Hârn is a campaign setting for fantasy role-playing games, designed by N. Robin Crossby, and published by Columbia Games in 1983.
The island of Hârn was first described in 1983, in the Hârn campaign set from Columbia Games. It contains a folio with a general overview, with background, history, and religion of the island of Hârn along with the small Hârndex encyclopaedia, and a map. Shannon Appelcline has stated that "Hârn was broadly based on Norman England, with some fantasy elements appearing through dwarves, elves and orcs. It was low magic and [...] tried to create a genuinely real setting, based on careful research and consideration."
First published in 1986, the role-playing rules set HârnMaster was developed specifically for use with the setting.
In 1998 Crossby founded Kelestia Productions (KP), an electronic publishing e-company. KP and Columbia Games now independently produce printed and online materials for use with Hârn-based role-playing campaigns and fiction.
Hârn is an island off the western coast of the region of Venârivè (the northwestern part of the continent of Lýthia) on the planet Kèthîra, but as Hârn has traditionally been the focus of the setting, many people refer to the world as Hârn or HârnWorld. Hârn is notable for several reasons:
The island of Hârn has seven human kingdoms and two kingdoms ruled by other species. In alphabetical order, these are:
The island is also home to over a dozen human "barbarian" tribal nations and many bands of Hârnic orcs, known as gârgún.
Hârn is situated in a network of seven linked parallel worlds known collectively as Keléstia. The seven linked worlds in the family are:
In addition to the island of Hârn itself, products have been released covering the nearby regions of Shôrkýnè (a large feudal kingdom with a weak king) and IvÃÂnia (an analogue of Scandinavia complete with fjords, Vikings, and a religion similar to that of the old Norse).
Other publications detail other areas including:
In the September 1983 edition of Dragon (Issue 77), Roger E. Moore liked the Hârn campaign setting. He admired the map, which he called, "beautiful. If you are a fan of fantasy cartography, the map makes a wonderful addition to oneâÂÂs collection, having lots of legible detail and a well worked out ecological system and geography." Moore was also quite impressed with the booklet called the Harndex that listed all sorts of interesting information on people and places. He noted some similarities to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, but pointed out that gamemasters could easily expunge that material if they wished. He concluded by recommending Hârn to "experienced referees who donâÂÂt mind using a largely prefabricated universe with a few minor alterations to suit their own campaign tastes... State of the art? It could be better, but it is very good."
In the March 1986 edition of Dragon (Issue 107), Eric Pass reviewed some of the supplementary material that had been published, namely the Cities of Hârn supplement, Encyclopedia Harnica #1-#13 and the regional module Ivinia. Pass liked all of them, saying, "All of these products are richly detailed and fully consistent. The only complaint I with this material is the [high] prices." He concluded that "This material is a savior for the hard-pressed GM whose players expect and demand detailed playing environments and backgrounds. All of the supplements contain well-constructed, consistent, interesting information that will take hours to absorb. Keep a notebook by your side as you read, because youâÂÂll get all sorts of ideas for play."
In the May 1996 edition of Dragon (Issue 229), Rick Swan reviewed the re-released and revised Harn World boxed set. Swan stated that it "emphasizes culture and economics at the expense of magic and monsters, making it less appealing to hack âÂÂnâÂÂslashers than to veterans who take their games seriously." He conceded that the rules system was very complex: "Unwieldy? Perhaps. To call Harn World ambitious is like calling the Grand Canyon a large hole." But Swan recommended the Harn World system to experienced players, saying, "If youâÂÂve outgrown dungeon crawls, you might be ready to jump in."
In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "All of this material is methodical and internally consistent. Nothing else in the mid '80s, and a good deal after, right up to now, comes close to providing the amount of detail in Hârn. Depth and breadth. There are like a million Forgotten Realms books, and it is still no contest."
Columbia published most of the canon material about Hârn in the early 1980s; at that point (around the time the first edition of the Harnmaster rules was published) the interval between new products lengthened and some scheduled products were never completed (such as the Trierzon and Azeryan regional modules). The setting was sustained throughout the 1990s and early 2000s by fan-created material, popularly called "fanon." The high quality and consistency of the fanon products, as well as the interactivity of message fora such as HarnList and HârnForum have kept the setting alive.
Hârnic fanon, although independently written, is notable for its goal of staying consistent with the hundreds of pages of canon material spread over more than twenty years of publication. In many instances high quality art was produced and professional grade layout and design was done to make the material look similar to products produced by the publishers. There are points of confusion regarding the sanctioning and format of fanon. Both Columbia Games and Kelestia have different fanon guidelines.