HârnMaster

HârnMaster

Cover of 3rd edition
Designer(s)	N. Robin Crossby
Publisher(s)	Columbia Games, Kelestia Productions
Publication date	1986 (1st edition) 1996 (2nd edition) 2002 (3rd edition)
Genre(s)	Fantasy
System(s)	Custom

HârnMaster is a fantasy role-playing game based in the fantasy world of Hârn. The system, like the world, was designed primarily by N. Robin Crossby.

Hârnmaster, the Hârn RPG, was published by Columbia Games in 1986. All Hârn supplements were system independent but based on reader interest, Columbia decided to produce a Hârn game system too. N. Robin Crossby took the lead on the game and based the new game on designs that he had first written down in the 1970s. Columbia shifted their focus toward supporting their new Hârnmaster RPG, and the first ever Hârn adventures appeared, 100 Bushels of Rye (1988) and The Staff of Fanon (1988), as well as the rules-oriented Pilots' Almanac (1988), followed by a series of magic books and other RPG supplements. Columbia also started publishing wargames again and one Hârn wargame also appeared: Battlelust (1992), a Hârn-based miniatures game, fully compatible with Hârnmaster. A few adventures and a second edition (1996) of Hârnmaster were published; second edition Hârnmaster was a somewhat simplified version of the game that extracted out the magic systems into Hârnmaster Magic (1997) and Hârnmaster Religion (1998). The set of rulebooks concluded with Hârnmaster Manor (1999) and finally Hârnmaster Barbarians (2000). After Columbia released their updated vision of the game, Crossby started working on his own version, Hârnmaster Gold (1998), a divergent set of rules that sought to increase realism. When the d20 System came out, Columbia reprinted classic setting material like Trobridge Inn (2001) and Evael: Kingdom of the Elves (2002) with dual Hârnmaster/d20 stats.Keléstia Productions started out with a new edition of the Hârnmaster Gold Player Edition (2003), which was followed by a few other rule books. Columbia began work on a more streamlined third edition of Hârnmaster (2003).

There are now multiple versions of HârnMaster available through the original publishers and through various third-party vendors. Each version has different strengths:

The original high-realism HârnMaster was published by Columbia Games and is now long out of print.