1993. Forgotten Realms Accessory FOR4. By Ed Greenwood. Cover art by Jeff Easley, interior art by Scott Rosema. For AD&D 2nd Edition. 128 pages.
Ok. Lets put two things out there right now. First, Ed Greenwood LOVES his Harpers. They are the secret -not-so-secret society of do-gooders in the Realms, and he has a very high opinion of what they do, who they are, and their place in the Realms. Naturally. I can't fault him for that at all.
Secondly. I neve cared for them. Now, in my defense (such that it is) I think what I didn't care for was the attitude of various players about having their characters be part of the Harpers and what I thought the Harpers were. To me they seemed more like one of those Societies (capital S) that gets by on their name and the deeds of a handful of actually talented people that did good work once apon a time. As it turns out, there are plenty of groups like that in the Realms (the Flaming Fists, for example, could be like this), but this isn't who the Harpers were or are.
So, instead of going with my original preconceptions about who and what this group is, I am going to view them through Ed's eyes. This has served me well in the past and has given me a whole new appreciation for the Forgotten Realms.
I picked this book up as a Print-on-Demand book and PDF from DriveThruRPG. I am reviewing both.
One thing seemed to jump out at me from the start. The Harpers are made up of a lot of Bards. I think this was true in Ed's original ideas for the Harpers with 1st Edition Bards. There is a lot here that makes me think that these roles are better served by someone with fighter, thief, and druid skills. Like the old 1st edition Bards. But this book is expanded enough to use the AD&D 2nd edition Bards and I also get the feeling that the AD&D 2nd Edition The Complete Bard's Handbook would be a good companion piece to this.
This book is divided into roughly 19 sections. Not really chapters.
The Prologue and Introduction provide some in-universe and real-world background on the Harpers and on what this book is about.
The next dozen or so pages in The Code of the Harpers. This tells us who the Harpers are and what they do in the Realms. This chapter did a lot to alleviate my preconceived ideas about what the Harpers are. They seem less like a group of Shriners (only because they always keep popping up doing something [note the Shriners actually do things other than drive little cars]), and more like a rag-tag group of underfunded, underfed people trying to do good things. Though if the Harpers could drive little cars in parades to get money for sick kids, I think they would. In many ways, they remind me of S.A.V.E. from Chill.
A couple of interesting bits here are the things expected of Harpers (a lot) and the symbols left behind by Harpers to warn others. Though I think after a while others have figured these out.
The History of the Harpers is next, about 16 pages, and it is a fun read. Even at this point I only know enough of the Realms to be somewhat dangerous, there are a lot of dates and more people here. Am I supposed to know them all? I don't think I am. I think this is Ed's way of introducing someone and then filling in the gaps later. I think only Ed knows it all, and maybe not even then. So I guess I am not supposed too either. This flows right into The Harpers Today, with "today" as 1367 DR (which is still 10 years in my game's future).
What follows next are 30-some odd pages of NPCs that can be used: Master Harpers, Senior Harpers, Harper Heroes, and Some Selected Harpers. There are some names here I do recognize, but it has also given me some good NPCs to have on hand. I didn't count, but it looks like Chaotic Good is the alignment of choice among Harpers. Makes a lot of sense, really.
Again, one thing is very obvious here. Ed loves his characters. Everyone from Elminster and The Simbul all the way down to Sheenra Duth seems to be equal in his eyes. Well...I think he might love The Simbul more (I know *I* do).
The High Heralds are akin to "elite Harpers," but they feel like something else. Special agents might be the better word. Each one seems a little different from the others.
Harper Allies is exactly that. People who help the Harpers but are not Harpers themselves. Three are presented here, The Simbul herself, Tamper Tencoin, and Beldara Larune who I am dying to use somewhere.
Harper Haunts covers about 15 pages and details various strongholds and hideouts of the Harpers.
Harper Magic is divided into two sections: Spells and Magical Items. Spellsingers are mentioned, but not really detailed here. Spells, should really be called Spell, since there is only one. Lots of magic items though.
Foes of the Harpers is an interesting one since it is really a "Foes of Good" sort of chapter. I mean yeah I could be a snarky little bitch and say there is a clear Black and White division here of all Harpers good, all that oppose them are bad. BUT I think that defeats the purpose of what this books is trying to present. All these foes are well funded, ingrained into their societies, and very powerful. The Harpers are a bunch of scrappy nobodies (for the most part) and certainly fighting an uphill battle that they will more than likely lose. But the battle is always fought. And I think that is important.
We get a couple of pages of Joining the Harpers. Some songs on Harper Ballads (no sheet music like Dragonlance), and finally a Monstrous Compendium page on a Spectral Harpist.
About the PDF and PoD
My PDF is rather clear, to be honest. The Print-on-Demand has the fuzziness common to scanned files, but it is not terrible and is still very readable.
Sinéad, Nida, Arnell, Jaromir, and Rhiannon
My characters in the game I play in are headed East. I am sure they will run into some Harpers at some point, maybe they already have!
But for this I want to talk more about how the characters see the Harpers. Jaromir and Rhiannon are too involved with the idea of Rashemen to think about what the Harpers mean to them. Nida isn't really "good" (Alignment-wise) enough to join them and she has no desire to get killed for a lost cause.
That leaves Arnell and Sinéad. I can see Arnell wanting to join up, but as a cleric he would make a better ally than an operative.
The leaves my little half-elf bard/wizard Sinéad.
On paper, Sinéad would make for a great Harper. She is a bard, she plays the lute (ok, but there is no group out there called "The Luters"), and she has magic. I may have mentioned before that Sinéad is part of a long line of near-witch half-elf characters of mine who use music as the basis of their magic. Her spiritual "godmother," Heather, was built around the idea of what I thought a Harper or Spellsinger was. By all rights, Sinéad SHOULD be a Harper.
But I think here is where I exercise a bit of humility.
Sinéad isn't going to be a Harper. She might have opinions about them, but like me, most of them are wrong.
Reading this book set me right on what the Harpers really are, not what I thought they were.
Following the examples set out by the Harpers themselves, I can't, in good conscience, have one of my new favorite characters just up and join them because I've decided I now know better.
Maybe the Harpers are watching her. Maybe they think she might be a good recruit, or not. Either way, she will move on east with her merry band of misfits and lost children, and the Harpers will keep their eye on them. Besides, if nothing else, the Harpers are seen as loners. Sinéad and her group are very much "found family," even if Arnell and Sinéad still don't really get along all that much. Their togetherness is their purpose.
The Harpers have likely already tagged my witch NPC, Moria (in the Realms game I run), as "potential problem, keep watch on her." (Note to self, could I port a version of Moria over to Jackson??)
I have read and reviewed many Realms books since starting this project. This one has been one of the nicer surprises.
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