Harn Master Module
Cities of Harn

Game Review

reviewed by Mike Dawson

Harn Master Module
By N. Robin Crossby
Columbia Games, Inc.
P.O. Box 8006, Blaine, WA 98230
Released: 1984
Catalog No. 5001 Price: $20.00
Complexity: Beginner/Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability: None
* * * 1/2

Cities of Harn
By N. Robin Crossby
Columbia Games, Inc, P.O. Box 8006, Blaine, WA 98230
Released: 1984
Catalog No. 5002 Price: $12.00
Complexity: Beginner/Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability: None
***

The Harn Master Module and Cities of Harn are two of the cornerstone products in Columbia Games Inc.'s continuing description of the fantasy world known as Harn. Billed as being "compatible with any rules system," the land of Harn is presented primarily through the two books and large map, the Master Module. These two books, Harnview and Harndex, are 32 and 64 pages long and contain overviews of the history of the region, cultural and religious information, an explanation of Harnic economics, and an alphabetical entry for people, places, and things that are mentioned anywhere in a Harnic product.

Cities of Harn is an in-depth look at the physical, cultural, political, religious, and historical details of the major cities to be found on the Harnic Isles. The 32-page book includes seven color maps of the various cities and many detail and player maps in black and white.

From the standpoint of organization, these two products are part of the incredible job that the people at Columbia Games, Inc. have done. These books, along with their companion volumes called Encyclopedia Harnica, are a major achievement in organization of world information into a useful format. This is, however, only part of what makes Harn good. The author and designers have also compiled detailed information about how the world works. All of the nuts-andholts work of designing a world has been done with thoroughness for the new referee. There are no omissions from the Master Module; everything the average referee wants to know about establishing a campaign is here.

The graphics used for maps of the cities and sites are truly amazing. They are of consistently high quality. The maps and plans are certainly the best feature of the entire series of books.

My only reservation about this product lies in the basic concepts and designs that form Harn and the vision necessary to create an inspiring place to adventure. Unfortunately, the land of Harn just is not a very exciting place. It looks a great deal like the generic fantasy world, purposely designed to support through cultural behavior all of the preconceptions forced on those who play games with alignments and character classes. The fundamental nature of Harn is that of an exquisitely rendered painting of a completely ordinary object. One marvels at the technique, but one also wishes for a more inspiring subject.

This is not to say that Harn should be ignored as a source for your own fantasy world. For a beginning or younger Gamemaster (GM) who is unsure of just what is necessary to have down before running a campaign, Harn may be just the ticket. Even if a new referee decides that it's not his cup of tea once 4qe is familiar with it, Harn will still serve as an excellent example of a consistent world.

The amount of fun that players or GMs have with these products is hard to determine, since it is the running of a campaign that makes the material come alive. The material itself will not capture the imagination of players or characters enough to guarantee excitement or enjoyment.

There is a lack of well-described non-player characters (NPCs) in Cities of Harn, and the decision to exclude them has a great deal to do with the dry and uninspiring nature of the product. Cities of Harn presents all of the physical and historical details of a city, but that city is not alive when only 30 or so NPCs are described out of a population of thousands. The problem is increased when the standard NPC description reads like this: "POTTER (Jagal of Veranis) ... Fled Coranon in 719 as a result of a misunderstanding with the Red Guard and paid cash for this Golotha franchise." This is hardly a description of the character's personality. Cities of Harn is mostly populated by nameless, colorless NPCs like this.

These Harn products have an excellent replay value, as long as you are interested in including Harnic designs and ideas into your world. Unless your campaign contains a feudal society with a low magic level, then the information here will need so much reworking that it is probably easier to start from scratch. The Master Module is certainly not a good buy unless you want to run Harn, but Cities of Harn could be useful for basic designs of cities for any feudal campaign. Cities of Harn designs can cross over to campaigns as unlike Harn as Glorantha. They should work very well with any average D&DO world.

There are no fully developed scenarios in these products, though the Master Module contains several suggestions for major adventures. These books are not really meant to be scenarios, so detailed adventures were excluded from these reference works..

Columbia Games Inc. deserves high praise for the innovative format that they have designed for Harn. No referee needs to guess about the name of a province, the type of government of an area, or any other basic information for the campaign. There is also ample evidence, through Encyclopedia Harnica, that the land of Harn will continue to be supported with more specific information and detailed areas for adventure.

Harn also shows a strong level of design and consistency. There is no doubt that the author has a real feel for his world.

For a gamer looking for help in creating his first fantasy campaign world, and uninterested or unable to do his own work on it, the Harn Master Module and Cities of Harn are two very good products. After a few days of reading, it is possible to have an understanding of the lands and flavor of the campaign. This might save weeks of work that would have to be done if starting from scratch and would still lack Harn's level of detail.

For all these reasons, it is a shame that the land of Harn is not a more interesting place, and that the authors seem uninterested in designing colorful, detailed NPCs for their world.

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© Copyright 1986 by Dana Lombardy.
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