Yes, it's my understanding that over a period longer than a few days, mounted movement is no faster than walking, unless you have regular remounts, because you just can't keep pushing your horses to maintain the faster paces.
Since I have rules for forced march in Cold Iron, addressing forced march for mounted parties would be good.
Yea, I've heard this kind of wisdom also, yet almost every RPG has mounted parties traveling twice as fast as parties on foot.
yes, that makes sense. I was going to mostly handle this with different breeds of horse.
Quirks for horses may be more detail than I want to go into, though a bit of write up on them might make sense.
What if you bring, say, 3 horses and alternate which one you're riding on? Would the weight of the rider make a difference for sustaining the higher pace for longer?
I don't have personal experience riding anything like 180 miles in three days, but I'd be inclined to rule that while a horse carrying a man plus saddle and tack and bags and bedroll and canteens works much harder, at those distances remounts are still working, not recovering. Depending on horse quality - horses in BH are rated poor, fair, good, and excellent quality - terrain, and weather, I might let rotating between three good quality horses on a spring prairie with available water and grazing go a fourth day before breaking down. Plowing through mountains in winter? Even two days is a stretch, and you're not covering much ground anyway.
They do, and I tell all my players that that's for two days, three days if you're willing to push your horses. After that, unless you've got remounts (and hard food for them if they're not steppe ponies on the steppes) or are using a 'pony express' you're not moving any faster than the grunts on foot. Then they get to look at how much hard food (grain) a large and active horse needs if it can't graze.
...and here I was waiting for another kind of"A Thread Full of Horse"
Must. refrain. from. making a. heroin joke... again!
Perils of thread necromancy.
jokes!
No, they're just from a version of the world where the 'standard' horse never made it. There weren't the long distances. There were other critters more immediately available.
A man after my own heart. Every thing you ask for is below.
). Horses are IQ 2-3. IQ 5 = sapient and then you go onto another scale., and a whole slew for my aquatic stuff)| Tasks | Description | Pack Carnivore Cost (TP) | Lone Carnivore Cost (TP) | Herbivore Cost (TP) |
| Alert | alert you to danger, predator or prey silently | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Attack | on command attack nearest foe | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Calm | remain calm in battle, around loud noises and fire | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Carry | allow themselves to be ridden, or haul or carry a load | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Come | follow and come on command | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Fetch | retrieve object, thrown or prey | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Fight | stand ground, attack, stop attack on command, recognize danger and attack without command | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Haul | allow themselves to pull or carry a load, but not ridden | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Herd | keep creatures together and lead them | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Hide | runs to the nearest "hiding" spot and hides until called | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Hunt | seek out and kill specific prey but not eat it | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Messenger | go to a specific location on command | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Obey | refrain from aggression, comfortable around humans; necessary for wild animals, automatic for most domestics | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Protect | watch over creature or place, attack any that threaten it | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Quiet | stay quiet when startled and on non-verbal command | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Refrain | refrain from attacking, oft needed for large carnivores | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Signal | make a specific sound or movement for different things | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Stay | stay where designated | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Team | pull, attack or act in unison with other like animals | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Track | track a specific smell, or sight if a raptor | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Watch | will alert you to danger by vocalizing | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Z Calm | no fear of undead and will alert to their presence | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Trainings | Description | Pack C | Lone C | H |
| Battle Mount | Calm, Carry, Come, Quiet | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Battle Beast | Attack, Calm, Come, Quiet | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| War Mount | Calm, Carry, Come, Quiet, Stay,Brawl+1 & Attack or Protect | 10 | 10 | 10 or 9 |
| War Beast | Calm, Come, Quiet + Fight, Stay, Brawl +1 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Dungeon B | Calm, Come, Quiet, Stay, Z Calm, Stealth +1 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| Dungeon X | as Dungeon B + Alert, Fetch, Hide | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| Guard | Come, Protect, Stay, Watch, Brawl +1 | 6 | 8 | 7 |
| Watch | Stay, Watch | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Skills | Description | |||
| Acrobatics | Animal Skills: Training Points (TP) can also be used to | N | Y (flying only) | N |
| Brawl | increase animal skills at a cost of 2 TP per skill point | Y | Y | Y |
| Climb | increase. The basic animal skills are listed to the left. | N | N | N |
| Scout | Y/N to right indicates if this skill can be added if not natural | Y | Y | N |
| Stealth | IF IQ below 5. IQ 5 animals can be taught any animal skill. | Y | Y | Y |
| Track | Y | Y | N |
Variation | Description | Price |
| Aggressive (A) | +1 Combat; +1 Skill to control | +2 NP |
| Agile (AG) | +1 DX | +3 NP |
| Brave (B) | +1 WL | +2 NP |
| Brute (BR) | +1 ST | +3 NP |
| Dull (D) | -1 IQ | -1 NP |
| Fast (F) | +1 INT | +4 NP |
| Hardy 1 (H1) | +2 SHP. +2 BHP, +1 CHP | +1 NP |
| Hardy 2 (H2) | +5 SHP. +5 BHP, +1 CHP | +1 NP |
| Headstrong (HS) | +1 WL; +1 Diff. to control | +1 NP |
| Keen Vision (KV) | +1 See | +2 NP |
| Keen Hear (KH) | +1 Hear | +2 NP |
| Keen Smell (KS) | +1 Smell | +2 NP |
| Leaper (L) | +1 Jump skill | +2 NP |
| Mad (M) | +1 Skill to control | -1 NP |
| Nimble (N) | +1 Athletic | +4 NP |
| Smart (SM) | +1 IQ | +4 NP |
| Strong (ST) | +1 Haul | +3 NP |
| Old (OD) | -1 Haul | -1 NP |
| Ornery (O) | +1 SC to control | -1 NP |
| Resist Cold (Rc) | Cold Pro +1 | +1 NP |
| Resist Heat (Rh) | Heat Pro +1 | +1 NP |
| Swift (S) | +1 Run, Swim or Fly | +2 NP |
| Slow (SL) | -1 Run, Swim or Fly | -1 NP |
| Super "Rat" (SR) | Resist Poison 8, Disease 4 | +4 NP |
| Tough (T) | +1 EN | +2 NP |
| Tough Cold (Tc) | +1 EN, Cold Pro +1 | +3 NP |
I'd be interested in seeing more detail on this. Probably way more detailed than I want, but lots of good ideas to pick from to fill out the detail level I'm starting to work on.A man after my own heart. Every thing you ask for is below.
...
I could give you a complete list of costs so can see the scaling, (have wide range of animals that can be trained, I need hunting falcons
...
Here are the trainings and there costs. Have a lot of pre-made trained animals can PM if you wish and at the end is a list of common variations and the NP cost to add them. I usually decide myself which variations are available for which animal.
On the above, would have to give more detail on the system I use but this should give you the idea. If interested can send you something on my mechanics so can translate to whatever system you prefer.
DX=dexterity, WL = will, ST = strength, INT = initiative, SHP = stun hp, BHP = base hp, CHP = critical HP, and 1 Haul = about 50kg or 100 pounds, with a person plus tackle and gear requiring about 2 haul. Lastly a +1 to something is pretty big deal.
Thank you. I am running a hexcrawl in what is essentially fantasy North American Great Plains now and was wondering how many days my PCs' horses can go with just grazing.
Assuming the foliage is adequate over time, I see no reason why they can't do it infinitely. It's not like they get a bucket of oats in their natural state.
Horses can of course survive on grass alone - that is their natural diet. But in their natural state they spend the better part of the day grazing and don't have to carry close to 20% of their own body weight and travel for hours in a stretch, day after day.
I think that seems more like a problem of rest for the horse rather than diet.
It's a bit of both. Grains mean the horses need less grazing, which allows you to ride them more. If you have to give the horses time to graze and rest, it restricts the number of hours you can ride and therefore your range. I think Black Vulmea's suggestion of a full day of rest for every 4 days of travel is reasonable.
