A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Deer

Deer by Jonathan Davidson is a role playing game supplement published by Columbia Games Inc. for use with HârnMaster. This is a bestiary article.

The supplement is available as a four-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $1.99 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale.

The opening paragraphs explain that deer is plentiful, as are other game animals, but the deer is the most prized, for meat, hide, antlers and sport. They are primarily hunted as a source of food; sometimes by professional foresters but most often by nobles or freemen licensed to do so.

The next three pages each cover a specific type of deer, one to a page. Each has a sidebar, with the sidebars having a map of Hârn, showing where the deer can be found, and HârnMaster stats for the creature.

The Forest Deer is the smallest deer found on Hârn, some only 2′ high. There are three different types of this deer, which are essentially just have different colourings.

The Great Deer is the next largest and there are a number of legends regarding white Great Deer.

The Northern Deer is the largest and is a moose or elk and has the smallest habitat of the three types of deer.

Deer in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is short enough with few sections that these are not needed. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column with sidebar format and appeared to be free of error. There are three colour and one black and white image, all of which look like stock. Presentation is okay.

Deer are not likely to be a creature that characters actively engage in combat against, though they could still be dangerous, especially given the size of the Northern Deer, but they are a creature that is likely to be hunted. Whether or not characters get involved in hunts is a different matter. This essentially provides some primarily background information to the setting, adding detail. Deer can be found by clicking here.