A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Afarezir Islands

Afarezir Islands by Alun Rees is a role playing game supplement published by Columbia Games Inc. This is a generic supplement set in Hârn, and can also be used with HârnMaster, although there are no game stats.

This is an eight page PDF which is available from RPGNow for $3.99 but which was purchased for only $0.99 due to an offer. All eight pages are content.

The first two pages are an overview of the Afarezirs. There is a sidebar with a random encounter table, but this makes several references to other supplements, so will need tweaking to use generically. These pages give an overview of the islands’ history, geography and inhabitants, with a sketch map of the archipelago and references to which Hârn maps it is featured on.

There are then details of the nine major islands in the chain, the clans that inhabit them, some notable inhabitants and their geography. Three of the islands have further details, on a stone circle, some colonies from an exterior power that were lost (one of which bears a striking resemblance in its description to the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island in the Americas) and a tribe on one island that is said to be cursed. Further sidebars cover the Whale Cult, a ship’s log related to the lost colony and some details on the cursed clan.

Afarezir Islands in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although they aren’t really necessary for a supplement of this length, they would have been appreciated. Navigation could be better. The text is either s ingle column format with sidebars or two column and appeared free of errors. There are a number of what appear to be custom black and white illustrations. Presentation is decent.

The supplement has no game stats, so can be used with any system. It is a bit tied to Hârn, however, so using it in other game worlds – despite being an archipelago which could theoretically be dropped in anywhere – will require more work. Some of the references to other Hârn-related places would need altering. This could be done though. As a supplement for Hârn itself, it does work well, providing some more detail on an area. The same area could be fleshed out more, of course. Afarezir Islands is, even at full price, one of the more reasonably priced Hârn supplements and can be found by clicking here.