I think the concept of the Adventurer is exactly that - a professional adventurer. Unfortunately it is so good at meeting that concept that it is very unbalanced. I would not allow players to take Adventurer in any HARP fantasy campaign that I GMed.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
In case my position was unclear (I think that it was...), I am the GM in the game. I agree that the Adventurer is over-powered. The first guy took the Prof, because he couldn't really decide on anything else. I suggested it, and he said 'Sure, I'll play-test it.'
You must all realize, I haven't been playing HARP as long as yourselves, and the balance issues weren't as evident to me/us.
I don't think I am going to put the Adventurer off limits. Instead, I think I am going to utilize something from my Homebrew RPG (That I designed back in 93, when I found myself sick of RM's 5 hour character gen).
I had designed a Level-less, Class-less system, where players instead had a Primary, Secondary and Tertiary area of Focus.
One could choose to make a WarriorMage type of character with good stealth skills: Combat-Magic-Stealth. It was that easy, and with (IIRC, the stuff is in a box somewhere) 16 areas, of Focus, there were a lot of options.
Each Focus area came with a number of Combat Maneuver Points, Spell Acquisition Points or Contact Points.
It is to the concept of Contacts that I am looking.
Stealth, Knowledge,Social, etc... each area allowed you(The Player) to develop a Contact, with the points assigned to him/her outlining the Contacts sphere of influence, prestige/power in their field and attitude towards the PC.
I think that the HARP Rogue and Thief need a boost, something to make them Unique. I think that (In my Campaign, at least) I have an answer.
Perhaps I'll submit it to the Guild of something at some point.
Uriel
