GURPS Hârn

[muduri]

Don't have many details for you, but as a personal note I can't say enough good things about GURPS Hârn. I can't think of a more robustly built fantasy world in terms of believability, thoughtful character motivations, and settlements you can visit without hitting the end of the author's stage, as it were. And GURPS is more accessible than the Hârnmaster system, and meshes with the gritty world much better than That Other Game. Our in-person group's been going for twelve years now, in Beijing / Vienna / New York / San Francisco, and the combination can lure in some great non-gamers. Bon voyage on the GURPS Hârn journey!

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

To be fair, if I was thinking of running a campaign in Harn, I'd put most of the canon related to religion and magic over the side, along with all the Tolkien impersonation in the lore. The religion was jarringly non-immersive compared with the rest of the setting, the magic also felt like it belonged in a different setting, and I prefer to leave Tolkien to Tolkien.

With regard to the religion, I've seen an alternate take on it that felt more appropriate.

In particular, they were split up into separate religions, that didn't recognize the others as actual gods. Larani, Peoni, and Save-K'nor formed a trinity, while the "bad guy" gods were toned down to something that actual people might revere.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by RyanW

With regard to the religion, I've seen an alternate take on it that felt more appropriate.

In particular, they were split up into separate religions, that didn't recognize the others as actual gods. Larani, Peoni, and Save-K'nor formed a trinity, while the "bad guy" gods were toned down to something that actual people might revere.

That might work ... frankly something needs to be done, because like a lot of early fantasy religions it was written from a point of view that didn't really understand ... well, religion, but especially polytheism. It also doesn't fit with the cod-Tolkien of other parts of the lore.

Based on some work I did trying to create a p-Harn, I was looking at making the gods less prominent and more numerous ... and having some of them (such as Sarajin and Ilvir) actually being ... well, effectively surviving Earthmasters, serving as sufficiently advanced aliens. That would help to explain how their "heaven" is just on the next planet over...

[AllenOwen]

If I were to work out a GURPS Harn, I'd use a lot of the resources that are extant, but I'd use GURPS Powers: Divine Favor for the religions.

[AllenOwen]

How would the Shadow work in GURPS? A power built around Terror?