It began on January 10th a letter from Auran's Keith Done. He was looking for material for a new web site designed to better promote Harn. The idea was that the HarnProject would feature only "official" material. He wanted to use part of the Order of the Fuming Gate article on their web site. When I inquired why only part of the article would go up on their site - I was told:

I haven't included all your material because we want to feature 'snippets' of fan material with links back to your own site. Here, Harn fans can read more about what you have created. Also, we can use further sections of your work, with your permission, at a later date, once older material becomes archived.

When I asked (offered actually) if I had to remove the articles from my site and replace them with a link to their site, he said:

There is no need to remove any material from your site. Auran believes the more fan material that is out there the better and has no intention of going on a quest to purge the web of all other Harn sites. We will soon issue a special Harn Guild Symbol to you for display on your site. This acknowledges your contribution to the Auran Harn site. I am sure we will be in contact on a regular basis and I look forward to placing more of your work on the Auran site and seeing if you want to write specific articles for the site.

And what did Robin Crossby think of my stuff:

Robin Crossby reviewed your work - he had a little bit of trouble understanding the concept with the snakes in the animal symbolism but other than that he was very complimentary about the piece.

Talk about an ego boost! Thank you Mr. Crossby.

The stuff is now up (Check it out at the Feature: Religion section of the HarnProject page.) And frankly I'm none-too sure if they changed anything. The rest of the article can be found in the Order of the Fuming gate article on this newly organized web site. I am (at the time of writing this) still waiting for my "approved" icon to place on this site - and a link back to this site from the Auran/Harn site. Since the site's only been up since Monday of this week, I should be patient. I shouldn't bug them too much (already sent off an e-mail with my concerns and got a reply).

I am listed on their Links page, but there is no link in the Order of the Fuming Gate article.

They have a poll going currently to pick the most popular web page (go!) - personally I'm certain that Patrick Nilsson's Sword & Sheilds page will win out without much competition. (Vote anyway!) Not only does his site update regularly, it has a lot of very good stuff. It is also the one site that makes me yearn to convert all my stuff to PDF and just have a downloads page. The simplicity of his site is breathtaking. No 10000s of html pages to deal with every time he wants to reformat - it's all just links to really well written, designed and laid out PDF articles.

My Own Site

In other news this site has seen a whole-lot of updating going on. I've been visiting some very beautiful sites (Swords and Shields, Mythosa, and Chronicles Harnica) and seen some old stand-bys update recently too (Bill Gant's Warflail Armoury) so it seemed time to change things here too. Expect more changes in the coming months, as I'm still not happy with sub-menu navigation.

Essentially the web site now breaks down into six pieces:

These are the PCs and NPCs you've come to love. The PCs are part of my campaign - and they feature character sheets, player insights, and background information. The NPCs are part of my 1001 Thardic NPCs project. Really it's a dumping ground for all the NPCs I create for games and articles. The PCs section may be read by players (with a few exceptions).

These are primarily places in Tharda. To date I have: Coranan (not much here yet), Ritzen, Fobin, Rusna and Sitarny. I'm working on Goune (Manor), Imrum (Caer) and Themeson (currently held by Rethem) - so expect these soon. This section should only be explored by players if they have their GM's permission.

This section is for GMs only. It contains : Adventures, Campaign, House Rules, Legions and Treasure. Eventually I'll add a Bestiary section too.

The Others is the hodgepodge of my website. Other than editorials, it includes catalog information, the ever-popular downloads and the 7th Sphere a quarterly Harnic e-zine by yours truly. 7th Sphere includes the odd review and editorial, but otherwise all articles that appear within it are archived on this site. By the way - when the name on the red tab is lit up (as it is here) it is a marker saying "you are in this section".

The name, TharDEX started out as a joke. It was the HarnDex (Harn Index, a publication by Columbia Games Ltd and N. Robin Crossby that summarized information on people, places and events. It was sold with the HarnWorld book), but specifically about Tharda. I even started working on a real TharDex that takes from all manner of out-of-print sources. It started as a resource for my players, and has been growing ever since. In addition I'm trying to keep track of the questions asked about Tharda on the various Harn mailing lists, and my answers to them. By keeping everything in written form I'm hoping to create some continuity. The site map should help you navigate this site (or at least find the article you're looking for). What's new is an itemized list of changes. I've created a new page for the information. The old what's new page is still up, but no longer linked directly to the menus. It was getting a little long.

Each piece has a title page.

On the title page, each section (or article) has one of the following three graphics beside it:

[GM Only - Players do not read this ]GM Only. This symbol denotes articles designed for the GM's eyes alone.

[Players may read with their GM's permission]Mixed. This symbol denotes the articles that, if their GM gives the players permission, they may read it.

[Players may read]PC for PCs. This symbol denotes articles that the Player may read freely.

These symbols were used in the HârnMaster I rule book to denote different sections. I've used them in this site to try and add a bit more navigational support to the site as a whole.

Check out the What's new page to see a list of new articles and modifications to the site.

Bye!


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