Horselords! I know next to nothing about it, aside of the fact that it spins out of a series of post-apocalyptic novels by Robert Adams. It sort of reminds me of Michael Moorcock’s Hawkwind stuff — far future, our world long gone in an atomic war, the world largely medieval with some lingering super science providing “magic” for the setting. There are lots of psionics too. Oh, and, obviously, sabertooth tigers (who can communicate telepathically?). There is a big dose of Robert E. Howard-style “civilization is corrupting,” a romanticizing of nomadic warriors and heaps of scorn for the dirtmen who do boring stuff like farm and stay in one place. The novels ran from 1975 through 1989, so it was still a going concern in 1987, when Steve Jackson licensed it as a setting for GURPS, though just barely.

I have no particular investment in the source material per se. The series is something I recognize from the shelves of bookstores in my youth, ones that also held the Clan of the Cave Bear books. I was aware they existed but never had a desire to check them out, really, though I did always enjoy Ken Kelly’s cover art (Kelly, if you didn’t know, is primarily known for Kiss album art, particularly Destroyer and Love Gun, as well as a string of Manowar covers). Sabertooth tigers are cool, but it feels like an odd thing to snatch up for GURPS — it was one of the first licenses Jackson ever worked with! Was Horselords massively popular and I just missed it? Or is it like Thundarr the Barbarian, a flash in the pan beloved by a select few? Either way, it feels very, very on point for GURPS, an RPG line that revels in niches.