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Ptimot
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Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Fri 12 Aug 2022, 14:11

Hi All,

I can't find rules for animal handling or mounted combat. Did anyone come across anything? I know horses are rare in the North and often used for carrying goods only but I intend to play a prosperous mounted Barding Messenger seeking out the shadow rumors surrounding the Shire. Also, animal handling in general. I'm missing this particular skill or description within the offered skills. Could be enheartening but there is no mentioning of animals...Any thoughts?
 
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Asrath
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Fri 12 Aug 2022, 17:38

I did some houserouling on that, derived from the 1st edition rules, but I have not yet tested it with my players.

Mounted Combat [Houseruled]
Not all horses are suitable for combat. Suitable are: Decent Beasts (charge bonus = +2) or Fine Beasts (charge bonus = +4). Not suitable are: Old Horses or Half-Starved Ponys.

Riding Tests (Athletics) are required for: Shadow Tests, Knockback, Escape, unconsciousness of rider or damage / wounding of horse. Failure: rider gets thrown off.

Charge Attacks: A rider can perform several Charge Attacks sequently. This requires a Riding Test, which is aggravated by -1d6 for each Charge Attack already made.
 Success: rider may make a Melee Attack with higher Damage = Damage of weapon + Charge Bonus.
 Failure: Rider gets involved in melee, no further Charge Attacks possible. 
New Combat Task: Prepare Charge (Battle) as main action. Success: Damage and Injury of the next attack increases by +Vigour of the horse, plus +1 per 6.

Melee Attacks:
Attacks of the rider with a Weapon: Riders can only fight in Forward [charge attack or melee] or Open Stance [melee only], attacks of the PC are handled like in RAW.
Attacks against the rider are more difficult (-1d6) unless the attacker uses a Great Spear.
Attacks against the horse are treated normally, but in the consideration of Parry of the rider's shield is not taken into account.

If the horse is hit: rider has to pass a Riding Test (TN: Athletics + Damage), otherwise the rider is thrown off.
If the horse is wounded (Piercing Blow = autom. success) ➠ Horse goes down and the rider is thrown off.

If a rider gets thrown off, a Riding Test is necessary to determine the outcome. Success: rider takes no damage; Failure: 4 Damage (in general) or 8 Damage (if horse went down). Fail with EYE ➠ rider is wounded.

Escape: To escape from a fight, a rider needs a successful Riding Test.
 
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Ptimot
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Fri 12 Aug 2022, 19:08

That's great. Thank you Asrath!
 
Asgo
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Fri 12 Aug 2022, 19:39

Hi All,

I can't find rules for animal handling or mounted combat. Did anyone come across anything? I know horses are rare in the North and often used for carrying goods only but I intend to play a prosperous mounted Barding Messenger seeking out the shadow rumors surrounding the Shire. Also, animal handling in general. I'm missing this particular skill or description within the offered skills. Could be enheartening but there is no mentioning of animals...Any thoughts?
as Asrath mentioned, 1st edition had horse rules so if you can get hold of a 1st Ed of the rohan sourcebook you probably could adapt it relatively easy. Here the getting the book is probably harder than converting any rule specifics. ;)

for generic animal handling checks it basically applies the same skills as you would for a person, persuade, inspire, song etc depending on the specific objective and chosen means.

thematically, I probably wouldn't go too much for actual horse combat in your scenario. My thinking is, that for one in that situation your horse is a very precious resource that your char far from home might not want to risk in combat, in particular with probably low chances of replacing it. Secondly, mounted combat probably works better in an army context with multiple horses in a charge and at least a few bits of armor.
And something to consider from a meta party perspective, mechanically and thematically party combat works better if either all are mounted or none, because mounted combat should happen with the speed of the horse. (not counting stuff to actual mounted combat where an archer sits on his horse in the back stance and shoots - as that is practical foot combat perhaps with an occasional horse handling check)
Not wanting to dissuade you from anything, just a few things that might be worth considering.
 
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Ptimot
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Sat 13 Aug 2022, 15:43

Thanks Asgo, makes a lot of sense!
 
Dunheved
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Sun 14 Aug 2022, 12:37

Fighting as cavalry in TOR 1e still doesn't fit right with me. It just seemed too unwieldy.
Don't get me wrong, I love TOR1e: but never played much Horse Lords or Rohan just because the Riding and Fighting on Horseback seemed like the old Journey rules : too much work for too little pleasure.

And yet, the old Rohan Virtues! Brilliant.

So on that note I am considering simply having a Virtue: Cavalry Skills. I am poor at exact wording, so please read between the lines for the spirit of my thoughts here.

Cavalry Skills: you have spent much time riding and working with your horses until they are an integral part of your Movements. Your proficiency and experience (And that of your horse!) are such that you can move and fight in an additional mode "Knight".
1. A Knight can ride into combat and their horse will normally suffer the confusion of melee and violence without bolting.
Any attack that scores an Edge against a Knight triggers an initial Valour check. The horse's Valour is the same as the Rider. If it fails, the horse bolts. Succeed with the valour roll, and the horse is missed, instead the Rider takes the normal Protection test.
2. A Knight can fight normally in Combat with any one handed weapon. Javelins may be carried for an Opening Volley. Gain +1d for height advantage against man sized infantry. No shield bonus.
3. Charge Move: To those creatures with a Hate rating, being attacked by a mounted Knight is a Fear check based on the Knight's Strength + 12 (exception: Undead). Failure of the fear check and the minion becomes daunted and cannot use Hate. Those minions with Might > 1 have a Favoured roll.

Further points all needing development.
A. Rohirric warriors would gain the Cavalry Virtue by default for free. They may develop the ability to use two handed weapons while riding (bows of course!). Or they can benefit from a shield bonus.
B. If the enemy want to target the horse, they must roll 1d12, and roll less than their attribute value to Succeed. Horses, once hit are considered out of action (dead or bolted) the Rider might be Thrown or carried out of Combat.
C. In special circumstances it may be possible to use skirmish mode, or to overrun opponents. I really have not given these ideas much thought.
 
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Ptimot
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Sun 14 Aug 2022, 14:12

Thanks All! Do you think there'll be official rules included in a future Rohan extension? Anyone heard anything?
 
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HunterGreen
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Sun 14 Aug 2022, 14:37

While it seems inevitable that we'll get to Rohan again, and that we'll need more rules for horses and riding again, it's way too early for that to be more than speculation.
TOR/AiME Discord: https://discord.me/theonering
Narvi, the TOR bot for Discord: https://bitbucket.org/HawthornThistleberry/narvi/
 
Otaku-sempai
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Sun 14 Aug 2022, 23:33

Thanks All! Do you think there'll be official rules included in a future Rohan extension? Anyone heard anything?
.
I suppose we could get new mounted combat rules in a supplement for Gondor before the game gets around to revisiting Rohan.
#FideltyToTolkien
 
Turgon
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Re: Mounted Combat and Animal Handling Rules?

Mon 22 Aug 2022, 18:04

Hi All,

I can't find rules for animal handling or mounted combat. Did anyone come across anything? I know horses are rare in the North and often used for carrying goods only but I intend to play a prosperous mounted Barding Messenger seeking out the shadow rumors surrounding the Shire. Also, animal handling in general. I'm missing this particular skill or description within the offered skills. Could be enheartening but there is no mentioning of animals...Any thoughts?

Have you studied the rules for riding and mounted combat in Horse lords of Rohan? What is important is the added Trait "Horsemanship".
From an early age you have learnt to be comfortable around horses and how to best care for them. You can readily tell a good horse from a poor or mediocre one, and when you are on horseback you feel more at ease than upon your feet.

Without this trait can't you do much on a horse's back, which make sense.

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