Dogs by N. Robin Crossby, Tom Dalgliesh and Rebecca Downey is a role playing game supplement published by Columbia Games Inc. for use with Hârn and HârnMaster. This is a bestiary article.
The supplement is available as a 10-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $4.99 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale.
The first page gives an overview of dogs, terminology and uses. Following this are some details on the uses with the terms for such uses. It looks at dog ownership, which can bring status for purebreds, their senses and hunting with dogs.
Training Dogs look at how they are trained, their automatic skills and their trainable skills. A sidebar recounts a letter from HarnLore #6, about how a character technically lost a leg to a terrier thanks to dice rolls.
The rest of the supplement is taken up by details on different types of canines, one to a page with details related to Hârn and the breeds, with the sidebar giving the HârnMaster stats.
Mastiffs are attack dogs often used in packs and there is a reference to the Jarin folklore figure known as the Hound of Barra.
Wolfhounds are guard dogs that are also used in hunting.
Bloodhounds are trackers and retrievers.
Kaldorin are sheepdogs, and the two main breeds are the Kaldorin and the Torean.
Trierzi Terrier is a ratter and the Trierzi Terrier itself is used by ratters, the Pit Terrier is used in gambling pits and the Black Axit is a dog often bred by Lia Kavair chapters.
Fox, or Rydequelyn’s Thief, are wild canines.
Black Wolf, or Morgath’s Hound, is another wild canine and sometimes used by gargun as guards.
Snow Wolf, or Jarlak’s Hound, are important figures in Ivanian folklore.
Dogs in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though short, is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column with sidebar format and appeared to be free of error. There are a number of black and white illustrations, including one for each dog described. Presentation is fine.
This is one of a number of Hârn supplements that covers a creature, sometimes quite an ordinary creature, in detail. Given that it is a bestiary supplement, it has more HârnMaster stats than many Hârn supplements and is therefore less useful for other systems. However, it does have a reasonable amount of Hârn-related material that can still be used. Dogs can be found by clicking here.
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