Let's Read Harnmaster

[robertsconley]

As promised.
First off Harnmaster is divided into loose leaf articles meant to be placed in a 3-ring binder. There were a few exceptions but the whole line was published like this after the mid 80s.


circa 2010 I will post a more recent screen shot later


Introduction
This is a 2 page article outlining the system and their philosophy.

The basic gist is stated in this sentence

HârnMaster

is a fantasy role-playing game in which players assume the identities of characters who explore and experience a fantasy world.

The Gamemaster (GM)
Explain their view of the role of the gamemaster which is summarized as thus.

The Gamemaster (GM) is apart from the players and functions much like a referee at a sports event. Among many other things, the GM controls weather and climate, societies and institutions, and deities and religions.

The GM stands between the fantasy world and the players, describing and explaining it, and operating the denizens that hinder the PCs’ lives. But the GM also operates Non-Player Characters (NPCs) who can befriend and assist PCs and should never, therefore, be viewed as the “enemy.”

Also says this about the players

The players’ challenge is to explore the fantasy world, meet it on its own terms, and succeed according to the goals they set for themselves.

The sidebar explains the other products in the Harnmaster system.

General Information
This is a short section explaining all the terms, conventions, and abbreviation used in the rules.

Rob's Comments
One of the reason I like Harnmaster and product is that their view of how to run a campaign closely aligns with mine. Most of their products I found highly useful for my Majestic Wilderlands setting because of this.

Next Characters

 

[robertsconley]

Characters
This is a 30 page article detailing how to generate characters

Generating Characters
The steps for making a Harnmaster Character are

1. GM tells the players which optional rules are in play for this game.
2. Generate Birth, Appearance, Physical, and Personality attributes.
3. Determine Parent Occupation. You may accept this occupation for your own or seek a new career.
4. Determine Automatic, Occupational, Family, and Optional skills.
5. Determine Equipment & Funds.
6. Determine Contacts.
7. Veterans (optional).

The last step is to allow the players or referee to make experienced characters otherwise they are starting out around age 18 to 22.

You can either random roll up your character or build them through points.




Character Profiles
A short section explaining the Harnmaster character sheet (called a profile) and how to minimize the need to copy the information to a new sheet.

Birth Attributes
Details the circumstances the characters are born into. You either pick them or roll them randomly. They include in order

• Species: Human, Sindarin (elf), Khuzdal (dwarf), Other (GM Discretion)
• Sex
• Birthdate and Sunsign (Harnic Zodiac)
• Birthplace, either pick or use the charts in Harnworld.
• Culture: Imperial (Tharda), Feudal, Viking (Orbaalese), Tribal, Sindarin, or Khuzan.
• Social Class: Slave, Serf, Unguilded, Guilded, or Noble

So a fiddly bit of Harnmaster is the sunsign. Your character will have one of 24 possibilities. Either a single sunsign or a be born on a cusp and benefit from two sunsigns. The sunsign modify the starting level of certain skills. Once character gen is done it rarely comes up.

I always used it something unique to Harnmaster, add flavors, and again only dealt with during Character Gen or getting a new skill.

Now the biggie Social Class. Most character will be from a Feudal culture and that means they will likely start off as Serfs if random rolls are used. Luckily this section is either choice or 1d100. The first few times with Harnmaster it will be fun to come up with various explanation of why your character is adventuring despite being born a serf. But it gets repetitive.

Family Development
This section develops the character's immediate family. Which could be important, just flavor or not a factor at all. It mostly focuses on the character relationship and is not a family/clan generator.

So you roll for

• Sibling Rank: Eldest to 6th Child.
• Parental Relationship: Offspring, Fostered, Adopted, Bastard, Orphan
• Estrangement: A 1d100 roll to see how good your relationship is with the clan or extended family.
• Clanhead: How closely you are related to the head of the family/clan.

Appearance Attributes:
Here you generate by species some of the physical attributes of the character.
Height
Frame
Weight: Calculated
Comeliness: 3d6 roll

As an option you can roll Complexion, Hair Color, and Eye Color

Physical Attributes
Harn uses 3d6 for attributes. It has more attributes but only some of are what is called a key attribute. These are attribute used most often in the rest of the system.

Rob's Comment
What I have done is a straight 3d6 roll for non key attributes. But because of the importance of keyed attributes I have players roll 4d6 drop the lowest die. Do this seven times and arrange among the keyed attributes.

The physical attributes are

• Strength: Key
• Stamina: Key
• Dexterity: Key
• Agility: Key
• Eyesight
• Hearing
• Smell
• Voice

Medical
Here you can roll 1d100 to see what medical condition the players can have. A sample of the table is below. The rules are vague whether the roll is optional or not. There is a 30% change (71+) that the character will have no medical traits, and a 5% they will have multiple traits (66-70)



Rob's Comment
I strongly recommend making this roll optional and using the optional rule in the sidebar that gives the players a reward a two points to be place in a attribute if they risk a roll on this table. The feel of gambling with the character's fate adds to the char gen process.

Personality Attributes
They are

• Intelligence: Key
• Aura: Key
• Will: Key
• Morality: Diabolical to Exemplary

Aura is the character connection to the supernatural.

Pysche
Like Medical this these are mental disorder the character can have.



Like Medical I recommend using the optional rule that rewards the player with attributes points if they opt to make rolls on this table. This has other optional rules to pick from as well. Again there is a 30% change of no disorders, and 5% chance of multiple disorders.

Diety
A short list and explanation of the Harnic Deities and their suggested Morality ranges.

Also explains Piety Points which rolled using 5d6. Piety points measure a character standing with their deity. All players can use them to pray for divine intervention, and they are important to priests if using Harn Religion.

Occupation
This section serves two purposes, for character generation and for making NPCs. It list a set of different occupations and the skills associated with them. It comprehensive for a medieval setting and also includes monthly and yearly wage information.


For character generation the point of the section is generate the character's parent occupation. Then the player can roll (or pick) the occupation they apprentice in. Listed for the occupation is the number of years of service before the character gets all the skill listed for that occupation. For example a Hunter/Trapper requires 5 years. Character start training at age 14. The parent roll also determine if the character was born into an urban environment.





Assignment of Skills
Starting Harn Character get skills from the following.

• Automatic Skills: Everybody has these
• Occupational Skills: The skill listed under the occupation that the character trained for.
• Family Skills: The character gets to add the first skill in the parent's occupation and one other skill in their occupation list. They don't start as high as the occupation skills
• Optional Skills: The player gets 5 picks, they can be put all one new skill or spread among 5 new skills.
• Psionic Talent: As an option the character can be born with a psionic talent. The referee is also has the option of rolling secret latent talents for the player.

I will get into how skill works in the next post.

Equipment and Funds
Next we get into Equipment and Funds. Basically listing how much wealth the character start out with. Unless the character is a noble it is pretty small. A lot of Harn characters in my campaigns started with little more than a clothes, a leather vest, spear, dagger, and a helmet.

Friends and Enemies
This section is about generating contacts among families and allies. As well as how to call on them for favors. This is often vital for characters trying to get themselves established and looking for adventure.

Veterans
This section explains how to continue character generation to produce an experienced character. Basically each year after the character finishes training give option points which can be used to improve or add skills.

Aging
This section explains about aging if the campaigns progresses along far enough.

Character Design
This section explains the point based method of character creation. All Key attributes are set to 8 and you spend 30 character point to make them whatever you want.

As an option you can add 20 more cp and include the other elements of character generation.

Clerics
This contains the rules for creating clerics of various Harnic Religions. However keep in mind the rules for divine magic is found in Harn Religion. This section also explains Ritual Invocations which are divine abilities usable by the clerics.

Shek-P'var
This section explains how to create a mage in the service of the Shek Pvar. There are six convocations of magic corresponding to the Harnic elements of Air, Fire, Metal, Earth, Water, Mind. Along with the seventh neutral convocation. Sun sign is a factor in how good a mage is with a convocation. Like clerics you need Harnmaster Magic for the explanation of the magic system.

Military Careers
This covers the various military occupations as well as provide a fair amount detail on military life. It is a great option for adventurers. Where clerics and mages get two pages each, this section get four pages full of military detail and char gen info.

That it for character tommorrow will be skills.

 

[Moonglum]

Thanks for this thread; I always loved Harn - it feels to me like a kit-bash of Runequest and 1st edition Chivalry and Sorcery. I own a bunch of Harn stuff but never could overcome the activation energy associated with getting my group to play the system. It came along late enough that it sort of fell into the category of, 'for god's sake, not ANOTHER freaking fantasy rpg system?!?'.

 

[Tom B]

We've gone with the point-build option ever since it was presented.

 

[TristramEvans]

I'm just going to say that I am thoroughly chuffed that this game has "Lovecraft" as an ability, with no reference to the Mythos

 

[Spartan]

I'm a Hârn grognard since '98. By all means, proceed. It has been scientifically proven that there is nothing that can not be made better by the addition of HârnMaster.

 

[Spartan]

Thanks for this thread; I always loved Harn - it feels to me like a kit-bash of Runequest and 1st edition Chivalry and Sorcery. I own a bunch of Harn stuff but never could overcome the activation energy associated with getting my group to play the system. It came along late enough that it sort of fell into the category of, 'for god's sake, not ANOTHER freaking fantasy rpg system?!?'.

That's because it IS a kitbash of RQ and C&S. Hârn started as a C&S campaign IIRC. That being said, it's squeaky clean, unlike either RQ or C&S which, as much as I love them, are far clunkier. HM is mechanically superior in every way to either system. It plays incredibly smoothly.

 

[Devil]

That's because it IS a kitbash of RQ and C&S. Hârn started as a C&S campaign IIRC.

Yup, that's my understanding as well.

That being said, it's squeaky clean, unlike either RQ or C&S which, as much as I love them, are far clunkier. HM is mechanically superior in every way to either system. It plays incredibly smoothly.

I agree, although I give massive props to the Design Mechanism for making such excellent and engaging improvements to the Runequest ruleset with RQ6 and Mythras. Really, really close second for me.

 

[robertsconley]

Skills
This is a 24 page article.

In a nutshells skills are checked with a d100 rolled low. If you roll equal to or less than your skill level +/- modifiers then you succeeded. If you roll a 0 or 5 on the last die it is a critical result. Most resolution tables list four entries. Critical Failure, Failure, Success, Critical Success.

Skill Base
What your skill level starts out at is based on your Skill Base. The Skill Base is an average of three attributes. This is one of the more fiddly bits of Harnmaster but like much of the other fiddly it is frontloaded when you create the character.



Once you calculate your skill base you add in a modifier for your sunsign.

For example the skill base for Stealth is an average of Agility, Hearing, and Will. So a character with an Agility of 12, Hearing of 15, and a Will of 9 will have a skill base of 12 (12+15+9 = 36 /3 = 12). If the character had the Hirin (Eagle), Tareal (Pentacle), or Tai (Lantern Bearer) sunsign they would get a +2 bonus for a SB of 14. Note that fractions are rounded to the nearest whole number. So a total of 35 would round to 12 (11.6667) but a total of 34 would round to 11 (11.3333).

Rob's Comment
I recommend using a printout made form a spreadsheet of triple values. A list of totals and their calculated skill base. Like the one I made for my campaign that I attached to this post.

So do you use skill base for?

When you open a skill there is a opening mastery level modifiers under the Opening Mastery Level or OML column. So when the character starts out with stealth their initial skill level is SB x3. So using my example with a SB of 12 the character would have a Mastery Level (skill level or ML) of 36%.

When you go through character generation, the skills you get often have a higher OML. Using the Hunter Trapper from the previous post. We see the Hunter/Trapper opens stealth at SB x4 not SB x3. The above character with a SB of 12 would start out with a ML of 48%, 56% if the character had one of the three sunsigns that influences Stealth due to the SB of 14.



Note that any skill in all caps are default skills. Sorry TristramEvans Lovecraft is not a default skill.

The other roles Skill Base plays is that it determines your max skill level (100 + SB), and higher SB makes improving skills easier.

Mastery Level (ML)
Harnmaster calls skill level Mastery Level. Unfortunately they opt for a bit of jargon.

OML: Opening Mastery Level, The multiplier used to determine the initial Mastery Level when the character obtains a skill.
EML: Effective Mastery Level, Your mastery level plus or minus any modifiers. This is what you roll against.

Your minimum EML is always 5%, your maximum EML is always 95%

Skill Index (SI)
This is your Mastery Level divided by 10 (rounded down). This is used in several mechanics where you are able to do more with a higher SI. They don't give a spot for it on your character sheet as it is always the first number of your Mastery Level.

Specialties
An optional rule to allow for more fine grained skills. Some skills you can have specialties and improve them separately. You can start taking specialties at ML 40+. The advantage is that you can improve a specialty twice as fast as the broad skill. An example is Musician and different instrument. Or Swords and the different sword types. I recommend using this rule. And for TristramEvans the specialties for Lovecraft are specifically noted at the GM's discretion.

Skill Table
I showed you a slice of the skill table above. It is divided into Physical, Communication, Religion, Combat, and Craft & Lore. The Craft & Lore is the longest list.

Each skill has its Name, the Skill Base attributes, Sunsign modifiers, OML, and suggested specialities.

Skill Testing
Here the rules talk about how to have player test their character skills. A marginal success is rolling equal to or less than your Effective Mastery Level. Otherwise it is a marginal failure. Any roll ending in a 0 or 5 is a critical result.

Opposed Skill Checks
Harnmaster looks at relative success, Marginal Success versus Critical Failure for example. The higher success level wins with Critical Success being the highest. If both character roll the same success level then it is either a tie, or who ever rolls the lowest wins if a tie is not relevant. In practice using this is straight forward and fast with no math involved.

The Universal Penalty
Character get injured, or get tired, Harnmaster folds these conditions into the Universal Penalty.

The Universal Penalty that is a number from 0 to X. It applies in one of two ways.

You add the number to any save you have to roll with d6s versus one of your attributes
You multiply 5 and it reduces your EML that you roll against.

For example a Universal Penalty of 5 means that your skill levels are reduced by -25%, and your add +5 to any xd6 rolls versus your attributes.

The Universal Penalty is made up of the following.

Injury Penalty
Every injury that the character suffer is rated from 1 to 5. Adding together all your injuries gives you your character's injury penalty.

Fatigue Penalty
If your character exerted themselves strenuously for 5 minutes or more then they add one Fatigue level. Casting spells or using Psionics also adds Fatigue level.

Your Universal Penalty is the sum of your Injury Penalty and Fatigue Penalty.

Physical Penalty
For physical activities like combat, climbing, or stealth. You also have to add in your Encumbrance Penalty. This total is the Physical Penalty.

The Enumberance Penalty is calculated by adding up the weight of everything you are carrying and dividing it by the character's endurance. So if the character carrying 60 lbs and their endurance is 15 then their EP is 4.

Rob's Comment
Encumbrance is generally considered fiddly in most systems and this no different. However it easier than most as it is handled by dividing the weight carried by encumbrance. It fits with the gritty medieval theme of Harnmaster. Finally it why the high combat skills of characters with military skills is important. The high mastery levels represents in part the training they got with having gear on.

If you don't want to account for every item in encumbrance then just total up the weapons and armor/clothing worn and tack on 10 or 20 lbs for gear.

Skill Development
When a character gets a development roll you roll 1d100 + Skill Base. If it exceeds your Mastery Level then the ML goes up by one. Up by 2 if it is a specialty.

Skill Development Rolls
Characters get Skill Development rolls for

• Study/Practice, HM assume that throughout a month Character practice and study their skills. There is an optional to increase this if the character has high Will
• Employment and Instruction, bonuses are given for job related skills and for being taught by somebody with a higher ML.
• Stressful/Bonus Experience, the referee can award bonus development rolls after adventures that test the character's skills. The author encourage to give these out for failures as well as successes.

All of this part of a subsystem using Skill Maintenance Points. It sounds fiddly but it only one page and what it amounts to is that character get three development rolls a month, one roll for 40 hours of work, or 10 hours of instruction. There is an optional rule where you have to use SMPs to maintain skills you HAVEN'T used. But I never used that option.

Rob's Comment
I like this a lot. GURPS has some of this but Harnmaster's take is far cleaner and easier to use provided you don't use Skill Maintenance. I have a house rule that you double your gain if you roll a critical on your development roll. (2 for broad skills, 4 for specialties). I like that you automatically get 3 rolls a month which helps greatly with players feeling free to poke and muddle around. Otherwise they feel like they need to get into scrapes in order to advance all the time.

The Skills
Pages 8 to 19 are the descriptions of the skills and their mechanics. A lot of stuff in these pages so I will highlight a couple.

Jumping
Jumping is an example of a skill using the Critical Failure to Critical Success scale. The numbers present the percentage of the character's height that they are able to jump.

Stealth
Example of a description only skill.

Stealth is tested when a character attempts to move without being detected. It can only be applied in situations where an observer would not automatically see the sneaker. The attempt presumes reasonable cover and/or poor light. EML is modified for distance to the target, available cover, etc. Rolling any failure indicates detection, although with MF it may be reasonable to test Awareness of potential observers.

Languages and Scripts
The description for both are several paragraphs. When we get to treasure you will see that not only knowing a language matters but the script in which it written matters as well. Luckily since this focuses on Harn there isn't an overwhelming number of choices although the author does touches briefly on the rest of the world.

Lovecraft
Just for TristramEvans the description of Lovecraft

The ability to charm, seduce, and give erotic pleasure. Lovecraft is opened when a character first attempts to use it. It cannot normally be improved by solitary practice, although there may be books or teachers available. The skill is used to assess the success of a seduction or sexual encounter.

Craft/Lore Skills
Most of these skills can only opened after a period of training with a teacher following the instruction rules in skill development. In some way this section along with combat are the heart and soul of a Harn character. There is a fair amount of terse detail packed in here.

Combat Skills
Combat skills are easy to get, you can open them after just one combat with a relevant weapon. However after ML 70 you can only improve them through bonus development rolls gained in actual combat.

Initiative
This skill can only be improved through bonus development rolls gained as a result of combat. This skill typically not roll but used to determine the order of initiative.

Analysis/Appraisal
Value Enhancement
Product Quality
These three section give general mechanics for using the Craft/Lore skills focusing on items and good that you can make with these skills. It one page.

Attribute Testing
This section get into the different ways you can use your attributes. It is two pages and covers the basic in the usual detailed but terse Harn style.

Example Lifting

Normal, healthy characters can lift Strength × 10 pounds, at least briefly, with little or no difficulty. When attempting to lift heavier loads, the table (below) is consulted. The table assumes loads can be conveniently gripped with both hands/arms. Awkward loads are more difficult. Lifting tests are subject to Physical Penalty

It is possible to successfully lift a weight and then find it too heavy to hold. Once a load is lifted, an immediate Carrying Test is required.

Mental Conflict
I haven't used this section much. However in two pages it give a system to resolves things like psionic attacks, possession, ethereal conflicts, and control of a magical artifact. It simplified compared to Harn combat with a single table resolving attack and defense. While different things can happen the immediate result of mental conflict is gaining fatigue levels and perhaps passing out.



That it for skills, next is the big one COMBAT!

 

[Séadna]

This is very useful Robert, thanks for taking the time

 

[Endless Flight]

I like how skills are based on more than one attribute. Not enough RPGs do it that way. Melee skills only based on Strength always bugged the hell out of me.

 

[Spartan]

Yup, that's my understanding as well.


I agree, although I give massive props to the Design Mechanism for making such excellent and engaging improvements to the Runequest ruleset with RQ6 and Mythras. Really, really close second for me.

It is very nice. I just sold my copy of RQ6 so it could go to a good home where it would be played. When it comes to BRP I'm more of a Magic World guy, or the BGB. I have RQG as well, which is pretty nice, if a bit poorly edited. There was no need for me to hang onto it RQ6. I'm getting rid of Classic Fantasy and my Legend stuff too, I think. I've got the new C&S, SPI's DragonQuest etc., so my need for more percentile systems is rather low! If I ever run Glorantha again, I might just use HârnMaster and import the Runes from RQG. Would probably work nicely.

 

[TristramEvans]

Lovecraft
Just for TristramEvans the description of Lovecraft

View attachment 17373

Very interested to see how these charts work. Have to admit I'm a sucker for colourful chart-based resolution mechanics.

 

[Spartan]

I'm just going to say that I am thoroughly chuffed that this game has "Lovecraft" as an ability, with no reference to the Mythos

It also says that the Lovecraft skill “can not normally be improved through solitary practice.”

 

[robertsconley]

First off as promised here my collection of Harn material circa 2020



Now for the biggie

Combat
This is a 26 page article

First off if you have trouble following any of this I strongly recommend downloading and reading Bill Gant's Harnmaster Combat vs D20 Combat Essay.

Scale and Components
Harnamaster supports miniatures and this section has the author's recommendation on what scale to use. Namely 1 inch = 5 feet, that you use 25 mm miniatures, and a hexgrid is preferred. It also goes on to say that if you don't use a hexgrid then just multiply all references to hexes by five to get the number of feet.

Combat Profile
Explains the combat profile portion of the character sheet and its most import elements

Endurance: The ability to tolerate and recover from physical ordeal. It is the average of Strength, Stamina, and Will.
Move: The number of hexes a character can move in 10 seconds (a round). It equal to the character's agility so a human can move up to 50 feet in a 10 second round.
Dodge: An automatic skill that opens at Agility x 5. This can be improved as a skill.
Load: The information is repeated from Characters. Basically the weight the character carries divided by Endurance.
Encumbrance Penalty:

Weapons
Harnmaster has a variety of choices for weapons. It not exhaustive like GURPS Martial Arts and focuses on the medieval along with some selections from the Roman Era.

Each weapon is rated for the following: A - Attacking skill bonus; D- Defending skill bonus; WT - Weight; WQ - Weapon Quality; Impact Values (B/E/P) - Bonus to impact for Blunt, Edge, and Point; Then Price in d (silver pennies);



Armour
Next combat discusses Armor. Just as weapons have impact bonuses for different aspects (Blunt, Edge, Point) Different types of Armor defends better against various weapons aspects plus there is a rating for resisting fire.

While tersely written it is a fiddly part of Harnmaster but like many of the other fiddly parts it is front loaded onto the character sheet before play.

Armor nuances
As you will see Harnmaster is at the high end for the number of hit locations. You buy armor in pieces and layers of armor stack on top of each other. Eventually the weight will radically degrade your combat capabilities but for more character there is a sweet spot of protection for what they can carry.

For example you don't just wear a Chain Hauberk you also wear a Quilt Gambeson. This give the extra padding especially for blunt attack to resist injury.




If you get the boxed set you will also get a GM Screen that has a chart listing the totals for common combinations of armor layers.

The good news if you armor your character like you see an medieval illustration you will be just as protected in-game as in real life.


There an optional rule to damage armor if the character suffers a high impact injury. The high impact creates or tears a hole in the armor. It fiddly and I have never used it as it involves an extra roll in future rounds.

Movement
This section explains movement. Basically a walk is half move, a jog is a full move, running is double move, and sprinting is triple move. The primary mechanical effect is how much Fatigue you gain for movement. It doesn't come up often in combat as sprinting causes 1 FL per 1 minute (6 rounds) of sprinting.

Engagement Zones
Like some other RPG, active characters exert a zone of control. Harnmaster sets this at five feet around the character. The effect is that if you are engaged you can only move one hex per round (any direction). If you were not engaged before moving next to the opponent you must stop movement. Engagement Zones can overlap and a single character can be engaged with up to six opponents.

There is an optional rule allowing the Engagement Zone to be extended to 10 feet for long reach weapons. Another optional rule are the reaction zone. The reaction zone extends as far as the character can move. If an opponent starts outside of the character's reaction zone then the opponent must stop if they move into it. If the opponent starts within another character's reaction they can move normal. The point of the rule is to give the character a change to intercept somebody if they move within their move range.

Combat Sequence
Harnmaster uses 10 second combat rounds.

The character with the highest initiative goes first. If two character are tied then go with the higher skill base, any further ties resolved with a 1d10 or 1d6 roll.

You can do one action: Res, Pass, Free Move (up to running or move x2) , Engage (half move and optionally attack), Charge (full move and must attack), Disenage (move 1 hex, and do a half move), Rise, Grope (using anything with DEX), Melee Attack, Missile Attack (Load or Fire for a crossbow, Load/Ready & Fire for everything else), Grapple Attack, Esoteric Attack (magic or psionics).

There are optional rules for
Surprise
Engage Initiative: when engaging first time both roll initiative, if the defender has a higher success they can perform an attack
Combat Fatigue: Two variants for suffering Fatigue during combat. I recommend #2 each character suffer 1 Fatigue for every 5 minutes (30 rounds) of combat.

Need to continue this in a second post.

 

[robertsconley]

Melee Attack Sequence
So now you are engaged and ready to attack. This section use the Harnmaster Combat Tables which you can download.

• The attacker declares what aspect of their weapon they are using (B/E/P) and whether they are aiming High (-10), Mid (0), or Low (10

Athelstan with a 55 sword skill attacks with the edge of his broadsword (impact bonus of 5) aiming for the mid section (+0)

• The defender either ignores the attack due to various circumstances, or if is active whether they Counterstrike, Block, or Dodge.

Bjorn with a 46 shield skill elects to block the swing with his round shield.

• Both sides rolls, the attack uses his Attacker Mastery Level, and the Defender uses his Defender Mastery Level

Athelstan will have to roll equal to or less than a 70 (55 ML + 15 A)
Bjorn will have to roll equal to or less than at 66 (46 ML + 20 B)

• The success levels are compared and the result apply

Athelstan rolls a 55 a Critical Success
Bjorn rolls a 68 a Marginal Failure

• If the result is an injury, strike impact is rolled, strike location is rolled, and the armor protection is subtracted. If the result is 1+ then an injury has occured.

Cross indexing the two success levels results a A*2 results. Which means you roll 2d6 + 5 (the impact bonus of the edge of the broadsword).
Able rolls a 6 giving an 11 impact. Able rolls a 58 for Strike Location hitting the Thorax

Bjorn is wearing a Leather Vest over a Cloth Shirt giving a protection value of 5 versus Edge impacts. So Bjorn suffers a 6 impact.


So what the other results. AF, DF, and BF are fumbles, you have to make a fumble roll or lose your weapon (or shield). Block means the defending weapon (a shield in this case) intercepts the attacking weapon (the Broadsword). If you use weapon damage then the lower quality weapon has to make a save first or be functionally destroyed. If the save is made then it is the higher WQ that has to save. I recommend using this optional roll. It is a 3d6 roll low versus the weapon's WQ. There even a more brutal variant where even you make a weapon save its WQ is reduced by 1 although it still works. This seems a bit unrealistically harsh. If you want to do this drop the WQ if you make the save exactly or by 1 anything lower the weapon is fine.

A DTA is a Defender Tactical Advantage, once each turn a character may gain a Tactical Advantage. They are allowed to take another action that turn. The most extreme result is that Athelstan attacks rolls badly, Bjorn gets a Tactical Advantage and attack back also rolling badly, Athelstan gain a Tactical Advantage and attack again hopefully not rolling badly again. Any further DTA are ignored.

Injury Determination
So now Bjorn got slashed across the thorax (upper chest) with 6 impact. Now it time to figure out his injury. We cross index the hit location with the impact to get a injury level. In this case an S2 results or a Serious Thorax Slash 2. It is recorded on the character sheet as Thorax S2.



The 2 is now added to the character Universal Penalty and for this injury the character has to make a shock roll. Remember the Universal Penalty is Injury + Fatigue but not Encumbrance. For every point of UP you roll 1d6. In this case Bjorn roll 2d6. If Bjorn rolls over his Endurance (average of STR, STA, and WIL) he collapses in shock. Now Bjorn has 14 STR, 12 STA, and a 10 WILL giving a END 12. He not going into shock for this injury.

If you look at the arm location above the Thorax there is a diamond. This is a symbol for a fumble roll as it is the arm. For the legs it is a stumble roll. Some Grievous wounds to the Legs and Arms also have a upside down triangle this is a amputation roll. K results are potential instant kills. If the character doesn't die then it is converted to a Grievous wounds now the character has to make a shock roll.

The end result is that after combat the character will have a list of injury they suffered. The total of which is applied to their Universal Penalty.

Rob's Comments
I generally don't like to use tables when refereeing. But these tables are excellent to use and don't slow down play. The bright layout makes it easy to figure the result of any strike. If one wants details for combat this is an excellent way to go.

More than any other system, I find the injury system of Harnmaster gets the players invested in their character. It tersely but graphically illustrates every injury and blow the character suffers. And it just adds something to experience that other system don't have.

However my major break with the author's ideas is how shock is handled. RAW states that you roll xd6 for shock with X being the Universal Penalty after you take the injury. This is unrealistically brutal especially compared to Harnmaster 1st edition. The rule I follow is that you roll xd6 for shock with x being the injury level you just suffered. To that roll you add your Universal Penalty BEFORE you apply the injury.

So if Bjorn has 3 IL from being hit previously then the above Serious Slash 2 would a 2d6+3 roll. I strongly recommend this variant which many other Harnmaster Referee uses.

The sidebar to injuries give several options rules. I recommend using Bloodloss. If a grievous injury is not bound up within 1 minute (6 rounds) then the character will suffer 1 Bloodloss that adds to the UP. If the total BP exceeds Endurance the character dies. Each grievous wound counts separately for bloodloss.

Beastly Blows
This section give special combat rules for Wings, Tails, and Tentacles

Missile Combat
Works similarly to Melee Combat. Defenders can Block or Dodge (or has to Ignore). The AML of the attack is modified for range. And potential impact is modified for range as well. Missile use their own combat matrix which generates hit or miss results.

Initiative Testing & Morale
For NPCs initiative is used for Morale Checks. This page covers the details and the results.

Mounted Combat
This section covers mounted combat in six pages.
The different Horse breeds are covered and their statistics along with the use of Riding Skill, Horse movement, how to command the horse in combat, and how actions work when mounted. Being mounted is an advantage especially in the impact rating generated for hitting and gives some damage opportunities not available on foot like steed trampling.

Jousting
The final two pages of Combat covers Jousting. There are some specific rules and notes covering the non-lethal aspect of the joust. Along with a unique combat matrix for resolving Joust strikes.




Next up is Physician cover what you do about all those injuries and why the battle isn't done when combat ends.

 

[TristramEvans]

how would you know a A*2 = 2D6+5?

 

[Spellslinging Sellsword]

how would you know a A*2 = 2D6+5?

"The number after the star (*) is the number of d6 rolled to determine strike impact."

 

[robertsconley]

how would you know a A*2 = 2D6+5?

Supposed in previous rounds Bjorn took a minor slash, M1, to the upper arm, and a Grievous Slash, G4, to the Thigh. So Bjorn Universal Penalty is now 5. Then Athelstan hit him with a serious slash to the thorax, an S2 results.

The S2 means 2d6 is rolled, the UP before the injury is applied is 5 so the shock roll is 2d6+5.

In RAW the shock roll would be 7d6.

The A*2 result is only for rolling impact. If Athelstan rolled a 10 then added 5 for his edge impact bonus for a 15. Then Bjorn armor would only reduce the impact to a 10. Looking at the Injury chart any impact on the Thorax 9+ is a S3 result. A serious slash that inflicts 3 injury. So under the original example Bjorn would be roll a 3d6 shock roll. Under my house rule it would be 3d6+the Universal Penalty.

Hope that clarifies things.

 

[Devil]

Melee Attack Sequence
So now you are engaged and ready to attack. This section....


... Next up is Physician cover what you do about all those injuries and why the battle isn't done when combat ends.

Heh. Rob, your post is certainly accurate, but I'm laughing right now at how incomprehensible this all must seem to someone totally unfamiliar with HM. (As was I many years ago!). Let me just support your post here by saying that the HM rules seem byzantine and labyrinthine on first read, but everything Rob has said is true - everything is front-loaded and things move remarkably fast while giving the players an astonishing amount of detail (which for me, pushes me deeper into the game's immersive qualities).

Carry on, my friend! This is bringing back all the feels, and making me soooooooo wanting to run Harn again!

 

[Endless Flight]

I have to admit I‘m one of those people Trevor is talking about. On first blush these rules make me want to run away screaming. I have never looked into this game besides a cursory glance because of that. I think this thread may help me get over that and I might buy it.

 

[Devil]

I have to admit I‘m one of those people Trevor is talking about. On first blush these rules make me want to run away screaming. I have never looked into this game besides a cursory glance because of that. I think this thread may help me get over that and I might buy it.

If nothing else, it's certainly worth a second look. Like any game, HM isn't for everyone - I myself have heavily houseruled it (although I'm hard-pressed to think of a game that I haven't done that to...), but it plays much, much easier than it reads on first glance.

NB: I am not in fact a Columbia Games shill ;)

 

[TristramEvans]

I think the abreviations make it complicated to read. Once you know their meanings by heart, I'm sure it's fine, and I'm sure condensing what is probably 10-20 pages in the rulebook into a forum post is much different than reading the rulebook.


But if I parse it correctly, it isn't much different (as far as crunch-level) than DC Heroes.

Let me see if I'm getting this correct:

1. Attacker declares the type of attack - blunt, edged, or piercing (for a sword, usiing the flat of the blade or hilt, the edge of the blade in a slashing attack, or point of the blade), and general location - high, mid, or low (an attempt to strike the head, body, or pelvis/legs)

*questions

• how does a the B/E/P options compare between a sword, a club (no effective edge or point), or stiletto (only really a point)?
• how does the size/height/body shape of an opponent affect the high/mid/low attack?

2. Defender declares defensive tactic - ignore, dodge, block, or counterstrike.

*questions

• is there a passive degree of defense if they ignore the attack? Or are they just hoping their opponet fumbles the roll?
• does counterstrike just mean attacking at the same time, or is it meant to be a parry and riposte type situation?
• does dodging also mean evading while in place (ducking/weaving etc) or is it flat out jumping away from attacker - is it going to leave you prone?

3. Attacker and defender both make a % roll -

here I get a bit confused. Robert says "the attack uses his Attacker Mastery Level, and the Defender uses his Defender Mastery Level"

In the example:
Athelstan will have to roll equal to or less than a 70 (55 ML + 15 A)
Bjorn will have to roll equal to or less than at 66 (46 ML + 20 B)

so, ML is "mastery level" - where is "A" and "B" coming from?

I think, from looking back, that's supposed to be "A" and "D" - the "Attacking Skill Bonus" and "Defending Skill Bonus"? But maybe "B" represents "Blocking Skill Bonus"? A quality of the shield?

that aside, the result determines the "quality of the roll". If this was FASERIP that would be the colour result. But here it's either a regular success or failure ("MS" /"MF" - I assume meaning " moderate" ) or a Critical Success or Failure ("CS"/""CF" if the roll ends in 0 or 5 IIRC?)

*it does seem like it would be simpler to just use "S" and "CS" and "F" and "CF" - why is the "M" necessary?

4. The results are compared to the chart

The example above shows the "Block" chart - I assume there is one such chart for each Defensive tactic?



Anyways, this is really straightforward - again, IF you know what any of those abbreviations mean

As I understand it, AF means Attacker Fumbles, DF means defender fumbles, and BF means...both fumble? Meaning you need to mke a (I assume dexterity roll?) or lose your weapon. So, if the result is a "BF" and both characters fail this roll, they both just ran up to each other and aggressively dropped their weapons simultaneously?

And "DTA" means the defender gets the Tactical Advantage next round - letting them take 2 actions.

So we know from the example AND Robert's further explanation that the result of A*2 is for "rolling impact"

And we know "A" is the "Attacking Skill Bonus"? Unless we're using the same abbreviation for two completely different things?

but the 2d6 +5 comes from... okay 2d6 is from "S2"? But where is that from? I don't see it in the weapon's description? Is this on the character sheet? And the +5 comes from a "universal penalty" from previous wounds (which honestly could have been left out of the example, as they weren't explained at any point).

OK, yeah, here I'm lost, apparently we're rolling something that doesn't in any way relate to this chart?

But anyways the 2d6 +5 is rolled and the hit location is rolled.

(seems like the hit location result could have been subsumed into the roll to-hit, WFRP 1 E does this elegantly with the hit location being the reverse of the number rolled. As it is it's just one more roll and chart.)

In the example above

Able rolls a 6 giving an 11 impact. Able rolls a 58 for Strike Location hitting the Thorax

5. OK, and now were compare the result of the 2D6 + 5 roll (11) to the hit location on the chart to determine the injury




So a Thorax hit at 11 impact gives a result of S3 (9+)

But apparently no, it gives a result of S2, according to the example?

Wait, is this the same S2 that w needed to know before rolling an the chart?

So now Bjorn got slashed across the thorax (upper chest) with 6 impact. Now it time to figure out his injury. We cross index the hit location with the impact to get a injury level. In this case an S2 results or a Serious Thorax Slash 2. It is recorded on the character sheet as Thorax S2.

The S2 means 2d6 is rolled, the UP before the injury is applied is 5 so the shock roll is 2d6+5.

OK, so the +5 in the roll isn't added to the roll, until after the result of the roll is compared to the injury chart? Huh?

And when does Armour figure into any of this?

Alright, I'm completely lost. I thought I had a handle on this, but nope.

 

[Devil]

Heh. I feel for you - trying to grok the intricacies of an 80's RPG system through a blog post. Like a lot of games of its era, HM relies on a bunch of nomenclature that quickly becomes second nature once you go through the motions.

I don't have the constitution (or the typing skill) to address piecemeal your many reasonable questions, so I'll leave that to Robert. But tell ya what - next time I'm up in Van I'll run you through a session and you'll see how it works.

 

[TristramEvans]

Heh. I feel for you - trying to grok the intricacies of an 80's RPG system through a blog post. Like a lot of games of its era, HM relies on a bunch of nomenclature that quickly becomes second nature once you go through the motions.

I don't have the constitution (or the typing skill) to address piecemeal your many reasonable questions, so I'll leave that to Robert. But tell ya what - next time I'm up in Van I'll run you through a session and you'll see how it works.

Deal!

 

[Tom B]

Let me see if I'm getting this correct:

1. Attacker declares the type of attack - blunt, edged, or piercing (for a sword, usiing the flat of the blade or hilt, the edge of the blade in a slashing attack, or point of the blade), and general location - high, mid, or low (an attempt to strike the head, body, or pelvis/legs)

*questions

• how does a the B/E/P options compare between a sword, a club (no effective edge or point), or stiletto (only really a point)?
• how does the size/height/body shape of an opponent affect the high/mid/low attack?

A weapon can have a "-" entry for one of those. A Taburi (throwing dagger), for example, has B/E/P of "0/-/4", a basic club would be "4/-/-".
Generally no effect on high/mid/low except in circumstances up to the GM. A very short character against a very large character, if the attacker is prone, etc.

2. Defender declares defensive tactic - ignore, dodge, block, or counterstrike.

*questions

• is there a passive degree of defense if they ignore the attack? Or are they just hoping their opponet fumbles the roll?
• does counterstrike just mean attacking at the same time, or is it meant to be a parry and riposte type situation?
• does dodging also mean evading while in place (ducking/weaving etc) or is it flat out jumping away from attacker - is it going to leave you prone?

There is actually a small chart like the above, except it is for "Ignore". Useful for surprise attacks. Only the attacker rolls, and he will hit for damage unless he rolls a critical failure, in which case the defender gets a "DTA" so he can attack back.
Counterstrike is basically the defender attempting to get an attack in first, before the attacker.
Dodge, is ducking, jumping, attempting to avoid the attack. You can still attack normally the next round.

3. Attacker and defender both make a % roll -

here I get a bit confused. Robert says "the attack uses his Attacker Mastery Level, and the Defender uses his Defender Mastery Level"

In the example:
Athelstan will have to roll equal to or less than a 70 (55 ML + 15 A)
Bjorn will have to roll equal to or less than at 66 (46 ML + 20 B)

so, ML is "mastery level" - where is "A" and "B" coming from?

I think, from looking back, that's supposed to be "A" and "D" - the "Attacking Skill Bonus" and "Defending Skill Bonus"? But maybe "B" represents "Blocking Skill Bonus"? A quality of the shield?

I'm not sure why he chose "B". You're correct, it's the Defending Skill Bonus for a Round Shield.

that aside, the result determines the "quality of the roll". If this was FASERIP that would be the colour result. But here it's either a regular success or failure ("MS" /"MF" - I assume meaning " moderate" ) or a Critical Success or Failure ("CS"/""CF" if the roll ends in 0 or 5 IIRC?)

*it does seem like it would be simpler to just use "S" and "CS" and "F" and "CF" - why is the "M" necessary?

I've always agreed. I've always felt it should be Success/Critical Success, Failure/Critical Failure. My only guess is they wanted a consistent 2-letter abbreviation

4. The results are compared to the chart

The example above shows the "Block" chart - I assume there is one such chart for each Defensive tactic?

View attachment 17425

Anyways, this is really straightforward - again, IF you know what any of those abbreviations mean

As I understand it, AF means Attacker Fumbles, DF means defender fumbles, and BF means...both fumble? Meaning you need to mke a (I assume dexterity roll?) or lose your weapon. So, if the result is a "BF" and both characters fail this roll, they both just ran up to each other and aggressively dropped their weapons simultaneously?

Yes, but they become intuitively obvious pretty quickly. Yes, there are 4 small charts like that one: Block, Counterstrike, Dodge, Ignore. For Missile Attacks there are 3: Block, Dodge, Ignore. As to two failed fumble rolls...yep. They came up, lost their grip or footing, or struck each others weapons and couldn't hold them. I'll have to say I've never seen it happen, but it could.

And "DTA" means the defender gets the Tactical Advantage next round - letting them take 2 actions.

Actually, it's the same round. Once a DTA result is rolled, the defender gets to either move away or attack...if he attacks, he rolls his attack for the same round.

So we know from the example AND Robert's further explanation that the result of A*2 is for "rolling impact"

And we know "A" is the "Attacking Skill Bonus"? Unless we're using the same abbreviation for two completely different things?

but the 2d6 +5 comes from... okay 2d6 is from "S2"? But where is that from? I don't see it in the weapon's description? Is this on the character sheet? And the +5 comes from a "universal penalty" from previous wounds (which honestly could have been left out of the example, as they weren't explained at any point).

No, the "A" just means "Attacker". it means that the Attacker rolls 2d6 and adds it to the damage aspect of the weapon. This is because, in the case of a Counterstrike, it's possible to get a D*# result, say, "D*2", meaning the result is that the Defender rolls 2d6 plus his damage aspect.

But anyways the 2d6 +5 is rolled and the hit location is rolled.

(seems like the hit location result could have been subsumed into the roll to-hit, WFRP 1 E does this elegantly with the hit location being the reverse of the number rolled. As it is it's just one more roll and chart.)

There's probably a way to do it. You'd need modifiers for high/mid/low.

5. OK, and now were compare the result of the 2D6 + 5 roll (11) to the hit location on the chart to determine the injury

View attachment 17426


So a Thorax hit at 11 impact gives a result of S3 (9+)

But apparently no, it gives a result of S2, according to the example?

Wait, is this the same S2 that w needed to know before rolling an the chart?

OK, so the +5 in the roll isn't added to the roll, until after the result of the roll is compared to the injury chart? Huh?

And when does Armour figure into any of this?

Actually, the total damage was 11, then he deducted 5 for the edge protection of leather armor. So, 11-5=6. 6 would result in an S2 injury. That's where the armour came into play. No, there was no S2 you needed to know before that. If the final damage after armour had been 14, it would have been a G4 injury.

Does that make sense?

 

[Atelerix]

Should I be worried that this all makes sense?

What's really worrying is that I keep thinking "hmmm, that table handles combat outcomes more elegantly than Runequest"

 

[robertsconley]

I know Tom B answer some of your questions, thanks Tom! Here are my replies.

I think the abreviations make it complicated to read. Once you know their meanings by heart, I'm sure it's fine, and I'm sure condensing what is probably 10-20 pages in the rulebook into a forum post is much different than reading the rulebook.

I try to alternate using the abbreviations and spelling it out. But I understand.

• how does a the B/E/P options compare between a sword, a club (no effective edge or point), or stiletto (only really a point)?

The author just use a * when the aspect is not available for the weapon.
To reinforce Tom's answer here it how it looks like in the rulebook.

• how does the size/height/body shape of an opponent affect the high/mid/low attack?

Most of Combat is devoted to human sized combatants. The Bestiary article for the creature will outline any significant differences. Much like Runequest.

A dragon

A Hru, a Harnic Rock Giant

• is there a passive degree of defense if they ignore the attack? Or are they just hoping their opponet fumbles the roll?

There is a ignore column which is quite bad for the defender
Melee Missile

• does counterstrike just mean attacking at the same time, or is it meant to be a parry and riposte type situation?

It both, Harnmaster is vague on it just saying the it involves the defender trying to attack first. Based on my reenactment experience I would call it taking an aggressive posture. Those six seconds are a flurry of blows representing beats, parries, and ripostes that could result in either side taking a hit but because the defender is more focused on attack the consequences are more severe if he fails his roll. A B result below means both hit. And generally the attackers results are one better than if the defender tries to block or dodge. For example a Atk: MS vs Def:MF is a A*2 result not a A*1 result like it is for blocking or dodging.

Finally I have to stress, you really don't want to get hit in Harnmaster. So the B*1 or the B*2 result isn't all that it is cracked up to be for the defender. It nearly always better just avoid injury.

• does dodging also mean evading while in place (ducking/weaving etc) or is it flat out jumping away from attacker - is it going to leave you prone?

It is ducking and weaving within five feet of your opponent. No it doesn't leave you prone. It like GURPS Dodge defense if you ever played that system.

I think, from looking back, that's supposed to be "A" and "D" - the "Attacking Skill Bonus" and "Defending Skill Bonus"? But maybe "B" represents "Blocking Skill Bonus"? A quality of the shield?

No it is D, I mistyped.

*it does seem like it would be simpler to just use "S" and "CS" and "F" and "CF" - why is the "M" necessary?

The author talk about different levels success in a variety of HM mechanics. I guess they felt that just a success or failure was clear enough. So it was labeled as Marginal Success and Marginal Failure. So you know they are talking about rolls that don't end in a 0 or 5.

The example above shows the "Block" chart - I assume there is one such chart for each Defensive tactic?

Yes you can download the chart for free from the below link

http://www.columbiagames.com/resources/4001/harnmaster-combattables.pdf

As I understand it, AF means Attacker Fumbles, DF means defender fumbles, and BF means...both fumble?

Both Fumble

So, if the result is a "BF" and both characters fail this roll, they both just ran up to each other and aggressively dropped their weapons simultaneously?

Yes that would happen. And I seen this happen in reenactments although it is rare.

And "DTA" means the defender gets the Tactical Advantage next round - letting them take 2 actions.

No this round, Tactical Advantages happens immediately after injury/fumble/stumble is resolved. It not saved up for the next round.

And we know "A" is the "Attacking Skill Bonus"? Unless we're using the same abbreviation for two completely different things?

In terms of the system the abbreviation A is used in two different ways. But in terms of layout one use of A is only your character sheet/weapon data chart. And the other is only on the combat tables. So I haven't run into any confusion when I ran the system.

You can see the weapon chart above. And I posted the link to the combat table so you can see how it works there.

OK, yeah, here I'm lost, apparently we're rolling something that doesn't in any way relate to this chart?

It is a house rule. RAW you always roll Xd6 for shock with X being the Universal Penalty after you get injured.

Again read the HMC vs D20 document as everything is described blow by blow. It lot clearer than my Reader's Digest style summary.

Wayback Machine

As for my house rule here is another take on it.


It from Bill Gant's Harnmaster Advanced house rules.

(seems like the hit location result could have been subsumed into the roll to-hit, WFRP 1 E does this elegantly with the hit location being the reverse of the number rolled. As it is it's just one more roll and chart.)

Shrug, I don't know what WFRP 1E does with level of success. But in HM one mechanic (the result of a strike) is based on cross indexing level of success. The other is a roll and look up.

The rolls for the attacker
1) Attacker Rolls
2) Either a save or impact is rolled
3) Hit location is rolled

The rolls for the defender
1) Defender Rolls
2) Possibly a save is rolled
3) Injury save is rolled.

It pretty lean to begin with up to three rolls for both side. And just as important everybody doing something during this. You are not sitting around waiting.

Alright, I'm completely lost. I thought I had a handle on this, but nope.

Sorry I was commenting on my personal house rules rather than just explain RAW. Again I recommend reading over the HMC versus D20 essay for better explanation of the details I was giving.

 

[robertsconley]

Physician
So now we get into how your heal from the injuries you suffered in combat. This is a four page article.

Society of Physicians
This section gives some details about the life of physicians on Harn. The main difference is that they know the value of basic antisepsis (keeping things clean) although don't know why it works the way it does. And there are magical options available although they are covered elsewhere.

Injury Recovery
From the previous example Bjorn has a S2, Serious Slash to the Thorax from the fight. How does he heal? He has to be treated and there is a table for that.

Treatment




So Bjorn is going to need surgery i.e. his gash needs to be cleaned and sewn up. We see that a physician roll will get +20 as it not that complex to deal with from the EML (Effective Mastery Level) column. The next five columns list the result of the different levels of success plus what happens when there is no treatment (NT). Lets say that the Physician rolls a marginal success (MS). Bjorn's player now records that injury has a Healing rate of H5.

Each injury is treated separately.

Rob's Comment
The bonus EML for different injuries means a party member without anybody with a physician roll can take a stab at treating their friend. As you can see even a Critical Failure is better than No Treatment. The skill open up automatically at SBx1 when the attempt is made. There are also Herbs that give a further bonus by either knocking out the character to fighting infection.

Healing
Once Bjorn has been treated he can now begin to heal. From the previous example he has a H5 rate. This means every five days of rest, he can make a healing roll. A healing roll is roll against the Healing Rate (H) of the injury time Endurance. In Bjorn case his Endurance is 12 so with a H5 healing rate he makes his healing roll verus 60%.



The goal of the healing roll is the Injury being reduced to zero. For the first five days of rest Bjorn rolls a 56 and gets a Marginal Success (MS). His serious slash goes from 2 to 1. The second five days Bjorn rolls a 72, a marginal failure, and has no healing. The third five days, Bjorn rolls a 35 which is a Critical Success (CS), and heals the remainder of his injury. I would probably rule that he is healed three days in with that result. So Bjorn is out for 15 days healing from his fight.

There are spells, herbs, etc that can speed this up. The most common are herbs. For example injuries treated with Ichor of Agrik/Berilik Balm a paste made from Berilik Herb (Dragonhead) have half the normal chance of developing an infection. So if a Critical Failure (CF) is rolled and Berilik Balm is applied, roll a d6. On a 1-3 the infection doesn't happen.

yeah the Herblore article even has pictures of each type of herb.

There are two optional rules. One on how to treat Bloodloss if that rule is used in combat. The other adding a Diagnosis roll which add a bonus to the Effective Mastery Level (EML) either +10 for a Marginal Sucess (MS) or +30 for a Critical Success (CS). The authors leave to GM's discretion whether to apply a penalty for a failed roll. I don't recommend doing that, Harnmaster is pretty brutal to begin with.

There also mechanics covering how to use this for disease. Basically diseases are given a contagion index and a healing rate. You multiply the character's endurance by the Contagion Index (CI) to see if they save against the disease. If they fail then they contract the disease starting at the listed Healing Rate. A C1/H1 disease will kill most of the population.

Lingering effects of poisons are handled in the same way.

Instead of Injury levels going down, the healing roll for disease raise and lower the Healing Rate. At H0 the character dies and at H6 the character is free of disease/infection/poison. This healing roll is made every day.



That it for Physicians next is Psionics.

 

[Spartan]

Should I be worried that this all makes sense?

What's really worrying is that I keep thinking "hmmm, that table handles combat outcomes more elegantly than Runequest"

No, don't be worried. And yes, yes it does. And I'm a big RQ fan, I've got 2e, 3e, and RQG. After the initial setup is done, HM is probably the most elegant high-crunch percentile systems there is.

 

[AsenRG]

I'm a Hârn grognard since '98. By all means, proceed. It has been scientifically proven that there is nothing that can not be made better by the addition of HârnMaster.

Then how do you do HârnMaster even better?

 

[Atelerix]

It's the Barber Paradox of RPGs!

 

[AsenRG]

It also says that the Lovecraft skill “can not normally be improved through solitary practice.”

Countless people have been doing it wrong for ages!

I think the abreviations make it complicated to read. Once you know their meanings by heart, I'm sure it's fine, and I'm sure condensing what is probably 10-20 pages in the rulebook into a forum post is much different than reading the rulebook.


But if I parse it correctly, it isn't much different (as far as crunch-level) than DC Heroes.

Let me see if I'm getting this correct:

1. Attacker declares the type of attack - blunt, edged, or piercing (for a sword, usiing the flat of the blade or hilt, the edge of the blade in a slashing attack, or point of the blade), and general location - high, mid, or low (an attempt to strike the head, body, or pelvis/legs)

*questions

• how does a the B/E/P options compare between a sword, a club (no effective edge or point), or stiletto (only really a point)?
• how does the size/height/body shape of an opponent affect the high/mid/low attack?

2. Defender declares defensive tactic - ignore, dodge, block, or counterstrike.

*questions

• is there a passive degree of defense if they ignore the attack? Or are they just hoping their opponet fumbles the roll?
• does counterstrike just mean attacking at the same time, or is it meant to be a parry and riposte type situation?
• does dodging also mean evading while in place (ducking/weaving etc) or is it flat out jumping away from attacker - is it going to leave you prone?

3. Attacker and defender both make a % roll -

here I get a bit confused. Robert says "the attack uses his Attacker Mastery Level, and the Defender uses his Defender Mastery Level"

In the example:
Athelstan will have to roll equal to or less than a 70 (55 ML + 15 A)
Bjorn will have to roll equal to or less than at 66 (46 ML + 20 B)

so, ML is "mastery level" - where is "A" and "B" coming from?

I think, from looking back, that's supposed to be "A" and "D" - the "Attacking Skill Bonus" and "Defending Skill Bonus"? But maybe "B" represents "Blocking Skill Bonus"? A quality of the shield?

that aside, the result determines the "quality of the roll". If this was FASERIP that would be the colour result. But here it's either a regular success or failure ("MS" /"MF" - I assume meaning " moderate" ) or a Critical Success or Failure ("CS"/""CF" if the roll ends in 0 or 5 IIRC?)

*it does seem like it would be simpler to just use "S" and "CS" and "F" and "CF" - why is the "M" necessary?

4. The results are compared to the chart

The example above shows the "Block" chart - I assume there is one such chart for each Defensive tactic?

View attachment 17425

Anyways, this is really straightforward - again, IF you know what any of those abbreviations mean

As I understand it, AF means Attacker Fumbles, DF means defender fumbles, and BF means...both fumble? Meaning you need to mke a (I assume dexterity roll?) or lose your weapon. So, if the result is a "BF" and both characters fail this roll, they both just ran up to each other and aggressively dropped their weapons simultaneously?

And "DTA" means the defender gets the Tactical Advantage next round - letting them take 2 actions.

So we know from the example AND Robert's further explanation that the result of A*2 is for "rolling impact"

And we know "A" is the "Attacking Skill Bonus"? Unless we're using the same abbreviation for two completely different things?

but the 2d6 +5 comes from... okay 2d6 is from "S2"? But where is that from? I don't see it in the weapon's description? Is this on the character sheet? And the +5 comes from a "universal penalty" from previous wounds (which honestly could have been left out of the example, as they weren't explained at any point).

OK, yeah, here I'm lost, apparently we're rolling something that doesn't in any way relate to this chart?

But anyways the 2d6 +5 is rolled and the hit location is rolled.

(seems like the hit location result could have been subsumed into the roll to-hit, WFRP 1 E does this elegantly with the hit location being the reverse of the number rolled. As it is it's just one more roll and chart.)

In the example above




5. OK, and now were compare the result of the 2D6 + 5 roll (11) to the hit location on the chart to determine the injury

View attachment 17426


So a Thorax hit at 11 impact gives a result of S3 (9+)

But apparently no, it gives a result of S2, according to the example?

Wait, is this the same S2 that w needed to know before rolling an the chart?





OK, so the +5 in the roll isn't added to the roll, until after the result of the roll is compared to the injury chart? Huh?

And when does Armour figure into any of this?

Alright, I'm completely lost. I thought I had a handle on this, but nope.

What I got from robertsconley 's post is that the 5 is the impact bonus of the sword (which also adds +15 to attack skill and +10 to defence skill). The opponent deduces the impact protection of his own armour...which is also 5, so it's a wash. Thus the wounded man suffers only the result of the 2d6, which still could allow the nastier Type 3 wounds...but at least protects him from suffering a 17+ result from the strike. Those give you a "kill" result.



...huh, and I thought I'm at the end of the thread. Guess I should have looked again. But at least it seems I was right!

 

[robertsconley]

Psionics
This is a 8 page article. Four pages of mechanics, four pages of talent descriptions.

Psionics always been a bit of an odd duck in Harnmaster. Some referee used them some don't. Here they are presented as psychic powers. It important to keep in mind that unlike D&D's take, Psionics in Harnmaster do integrate with an important setting elements the Earthmasters.

The Earthmasters were an ancient races inhabiting Harn (and much of the world) predating the Elves. They disappeared leaving behind various enigmatic ruins. While Harn never spelled out in detail what the Earthmaster were, psionics abilities and artifacts are consistent theme.



Introduction
The recommendation is that psionic talents be generated in secret by the referee and then solely revealed during the campaign. Once revealed they become a skill like any other although one that more supernatural in its effect. Of course if veteran characters are being created or if it happens to fit the campaign, it may be that the character starts out with knowing some of the talents they have. It works either way.

Psionic Talent Generation.
The number of talents that a character has is based on Aura - 3d6 roll. Then a d100 is rolled and a table is consulted.



Each Talent is considered a skill and effected by the sunsigns like other skills are.


Dormancy
The next section gives advice on how to handle dormant talents. Which is any talent that is Mastery Level (ML) lower than 21.

On raised past ML 20, psionic talents are developed like any other skills except when Skill Maintenance Points (SMP) are used. Instead of 10 SMPs per development roll, it takes 15. So a character can only make two development rolls per month instead of 3 if they are focused on improving psionic talents.

Invoking Talents
It not particularly easy as even a marginal failure could cause the character to pass out.

Invoking talents is also fatiguing. There is a notation after the name of the Talent on how much Fatigue is accumulated after each attempt to use it.

There are two optional rules. On is for passive invocations of three talents: Medium, Prescience, and Sensitivity. The other is about Joint Invocation of Psionic talents.

Example Talents
I will post one example Charm



Rob's Comments
I admit I am never of fan of psionics in a fantasy setting. But Harnmaster's take isn't half bad and it does fit given the lore. So far in three decades of Harn it hasn't come up in any of the sessions or campaigns I ran.

Next Campaigns

 

[TristramEvans]

Thanks Tom B , robertsconley , and AsenRG for the detailed explanations.

I did read the D20 vs HM combat example, and while it cleared up a few things, it's still left me with some questions, so I did manage to "find" a copy of Harnmaster 3 on pdf, I'm giving that a thorough readthrough as time permits

 

[Endless Flight]

I think it’s too much crunch for me. This is more than DC Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes, which are in my pocket as far as crunch goes. It looks great though and would give many players what they want, no doubt about that.

 

[CRKrueger]

Then how do you do HârnMaster even better?

By mixing HM1, HM2, HM3, and HMG of course!

 

[TristramEvans]

I think it’s too much crunch for me. This is more than DC Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes, which are in my pocket as far as crunch goes. It looks great though and would give many players what they want, no doubt about that.

Well, that was the thing about RQ6 for me - it's far more crunchy than I like, I'm very much on the lihjter side as you know (naming two of my favourite systems), but when I ran RQ6 I discovered that, for me, the crunch was "worth it". I don't know a much better way to explain it than that, but the reason I hold RQ6/Mythras in such high regard despite being outside of my "comfort zone" for crunch is that in play, once I was comfortable with the elements of the system, what the game provided was outcomes that seemed both realistic and inteesting in a way that took the "story" in unexpected but creative directions.

I don't think it would ever be my go-to the way Phaserip is, but I surprised myself that I could thoroughly enjoy such a crunchy system, when I usually find even most versions of D&D a meaningless slog.

 

[robertsconley]

By mixing HM1, HM2, HM3, and HMG of course!

Yup as HM3 is missing HM1's weapon crafting rules and HMG has a lot of NRC goodness in it although as a system HM3 is better.

 

[robertsconley]

Well I guess I will have to run a session of Harnmaster then!