Hârn

Hârn

Hârn is a world designed for use in fantasy role-playing games (FRPGs). It was designed by N. Robin Crossby, and it was published by Columbia Games in 1983. In 2003, Crossby claimed that the contract between him and CGI had ended. An acrimonious disagreement has persisted over the last few years without resolution in sight.Fact|date=February 2008

In the meantime, Crossby founded [http://www.kelestia.com/ Kelestia Productions] (KP), an electronic publishing e-company. KP and CGI now independently produce printed and online materials for use with Hârn-based role-playing campaigns and fiction.

The role-playing game "HârnMaster" was developed specifically for use with Hârn. It enables players, gamemasters, and writers to develop character descriptions that exploit the deep level of detail found in Hârn.

Hârn - the setting

Properly speaking, Hârn is an island off the western coast of the continent of Lythia, on the planet Kethira, but as Hârn is the focus of the setting, most people refer to the world as Hârn or HârnWorld. Hârn is remarkable for several reasons:

* It has no "evil" versus "good" aspect that dominates many other FRPGs. This concept is difficult for many new players to grasp because there are no easy behavior indicators for them to rely on.
* It has a high level of detail and internal consistency. A large number of individual cities, fortifications, towns, manors and adventure locations have been described down to the names of the peasant families residing there. In its immense detail it rivals other game worlds known for their depth, such as Tekumel.
* It is also notable for its high level of realism and a concomitant low level of magic. Its societies are, for the most part, modeled quite closely on Earth during the Middle Ages. Nonetheless, it has many of the standard trappings of fantasy, such as elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, etc. Many of these have a unique Hârnic spin.
* The written history and events of Hârn are current up to a specific point in time (midnight on the first day of the year 720), and there is no intention of "advancing" the official timeline beyond this point. The history and events that occur after this point are controlled by the individual game masters. Thus, all Hârn games are unique but spring from a common starting point.

Hârn has seven human kingdoms and two kingdoms ruled by other races. In alphabetical order, these are:

* Azadmere is the home of the khuzdul, the Hârnic dwarves.
* Chybisa is viewed as a struggling independent monarchy or a breakaway county of Kaldor.
* Evael is located along the southern coast and is the mysterious home of the anti-social Sindarin, the Hârnic equivalent of elves
* Kaldor is a feudal kingdom with a weak king. Located at the hub of four trade routes, it is a power in the east. It is perhaps the most detailed of all of the kingdoms.
* Kanday is a stolid, chivalric kingdom situated in the western part of the island.
* Melderyn is the most ancient kingdom, reputedly founded by wizards. It is located in the southeastern part of the island and claims a monopoly on trade with the Lythian continent.
* Orbaal was a peaceful region of local (called Jarin) princedoms until the Ivinians (analogous to the Vikings) conquered them. Now the Jarin are brutally suppressed.
* Rethem is widely viewed as the "evil kingdom" but this is because its rulers value might and merit over birth and privilege. It is a kingdom born of war and beset by enemies on all sides.
* The Thardic Republic rose from the ashes of a fallen empire and is the island's only non-monarchist state. Petty corruption and patronage are rife, however, and the Republic is very ambitious in its territorial claims.

Hârn - the community

Hârn has always suffered from lengthy production schedules. While CGI continues to release new and out of print materials and published most of the canon works in the 1980s, the setting was sustained throughout the 1990s and early 2000s by fan-created material, popularly called "fanon." The high quality and consistency of the fanon products, as well as the interactivity of message fora such as HarnList and [http://www.lythia.com/forum/ HârnForum] have kept the setting alive.

Hârnic fanon, although independently written, is notable for its goal of staying consistent with the hundreds of pages of canon material spread over more than twenty years of publication. Although it is written for the Hârn system, much of it is applicable to any medieval FRPG. There are points of confusion regarding the sanctioning and format of fanon. Both CGI and Kelestia have different fanon guidelines.

Hârn - the system

"See "HârnMaster"."

External links

* [http://www.columbiagames.com/ Columbia Games Official Harn and Harn Master]
* [http://www.kelestia.com/ Kelestia.com: published sites off Hârn island]
* [http://www.lythia.com/ lythia.com] , fan-built site containing free downloads about Hârn.
* [http://www.lythia.com/forum/ HarnForum] , the old HarnForum now hosted within Lythia.com.
* [http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=2182/ RPGnow Harn section] , the place for online material from CGI.
* [http://www.warflail.com/harnlink/ Hârn Link] , a valuable, long list of Hârnic fanon sites
* [http://www.pvv.org/~leifmk/english/gurps/gurpsharn.html GURPS Hârn] , a conversion to GURPS


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