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Meredragons- A New Look for the Ilme

Ilme nest, Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

I am going to do a few posts about the newest HarnQuest release. The latest publication has some cool new articles with greatly expanded text and art for some old friends- though “friends” maybe an odd choice of words for a set of articles that will most likely get your player characters bitten, set on fire, or hit upside the head with a mace– that may also itself be on fire.

This HarnQuest has some expanded articles on two Agrikan Orders,  Dragons, and Ilme- the Meredragon, a creature unique to Harn. These articles are an attempt to give new life to creatures with ideas for your game offering many adventure possibilities.
Also on this HarnQuest, CGI decided to start adding color to the first page of all new articles. This decision came after much of the work was done. So while I was excited about the decision, I had not planned for it and had to rework stuff that I had considered finished.

When I started with Harn one of the things that stood out for me was the look of the product. Of course there were the great maps, but the art of Eric Hotz was what really attracted my attention. It had a simple and gritty realism. When I started illustrating for Harn in 2001 I did my best to continue that trend. I learned a lot trying to emulate the standard set by Hotz. I think I have since developed my own style, but it has definitely been influence by the work of Hotz.  So, for the page one art for Ilme I thought I would pay homage to the original Hotz image- 28 years later. In preparation of this article I had been studying and drawing dinosaurs in an attempt to create a more realistic beast by improving on the anatomy and setting.

Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc.

So as you can see in the above image, my image has a very familiar layout with some direct references to the original Hotz image. Hotz did a great job making his work very simple with clear reading subjects.
Honestly, my image could have used a bit more of that, so when I got the opportunity to color the image, that was the main goals, to make the subject read more strongly in this complicated image. I took the scanned pen and ink image into photoshop, colored some of the lines so they were not so black, and then painted color on the layer under the line work. I flattened the image and then painted highlights on top of that.
I would be curious to know what you think of the image, and my nod to the original from 1984.

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New HarnQuest- Herpa the Mace

It has been a busy month for me.
I just finished the next HarnQuest for Columbia Games. It has been a long time coming. This set of articles includes Dragons, Lesser Dragons, Mere Dragons (Ilme), and two hot Agrikan Orders.
I posted about the start of this HQ in February. I can’t believe it has been that long.

In the mean time I also worked on CGI’s fancy new website which was unveiled on Free RPG Day. While I had nothing to do with the building of the site, I helped with the look and did all of the icons for the main page. I wanted the site to look much like a medieval manuscript. I am very proud of the art for adding things to your cart, and checkout. You see? it is a medieval cart. Clever huh?

 

There were a few hiccups along the way for this release, but the exciting thing that held this up is CGI’s decision that all new articles for Harn will have at least one color image. Though Dragons is lucky enough to contain 3 color images. I will discuss the dragon art in an upcoming post.

First is the color version of the image I posted about in the February post, now in full color- well at least some red, yellow and orange. Harn has for years been know for it’s gritty pen and ink illustrations. Those will still be in most of the publications, but the page one color images will add more life to Harn. I tried a few different methods to color the pen and ink illustrations. I used oil paint, digital painting and a bit of water color. For this particular image I used a few methods. The first was to do a very rough water color wash on a new sheet of paper. I did a fast and loose painting which I scanned and laid it under the pen and ink image in photoshop. I then did the rest of the painting digitally.

 

Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

“Hârn is home to many clerical orders devoted to Agrik, the dark god of war and violence, but none is more mystical than the Order of Herpa the Mace, whose priests are known for their ability to foresee the future with remarkable clarity.”

The above is a description of the article had lots of fodder for illustrating- and most of that fodder I threw in a big pile and set on fire.

Copyright © 2012, Columbia Games, Inc. and Richard Luschek

The above image shows a priestess divining using a deck of cards. I am lucky to have a writing team that trusts me and leaves me pretty free to draw what I want. I get some suggests in the empty spots where the art goes, often they are fairly vague or just suggestions. So, in sense I get to tell my own stories- riffing off the text that I am given. I try to use the space to “say 1000 words“. For the Agrikan fortune telling image I got to make up the look of the cards, the lay of the cards and even added a scroll that shows various spreads for different situations. The spread on the table is the ‘Mace’. You can see on the scroll two other spreads, the ‘Octagon’ and the ‘Comet’ card arrangement. None of these details are mentioned in the text, but I think they add to the story. It would be exciting to see some fanon written about the Agrikan Tarot cards.
I am looking forward to hearing what the Harn fans think of this Harn Quest. I am pretty excited about the results.

If you are not a HarnQuest subscriber, What you are waiting for?!!-
Click here Now!

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Field of Daisies

Field of Daisies

Field of Daisies

Field of Daisies is an introductory adventure for HârnWorld. Although designed to be used with the HârnMaster rule system, it is generic enough for easy conversion for use with other rule systems and can easily fit into any medieval fantasy game setting. The adventure unfolds in the fief of Falkath, a small manor in northern Kaldor, a feudal kingdom in eastern Hârn. Falkath’s knightly lord, Sir Mayald Vobenor, is looking for able-bodied people to search for a missing child. Can the players find the boy or will they end up buried in a Field of Daisies?

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HarnCon 2008

Things are rapidly falling in to place for HârnCon VI, August 29 – 31, 2008 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The venue for the weekend is the Marpole Curling Club, which offers a large meeting room as well as a spacious pub, both of which have plenty of tables for gaming.

For those wishing to book accommodations, the Coast Vancouver Airport Hotel offers a special rate for participants at Marpole Curling Club events. The Marpole Club is about 3 blocks away from the hotel. Maps and directions are available on both web sites.

The fee for the weekend will be CDN $30 in advance, or CDN $40 at the door. The advantage of registering in advance (other than saving $10) is that you will be able to sign up to run and/or play games in advance on the web. Advance fees can be paid using PayPal to Brian McNeilly at: bmcneilly@shaw.ca.

The Vancouver Gaming Guild is sponsoring the convention, and we will be using their online registration system to schedule the weekend. You will need to create a profile for yourself in the registration system. As well as a login id, you will be asked to enter your real name, which is used in the game schedule. We don’t use aliases in the schedule since it is much easier to locate “Brian McNeilly” on game day than “Brénan-al-Saél”.

Once you have paid the fee, you will be able to log in to the system, validate your ticket number (which you receive after payment), and input events that you would like to run, or sign up to participate in games already posted on the schedule.

BTW, your login id will allow you to sign on to the VGG Forums, where you can read more about the gaming community in the Vancouver region.

Grant Dalgliesh from Columbia Games will be attending.

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Harnic Christmas free adventure on DriveThruRPG.net

We’ve posted a fun-filled holiday adventure set in Geldeheim, Orbaal. The PDF file is available on DriveThruRPG.com and RPGnow.com. Maps and information about Geldeheim accompany the adventure.

DRIVETHRU

RPGNOW.com

Happy Holidays from Columbia Games

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Mnemonic for the months of Harn

Here’s a challenge: Can anyone come up with a good mnemonic for the 12 months of Harn? Since starting our promotion at harncalendar.com I’ve thought it would be handy to have a song, quip, or even an acronym to help remember the months.

Email suggestions to grant@columbiagames.com

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Harn Calendar

The month of Nuzyael is nearly over. Next month’s calendar, Peonu, will replace this one on May 1.

Make sure you visit harncalendar.com to download your free calendar soon…

http://www.harncalendar.com

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Happy Harnic New Year

Greetings,

The Hârnic new year begins with the first month of Spring (eviqualent to April on Terra).

We have created a new calendar of Hârnic holy days which will be released FREE online in PDF format month by month.

There will also be special offers each month.

Visit harncalendar.com

This is a beta release now and we are seeking input before promoting this to the roleplaying community at large. Please post comments to this blog or email directly to grant@columbiagames.com.

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Harn Campaign Manager

I just fixed a bug that caused shipping to be charged for the downloadable Harn Campaign Manager software. Orders that were placed before this fix have been amended appropriately to remove shipping.

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