Precious HârnMaster!

Well, Aaron, HârnMaster is a fantasy RPG system which has an emphasis, according to the back cover, on "ease of use and fun." I like fun! It's the one that comes on the cardstock pages which you keep in a three-ring binder. It's a skill-based system which tries to be more realistic than other systems. You buy the system separately from the world information, but the world info is more closely-based on real medieval conditions than most other games. So there is extensive information on feudal economics, law, etc.. I guess the gist of it is that it starts from a more realistic place than other games. Yeah there are no million-person cities, but I think the reality in the system would make for an interesting campaign. There are arcane and divine magic systems, so you can build on that base and develop it to wherever you want.

I think the combat system looks like a lot of fun. It's definitely more deadly than other systems. It seems to strike a pretty good balance between D&D generic combat and extreme Rolemaster chart-checking. You can survive and recover from wounds, but every fight does at least have the potential to cause bloodloss, shock, infection, etc..

The only problem with it is that since it's a niche product, Columbia Games is small and puts out lots of other stuff (they put out Wizard Kings, for example), and so while there's lots of stuff out for it by now, they don't pump out the material as fast as most other companies. The other part of that is that it's a pretty expensive game. The production values are really nice (cardstock full-color manuals), but it cost me like $30 for the basic rules and another $30 for the magic system. I guess that price range is becoming less unusual, but it's still pricey.