OK, just played my first HARP session this weekend. I must confess that it was a little bit of a rough start. It has been a while since I GMed, and I am still learning the system. One thing I found tiresome after a while was all the math I was having to do. I realize it is not higher mathematics, but having to add the attack, then subtract the DB, then (using Hack-n-slash) having to add the initial concussion hits and the critical concussion hits, then having to keep track of all this just seemed to detract a bit from the flow of the game. In a combat situation with several player characters and numerous NPCs, both foe and friend, it started to feel like a math drill. The players seemed to like the system for the most part, but did find this aspect of the game to be something of a drawback.
Did anyone else have this experience their first time using the system? Any thoughts on how to address this?