Hexaèdre

HMK Toolkit version 1.1.6

2026-03-05T05:00:00Z

It's been many months since I've blogged about the public version of HMK Toolkit, and more than a year since I've shared details of my own version so let's talk about my version. As I started writing this, I found it hard to choose a main feature to emphasize: there are so many. This version also adds some polish and tweaks, in addition to quality of life little things.

Campaign

I now have a place to take campaign notes. You can select a campaign at the top (identified by a four-letter code). Each campaign has room for summary or general details and narrative seeds. You can also associate players with specific characters and press a button and be taken to that character sheet.

Below that you can add notes. Each note has a title (shown in the list), a content (shown when you select a note), an in-world date, and the option to put a tag on the calendar (shown as a calendar icon in the list). When the option to show a note on the calendar is selected, it is displayed in the calendar as the campaign four-letter code followed by the note number. This could be used for various things, for example as a reminder to make an alchemical elixir decay roll in 30 days, or milestones in the campaign.

Of course only the notes from the currently selected campaign are shown in the calendar, so you can run multiple campaigns and not have your calendar cluttered with stuff unrelated to what you're running at the moment. When you end a game session, you can click a button to add a note with the in-game date and time the session ended, as well as the real-world date and time. You can then add situational notes as necessary. This way you can start your next session exactly where you left off.

Armour Validation & Bulk

This one was quite difficult to implement! It doesn't seem too hard when you read the rules, but the process calls for a judgment on which article should be considered as the 'base' layer, and this isn't obvious programmatically. The solution was to try all the alternatives for each body zone and find the least restrictive ones.

It made me add unit tests to my app with a number of edge cases. It flags invalid armour, automatically adjusts encumbrance and bulk, and applies those where required on the character sheet. In addition to the armour validation window, there are also visible cues on the character sheet, with popover with explanations.

Rollers

I often found myself wanting to make a skill test roll for a character I was looking at in HMK Toolkit, so I added this functionality.

In turn, this required me to have the correct EML for all skills, including modifiers like blessing, fatigue, encumbrance, perception penalties, and impairments. While I made these, I added a visual indicator when a perception penalty is applied because of armour.

After doing the skills on the first page, I did the combat skills on the second page, with rollers for attack, block and counterstrike, as well as dodge. Then I added a shock roll and a shock reroll, an initiative and an awareness test (so you don't have to switch to the first page to make those).

Impairment

This was also a major endeavour, in particular because when I originally made the character model, I naively only included a single integer for impairment when there are actually 7 different impairment values... So I had to be creative and I used an encoder/decoder to use a single integer to manage all those values.

The other challenge was fitting this into the interface without disrupting the layout too much. In the end I put the controls in the header and display the impairments in the body zones. Impairments are applied to all skills EML according to the rules for impaired tests.

Primary Hand and 2-H Use

Once you have an impairment, which can apply to one arm but not the other, the natural next step is to be able to change your weapon from one hand to the other. And once you've made that, why not put the option to use a weapon two-handed? This wasn't hard to code, but the logic of implementing this and making sure all the other parts followed along made me lose a few neurons, for sure.

If you use your "good hand" as a primary hand, that indicator is green, otherwise it's red. In the example above, the character is right-handed. Using a weapon in your off-hand increases the HFT, and there is a minimum off-hand penalty, except for shields used in a block or press attack. When you use a weapon two-handed, the HFT is reduced by 5, and in some circumstances the impact is increased. All of these, and the effects of various impairments, are taken into account.

Armour Set Builder

I've included the rulebook armour suits in HMK Toolkit since the beginning. I also provided a way to view a body location table for any of these armour suits, which is very useful in melee combat, but there was no way to create new sets of armour articles. Until now. Now, you can access the armour set and view the contents, making any necessary modifications.

The armour suits from the rulebook cannot be edited, but you can duplicate them and start from there to make modifications, or you can start from scratch with a new set. You can drag and drop articles and see the resulting body location table update in real time, including armour validation, encumbrance, bulk, etc.

Non-Player Characters

Another thing that was included but that you couldn't edit was non-player characters. These are constructed as explained on page 363 of the rulebook. They include occupation skills and combat skills, one of which is reserved for the armour suit worn. HMK Toolkit displays a body location table automatically if it finds a matching armour set.

It's now possible to create and edit any NPCs. And since you can now also create armour sets, you can have them equipped with specific kit.

I’ve added a few details to the rulebook’s non-player character block:

a role-playing cue: helps the GM get into this NPC.
Move and weapon length information: because you can add NPCs to the IR Tracker (see below).

I also have the habit of including the skills to be tested to find hidden details of NPCs.

NPCs on the IR Tracker

You can now add any NPC to the IR Tracker. This automatically adds a GM note with the combat skills information for that NPC.

I also added a simple dice roller with a history while I was at it.

Glossary with search

I'm slowly building a searchable glossary. For example I can never remember religious titles. What's an Ebasethe again?

And it's cross-linked so if you press a button, you are taken to a related glossary entry.

Subsystems

I made myself a couple of tools that display an overview of a subsystem with a selected character's pertinent information. The first of which is persuasion. You select a character, and it shows all his persuasion skills with the two best skills highlighted, alongside the rules for persuasion.

The second one is for written works. This shows all the languages and scripts skills for the selected character, as well as the EML for reading and scribing, which use one or two secondary modifiers. Since there are a lot of combinations, this saves time at the table and gives a good overview of the various rules, some of which are under language, while others are under written works in the rulebook.

Shèk-Pvâr Characters

I also made a tool for Shèk-Pvâr characters, to make their spell selection easier. It lists the ML and ARP cost for each convocation and complexity. It gives assisted and unassisted research capabilities, tracks ARP spent, adjusts ARP costs depending on chantry quality for assisted research, and gives various details pertinent to Shèk-Pvâr characters. When you made your spell selection, you can press a button and your character sheet is updated with the spell selection you've just made.

Other improvements

Other improvements include better handling of long skill names (in the case of specialties), long occupation, or long melee weapon names. I also highlight total fatigue if it is greater than zero. And I added a popover with fatigue recovery times.

A list of injury special effects popover.

The effects of the shock states.

A "gear value" detail popover that also displays the character's wealth score.

A popover detailing the weight of the character's possessions. This displays the list of weapons and the total weight of each container, including the backpack's special half rule.

Better handling when a character carries more than one of the same weapon, for example throwing daggers (tabûris) or javelins. And this also handles names that become too long with a quantity, as shown for the javelin below.

I can now also handle magical weapons and armour by using the 'traits' system. This magical broadsword is an example.

I also implemented a modifier key that shows skills EMLs on the first page of the character sheet. This highlights skills that have an EML different than their ML. Elben here has a blessing to Folklore and is encumbered (which affects skills with AGL in their SB).

And a number of other small details, bug fixes, and small tweaks.

I am quite pleased with version 1.1.6. I now use it daily to prepare for the first adventure in my upcoming campaign. This is the driving motivator for all these tweaks and improvements. As I see friction points, I implement a solution to reduce them and make my life easier in general!

Future improvements might include editors for armour articles, melee and missile weapons, as well as missiles. And perhaps a trait editor. Something to enable the creation of magical items, perhaps.

New Price Cyclopedia PDF

2025-11-28T05:00:00Z

When I look into a new role-playing game, the first thing I do generally is:

make a character;
make my own version of the character sheet;
make a price list.

Like most, I start by making characters. Then I notice that the character sheet provided is lacking, either in organization or quality, so I make my own. And, of course, the last thing in character creation is to equip the character, and at this point I generally find the list of equipment either too limited or spread over too many chapters, which means that you need to flip pages all the time. Granted, this is not the case for all game systems, but it happens very often. As a game master, I also like to have a comprehensive price list at hand because I know my players, and I know they'll ask for something very specific, so I like to be prepared.

HârnMaster Kèthîra is an exception. I really like the character sheet that is included. It is both functional and very nice! As for the list of equipment, this is always a balancing act for publishers because of the page count, but HMK is well balanced and well organized. But still, HarnMaster has been around for more than 40 years and you just can't fit everything into an already large tome.

HarnMaster has a long history. The world of Hârn was first published as a system-agnostic setting. Then the first version of the HarnMaster rules came out. Many supplements added details to either the setting or the rules. Very quickly I decided that I needed to compile all the prices from those various sources into a single price list. And so the first version of my price list came out in the 1980s. I made it available in various bulletin board systems of the time. You can still find one version or another in the internet archives.

There have been many versions over the years. I made new versions for HarnMaster 2 and HarnMaster 3. I also made a version for when I used the AD&D rules in HarnWorld. Last year I made a few changes to include the weapons and armour from HârnMaster Kèthîra, but I didn't change the rest of the information.

HârnMaster Kèthîra is game for all of Venârivè and my old price list was Hârn-centric, so I decided to update everything to be compatible with this much wider region in general and with the HMK rules in particular. I removed the Hârn kingdoms’ economic data because I don't have those details for all of Venârivè. I updated the floor plans of the Black Swan inn that is included. In fact I had to start over because I don't even have the software that I used to make it all those years ago. I also changed the example Lìa-Kaváir organization to something much simpler.

Other modifications include:

new spot art for every location/entry;
more consistent formatting everywhere;
revised and improved index with links to page references;
many new entries, like astrologer, harbourmaster, guild/mangai, etc.;
rule-specific details, like potions, elixirs, and mixtures;
updated physician's treatment prices for the HMK injury system;
revised and updated the chandler's entries for items from other sources;
added many prices that were missing, fixed many errors and inconsistencies;
regrouped all weapons, projectiles, and projectile containers under Weaponcrafter for ease of reference;
also regrouped all armour articles, including clothing, under Weaponcrafer;
added amour article coverage and armour values table.

With all of that, I think this is a useful tool in your HârnMaster Kèthîra toolbox and I encourage you to take a look!

You can download it from the HMK Resources page or with this direct link.

Feature Complete

2025-11-14T05:00:00Z

HMK Toolkit version 1.1 was a massive effort on my part and a push for more visibility for the app. The landing page was redesigned to be much more appealing and “convincing” to potential users. The documentation was also redesigned to be much more accessible and logically organized.

The only two things that were still on my "must-have" list were PDF export and masterwork armour articles. Today I am releasing version 1.1.1 which includes those two features.

PDF Export

This is something that I absolutely needed personally. I use HMK Toolkit for my campaign and all my players except one are on Windows. That means that they use the editable character sheet PDF, which is fine of course, but it also means that I can't help them with something like a new configuration of their armour very easily. Well, now I can just make changes to their characters in HMK Toolkit, press a button, and send them a PDF of the full character sheet. It's not editable, of course, but they can reference it for filling the one they have.

This was not an easy feature to implement, I must say, but it's totally worth it. The PDF is identical to what you see in HMK Toolkit.

Masterwork Armour Articles

The second thing I had on my "must-have" list was masterwork armour articles. HMK Toolkit already had all the masterwork weapons, but none of the armour articles. I don't use the optional armour maintenance rules on page 133 personally, so HMK Toolkit doesn't track armour quality. Masterwork armour articles do have increased armour values every two steps though. Of course the MW version has a social effect.

Feature Complete

With this latest release, I think HMK Toolkit is feature complete. What that means is that I think that there aren’t any more features to add. I will, of course, fix bugs and perhaps add a few missing items as needed, but I don't think I will add any new features. I will also make sure it works with future macOS releases.

I must say the response to version 1.1 was not totally as I expected it. It’s only been one week as I write this, so I need to give it more time, but, at the moment, there has been zero reaction on the discord dedicated to the app aside from a couple emojis in the last few days.

To put things in context, as of version 1.1, the code base for HMK Toolkit stood at 54,999 lines of code. This last update to 1.1.1 brings it up to 60,529 lines of code. This is represented by only two lines in the release notes (PDF export and masterwork armour articles), but it's a huge amount of work on my part, and that's not considering updating the online documentation.

Don't get me wrong, making a public version was very rewarding on many counts. It pushed me towards making a better application. And making the online documentation is a great "rubber ducking" exercise, which often made me realize mistakes or omissions I had made. I also had great feedback from a few people in the beginning.

But it also took a lot longer than if I had only made this for myself. In any case, I am very proud of what I accomplished, and I am very happy if it helps even one person.

HMK Macros for Foundry VTT

2025-11-10T05:00:00Z

Combat Macro

I'm starting to prepare for my HarnMaster Kethira campaign. At the moment there are no HMK systems in any of the VTT. There is one in development for FoundryVTT, but it's not ready yet, and the developer has had health issues this past year so it's uncertain when it will be ready. There is one planned for Roll20, but its development has not yet started. So in the meantime, I've decided to use the Simple World-Building system just so that the players can have tokens on the map and use macros for combat rolls. They'll have their character sheet in editable PDF form, and I'll have my trusty HMK Toolkit to handle Initiative Rating Tracking, their character sheets, price list, etc.

I want to prepare in advance a series of macros for each character. So I made a JavaScript macro for combat. Here is a quick demo.

It's a simple macro but I think it will help a lot during combat. You can configure the default parameters at the top of the code, so you can use the same macro for attacks with different weapons or counterstrikes, for example.

When you invoke the macro, a dialog will appear, which lets you change any parameter, including a modifier like fatigue or situational modifiers.

And a chat card will appear when you roll. If the roll is a success, it offers a button to roll the zone, location, and impact dice all at once.

Skill Test

I include an attack, a block, and a counterstrike macro for each weapon. Since a block is just a skill test, I made a simpler skill test without the additional dice. This can be used for any skill test, and it lets you enter an EML modifier like the combat macro.

Using the macros

Both macros are available as a single download on my resource page. It's a .zip file, which contains 2 JavaScript files. Simply open them in a text editor, copy the content and paste it into a Foundry VTT 'script' macro. Change the default parameters at the top and save.

The 1.1-year update

2025-11-07T20:04:18Z

I started developing HMK Toolkit exactly 1.1 years ago today, with the initial goal of creating a tool to facilitate step 12 of the character creation process: the skills development points phase. I kept changing my mind, and I couldn’t remember whether I had already spent one or two DPs, nor in which stage I had spent them. I also wanted to see all the Skill Bases so that I could get a sense of my character’s strengths, which would help guide my choices. So, I decided to build myself a tool to help me with this development step. But to build that tool, and make it useful, I needed the character's attributes, and to get the attributes I needed at least part of a character sheet...

And, 1.1 years later, this is the new version 1.1 of HMK Toolkit.

And the development tool that started it all is now looking like this.

What's New

For the last five months, I have worked on a new feature for HMK Toolkit called the Price Cyclopedia. It's a bit of a grandiose title, but I believe that it accurately reflects the comprehensive nature of this searchable price list, which boasts over 1,000 entries. Users can search by the name of the item or service, its category, or the specific shop where it is sold. The complexity of pricing has proven to be a significant challenge, as I have encountered numerous special cases that required careful consideration and implementation. I also tried to update the PDF version simultaneously, but I have now decided to do so only once this release is complete.

For more information you can read the Price Cyclopedia documentation.

First Aid has a both a price range and a '+'. This is handled with a price slider.

When buying a gem you can set the number of carats (instead of the number of gems).

When adding an elixir you can set the Alchemical Strength (AS8 in the example). The 'Don't manage coins' is checked because this is the alchemist character who made the elixir, so he's only adding the item to his bandolier belt, he is not buying it. The 'Add note' is checked which means that the date he made the elixir will be added to the character's sheet, so he'll know when to do the first AS reduction roll in 30 days.

While I was working on the main new feature, I also happened to fix many other things and add several smaller features and quality-of-life improvements to other areas of the app. Here are a few key points.

I was inspired by the Shield Traits Summary explained in the excellent Advice & Options document from Kelestia, and I have implemented it in the app. I also automatically display a Thrown Weapons section if the character carries one of the listed weapons on page 110 of the rulebook (javelin, shorkana, etc.) or an elixir or a mixture. It might be useful to mention that all that information is displayed automatically when you simply drag and drop weapons and shields into the character’s equipment.

I invested a great deal of time improving the Initiative Rating Tracker. This tool allows you to create detailed notes for encounters, which you can easily load during play. A new side panel provides access to frequently used rules, making it easier to manage the melee routine.

I added an easy way to modify Weapon Quality when a weapon is damaged or repaired.

The notes section is now a text editor with markdown formatting.

Talent Bonus for spells are now supported and Shèk-Pvâr characters can have a Focus which automatically affects MLs.

Alchemists can easily handle Alchemical Strength reduction for their elixirs.

The new Trekking panel has travel movement rates and required Bearing Modes for the topography and terrain, and a guide suggestion with assistance from party members for the orienteering roll.

The dark mode colours were tweaked throughout.

I updated (and improved) all the documentation and revamped the landing page for the app.

What's next

Version 1.1 is, I think, complete for the most part. I want to add Masterwork armour articles, and possibly PDF Export, although that is not easy to implement so I am not sure if I can make it work. Aside from that I will of course fix bugs and tweak small things.

I can now turn to starting my own HMK campaign!

Updating my website

2025-03-28T14:17:59Z

I recently read a post titled Moving to Eleventy which included this sentence.

After a while, I realized that this was what had caused my problems with the previous generators: they were black boxes, written and configured in languages that I didn't know, so I didn't know how to fix them when things went wrong."
Troz

This resonated with me. I've built my website using the Hugo static site generator for a while now. It works very well, it's simple to use and it produces a good site. But it's written in Go, a language that I do not know, and I rely on third-party themes to make it look good. There are things with every theme that I have used over the years that I wish I could change, but it's a bit of a black box. Too may moving parts.

When I heard about Eleventy and Troz's experience with it, I decided to give it a try. My plan was to experiment with it a bit and see how I liked it.

At about the same time, I heard about the Zed Editor and I wanted to try it out. I've been using Nova to build my site for a while now and I'm very happy with it, but I'm always interested in trying out new text editors, so I decided to give it a try while working with Eleventy.

It's been a while...

I built my first website in the early 1990s for the Optical Fiber Laboratory, where I was doing research. It was the very early days of the Internet that we now know, and version 1.0 of HTML. CSS and Javascript were not really a thing at the time.1 There were no dynamic websites then.

Then, in the early 2000s, I built a couple of websites for games and other projects. At the time I learned HTML 4.0, a bit of CSS, Javascript, and PHP. I used that for many years, then around 2015 I turned to static site generators.

So let's just say that that when I started this new project, my CSS and Javascript skills weren't really up to date with the latest standards. Things have changed a lot for web development since I learned these languages.

One Step at a Time

I followed in Troz’s footsteps, starting with the Eleventy tutorial. It didn’t take long for me to veer off from the tutorial project and start creating my own website. I began by replicating the structure of my previous site with only a few pages. I incorporated basic styling, chose a colour scheme, implemented navigation, and added collections for the few articles I had converted.

I used TOML for the front matter on my Hugo site, so I needed to transform it into YAML for Eleventy. To simplify the process, I employed Zed’s inline assistant tool. Additionally, since some of my content included Hugo shortcodes, I had to convert those as well.

Improvements

Here are a few of the ideas I was eager to execute:

Sidenotes" I often make use of footnotes in my texts. I want to add context or some relevant information, but not break the flow of the current statement, looking up footnotes at the bottom of the page does break the flow, so, as Tufte suggested, I wanted to implement sidenotes.
Image handling: When I use images on a page, I want to be able to click on them and open them in their own tabs. This way, I can zoom in or at least see them in full. Images are scaled to the content, and, particularly on phones, it can be very hard to see what the image contains.
Table of Contents: Some pages have a table of contents. This feature has been improved. Previously, the table was visible, but it disappeared when scrolling.

I am aware that I could have incorporated all of these elements into a Hugo site and the themes I used in the past. However, each theme has its own approach and making a single modification often leads to unintended consequences. Starting with a fresh structure and one that I have personally designed helped me to achieve some of these goals.

Still a Work in Progress

I have established a baseline for what I want with this version. I know that the responsive design needs work, so if you’re reading this on your phone, I apologize. I intend to address these issues in future updates.

CSS did exist at that time but it wasn't in browsers, and Javascript wasn't even created yet. ↩

My own version

2025-02-25T20:04:18Z

Now that the public version of HMK Toolkit is out I can focus on my own version a bit more. I am very happy with how this is coming along. Here are a few things that are on the full version.

GM Screens are digital versions of a classic GM Screen, the thing that you put between the GM and the players and that contains the most often used tables. What's in there currently are tables that I made myself, building tables from scratch from the rulebook. I've since found a quicker way to access the information in the book (see below), although I look forward to the actual release of a true GM Screen package from Kelestia Productions which is coming probably later this year.

I also have what I call "markets" or places of interest in settlements, like taverns or inns or places to buy supplies. This can look something like this.

There are also a lot more options in terms of menus.

There is a glossary & index tool, where you select a word and it defines it. If the definition refers to other glossary entries, those are opened automatically for you and all entries show page references (from the index, not from the glossary itself).

There is a tool to edit the weather.

But most of the menus are for quick access to either rules or maps. There is a lot of information on the setting, and many rules in the rulebook. I always have the book open at my side when I run the game, but to be able to (1) find the right page in the book, or (2) get to the right page in the PDF is very valuable while playing, and this is where most of the menus come in.

The menus give the page number for each topic, and if you select the menu it brings up a window with the PDF page. For example if you want to know more about "Exposure" you can open the "Injuries" menu and see that it's on page 185, and if you select that menu item you get the PDF directly.

The various menus are shown below. Each menu selection opens the PDF at the specific place or the corresponding map.

GM

Travel

Melee

Injuries

Bestiary

Pvâric

Arcane

Religion

World

Atlas

Public version

Most of the recent updates to the application have been for the public version. I put a lot of work in the Initiative Rating Tracker (IRT), as this has become a very useful feature of the app. You can now set up the IRT in advance with opponents and save these to be able to bring them back later quickly. This way you can prepare multiple encounters in advance. It's also very useful when you end a game session in the middle of an encounter and you want to start where you left of on the next session.

I also made a tool to help evaluate bulk for armour articles.

Ready to roll!

I have achieved most of the things I wanted with this application. I still have a number of things on my todo list, but it has come to a point where I can start really using it to prepare and to play HârnMaster Kèthîra. Game on!

The journey is more important than the destination.

2025-02-12T19:31:42Z

I'm still very excited about the newest version of HârnMaster from Kelestia Productions that came out last summer. It's a joy to read and a full game in a single tome. It has things that were sorely missing from previous editions, like actual Alchemy rules, Astrology, Runecraft, Astral travel and shamanism, to name a few.

The character creation process is interesting and produces characters with lots of depth. There is a phase during character creation where you spend development points (DP) in stages. To help me with this step, in particular, I decided to build myself a tool. The idea was to have a way of seeing the strengths of the character (his Skill Bases, or SB) and to be able to change my mind on where to invest DPs, i.e., to be able to go back to a previous stage and make changes without losing track. To do that, I built this interface.

Of course, for that to work (and make sense) I also needed to build a character model 1 and a way to visualize that. In other words, I needed to make a character sheet interface as well.

I started this project last October (2024) and, as I was working on it I thought it'd be fun to share pictures of my progress on the Kelestia Productions Discord. The response has been very positive; people were asking me if I would release that. At the onset, I didn't make this for others, it was just a tool for myself, but there were repeated inquiries as to when I'd make this available.

So I started discussing with the author of the rules, Walt, and found out he's also on macOS. I sent him a copy and we started discussing. We ended up deciding that I'd make two versions of the app, one "public" and one for myself, which has more things, but things that are not so easily sharable in a free format, as it includes too much copyrighted material.

So I worked on making a "public" version in addition to my own. Polishing it so that it's useable by others, and also building extensive online documentation for it. I shared the app with a few members of the KP team that are on macOS as well, to get their feedback and validate that this was within the scope of "fanon" material and didn't cross the line.

And last Monday I released the first public version of the app to everyone...

And I have received, except for Walt who has been very enthusiastic and very supportive, a grand total of one feedback on the app, and this was a complaint that it didn't work (yet) in dark mode... And this was before the public release by a KP team member, who made no other comment since.

Most of those on Discord who had expressed their interest apparently had missed the (clearly) stated fact that this was for macOS. And aside from the complaint about the missing dark mode, I got various forms of "when is the Windows version coming?"

Aside from Walt, four people joined the Discord that I created for discussing the app. None gave feedback on it. And since the initial release, Walt and I have discussed some options on how best to display a character's languages. None of the others participated.

In conclusion, I am very happy and proud with the application that I made, and I am more than happy that Walt is also enjoying it. This public version will stay available, and I will continue to support it and fix bugs, should they occur, but it's now time to return to work on my own full version. I've learned a lot along the way, but it's also "a lesson learned," as they say.

You can check the documentation for the app here if you are curious.

A model is the in-code representation of the data. In this case it's how you define the variables that make up a character. ↩

A new edition of HârnMaster

2024-09-13T14:17:59Z

I'm a long-time fan of the RPG setting called Hârn. I bought it back in 1983 and for a very long time I was a subscriber of HârnQuest, a quarterly publication. I am proud to say that my name is in HârnLore 2 1 (see image below). I own almost everything published for Hârn 2 and I've played HârnMaster versions 1 to 3, I was even a beta tester for HârnMaster 3. But it has been a couple of decades since we played in Hârn and since I've considered HârnMaster as a system to run.

I recently learned that a new edition of HârnMaster was coming out 3, and after looking a bit more into it, I found out that the new version was coming out that very day! It was an instant buy for me. I've been reading the PDF since, and I am very enthusiastic about this new edition.

HârnMaster's Previous Editions

Hârn (1983) and HârnMaster (1986) were both created by N. Robin Crossby. He worked at Columbia Games when they first published those products (they were based in Canada at the time). Over the years, and with various editions of HârnMaster, they grew apart. I don't know the details, and the reasons are not important in any case. Robin published his own version of HârnMaster, called HârnMaster Gold (HMG) a few years after HârnMaster 3 (HM3) first came out. HârnMaster Gold is much more detailed than HM3. I suspect that Robin wanted to go in one direction with HârnMaster (a more detailed version) while Columbia Games wanted to go in another (a 'simpler' version), and that may have contributed to the split. In any case, Robin created a new company, Kelestia Productions, to publish HârnMaster Gold and new material for the world in which Hârn is located.

Sadly, Robin died in 2008, but his legacy lives on and Kelestia Productions still publishes quality products, the latest of which is HârnMaster: Roleplaying in the World of Kèthîra, a totally new version of HârnMaster that is neither HMG nor HM3, but its own new take on a roleplaying game aligned to use with the rich and detailed world of Kèthîra (which Hârn is a part of).

HârnMaster Kèthîra

HârnMaster: Roleplaying in the World of Kèthîra, or HârnMaster Kèthîra for short (MHK for even shorter) is still in the tradition of HârnMaster: it is a classless, level-less, skill-based game that uses a D100 skill mechanic with four levels of success4. It is a gorgeous book of 436 full-colour pages with a great layout. It has a 3-page index, a two-page glossary of terms, beautiful full-page colour maps of the Venarîvè region (of which Hârn is a part) for languages, vegetation types, seafaring (with sea currents, wind and weather patterns), and the locations of Godstones, and half-page colour maps for the climate zones, daylight hours, and the major pantheons, as well as a large number of smaller maps and great colour illustrations throughout the book.

The book is composed of eight chapters and three appendices. The chapters are

Hârn and the World of Kèthîra: overview of Kèthîra and the Venârivè region, with a paragraph on each area.
Character: how to generate a player character, including birth (birthplace, folk, sunsign), family (society, social class and parents' occupation) and persona (characteristics, occupation, skills, and standing).
Skills: how skills work and a description of each one, often with detailed rules associated with them (for example 'potions,' which are mundane and not to be confused with magical elixirs, and which are made with the skill herblore are detailed here).
Possessions: equipment, including armour and weapons, with illustrations for each.
Adventures: social interactions (called influence), travel (including seafaring, trekking and using gates), combat, and trauma (both physical and mental and how to recover from both).
The Mysteries: arcane mysteries (spellcasters, called Shek-Pvâr, including over 200 spells), arcane talents (innate abilities, previously called psionics in other editions), alchemy (detailed rules for producing and using magical elixirs, including 35 detailed elixirs), divination (including astrology, runecraft and tarotry), astral mysteries (astral travel and shamanism), and divine mysteries (divine grace, pantheons, religions, and ritual summoning).
Bestiary: animals, elementals, folks, gargun (Hârn's orcs), ivashu (a special category of creatures), morvrins (undeads), mythic creatures (dragons, gryphons, etc.), and spirits.
Campaigns: game elements, types of campaigns, adventures, encounter tables, quick NPCs, character development, etc.

The three appendices are

Regions: each realm of Venârivè has a table with the type of society (feudal, imperial, tribal, etc.), the pantheon, and the main languages, along with random generation and sub-tables when needed (tribal groups on Hârn, Trierzi dialects, etc.).
Languages: language families, scholarly languages, scripts, mutual intelligibility of dialects, etc.
Character Details: random tables for added details like complexion, hair colour, eye colour, build, handedness, etc.

Still reading and liking what I see

I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, but I really like what I have seen so far. For one thing, it's a joy to revisit Hârn after about 20 years, what a great setting. I'll make other posts about the various sections of HârnMaster Kèthîra in more detail but for now I'll just mention, haphazardly, things that I liked while reading. I really like the skill system, and all the nuances it includes. I like the missile rules where you can have both direct and volley attacks. I like that there are detailed alchemical rules and really like the "imbibing roll" as it is similar to my home-brewed (pun intended) alchemical rules that I created for HârnMaster (HM1) back in the day. I like the inclusion of rules for social interactions (that don't prevent role-playing), since they are so important in a Hârn campaign. I also like the added mental attributes to support these. I like the inclusion of rules for the whole Venârivè region in the game as it expands the possibilities for campaigns. I like the Zone Die mechanic and how it ties in with the reach of a weapon. I could go on and on!

So I am very exited about this new system. Kelestia Productions released an auto-calculating character sheet, a campaign calendar and a weapon summary. Soon they will release a GM kit which will include a mini-campaign set in the Emélrenè and Hârn regions. There is also an active development of a FoundryVTT5 system for HârnMaster Kèthîra that should be released in a few months.

For more information and resources (as I make them), see the HMK resource page.

I was a runner-up in the contest to find a name for the then-called "Letters" section of HarnLore, where questions were answered (they came in the form of letters, younger readers might have to look that up... There was no Internet back then!). My proposed title was "The Kvikîr's Query." Kvikîr is a term used by the Shek-Pvâr (the mages) referring to "ordinary folk." In another setting they would be called "Muggles." The winning title was "Letterdemain," a play on Legerdemain.
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I don't have everything, and I certainly don't have all the various reprints of the same material that Columbia Games produce on a regular basis...
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A new version that was not an iteration on HârnMaster 3 that is. There was a Kickstarter for a "new" edition of HârnMaster (3.5.2?) in 2020, but I was not interested in that.
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As with all versions of HârnMaster, the skill roll can produce four results: Critical Failure (CF), Failure (F), Success (S), and Critical Success (CS). Roll below or equal to your skill Mastery Level (ML) and it's a success; otherwise it's a failure. If the digit die is either '0' or '5' then it's a critical (either CS or CF depending on whether the roll succeeded or failed). So there is a 20% chance of a critical, and the ratio of CS to CF is proportional to your ML. Great and very simple system.
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It is not developed by KP but by the same developer who made the current HM3 system for FoundryVTT.
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Traveller

2024-07-25T22:54:01Z

I had started working on my own Traveller setting using the Cepheus Universal rules but I found myself more and more looking in my Traveller 5th edition (T5) rules for additional information on something1. This is by no means a discredit of Cepheus Universal which is covering a lot of ground, but the fact remains that T5 covers a lot more.

I backed the "5.0" edition of Traveller in 2012. I was very excited when I received it (sometime in 2013) and I devoured it, but the 5.0 edition was not good. It was full of errata (the list was at least a hundred pages long when I lost interest in keeping up), there weren't enough examples, and the organisation of the book was not great. After working hard to make sense of it, I gave up.

Some years later there was a new Kickstarter for an improved version (5.10) with a new format: instead of a single book, this edition mirrored the 3 Little Black Books (LBB) in organization, except that each book was now "big", so these are sometimes called the 3 "Big Black Books" (BBB).

I skipped that kickstarter, as did about half of those who had backed the 5.0 version. "Fool me once..." and all that. And I never looked at Traveller since, looking instead at various other RPGs.

When I became interested again in a sci-fi RPG2 recently, I first looked at Cepheus Universal and was very happy with it, until it missed some of the things that I wanted. I also had some reservations on the Skill Task resolution, which is the classic 8+ on 2D63. So I found myself wondering about that 5.10 edition that I had skipped. I watched a great Youtube series on Traveller by Ian (the channel's name is Willy Muffin), and in particular his review of Traveller 5th Edition. After some more research I decided to give T5 another chance. As a kickstarter of the 5.0 edition, I had received the 5.10 PDF for free (a version without bookmarks though), so I started to read it.

The new version is much better organized. It mimics the organisation of the original 3 Little Black Books:

Book 1: Characters and Combat (280 pages);
Book 2: Starships (304 pages);
Book 3: Worlds and Adventures (303 pages).

So version 5.10 has a whooping 887 pages. In comparison, the 5.0 version was a single book with 656 pages.

It's clear that T5 should probably not be your first experience with Traveller.4 Even with prior experience, it's not an easy read. It's a bit like trying to learn someone else's short hand, or a technical book. But it has its own "voice" and once you learn it you come to enjoy the conciseness. And for the sheer amount of material it contains, conciseness is a must.

T5 has rules for everything, and people are often missing the fact that most of the systems are there when you need them, but aren't required. And since it's Traveller, many of the systems are not meant to be used on game night, but instead are for the Referee's preparations. As a Referee you might use the World Building rules, or the Vehicle Maker rules, before the game, if you need them. There is almost 50 years of Traveller material available that you can use, so maybe you don't need these systems. You can certainly use the Official Traveller Universe (OTU), with its own wiki and the incredible Traveller Map instead of creating your own setting with the World Building rules in T5. The same argument goes for the rules for creating weapons, armour, races, etc. But in my case, since I do want to create My Own Traveller Universe (MOTU) and my own races, etc., then T5 offers all of that.

The rules that are actually used at the table, on game night, aren't very complex. It's a crunchy system of course, but very playable and easy to teach to players. The skill mechanic is very flexible and quite interesting. It is more complex than the regular 8+ on 2D6, but in my opinion, it adds a lot of depth to the game.

Character generation is probably the best of all the editions. You can still die in character creation of course, a staple of Traveller. There are 13 careers, and there are additional rules for generating background information.

Each of the careers are different and have their own special rules during character creation (for example, variant on the risk and reward mechanic).

I made a first draft of a character sheet for humans (I plan on doing one for each of the sophonts I make fir my own setting). I also have a character creation Term Worksheet.

That's all for now, but I plan on doing a series on T5, much like I did for Suldokar's Wake. I'll probably start with the Task Resolution system. Stay tuned!

Just one example: the Cepheus Universal rules for World Building mention the "possibility" of a Naval or Scout base depending on the Starport, but there is no probability associated with that. As I want to make a program to automate the process I wanted to have a probability. ↩

After T5, over the years, the more or less sci-fi RPG (in the broad sense) that I looked at were: Firefly, High Colonies, John Carter of Mars, Lowlife 2090, Mindjammer, Mongoose Traveller (1st ed.), Mothership, Numenera, Other Dust, Stars Without Number, and Suldokar's Wake. I might forget a few and these are in alphabetical order, not the order in which I looked at them. ↩

I think that characteristics are not important enough in Classic Traveller (CT) in particular, but also in later editions. There are modifiers for high or low characteristics, but none for the most probable characteristics (6-8). In CT you didn't use the characteristic modifier for most skill tasks. Mongoose Traveller has the characteristic modifier always included in the task resolution, which is an improvement, but still I think there should be a difference between someone with a characteristic of 6 and one with 8 (the 6-8 range represents 45% of characteristics). The reason that it works like this regarding characteristics is that in a 2D6 system, the probability is a bell curve, and modifiers have a much bigger impact than in a uniform probability like 1D20. So you cannot use too many modifiers, and you already have the skill level as a modifier. T5 handles the Task Resolution differently and characteristics are much more prevalent, which is something that I prefer. That's a personal preference, I know there is a huge fan base that loves the simple 2D6 system as it is and find nothing wrong with it and I totally respect that. ↩

I own physical copies of Classic Traveller (The Traveller Book), Traveller TNE, Traveller d20, Mongoose Traveller 1st ed., Mindjammer Traveller version, in addition to Traveller 5.0. I have the PDFs of all the other editions of the rules. ↩