From: rorice@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu (rosalyn rice) This section covers expanded rules for mounted combat. Some of this information might have come from the "Animal Companion" rules for GURPS that were available on the net a few years ago. Again, my apologies if I've inadvertently included information from a previously copyrighted work. Combat Rules 8 - Mounted Combat SPOOKING - The usual result of a failed Riding roll in combat is a "spooked" horse. When a horse is spooked, it shies or bucks; the rider must make a Riding roll every second. A critical success calms the horse immediately. A success means the horse settles down in 1d6 seconds. Three failures in a row or a single critical failure will result in a total loss of control. Fortunately, a bucking horse and its rider are at -2 to hit due to unpredictable movement. Ordinarily, a trained warhorse can be directed by voice and foot pressure leaving both hands free for weapon use. However, all riding rolls are at -3 for "no hands" or -1 if only one hand is on the reins. Riders who need both hands may drop what they were holding. It requires a roll vs. DX-3 to put a weapon back in its holster while a horse is bucking, at one second per attempt. Any critical failure means you drop it. LOSING CONTROL OF YOUR MOUNT - Roll 2d6 on the following table whenever you lose control of a spooked mount. ROLL RESULT 2 You are thrown from the horse. 3 You lose your grip and fall. Take 1/2 throwing damage. 4 You drop your weapon or whatever you were holding. 5-6 The horse charges in a random direction. When you regain control of the horse it will be tired and will move at only 1/2 speed until it gets several hours of rest. 7-8 The horse runs away from the combat. As above. 9-10 The horse is fractious. -1 to all Riding and Animal Handling rolls for the rest of the combat. 11 The saddle comes loose. All Riding and Weapon skills are at -3 until you can dismount and spend 4d6 seconds cinching the straps. If this result is rolled again, the saddle comes off and you fall. Bareback riders fall. 12 The horse falls. BAD FOOTING AND CHARGES BY UNTRAINED HORSE - A roll vs. Riding skill-2 is required to get an untrained horse to charge into an obstacle or person or to get any horse to charge into an area of bad footing. A horse is required to make DX rolls in areas of bad footing just like a man. This roll is at -1 per every 5 hexes the horse moved last turn or this turn. A hex with a body in it counts as bad footing. TRENCHES AND STREAMS - Trenches and streams with steep beds or banks can trip up horses, if they can't jump over them. If a running horse fails to jump over a trench or stream, it must roll vs. DX-2 or fall. A horse can be walked through an obstacle that doesn't have completely vertical banks, at the rate of 2 hexes per turn. If the rider wants to move faster, roll vs. Riding skill -1 per 5 extra hexes of speed to do so. The horse must roll vs. DX-1 per 5 extra hexes of speed, to keep from falling. JUMPING - A roll vs. Riding skill is required to get a horse to jump over an obstacle. The roll is at Riding-2 if the horse can't see the other side of the obstacle or the obstacle is high. If the horse has been trained to jump this roll is at +5 to skill. A horse can jump forward ST/2 feet or over an obstacle ST/5 feet high on a successful DX roll. Each 2 points by which the rider made his Riding roll gives a temporary +1 to the horse's DX. Each point by which the horse makes the roll adds one foot to forward disance, or 6 inches to vertical distance. Each point by which the horse failed the roll subtracts 1 foot of forward distance or 6" of vertical distance. If the horse has been trained to jump it will may substitute its Jumping skill for DX. If the horse misses the DX or Jumping roll by 3 or more it clips the obstacle as it jumps over it and must roll vs. DX or fall when it lands. If the horse misses the DX or Jumping roll by 5 or more, it fails to jump the obstacle. It must roll at DX-2 to avoid falling and the rider must roll vs. Riding-2 to avoid being thrown. On a normal jump, the rider must roll vs. Riding skill to keep his seat. FALLING HORSES - A horse will stumble if it is moving more than 5 hexes per turn and fails a DX+2 roll to keep its footing, or if it is moving at less than 5 hexes per turn and fails a DX+5 roll to keep its footing. If the horse stumbles, the rider must make a Riding roll+2 to keep his seat. The horse must roll vs. DX or fall. In most situations it isn't neccessary to determine if the horse falls. Roll only if the horse fails to jump an obstacle or is on very treacherous or slippery ground. Less extreme situations might require a roll every minute or 10 minutes, as the case may be. DAMAGE TO THE HORSE - If a horse falls, it takes 1d6-2 crushing damage to a random body location. If the damage is to the leg and the leg is crippled the leg is automatically broken. DAMAGE TO THE RIDER: GETTING CLEAR - The rider must make an immediate Acrobatics or Riding skill roll, or a roll vs. DX (whichever is better) to jump clear of the falling horse. If the roll is failed the rider takes 1d6-2 points of crushing damage to a random location, in addition to normal falling damage, as the horse lands on him. If the roll is failed by 5 or more points the rider is trapped under the fallen horse and can't get up until the horse regains its feet. FALLING DAMAGE - Whether or not the rider got clear of his mount, he takes 2d6-8 points of crushing damage from the fall for a fall onto soft earth, or 2d6-6 for a fall onto a hard surface. Acrobatics-2 or Breakfall can halve this damage. SPEED KILLS - Add +1 to damage from falling and from being crushed by a horse for every 5 hexes of speed over 10 that the horse was going to both rider and mount. ESCAPE - If the horse is dead or crippled, the horseman may roll vs. ST once per minute to wriggle out from under the horse (-2 if his leg is crippled, -4 if his arm is crippled). An attempt may be made each minute, but cumulative attempts are at -1. Having friends assist you helps. Add their ST to your ST if they can help lift the horse or pull on your arms. STRUGGLING HORSES - If the horse is writhing or struggling (very likely if it is panicked and crippled), the rider will take 1d6-5 each minute the horse struggles. Roll vs. Animal Handling or Riding-4 to calm the brute or try to kill it. GETTING UP - If the horse did not break or cripple its leg, it can get up in 2 turns. BEING THROWN - If you fail a Riding roll, you might fall from your horse. You take 2d6-8 crushing damage to a random location for a fall onto soft earth, 2d6-6 for hard earth. Acrobatics-2 or Breakfall can halve this damage. If you fail your Riding roll by 5 or more, you are caught in the stirrups and a Dragged. DRAGGING - If you are dragged by the stirrups, and you don't have breakaway stirrups you take 1d6-5 damage each turn, modified by speed and the roughness of the ground. Being dragged over snow would probably do no damage, being dragged through a bed of Cholla cactus or broken glass would probably do 1d6-3 per turn. Armor protects with its DR. Roll vs. DX, Acrobatics or Riding skill to get loose, -1 per each 5 hex the horse is moving over 10 hexes. SADDLES - The type of saddle you use gives you a modifier to Riding skill to see if you are dismounted: -2 Bare-back -1 Saddle-pad with no stirrups -1 Side-Saddle 0 Normal riding saddle +1 Western saddle with high cantle +2 Medieval jousting saddle with high cantle CATCHING A HORSE - If both you and the horse are fit to continue riding after you fall, you may catch the horse by rolling vs. Animal Handling or Riding Skill, with a further -3 if in melee, or if the animal was spooked. If you fail further attempts may be made every 5 minutes. Catching a horse counts as a Long Action. CAVALRY WEAPONS - A rider uses hand weapons at his Weapon skill-4 or his Rider skill, whichever is less. Thus a trained rider has little penalty to use hand weapons on horseback. LANCES - Lance skill is described elsewhere. Impacting with the force of a charging warhorse, a lance can easily pierce the heaviest contemporary armor. A lance requires a minimum ST of 12; it takes one turn to ready a lance after a miss, 2 turns to ready it after a hit. A lance longer than 12 feet can be used, to give an advantage in reach, but for every additional foot of lance, the lancer takes a -1 to skill. The reach of a lance goes up by 1 hex per 3 feet over 12. A lance weighs an extra 2 lbs. for extra foot of length. The lance does thrust+3/Impaling damage, based on the horse's ST and velocity. If the horse is moving 5 or fewer hexes per turn, the lance does 1/4 of the horse's ST, rounded down. If it is moving 6-12 hexes per turn, the lance damage is based on the horses full ST. To use a lance or similar weapon, a rider must have a saddle and stirrups. TOURNAMENT LANCES - Tournament jousting is done with blunted wooden lances, specially designed to break when they strike hard. These do Thrust+3 Crushing damage. If more than 15 points (or less depending on the lance) of damage is rolled, the lance snaps, doing maximum damage. On a critical miss you might get hit by sharp splinters of lance or your opponent might get hit by the sharp, broken, lance or splinters. Since some tourneys were scored by how many lances you broke, it might be considered to be cheating to use lances that will break more easily than your foe's. SWORDS, AXES, SPEARS, ETC. - These weapons may be swung by a rider. If the mount's speed is at least 6 relative to the foe, assess a -2 penalty, but +2 to damage. This penalty can be bought off with training. THRUSTING WEAPONS - Weapons may be thrusted, but they are at -2 to hit. If they hit and the relative speed of the horse to the target gives a bonus to damage, they might be torn from the rider's hand, or break. Roll vs. Weapon skill to hang onto a weapon. 1/6 of the damage done to the target is applied as damage to the weapon. If you use a spear or pole-arm from horseback use the Lance skill rather than Spear or Pole-Arm skill if it can be "couched" under one arm and used one handed. Two-handed swinging weapons can't be used from horseback. HORSE ATTACKS - A well-trained, medieval war horse can also commanded to rear back and then plunge with a weapon swing. This requires a well trained horse and a Riding roll. It gives +1 to damage. A medieval war horse will also attack by biting (1d6-4 Crushing) and kicking (1d6 for small horses, 1d6+2 for large ones, +1 to damage for iron or steel shoes). It will also trample, doing normal trampling damage. A later period cavalry horse will not attack foes. A Riding-2 roll is required to get it to charge into or over an obstacle or bad footing. SLAM ATTACKS BY HORSES - An untrained horse that charges into contact with a man on foot does a Slam attack rather than doing trampling damage. The horse will "accidently" trample a fallen foe, if it fails its DX roll. ATTACKS VS. INFANTRY - A cavalryman is effectively 3 feet above infantry. This gives him +2 to hit the head and shoulders of his foe, or any upraised pole-arms, and gives him +1 to his defense, while his foe defends at -1. He can't hit his foe's feet, legs or groin. The infantry are at -2 to attack the horseman's head, but are at +2 to hit his legs. They can also attack the horse. AREA OF ATTACK - You can turn to attack to your left, right hexes while mounted with no extra penalty. You can turn to attack to your left rear and right rear hexes at no extra penalty to attack on the weapon side, -4 to hit to the shield side rear if you have a shield, -2 if you don't. You can attack at -6 to hit targets directly in front of the horse's nose with a one-handed thrusting attack. Attacks to the front of the horse with lances and the like are at no penalty. You can't attack to his rear with a one handed hand weapon, except with a wild swing. Attacks to the rear side, front and rear hexes require Riding rolls to see if you keep your seat. ATTACKING PRONE FOES - Infantry can get out of range of a mounted swordsman by lying down, but the horseman can lean over to attack a fallen foe. Roll vs. Riding to keep your seat and roll to hit at -4. Lancers have no special penalty for attacking a downed foe. A trained war horse can also be commanded to trample a fallen foe, or bite and kick a standing foe to the horse's front. A later horse will roll vs. DX to avoid stepping on a fallen foe. MORALE EFFECT - The shock effect of a solid line of cavalry bearing down on an infantryman with no way to strike back or get away was huge. The GM can require Morale checks or Fright Checks whenever an infantryman without an effective weapon (ranged weapon, spear, etc.) is caught in the open by a charging horseman. USING RANGED WEAPONS FROM HORSEBACK - Firing from a moving animal is difficult. Roll vs. Riding or Weapon skill, whichever is worse, applying all range/motion and size penalties and further penalty, based on roughness of the ride. SPOOKING AT GUNFIRE - A well trained war horse will not flinch at the sound of gunfire, an untrained horse might spook. If your weapon is noisy (or is a flame weapon), make a riding roll after each shot. On a failure, the horse is spooked, on a Critical Failure, you lose control. AIMING - You may Aim a ranged weapon from horseback, but only to get the ACC. bonus; aiming for additional turns gives no extra bonus from a moving horse. If you can get your horse to stand very still and you can brace your weapon using a sling you can get your full aim bonus. ARC OF FIRE - You may fire to your front, left and right at no extra penalty. You may turn to fire to your left and right rear hexes at -2 to hit, or to your rear hex at -4 to hit. In these cases you must make a Riding roll to keep your seat. HORSE DEFENSES - A mount's only defense is Dodge. A horse has a Dodge of DX/2 or Move/2, whichever is better. In medieval campaigns, horses can have barding, or armor, which gives the horse a PD of 1 to 4 and extra DR. Barding doesn't protect the lower legs or the feet! (It is possible, but impractical, to armor a horse's legs. Historically, such suits did exist, but they were never popular. A horse's Move and DX would be severely affected by any attempt to armor its lower legs or feet.) RIDER DEFENSES - A rider rolls his own defense; he may Dodge, Block or Parry. For a rider of skill 12+ these skills are at normal levels. For a rider of lesser skill, all active defenses are reduced by the difference between 12 and the rider's skill. HIT LOCATIONS - A rider's groin is normally protected by the saddle. In addition, a medieval jousting saddle gives 1 PD, 2 DR to the pelvis and upper thighs from attacks from the front or back. Specifically designed saddles might give more protection. COMBAT RESULTS - When a rider takes a hit in combat, he must make a Riding roll to keep his seat. This roll is at -1 per each 4 points of Basic Damage delivered (before armor is subtracted). Any Daze penalty is also subtracted from this roll. If the rider was Stunned by the blow, the Riding roll is at -4. If the rider fails the roll, he falls. UNHORSING DUE TO IMPACT - A character who Blocks a blow may still by unhorsed by the impact. If the Block roll is less than or equal to the PD of the blocker's armor and shield, the blow glances. If the Block roll was greater than PD, then the blow was caught squarely by the shield. In such a case, the character takes no damage from the attack (unless the attack penetrated the shield), but must still make a Riding roll or be unhorsed. MISSILE ATTACKS - If any attack aimed at the rider misses by 1 (or by 1 or 2 if it was aimed at the lower body), roll the exact same attack against the horse. A missile that misses the horseman will hit a horse as if it were a Wild Swing. WOUNDS TO THE RIDER - Hits to the rider's legs or arms give -1 to riding skill if that limb is crippled. Irregardless of the total amount of damage taken, there is no further penalty to riding skill for wounds taken. If a rider's leg is crippled, he does not fall from the saddle, but he will fall if he dismounts. ATTACKING HORSES - If the mount is hit, the rider must roll vs. Riding minus the damage taken by the horse to keep it from spooking. This penalty is halved for trained war horses. A horse that takes loses more than 1/4 HP in a single blow must roll vs. DX to avoid falling, if it was moved more that 5 hexes that turn or the previous turn. A horse that loses 1/2 HP in one blow is affected like a human. CRIPPLING ATTACKS - If a horse's leg or foot is crippled and it was moved more than 5 hexes last turn or this turn, it will immediately fall. Otherwise, it must roll vs. DX or fall. INFANTRY VS. CAVALRY - Infantry can defend themselves from cavalry in a number of ways. First they can stand in an area or behind an obstacle where horses can't go - like boggy ground or behind a trench. They can also drop caltrops or dig pits to cripple the horses and make them stumble, or place stakes to impale the horses. CALTROPS - Caltrops take one turn scatter in a hex. A horse or running man going through a hex full of caltrops will hit a caltrop on a 7 or less, +1 per extra "hex" of caltrops scattered in the same hex. A hit with a caltrop will do 1d6-4 to a man, or man-weight creature, and 1d6-2 to a horse-sized creature. They will automatically cripple the foot if they do damage. A man who falls onto caltrops automatically takes normal damage to a random area of his body. If he fell from a hieght, this damage is doubled. Small spikes like punji stakes have the same effect as caltrops. A man who knows that there are caltrops in the hex can avoid them if he can see them and if he moves through the hex at 1/2 MOVE. Caltrops on a smooth surface can be swept out of a hex with a foot or broom in 1d6 seconds. They can be picked up by hand in 3d6 seconds. If they are in a cluttered or overgrown area they are much harder to avoid and to find. PAIN FROM CALTROPS - Caltrop wounds to the foot are quite painful. A wounded man must roll vs. Will (+6 for High Pain Threshold, -4 for Low Pain Threshold) or scream when hit by one. The pain and stun penalties for such weapons are doubled. PITS - It takes 5 minutes to dig enough pits of sufficient depth in soft earth with a shovel or post-hole digger. A horse or running man going through a hex with pits in it will hit a pit on a 7 or less, +1 per extra group of pits dug in the hex (up to a maximum of 3 extra groups). If a man steps in a hole, he must roll vs. DX or fall, and must roll vs. HT or Sprain his ankle or knee. If a running horse steps in a hole, it will immediately take 1d6 crushing damage to on of its forelegs (armor doesn't protect) and will immediately stumble. If the horse was going 5 hexes per turn or less, it takes 1d6-3 points of crushing damage to the leg, and must roll vs. DX+2 or stumble. An area of prairie dog or mole holes has the same effect. If a horseman knows that the holes are there, he can walk his horse through the dangerous area at 2 hexes per turn. If a man runs through an area of holes, he must roll vs. DX or be Off-Balance. If he knows the pits are there he can jump over them or walk through the hex avoiding the problem. STAKES - Large wooden stakes take 10 minutes to emplace once they have been cut and sharpened. A running horse must jump over the stakes or stop before they hit them. If the horse can roll vs. DX-2 it can stop before it hits the stakes. If it fails, it takes 1d6 impaling damage to its chest. If it tried to jump over the stakes and failed, or hit the stakes at a run this damage is doubled. Unless the stakes are closely spaced, a running man, or a horse moving at a slow walk (2 hexes/turn) can pass between stakes without damage. POLE-ARMS AND SPEARS - Long thrusting weapons (including muskets with bayonets) can be braced vs. cavalry charges. See Stop-Thrusts. UNHORSING ATTACKS - Certain polearms have hooks on the back to catch riders and pull them from their seats. Roll vs. Pole-Arm skill-4 to hook the rider. Then roll a contest of Riding skill (for the horseman) vs. Pole-Arm skill (of the footman) to see if the horseman is pulled from the saddle. +2 to skill for the stronger man. +1 to skill for the man with higher DX.