Horses and Ponies

[Evening]

However, like the Hound of Mirkwood for the Woodmen, the horse can not be attacked by enemies. It's hit if you roll an Eye of Sauron on a Protection Test. That goes for Enemies also (I'm going to cover rule for Wargs later), but they go down on one Wound.

I agree with this if this is for pack horses and the like. In mounted combat, however, the horse being ridden is just as likely to be hit (and killed) as the rider.

Also, in medieval times, it was considered dishonourable to attack an the horse of an enemy.

Maybe in a formal, tournament setting, but otherwise horses were fair game. Everyone understood how fragile horse are.

[Ferretz]

Well, in medieval warfare, at least according to my sources (people who's into recreating medieaval combat as a sport) horses were very valuable and a knight would prefer to avoid killing it if at all possible. Indeed, they would even avoid killing its rider, since the ransom could make the knight very rich. But, really no point going into that, since in The One Ring, just about every foe the characters meet in combat won't give a toss about chivarly or honour, and no one will be cross with characters attacking an orc's warg mount before the orc.

That said, a horse is a very powerful animal, and they're not fragile at all. That goes double for an armoured horse. Most swings against a warhorse with a sword will only make it mad (even more so if it's in pain).

But, the main goal here is to make additional rules that fits in with a rpg based on Tolkien, so I'm studying how horses are used in the books and in the movies. Another goal here is to have rules that doesn't slow down gameplay, but rather gives it more options and excitement. Making the horse even more easy to kill will defeat this purpose, I think, especially since players will spend many Fellowship Undertakings training it.

Next up, adding barding to horses, to give them a Protection roll when attacks hit them. But how to represent barding being heavy and cumbersome? Hmm...

-Eirik

[Ferretz]

A small update:
-Made the horses a bit more fragile. Now, an Eye of Sauron from an attack will force them to make a Protection check. If they are Wounded, they are out of the fight (this dismounts the rider in a bad way). After the fight, a Healing roll can determines their status. If the roll succeeds (TN 16), they can be used again in the Adventure Phase. If it fails, they must be lead to a safe place, and cannot be used again until the next Fellowship Phase. If the result is an Eye of Sauron, the mount is dead.
-Choosing Knockback dismounts the rider unless a point of Hope is spent.
-Rolling an Eye of Sauron when attacking from a mount forces the rider to drop his weapon, unless a point of Hope is spent.
-A rider who is Wounded while in the saddle is dismounted unless he spends one point of Hope.
-Falling from a horse inflicts 6 points of damage, which can be halved with a successful Athletics roll. If the rider falls off the horse as the result of a Knockback, this is automatically halved. A dismounted rider can't act the next turn.
-Finding and mounting the horse after being dismounted takes one additional turn.

-Eirik

[Ferretz]

Here are some rules for Warg-riders I'm going to playtest tomorrow. Give me your feedback.

Warg-riders

Orcs and Goblins often ride into battle astride Wargs and Wolves, presenting a greater threat to the Free Peoples. To represent this, Orcs and Goblins mounted on the back of Wargs or Wolves have the Special Ability “Warg-rider”.

Warg-rider
“They ride upon wolves and Wargs are in their train!”

This Orc is mounted astride a Warg. Add one to its Attribute Level, two to its Hate and double its Endurance points. The Orc can reduce its Hate by one to receive an additional Bite 3 attack after its regular attack. If this hits, it activates Seize Victim. Also, the Orc receives the Special Abilities Great Leap and Fear of Fire.
The warg-rider counts as one entity, and goes down if it is Wounded once.