There's a few small issues with it, like really high power characters can be nigh untouchable unless the GM sets stuff up really specifically, and that can be tedious, but my Dad (who GMs the Harn game I play atm) just made some houserules to adjust for that.
The base idea of Harn is that your character's condition is what matters the most when using skills. If you're skilled at something, but tired or injured, you get penalties to your rolls. This has an interesting snowball effect where as you get more tired or injured in a battle, you get worse and thus get tired quicker or are more easily injured. The amount of stuff you are wearing/carrying will affect this as well; you can't fight as easily while wearing full plate compared to just a leather vest.
The reverse, however, is also true. If you have high skills and are at 100%, you can be extremely difficult to hit or damage, and this can lead to some balance issues. So we just run with some option rules like being outnumbered gives you penalties, and adjusted some other things to put a cap on how high your max effective skill can be so you can never be totally untouchable.
It's a very realistic ruleset, and things will get pear shaped VERY fast. Combat is very deadly, and you will go down very fast if you start getting hurt- like real battle. Likewise, spellcasting is extrememly potent, but it drains your fatigue levels so the more you use it the weaker you are for your next spell. Cast too much, and you become too weak to do anything. You can also lose eyes and limbs and shit, as all attacks are also rolled against a chart for body location, so when you swing your sword at someone you actually have a certain location that each hit lands, and the locations all will have different armour values depending on what you are wearing. It sounds kinda complicated, but the actual process of rolling and assigning hits is extremely streamlined and there is some great charts that are very simple to work stuff out on the fly. I find it quicker than d20 combat at times.
That can lead to some pretty hilarious situations, like where my previous character used a really high level spell while badly wounded and trying to ride a panicked horse. I rolled a critical success for the spell, used up double the normal fatigue levels, burnt out my spell focus and used up this little thing I stored energy in, and was left with 1 fatigue point. Managed to roll a miracle and pass my riding test though, so I was able to get away from the mess the spell created.
There's also a story about a jar of goat piss I'll have to tell sometime.
The base idea of Harn is that your character's condition is what matters the most when using skills. If you're skilled at something, but tired or injured, you get penalties to your rolls. This has an interesting snowball effect where as you get more tired or injured in a battle, you get worse and thus get tired quicker or are more easily injured. The amount of stuff you are wearing/carrying will affect this as well; you can't fight as easily while wearing full plate compared to just a leather vest.
The reverse, however, is also true. If you have high skills and are at 100%, you can be extremely difficult to hit or damage, and this can lead to some balance issues. So we just run with some option rules like being outnumbered gives you penalties, and adjusted some other things to put a cap on how high your max effective skill can be so you can never be totally untouchable.
It's a very realistic ruleset, and things will get pear shaped VERY fast. Combat is very deadly, and you will go down very fast if you start getting hurt- like real battle. Likewise, spellcasting is extrememly potent, but it drains your fatigue levels so the more you use it the weaker you are for your next spell. Cast too much, and you become too weak to do anything. You can also lose eyes and limbs and shit, as all attacks are also rolled against a chart for body location, so when you swing your sword at someone you actually have a certain location that each hit lands, and the locations all will have different armour values depending on what you are wearing. It sounds kinda complicated, but the actual process of rolling and assigning hits is extremely streamlined and there is some great charts that are very simple to work stuff out on the fly. I find it quicker than d20 combat at times.
That can lead to some pretty hilarious situations, like where my previous character used a really high level spell while badly wounded and trying to ride a panicked horse. I rolled a critical success for the spell, used up double the normal fatigue levels, burnt out my spell focus and used up this little thing I stored energy in, and was left with 1 fatigue point. Managed to roll a miracle and pass my riding test though, so I was able to get away from the mess the spell created.
There's also a story about a jar of goat piss I'll have to tell sometime.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
This lil' thing is thanks to Jarka!