My pHârn D&D 5e Project

[GunnarGreybeard]

I am starting this thread to chronicle my attempt to bring the Hârn campaign world (the setting used with HârnMaster) into Fantasy Grounds for my use with the D&D 5e ruleset. What is pHârn you ask? pHârn = personal version of Hârn (a GM's Homebrewed Hârn). I plan to convert all the Hârn monsters, races and other stuff to D&D 5e data. Some things should be fairly easy although still time consuming such as converting the races and monsters while other things will need more work such as converting Hârn's occupations and skills for use with D&D 5e. These last two things will probably be converted to backgrounds and feats respectively but I will know more once I start digging deeper and putting pen to paper and then entering stuff into Par5e.

Obviously due to copyright issues I cannot share the data with anyone and I will try to limit my screenshots to show minimal proprietary information while still showing my progress and the power of the Par5e tool.

I also wanted to use it as a way of publicly thanking those who were involved in the development and maintaining Par5e. If it wasn't for that tool I would never have been encouraged to undertaken this journey.

[GunnarGreybeard]

So far, one of my favorite things about Par5e is the rollable table stuff although honestly I have not really touched much of the other areas. Anyone that knows Hârn knows there are a ton of tables just in the character creation section alone so I quickly threw together 2 of the bigger ones to see how it would handle them. Easy peasy, they came out great with very little work. :p

Only thing is, due to the large number of the them, I may have to make multiple library modules to keep them manageable. I figure I will need separate modules for character creation, encounters and at least 1or 2 others.

Edit: I'll need to make sure not to use Hârn in my entries as FG strips out that letter when entered "with the ^ on top".

[GunnarGreybeard]

I know that the majority of these things can be done directly in FG and then you would just export the content to a new library module but for some reason some things seem easier for me to build ad update using Par5e.

[damned]

I know that the majority of these things can be done directly in FG and then you would just export the content to a new library module but for some reason some things seem easier for me to build ad update using Par5e.

Yep - do the one that gives you the best economy.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Ok, I think I managed to get the majority of the race stuff set up. I set up the Orbaalese, Jarin and Barbarian Tribes as subraces of the Human race (with the Lythians being the main human group). Not sure it will work the way I want it to, but we'll see. Here are the 2 main race related menu screens.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Starting to convert and plug in the weapons and armor. Still needs some tweaking and editing but here's what I have so far.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Working on some backgrounds to get better acquainted with Par5e. Since 5e appears to have gone backwards to a limited # of skills yet Hârn makes use of a 'large' number of occupations and skills, I have decided to make each Hârn occupation a D&D5e background and then add the occupation's associated skills in as features for that background. It will give PC's a large number of features but should help make each PC that much more unique. Hopefully, the conversion of other things should help balance the game out in the long run.

Here is the 'draft' Hunter background. It still need to have some of the Hârn verbiage converted to D&D but hey, it's a start.

[GunnarGreybeard]

This post will probably make little sense to anyone not familiar with Hârn but I figured I'd post it anyway. :bandit:

I am running into some problems with converting the backgrounds. The way I originally intended this, the Hârn occupations were going to be the 5e backgrounds ans so for the Clerics I was making a 'Cleric of' for each Deity as I wanted to have each of them be a background for the Cleric Class for customization.

For example the 'Cleric' is a class, pretty generic, and then the 'Cleric of Larani' is a background, for that Deity, and that background would have all the Larani related cleric information and stats. The problem with this is it limits the choices for the Cleric to those specific backgrounds as the 'Cleric of' backgrounds contain the custom cleric information. This means a Cleric PC could not really choose another occupation, say background of 'Beggar' to simulate their childhood/adolescence as it would prevent them from having access to the 'Cleric of' customization stuff.

To give a better idea of what I mean . . . . .

The Cleric can only choose a single background, like any other PC. If they choose 'Beggar', they would obviously miss out on the needed 'Cleric of Larani' stuff and so would limit their background choice to that one. This basically makes most of the other background/occupations irrelevant to all but a few classes like the Fighter, Barbarian and a couple of others.

The other option is to make a Cleric Class (and Priest Class) for each of the deities which means another 18 custom classes added to the already existing classes (20-2 since the generic Cleric and Priest would go away). This also means I have to do this with each of the 6 Backgrounds for the Shek Pvar (Wizard) Class and a new Fighter Class for each of the 8-10 Fighter backgrounds I am working on. I may end up having to create close to 50 classes, if not more. :(

[chillybilly]

Looks really nice.

[Dekorume]

Perhaps you can set up the "Cleric of..." in the same fashion as the Warlock's various Pacts instead of as a background.

As always,

Dek

[GunnarGreybeard]

Perhaps you can set up the "Cleric of..." in the same fashion as the Warlock's various Pacts instead of as a background.
Hmm, not too familiar with the Warlock stuff, will have to check that. Thanks.

[bcp001]

The Acolyte background could be tweaked for each. Acolyte of Illvar for example.

Not sure where you're taking it past that, but Harn doesn't really have D&D style clerics. The divine magic is all about rituals iirc. So if the character had the tweaked acolyte background and you replaced the acolyte feature with a limited version of the Ritual Spell feat that may cover what you need.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Yeah, I'm trying to avoid limiting the background choices to certain classes but I am finding I can either make a crapload of classes or a crapload of backgrounds. Backgrounds are easier but more classes allow for better variations when paired with occupation like backgrounds.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Finally found time to pick this project back up. I see that Par5e has been updated since my last updates and I have also made some idea changes on how I want to build this. Hopefully it won't require to much redo. Rather that waiting until this is fully completed to run a game, I may just build out a playtest version, with a couple classes, backgrounds and stuff like that. Also working on converting all the HârnMaster spells to 5e.

[inawkwardscience]

This is fascinating! I hope you will share more.

[GunnarGreybeard]

So, to be honest this thing is really kicking my butt due to the shear size of work that is being required. I took a break BUT that seemed to have the bad effect of having me trying to remember what the heck I was doing before. I have hundreds of pages of notes, conversions, sample formatting, etc but I'm still plugging away.

The server will be up for a next hour or so why I re-read the Par5e guide, again so if anyone is interested in having a look at the "skeletal" framework I have so far please feel free to connect and look around. Connection alias is in my signature below. ;-)

[GunnarGreybeard]

Finally finding time to devote to this project again. Unfortunately my OCD has caused me to redo much of this several times over. Today I went back to working on my races. Here is some screens of the Jarin (Human Variant) that I'm working on.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Yay! Finally got my draft equipment file to parse. The HârnMaster system has like 6000 items in the price list so I seriously doubt I'll get all that in but I got the formatting down to get all sections of that .txt file to parse.

[GunnarGreybeard]

So, I really hate working with .txt files, I'm a visual person. So . . I have been creating a LibreOffice Database that will include the information needed for the Par5e files and creating forms for more easily (prettier view) entering the data. Then I am creating mail merge forms (with the xml coding) so that the information, when merged is dumped in .txt files. For example here is the Backgrounds table, in data view format, which I hate as well as its like a spreadsheet and totally discombobulated BUT it holds all the information into the database . . Stay with me here, it'll take a few posts to flesh this out.

[GunnarGreybeard]

I can't work effectively in .txt files much less tables or spreadsheets as the data is cut off to where its totally unreadable for working with (see previous post). To fix that, I create forms attached to the tables to enter all my data into in a nice pretty screen. Basically your enter each background into a single screen that populates the appropriate database table.

The 1st screenshot is the Animal Trainer Background.

Now, I found the best way to add in the keywords that Par5e recognizes is to enter them directly into the field ( and not use the code in the mailmerge document). For example, you will see I add the 'Skill Proficiencies:', 'Equipment:', 'Feature:' and so on. For the 'Suggested Characteristics', I set the table to enter my custom default entry when I add a new record.

The 2nd screenshot is the default, new background screen I am presented with when I click to add a new record (custom Background) into the Background table. I just add in the Background's information, leaving the keywords already there in each field (the 'Skill Proficiencies:', 'Equipment:', 'Feature:' and so on).
:-)

[GunnarGreybeard]

So now I create a mail merge template file that connects to the DB and pulls in the Backgrounds table data into the layout I want, adding extra text that Par5e needs to complete the full format. You do it just like you are writing a form letter but linking with the text data needed for your Par5e files.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Having the ''template' all set up, I run the print option (in this case the mail merge) and tell it to 'print to a file' with the name backgrounds.txt. I make sure to save it into the appropriate Par5e folder (the input folder for my custom module). I doublecheck the file for any formatting errors and tweak as needed. If it's good, I just open Par5e, run it and bam, I have my custom backgrounds all parsed.

This is VERY much a work in progress and there is much tweaking needed of the .txt files that are generated but the more I play with it, the better I am able get it do generate clean, properly formatted .txt files.

Here is my sample background file generated from the mail merge.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Right now I am having trouble getting lists in the Backgrounds to generate into the .txt format properly (its not adding the line breaks in the right spots but only seems to happen on the lines where there is list coding). Same thing I know will be an issue when I move onto building my Classes table and mail merging those but for now, I just access the end .txt file and manually clean them up so they par5e correctly without error.

[GunnarGreybeard]

My 'lists' formatting issue appears to have been resolved. Time to start building out my custom classes.

[Redemption77]

Is this project you are so diligently plugging away on under some form of OGL. I wasnt sure if Harn was protected or not. In the end I suppose what Im asking is, will you be making this Mod file available for others to DL? It seems like something I would be interested in. You've done so much work on it as well, it should be appreciated!

[GunnarGreybeard]

Unfortunately the vast majority of it can't be shared. I guess some of the backgrounds and classes might be able to be shared individually because the wording on a couple is generic and makes no mention of HârnMaster.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Four of the Classes. They still need fleshed out as far as Features and Class Abilities but I wanted to make sure I could get my basic (draft) Classes to par5e without errors when generated from the database setup.

[damned]

Is this project you are so diligently plugging away on under some form of OGL. I wasnt sure if Harn was protected or not. In the end I suppose what Im asking is, will you be making this Mod file available for others to DL? It seems like something I would be interested in. You've done so much work on it as well, it should be appreciated!

Tis truly a labour of love!

[GunnarGreybeard]

Is this project you are so diligently plugging away on under some form of OGL. I wasnt sure if Harn was protected or not. In the end I suppose what Im asking is, will you be making this Mod file available for others to DL? It seems like something I would be interested in. You've done so much work on it as well, it should be appreciated!
Way back in 2002 iirc someone did a D20 (D&D 3.5)/Harn conversion (https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/63212/rules-using-d20-system-harn-campaign) and got it cleared for use through both WoTC and Columbia Games. Once I get this all fleshed out and working properly I plan to contact them both and see if they'll allow me to make it available in either paper copy for parsing by players or as an actual module. Otherwise, I'll just run my campaigns using it.

[Nylanfs]

Or Doug could contact them and sell it through the store and you get a cut of the sweet RPG money. :)

[GunnarGreybeard]

Or Doug could contact them and sell it through the store and you get a cut of the sweet RPG money. :)
Yeah, if it ever gets to that point I'll ask Doug for guidance. Anyone who can get WoTC to go along on anything must have a golden touch.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Here is the data entry form for my classes data. Basically you enter the each classes information into this single screen (adding the formatting controls in many of the fields so that gets picked up and outputted by the mail merge script). It still very much a work in progress but I am able to get the base class to Par5e properly. Now I just need to continue fleshing out all my Classes.

This screenshot is for the Sea Dog Class.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Now working on the NPC's table. At this point I am planning to keep all the NPC/Monsters in their own Bestiary module. As with the rest, this is only the working template. I need to resize the fields to make use of the full desktop so I can see as much information without scrolling each box. One thing found is that Libre Writer has issues with suppressing blank entries, it adds extra line break which causes Par5e to fails unless I clean out the double spaces manually in the raw txt file.

[GunnarGreybeard]

I have par5sed all the data I have input into my master DB (most of it is just template/holding place stuff) to check for errors and while it's nowhere near close to being complete, if anyone wants to connect and poke around, you are certainly welcome to. Please be aware, I won't be around to answer any questions in the FG chat screen so if you post there, don't expect a response. ;)

I'm leaving the server up for a few hours starting now. FG Server Alias is in my sig.

[GunnarGreybeard]

Trying to 'tidy' up my backgrounds. Have 52 of them atm but might either add or drop a few once I go back through the HârnMaster Occupations and make sure everything is covered. Most of the equipment file is done, just adding in a few more of the probably not really essential items.