Riding Hares

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

I'm not sure Super Jump is appropriate... horses are pretty good jumpers as well. I'd go with Jumping skill.

The gait... yeah, but for the hare to be a viable riding creature you'd really have to modify the gait. Wouldn't you? That's why I'd relegate that to flavor text.

Note that I never said flavor text was unimportant. IMO, it's as much fun to read as the template. But we don't need rules to write the flavor text.

If a hare as a mount isn't any different from a horse as a mount, then it's just a boring visual.

I don't know a lot about hares, but the obvious differences might involve the presence or absence of standard GURPS traits, rather than anything exotic.

[Anders]

Visuals are only boring if you describe them in a boring way.

*ponders*

Blunt Claws rather than Hooves?

[Faolyn]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

I'm not sure Super Jump is appropriate... horses are pretty good jumpers as well. I'd go with Jumping skill.

According to this page, a 35cm-long rabbit can jump about 2.5m (about 7.5 times its body length). Horses probably vary in length quite a bit, but this says they're about 2.4 meters long from head to tail, but according to Wikipedia, the record for long jumping was 8.40 m. My math skills suck, but it looks like bunnies are better. A level or two of Super Jump might be just fine.

I don't know how a rabbit or hare would fare, jump-wise (let along physically), being scaled up, but kangaroos can jump over 7m per bound.

That being said, I can imagine it would be comfortable to ride on the bunny express. Cool, but not comfortable.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Faolyn

That being said, I can imagine it would be comfortable to ride on the bunny express. Cool, but not comfortable.

Agreed. Even though they may match a horse's speed over open ground, they would do so by a series of jarring hops rather than a smooth gallop. However, if it came to a fight between a horse and a horse-sized hare, my money's on the hare. Those things are scrappers.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by CanvasWolfDoll

anyways, one thing that's forever ingrained in my mind from the third edition source book is a picture it had at the beginning of one of the sections (i forget which) of a group of pony express-esque mail carriers, riding on giant bunnies, with their bags embroidered with the name 'bunny express'.

I don't remember this picture. Which book was it from?

[Nemi3e]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Note that he asked for templates. So what rules-related stuff am I neglecting?

Hearing, night vision, digging, no hooves, bigger feet for going over the snow, thicker fur for cold weather.

I think rabbits might actually be able to swim.

And decreased life support for food? They have a two cycle digestive system, you can feed them their usual food, they will poop pellets, and then they can eat that, the next thing they poop will be actual feces.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Nemi3e

I think rabbits might actually be able to swim.

So can horses, although not reliably with someone on their backs.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by Nemi3e

I think rabbits might actually be able to swim.

Jimmy Carter can confirm that.

[Flyndaran]

Lagomorphs can also "throw down" and fight quite well for prey species. Horses prefer to run away from anything remotely predator like, except maybe stallions protecting their harems.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Visuals are only boring if you describe them in a boring way.

You're a metagame entity, so my character cannot hear your descriptions. All my character can notice is that which is observable within the reality of the game world. If my character cannot notice that rabbit mounts perform differently from equine mounts, in any situations at all, then there are no differnces between rabbit mounts and equine mounts.