"Midgaad" is a freeware rules expansion for Columbia Games HarnMaster role-playing system, written by David Johnson.
For those not familiar with the setting, Kethira is an Earth sized world upon which sits the Madagascar sized island of Harn and the mighty continent of Lythia. It is a dimensional nexus that forms the heart of the 'Kethiran Family of Worlds' (Blessed Realm, Kethira, Losenor, Midgaad, Sherem, Terra & Yashain).
In the world of Kethira, Elves and Dwarves are refugees fleeing from the war-torn realm of Midgaad. The dwarves have chosen to make Kethira their home, while the Elves plan to continue on to the Blessed Realm.
While Harn creator N. Robin Crossby's 'Panaga Trilogy' ("Staff of Fanon", "Kiraz:The Lost City" & "Curse of H'len") allowed PCs to travel to Yashain, home of the Harnic Gods, it was not until this article was released in 2002 that Harn GMs were given the option of having players retrace the epic journey of the Dwarves and Elves to visit the lands from which they came.
The article is a short one, following a brief introduction, it describes how to convert the HarnMaster character generation system to create Midgaadian characters, the differences between the races of Lythia and those of Midgaad, Midgaadian religion and how to convert the magics of Lythia to work in Midgaads higher magical field.
The article is available as a seven page pdf file entitled Midgaad.pdf.
HARNMASTER: MIDGAAD, COMMENTS.
J R R Tolkien may never have known just what he was unleashing when the wrote 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, books that have enthralled readers over the decades, provided the basis for one of the better movie series of the early 21st Century and inspired the earliest rpg designers.
N. Robin Crossby, creator of Harn, made Middle Earth (Under its Norse name, Midgaad) part of his 'Kethiran family of worlds', along with Terra(Earth), Yashain and the Blessed Realm.
It is this familiar setting that explains the shortness of the article, aside from the material released for Iron Crown's "Middle Earth RolePlaying" and Deciphers "Lord of the Rings" role playing game, the basic source material is as close as your local library or bookshop, which meant that the author could concentrate on converting the HarnMaster rules and Harn setting to mesh with Tolkiens creation.
The text is clear and easily readable while the various tables make use of a pleasant two-tone green color scheme. There is only one piece of artwork in the article, it can be found on the front page. It is a dramatic picture of a stormy night in the Misty Mountains, and it contains the articles only flaw, it would appear that when the picture was colorized, Tolkiens signature was removed.
HARNMASTER: MIDGAAD, VERDICT.
While this item is probably mainly going to be of interest to those GMs making use of the Harnmaster 3rd Edition and Harnmaster Gold rules sets, allowing them to integrate the Harn game world with Tolkein's creation, it is also something that demonstrates the true breadth of N. Robin Crossbys vision.
