RoleMaster, to HARP ...to GURPS

I have played a lot of games, and from time to time, pull them out, play the latest version, and reflect. RoleMaster is still a solid system, needlessly complex in some ways, and far worse at required math and character sheet complexity than even GURPS is. The biggest attraction of RoleMaster is the crit charts and the simulation of different weapon types versus armor types, and the charts get into gruesome detail with the threat of exploding dice. Your "class" determines how much each skill costs.

But RoleMaster is a lot of work for one character. There is a spreadsheet app that makes it easier, but GURPS is still far better supported by tools and character creation apps. We have the "weapons versus armor types" rules built into the game, along with advanced rules such as Armor Divisors and Penetration Modifiers (B378) and Flexible Armor and Blunt Trauma (B379).

The only thing we don't have are the "medical grade crit charts," but these are nothing imagination can't dream up, and a skilled referee can't apply on the fly, given GURPS and the rules for Hit Locations and Major Wounds (B399). In GURPS, major wounds can cause knockdown and stunning, and there are even rules for bleeding (B420). Crippling injuries are covered on B421. We have most everything in the RoleMaster crit charts, codified into universal rules, except some of the more detailed descriptions of "joints, spines, and spleens."

Some of these detailed injury results are best left to the referee's imagination, and repeat chart results start to get silly, like cutting off two noses in a fight.

Inevitably, RoleMaster's complexity gives way to HARP, the easier version of the game, but we start to lose the "weapon versus armor types" and the "detailed crit charts" of the original game. I still love both games, but GURPS is easier and gives me similar results without all the complexity, just by adding a few optional rules. I can play with them, or without them, and the complexity of my game is under my control.

The character sheets are far easier and more straightforward in GURPS. If I am playing a solo campaign with four characters, GURPS will be more manageable than RoleMaster, HARP, or even 5E at higher levels. As one-off games to remember the 1990s, RoleMaster and HARP are fun distractions. If I want a modern game where I can control complexity and manage a small party by myself, GURPS is far easier and more manageable.

In other games, the rules are why you play the game, and thus, not optional.

I still love my ICE games, and HARP and RoleMaster are classics. Palladium games are in the same boat; I love and cherish them, and they are more for the memories than regular play. For my "daily driver" role-playing game, GURPS wins over all of them.

Every rule is optional in GURPS. You can play the game very rules-light, with just skill rolls, damage, DR, and minimal combat rules. GURPS is easier than a d20 system, especially since it lacks the complex action types of 5E and interrupt-based play. The character sheets in GURPS are far easier than a 5E sheet, which can run over a dozen printed pages at higher levels.

GURPS just does all this more easily, with one set of rules to learn and master, and optional levels of complexity all the way down to the most detailed results. If I want a "medical grade" fantasy game, GURPS does that. If I want a rules-light game, GURPS does that. If I want any genre, from 5E fantasy superheroes to RoleMaster realistic fantasy, GURPS can handle it.

And I am not mentioning science fiction and modern games, where I get all that, too, without having to learn and support yet another game.

All with one set of rules.