A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Karveth Castle

Karveth Castle by Jonathan Davidson, Jerry Holland-Hibbert and John Sgammato is a role playing game supplement published by Columbia Games Inc. for use with Hârn and HârnMaster.

The supplement is available as a 22-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $11.99 but was purchased at a reduced price thanks to a special offer.

The opening paragraph explains that this is the largest town on Elnar and an important maritime centre.

History explains the island was important to the Henge Culture, the later Jarin settlement, its time as the capital of the Kingdom of Kanar and the current state. A sidebar has the coat of arms, location, government, population and taxes.

Government explains how the city is governed by the earl and Economics explains the importance of the maritime community. A sidebar has details on the earl.

Religion explains which religions have tax-free status and which are banned and Military Forces provides details on these. A sidebar has information on the islands of the Indatha Straits.

Following this is a GM map of the town, then details on various locations in it. Places that sell goods are services are rated for size, quality and prices.

Next, the castle itself is mapped and covered in more detail, including the phases of its construction. Sidebars give details on a couple of important NPCs.

The Fishing Industry has details on the town’s fishing fleet, as well as some details on smuggling in the town.

Two maps have the east and west of the docks covered, along with details of the various buildings in them, which are mapped in detail on the dock maps. A sidebar has details on an important NPC.

Next is a page with an excerpt from the Melderyn Kingdom Map, showing Karveth’s location, a map of Hârn, again with Karveth’s location marked, and a list of related products.

Fo0llowing this is an unlabelled players’ map of the town.

Temple of Save-K’nor has details on the temple, including a map, and sidebars have details on important clergy and adventure hooks.

Karveth Castle in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text is either single column with sidebar or two column and appeared to be free of errors. As well as the various maps, there are also a few colour and black and white illustrations. Presentation is decent.

Like many supplements, this lacks HârnMaster stats and can therefore be easily used with any system. Though this is a sizeable town for Hârn, it is still comparatively small and could be dropped into other settings, with some tweaking for things such as religion and politics. Karveth Castle, though comparatively expensive at full price, is a decent little supplement and it can be found by clicking here.