A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Kubora Barbarians

Kubora Barbarians is a role playing game supplement published by Columbia Games Inc. for use with HârnMaster. The supplement contains the pages on the Kubora from HârnWorld Barbarians as well as additional pages detailing each of the tribes.

This is a 14-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.99 due to a special offer. All the material is content.

The opening paragraph explains that the Kubora cover land in Peran from the Chetul River to the Mirath Islands and from the Afarezirs to the Boka Bay and the Tirsa Isles, a substantial chunk of Hârn.

This is followed by a history of the Kubora, how they, and what became the Urdu and Equani, were led across the continent by Kemlar the Guide. The other two tribes stopped on the way but the Kubora continued. The Corani Empire attempted to conquer the area but were eventually driven out by a warchief who united the tribes. A sidebar lists weapons and occupations and a map shows the locations of the tribes.

More sidebars cover death and burial practices and the communal sweatbath, and then how the tribes are organised – in semi-permanent villages – is detailed. There are two leaders, a warchief and an elder chief. Most tribes usually have a council as well.

Women are considered inferior, but are not subservient, can easily humiliate a man in public and get to choose who they marry. The tribes mutilate their faces and another sidebar covers how one tribe rubs blue dye into their ceremonial wounds. They hold yearly tribal moots. The Kubora worship three deities, Kemlar, his wife and possibly her son – his exact origin is unclear to them.

Present Situation covers the current state of affairs. There are some deepening conflicts and one warchief seeks to unite the tribes, under him. The Kubora also suffer frequent attacks from the Red Shadows of Herpa and the Warriors of Mameka, which are trying – and failing – to exterminate them. Sidebars cover Kuboran Warfare – they typically brutally kill captives – and travel in Peran.

A page covers incantations of the Kuboran Shamans.

Next, the Tribes of the Kubora are covered. A sidebar gives their populations and the tribes are divided into different regions. Each tribe has its name given, the map they are located in and some details on the tribe. Further sidebars cover warbands, the warchief mentioned earlier, the annual moot, the coming of age ritual and boats and fishing.

Finally, Kuboran Legends covers three of the known tales of the tribes.

Kubora Barbarians in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although not lengthy, there are enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format, usually with a sidebar, and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of black and white illustrations; presentation is decent.

This is, as it essentially mentions in the promotional material, an extract that has then been expanded using additional material into a larger supplement. The extra material on the individual tribes is useful, allowing them to be placed and detailed with a degree of accuracy. The tribes themselves cover a very large area of ground, so this really needs to be accompanied by supplements that cover that ground in detail to be the most useful. Of course, those that already have the Barbarians supplement will likely have a substantial portion of what is in this supplement, which does diminish its value. Kubora Barbarians is a reasonably useful supplement, but it could be partially invalidated by other purchases, and it can be found by clicking here.