WarFlail's Archives - November 2003

WarFlail's Archives - November 2003

Go to WarFlail's Archives - December 2003

Saturday, 29 November 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.

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NEWS
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GOLOTHA AND MORVRIN (UNDEAD) RELEASED

Two new HârnQuest articles are now available. Subscribers' copies have all been shipped. Comments are encouraged.

Golotha is the principal settlement of the Kingdom of Rethem and the political heir to the infamous Theocracy of Tekhos. Strategically located at the mouth of the River Thard, the city was founded in the fourth century on ground reclaimed from a misty swamp. It is still plagued by morning fogs. Golotha is a city of secrets and dark places. Its narrow streets are dangerous even during the day.

This module is an expansion of the articles originally published in Cities of Hârn and Son of Cities. It is much larger, contains many additional sites with interior plans and a new 2 page local map showing the surrounding areas.

Additional interior plans include:
Caer Chaftar (six floors and cellar)
Temple of Agrik (Mamaka the Master of Steel)
Lia-Kavair guildhall

All plans from Cities of Hârn and Son of Cities have also been updated and included.

MORVRIN

The undead (morvrin) article is an expansion of their descriptions in HârnMaster Religion.

Many folk are aware of a fate worse than death. Anyone, whether noble or common, free or serf, strong or weak, good or wicked, can lose their soul to Bukrai. The servants of Bukrai are the soul-predators known to most folk as amorvrin (singular: amorvrus) and their undead slaves the gulmorvrin (singular: gulmorvrus).

As one of the proofreaders of the Golotha article, I can say without equivocation that it is excellent. It is comprehensive, well-written and clever. It sets a very high benchmark for future articles. Let's hope the rest of the Cities of Hârn will be of this calibre!

I Finally Read HM Gold GM Edition

Although I was one of the first to download Keléstia Productions' HârnMaster Gold GameMaster Edition at the beginning of this month, I didn't have the opportunity until now to actually read it. Well, I was a bit lazy on this, as I had read the original, unfinished version a couple of years ago and had already incorporated parts of those rules in my campaigns.

I'm pleased to say that this tome carries across the good rules from HM1 that unfortunately didn't make it into Columbia Games' HM3, plus there are quite a few other rules that don't exist anywhere else. The expansive Character Development rules, for instance, might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they are there for those occasional situations where detailing one's bloodline is important (and they work well).

I do feel that some parts of HMg GM ed are too philosophical to be of much use in a tactical context, but they make for great background reading and they help broaden the GM's understanding of how Hârn/Kethira fits into the Kelestial whole. Perhaps the Reality section should have been separated into its own module, making room in the GM edition for a Bestiary (something that is sorely lacking in either HM3 or HMg) - if I have anything to gripe about, then it would be this.

Thursday, 6 November 2003

I'm Back!

After considerable upheaval in relocating to a new city (Sydney) and settling into a new home and a new job, I am relieved to say that I'm finally back online. :-)

New HMA Download

The next installment in my HârnMaster Advanced (HMA) series is ready for download! This one is a Skill Base calculator, based heavily on the original design by fellow Hârniac Robert Schmunk (and used with his kind permission). Aside from drawing up an Armour Profile, calculating the SBs of a character's skills must be the most tedious and time-consuming part of character generation. Hopefully, you will find this SB Calculator will make life a little easier for you!

HMA Skill Base Calculator (24Kb ZIP)

Along with the SB calculator, this file also contains the complete skill list for HMA. Note that some of the attributes used differ from both HM3 and HMG.

Dead Links

Thanks to everyone who pointed out the alarming number of dead links on HÂRN LINK. The following will be purged by next week unless they become live again:

Enough with the dead links, already! Aren't there any new Hârn fansites?

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