Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.
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Horse Racing Expanded is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.
It is a full colour, ten page, 1.45 MB PDF.
The layout is tidy and it is nicely illustrated.
Where is the Quest Set?
Where is the Quest Set?
Horse Racing Expanded is suitable to run anywhere where a horse race, whether impromptu or at tourney, might take place.
Who should go on this Quest?
Horse Racing Expanded is suitable for knights of all types, but focuses on the Player-knight with a high Horsemanship skill.
What does the Quest require?
Horse Racing Expanded requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition rules or the Pendragon Starter Set. Graph paper and tokens may also be useful (but a simple grid of squares and pen works just as well).
Where will the Quest take the Knights?
Horse Racing Expanded is a supplement that that focuses on the one skill and a specific use of it. This is the Horsemanship skill and its use in races than in battle. The horse race, whether impromptu or taking place at an organised event is handled over the course of between two and four rounds with the players rolling Horsemanship tests for their knights and the Game Master for her NPCs each round. The position in the race for each Player-knight and each NPC is tracked on a grid with the result of the Horsemanship tests determining how many columns they move forward on the grid—two for a critical result, one for an ordinary success, but nothing for a failed roll and back one for a fumble—and thus, potentially, if they change their order in the race. At the end of the race, the Player-knight or NPC who in the furthest column to the right to win the race.
It is simple enough, but there are modifications for the quality of the horses ridden and even the Size of the participants, and of course, a Player-knight or NPC is also free to invoke a Passion to Inspire their Horsemanship skill. At the end of the end of the race, the winner earns a Horsemanship skill check, prizes are awarded if the race is part of a tourney, and there are Glory awards too.
It is simple enough, but there are modifications for the quality of the horses ridden and even the Size of the participants, and of course, a Player-knight or NPC is also free to invoke a Passion to Inspire their Horsemanship skill. At the end of the end of the race, the winner earns a Horsemanship skill check, prizes are awarded if the race is part of a tourney, and there are Glory awards too.
So far, so good, but Horse Racing Expanded does sound just a little perfunctory up until this point—and to be fair, it is. It also sounds as if it favours the Player-knight with the high Horsemanship skill—and to be fair, it does. However, what addresses this imbalance and gives a chance for participants with a lower Horsemanship skill to gain ground on the rider ahead of them are ‘Events’. Horse Racing Expanded includes a table of ten events which can occur during a horse race, the Game Master rolling randomly or picking something suitable to happen during one or more rounds of the race. Each event is given a simple description, the skill or attribute to be tested, and a list of the possible outcomes. For example, with Awareness or Hunting, the entry reads, “Up ahead, the road meets a wood bridge to allow easy crossing of a brook, but the old, neglected ford can still be seen beside it. A rider could gain time by galloping right through the shallows.” The outcome of this test result will grant a modifier to the Horsemanship skill test for the Player-knight or NPC for that round.
Some of the events are more fanciful than others, but they do two things and have one consequence. The events give a chance for Player-knights and NPCs with better skills other than Horsemanship to use them in the race and so give them a better chance against more skilled horsemen, and they make the race exciting. As a result, the race becomes a narrative rather than just a series of rolls.
Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?
Although, there is nothing to stop the Game Master from using its rules and events for chases as well as races, with its limited focus, Horse Racing Expanded is more of a solid, serviceable supplement rather than a must buy purchase. If the Game Master has a player whose knight is good on horseback and wants to show off that skill, then Horse Racing Expanded will provide opportunities for that, whilst still allowing the other Player-knights to shine, and potentially, race almost as well.
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