Gods of Harn (1985) is the Harn book I always wanted. Because look at that dude on the cover. C’mon. Skull face ninja in a cape? Sold. Someone make a bootleg toy of this, please.

Anyway, I only got my first Harn books a couple months ago, but I was psyched this one was in the pile. As you might expect, this is a deep dive into the faiths of Harn. The book covers ten deities (the fellow on the cover is a priest of Naveh, the thief of heaven), detailing their portfolios (to use the Forgotten Realms term), a bit of metaphysical history, their servants, the organization of their religion and important holy sites.

This is great stuff and feels very much like a thought exercise of “what if medieval, but pagan,” which, like the world in general, hews toward a realism I find pleasing but not suffocating. Following through on that, I love that there is no indication that the gods are real. In the second paragraph of the book, Crossby says that is for the individual GM to decide one way or the other (and not tell the players, of course)!  

I really like Eric Hotz’s illustrations. While some stuff, like the cover and the color plates, falls under the regular RPG style you expect, a lot of his spot illustrations here (and elsewhere in the line) stick to a faux medieval style that I think contributes to breathing life into the setting.