Running the module 100 Bushels of Rye later today (going to tweak it to another system). This is an old HARN adventure. I've had it on the shelf for ages, heard lots of good things about it from folks, but never run it before. Curious if anyone has run this and if they have any observations about the general challenge level of it. A lot of the HARN material I have seems to be grounded and down to earth, which I like. The dungeon in this one (and really that word is probably a bit of a stretch here) is simple but they manage to make its few and relatively mundane features quite entertaining (at least on paper).
HARN is one of those settings and systems I would like to be able to play more but seems a bit harder to convince folks to give it a try. I played in an incredible HARN campaign a little over ten years ago and thought the setting was very well done.
Have fun! Also, don't let all the low- magic ONLY Harn types influence you too much. There is a ton of magic in that world, but for some reason, 90% of all fan stuff is over-focused on making it as non-magic as possible.
Quote from: danbuter;786843Have fun! Also, don't let all the low- magic ONLY Harn types influence you too much. There is a ton of magic in that world, but for some reason, 90% of all fan stuff is over-focused on making it as non-magic as possible.
I think I even know why, as a similar thing occured with WFRP in Poland. Because of the inherent realism and grittiness of the setting as it was, I suspect attracted a sizeable amount of people interested more in historical reconstructionism in a fantasy setting, rather than actual fantasy, ultimately resenting the "fantasy" parts, and trying to limit them, finding them "childish"
Quote from: Rincewind1;786874I think I even know why, as a similar thing occured with WFRP in Poland. Because of the inherent realism and grittiness of the setting as it was, I suspect attracted a sizeable amount of people interested more in historical reconstructionism in a fantasy setting, rather than actual fantasy, ultimately resenting the "fantasy" parts, and trying to limit them, finding them "childish"
One thing I noticed too from this module is they make mundane stuff pretty darn exciting. They tool a pretty simple hole in the ground with a couple of rooms and really made it work. There were some supernatural elements but they were not in the foreground.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;786741Running the module 100 Bushels of Rye later today (going to tweak it to another system). This is an old HARN adventure. I've had it on the shelf for ages, heard lots of good things about it from folks, but never run it before. Curious if anyone has run this and if they have any observations about the general challenge level of it. A lot of the HARN material I have seems to be grounded and down to earth, which I like. The dungeon in this one (and really that word is probably a bit of a stretch here) is simple but they manage to make its few and relatively mundane features quite entertaining (at least on paper).
HARN is one of those settings and systems I would like to be able to play more but seems a bit harder to convince folks to give it a try. I played in an incredible HARN campaign a little over ten years ago and thought the setting was very well done.
The key is the roleplaying. The tension between Sir Kathel, Everard, the fact that the one of the hooks has the Sheriff of Olokand sending the PCs to see what the fuck is up. Which is a never a good thing for a knight and his manor.
Then you have Martin the Hermit. Also there are Taelda tribesmen who got massacred by SIr Kathel. An interesting wrinkle that before the massacred they did their ritual at the Pit of Skulls to keep the Old One placated. Now that Sir Kathel screwed them up some may actively be aggravating the situation.
What you should is list out the various leaders and their factions. Their goals and plans. Then throw the PCs in the middle of that. Then adjudicate things based on what the PCs do or not do.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;786881One thing I noticed too from this module is they make mundane stuff pretty darn exciting. They tool a pretty simple hole in the ground with a couple of rooms and really made it work. There were some supernatural elements but they were not in the foreground.
Oh, definitely not saying it's not awesome, just responded to Dan's statement. Seeing how the first thing I see when I google that module is someone complaining about lack of watermill in a village, and how unrealistic it makes the module, I'd say I am onto something.
Quote from: estar;786898The key is the roleplaying. The tension between Sir Kathel, Everard, the fact that the one of the hooks has the Sheriff of Olokand sending the PCs to see what the fuck is up. Which is a never a good thing for a knight and his manor.
Then you have Martin the Hermit. Also there are Taelda tribesmen who got massacred by SIr Kathel. An interesting wrinkle that before the massacred they did their ritual at the Pit of Skulls to keep the Old One placated. Now that Sir Kathel screwed them up some may actively be aggravating the situation.
What you should is list out the various leaders and their factions. Their goals and plans. Then throw the PCs in the middle of that. Then adjudicate things based on what the PCs do or not do.
That sounds pretty awesome indeed, my kind of sandbox.
Quote from: danbuter;786843Have fun! Also, don't let all the low- magic ONLY Harn types influence you too much. There is a ton of magic in that world, but for some reason, 90% of all fan stuff is over-focused on making it as non-magic as possible.
Because that's one of the chief attractions of the setting: partly that it's about as nitty-gritty realistic as the fantasy RPG genre will ever get, partly that it's as low entropy as the genre has ever gotten. Overturning that makes as much sense as telling your group, "Hey! Let's play GURPS, only we'll use character classes, levels and random gen!"
Quote from: Ravenswing;787192Because that's one of the chief attractions of the setting: partly that it's about as nitty-gritty realistic as the fantasy RPG genre will ever get, partly that it's as low entropy as the genre has ever gotten.
Yes Harn is pretty nitty-gritty but..
Quote from: Ravenswing;787192Overturning that makes as much sense as telling your group, "Hey! Let's play GURPS, only we'll use character classes, levels and random gen!"
But Dan is right about the magic. There is plenty of magic in Harn if you go looking for it. Harn just plays it low key. I guess the closet equivalents in fiction/film/tv would be Game of Thrones, X-Files, less over the top Buffy, etc. All have a mundane worlds with fantastic elements at the fringes or lying underneath the surface.
Quote from: Rincewind1;786899Oh, definitely not saying it's not awesome, just responded to Dan's statement. Seeing how the first thing I see when I google that module is someone complaining about lack of watermill in a village, and how unrealistic it makes the module, I'd say I am onto something.
I have a few Harn things myself, and from what I've read it's supposed to be 11th or 12th century pseudo-and-I-mean-heavy-on-the-
pseudo-Medieval England with other stuff mixed in. So a lot of villages near water aren't gonna have watermills, especially if they don't have someone to build 'em.
But it sounds like this is being used for a conversion, which Harn is able to support. It's very well written, most of the time.
Quote from: Jame Rowe;787436But it sounds like this is being used for a conversion, which Harn is able to support. It's very well written, most of the time.
I've ported a lot of Harn scenarios and stuff. It converts to GURPS perfectly fine, and I expect would port to pretty much any system with little trouble.
Quote from: danbuter;786843Have fun! Also, don't let all the low- magic ONLY Harn types influence you too much. There is a ton of magic in that world, but for some reason, 90% of all fan stuff is over-focused on making it as non-magic as possible.
Yeah, it's one of the things I find stupid about HARN.