A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Centaurs of the Bleak Moor

Centaurs of the Bleak Moor by Creighton Broadhurst is a role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The supplement is therefore covered by the Open Game License and some of it is considered to be Open Game Content. This is one in a series of supplements covering nonhuman tribes. The supplement is not specifically set in The Lonely Coast, but the Bleak Moor borders the Tangled Wood, which is part of the Lonely Coast setting.

This is a twenty six page bookmarked PDF that is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $3.99 but which was purchased at the greatly reduced price of $0.18 as part of a special bundle. Centaurs of the Bleak Moor is also one of the tribes incorporated in the compilation supplement TRIBES Anthology II.

Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard plain front and rear covers, one page is blank, three pages are front matter and the Contents, that also including lists of stat blocks by CR, new druid spells, new magic items and new feats, as well as a short poem, one page is the Open Game License and an advert for another product and one page is adverts. There is also one page on Reading Stat Blocks, a standard page on how these are laid out. The supplement comes in two formats, one optimised for print and one for screen.

Centaurs of the Bleak Moor has a full page title followed by details on the centaurs, their ecology, society, religion, lairs, combat and tactics. as well as sidebars on tribal lore, using the centaurs in a GM’s campaign and a table for generating their appearance.

There are two pages on the Bleak Moor, one of which is a full page map, including fauna, flora, mires and tors.

Bleak Moor Locales is another page that describes two specific locations in more detail.

Bleak Moor Random Encounters has an encounter table as well as descriptions of various terrain features.

One page is taken up by alternate class features for the Bleak Moor Druid and the Moorland Ranger.

New Feats has five new battle feats, all involving slings, and details on a Giant Eagle companion.

New Druid Spells has four new spells.

New Magic Items has four new magical items, a sling and three sling stones, as well as a new non-magical weapon.

Minor and Major Encounters cover four pages with ten stat blocks for centaurs and their eagle companions, as well as several different encounters at different ELs.

Finally, there are two pages each detailing a non-player character.

The PDF is very well bookmarked for its length, with major and minor sections covered and the Contents, although not as thorough, is hyperlinked, making this one of the better supplements to navigate. The text maintains a two column format and no errors were noticed. There are a number of black and white illustrations which would appear to be custom.

The centaur tribe detailed does have a rather specific culture; they are connected to the moor and this is reflected in their classes and spells, and have a propensity for using a sling, which is seen in their feats and magic items. All told, this gives an appearance of a consistent culture.

The centaurs are generally a friendly tribe, unless provoked or attacked. They do have a definite enemy in the Minotaurs of the Black Hills. The Black Hills surround the Bleak Moor and, although the tribe could in theory be dropped into other settings in a comparable location, it will be a bit harder to fit it in without having access to the supplement on their traditional foes. They do not definitely need to be used with the Lonely Coast, as they are on the borders of that setting rather than within it. There are some references to Yith, a race which formerly ruled the area, but it is not clear as to just what the Yith are – the description does not match up with that of the Yithian.

This is a nicely detailed supplement on a potentially friendly group of nonhumans, but it’s one that perhaps doesn’t stand as well by itself. Centaurs of the Bleak Moor can be found by clicking here.