Author Topic: Restringing the HARP again...  (Read 1257 times)

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Offline Karizma

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Restringing the HARP again...
« on: January 31, 2017, 07:21:09 PM »
This is my return to the helm, after nearly a decade after moving out from college, where I introduced a group of friends to tabletop roleplaying through HARP. Here I hope to journal my return to HARP as a GM. I can ramble, so while the core element of this thread is simply this group and their adventure, the accompanying musings will focus on the following goals:
  • As a HARPer, utilizing HARP's flexibility and player-focused control over character potential to its greatest capacity
  • As a Game Master, revealing what real-world things I might research, as well as shed insight as to what skills I might practice to improve my skill behind the screen
  • As a Host, understanding the best ways to use the game space and minimize distraction
  • As a Roleplayer, understanding the best way to address and include the different interests that are brought to the table
For the sake of digestion, I have confined extensive rambling into "Spoiler" Tags. These are largely to separate musings within the larger posts. If the formatting is bothersome I'll amend it. Ultimately, feedback is going to be my greatest benefit from making this public.

My background
Tabletop gaming was influential in my youth, and so it's something I've grown passionate about, for better or worse.
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And onto now...

The Players
  • The Partner: My boyfriend and GM of a separate 5e game, often a collaborator of ideas, and constant support to manage my depression and get my ass in gear to actually DO any of this
  • The Idealist: His characters become him
  • The Tinkerer: I know he'll find a way to break anything I construct for the group, and it's kind of exciting
  • The Loyalist: His devotion to the group's fun is surpassed only by his devotion to his friends
  • And Introducing The Explorer: Boyfriend to The Loyalist, he is completely new to Tabletop roleplaying, and I'm excited for what he finds.

The Setting
The Map
The entire party originally consisted of the above, without The Explorer. I was itching for fantasy, and my initial thought was to run HARP core as-is, for the benefit of rules-reference for players being confined to one book. However, it quickly became apparent that players were interested in non-standard characters right from the start.  So we used a collaborative world-building tool designed as a light game, called Dawn of Worlds.
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The players have defined a number of races and locations. This meant I had to nix most of the Core races and cultures.  The result I have come to is to have character races be generally a little better, upping the initial power level of the game. I admit, there's some imbalance, and I made some adjustments to the player-imagined races to keep from anything game-breaking.

Additional Tools
The Partner pointed me to a website with a whole bunch of nifty tools. My favorite and one I hadn't seen before, the Fantasy Calendar Generator. I now have a printout of the world's calendar, complete with lunar phases of the three moons I arbitrarily settled on.

The Races
I intend to come back and put more information in here. There's only so much I can do in one sitting!
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The Mechanics
Books and Materials
I had some old PDFs from 2009, but I also purchased updated PDFs of HARP, College of Magic, Martial Law, and even Sci-Fi and Xtreme since I knew vehicles were going to come up.
Additionally, I have some Guild Companion articles saved for reference and ideas.

Combat Changes
First and foremost, I intend to implement Robin Johnson's SPAR, using index cards to declare actions.
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Hit resolution was hard to settle on.  I've decided to utilize the vast array of options by having two different methods, depending on the context.

For most encounters, I will run Hack 'n Slash Extended tables found in the now unavailable HARPer's Bazaar October '09.
For more encounters that require more dramatic tension, especially with a perception of characters on somewhat equal footing, I will utilize Bruce's Alternate Combat. For the purposes of this thread, I will abstain from commenting on this aspect of my games, and will use the appropriate forum for thoughts and feedback on the combat system. I mention it in this post primarily as record.

EQUIPMENT!
One of my biggest changes is to the equipment and inventory system. This is something I'd been mulling over since college, and I'd finally hammered out a prototype system.
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By moving equipment to cards, I'm hoping it will give a sense of supply management, as well as create an opening: as party members drop their bags to fight, goblins can run by and take 'em.

And then came The Explorer from The Underground
While I was working on this game, The Explorer's work schedule kept him away. He did not get to interact at all with the world-building process. As we started finishing up designing the world, The Explorer was introduced to Dan Harmon's HarmonQuest, in which the creator of Community and Rick and Morty plays a tabletop game in front of a studio audience in Hollywood with guests each episode.
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And then the stars aligned, and The Explorer's schedule shifted. Suddenly, he could be a player. I was still making the Races, Cultures, and tailoring the mechanics, so I allowed him to make his own race. On his own whim, and an homage to a Dexter's Laboratory episode, "D & DD," he created a subterranean race. Additionally, the entirety of the world-building process had been on the surface map. So it was decided, while the rest of the players can lay claim to designing the surface, he has been the creative force behind the Underground.

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The Characters
Alexei, the Un Magician who seeks knowledge and understanding, played by The Partner

Atticus, the Rechin Fighter who yearns to join the righteous Order of Eternity, played by The Idealist

Chrrowf, offspring of a Lutrae/Meerka mix, and a hybrid of the two gnoll types. An ambitious Rogue who has history as a Skyskater, played by The Tinkerer

Moi, a dog that was granted the power to shapeshift into a dwarf. Haruru druids had taken him in, and taught him to defend himself as a Ranger, and enough basic social skills to pass as a sapient dwarf. The Loyalist has a challenge with this character.

Grendonis, the Igbaos Monk. A foreigner to the world, he had only turned away for a moment before the freyans took his younger brother. Afraid to face his father, he abandoned his family, and was led to train as a monk with the elves. The Explorer got to start out with a wealth of story and background to start from, and as Grendonis explores the worlds, The Explorer may explore the hobby.

I think I'll stop here for now. My next posts will contain summaries of games with reflections on my experience, what worked what didn't, et cetera. I also want to go back in another post and talk more about my prep, my custom GM screen and my table rules. At the time of this writing I've only had a few rocky sessions, but I'm learning my lessons.
And so, the stage is set...

Offline trechriron

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Re: Restringing the HARP again...
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2017, 11:58:54 PM »
This sounds amazing! I can't wait to read more!
Trentin C Bergeron (TreChriron)
Bard, Dreamer, & RPG Enthusiast