When Columbia Games first released the Kethira/Harn generic role-playing setting its stated intention was to provide a detailed, consistent fantasy background upon which GMs could base their own ideas.

After 1987, Columbia Games effectively stopped producing new Harn material. This caused the members of the HarnFan community to create and circulate their own Harn articles. With the rise of the internet and personal computing, the quality of the material HarnFans have been able to produce has become increasingly professional. Some of the best of these unofficial Harn articles can be found on the fan site Lythia.Com.

Most of these fan articles have dealt with locations in the Kingdom of Kaldor, a nation in eastern Harn that is on the brink of civil war as the aged and sickly king continues to refuse to name an heir.

"Whyce Manor" is one of these fan articles, dealing with the headquarters of the Order of the Lady of Paladins, the martial arm of the Church of Larani in Kaldor. The article consists of a 22-page PDF file and two JPG files (GM and Player maps), which are contained in a 5.5Mb WinZip file, available from: (http://www.lythia.com)

The article begins with background information on the settlement, covering the history, economics and its current situation. Also included in the background are details of a chivalric tournament and a nearby settlement called Gorn, this is home to quarrymen who work the quarry that supplied the stone from which the manor was built.

Following the background information is the GM map key; the letters A-G cover the manor, associated structures and some of the landscape features on the map. Following this alphabetical list are 49 entries describing the inhabitants of the village of Whyce.

The article finishes with the descriptions and interior maps of three important structures, the manor house, the Galloping Stallion Inn and a royal hunting lodge located on the trail between Whyce and Gorn.

WHYCE MANOR, COMMENTS.

The article and its accompanying maps are easily the equal of any of the official material released by Columbia Games. In one aspect it is in fact superior, in settlement articles published by Columbia Games, descriptions of inhabitants is often limited to Name/Profession, some very basic stats that GM uses to 'flesh out' the business and sometimes a small amount of text on the occupants personality or circumstances. In 'Whyce Manor' each of the 49 entries relating to village inhabitants has a short paragraph that not only covers the individuals present circumstances, but contains a hook that the GM could use to generate 'background' plots, though some, such as the secret behind a key held by the Millers wife could lead to longer adventures.

Similarly the information provided on the manor, inn & hunting lodge is more than sufficient to allow the GM to both get a 'feel' for the locations described, and generate adventures relating to the sites.

The maps that accompany the article are all by Patrick Nilsson; the interior maps are clear and well sized, which makes them easy on the eyes. The GM and Player village maps are also well prepared, though on the grayscale GM map the color showing the deeper portions of the lake is almost identical to that used to indicate the roads. There are two other problems related to the maps, firstly, there is no key for the interior maps; fortunately one can be downloaded from Lythia.com. Secondly I would have preferred there to have been a map showing where Gorn and the Hunting lodge are in relation to Whyce.

Artwork for the article is by Richard Luschek, an artist whose work later appeared in HarnMaster 3rd Edition. The highpoint of the artwork is the image on page 14; the picture shows the gate of Whyce Manor, and a sleeping guard who is about to get in a lot of trouble. The low point is on page one, an unattractive picture of the lord of the manor, where the artists attempt to draw a mustache instead creates the impression that the characters upper lip has been cut away.

One final thing that a GM should take note of before downloading this file, 'Whyce Manor' is an unofficial Harn product and may be superceded by an official article published as part of Columbia Games, HarnQuest line.

But GMs wishing to use this material should not let any of the above problems discourage them from downloading this file. Aside from being one of the best presented fan articles I have seen, this material is statless, so that it can be used with any role-playing system, the background can easily be altered to fit with whatever setting you are using and finally being a free download it represents excellent value.

WHYCE MANOR, VERDICT.

This article is everything a freeware download should be, well presented, well written and adaptable to any fantasy role-playing setting.