Would such a campaign have to be set on Hârn?

There is *tremendous* scope of such a campaign in the relations between Shôrkýnè, Palíthanè, and Tríerzòn....

?

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Fástred al Beréma,
Rówanti al Sávè-k’nôr

I recently spent a few hours chatting with a friend in Brisbane who used to work for Auran, but no longer does.

After Auran terminated its contract they converted Web of the Widow into 'generic' content and gave it away for free. Then they followed it up with the two sequels (I'm not sure about the names, but I'm told they were published). I'm sure the Auran D20 page(s) can tell you about this... you'll have to dig a bit to see what's what, though. Naturally any similarity to WoW is purely coincidental and all that :)

Web of the Widow received some harsh criticism on it's release. Not all of it was, IMO justified. From memory the percieved problems were:
The maps were horrible (I'm sure that this problem wouldn't arise with a Kelestia production).
The maps mape changes from previously published maps (I sincerely hope that this wouldn't happen with a Kelestia production.)
The plot introduced a new god(dess) into the pantheon. In my view there is enough good stuff in canon without needing to make such a major change.

Neil

- "Pardon me for living, I'm sure."
- NO-ONE GETS PARDONED FOR LIVING.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Mort)

This has bugged me from the get go. Web of the Widow did NOT introduce a new goddess into the pantheon, it simply introduced a cult that believed in one. I reckon there are all sorts of folk that participate in such things.

Ken, you're right. But IMO this was not made clear in the adventure. I have to admit that It's a few years since I ran it, so I should re-read it before making too many comments. I changed major parts of the adventure (for one thing, I made the 'big bad' one of Panaga's henchmen) and there were a lot of little errors in the plotting.

But, the problems with it (from my perspective) were the maps, which annoyed me so much that I drew my own (that's an old story). Given the reputation of CGI's (at the time there was only CGI) maps I'm surprised no-one there pulled them up on it. Certainly the Minilaous keep map, though in colours and textures looks close to a Kelestia map, in design it's, er, not very good.

Allan, big, intrigue and secrets is good, but it needs the entire plot figuring out before you start writing it and it needs to fit with canon. The easiest way to do this is to write the canon yourself! Still, Nurisel and Lothraem intrigue me, and a comment on the HarnForum about Nurisel's lands have got me thinking.

- "Pardon me for living, I'm sure."
- NO-ONE GETS PARDONED FOR LIVING.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Mort)

no arguments from me about the maps :)

Ken is quite correct, WotW did not introduce a new Goddess into the Pantheon. A cult had arisen that followed the orders of a woman who heard voices from beyond.

WotW was written as the first installment of a 12 part series called the Tapestry Saga, intended to span 20 years. Most of the adventures were to centre around an overarching plot-line that followed the rise of this new cult. However there were to be four adventures that had nothing to do with the main adventure butwere still intended for the same characters following the central campaign. If characters died, it was easy to bring in relatives and friends of the central cast to continue the main storyline.

The overarching plot was fully sketched out and the theme of all 12 episodes summarised. The first three adventures were written in detail. The plot-line was not provided in total in WotW as it was decided to provide information to the GM on a needs to know basis, at thae start. Once more of the plot-line began to have real impact on the game (around episode 6)GMs would be able to purchase a special background booklet from Columbia that fleshed out everything. This product was not going to be available in shops and the Columbia site was to advertise this as a 'secret' reference book for GM's of the Tapestry Series only. Of course, asa marketing tool, it was envisaged that many Harniacs, not playing the campaign would like to purchase this just to see what the secrets of the game where!

Sadly, Auran's relationship with Columbia broke down and the Tapestry Series was shelved after the introductory module. Some basic elements of the second module (the mystery at the monastery, the voyage etc) were used in the Auran d20 "Dark Awakenings" modules, although the fantasy element was ramped up.

Regards,

Keith

So Auran had a deal worked out in which they were going to be permitted to violate the original, cast-in-stone idea of *NEVER* advancing the Kethiran timeline past 720 T.R.? Boo, hiss . . .

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Old-style heraldry: Sable, the pale argent.

New-style heraldry: Oreo, resting on edge.

Well, the 'canon year' is tr720. I have always insisted on this. All of my environmental material has always been a 'snapshot' of (my canon) Kèthîra in tr720.

However, Allan is right in that when it comes to adventures, the bets are off; and this includes electronic content, computer games, etc.

By definition these kinds of product must be allowed more licence, because they are presumed to be 'action' undertaken in the course of play. They have to be based on my canon 'snapshot', but in theory, they can do whatever they like as long as they don't rewrite the snapshot itself by changing pre-tr720 events.

There are even cases in which we tinkered a bit with the pre-tr720 canon, as in Hârn:Bloodline which I wrote with Cameron Brown. Hârn:Bloodline had a wonderful 'backstory' stretching back to tr100 and gave players the ability to 'shape' early history... possibly even having the whole world destroyed before tr720... computer games are, perhaps a special case; it stands to reason that, if we let you fight a battle in the past, (or step on butterflies for that matter) you may well change the present (in fact I don't see how you could avoid it).

. . . especially when you consider the Panaga trilogy or 100 Bushels of Rye. 100 Bushels of Rye was set more than halfway through 720, but its events had no real impact on the timeline. Even the Panaga trilogy, which was epic in scope, didn't really impact the timeline too much unless the GM *allowed* it to do so (which would be, of course, his or her privilege).

Harn:Bloodline? Google-time . . . what a shame. I'd have loved to play a CRPG on Harn!

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Old style heraldry: Sable, the pale argent.

New style heraldry: Oreo, resting on edge.

Essentially, the material in the Tapestry Saga was adventure based. It described plots and characters and drew on existing material as to where these adventures took place.

The series of adventures were deliberately written over a 20 year period. This was mailnly due to a discussion that was held in the early design stage that came to the opinion that characters in most RPGs have an incredible amount of adventures in a short time frame. Of course, this is artificially generated by the game and the characters wanting to keep the adventure going. Nobody wants to look after their farm holdings for 5 years or so after slaying a few dragons.

In keeping with the more believable environment of Harn, we wanted the GM to take a guiding hand and, when one part of the saga was complete, the players would be told that x years have gone by, before introducing hooks into the next part of the adventure. We were even devising a set of tables to generate character-related events that happened during the period of down-time.

As Robin points out, an adventure, by its very nature must be able to progress beyond 720. The Tapestry material did not create new historical events or generate new Gods etc. It drew off existing canon. However, in any game a GM and/or the players may be responsible for generating major changes in the world. That becomes their own personal verion of Harn (I think Robin refers to these as p-Harns).

On another note, while developing the Tapestry series, it was hoped that we would be able to add in a few 'easter eggs' drawn from material that Robin has not released. A few new things to whet the appetite of fans. But...alas, corporate problems arose and the Harn project was abandonned. I was moved on to d20 modules for another year or so before Auran decided it didn't need creative writers anymore - just programmers and artists.

Regards,

Keith

I picked up both parts of the Dark Awakenings modules from the bargain bin at my local game store this winter, but had no idea they were at all plot-related to "Web of the Widow." I had/still have one of those autoship subscriptions to all of Columbia Games' Harn material, got a copy of "Web of the Widow" through that -- and sold it off on eBay within a few months (my kids were too young at the time to GM for). I'll have to find another copy of WotW, and compare it to the 2 Dark Awakenings modules -- perhaps the kids are ready for them now.

Have there been any recent attempts to start on online Harn Campaign?

Hello Platinum Dragon

Not by Kelestia. We have been too busy developing products!

Cheers

Jeremy
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Fástred na Beréma,
Rowánti na Sávè-k’nôr

If anyone is interested I may want to start up a game in the future. I am currently reading the HarnMaster rules (iow I am a newbie) so it may be a while before I get up to speed.

Cheers,
Robin Forster

Platinum D, This may not be what you want, but it's likely the closest you'll find. http://www.harshlands.net/