About a year ago i started working on my fantasy RPG setting. Our RPG group plays D&D 3.5 Mostly because we all grew up with AD&D and the 3.5 d20 system did improve on the old AD&D a fair amount. AD&D was all I knew back in the early 1980's - but as I entered college I started playing Runequest and CoC, and there are things I loved about those systems. I ran a Runequest adventure for my current D&D group and it was a lot fun. I was debating about running another adventure when people in the Runequest community pointed me to Harnmaster and I read through the Harnmaster rules and was AMAZED.

But I hit a snag. some people in my RPG group don't want to deal with a lot of math while they RPG. they are also slightly phobic of new systems. And so I looked for a way to simply Harnmaster. I loved the concepts of wounds and fatigue. The inspiration for my new adventure was Stardust meets Die Hard... I wanted John Mclain, with his bloody feet and bruised body being lifted away by a sailing sky ship to fight his final battle. I wanted the nitty gritty - pain, wounds, fatigue - with the fantastic - Giant mushroom forests, sailing sky vessels, talking animals.

When I talked about this on this forum - the game concept, the need to simplify gameplay, and the RP centric nature of my group - I received one response several times. "Have you looked at Burning Wheel?". I discarded the response as people shilling for this "Burning wheel" - a system I had never head of until I started looking at the boards here on lythia.

Well I finally broke down and bought BW - and it is much closer to what I need for my group than Harnmaster. While part of me would prefer Harnmaster, I don't think I could really run it well unless all my players were conversant in the system. I have to say this is not likely to happen. Some of my players know the White Wolf games and so the Dice pool mechanic will be familiar. BW deals with wounds in a similar - though less detailed - fashion than HM. As a GM I can embellish and add some details as necessary.

To all those who suggested I look at BW over the last months I apologize for ignoring you. I suspect that you were right and I was wrong. Until I get my game group to play I cannot be certain.

MB

Well, here's hoping you can find what you want and your players enjoy the heck out of it too. There is nothing wrong with using HarnWorld and not HarnMaster....I do it myself, when I have a campaign going (I prefer simple to complicated, and so use Savage Worlds rules).

_________________
Cheers

Leitchy
List & Forum Admin
Admin FAQs
[Updated 25-FEB-2011]

Go for it, you will never know until you try it. One of the hardest things about RPG groups is getting them to try new things, they can be very resistant at times. My group has played C&S 2nd edition with me as their GM since 1983 and we never looked back, we did try other systems but C&S was the one everyone liked the most. It is very complex so not everyone's idea of gaming fun but game systems you play are what you make them and how "used" to the system your group is exposed to, the more they play it the more they like it or drop it.


Shane

_________________
Chivalry & Sorcery on Harn - http://chivalrysorcery.myfastforum.org/index.php
http://davout.blogspot.com/