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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6068945" data-attributes="member: 27160">OK, a 'big' one - HârnMasterFirst a bit of history to help understanding. Hârn was originally published as a systemless game world; the island of Hârn is about the size of Madagascar but placed somewhat similarly to the British Isles and Ireland off the north-west coast of a large continent, in this case the continent of Lýthia. The setting is a very gritty analogue to medieval Europe, with a "Norse" land to the north-east and vaguely "European" lands to the south-east with a 'sea surrounded by land' beyond. There are several similarities to medieval Europe, but also enough differences to make things interesting. The world is, I think, unique in promising (and, so far, delivering) no "metaplot" or massive world changes. All of the published material relates to a single game-date - 1st Nuzyael, 720TR - with nothing plotted beyond that whatsoever.Around about 1983, players using Hârn, though they loved the world setting, complained that no existing set of roleplaying rules seemed to do it justice - and hence HârnMaster - a system designed specifically to 'fit' the setting was born.HM is mostly a clear "second generation" roleplaying system, skill based and percentile after the lead of RuneQuest. It has the odd neat tweak (e.g. "criticals" happen whenever a percentile roll ends in a 5 or a 0, and is a "critical success" if the roll is in the success range or a "critical failure" if it is in the failure range, which is a nice, easy, table-free way to get "special" results), but basically it's fairly "vanilla".The one thing that makes it really stand out, for me, is the wounding and recovery system. HârnMaster does not use hit points. When I say this, bear in mind that I count systems that have "condition tracks" (Shadowrun and the like) as using "hit points", in as much as they supplant "every creature has a different number of hit points and loses them the same way" with "every creature has the same number of hit points, but they resist losing them to different extents". In HM a wound is not something that "takes away" some resource that the character has - it is a thing that is added to the character, is difficult to get rid of and is dangerous and unwelcome to have hanging around.Death may come in any of a myriad ways in HM - instant death from decapitation or the like, lingering death from infection, death due to bloodloss (perhaps the closest thing to "hit points" in the system, but not all that common), death due to shock, death due to poison or disease, death due to drowning... you get the picture. But it never comes from simply running out of "life" (hit points).The base combat system uses hex grids, but I have played many times without and it doesn't really suffer for it. The maps included in Hârn products are amazing, though, so you may find you want to get those out to use for "position tracking" as often as possible!Strengths: characters feel "real". The world has "texture" - sometimes I feel as if I could reach out and touch it. Outcomes tend to be "messy" and inconclusive - making for some wonderful stories. The world has a definite social and economic 'system' that is, given the grittiness of the system, difficult to subvert for player characters. The characters can really feel as if they "fit" into the world; they have relations with the society, rather than representing a sort of deracinated bunch of hooligans out for nothing but their own aggrandisement and gain. If you want a system where your character is a very human agent - frail and vulnerable - in a big, wide world, this system can do that.Weaknesses: are more or less the flip-sides of the strengths. If you want to play "big damn heroes" you are likely to meet a sticky end on Hârn (although some very interesting "experimental" games have bucked against this!). It's unrelentingly gritty and detailed, and doesn't allow much player scope for "dream or wish fulfillment". Characters take a lot to develop well, but can die easily if you insist on "adventuring" with them - it's better to work within society than outside it, in this world.Finally I'll say that Hârn is still growing into a fully realised world, despite the tragic death of its creator in 2008. A group of us still gather from around the world on an annual basis, and the scope of ways in which we have explored the setting is amazing. It's a great place to explore. If you're interested to know more, look <a href="http://www.lythia.com/" target="_blank">here</a> - not only is there a plethora of great free material available for download, there is also a super community of folks who are only too pleased to help out newbies, or those wishing to give Hârn a try.P.S. Forgot to say - Hârn materials are available from DTRPG or from <a href="http://www.kelestia.com/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.columbiagames.com/" target="_blank">here</a> (for reasons that are explained on the Lýthia site I linked above...).</blockquote>

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