BY N.R. CROSSBY
PUBLISHED BY COLUMBIA GAMES
2 BOOKS - HARNWORLD AND HARNDEX, PLUS A BINDER AND A FULL COLOR MAP
FREE IN EVERY ISSUE OF SHADIS (PLUS $4.95 FOR POSTAGE)

For the past 10 years, whenever I started up a new fantasy campaign, I would build a new world from scratch. Almost all of my worlds were low-fantasy, technologically inferior, and harsh ugly realms, where the players had minimal impact and would rather be dead than have to enter a trading port and starving farming village. My games subsisted on struggle. The tiniest details would be mapped out in my games, and I would have currency and calender systems very different from our own. A lot of time and energy was wasted on campaigns that went no where. About two years ago, I spotted HarnWorld and I got a clue.

Most players of fantasy would prefer to play in a high fantasy campaign with giant monsters to slay. Harn is not that, and I for one am glad. Few if any creatures permeate the world, and gargun (orcs) are just another cultural feature instead of a mindless race to slay when cows show up mutilated. In fact Harn has five different races of orcs, each with their own method of subsistence. But don't worry you can still find dwarves - known as Khuzdul, who are very materialistic - and elves, who are also known as Sindarin.

HarnWorld is the marketing name for the Columbia Games' fantasy planet known as Kethira. This "realistic" fantasy gaming world is everything great about medieval adventuring. The books are so complete and in depth, that there are never any questions as to how something operates. Players and GMs can make educated decisions about their gaming world, without fudging anything. GMs are provided with the tiniest details of the world, and nothing is left to chance.

All of the important cities in the expansion modules are fully developed, with the names of all the important people and the businesses they own and operate. Where they buy materials, and who they pay allegiance to is also developed. Any one of their modules reminds me of the old "Village of Hommlet" adventure that AD&D put out a long time ago as the prequel to the "Temple of Elemental Evil", where over 300 NPCs were detailed, and named. Harn modules are like that every time.

Guilds seem like a token feature in most fantasy role-playing games, but in Harn, each guild is fully described with pictures of their crest and the names of their locations. How they work, and why a journeyman might belong is also developed.

Languages and language family trees are provided with hints as to how the languages sound, and what similar languages may exist. On the island of Harn, the people speak mostly Harnic, but a few speak Jarinese in the southern regions. Both of these languages are characterized as part of the Jarind family of languages. The rest of Kethira known as the continent of Lythia speak a total of 45 separate languages from 9 different language families. And there's a map designed to show you a demographic break down of the languages. Who else makes, games like this?

Maps are another huge part of the Harn tradition. From Natural Vegetation to Ocean Currents to Economics to Terrain and Topography, the HarnWorld book provides so much detail on every subject that you can't use it all.

The only drastic complaint I would have of the core books (and I remind you they are free), is that the metaphysics of religion and magic are not wholly fleshed out. Future books will detail them, but for now, I'm stuck making up my own.

History, glossaries, atlases, indexes, star charts, economics, guilds, weather, moon phases, government, rural life, towns and cites, and cultural geography are a small part of the HarnWorld, but make up the core book well. All of it is easy to read and use, and at anytime during play a question about the details of the world can be identified in an instant.

But don't take my word for it, buy (get) the book.