A great piece of Harnworld lore, reprinted from a classic 1984 module, on the heraldry of Harn. Many examples of designs are given, with descriptions of their use and significance.

While specifically written for Harn, the lore in this booklet could be used for inspiration for other fantasy RPGs, or as a general source for medieval heraldry.

A grisly piece of Harnworld lore, reprinted from a classic 1987 module, regarding a bimonthly gladitorial combat event, the Pamesani Games. While specifically written for Harn, the lore in this booklet could be used for inspiration for other fantasy RPGs.

A great piece of Harnworld lore, reprinted from a classic 1987 module. While specifically written for Harn, the lore in this booklet could be used for inspiration for other fantasy RPGs.

Overpriced I'm perfectly happy to pay a couple of quid for some quickstart rules, which are included in this product. The trouble is this 'field of daisies' adventure could better be titled 'basic dungeon crawl'. There is a lot of detail on the local village, but the only information to be gained there by the characters is a fairly obvious 'go adventure in this location' sign post.

This should be called Quickstart rules and sample encounter... but would anyone buy it if it were?

The article does not provide any new information that hasn't already been printed elsewhere. The only thing new was some artwork. Given that this is a PDF file, at $4.99 I feel it is overpriced. At that price I expected some new material and at least an index with hyperlinks. On the plus side, the new artwork was nice.

So artwork gets 4 stars Writing gets 3 stars (the quality of writing rates higher but the lack of new material and lack of any sort of indexing pulled it down in my opinion) Price gets 2 stars

Overall I gave it 3 stars, average but not noteworthy

I was introduced to this game by an assistant manager at a now defunked FLGS. The character creation is the great amount of 'crunch' the system has. I am currently playing a HarnManor campaign and the role-play has been great. The dice complement the game and are not the drive force behind it.

Character Creation: Long, but worth it. It gives a great outline to expand a character's background to be believable.

Combat: This ain't your granddaddy's D&D RPG. No Hit Points, but the Injury Level System has a direct impact on how well you perform in combat. An active (roll to oppose) defense is interical, as much as the roll to attack.

Dice Mechanics: Percentile base with a mulitple of 5 (any number ending in a 0 or 5) is critical success below your Mastery Level, or a critical failure above your Mastery Level. It give a better sense of realism without being cumbersome.

Character Advancement: No XP. If you use a particular skill, you have a chance to increase the skill's Mastery Level. Any critical (success or failure) in a skill allows your a chance to increase the ability.

The world setting is rich and dynamic.

If you want to get away from WoW on the tabletop, this is a game you should try.

A well-written product with amazing maps. They pack a lot of information in a relatively small number of pages. Price is a little high for a PDF, but definitely worth it, in my opinion.

While designed for use with the HarnMaster system, this book is relatively free of system-specific information. There is enough information here to use this as a setting in any game system.

Set out like all Columbia Games/harn products with the sidebars and wonderful presentation in colour. It feels like a series of summaries, enough to get a priest up and running with a handful of spells each. Harn is a low magic setting so don't expect too much fancy magic in this one. Piety Points (from HM3) are finally explained here, but still left me feeling slightly confused.

Borderline value for money but leaves you wanting more. You might be able to get by without this one but at some stage you're going to want a priest. If you're using harnmaster in a no-magic setting, such as medieval England, the you could give this one a miss.

Everything related to Harn is of the highest quality and always is. Having said that I think that this product is not value for money; it's expensive for pdfs and the magic and religion articles are too light on information for me. Religion does not seem very well fleshed out, while the magic system has a great fundamental base but few spells - they expect you to make your own (you can find huge spell complilations on the web for free though).

Remember that when you are buying this you are only buying the system and not the setting. Either use these rules in another medieval setting or fork out loads more cash for other modules. You really get the feeling that you don't quite have enough to play a game without additional material because of the references to languages, kingdoms, etc. during character generation.

The harnmaster rules are detailed and well refined (after 3 or so revisions). You'll also find houserules and a strong community that will further enhance your game.

A useful reference and how can you go wrong for $0!?

As advertised, a well-realised mediaeval inn of middling quality, with floor plan and NPCs, together with a wider social description of the town's justice moot that, more or less in the last of six pages, manages to fit in a great deal of useful political understanding and a detailed adventure skeleton.

I do like the picture emerging here of a border nobleman arming for war against his king (both of them evil bastards). The castle looks strong, though not without its drawbacks, and with the depth of detail to be expected from Harnmaster.

I had always heard that HarnMaster was a difficult game and had steered clear thinking back to my Rolemaster days. After seeing so many cool maps by Harn fans, rule extensions, homebrew addins and looking over the combat tables at the Columbia site I thought I should maybe take deeper look. I decided to take the $20 plunge, and am I ever glad I did. What a brilliant RPG System and World.

Harnmaster offers a rich environment and character creation that fleshes out entire histories and personas that are true to life. This is a skills based system that uses d100 for resolution, and does so in an elegant manner. Harnmaster is a realistic system that not only makes sense, it works right out of the box. At first I was like, "What? No Hit Points?" Believe me, once you use Injury Levels you'll never go back to HP's again.

Character creation takes a bit of time, but once completed everything you’ll need for play is front-loaded and recorded on the character sheet making lookup for task/skill/combat resolution a seldom used necessity. Making multiples of fives critical successes and failures is just one example of HarnMaster’s approach to simplifying the resolution system and allowing more time for role-playing instead of roll-playing. Even though HarnMaster is in its 3rd edition, you'll find plenty of fan material from all editions that work flawlessly. Being able to tack on your own homebrew with ease makes it even better.

If you are looking for a realistic system and world you need look no further. HarnMaster is a gem that I wish I’d found years ago...

As is typical for Hârn, here is a wonderfully-detailed area, with enough background to keep an historian happy and plenty going on to make it worth a visit from your characters. Starting with the history of the settlement from earliest times, its importance as port and trading gateway over a good four thousand years is discussed, along with other roles such as sometime royal seat and a meeting point between humans and dwarves.

While the history serves to make the place sound real - read any local guidebook! - it also from the outset spawns ideas... a long-lost jewelled sword, whose historical signicance far outweighs its considerable intrinsic value, the current state of political affairs with various powerful clans bickering and jockeying for position... it is made easy for you to root events and adventures in the very location where you intend for them to take place.

The maps are good, including a players' map of the castle and surrounding settlement and a topographical map showing where Gardiren sits in relation to other towns and features of the area. It's clear from this the significance of the bridge beside the castle, the Medrik Bridge. No wonder much of the local Earl's income is from tolls! There's also a GM's map, the same as the players' one but with various building and other items of note marked, followed by a detailed run-down of what is where, including notable personalities and little snippets that add to the realism if not spawn side adventures of their own. The castle itself is also mapped and described in detail.

Next, the main personalities in the castle are introduced in detail. Whilst an arch-intriguer, the Earl is also passionate about the pleasures of the table: any lover of fine mediaeval fare will feel at home here. (The description of one feast is making me hungry as I write!) There are also notes on main commercial activities, festivals and other notable events. There are no real adventure seeds, let alone adventures, but there is so much going on that you will be very quickly able to weave local events around your characters' activities to devise your own.

It's a beautifully-described settlement that really comes to life, I can well imagine that it's out there somewhere just waiting for me to visit.

This is a neat bestiary article, which begins with an overview of what bears are like, mentioning distinctive features such as their gait, hibernation, breeding, their territorial nature and the like. Their senses - excellent sense of smell but weak eyesight - are included along with notes on how they hunt and what they eat. For those with such intentions, there's a note on capturing and training them as well as hunting bears for their hides and bear-baiting.

We then move on to more detailed notes on the three types of bear covered, beginning with the black bear. There's a map showing its distribution in the wild across Hârn, complete statistics and plenty of detail on how they live and their relationships with man... and a nice picture of a bear eating a fish.

This is followed by similar detail on the more aggressive (but less widely distributed) brown bear and the snow bear, which is confined to the extreme north and differs from other bears in that it does not hibernate, and indeed only stays in a den or cave while giving birth and raising cubs. They are magnificient swimmers, very fierce, but their pelts command a high price.

A useful addition to one's knowledge of the wildlife of Hârn, particularly if your characters choose to venture into the lands these bears call home.