Columbia Games Print Option

HarnWorld - with an umlaut 

My initial purchases of  Columbia Games Harn line of role-playing game products, which as I recall was sometime in the late 1980s, were several saddle stitch (stapled) softcover books detailing regions of the island of Harn and a boxed product which includes maps (beautiful, color fold-out maps!) and paper covered and staple-bound booklets that describe in detail the world of Harn. These are traditional TTRPG fare in terms of the physical product and production format, but are quite unique in their content. I was (and remain) captivated by the world of Harn. At once the fictional world created by N. Robin Crossby is engaging. It contains elements borrowed from Tolkien, including that "vaguely familiar" feeling which any fiction based on dark-age European (or other) history provides, Harn wraps these elements in a novel interpretation that produces something delightfully fresh packed with wonderful details that make me want to explore this imaginary world.

My interest in the Harn setting has persisted and I have continued to add to my collection of materials based on the world Mr. Crossby created and others have continued to expand. The Harn products published by Columbia Games have often been marketed as loose leaf and three hole punched color pages to insert into a binder. It's an interesting choice that is both flexible and modular allowing the individual collector to assemble a binder that could include both published and home-brew contents. This is how Harn has been marketed, until recently. Starting a couple of years ago, Columbia Games began offering certain of their Harn products in bound hard-cover book format. I assume, based on the examples that I have purchased that this involves a technology very similar to print-on-demand. The material in the books is the same as what I see available in digital and loose-leave format, but the physical hard-cover book is nice to have and may be preferred by some. 

As I continue to ponder the possible futures of our hobby, I am also enjoying the diversity of product formats that are currently available. Digital has it's advantages - and disadvantages when compared to other formats. Physical books can be produced using traditional technologies of bookbinding or may involve newer technologies that have their own advantages and disadvantages depending on preference and comparison with other formats. All of this publishing thought interacts with how we use the products both in preparation and in play. (It's pretty easy to pull a map from a digital file and put it on-screen for remote players.)   

Honestly, I have no idea how to authentically pronounce many of the names I find in the Harn setting, but I suppose pronunciation is one of the ways each referee makes the setting their own. As you like it!