Harn d20?

QuaziquestGM · Jul 10, 2006

Ok, so I'm not good at sales resistance......

Anyone know anything about Harn or how good it's conversion to D20 is? I should be getting it the mail in a week or so.....

Ketherian · Jul 10, 2006

Harn is a low-magic medieval setting that focuses on realism. The game system (HarnMaster) is d100-based rather than d20 based. I've been running campaigns in the HarnWorld setting using the HarnMaster rules for the past several years and love the background.

For a great introduction to HarnWorld check out the Introduction (http://www.lythia.com/downloads/intro.pdf) on http://www.lythia.com. Lythia.com has lots of free downloads including maps, NPCs, expansion and detail articles as well as plot hooks, adventures and so much more.

There's an index of fan pages available at: http://www.harnlink.com.
The forum for Harn players is at http://www.harnforum.com.

For my own minor offerings, see http://www.ketherian.org/paxtharda

Archade · Oct 18, 2006

I was surfing the boards for D20 Harn content and came across this old message ...

I did a free D20 supplement for Kelestia Productions' city of Evanekin a couple of years back. It's not that hard to do D20 Harn, with a little tweaking. You can download the PDF at - http://www.kelestia.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=5

The main things I changed was to use a silver-piece-based economy, and reduce all treasures, income from craft skills, and wealth levels to 1/3.

Other things I would do are detail the races out (Sindar are definitely not just elves!), create some setting specific feats, classes, and prestige classes, and port over some of the rule settings that make harn feel ... harnic.

Turanil · Oct 18, 2006

There is a d20 set of rules specific for Harn? Or do you mean, you want to use d20 with the Harn campaign setting? In the latter case, my 2 cents suggestion, is that since Harn is a setting emphasizing a low-magic and "medieval realist" style, D&D wouldn't be appropriate. I would rather suggest Grim Tales (sort of d20 Modern usable in fantasy settings), or Legends of Dark Ages (or even Legends of Excalibur) by RPGobjects.

Archade · Oct 18, 2006

Hey there!

I mainly posted because I've been looking at supplying Kelestia with more D20 Harn material. My understanding of D20 has improved over the last few years, and I think the campaign setting is one that people should look at.

There isn't a definitive D20 set of rules for Harn. Shane Morales did a good D20 Harn document (a google search will turn it up), but it was 'fit D&D into Harn' and (IMO) didn't capture the flavor of the campaign setting. Other people have used Iron Heroes or d20 Conan as rule settings to try to get closer to the Harnic feel.

Harn itself isn't 'low-magic', it's 'rare-magic', much like Middle Earth. Anyone who has played Harnmaster will tell you that Gulmorvin are scary undead creatures, accomplished mages can travel to other planes, the sindarin are powerful beings with ancient magic, there are dragons and undead and evil wizards, and the god Ilvir himself lives in a foul pit on the island of Harn, and creatures that he spawns are the stuff of nightmares. But it is a very gritty, survival oriented setting, and the people of harn are ignorant of much magic out there. I'd describe it more as a 'dark ages' setting.

Since Harn was originally published as a 'rules neutral' setting, there's no reason D&D won't work with Harn, as long as the feel of the campaign setting is addressed. D&D is primarily aimed at high fantasy, but it can support other grittier settings - Iron Heroes, Conan, and even Ptolus show that.

I'm not familiar with Legends of Dark Ages or Legends of Excalibur. What are they like?

jdrakeh · Oct 18, 2006

Note entirely on-topic, but. . . I wrote Simple 20 (see my .sig) with an eye toward lower power levels and verisimilitude. In fact, the option for descriptive damage in the appendices is very much inspired by HarnMaster. If you want to use Harn setting material, but aren't sold on their house conversions to d20, you may want to give Simple 20 a spin (and it's free, so the risk is minimal).

zorak_zoran · Jun 20, 2021

If you use d20 or Pathfinder RPG, I would use some of the optional rules to make it feel Hârnic. Specifically, the vitality/wounds (making combat deadlier), armor as damage resistance, and dead is dead (no raise dead magic/limit certain spells). Also, fiddle around with deities a bit. I also like some of the suggestions above such as a silver-based economy and wealth level reduction to 1/3. The two optional rules make d20 much grittier.

Alzrius · Jun 20, 2021

I'd recommend giving HarnWorld D20 (affiliate link), from WarFlail's Armoury, a look.

Jaeger · Jun 20, 2021

No Reason that Harn could not be run with a d20.

You can either divide everything by 5 and roll a d20 instead of percentiles.

Or,

For 5e Harn; don't have HP progression after level 3, and use the massive damage rules where you get a wound if you take more than half damage at a time. (Might want to do negative HP instead of 5e's current system too.)

The real trick for d20 Harn is re-doing the magic system to match. That will take some work.