player and GM looking to bring a new group of D&D 5e players to HARP revised.  I bought the new books and .PDFs which i'm reading now, but one of my initial questions is bring the HARP movement and positioning rules to a group familiar with D&D 5e playing with physical miniatures and battlemap.  Some of the quirks I recall is movement distances not cleanly aligning to 5' grid increments, etc.

Are there any guides, aids, recommendations, etc., anyone can direct me to in preparation?

My thanks,
MidKnight

[MidKnight]

I should have said "long time player whose been away for 10+ years, and just now returning and relearning". 

[Spectre771]

I very rarely use maps and minis, but sometimes they are extremely helpful, especially if there is a large battle.  I always preface the map drawing with "This is not drawn to scale."  I do it more to help the players visualize where they are standing in relation to the other PCs/NPCs/obstacles.  I stick to Theater of the Mind as much as possible.  D&D players do love their maps and minis though so in your case, letting them bring that familiarity with them  will bring a little more enjoyment for their RM experience.  If anyone wants to be a stickler for distances, just tell them the map is not drawn to scale.

[jdale]

I can't speak specifically to HARP, but we normally play RM on a map with a 5' grid. Just round movement and range to the closest 5' increment.

[MidKnight]

This was my "muscle memory" reaction/thought as well - thank you.

[GMLovlie]

Once upon a time, there was a thing called Battlemaster made for HARP. Can't see it anywhere in the current catalogue.

It used hex grids, added some nuance to weapons and reach (and possibly other things). I'm not sure how well it worked. I never tested it, my players preferred TotM and drawing of maps, generally not to scale.

[Hurin]

Let us know if you ever find it. I'd be interested in hearing about that too.

[GMLovlie]

I have it in my digital archive. It's a short supplement it seems. Mostly just more detailed rules on hex movement, facing, area of effect, and reach of weapons. I bought it in 2009, and it seems I got more with that order that I have lost and can now never get my grubby little fingers on again. Ah well. :-)

I can try and find the time to look over it properly over the holidays and write a little summary and a kind of review.

[Hurin]

I would love to hear more about it.

I didn't find anywhere to buy it, but I did find at least a product listing here: https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=12695

[GMLovlie]

ToC:

• Distance and Sizes
• Hex basics
• Converting Movement Rates
• Creature Size

• Maneuvers and Attacks
• Attack Ranges
• Combat Actions
• Attacks of Opportunity
• Terrain and Obstacles
• Hex Size/Facing Illustrations
• Spell Shapes

It's a ten page PDF, with three tables: "Feet to Hexes", "Melee Weapon Ranges", and "Missile Weapon Ranges", and eight illustrations/diagrams.

BMR to Hexes is converted to 3 feet per hex (BMR: 2'-4'= 1 hex) , called a base hex rate (BHR), or Movement Points (MPs). Yes. Both.

A medium biped fills one hex, a medium quadruped fills two (and cannot be lined perfectly horizontal as you can imagine). Larger creatures fill more hexes and there are diagrams to show.

Facing: Three hexes in the character facing direction are "front", the two to the left and right angled rearwards are flanking, and the single one in the rear is rear. Makes sense.

Weapons, both missile and melee, have ranges in hexes, so for instance, an axe or short blade has a 1 hex range, whereas long blades have 2, pole arms have a 4 hex range (but there's a penalty for attacking foes at this range), and great blades have 3. (It is at this point I'm starting to understand why this maybe didn't catch on.). This is followed by rules on "Restricted Area Combat", dealing with the space needed to swing a weapon...

There are rules on AoO, changes to combat actions (possibly some new ones), and of course the increased cost of difficult terrain, and moving through space smaller than the number of hexes your character occupies.
 
It's a short supplement. Kind of making HARP into a small skirmish game.

While I agree that bestagon grids are vastly superior to a square grid, it would perhaps have been better to not get caught up in using a grids. Maybe.

[Hurin]

Thanks a lot! I've been working on my own rules for hex combat in RMU, and wanted to see how HARP handled it. That helped!