Michael Hopcroft Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 I've been sorely tempted to replace my long lost coyp of Columbia games' Harnworld set 9which is comp[osed of several books and at least one map). the only rpoblem is that i don;t know how well HERO handles the sort of low-magic setting Harn is made out to be, and I don;t know fi i want to go to the expense of buying (and the trouble of learning) HarnMaster so i can play in Harn. So would this be a foolish investment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? Hero would handle it fine. The shev pvar can be easily modeled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? You might also look at these threads. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11205&highlight=harn http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6514&highlight=harn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? And drop Markdoc a line. He runs a lot of grittier-than-sandpaper low fantasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? A lot of the work has been done for you actually - a friend of mine an old gaming buddy from University days - runs a game set in the Harn world, but using Hero rules. There is IIRC a mailing list devoted to precisely that. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MordeanGrey Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? HARN has a greatly detailed world and history. It is a good resource that I've owned for several years. (and I use it for HERO, not HARN) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waiwode Posted October 14, 2004 Report Share Posted October 14, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? I support what they all said! Harnworld is great when low-fantasy is your flavour. And it is so systemless, I've never had any trouble adopting it to any system. Doug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nevenall Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? Heck, even bits of Harn are handy. I use their price lists for my fantasy game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? HERO can handle low-fantasy campaigns just fine. My campaign didn't have any magic at all, and it worked well enough. Harn is a great campaign world. It would be awesome in a HERO setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhys Posted October 15, 2004 Report Share Posted October 15, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? I go with everyone else. Harn is a fantastically detailed setting and can handle just about any system. I ususally run minimal or no magic in my campaigns with no problem. I prefer those because it's easier to break in new players and I don't have to do as much math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted October 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? When I had a copy of Harn previously, i was thinking of mainly using the map and letting things go as they may otherwise. This would give players more freedom., The one problem I could see with harn as a setting is figuring out what player characters would DO. The polticial structure is dairly stable, there;s no massive threat to all of harn looming on the horizon, the continent of Lythis is virtually unreachable, and nboodsy is going to have very much money. There aren;lt even any good ruins to loot. One could, i suppose, build the entire campaign around one city in harn, and its intrigues and character interactions. One could even do a camapoign centered around one village and its environs -- even if the PCs never leave the vicinity of the village, things can keep happening to them THERE. The adventure would come to them. so to speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 16, 2004 Report Share Posted October 16, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? You might also look at these threads. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11205&highlight=harn http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6514&highlight=harn That second thread ultimately leads to a detailed "Harn HERO" conversion document that's really quite good. Here's the direct link to it: http://home.interlynx.net/~brand/harn/harnhero.doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barwickian Posted October 18, 2004 Report Share Posted October 18, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? It's definitely worth it. Harn's a wonderfully detailed setting, and it can handle Hero-style high fantasy as well as Hero can handle Harn-style grit. Actually, I got into Hero through Harn - or, more precisely, by the writings of a small but dedicated number of Hero fans on the Harn Forum (www.harnforum.com). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTaber Posted October 18, 2004 Report Share Posted October 18, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? Hi Michael: I have run the last four or five of my Fantasy Hero camapigns in Harn. I've done barbarian wastelands of Orbaal, knights in Kanday, mages in Melderyn. Check my site for some of the things I did for my games. Note that I was NOT strictly adhering to Harn's low magic profile...it depended on the settings. Check the File Downloads page on my site for all the downloads. I have over 150 pages of stuff. A link to my site is below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? Also - if you have HarnWorld - there is masses of "fanon" (fan created pseudo-canon) on the web for no cost. You can find a lot of good info on the HarnForum and a lot of free materials at Lythia.com. In addition, there is Warflail's HarnLink page, which has links to Harniac sites all over the place. There's virtually no Hero conversions there, but there are articles on harn and the middle ages, fully developed manors, and the like. Lythia.com alone should give you more free stuff than you can reasonably use in the short term - including a complete published spell listing that should give you an idea of the magic for conversion. Remember, however, that Shek-Pvar routinely write their own spells, so the official lists will look pretty sparse. It takes a skilled journeyman to run HarnWorld with Hero; but it takes a grandmaster to run the Turkarian Age with HarnMaster! And: if you see references to the elusive "halean articles" don't go looking for them... Just my personal advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UglyJimStudly Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? Personally, I think Harn and Fantasy Hero are a great match for anyone looking for a relatively realistic campaign. Hero does a good job of supporting relatively gritty play, a school-based magic system, and the advantages and perks of the feudal social system. Harn is a nice, detailed setting where a lot of the drudge work of setting up a pseudo-medieval fantasy society has already been done for you. When I had a copy of Harn previously' date=' i was thinking of mainly using the map and letting things go as they may otherwise. This would give players more freedom., The one problem I could see with harn as a setting is figuring out what player characters would DO. The polticial structure is dairly stable, there;s no massive threat to all of harn looming on the horizon, the continent of Lythis is virtually unreachable, and nboodsy is going to have very much money. There aren;lt even any good ruins to loot.[/quote'] The political structure is actually fairly unstable. You've got: - Kaldor ruled by a king expected to die any day now, with no direct heir and no clear choice among the half a dozen or so claimants - Chybisa trying to play Kaldor and Melderyn off against each other without getting absorbed by either - Rethem in a fractious state, with a king trying to retain what control he has, a major noble in the north openly planning for civil war, and a religious fighting order and various nobles in the south spoiling for revenge against Kanday - Kanday with a king seen as somewhat weak by the stronger nobles, trying to figure out how to go to war with Rethem while avoiding war with the Thardic Republic. - The Thardic Republic paralyzed by a political deadlock, but with a history of empire building that should make their neighbours anxious about what happens if and when the deadlock clears - Orbaal dealing with the rebellious Jarin thralls, the nearby Gargun tribes, and various Ivinian clans from the mainland who think of Orbaal as a colony rather than a nation - Melderyn playing a behind-the-scenes juggling act to keep any dominant power from forming on the main island while also trying to keep the mainland Lythian nations away Lythia isn't unreachable - there are traderoutes terminating in Melderyn, near Azadmere, and Orbaal, so travel to and from Lythia from those areas is common. The background material tends to realistic levels of wealth, but that doesn't mean that nobody gets rich, just that getting rich usually involves land ownership and joining the titled nobility. There's plenty of ruins to loot, such as all the Earthmaster sites on the map, all the Gargun (orc) caves, Kiraz, etc. Sure, there's no dark lord on his dark throne threatening Harn - unless you want to run a "return of the Foulspawner" game, of course - but that doesn't mean there's nothing going on. It might look like nothing's going on because the official material is frozen at TR 720, but there's plenty of groundwork for things to happen. Just a matter of developing the ones that work best in your game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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