Well, it's been over 6 years since I had a credit card, which means my HarnQuest subscription was cancelled.

I spent some time trying to figure out what I have, and it appears the last HarnQuest I received was HQ7 (Tashal Part 1). Seems I have some catching up to do.

What was the number for the most recent HQ to be sent out? Based on this forum, the one that included Tontury Lake? Anything been released since then?

Is there another HQ expected in the coming months? Are there any discounts CGI is currently offering?

I'm not sure about the issue numbering -- #21 or #24 depending on who you ask -- but either way there have been over twenty HQ releases. Tontury Lake was in the most recent. There's a lot more that's done, but not yet released by CGI.

However, to the best of my knowledge, you can't order "back issues" of an HQ, so the numbering may be irrelevant. Once published, the individual articles become available for purchase (either directly from CGI or through sites like DriveThru or RPGNow). You might find it more helpful to just browse what is available and compare to what you already know about or own.

Hi, can you give us a guess, when a new HQ will be ready? The last one was shipped in September 2011, a long time ago. HQ once was supposed to come out four times a year. Well, that never really happened, but I think it's time for a new one.
And it would be very nice if you could give us some hints to what it might include.

Thanks and regards,
R.

CGI has a backlog of articles that require either their approval or some sort of decision to be made. In the unlikely event they were to do all that today, there would still need to be time for the art and maps on a few articles to be done (that step isn't done until the article is approved), and any edits/changes from CGI made to the text. A few articles are also awaiting a final canon check. So, my guess would be a minimum of 3-4 weeks from whenever CGI does their part. Note, however, that some of the articles have been awaiting their review for many months. Realistically, I have no idea when they will get around to looking at them. If you want to see an HQ sooner, my advice is to call or email CGI directly. They tend to be more responsive when they start hearing from customers.

Which brings me to your second point. As most here know, CGI has a pretty poor record when it comes to keeping to a publishing schedule. In the past, we would provide whatever information we could about upcoming releases. In virtually every case, the information we gave ended up being rendered invalid by some last minute change at CGI. Sure, I know enough to tell you roughly how long it would take the HarnWriters team to get an article ready for print, but once it's handed over to CGI, all bets are off. As a result, we no longer announce content ahead of time. It's a shame, but it's better than posting what will surely become misinformation.

Thank you Krazma. It must be frustrating to work for CG as a freelance writer. I never understood why they work so slowly, even if Hârn is only a side product line for them. How long can it take to read a few dozen pages and decide if they fit their concept or not?

Kind regards,
R.

In fairness to CGI, writing is the easy part. Just from my experience writing fanon, I would guess it's less than half of the total effort and there is no shortage of qualified authors. I don't write for CGI, but I surmise that they have a backlog a mile high of articles, and creators sending in more all the time. But artists are rarer, and the business model I'm sure puts a limit on how much they can spend at a time on art, maps, and layout.

I would gleefully take more articles without art. Just good text and layout. Let me sketch my own maps, please.

For ME, the maps are the easy part. I can come up with maps for my PCs in a snap. Coming up with unique CGI-acceptable maps, thats a different story. Recycling maps from something else and making them acceptable for game use is a snap.

For example, I really needed a good Nubeth map and a bunch of stuff to flesh out Nubeth and I needed it in a hurry. Someone had produced a ton of stuff for Jedes, including a really cool fair article and a "romance" adventure. Bam, Nubeth looks a lot like Jedes. If the PCs ever go to Jedes, I'll have to tweak it differently and give it a different castle.

I rob maps from Pathfinder, Forgotten Realms, and even Greyhawk all the time. I rob maps from anywhere I can find them. What I want is the article text. I can't replace that, and it is much harder for me to come up with on my own and have it all fit together sensibly.

Funny, I find it the other way round. But then I'm a Architectural Consultant so I would I suppose. Being happy with what I draw, now that's a different matter.

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"You're gonna cut off the Dragon's what?"