03-12-2012, 12:49 AM | #21 | |
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Huntington, West Virginia
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Re: Riding Hares
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So if a dude rode up to you on a giant rabbit in real life this would only be interesting to you if the rabbit performed significantly different than a horse? Because your character can see the description. The GM's words are the things your character experiences. Beyond that, if the Player finds giant rabbits interesting, then the game is fulfilling its purpose which is to entertain the Player. After all the character doesn't exist. |
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03-12-2012, 08:12 AM | #22 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Riding Hares
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
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03-12-2012, 09:54 AM | #23 | |
Join Date: Nov 2010
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Re: Riding Hares
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There's reason to make riding hares different than riding horses, but it's certainly not that characters can't react to non-mechanical constructs. Usually, the description of any RPG character, object, or environment is specifically to illustrate what any given character could readily observe or know through common hearsay--it's not necessarily letting players peek at the monster entry. In fact, for good role-playing the players should be more aware of the description than the mechanics because the description is in-character and in-setting knowledge. The mechanics are just there to approximate the RPG's created reality.
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Finds party's farmboy-helper about to skewer the captive brigand who attacked his sister. "I don't think I'm morally obligated to stop this..." Ten Green Gem Vine--Warrior-poet, bane of highwaymen
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03-12-2012, 12:07 PM | #24 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Riding Hares
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Also I've taken one interpretation of the OP, which is that he wants rabbit mounts to be functionally different from normal mounts, i.e. equines. I could be wrong about that. Maybe for him it is just the visuals. The description, as pure flavour. |
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03-12-2012, 12:14 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Nov 2010
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Re: Riding Hares
I'd suggest trying to really differentiate giant hare mounts as being scary, because rabbits are really mean critters for their size. If I was going to introduce them to my campaign, I'd be sure to describe how territorial and rough they were even when "playing" or otherwise "enjoying each other's company". I'd have no experienced riders without huge scars, and maybe even make the hares vastly superior mounts to horses in other ways to compensate for the fact that most would-be hare riders die or get maimed in training.
Plus, it'd just be fun to have the giant-bunnies be the preferred mounts of BA terror troops.
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Finds party's farmboy-helper about to skewer the captive brigand who attacked his sister. "I don't think I'm morally obligated to stop this..." Ten Green Gem Vine--Warrior-poet, bane of highwaymen
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03-12-2012, 12:25 PM | #26 |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: MI
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Re: Riding Hares
Which would lead to anti-cavalry shock troops belting out "Kill da Wabbit" as they marched into battle...
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"My Dirty Girls on Bikes Calendar ends in December: it doesn't mean the world is going to end, it means it's time to order a new calendar!" ~Burt Chance |
03-12-2012, 12:31 PM | #27 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
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Re: Riding Hares
Since this is obviously a fantasy scenario and not a thought experiment in 600 pound rabbits would actually like*, I'd make them functionally like real rabbits, only larger.
This means they're going to be faster and more agile than horses, vicious and dangerous when cornered but easily spooked, capable of crazy wuxia-worthy jumps, and insanely difficult for all but the most skilled of riders. Riding (Giant Leporids) should be DX Hard and default to DX-6. If moving at greater than 3/4 move and not using a special saddle that straps you in, you must make a strength based riding skill every turn to stay on. Furthermore, the dramatic up-down movement makes combat much more difficult. Therefore, Combat Riding defaults to Riding (Giant Lepi) at -1, and Mounted Shooting defaults at -5. Nevertheless, many brave warriors consider the extra training to be well worth it to ride a mount with much greater maneuverability capable of great leaps of 15 meters or more. *Hint: probably not very rabbity.
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My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters. |
03-12-2012, 12:32 PM | #28 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Riding Hares
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All of which ought to apply to believable characters played by good roleplayers. My reaction to a player telling me, "The stats aren't any different, so I don't care," would be to give the PC a twisted, freakish version of the thing in question and then have all the NPCs cock eyes at him and made snide remarks. "It's a giant freakin' bunny. Who cares what its stats are?" is actually the most appropriate reaction; it shows engagement with the story, not obsession with the rules.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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03-12-2012, 12:45 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Seattle
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Re: Riding Hares
Okay, so long ago I had a rather silly character who had a riding rabbit. The thing had blunt claws and good night vision, and required the skill Riding (Riding Rabbit) as well as a special harness. It was a slightly better jumper and not as good for endurance, as I recall. It was 3d edition, though, and I have no stats for it any longer. It did once get in a fight with a warhorse, and having claws, it was rather nasty. However, scaling issues caused us to not including super jump.
The largest effect it had? EVERYONE noticed it. Worse: many wanted to STEAL it. So the fluff parts had some important in-game consequences, just as showing up in a perfectly "legal" speedo to work would cause some interesting "at work" consequences (blindness for coworkers, probably some sort of sexual harassment training for me).
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Seven Kingdoms, MH (as yet unnamed), and my "pick-up" DF game war stories, characters, and other ruminations can be found here. |
03-12-2012, 12:57 PM | #30 |
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Oregon
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Re: Riding Hares
If I was building it I'd probably include Super Jump, like the Kangaroo. However, a lot of people seem adverse to that, wanting their 600-pound bunny mount to be realistic (hehe), so what other options can we use to improve jumping ability? Leg ST or ST (Jumping Only) could work, since you can use the better of Basic Move or ST/4 in the jumping equation. Also, perhaps a half-level of Super Jump could multiply final jumping distance by x1.5, the same way that a half-level of Enhanced Move gives +50% top speed. We could give these rabbits a high inherent Jumping skill, but that feels a bit wrong. Rabbits can jump relatively far, but control should still come with experience - the Jumping skill affects both distance and control. Any other ways to represent a jumping advantage?
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Tags |
bunny, gurps 4e, mount, template |
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