WarFlail's Archives - April 2003

WarFlail's Archives - April 2003

Go to WarFlail's Archives - May 2003

Wednesday, 23 April 2003

News from Dicey Business

DICEY BUSINESS is sent to all gamers on Columbia Games' mailing list, highlighting the new features added to www.columbiagames.com in the past two weeks. If you wish to subscribe please email: grant@columbiagames.com.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

We at Columbia Games are changing our way of doing business. After 30+ years, we have concluded that our products can best be sold directly. To improve product output and customer service, all Columbia Games products will henceforth be sold ONLY by mail order, telephone, or via www.columbiagames.com.

OUR PLEDGE:

Service: We will provide unmatched customer service with individual attention to every customer and every order.

Shipping: We will deliver your order quickly and efficiently.

Guarantee: Your total satisfaction is backed up with our 30 day 100% money back guarantee.

Please support this change by sharing your experiences with our products and service. Tell your friends and spread the news to forums and newsgroups.

WHY CHANGE?

HÂRN continues to be a difficult product for stores to sell. Younger gamers dominate our marketplace. Retailers have little choice but to supply what the majority of their customers want. Few stores can afford to carry speciality products like HÂRN. Many who do are managed by fans of the product. We understand this reality.

For the past ten years, HÂRN has already been sold directly to thousands of happy customers. Without that customer support, HÂRN could not have survived. Throughout this decade, digital printing and E-Commerce have improved dramatically. They allow us to publish more products. This new technology does not come cheap. Only by selling 100% directly can we ensure that HÂRN fans get the new stuff they want, when they want it.

HÂRNQUEST has been a trial balloon for this new policy. Only available by mail, this product has enabled us to produce high quality new material much more frequently than ever before. Subscriptions to HÂRNQUEST make this possible.

HÂRN GAMEPLAN

Hârn Gameplan has been very well received since its introduction on April 1. Voting totals have already surpassed 100 for some items.

GamePlan preorders are a great way to save money and influence our future releases. Since our games will not be available from stores or web retailers, a preorder is the best way to get your games at the lowest possible price.

INDEPENDENCE SALE

Columbia Games is offering a special 20% off sale discount on all orders through Sunday April 27th. Take advantage of this special savings to order the games missing from your collection!

Please note volume discounts do not apply during the sale.

HÂRNIC CONVENTION IN VANCOUVER, BC CANADA

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hârn, some dedicated fans are organizing HârnCon to be held in Vancouver, BC, Canada on June 6-8th 2003. This is a call for volunteers to run events at HârnCon 2003. Read about HârnCon at:

http://harncon.harnlist.com/

Contact: Peter Leitch (peter@drypond.com) or Brian McNeilly (bmcneilly@shaw.ca) to find out more.

Naturally, Columbia Games will sponsor the event and provide prizes and promotional goodies.

NEW ITEMS ON THE HÂRNPAGE

Hârn Astrolabe Software for Palm OS
By Frank Perricone

Hârn Astrolabe is a PALM OS application that puts at your fingers useful information from the calendar of Hârn. For any day you can see the season, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, moon phase, religious calendar, and a day's worth of weather.

http://www.columbiagames.com/HarnPage/apps/palm/palm.shtml

Mines of Hârn
By Jeremy Baker

A spreadsheet that analyses mineral deposits on Hârn by Kingdom.

http://www.columbiagames.com/HarnPage/harnworld/general.shtml

Monday, 21 April 2003

House Rules Page Updated

It has been a very long time since the last update, but I've finally gotten off my backside and updated my HârnMaster House Rules page. The updates consist of:

New section added for HM3 house rules.
Bill Gant's Excellent HM3 Armour Profiles. Not a great deal different from my Awesome HMC Armour Profiles, except the VB code has been tightened up a little, and there is now a column for including the Enchantment Quality (EQ) of magically enhanced armour. Also, the sample character has been removed as he wasn't really adding any value.
New section added for my HârnMaster Advanced (HMA) house rules.
HMA Pack #1 has been broken out into its individual components, and they are all available separately from the HMA House Rules section.

Sunday, 20 April 2003

Jousters, Ride Forth!

The recently revived Hârnic Jousting Homepage is preparing for another tournament. Previously (before the webmaster's untimely hard disk crash and subsequent loss of all data) the tournaments were extremely successful, so successful that real prizes were being offered, courtesy of Columbia Games. This time, of course, the official jousting rules from HârnMaster 3rd Edition will be used - so far, the feedback on these rules have been complimentary, so they will surely work well in the upcoming tournament.

However, at last count there were only 14 jousters registered (including my durable knight, Sir Marick Arwine). I think we need at least 16 for a proper tournament. So if you want to participate but haven't registered yet, then head on over here to compete!

Saturday, 19 April 2003

De-Linked Site

Following a request from Columbia Games, the host of the Dalkesh Index Page has asked me to de-link the site from HÂRN LINK. Apparently, CG will publish an official regional module on Dalkesh.

This is quite surprising - CG rarely request Hârn fansites to be pulled down. Actually, this is the first time as far as I am aware...

Thursday, 3 April 2003

News from Dicey Business

WEBSITE OVERHAUL

Columbia Games announces a major overhaul to our website put into effect today. Please point your browser to: http://www.columbiagames.com

Changes include:

A new easier-to-use navigation.
Better ordering system that remembers your name when you come back.
Discounts for bulk orders. Take advantage of up to 30% savings for large orders.
New Wargames Forum
Gameplan totals are automatically updated when you order.

HÂRN GAMEPLAN

A new program that allows you to pre-order products at a 25% savings. Best of all, your order becomes a vote for that product and you can see how many orders we have received so far. We will publish all products getting 500+ orders. Order what YOU want to see. You will not be billed for any product until we are ready to print and ship.

GamePlan replaces the autoship program. We think you'll find its a lot better. Rather than a blanket autoship preorder, you can now influence what is published and when. But we do need you to get online and vote on the GamePlan so we know what to do next. More items will be added to the GamePlan soon.

We've also created HârnQuest subscriptions allowing you to sign up to receive quarterly issues of HârnQuest. When you are a subscriber, we pay the shipping costs - even overseas!

All current autoshippers have become subscribers to HârnQuest (so you will continue to get new issues of HQ automatically but you wont get any other surprises).

CONVENTIONS

HÂRNIC CONVENTION IN VANCOUVER, BC CANADA

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hârn, some deidicated fans are organizing HârnCon to be held in Vancouver, BC, Canada on June 6-8th 2003. This is a call for volunteers to run events at HârnCon 2003. Many GMs are needed to make Hârncon success. Read about HârnCon at:

http://harncon.harnlist.com/

Contact: Peter Leitch (peter-at-drypond.com) or Brian McNeilly (bmcneilly-at-shaw.ca) to find out more.

Naturally, Columbia Games will sponsor the event and provide prizes and promotional goodies. GMs who sign up and run and event can earn credit towards Hârn products!

Strategicon: Gamex
May 23-26, 2003
Los Angeles, CA
Contact: Jack Butler
Email: ravengeist@aol.com
www.strategicon.net

GM Gordon Larsen will be hosting Columbia boardgame demos on Saturday.

ENFILADE 2003

Enfilade is the NW HMGS major annual convention held memorial day weekend near Seattle, Washington. (Fife).

Columbia Games needs to find GMs to run games there. Perhaps the same GM(s) may be interested in in store gaming at the Game Matrix in Lakewood, WA. Natually we are wlling to provide games to run and prize support.

HÂRN REVIEWS

Roleplaygames.about.com
HârnMaster
http://roleplaygames.about.com/library/review/aapr032303a.htm

"All in all, I would highly recommend HârnMaster to experienced GMs and players who, like myself, love detail in their roleplaying."

RPG United
HârnMaster Boxed Set - third edition
http://www.rpgunited.com/review/reviews/4001b.html

"HârnMaster is actually one of the few surprises I've had this year when it comes to new RPGs. It's a simple yet elegant game with plenty of potential if used right."

Guide du Roliste Galactique - Encyclopédie de jeux de role. (Francais)
http://www.roliste.com/detail.jsp?id=5567
(see also the homepage, www.roliste.com)

Wednesday, 2 April 2003

Armoury Updates...

Well, March was a bit of a write-off as far as updates here are concerned, mainly because I was travelling so much. I suppose most people would have been more interested in what's going on in Iraq than on this website to notice, anyway!

I am pleased that I finally did receive my latest issue of HârnQuest, and am truly delighted with the way it turned out.

Go to WarFlail's Archives - March 2003

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