Battle at the Ringfort question (spoilers)

[Celebril]

Tomorrow the group I am running is likely to go through "-of Leaves- & stewed hobbit". One of the sections in there is the Battle at the Ringfort. In this battle the goblins are raining arrows down on the defenders. The guide handles players getting hit but I am more curious about the horses that the Fellowship are going to have with them. They are big targets in that ring fort. For a player to get hit with an arrow they have to roll an "eye of Sauron" but what about the horses? Any suggestions?

Here is what I was thinking:
Rolling each round for each horse and if I roll an "eye" the horse is hit. Then I would roll again and if I again roll an "eye" the horse takes a wound else the horse is grazed. A wound and the horse bolts. 2-3 grazes and the horse bolts.

[Mytholder]

The simplest option is to borrow Tolkien's solution to a similar situation (Hobbit ponies and barrow-wights). The horses get spooked when the goblins attack, and run down the road away from the fort. The characters can find their horses again once they emerge from the tunnels - maybe the horses are found by someone friendly.

If you want to make the horses part of the battle, then your solution would work, although it might be a little too much rolling. Unless the horses have names and personalities, I'd just chuck a single Feat dice for all the horses. If it's equal to or less than the number of unwounded horses, one of them gets hurt. On an Eye, the horses bolt.

[Celebril]

Thanks Gareth! That is a good suggestion. A couple of the Fellowship players are attached to their horses. So they might try and prevent them from bolting. In that case I will probably use your suggestion to make things easier to keep track of. Thanks again.

[SirKicley]

Mytholder has a great suggestion.

IF however you want to add the danger to the horses as part of the equation to up the anxiety a bit, this is how I suggest:


Horses threaten to bolt when they are first attacked.

A successful skill check is required for each horse to calm it. This is in lieu of the character choosing to attack in the first round. (My first instinct is a CRAFT roll - or possibly BATTLE - an argument can be made for Persuade, or Courtesy but I'm not sure if those apply to an animal).

If a player rolls an EYE during battle, they suffer the usual consequences. If same player rolls a second EYE, their horse is struck in battle by one of the arrows.

A horse should bolt the first time it's hit.

Again the player can attempt a skill check (instead of attacking)

A third EYE result from that player results in a WOUND (provided the horse is still there).

Repeat horse attempting to flee (above)

A fourth EYE result from that player results in horses death (but at least the horse isn't trying to flee anymore). While there's a statistical chance of this occurring, it's highly unlikely.

After the battle, HUNTING skill checks can be made to find horses that took off. An EYE result on that means that a particular horse is "WOUNDED" during it's flight, (horses bolting off down a hill at night is asking to come up lame) or even killed by an goblin that was hiding and ambushing the battle. (I guess that depends on how detrimental you want it to be towards the horse and player).



At least using this model, you introduce the danger to the horses, and do not need to spend time with additional rolls to find out if a horse is hit or not.

[Celebril]

So many great suggestions! Thanks SirKay!