Riders of Hak (2008)

[Havard]

Riders of Hak can be purchased from DrivethruRPG for onlt 5$ (US).

By: David Brainard and Tad Kilgore. With additional material by C.A.Suleiman.

Format: Softcover, PDF
Publisher: Code Monkey Publishing / Zeitgeist Games
Year: 2008 (interior says 2007)
Product Code: CMP4508
ISBN-10: 0978576160
ISBN-13: 9780978576165
83 pages
Size: Letter

Children of the horsegod Hak, the Peshwah believe they are a chosen people.

Birthed to protect Hak's sacred lands and guide Hak's sacred horses, they are brothers and sisters of his divine spirit, and feel they hold a particular destiny and a special place in this, their land. From the rocky peaks of the High Hak to the dusty floor of the Valley of the Ancients, the tribes of the Peshwah roam.

Horseman, nomad, prophet, merchant, warrior... each is a face of the Peshwah.

Welcome to Riders of Hak, the definitive sourcebook on the Peshwah for Dave Arneson

This book was supposed to come out in 2007, but was delayed as ZGG gave up their aspirations to do their own publishing and partnered up with Code Monkey Press. The book details the Peshwah, the horse nomads of the Plains of Hak, and updates the information provided in DA3 City of the Gods.

This book details the history of the Peshwa and expands the information given on each of the Peshwa Tribes.


The book offers new classes and prestige Classes for D&D 3.5:

New Core Class: The Nomad
New Prestige Classes:
Bloodwind Knife
Bond-lost
Grass-stalker
Heart of Fire
Hommet
Horse Brother
Lawgiver of Raelrataen
Mounted Marksman
Walker in Winter
Web Thief
Wind Caller


The book also provides a range of new Feats, most dealing with horses and horsemanship. Three new monsters appear in the book: Light Steppes Charger, Heavy Steppes Charger and Qulaami Dire Weasel.

The book is solid, but feels a little uninspired. This is a shame because it is written by a talented team of designers. The Peshwa need a little more than just being good with horses. The decision to just put a painting of a horse on the cover probably did not help the sales of this book. I actually really like the Peshwa, but I would have liked to see fewer prestige classes and feats and rather used those pages for interesting adventure locations, inspiring enemies of the Peshwa or even more material detailing the gods and the spiritual world of the Peshwah like the Demon Realms of Calelrin.

Read more of my own ideas about the Peshwah here.

-Havard

[Havard]

I wrote an update review on my blog.

-Havard

[Havard]

Some cool input via Facebook:

The Peshwah are diminished substantially at the time of Riders of Hak. I think a campaign set at the beginning of the Afridhi expansion from the Gobkin Kush would be ideal. Secondly, a campaign using the narrative of the DAB Peshwah arc with a player I the role of Sulla, would be fantastic also. Each of the tribes can be a themed setting and a campaign. I think the Irfat would be a fantastic stand alone too.

Scott Moore worked on the MMRPG.

The Peshwah are diminished substantially at the time of Riders of Hak. I think a campaign set at the beginning of the Afridhi expansion from the Gobkin Kush would be ideal. Secondly, a campaign using the narrative of the DAB Peshwah arc with a player I the role of Sulla, would be fantastic also. Each of the tribes can be a themed setting and a campaign. I think the Irfat would be a fantastic stand alone too.

Tad Kilgore is one of the authors of the book.

-Havard

[aldarron]

I think you are spot on Havard, yet this remains one of my favorite ZG books because the backgroud info it gives is still very useful, regardless of what system you are running.

[Yaztromo]

Some cool input via Facebook:

The Peshwah are diminished substantially at the time of Riders of Hak. I think a campaign set at the beginning of the Afridhi expansion from the Gobkin Kush would be ideal. Secondly, a campaign using the narrative of the DAB Peshwah arc with a player I the role of Sulla, would be fantastic also. Each of the tribes can be a themed setting and a campaign. I think the Irfat would be a fantastic stand alone too.

Scott Moore worked on the MMRPG.

The Peshwah are diminished substantially at the time of Riders of Hak. I think a campaign set at the beginning of the Afridhi expansion from the Gobkin Kush would be ideal. Secondly, a campaign using the narrative of the DAB Peshwah arc with a player I the role of Sulla, would be fantastic also. Each of the tribes can be a themed setting and a campaign. I think the Irfat would be a fantastic stand alone too.

Tad Kilgore is one of the authors of the book.

-Havard

It looks like Scott Moore and Tad Kilgore wrote exactly the same post on Facebook...   are you sure you didn't make a copy and paste typo, Havard?

---

I think that once you wrap up the contents of this book with the contents in the related MMRPG adventures, you have a great body of lore and flavour for a dedicated Peshwah campaign.