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A little background on my search for Harn (optional):
I've run all kinds of games over the years with varying levels of enjoyment on my part as the DM. My group is willing to try anything at least once, so I tend to jump to a new setting/rules set every time a start a campaign. I've done high/heroic fantasy with D20, various settings with Alternity, historical with GURPS, and horror with COC to name a few. My last Sci-Fi game using the Alternity rules set is running to a close after almost two years of gaming and so I've begun to ponder what I want to jump to next.
I've come far in my pondering to decide that I want to get back into fantasy. I haven't done a long fantasy game in nearly 5 years and the last had been D&D. My tastes have changed since then, and I've found I want some level of realism in my games. I wanted a world where magic was "low" or perhaps rare. I wanted a place where heroes weren't super heroes; just regular joes that made due with what they had.
I started asking around and Harn was mentioned several times. I placed some orders online and my Harn products soon arrived. What I found was both more and less than what I expected. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visual Presentation/Format:
Harnworld (at least in my version...I understand that there are several) is made up of two soft cover books and a full color map placed in a soft black slotted folder. The cover of the folder and books is a picture of Kethira, the planet Harn located on. It's a well-done planet I suppose...but not especially capturing the feel of Harn.
The interiors of the books are well layed out. The interior art ranges from Mediocre to Good with one or two poor pieces thrown in. There are a number of black and white maps and a few color maps, all of excellent quality.
The separate map of the island of Harn is actually one of the best I've seen. It's full color and enjoyable to look at while being useful in terms of measuring distances/finding places. Hexes cover the entire map so you can easily see how far it is from one location to another. The Map is also grided to make finding locations easier. All of the locations in one of the books, Harndex, has a letter/number coordinate to narrow down your search of where things lie on the map. It includes roads, tails, keeps, castles, and a number of other interesting locations. My one complaint is that they did not include national boundaries on it. There are numerous maps in the books which do this but It would have been nice to see where the exact cut off point for a country lay in relation to where it's keeps/neighbors/trade routes are.
Content:
The Harn campaign setting is meant to remain neutral rules wise. Though there is a separately published Harnmaster rules set, it is meant to be usable with any system.
Harn is a large island and a group of smaller islands that’s off the coast of the main continent (Lythia). It is based on medieval Britain during the 9th to 14th centuries.
The first book, “Harnworld” is a 64 page overview of the setting. It contains information on the history, political climate, government, weather, and countries to name a few. It gives a nice overview of realistic medieval life and how things were done. It contains information on winds, tectonic plates(!), natural vegetation, the stars, the planets, the gods, and in general, is a really well detailed account of the world. Though it concentrates on the island of Harn, they do spend a great deal of time with Lythia, the main continent of the world. I’m almost tempted to say too much space is given to it.
The second book, “Harndex” is a kind of master index for the whole setting. It’s 80 pages and arranged alphabetically. It’s actually something more of an encyclopedia because each entry is a mini article unto itself. This is where the meat of the setting information is located.
Harn strikes me as a setting where fantasy has realistically affected the world. It is low magic, undoubtedly, but everything included seems to make sense. It also seems like a “living world” There are plots within plots within plots. Kingdoms feud and rebellions stir. There are very small populations of elves and dwarves who offer an interesting break from the humans as well as a variety of monsters scattered about. Orcs have an insect like social structure in Harn, a change that I find interesting enough to make me want to use them again. Most of the kingdoms are feudal with one republic similar to a corrupt Rome. The elves and dwarves do have small realms but their numbers make them unlikely to be big players in the world. There is a northern realm with a Viking influence and a southern island kingdom with a more magical feel.
Conclusion:
Harn meets its claim to fame. It’s a very meticulously detailed setting. However, I’ve found that it may overreach itself in this area. In its attempt to cover everything, (like the large continent Lythia) I think it may have skipped some important parts. While you could run a game with just this product, you’d be hard pressed to do it without major work on your part unless you had one of the kingdom supplements. These supplements offer the same level of detail on a more focused area.
I also wish they included a small adventure to give you an idea of how harn games were meant to be run. The feel of the setting is inappropriate for empire shattering D&D games and so I was left wondering for a time how I could go about running a game on the level that I had with my own worlds.
Harn is based on real world parallels. While the island does not physically resemble England, the rest of the world certainly resembles the Earth. I think they could have shaken up the geography a tad. On the upside, with these parallels it is very easy to draw on real world sources to find info about your game. Given that the setting is based on the island, this is not a big deal anyway.
Harn is a consistent product that offers an unparalleled level of detail. The quality is universal throughout and it’s strikes me as a setting of depth and realism. Harn offers you traditional fantasy in a different kind world. It’s unlike any other setting I’ve used while adhering to the roots of fantasy that we know and love. In short, I really enjoyed Harn and am giving serious thought to using it for my next game. It certainly was worth the price.
