[Rq-rules] Harn and Harnmaster

[Peter Maranci]

No offense meant to anyone but I have to say that Harn bored the fertilizer
out of me. It's a setting with an insane amount of detail, but more isn't
always better (I'd say the same thing about Tekumel, and post-RQ Glorantha
too come to think of it).

Can't remember what system we were using with Harn (this was around 1987, as
I recall), but I do remember that the deadliness really put me off. I was
playing a heavily armored death knight of some sort, modelled after Darth
Vader, and I ended up being killed single-handed by a farmer with a
pitchfork. And I hadn't even been injured before I met that damned farmer;
he was my first encounter.

->Peter

On 5/14/07, postmaster at runequest.za.org <postmaster at runequest.za.org> wrote:
>
> Like my brother concluded after playing a bit of HarnMaster. Its like the
> designers player RuneQuest and some other games and picked what was best
> and made up some of their own stuff for the gaps and its actually quite a
> usable, nice system as a result. Takes a bit of getting used to but I
> suppose thats teh same for most systems. Once I got the hang of it it was
> very playable. Just had to remember that rolling a 01 was sometimes not as
> good as say a 25.....
>
> BTW - Don't know if columbiagames still sells Harn. Them and N Robin
> Crosby had some sort of falling out and he has started his own company to
> flog harn gear and am sure there was some sort of time period for columbia
> to exhaust their stock.
> Tony
>
>
> > And the game and a number of its in-print supplements can be found at
> > www.columbiagames.com. Definitely pricier than RQ but it can be a mine
> of
> > detail for RQ campaigns. The game designers focused a bit more on combat
> > realism than in RQ which, in turn, can slow combat down a bit but that's
> > more of a personal preference. I've played RQ when a melee took 30
> minutes
> > realtime and a Harn-based melee which took seconds.
> >
> > David
> >
> > On 5/8/07, Lev Lafayette <lev_lafayette at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> --- John Pare' <parejf63 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >
> >> > What is Harn?
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >> A very, very detailed medieval/low-fantasy setting
> >> which had numerous supplements in the 80s (which now
> >> command a small fortune, rather like RQ products) and
> >> a very strong, but small, cadre of fans. There was an
> >> associated game called Harnmaster...
> >>
> >> Harn and HarnMaster focussed strongly on medieval
> >> realism, unlike RQ and Glorantha which were quite high
> >> magic and mythic. It was sort of like the Monty Python
> >> films "The Holy Grail" and "Jabberwocky" but without
> >> the humour.
> >>
> >> I remember my first game where, after a particularly
> >> tough set of encounters and problems the gross
> >> treasure was a sword, an orc (whom I captured) and a
> >> gold ring. I say gross treasure, because my
> >> character's sword broke during the battles.
> >>
> >> Despite the fact that your characters will be scraping
> >> the barrel trying to get enough money to stay fed and
> >> clothed, let alone buy a suit of armour, I quite like
> >> it.
> >>
> >> Also a percentile-based, roll-under system so
> >> evidently influenced by RQ as well ;-)
> >>
> >> More info here:
> >>
> >> http://homepages.peakpeak.com/~fedifensor/games/harn.htm
> >>
> >> HTH HAND,
> >>
> >>
> >> Lev
> >>
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-- 
Peter Maranci - pmaranci at gmail.com
Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying! http://www.runequest.org/rq.htm
The Diary of An Invisible Man: http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/
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