N. Robin Crossby, 1954-2008
July 24, 2008
We mourn the passing of N. Robin Crossby on July 23. Thousands of people have enjoyed his glorious vision of a fantastical, yet believable and consistent, world. I’m privileged to say that Robin was a friend of mine, although our relationship had become strained in the recent past. I considered him to be somewhat eccentric, but in a good way, the way Lewis Carroll was eccentric, the way C.S. Lewis was eccentric, the way Albert Einstein was eccentric, the way all creative geniuses are somewhat eccentric.
I wish I had something more poignant to say, but what can you say about someone’s passing; death is the inevitable conclusion to life. But it affects us when someone is taken from us before what we consider to be their time, and I consider Robin’s death to be very much before his time. I wanted so much for him to realise his dream of taking Hârn in new directions, to publish new places and new societies, to expand the world we know and love. I wanted so much for him to be a stunning success…and now he will only get to view his creation from afar as others carry on his works, as I’m sure he would want.
I mourn for the loss of my friend, I mourn for Robin’s family, and I mourn for the many fans of his creations. But I rejoice in the cessation of pain, the release of the burden he has carried for so long, and for the final freedom of such a wonderful spirit. May his journey lead to beauty and interesting times.
Rest in peace, Robin.
External Links
Tags: N. Robin CrossbyPrinting Posts
May 18, 2008
In an effort to make up for my laziness in restoring all the Hârn files for download, I’ve found a plug-in for Lýthia.com that you might find handy. You can now print posts from the blog portion of the site. Simply click the little printer symbol at the bottom of the post, and you will be able to see a specially formatted version of the post, and all the comments, that will be suitable to print.
Now, if you find a particular post (and its comments) interesting and you’d like to keep a hard copy with the rest of your Hârn material, you can do so. It’s not going to be the same quality as the fan modules of course, but it will suffice, I think.
Try it now with Ken’s excellent post on Tahnaryn: The Black Magic of Kethira.
Tags: printingHRT Archive
February 29, 2008
The Hârn Religious Team is defunct, but the fine work they have produced over the years is preserved here on Lýthia.com. Just click on the link in the menu above.
Please understand that this is no longer possible to submit any new material for the HRT, but you can always make your material available as a download in the regular way.
With thanks to Jim Chokey for providing the files, and Magnus Lyckå, who started it all back in 1995.
Tags: Agrik, Halea, HRT, Ilvir, Larani, Morgath, Naveh, Peoni, religion, Sarajin, Save-K'nor, SiemRSS Feeds
February 13, 2008
Lýthia.com now has two different RSS feeds for your enjoyment. The first will provide you with all new posts. The second will provide your favourite feed reader with any comments to posts. I’ve also tied the RSS feeds into Feedburner, which allows me to keep track of statistics.
If you don’t know about RSS or feed reading or any of that stuff, there’s a primer on Wikipedia. Basically, it means you don’t need to come to Lýthia.com to read the posts; when you load up your news reader (or feed reader, whatever you want to call it) any new posts or comments made on Lýthia.com will appear. Only if you want to make any comments will you need to visit the site…and you are encouraged to do so! So, when there’s a new file to download, you can get access to it straight away, no waiting.
As yet, I cannot find any MODs to enable an RSS feed of the HârnForum software, but hopefully that will come along sooner or later.
Tags: RSSTrouble Logging On To The HârnForum?
January 18, 2008
This post is extracted from a thread in the Scribe of the Council forum (see here).
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Yes, Lýthia.com has finally had a face lift after many years of looking the same. The new site uses Wordpress, a popular weblog software package. I hope this makes the content of Lýthia.com fresher and more constantly changing. There is an RSS feed for those of you who like that kind of thing (I’ve just started using Google reader myself, so I know it works). But let’s begin at the beginning for those that are confused.
So what the hell is going on?
Lythia.com and the HarnForum used to be two different web sites built using different software packages; Lythia.com used Post Nuke, and the HarnForum used (and still uses) phpBB. Each website required a user to register; that is, a user had to register on both sites, each independent of the other. Not long ago, I amalgamated the two sites, putting the forum software “underneath” the main Lythia.com site name. But that didn’t change the need to be registered on both areas.
Now the main site has been updated. I no longer use Post Nuke; instead I decided to use blogging software from WordPress. Just like Post Nuke, it requires registration of users, and this is still separate from the phpBB software that the HarnForum uses. And, unfortunately, I was unable to copy user registration details from the old Post Nuke software to the new WordPress sofftware; the two systems are incompatible that way.
In case you don’t know, blogging software allows for others (subscribers) to respond to individual blog entries (called posts) with comments of their own. I have set up Lythia.com so that only people who are registered with the blogging software (NB, not registered with the forum because that’s separate) to make comments on posts. You don’t NEED to be registered if you have no intention of leaving comments, you can use the site the same way everyone else does. Or you can delay registering until you DO want to make a comment. Either/or, I don’t mind. 
So what’s this about the forum again?
Going back to the beginning; phpBB, the software used for the HarnForum, has recently gone through a major upgrade (from v2 to v3). This new version was five years in the making. It has significant new functionality and new security. It’s hands down a vital upgrade. When I moved the HarnForum from its own website (the old http://www.harnforum.com) to its new home under Lythia.com, I upgraded the forum software to an early release candidate (a beta version, if you like) of the new v3 phpBB software. All was good for a long time.
But finally, the developers of phpBB finalised the new software and released the official new version. I didn’t know this, but there had been 5 other beta releases since I installed the new HarnForum and some of these made changes to the behind-the-scenes database. So when I upgraded, things went south a bit…the HarnForum suddenly became unusable. And the only way I could see to fix the problem was to start from scratch and then move the information from the old into the new.
Now comes the part where we join things together. Since I was intending to update Lythia.com with the new blogging software in the very near future anyway, I decided to bring that forward to mesh with the new install of the Harnforum using the brand new version 3 of the phpBB software. Of course, I hadn’t quite finished porting all the downloads across….
Where are all the downloads?
Very few of the downloaded are available. I plan to rectify this over the next few weeks, but there are a few hundred files, and each has to be linked in, and a post made. Yes, I have found a way to track downloads.
Why Blogging Software?
I wanted to use blogging software for several reasons; the first and most important is to allow easy content updates to Lythia.com. The second is to allow me…or force me…to write. I want to be a writer, and the strongest , most frequent advice I get is to write, then write some more, and then write again. Write every day. Writing is something that must be practiced, so I’m told. Blogging about myself has no attraction, but blogging about Hârn, well, that’s something I can try to do. The third reason is to open up authorship to a select few others; to give other Harn writers an opportunity to write short blogs on their topic of choice.
But that doesn’t mean I’m restricting authorship; far from it. I encourage everybody to have a go, but you will need to contact an author with your piece and they will advise, edit and put the piece up on Lythia.com. This, I hope, will encourage contributions from those for whom English might be a second language, or for those English speakers who don’t have as solid a grasp of the technical aspects of writing as they might like. This is where you can start to learn. The authors I plan on having will have a proven track record of publishing material.
OK. So, anything I should know about?
Yes. Installing the new version of the phpBB forum software has had the undesired effect that you will have to delete all Lythia.com cookies from you browsers (see here for details of how to delete cookies), and you may have to upload your avatars again. I don’t know about uploaded attachements; these may have failed to link back in, although I did copy them across. If you have uploaded files in the past, please check your threads to see if they still link to them. If not, please upload them again (you can edit your own messages), and let me know (see address below).
If you have any problems or you want to contact me for any reason at all, then please send me an email. For the time being, the address is new-lythia@lythia.com (this address won’t last very long).
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NOTES:
Registering: Sorry for the confusion; Lythia.com is made up of two main components; the BLOG site and the FORUM site. You will need to register on the BLOG site if you wish to make comments on articles written on the BLOG site. If you are already a member of the FORUM site, you don’t need to register there again. If you are new here, you will need to register on BOTH sites.
Register here for the BLOG site
Register here for the FORUM site <— Don’t do this if you are already a member of the HârnForum!
Hârn Pottage
January 4, 2008
As the title suggests, this has a bit of everything in it and flavoured with a little meat. It’s a mishmash of random buildings, places and things to be used on Hârn anywhere the GM feels appropriate. Although locations are given for a couple of pieces, these are optional and easily moved.
Also included are various arcane items for campaigns which use magic. The mini adventures/encounters included will hopefully help those GMs who have nothing prepared, or as filler for their PCs’ travels between major points in their present quest, but could be used as a starting off point for beginning characters.
The piece is excellently illustrated by Richard Luschek, and you already know Mike’s beautiful maps from his work on the Tashal module for CGI. Hârn Pottage is a must-have module. I’ll certainly be making use of it, and I hope there are many more Pottage modules to come in the future.
by Mike St-Pierre
Downloaded 1674 times
Update 2008-01-04: Hârn Pottage has been reviewed on RPGnet, and those thoughts are up for all the world to see. Jocelyn Robitaille gave the article top marks for style and only marked down substance by a single point because he doesn’t use (or even know) Hârn and couldn’t use the items described in it. Hmmm…I can see his point, but surely a bit of thought might provide him with some ideas as to how to use the items. Still, 9 out of 10 is a pretty good score. Well done Mike!
Publishing Fan-Written Material
January 3, 2008
The purpose of Lýthia.com is to freely share the wealth of Hârn material that fans write¹ and want to make available to others. We don’t have an agenda other than providing a place where people can visit and obtain material for their own roleplaying enjoyment. As such, our first concern is for the fans of all types; whether they be new devotees, old Hârniacs, or just passing through. We want to provide a gateway to the wider Hârn fan community. That’s why we want to be, and to be seen to be, neutral with respect to the ongoing legal wrangle between N. Robin Crossby and Columbia Games Inc.
Following a request by N. Robin Crossby to conform to the fanon licence published on the Kelestia Productions website, we sought legal advice regarding our position. In summary, here is that advice:
- Double G Press (DGP) has no way of knowing the current legal relationship between N. Robin Crossby and Columbia Games Inc (the parties).
- It is not DGP’s place to try to determine the legal relationship between the parties.
- DGP should not risk failing to credit those to whom credit may be due.
In summary, DGP will continue to encourage fan writers to credit both parties with copyright. Should the legal position between the parties ever be clarified by an arbitrator or court of law, Double G Press will abide by that decision.
Does this mean that Lýthia.com won’t publish fan-written material that conforms to the Kelestia Productions fanon licence? No, it does not. While point 3 above is the legal advice DGP has received, and DGP encourages fans to credit both N. Robin Crossby and Columbia Games Inc in the copyright notice, DGP does not require it. It is our view that the decision should be up to the individual writer’s conscious whether or not to credit Columbia Games Inc. However, we would like to stress that DGP will not publish material that does not explicitly recognise N. Robin Crossby as the creator of Hârn.
Until the legal standing between those parties is formally and officially resolved, Lýthia.com will continue to make as much fan-written material as possible available for free download.
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¹ We call this material ‘fanon‘ , as opposed to ‘canon‘, which is official material published by either N. Robin Crossby (Kelestia Productions) or Columbia Games Inc.
Tags: Columbia Games Inc, contract, dispute, fanon, licence, N. Robin CrossbySanta Does Geldeheim
December 30, 2007
Harnic Christmas, a free 8 page adventure download from Columbia Games Inc, is now available at RPGNow. Any party can handle this adventure, although there is some need for stealth, and an understanding of the local political situation.
Player and GM Maps as well as details about the residents of Geldeheim in Orbaal are on pages 5-8.
Tags: adventure, Geldeheim, OrbaalWelcome to the new Lýthia.com!
December 12, 2007
Yes indeed, welcome. It’s come a little earlier than I had planned, but an upgrade of the forum software caused some issues. This meant I had to rebuild that side of it anyway, and so I thought I may as well just go ahead and publish the lot! Please note that many of the free downloadable files are not yet available. There is a considerable amount of work to do to make these ready, and this will take me some time. I will make every effort to get the more popular files up and ready first, but if you have a particular requirement, let me know and I’ll make that available as soon as I can.
One thing you’ll notice is that the new site is based on blogging software (Wordpress). This is to facilitate easier content updates. The old Lýthia.com was pretty static except for a news item now and then. This will no only have news items in their own column, but also news about downloads in their own column. Lastly, I’m introducing Discussions, a section that will allow me, and in time guest authors, to write up short pieces on HârnWorld that hopefully spark discussions. Yes, I’ll be using the comment system of the blog software, but if there are too many problems with spammers and such, I can switch it off, and carry on the conversation on the Hârnforum. However, this software does have some in-built anti-spam comment features, so we’ll see how it goes. Besides, you have to subscribe to comment, so maybe that will help.
Anyway, let me know what you think of the new website. You can do so by leaving a comment here (if you register) or by sending me an email.
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