Hi guys, I would appreciate feedback,so feel free. I'm going to post them two at a time.

1) Adrift upon the Sea of Grass

Favoured Common Skill: Survival

Body:6. Heart:6. Wits:2

A horse beneath you and the horizon stretched out before you. Summer days spent following the herds and winter nights feasting in your father's hall. What better life could a young rider of the Horsefolk desire? That was then, but this is now. You were not there when the raiders had come. They had struck quickly while the men were at work on the high plains. Now all that remains of your past life is ash and scorched timbers, along with the bitter memories of kith and kin put to the sword on that balmy summer evening. You were helpless to prevent it but you have sworn that you will never be helpless again. You will take the fight to the servants of the shadow, wherever they may be found.

Distinctive Features: Adventurous,Curious,Hardy,Honourable,Just,Proud,Vengeful,Wrathful.


2) Tack and Harness, Bit and Bridle

Favoured Common Skill: Craft

Body:7 Heart: 4. Wits: 3

Not for you, bright summer days with the brisk north wind in your hair and the bright sun upon your face. Unlike your peers, you spent most of your youth within the confines of your village bounds. Your days were lived in your fathers workshop, sweating to tan the hides, to produce the leather, that he would skilfully work into saddles,straps and bridles for the warriors of the village Fulk. How you wished you could be more like them, rather than than the son of a leatherworker.
Now you are a man and you have set out in search of adventure,honour and glory.

Distinctive Features: Adventurous,Hardy,Honourable,Just,Patient,Robust,Steadfast,True hearted.

3) Eyes of the Horsefolk

Favoured Common Skill: Awareness

Body: 6. Heart: 4. Wits: 4.

Often, as a child, you would accompany your father on his journeys into the wild. He taught you many things, but mostly he taught you about wolves, especially the two legged kind that dwell beyond the valleys of the Running and the Redwater. He taught you that he and the other scouts were the eyes and ears of the people, the first line of defence against the predatory raiders of the Easterling Bandit-Clans. "They hate us for the actions of our ancestors", he told you."it is a long held grudge and one that only the complete destruction of our folk will satisfy." You have determined that you will never permit these 'wolves' to find that satisfaction.

Distinctive Features: Adventurous,Elusive,Hardy,Honourable,Just,Keen-eyed,Quick of Hearing,Wary


4) Born to the Battlefield

Favoured Common Skill: Battle

Body:7. Heart: 5. Wits: 2

Your father was a warrior in the Household Guard of your Chieftain. He died bravely and with honour, in battle against bloodthirsty raiders from the East. It was his wish that you too should become a warrior and swear yourself to the defence.of your Chieftain and your people. You have trained relentlessly since childhood, practicing with sword and spear, never doubting your chosen path. The Chieftain has given his oath of allegiance to the new King in Dale. This Bard is a man of great honour and known as a giver of gifts. He is attracting warriors from all over the Wilderland. You must search your heart and decide whether, or not, you serve your people best by serving him.

Distinctive Features: Bold,Determined,Fierce,Hardened,Honourable,Just,Stern,Wrathful.

Sorry guys. I've just realised that this thread must seem a bit 'random'.
These are the backgrounds for a Mounted Heroic culture, that I have named 'the Horsefolk'. They have been lovingly constructed by myself from some footnotes in Unfinished Tales and I hope to submit them to our upcoming Fanzine-Waybread(in whatever format it takes).
I will also be posting some new Cultural Rewards and Cultural Virtues over the next few days.

Halbarad, very impressive!

HN

Thank HN,these are the last two.

5) The Song remains the Same

Favoured Common Skill: Inspire

Body: 5. Heart: 5. Wits: 4

Your father was a storyteller, as was his father before him. The oral traditions of the Horsefolk have passed down through your family from generation to generation in the form of tales, songs and poetic eddas.
You are welcomed almost everywhere you go. There are few Chieftains halls where the doors are barred to you and even the warmth of the most solitary campfire is seldom begrudged.
Such is your skill with words and the passion of your speech that few can remain unmoved by the great tales of past tragedy. Your own father's tales were the source of your inspiration to emulate the deeds of heroes from bygone days.

Distinctive Features: Clever,Cunning,Fair spoken,Forthright,Honourable,Just,Merry,True hearted.


6) Bearer of Tidings

Favoured Common Skill: Travel

Body: 6. Heart: 5. Wits: 3.

Despite tales that the Royal line of Dale can converse with birds, most folk of the Wilderland still use mounted couriers to carry messages over any great distance. You, as a skilled rider of the Horsefolk, find your talents very much in demand when such an errand is required. King Bard himself, is recruiting messengers to carry his missives(some would say ultimatums) to the Lords of the Redwater valley. With such a position would come great responsibility, but also the opportunity to prove your worth to your new sovereign.

Distinctive Features: Fair spoken,Forthright,Hardy,Honourable,Just,Robust,Trusty,Wary.

Cultural Reward:

Charger:

There are very few horses in the Wilderland and such as there are, are normally used as dray horses. Only the Horsefolk possess the quality of stock and the skills to train them for the field of battle. Most horses instinctively shy away from danger, carrying their riders with them but not the mighty 'Chargers' of the Horsefolk. Such is their training that even Wargs and their like hold no great fear for them. Only the most valorous of riders may lay claim to one of these magnificent mounts.
A rider, mounted on a Charger, may elect to use the charge manoeuvre in the opening round of any combat encounter in which he holds the initiative.
He is treated as being in 'Forward Stance' and may roll the Feat Die twice, choosing the best result.
Additionally, opponents on foot attract a +2 TN on the Combat Complications table to attack a character on a 'Charger'.

Hi Halbarad, having just read your "Riders of Rhovanion" pdf and now these, I can now say that I think it all excellent and well balanced for the game, except:

the Cultural Virtue "Warhorse" and the new Reward "Charger" - firstly, I think that a Warhorse should be a Reward, not a Virtue. Secondly, would these two stack together, or if you get one does that mean you can't take the other???

In my opinion the War Horse as described gives too powerful game effects simply for increasing one's Wisdom or Valour by one point, and this also (to a lesser extent) can be said about the Charger ability. If warhorses are rare and their training is difficult and time consuming, then it should be more costly for a PC to get one!

If I was running this, I would rule that it costs a PC 2 Valour/Wisdom to gain the Charger ability, and 3 for Warhorse. And I would rule that the PC must also spend a Fellowship Phase undertaking to acquire said horse! And I wouldn't even allow this for my Fourth Age campaign (where there is a horse plague so horses are very scarce indeed!) PC's need to understand that horses are a rare and valuable commodity!

Your thoughts??
Robin S.

Thanks for your input Robin. The PDF was actually Telcontar's work based on some ideas that we were kicking back and forth between us.
I have been holding off until now with my own take on a Horsefolk/Pseudo Rohirric culture. The rewards, virtues and Cultural Blessing have all been reworked(take a look at the mtd combat thread for Cultural Blessing:Horselord).
I'm not so sure that Warhorse is overpowered. It is, more or less, a direct copy of the Woodman Hound virtue and the advantages accrue over a period of time rather than instantaneously.

I'm going with Charger as a reward as it is simply a horse that's been trained not to panic in battle.
Warhorse is a virtue because there is an emotional input involved.
The only problem might be that I envisage that only 'Chargers' can be trained as Warhorses. This means that they do stack after a fashion but the problem is that there is a Virtue that cannot be taken straight off.

It may require reviewing....

Hi Robin,

After some thought, I think you are right. I have edited the 'Charger' reward above as it was overly powerful.

Your insight is very much appreciated.


Now, I just need to work out what to do with Warhorse(and I think it just came to me)

Cultural Reward:

Horsehair Plume:

A Mark of distinction among the Horsefolk of Wilderland, this tradition dates back to the time when Vidugavia united the western clans into a Kingdom of Rhovanion. A White horsetail or plume was affixed to a champion or captain's helmet in recognition of his deeds. Awe and Inspire become 'Favoured' skills to the owner of such a token.

Cultural Reward:

Horseman's Bow:(also the bow of choice for Easterlings-known as a Composite Bow)

Unlike other Northmen bows which are carved from a single stave, those of the Horsefolk are composite bows made from thin strips of wood, horn and bone. These are then lacquered together in a process that they copied from their Easterling foes. The resulting bow is shorter but packs the same punch as the Longbows of the Northmen and is usable from the back of a mount.

Weapon. Horseman's Bow
Damage. 7
Edge. 10
Injury. 16
Enc. 14
Group. Bows
Notes. Ranged

Range- As normal bow.

Last, but not least........

Cultural Virtues

Horse Archer:

The ability of the mounted archers of the Horsefolk has been admired, by their allies and enemies both, for untold centuries. Lightly armed horsemen make sweeping passes against less mobile foes, concentrating their arrows on a single target area in a tactic known as 'feathering'. If the enemy should try to engage them in melee, the riders would simply retire to a safe distance and commence the 'feathering' once again.
A character with this virtue may choose to remain at 'opening volley' range for the entirety of a combat encounter. Each round the character must make an Athletics(ride) roll at TN14. A success means that the character may not be attacked in melee combat during the reminder of that round.
He counts as being in 'rearward stance' for all other purposes.
If the athletics roll fails the character is simply classed as being in 'rearward stance'.


Ironclad:

There are few riders among the Horsefolk who are trained, or equipped, to enter into the maelstrom of melee combat. Such as there are, are normally the household guards of the Chieftain or those in training to join that illustrious band. Most riders of the Fulk prefer to skirmish with cast spears and bows.
The warriors of the Household Guard have learned how to let their mounts share the burden of their war gear. Any 'mail-clad' character with this virtue can deduct 4 points from the total encumbrance of their war gear.
This virtue may be improved in subsequent Fellowship phases by spending EPs. Each phase, a character can subtract a further point of encumbrance for the cost of 1EP, up to a maximum of four times.

Vidugavia's Honour

Ever since the days when Vidugavia fulfilled his oath to the King of Gondor and made war upon his eastern kin, it has become a common saying that 'a Horseman's word is his bond'. The Horsefolk pride themselves on this as well as on their honesty and integrity.
A character with this Virtue is not easily deceived by falsehoods and Insight becomes a 'Favoured' skill.
In addition, the character's standing is raised by +1.


Saddle Born

Your skill and ability around horses is almost without equal. You never use spurs nor apply the whip, yet it seems that you can urge your mount to ever greater feats of endurance.
Travel becomes a 'Favoured' skill while mounted.
Additionally,a rider with this Virtue may spend a point of hope to increase the distance he can travel on horseback in a single day by one half.

Trusty Steed:

The skill and ability that the Horsefolk have with their horses is well renowned and deservedly so. It is even rumoured that some have an ability to speak to their mounts and that their mounts can respond. Whatever the truth of this, certain riders simply call their horse and it will answer and come at their beckoning.
Such is the bond between a Trusty Steed and it's rider that the rider may increase his hope score by 2 points.
A character with this virtue may train his mount to support in him in one of the following four tasks.
Athletics,Awe,Battle,Travel.
When the character attempts this skill while mounted he may roll the Feat Die twice and take the best result. It takes a further Fellowship phase and costs 1EP to teach the steed a new skill.

In melee combat, if the rider is hit by an opponent and the 'eye' rune is rolled on the Feat Die, then the steed takes the wound instead of the rider. The steed is no longer in play and any advantages accrued by being mounted are lost. A successful Heal roll at TN16 means that the steed becomes available again during the next session. A failure means that the steed becomes unavailable until the end of the following Fellowship phase.
The rider can elect to take the wound to protect his steed. The wound is automatic and allows no armour protection roll.

These are good Halbarad! Is Trusty Steed a sort of 'halfway virtue' to replace Warhorse, or are you still working on this one! Always keep in mind the consequences of introducing new or modified house rules (I use the 'me test, ie would I like to have this as a PC - if it is too easy for me to get, then the rules need to be tweaked!)

Perhaps such horses are only available to certain cultures or Standards of Living?? Otherwise, you see, all players will want them...

Robin S.

Thanks Robin, Trusty Steed was very heavily influenced by your Magic of Beasts and Birds. At the minute, I have to agree with you that as a virtue, this attempt feels a little 'Halfway' or 'half-assed'.
Perhaps you guys could help me out.

My thinking on it wa a follows.

Reflecting on 'Warhorse', I discovered that it really was quite a powerful Virtue. This Virtue can be found in Telcontar's lovely PDF.

Another problem I realised was that each Virtue and Reward should stand alone and not be dependant on having a pre requisite fulfilled. As I had envisaged that only Chargers could be trained further as Warhorses, this was obviously going to be an issue.

So, in order for this last virtue to work, it had to be usable on a horse whether it was a charger or simply a riding horse. I hit upon the idea of modelling this on famous horses like Trigger, Silver and Champion the Wonder Horse. It was supposed to be a faithful companion but not necessarily a biting, kicking and stamping animal. I felt that these actions were really the premise behind the +2 TN in the description of the Charger reward.

The Naming spell in Robin's magic rules really struck a chord with me. I didn't want to actually introduce the virtue as a spell though. The reasons for this were twofold. Not everyone likes to add in Magic in this setting and if I did go down that route, there were pre requisites built into the magic system as well.

So, at the minute, Trusty Steed works like a diluted version of the Woodman Hound Virtue. I admit to being a little dissatisfied with it at present and may consider adding the 'Harass Enemy' ability in, to round it out a little.

What do you reckon, Robin or anyone else who cares to comment?

First, thanks to those who pointed out this thread. Having gone through it briefly, there's reference to a PDF by Halbarad. I can't find a link or anything to download it, though. Perhaps someone can help me with this. Halbarad himself, perhaps?

I don't know when I'll get around to playing a Shieldmaiden of Rhovanion, though, as I'm very much enjoying the Wood(wo)man character I'm playing right now (BTW I know why Cubicle 7 calls them Woodmen, as that comes from Tolkien, and I wouldn't want them to monkey with that. I just find it strange to refer to my female character as a WoodMAN). Still, these home-brew rules are quite attractive.

Hi Halabarad. I was extremely impressed by the work you and Telcontar have done in making both a Riders of Rhovanion culture and a temporary Barding 'fix'. However, my friends and I, feeling that revising for exams is considerably more tedious than creating a culture, have set ourselves the task of creating 6 new cultures. So far we have succeeded in creating and playtesting a Rohirrim culture. I would love to put all of the stats and such together into a pdf and place it on the forums so that everybody can use them if they are so inclined, however, most of the backgrounds are tweaked versions of your backgrounds for your Riders of Rhovanion culture. I was wondering if you would object to my using them, with full credit to you of course, as I would really like to get feedback from people other than my friends and myself. Thanks in advance

Hi Beleg, is it only the backgrounds that you have tweaked or are you guys using any of the other stuff?
If it's just the backgrounds, then go ahead. Otherwise, could you let me know exactly what you want to use? I don't imagine it will be a problem but I don't want to risk making my forthcoming submission to Other Minds redundant.
You would need to ask Tel about any of the stuff out of the PDF though.

Thanks Halbarad. And yes, it's only the backgrounds. Rewards/Virtues etc were all our own work. It will be a while before it appears on the forums though, as I'll have to put it all together and make it 'pretty' and I should probably focus on work, but I hope to have it done as soon as possible. Thanks again

No problem Beleg, I look forward to seeing your work. What are the other cultures you guys are working on?

We haven't started the others in earnest yet, but we hope to successfully create a culture based around the Knights of Dol Amroth, the Dunedain, Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, Elves of the Grey Havens, and Elves of Lorien. So far all we've got is a few basic ideas for the Knights of Dol Amroth

Knights of Dol Amroth you say? Colour me interested.

I do say
So far we've figured out a really effective idea for a lance, and we've come up with how we think the knights should look. Beyond that, we've got nothing

Beleg, Any sign of these promised cultures as yet??

Robin S.

Aiya, mellon Halbarad:

Really impresive, it fills a void space I find in TOR: mounted combat. Do you think it apropiate for the TOR timeframe, or is it for middle Third-Age? I am eager to read your article in Waybread/Other Minds!

Thank Vaco,

These guys are designed with all the timeframes in mind. I suppose, really, they are the Ehwathrumi/Eothraim and thus Proto Rohirrim.

Players always seem to want to play a Rider if Rohan. It would take very little to change the backgrounds I have provided until an official TOR heroic culture is published.

Hi Robin. I just started typing up the Rohirrim all fancy like for a pdf, and I'm about half way done, so expect to see a post including them fairly soon. I'll just have to figure out how to upload the file first...

Most of us are handling things through file sharing websites (Dropbox, 4Shared, rapidfire,etc). Just make sure to keep the original file and back-up.

Oh, and remember to use version numbers for the document. After posting it once you might get suggestions, corrections, etc which cause you to change things. By using version numbers others can determine if they're up to date.

Thanks Garn, I'll be sure to do that. However, while I have Dropbox, I'm not 100% sure how to upload a file from it on to here. Any tips?

In the Dropbox folder on your computer, right click on the file name, choose Dropbox from the pulldown, and then choose "Copy public link" ... that will copy the URL of the file's to your computer's Clipboard ... paste that (CTRL+V) to the "Enter your Post" block for posting here and viola! ... your link to the file is here!

Brilliant. Thanks Throrsgold. I'd better finish the document then

Sorry for the delay Beleg and thanks for stepping up Throrsgold.

I don't have my books yet BUT I saw the Riders idea here and wanted to peek...but I can't find the Riders PDF that was mentioned on the first page. Any help??

I believe the PDF you're looking for is in another topic - unfortunately I cannot recall which one.

Hey Halbarad, you might want to place a link to the other topic, with the PDF, into this one.

With those clues...

http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?tr...opic=2617&st=15

Can't wait to read it!!

It seems like Ronin has managed to find the PDF.

The PDF was very nice but suffers a little from the curse of over enthusiasm and having contributors with slightly different viewpoints. A few of the rules therein looked really good but turned out to be a bit unbalanced when compared to the abilities of other Heroic cultures.

I am currently in 'negotiation' with Tolwen. Hopefully the full set of my take on the 'Riders' with a companion piece on Mounted Combat(complete with Shadow Abilities as well) will be included in OM14. Time(and Tolwen) permitting , there 'may' even be an adventure as well.

I won't stand in the way for sure
Even though RL often (and foreseeable this time) is a hard competitor, we'll do our very best to get it all to you in the best quality possible!

Cheers
Tolwen