In the Saddle by Darkquest Games
In the Saddle is a nice little pdf all about horses and mounts. Its 101 pages in length filled with great detail good art. The text density is fine and the two column layout is easy to read.
Like many of Darkquest Games pdf?s In the Saddle is filled with detail to the overflowing point. The first chapter describes horses and taking care of them in great detail. No longer will horses just be a way to get from point A to point B. With this the horse can be given personality and style. One can spend time properly caring for the mount and criticize others who do so poorly. There is information on breeds, different types of horses, and a nice random horse trait table. I really like the detail and research that must have gone into this first chapter. It really can bring a level of detail to mounts that would be impossible otherwise.
The second chapter goes into who has needs for what type of mount. Sure, through the forest it?s easy to decide but what about in other terrains and other areas? How about the best beast of burden to carry along all those coins and treasures adventures find? Well, this chapter helps answer those questions.
Chapter three goes into what races like what mounts. Humans of course like their horses, but what mounts does a half orc prefer?
Now that one has his mount, one needs to train it. Chapter 4 goes into training and the skills and feats that are most beneficial to a mount. It also goes into many tricks both common and uncommon that mounts can be trained to do. Need one?s horse to wear armor or smile? This is how one does it.
Chapter five deals with new rules through feats, skills, and spells. It starts off with new uses for old skills as they apply to mounts as well as veterinary healing. There are new feats like ride by larceny and nap riding that will really make riding mounts more versatile and useful. The spells are simple ones like create fodder (food for mounts) to dragon mount, it gives the half dragon template to your mount temporarily.
The sixth chapter goes into prestige classes. I really like that they have a good mix of combat oriented ones like the Fog Rider, and have a good mix of non combat ones like the Galloping Trollop and the Wandering Merchant. They do include a Mongol core class that seems a bit on the powerful side. I like the class but would need to find a way to scale it back. Aside from that, though, all the classes are both interesting and balanced.
The seventh chapter goes into detail on chariots. This is much better then the information found in Sword and Fist. They even have chariots for non humans as well as historical information on chariots. This chapter might just convince people to start using them in their campaign.
The eighth chapter covers equipment, and mounts need lots of equipment. It starts out with a simple table with the prizes and weights of everything presented here and then it moves on to the descriptions of the items. There are even some new and alternate types of mounts here.
The ninth chapter covers everything magical: from horseshoes to saddle, and carts to lassos. It has rules for making magical horse like weapons as well as miscellaneous items like flying wagons and feedbags a plenty. There are many good items here that will allow any mount to become helpful in combat and not be placed at so much risk.
Lastly, we have chapter ten: The Bestiary. This chapter fully stats out all the new mounts from chapter seven. There are some very interesting ones like the Saddle Hopper which is a giant grasshopper, to things a little more mundane like Frostfox. I think the mounts are mostly hit or miss, but if one is looking for something other then a horse there is a good chance it will be found here.
This is another good Darkquest Game?s book. They are a about the details and this books goes into the details on mounts and especially horses. Anyone looking to bring a little more character or interest level into mounts really should be looking at this book for all the mount needs.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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