Close
Close
Advanced Search

The Horde (2e)Click to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/216679.xml&w=500&h=331
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.drivethrurpg.com/pdf_previews/216679-sample.pdf

The Horde (2e)

ADD TO WISHLIST >

Between East and West, between Earth and Sky, lies the Endless Waste. Barren and desolate, this windswept land forms the barrier between the feuding kingdoms of Faerun and the ancient empires of Kara-Tur. The eternal steppe is home only to the hardy, nomadic horsemen who travel its secret paths.

This region, long ignored by its neighbors, is about to erupt in the bloodiest conflict ever to sweep across the Forgotten Realms. Yamun Khahan, Emperor of the Tuigan, has united the barbarian tribes into an unstoppable horde. Already he rules the steppes, from the Cave of a Thousand Gods to the Valley of the Dog-Men. Driven to conquer, Yamun Khahan looks both east and west, and sees a world ripe for the harvest.

Product History

The Horde Barbarian Campaign Setting (1990), by David "Zeb" Cook, is the setting supplement for the Hordelands. It was released in August 1990.

About the Cover. The Horde Barbarian Campaign Setting (1990) shares a cover with Horselords (1990), the first novel in the Empires trilogy, which told the story of the Horde attacking nearby lands.

Origins (I): The Center of the Storm. The story of the Horde consumed the Forgotten Realms line in 1990, from the debut of the storyline with the first novel Horselords and adventure FRA1: "Storm Riders" (1990) in April to its conclusion in December with the final novel, Crusade (1990). The Horde is the center of that storm, detailing the peoples of the Horde and their lands.

Origins (II): A New Campaign Set. The Horde labels itself a "campaign setting", which put it right in line with the three boxed sets for the Realms that had preceded it, all during the AD&D 1e era: Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1987), City System (1988), and Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (1988). It's a very close match for Forgotten Realms and Kara-Tur, consisting of a description of the peoples of the land, then an encyclopedia of its realms, all in a relatively system neutral manner. In fact, The Horde is more than just a match for the two previous campaign settings: it's the missing link between the western and eastern Realms, sitting square in the middle of these two known lands.

Expanding D&D. The advent of AD&D 2e (1989) hadn't changed a core tenant of AD&D settings: they still weren't very crunchy. Despite its extensive description of the cultures of the Hordelands, The Horde contains no special rules for creating characters from the land; in fact, it largely presumes that characters will be newcomers to the Hordelands, not natives.

Contemporary releases like Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (1990) were stretching the rule system of D&D a little more, but it would take a few more years (and a few more settings) for TSR to realize the power of their new character kits for making their settings more evocative and concrete.

Metaplotting Along. The fact that The Horde was part of the Empires metaplot makes it one of the most short-lived settings ever. The Horde describes a unified Hordelands ruled by Yamun Khahan and neither of those facts would be true by the time by metaplot ended just four months later.

Exploring the Realms: The Hordelands. The Horde follows Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms as the second huge expansion for the Forgotten Realms covering the entirety of the Endless Waste in two big poster maps (and one big Encyclopedia). Known lands such as the Raurin desert and Thay may be found in the west of the map while Shou Lung appears to the east. The Hordelands are everything in between. The city of Dhaztanar also gets a poster map, while Almorel gets a smaller cardstock map. Add in the deep cultural information and the Hordelands becomes one of the best-defined places in all of the Realms.

Obviously, the Hordelands are a Mongolian-influenced fantasy culture, the second that TSR had produced, following GAZ12: "The Golden Khan of Ethengar" (1989) for the Known World.

Blowing Up the Canon: Kara-Tur. Kara-Tur had one large problem: it was too big. This required resolution now that The Horde was linking Kara-Tar to the western Realms. Cook explains, saying "Because of the immense distances involved in Kara-Tur, the overall size of Kara-Tur has been reduced by one-third to improve play. The 90-mile scale maps provided in the Kara-Tur set should be revised to 60 miles to the inch. The 30-mile scale maps are reduced to 20 miles to the inch. On the plastic grid, one small hex equals 12 miles on the larger maps and 4 miles on the smaller maps."

Blowing Up the Canon: The Grinning Skull Oasis. Meanwhile, The Horde also revealed a pretty small problem. With several people simultaneously working on the Realms, it was easy to create conflicts. Thus FR10: "Old Empires" (1990) and The Horde both talk about the Grinning Skull Oasis … but it's different in each.

Monsters of Note. Six new monsters entries appear in The Horde, including a few "greater spirits" of the steppes. Of the six, the new horses were the only ones popular enough to ever appear again.

Four other creatures got cut, and instead appear as "A Hoard for The Horde" in Dragon #163 (November 1990). Curiously, these rejected monsters would be much better received: the three-headed dzalmaus dragon returned in Dragon #349 (November 2006) as part of an update on "The Horde: Barbarians of the Endless Waste", while the manni, the morin, and the sand cat all returned for MC11: "Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix" (1991).

About the Creators. Cook was TSR's master of the East. He was the author of Oriental Adventures (1985), which first detailed Kara-Tur, and now he was detailing the Hordelands just to the west.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (0)
Discussions (2)
Customer avatar
David D April 12, 2022 4:11 pm UTC
Print on demand please! :)
Customer avatar
Nathan F November 30, 2020 10:09 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Please make this Print on Demand. The recent boxed sets that have been made in a hardback option are wonderful. Would love to see the rest of them that way!
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Electrum seller
Author(s)
Pages
128
File Size:
16.87 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
July 23, 2017
This title was added to our catalog on July 24, 2017.