Background

The Equestrian Set is a series of cards and rules for Talisman governing the use of horses and horse accessories. There are several simple rule changes incorporated into these cards to make for a realistic yet easy-to-play game in which horses are a bit more common. So saddle-up friend, and be off to find your fame and fortune!

If you have any praise or problems (or saddle-sores), give Rob a whinney.

Set Up

Remove all "Horse-type" cards from your Adventure and Purchase decks. My original set, with all of the published expansions, had the following quantities of these:

6 Purchase Mules, 2 Purchase Horses, 1 Purchase Warhorse, 1 Purchase Horse & Cart, 1 Adventure Mule, 2 Adventure Horses, 1 Adventure Warhorse, and 2 Adventure Horse & Carts.

For your new Equestrian Set you will need to print the following quantities of each card (price in brackets is the resale value at the Stables) - 6 Purchase Mules (1G), 1 Purchase Nag (1G), 2 Purchase Ponies (1G), 3 Purchase Horses (2G), 1 Purchase Stallion (3G), 2 Purchase Chariots (1G), 3 Purchase Carts (1G), 2 Purchase Wagons (2G), 5 Purchase Saddle Bags (0G), 3 Purchase Bardings (2G).

2 Adventure Mules, 1 Adventure Nag, 2 Adventure Ponies, 3 Adventure Horses, 1 Adventure Stallion, 1 Adventure Chariot, 3 Adventure Carts, 1 Adventure Wagon, 2 Adventure Bardings, 2 Adventure Saddle Bags.

You may notice that the total number of horses has increased. This is important for several reasons:

1. The Horse & Cart and the Warhorse cards were removed, so horses were added to replace them.
2. The number of objects characters can carry is diminished in the new rules (no more "infinite capacity" Horse & Carts), so more horses, vehicles, and saddle bags were added to help characters lug around all their loot!
3. Since you can't pile an unlimited number of Followers in the Cart anymore, more horses will help them to keep up with you!
4. If you're printing these cards, you've probably already printed tons of other Talisman cards, thus diluting your deck. A few more horses will help to maintain a higher ratio in your massive Adventure deck!
5. There are a few new Adventure cards and Spells that make it easier for you to lose your mounts than before, so adding a few more to the deck makes them a bit easier to reacquire.
6. They're fun!

Rules

1. All mounts and beasts of burden do not count for purposes of encumbrance. They walk on their own, so you don't need to carry them. However, they are still treated as objects instead of followers, since they are not of independent mind. Also - characters who cannot have followers can still possess mounts.
2. Most mounts add to your die roll for move. You decide after you roll the die, how much, if any, to add to the die roll. The mount's movement bonuses are as follows: Mules: 0, Nags: 1, Ponies: 2, Horses: 3, and Stallions: 4. These are all printed on the cards.
3. Mount move bonuses are never cumulative. What's more, if you have more than one, you can only use the lowest bonus (unless you want to leave the slower ones behind!). This means that as long as you have a Mule - you can't add any bonus to your move (since the Mules are restricted to a "bonus" of zero).
4. Followers need mounts of their own in order to keep up with you, unless explicitly stated on the follower card, though they can ride in vehicles (see #6)
5. Mounts can carry and tow certain objects. These should be placed directly adjacent to the mounts to indicate which items are "attached" to which mounts.
6. Carts, Wagons, and Chariots are now all separate Objects. These can only be used if you have a horse to tow them, and the benefits are listed on each card. These are no longer unlimited storage devices. Chariots can hold 8 Objects, Carts 12, and Wagons 24. You can substitute one rider for 4 Objects. Your character counts as a rider! This means you can load up your Cart or Wagon and walk along side, but then you can't use the extra move provided by the mount. Or you could load it up and ride another mount. For example, using the Chariot you could simply load it up with 8 Objects and opt to walk along side it, or you could ride in it and take 4 extra Objects, or you and a Follower could ride it with no extra Objects. Another way to look at it: Chariots can hold 2 passengers, Carts 3, and Wagons 6. For each passenger you leave out, you can carry four objects. Objects "carried" by passengers (your character and/or followers) must be included in the vehicles total, too. Therefore, if the Porter is with you and he's loaded down with 4 objects, he would fill-up a Chariot all by himself!
7. Towing vehicles slows down your mounts. Chariots reduce the mount's bonus by 1 point, Carts by 2, and Wagons by 2 (but they take two horse to pull!).
8. Saddle Bags are a new Object. They allow your mount to Carry an extra 4 Objects. These can be used with Barding and/or a vehicle, but see point #10 on overburdening. The Saddle Bags reduce the mount's movement bonus by 1.
9. Barding is a new Object. It allows you to "convert" a normal horse into a Warhorse, simply by suiting it up with the Barding. The rules for charging on a Warhorse are included under the Barding, and are updated thanks to contributions by Sam Wallace. Barding also slows down your mounts - it reduces their movement bonus by 1 point.
10. You can't overburden a mount. That means you can't reduce its movement bonus below zero. A Nag has a bonus of only 1, so you can either use Saddle Bags, Barding, or a Chariot with it (but not a Cart, since that has a penalty of 2 points!). You can't have Saddle Bags and a Chariot, for example. Horses have a bonus of 3, so you could hitch them to a Cart (reducing their bonus to 1) and then even slap on some Saddle Bags (reducing them to 0), but you couldn't add any more than that.